A flicker in the emptiness of space was all that heralded Ferrogs exit from Warp Space, as the Swarm Lord continued on towards Apoca, Runa found her thoughts drifting back to her last visit.
Sargent Thomas Harrison slowly walked down the darkened maintenance corridor, he was certain that he had seen something on the security monitor, something that just didn’t fit, he looked around at the rusty pipes that were leaking in more than a few places, the dripping sound only added to the sense of dread that was slowly building in the back of his mind, in fact nearly all of the hairs on his neck was standing straight out from his neck.
As he neared the small shaft going down into the reactor of the Command Centre he noticed that the hatch was open, not a good sign, he drew out his side arm, nothing more than a peashooter when compared to the gauss rifle he could have wielded had it been enough space to wear a Marine Suit inside the maintenance corridor.
He got down on one knee and peered down into the gloom of the reactor room before he carefully started to climb down the ladder, halfway down he heard a clanking noise, followed by what sounded like someone suppressing a frustrated scream.
He removed the safety of his gun and crept closer to the area where the sound had come from, he rounded the corner and prepared to fire.
“ Sarge lower your weapon!”
Thomas lowered his gun and peered towards the person in front of him.
“Davis, is that you?”
“Yes, Sir, it is Davis, Sir!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Thought I saw something on the security monitor when I came to check on you, with you gone and all I decided to check it out”
Thomas lowered his gun, relieved at the news, sure Davis’ voice was a little off, and he somehow seemed a bit out of focus, but then again, it was hot in the room and his own voice had cracked some same as Davis’ and the damp made it hard to see clearly.
“So did you find anything?”
“Nothing to report, Sir”
“Very well, let’s go”
Thomas secured his gun and holstered it, then turned and started walking towards the main exit as his comm. Unit lit up signaling that someone wanted a talk with him.
“This is Sgt. Thomas”
“Hey Sarge, me, Bill and Davis were talking here and we’re wondering if your game for that round of poker tonight or if you’re not stuck on night duty”
“Sure thing Olsen I... wait Davis?”
“What about him, Sarge?”
“Where are the three of you now?”
“Mass Hall, it’s Pizza Day today, you know I never miss out on Pizza Day!”
“I see...”
Sgt. Thomas knew his death was upon him as he slowly turned around and looked at Davis or what had moments before seemed to be Davis, but now was a lithe figure dressed in what seemed like a skintight suit made of Zerg Carapace and seemingly wielded a pair of Tekagi-shuko, a cynical smile was on her lips, clearly amused by his shocked expression, a pair of olive green snake-like eyes looked back at him.
“Are you done talking, Dude? I don’t have all day and I really need to overload this reactor to cause some havoc.
“Olsen?”
“Yeah Sarge what is it?”
“Send a response team into the R- GLARGH!”
“Sarge? Sargent? Common answer me, dammit! SARGE!”
Runa calmly crushed the device and placed the last charge on the reactor.
“Ok boys, only a little more and I’m done”
On Runas’ order the main host of Shuuls forces was thrown into the combat that was raging above to cover Runas’ retreat out of the base.
She calmly activated her chameleonic abilities and disappeared from view and as the proximity alarm went off she sneaked out behind a group of Marines heading for the bunkers outside, only to break up from them in order to follow a poor sap that had forgotten his gun in one of the Medivacs a quick detour to get round a few turrets and she was inside a Medivac and heading out with a squad of Marines to flank the Zerg, by the time the Medivac reached the Zerg lines, however, Runa was the only living individual on board.
Runa calmly disembarked the Medivac about ten miles away from the outpost.
“I trrrusssst that the missssion wahss successful?”
Asked one of the two Overlords that waited for her in the small crater where she had landed, all around them the rest of the Magma Brood was moving out in order to join the Gracken brood on the front lines, this world would be theirs soon enough.
Runa pulled out a box of cigars she had pilfered, then lit one on the remains of the another Medevac that had carried evacuees from the base, but had been shot down by pretty much everything that the Zerg had to offer in the form of anti-air, Runa took a deep breath of the cigar and gave a wide and somewhat devilish grin as the sky behind her turned white.
“Destroyed the coolant lines, that flash was the reactor going critical, I will give you a full report upon my return to home, but seriously Boss, it’s me were talking about, have a little faith, would ya?”
She said as she entered the Overlord that was waiting to take her back into Orbit.
“OK time to head back to home, Dude, no doubt the Boss will want a full report of it all” she said as soon as she entered Ferrog, her personal Swarm Lord.
As Ferrog slowly turned about and prepared to leave the system Runa looked down at the planet, all across it Zerg spores were raining down as the other Zerg forces started their main assault of the planet itself, all around them the fighting grew ever more feverish as well, as the defenders fought back with all their might, but Runa knew that it was inevitable and the might of the Zerg would overcome them soon enough.
A sudden jarring motion awoke Runa from her sleep inside Ferrog, she sat up and looked around slightly disoriented, with a sigh she stretched her arms and scratched her cheek, more out of old habit then anything as her carapace dulled the sensation somewhat.
“Status report”
“We are in Orbit over Apoca, I had to take a detour to avoid a patrol, but I don’t think they realized I was there, they seemed.... preoccupied with something”
“If they are on a heightened alert it would be bad if you were found, prep an infiltration pod then get out of the system, I’ll call you when I am ready to be extracted”
“As you wish, Mistress”
As Runa entered the Pod and it sealed around her then filled itself with a shock dampening liquid.
“Prepare for launch, Mistress”
The pod shook violently and then Runa was suddenly pressed towards the back of it, if it wasn’t for the liquid she would have most likely been crushed, but it absorbed so much of the force that only a few moments later she could press herself away from the wall.
The pod started to shake again and took on an orange hue as it entered the atmosphere; luckily the shock absorbing liquid also prevented Runa from being burned to a crisp as the pod tumbled towards the surface.
The pod hit the ground with a tremendous impact, creating a deep crater and rupturing the top of the pod, allowing Runa to crawl out, and after a few coughs she had cleared her lungs of the liquid.
“Good thing I no longer need to breathe”
Working quickly she started grabbed one of several dimly green orbs that grew on her arm and pulled, it came loose with a small pop and started to glow dimly in a bright green coloration, she threw the orb inside the pod and three more followed in quick succession.
Climbing out of the crater she activated her camouflage, and removed herself from the vicinity of the pod, just a few moments later the entire crater nearly doubled in size as Runa detonated the orbs with just a thought, incinerating the pod and evaporating the liquid in just a few seconds, no evidence of her arrival would be left come sunrise.
SOA: planned to go a bit further but this seemed like the perfect place to cut it.
Runa arrives in Dras Lana and lands on Apoca, a bit of back story, and that’s it.
Aboard a Terran transport ship approaching Barkanos, Davir system, roughly 7 years ago from recent events
Everyone was talking. Jeremy Bender looked around. To his left, a scrawny man was standing to talk to a seated man with a large moustache, even though the pilot had just called in the landing and had requested everyone to sit down. Opposing him were two men and a girl, seemingly discussing biology or such as they sat down. To his right were two beefy men in army shirts - clients for the defense department, Jeremy thought to himself.
Though he was apparently in the company of scientists, marines and what he thought to be excavators of some sorts, Jeremy didn't belong in any of those categories. So far, everything about his life had been average. He had led an average life as a member of the Aranov Consectorate, did average in his education, had an average connection with his parents and worked some average jobs, never doing something special. When he caught wind of a ship moving to supply a small colony he had quickly signed up. The deal right now was that he'd be shipped to the colony and that they'd find some work for him there.
Jeremy had never been a particularly interesting individual, though he had always been regarded as unexpectedly brave by his friends and colleagues. He figured that this was mostly because he was generally a somewhat quiet type, really only talking when replying to others. He had a strong sense of justice, which is what caused him to jump out in the defense of people and speak out when something interesting did finally happen.
As the transport ship entered orbit, Jeremy looked out of the window. What he saw filled him with a sense of hope. The planet looked wildly green with a large ocean taking up at least half of this side of the planet that he could see. The planet looked quite a bit different from his original homeworld of Zagrov, which he remembered as gray looking and filled with buildings when he had left it a couple of days ago. As he observed the planet coming closer and closer through the window, he thought about possible jobs he could be needed for on the planet. Some kind of planetside exploration function seemed nice to him, where he'd be able to uncover new areas and map them out. Or maybe even an excavator, working on gathering raw materials to build up the small colony. Then again, he'd probably have to work with the two guys to his left, and he didn't really like them based on what he had seen and heard from them.
As soon as the actual landing commenced, Jeremy saw the transport ship blowing off a lot of steam through the window as he heard a lot of metalic clanking noises. The iconic four deep blunt "BAM"s resonated throughout the ship as it came to a complete standstill. It looks like they had landed. Jeremy unfastened his safety belt and got up, as did his companions. In fairly good spirits, he walked towards the passenger bay's door as it started opening. Thinking about the possibilities this planet opened up for him, Jeremy grinned slightly as he walked out of the transport ship and the harsh sun blinded his eyes...
SoA
-Flavour story, fleshing out Jeremy through his original arrival to the mind controlled colony on Barkanos.
Dagganoth decided it was time. He had had Adam contact Waiter one more time to get the final details on the Protoss transfer and now knew it was leaving from the Vetras system in 36 hours. Since his Leviathans were a lot slower than the transfer was bound to be, his Nirogg forces had to start moving early to catch the convoy halfway through their journey. He had told Waiter of his plan and suggested he'd move their forces in a roughly similar position in order for their advance.
He gave the order.
Halfway between the Ilyr and Vetras systems, roughly 52 hours later
As soon as Dagganoth sensed the ships, he noticed they were preparing arms. It was at that point that Dagganoth knew his plan had worked. The Protoss ships did exactly as he expected; they had not yet scouted the Spores yet and were planning on fighting a four against three battle against Murkag and the two Nirogg Leviathans. With another concentrated burst of thought Dagganoth put the spores into motion. As the four Protoss ships drew closer to the Leviathans the Spores came into their scanner range. By this point it was already too late, however. The Leviathans spewed forth a host of Mutalisks and other airspawns as Murkag fell back. As the clash broke loose, the two spores rapidly closed in on the two outermost Protoss ships, which had yet to get close enough to the Leviathans to use their weapons...
SoA
-Dagganoth has received precise information regarding the Protoss transfer from Waiter and the Nirogg fleet he commands started moving directly for the Khasan system, his aim being to intercept the transfer halfway along the route. The wedge formation stays intact.
-Dagganoth has told Waiter to advance towards the same location.
-The Nirogg forces meet the Protoss convoy head on and engage in combat.
{Kenny has just picked tha location of tha convoy.} Waiter said. {There seem ta be Zerg there as well.}
{That can't be.} Rassyr said in disbelief. {Are you sure, it could just be a misc--}
He was cut off as a hologram of Kenny entered the conference.
"You know very well that I don't do mistakes." Kenny said.
"Bloody zerg..." Grell muttered, and while everyone agreed, they ignored the comment.
{So... How do we adjust our plan?} Rassyr asked the group, even though everyone knew that they wanted the Pirate's opinion specifically, considering their area of expertise.
"Well..." Doom said, thinking for a second. "Here's the plan. Waiter 'n Kenny will break out Erana as planned, with Grell and the others as muscle. Opheilm and Kelanin, ye two will secure the rest of the ship, make sure that there's a safe escape route for when ye all need to leave. Rassyr, provide the latter two with any ground forces they need, then focus on keepin' the vacuum a vacuum. Don't engage zerg forces unless necessary, don't stray. If we get lucky, Kenny will be able to jack their Warp Matrix and Erana can be warped out safely instead of flown, but don't count on it. Any questions?"
{What if the Zerg overwhelm us?}
"They won't." Doom said. "Stay out of their way as long as they stay out of ours, otherwise kill 'em. If they become too troublesome, evade, run if necessary. If shit really hits the fan, I'll blow em up, but together with the Imperium ships shootin' at 'em too, that shouldn't be necessary."
{I think everyone gets the idea.} Waiter said. {Let's just do dis.}
"Agreed. Now, if ye'll excuse me, there's some rum waiting for me."
Empty space Well, almost...
The four protoss and one almost-protoss ship left warp space and found, as expected, a somewhat nasty battle. The ships quickly began repositioning themselves to get behind one of the Imperium ships, as far away from the zerg as possible, while launching fighters and transports. A combination of three dozen phoenixes and scouts from the other flagships flew towards a large group of vikings and medivacs coming from the Unnamed. Some Imperium phoenixes and scouts left the battle to intercept the newcomers, but the Order's own phoenixes and scouts intercepted them with the vikings helping out from afar. The Imperium immediately retreated, losing a good amount of fighters and dealing minimal damage to the massive boarding force.
The combined firepower of the ships and fighters was more than enough to temporarily disrupt the Imperium Ships shields and allow the medivacs to enter the docking bay and unload the troops. Grell left his medivac to see an unnervingly large amount of blue energy - Protoss warp ins.
"At least I don't have to aim." He said and began shooting at the warping in troops.
{I like ya style, reminds me of someone else I know.} Waiter said as he stepped out after him. {Been a while since I got ta do dis.}
Strips of red energy appeared around him and flew at the enemy troops that were now charging and firing at them. The red energy strips were moving too fast for Grell to get an accurate count of them as they tore through the enemy forces. As more and more of the medivacs landed and unloaded, the warp ins stopped and the remaining units quickly got gunned down.
"That it?" Grell said and laughed.
{They're warping into otha parts of tha ship instead a' this killzone, mon.} Waiter said. {Let's go.}
Grell and Kenny joined the pirate templar as they walked into a corridor, repears and marines following them.
SoA:
The breakout has begun. Order forces have infiltrated the flagship Erana is being held on.
40 marines
14 reapers
Darth Waiter
Opheilm
Kelanin + 50 supply of his choice
Kenny
Zanryu has been given temporary control of Opheilm and should define the 25 supply that is coming with them. (Choices are: Zealots, Stalkers, Dark Templar (Cloak won't work though), dragoons and high templar (There is only 20 supply of the latter two available)
The zerg are in the ship as well, while Darth Waiter, Kenny and Grell are going heading towards the more secure parts of the ship to get Erana, Opheilm and Kelanin are to make sure the docking bay remains safe from both the Imperium and Zerg forces. If needed, reapers and marines can be sent to help.
OOC: I have a feeling that this post could've been a lot better >.> Just lacking inspiration/motivation/whatever lately.
Apoca – Night side, roughly 20 minutes after Runa’s landing
The Medivac slowly touched down at the edge of the crater, green flames were still burning strongly from it and the entire area was lit by an eerie green light, as well as bathed in a green foul smelling fog of vaporized acid, creating a rather nerve wrecking scene.
As the loading doors of the Medivac opened a quartet of Marines slowly walked out, combat visors down and air tanks running.
“Wut da ‘ell could’ve made this?”
The leading Marine walked over to the blaze in the crater and set his scanners to work.
“Looks like another dormant cocoon that fell from orbit, scans show traces of Baneling acid, buggers most likely ruptured on impact”
“You sound a little choked up, Corporal? Is something wrong?”
“Not much, just some bad memories from the war”
The Marine tunes his radio to private chat.
“Psst, Matthew, you know what the Corporal means?”
“Yeah I do, but I’m not telling”
“Common man!”
“No”
“I’ll call it even on those 200 Credits you owe me”
”Fine, just don’t tell him I told you”
“I won’t”
Matthew sighed deeply.
“Corporal Olsen are one of a very few survivors of Outpost 51”
“Shit, there were survivors in that damned hell hole?”
“Five in total, the lucky bastards had been inside one of two Medivacs sent out to flank them Zerg, the explosion sent ‘em flying out of the combat zone, took ‘em ‘bout a week to get back to civilization.”
“What happened to the other Medivac?”
“That’s the freaky part, no one knows, it just went off the grid, no maydays or anything”
“Freaky alright, you think that-“
“Hey! Can it you two, got a job to do now that the fires have started to die out”
The collective groaning from the three other Marines was quickly stamped out as they grabbed containment box and shovels.
“Man, this is worse than shit patrol!”
“I said: can it!”
“Sir, Yes, Sir!”
Meanwhile, Runa quietly closed in on the Medivac and waited; it took the Marines a good half an hour to finish cleaning up the waste from the pod and store it in containment boxes, and as soon as they were done and the Medivac was about to lift of, Runa set her claws into the hull, latching on the underbelly of the Medivac.
“Sheesh, Sally be a bit more careful”
“Not my doing Corporal, felt as something hit the hull, whatever it was is gone now though, as the sensors show nothing”
“Bah, we don’t have time for this, gotta get this stuff dealt with ASAP, let’s move!”
The Medivac quickly started off against New Tremlin, with more cargo then even the occupants was aware of.
New Tremlin
About twenty minutes later Runa dropped from the medevac and onto the roof of a rather tall building on the edge of town.
Quickly making her way down the fire escape she looked around at the dark streets
“Same ol’ Tremlin alright... done wonders recrating the stench of pollution, well since the towns unchanged, that should mean HE is still in business too...”
Runa wasted no time heading towards the older parts of town, where most of the stuff that was no longer being used was stored in large old and somewhat abandoned warehouses.
Walking down several alleys and past ramshackle buildings she noticed a few new additions here and there as well as several new build sites that was replacing some of the most ramshackle warehouses.
“Hey there girly, are ya lost?”
Runa looked towards the owner of the voice, a burly man who had three other fellows with him, then decided to simply ignore him, only to be stopped as he grabbed her arm.
“Oy girly, where do you think you’re going?”
He said, smiling lasciviously at her.
Runa broke his hold, kicked him in the groin, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him of the ground all in the span of about half a second, only then did she notice the four leaf clover pin in his neck collar.
“Dimitri, where is he?”
The lascivious grin that had been on his face was replaced with no small amount of fear.
“I-I don’t know what yer talking about girly!”
“Lie to me again and I will take the answer from you brain”
As if to demonstrate the point a piece of metal slowly rose from the ground and hovered ominously in front of the man’s eye.
“Rat’s Nest, he’s at the Rat’s Nest!”
Runa unceremoniously dropped him on the ground and started to leave without giving him another look.
As she left the man sat up, chough.
“What are you waiting for, call the Boss!”
“This is Demitri, you better have a good reason for disturbing me”
“Boss, its Gonzales, some fancy broads heading you way, looks like trouble”
“Describe her”
“Black hair, scarlet green eyes, y shaped scar on her right eye and cheek, insane strength, bad attitude, body to die for”
“I see... you’re dismissed”
“Boss?”
“She is a valued customer, and you’re lucky you got away with just a beating, the Siege Breaker are not known for being gentle after all”
Gonzales just nodded and broke the connection, his skin as pale as death itself.
Rat’s Nest five minutes later
The Rat’s Nest was the gambling hall of Dimitri Immanow, a shrewd man whose intellect was only outweighed by his greed and cruelty.
“Keep her away from Dimi- GAAAARH!”
The door into Dimitri’s private poker table, which was nothing more than the side room in an abandoned warehouse, exploded in green flames and putrid smoke.
“You need to tighten up security Dude, your men spilled the beans about your location with so little effort... no fun at all”
Runa stood in the door with a pout on her face, tossing another of her explosive ampules up and down in her hand, the hallway behind her looked like something out of a horror movie, with dead or dying gangsters lying everywhere.
“At least you changed the password, although that meant I had to go through your security staff”
“Ah Runa, my beloved Ice Queen, don’t worry about those things, it can easily be rectified, more importantly what brings you to my establishment?”
“Arken, or more importantly all the information you can give me on it”
Dimitri’s smile vanished instantly.
“Runa, do you realize just how hard, not to mention expensive it would be to just get even a sliver of information about that thing?”
“Dude, seeing as you owe your life to me three times over and owe me a substantial amount of money I don’t see the issue, on top of it all it seems you have forgotten whom you’re addressing”
As if on cue, one of her blades sipped out of her seemingly human arm.
Dimitri swallowed, and then gave a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, FINE you win, I have no wish to experience THAT myself, I saw what you can do way back when, and I have no wish to be on the receiving end, however seeing how little information that’s floating around it will take time”
“How long?”
“At least a week, if not more, now I know it will take time, but I will get you place to stay while you wait”
“You have 5 days, as for accommodations, I can get that myself”
With that Runa left the warehouse, leaving Dimitri to clean up her mess.
SOA: Continuation of the last post.
Runa arrives in the city of New Tremlin and makes contact with an old associate known as Dimitri and gives him a 5 day time limit to cough up some info for her.
Two huge explosions took place rapidly after another. Anyone who was in the position to see and wasn't fighting Zerg looked around to see what had happened. The two outermost Protoss ships had attempted to perform a flanking maneuvre on the two Nirogg Leviathans fighting their allies. In doing so, they had run straight into the two Spores that were coming for them. Both of them seemed to be dead in the water with massive damage all-over; one ship was missing its entire top deck while the other had been hit in the side, and debris was floating out slowly. As Zerg units began to make their way into the affected ships, the Spores started to slowly regather their cells and shape into the ever so feared cannons.
Dagganoth sent through another burst of thoughts and the Mutalisk turned. An exlosion suddenly took place just where the Mutalisk had flown a second earlier. It was a good thing he was keeping track of his own forces. The Leviathans were now in direct combat with the two damaged Protoss ships and the battle was most intense in that area, with Mutalisks and Protoss Scouts visible all over the place. Murkag was skirting around the edges of the battle, intercepting Protoss escape pods and serving as a base for Zerg Mutalisks both coming and going to harass the Protoss flagships and haul in any other living Protoss that may have somehow survived the warfare the Leviathans were facing. The two undamaged Protoss ships had actually fallen back a bit and seemed to be helping their brethren from a distance, with their fleets.
As the new ships arrived, Dagganoth quickly considered a few options. He would start with the first part of his little plan here. He directed a large taskforce of Mutalisks towards the new forces to keep them at bay, as well as a host of the army of a Leviathan. Immediately, just as he expected, he heard Zemreh's voice inside his head. {Nnnnoooooo! Focus on the main shipssss! One of them sseemss to hold her! Get them away from the two shipss fighting the Leviathanss!}. Dagganoth figured he had been succesful in his aim and directed all forces back to the two main ships. With another quick round of thoughts he set the second part of his plan into motion as he sent a decently sized host of Mutalisk forces towards the docking bay of the rightmost ship, where some of the new forces seemed to have just docked.
{Waiter. You have Nirogg Mutalisks incoming in your docking bay, from the right side. Aim stalker lasers for their mouths, that should shut them down}.
Dagganoth thought to himself that so far, everything was going rather well. The battle had barely started and he was already stocking up on Protoss survivors, Waiter and his forces had made their way in, and he had succesfully tricked Zemreh even further into thinking he was opposed to the newly appeared forces. As he fired off more thoughts, several Devourers left the Nirogg Leviathans and got into position...
SoA
-The battle continues.
-Murkag starts filling up on Protoss refugees.
-Dagganoth tricks Zemreh by acting like he wants to send units at the newly arrived Protoss and ends up sending a host of Nirogg Mutalisks towards the docking bay Waiters forces are in, but not before informing Waiter exactly about what's coming.
"{Waiting is the most annoying thing in this entire galaxis.}", Opheilm roams in the port where the infiltration team landed. Sometimes he goes to one of the Imperial ships, which are already destroyed by them, and seaching he wrecks for some useful parts.
"{Patience is a useful gift, which can win an already lost battle.}", Kelanin responds in his wise way. He, Opheilm, some dark templar and stalker are ordered to cleanse the bay and protect their solely escape route.
"{Your words are the same as my old mentor. Even he belongs to the Imperium he's still a templar.}"
"{And a part of your past. Denying your own past will lead you to suffering.}"
"{Fighting is a most aggressive way to protect, he said. I finally know what he truly meant with it. Even staying here with you is a form of fighting and protection.}"
"{But that isn't the only thing we can do.}" Kelanin stares outwards to the ongoing battle, while the imperial ship firing at the zerg and the order's ships.
"{We can turn off the canons or even the whole energy of this ship. There are five six reactors on this ship. Four for the engines and two for the interior electricity. But after the seperation the Imperium changed the way of build a little bit. The reactors are still on the same position as before, but they aren't for the same needs.}"
"{That means we have to find out which reactor belongs to the weapons.}"
"{If we hit the wrong they will reinforce the other reactors. But at the first we shouldn't get many resistance. They are too focused at Erana and the other team.}"
"{My zealots and stalkers will defend the ship. Our dark templar will accompany us.}"
"{Let's do this.}"
After a short briefing with the rest of the troops, the new formed sabotage group starts to run down various corridors. Sometimes a zealot group or single stalkers patrol their ways but no one take notice of them.
"{Do you hear it?}", asked Opheilm while looking behind a corner to check if nobody is near.
"{Only metal.}"
"{This corridor down are zerg. 4 zerglings. And they are fighting with some protoss. Difficult to say how much they are. Forcefields are disturbing my senses.}"
"{Do you know whether there could be a reactor?}"
"{Possible. But not quite sure.}"
"{Hey, Opheilm?}"
"{Something missing?}", he asked without turning to him.
"{We have some company.}"
SOA:
- Tired of waiting, Kelanin and Opheilm are decided to sabotage a reactor of the prison ship.
- They left the zealots and stalkers nearby the ship and left with solely the dark templar.
- While searching for the reactors, they run into something.
What were they thinking, flying into the trap like that? Khalos clenched his fists in frustration. Executor Sevethrun's words were still fresh in his mind: "I shall purge this infestation". Purge! As if this were some kind of purification mission! The trap had been obvious. The zerg had been waiting for them. They had known about the convoy. Not even a civilian would have mistaken the ambush as a chance encounter. It was a trap, a trap that had been sprung all too easily.
Khalos had refused to follow the Executor in his blind charge against the enemy. He was familiar with the zerg's tactics and even more familiar with the Executor's flaws. He had foreseen the spores, had kept his ship back and had urged the other commanders to do the same. But they hadn't listened to him. It had taken the impact of a zerg spore to stop Sevethrun's accusations of treason and force him to concentrate on the battle instead.
Now, the Imperial forces were in disarray. The Niflheim and the Augur had been hit by spores and were fighting a desperate battle against the zerg, both in space and inside the ships themselves. Flocks of zerg flyers were ravaging the ill prepared and outnumbered Imperium ships, destroying them with ruthless efficiency. The zerg were no doubt scouring the insides of the ships, searching for Erana and killing any protoss that got in their way.
Meanwhile, Khalos surveyed the battle from afar, keeping his own ship, the Envoy, out of zerg range. He could already see several protoss escape pods launch themselves away from the compromised ships. He briefly considered rescuing them but dismissed the idea. He had a battle to fight.
"{Praetor, we are detecting foreign warp-ins,}" Naxxar, his second-in-command informed him.
"{More zerg?}" Khalos asked, surprised.
"{No, praetor. These are protoss vessels.}"
"{What? Display them.}"
The screen in front of Khalos shifted from the main battlefield to show the new arrivals. Four ships. Two of which were colored a dark green. One of which Khalos knew all too well.
"{The Order,}" Khalos declared. There was no reply. The ship was silent, awaiting his orders. He mentally ordered the AI to bring up a map of the battlefield. It did so, showing the four new ships, spread out behind the Imperial convoy and away from the battle. Even as Khalos assessed the situation, the Order's flagships launched a large detachment of smaller vessels. The ships flew right past the Envoy, ignoring it completely. They made short work of a pathetic group of Imperium fighters sent to stop them and made right for the Augur. As if they knew where Erana was.
Khalos' eyes narrowed as they darted back and forth across the screen, assessing the situation. The Order was clearly staying away from the zerg and it looked like it was avoiding conflict in general. It was planning on grabbing Erana and getting out as quickly as possible. And if the zerg were on the same ship...
"{Prepare the ship for maneuvering. I want us circling the battlefield, away from the Order, not charging into it. Deploy all our phoenixes, scouts and observers,}" he ordered and immediately saw the ship turn on the map. The fleet of fighters it stored was released and assembled in a defensive formation around the ship.
"{Prepare all weapons.}"
"{Our target, praetor?}"
Khalos hesitated. He knew that what he was about to do was risky and dangerous, even treacherous. But he also knew that he could not allow Erana to fall into enemy hands and that the convoy stood little chance against the combined assault of the rebels and the zerg.
"{Target the Augur. All fighter vessels are to make for the Augur and fire at it in the absence of enemy flyers.}" His order was met with a stunned silence.
"{T-the Augur, praetor? Surely, you me-}"
"{Yes, the Augur. A-u-g-u-r. You understood correctly,}" he said, irritated. Nothing happened. He sighed inwardly.
"{Both the zerg and the rebels are obviously here to capture Erana. At this rate, that will almost certainly happen. We cannot allow it. The Augur is already badly damaged. If we threaten to destroy it along with Erana, the enemy will be forced to call off their assault or lose their prize.}"
"{And if they do not? What if they simply try to secure the prisoner as quickly as possible? What if they think our threat a bluff?}"
There was a pause, a moment of silence. All eyes rested on Khalos.
"{Then a dead Erana is better than a captured one,}" he said.
"{But the Executor is on the Augur! If we destroyed it, he would... would...}" Naxxar's sentence was completed by a surge of emotion. Revulsion, fear.
"{I will face the consequences of such an act, not you Naxxar. But it is you who will be punished if you disobey me or hesitate one more time. It has been a while since I was last forced to cut off a nerve cord. Do you wish to change that?}" Khalos threatened, angered. They were wasting time. There was no retort. He could sense Naxxar's anger receding, replaced by a horde of other emotions, among them fear. He turned around to look at the bridge. It was quiet, once again awaiting his orders.
"{Good,}" he said, satisfied, and turned back to face the screen. It displayed a battlefield little changed since the last time he had last seen it. The zerg forces were pounding on the Augur and Niflheim, repeatedly scattering the meager fleets defending them. The Order had moved closer to the Augur and was flying in a sort of wall formation, the ships switching between a front and back row. If protoss could smile, Khalos would have. This was what he was. A warrior. Years on New Aiur, silent, bored. And now...
"{Now... target the area around the zerg spore and order the fighter craft to do the same. Fire in volleys, wait for my command before firing each volley. Be ready to stop firing at any moment.} This time, the crew scrambled to obey his orders. Screens and crystals lit up, information was exchanged, orders were transmitted. The first volley was fired.
A mix of missiles and particle disruptor fire slammed into the hole of the Augur's hull that had been made by the zerg spore, followed by the Envoy's own barrage of projectiles. The resulting explosion sent hundreds of pieces of metal and spore flying off into space, some of them colliding with nearby protoss fighters and zerg flyers.
"{Wait,}" Khalos said before the next volley was fired. He watched for movement, a reaction from the zerg. Nothing came.
"{Fire,}" he ordered. Again, the Augur was hit, releasing volumes of debris and gas into space. The ship shook visibly and violently. Nearby flyers were knocked away by the plume of debris, some of them destroyed on the spot. This time, however, the zerg responded. The two leviathans that had been fighting the Augur and Niflheim stopped attacking and made directly for the Envoy, leaving behind only half of their forces to deal with the two damaged ships.
"{Stop firing and recall half our fighters. I want them around the ship, bubble formation. The rest are to engage the zerg flyers around the Augur. Order the troop carrier to deploy its own phoenixes and follow us away from the leviathans. Prioritize evasion and defense. We want to drag the enemy away from the Augur, not engage them. Contact the Imperial forces in Ilyr and request immediate reinforcements.}"
"{Yes, praetor,}" this time, Naxxar's voice had no hint of doubt in it. It was pure loyalty and unquestioning trust. Khalos nodded to himself. It had been far too long.
SoA:
Praetor Khalos' ship (the Envoy) and fleet fire at the Augur (the flagship carrying Erana) and succeed in dragging the Nirogg leviathans away from the ships.
Reinforcements have been called from Ilyr. 2 ICs until arrival. 2 flagships and their cargo.
Kenny stepped to the side just as a photon blast flew right past him, not a millimeter to spare. He continued weaving through projectiles as if it were a walk in the park.
"Force Field." He said, knowing one was about to show up.
"Got it." Grell grunted into his mic and began firing in front of Kenny a fraction of a second before the field appeared. As more marines, marauders and reapers joined in the field quickly shattered. Red strips of energy and D8 charges quickly finished the cannons, and the corridor was clear.
The invading forces continued down and destroyed another set of defenses as a squad of zealots appeared.
Then suddenly everything went black.
A presence entered everyone's minds and allowed them to see the corridor.
Everyone was stumbling about, confused... They all looked like the zealots that had just appeared.
Kill. A dark and sinister voice said.
It needed no direction, no reasoning. Everyone knew who was meant, and everyone obeyed.
Everyone regained their sight and a hail of bullets destroyed the zealots immediately.
"What the hell..." Grell swore as he regained his sense.
{It's an illusion, mon.} Waiter's not exactly calming voice told everyone. {Grell, grab ya best men and follow me. Ya'll look like them zealots, but it will give us only a second or two of cover.}
The group walked up to the bridge doors. The zealot that was Kenny danced his fingers on what usually was a metal bracer at an unnatural speed, then held it against the panel beside the door, the panel lit up green and the door opened.
They marched into the bridge and drew confused glances from everyone. Executor Sevethrun was the first one to realize they all looked identical.
{Intruders!} He yelled mentally and a blast from a nearby cannon crushed one of Grell's marines.
Grell immediately tried to avenge the man, but the entire ship shook as something hit it. The illusions disappeared and they looked like their usual selves again, and bullets and even punches managed to prevent most of the bridge’s crew from running out, but the executor was gone. Grell was just about to shoot a rather fancy looking protoss' head off as a mental impulse from Waiter stopped him.
{Secure tha bridge. She is mine.} Waiter said as he walked up to Prelate Rahara.
“What the hell was that?” Grell asked as the ship shook again.
“The Imperium is firing volleys at this ship.” Kenny explained. “Probably to show that they are rather going to have the ship destroyed than have Erana rescued.”
“And...?”
“Now we, and surprisingly the zerg as well, are showing them that we can take them down quicker than they us.”
Grell smiled and ordered his men to round up the surviving crew members and sent his injured marines back to the docking bay to get patched up by the 'vacs, while Kenny opened a few terminals and started messing around with cables and his metal bracer.
Bridge of the Flying Drunkman A few minutes away from the battle
"Kenny! I'm running out of rum!"
"Cap'n... I'm still not on the ship."
"Well send Kosh then, for Davy Jones' sake! I've told you about a billion times already. Oh, and have a few phoenixes strafe the mutalisks the cerebrate told us about, have vikings fire a volley or two and run, and keep more phoenixes between the flying t-rexes and our vikings as they retreat. There better not be a scratch on any of our equipment, cause I ain't paying."
"Cap'n, those are our merc’s vikings, not ours."
"Oh, alright then. In that case, notify them that I'm not paying for a new paintjob."
Back on the Augur
{Go on then, kill me.} Prelate Rahara said. {At least I will have died in the glory of battle.}
{Ah, I would love to spend more time on you, but I am in a hurry. Fear not, I will not kill you.} Waiter cocked his head lightly to the side. {Actually... You should fear that.}
{A warrior feels no fear. But you aren't even a warrior... What are you anyway? Either you are a Nerazim that desperately wants to be a Khalai, or the other way around. In both cases, a failure. You disgust me.}
Darth Waiter laughed. {I am your worst nightmare, Prelate. I have spent centuries mastering the arts of torture.} She felt a sudden... darkness in her mind, she felt cut off... She couldn't feel the Khala. {I am not a Khalai, I am not a Nerazim, I am a protoss, and not even one of Erana's Order or any of your high and mighty governments. The only label I wear is that of a pirate.}
{Which is the same as a traitor.} She put aside the feeling of loneliness the darkness caused and brought up her courage and looked the pirate in the eyes
{This is fun, it really is.} Waiter practically smiled at her. {But I don't care for treason. I'm sure you are wondering why I would ever betray my kin and turn pirate? What have they done to me, to make me so twisted?} He paused and gave her the equivalent of an evil grin, which performed by someone with his telepathic skills is truly frightening.
{Nothing.} He said after a moment that felt like an eternity. {I was bored. And now I will have some fun.}
{Do your wors-- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH} Her mind screamed as red energy began burning the skin of her hand. {You.... Cannot... Break me... I... Will never... Betray my people...}
{You will.} Waiter smiled again. {Believe me, you will. Everyone does. Now, please tell me, where are you holding Erana, and how do I get to her?}
{NevAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--}
The Battlefield
A flock of mutalisks flew to the newly arrived forces, and a swarm of phoenixes rushed by them, barely in range, and managed to shred a handful of them. Viking missile took out a few more, and they began to retreat. The mutalisks chased, knowing they could catch them, but phoenixes flew in between and started firing, while staying out of range of the zerg flyers. Their numbers dwindled, any by the time they were able to reach any of the vikings, they all turned around and-- The zerg cerebrates lost contact with the flock of flyers.
More and more protoss forces were being diverted to fight the new invaders, phoenixes danced around each other, but the Imperium forces kept being pushed back simply due to the vikings long range fire support. A squadron of imperium fighters was shot down and their debris crashed into the Unnamed, denting its hull as the shields were breached. While it was a heavily armored ship, the Imperium ships’ firepower was a match. The Unnamed focused on destroying the Imperiums weapons, but it was easier said than done. The Unnamed started drifting off as other Order ships moved into the way to shield it from fire.
And in the distance they could see the battle with the zerg, explosions and bloody pieces of flesh everywhere.
Back on the Augur.
{Prelate, are you alright?} A friendly voice said in her mind.
{What? What happened...} She felt... Somewhat fuzzy, detached...
{The invaders... It looked like they were torturing you, interrogating you... We just managed to drive them off with the reinforcements, but... They got your arm, and... Some of your nerve cords. }
Fear shot through her and she tried to reach for her nerve cords, but pain shot through her arm and-- Pain shot through part of her arm, and more fear shot through her. She looked down and saw that her lower arm was completely gone - She could see what was left of it a meter away, beside a kneeling protoss-- Freshly amputated
{I'm sorry.} The protoss that only now she realised was Executor Sevethrun said. The loss of the nerve cords was messing with her telepathy... {It had to be done, there was no saving it, and you would have bled to death. Now, what did you tell them?}
{Nothing-- I mean, I don't know... He said he wanted to know about Erana, and then I blacked out...}
{You there, is the prisoner safe?}
{We don't know, they wrecked our internal systems} Another protoss answered.
{I remember some terran messing around with the wiring... He might have hacked the systems.} She said.
{We should check on the prisoner, then.} The Executor said. {You should come with us.}
Someone helped her up and they walked down the corridor. The fuzzyness caused by her few severed nerve cords was distracting and disturbing, as was losing her arm... Her arm... And nerve cords... She would never get them back.
And then it hit her: She was no longer a real warrior. She couldn't fight with only one arm, and her telepathy was somewhat impaired... She could probably still command forces, but whether the higher ups would see it the same way was questionable...
{More invaders!} Executor Khalos yelled and started firing into an intersecting corridor. {Prelate, continue onwards. I can handle these, but we must know whether the prisoner is safe!}
{Yes, of course.} She said - If she was going to be discharged from service, she would at least do her job and keep her honor.
She continued through the corridors, followed by a few zealots, until she found the practically seamless wall behind which the prisoner's stasis pod was kept. But a second glance showed a slight seam. Oh no, they were here! She thought and immediately sent the psionic signals to open the wall, but it failed. She gave it a few more tries, concentrating harder to make up for her loss of nerve cords, until on the fifth try the walls opened and--
{Why, thank you Prelate.} A dark and intimidating voice said. The sounds of Executor Sevethrun and his warriors fighting disappeared, as did her zealots. Pain shot through her nerve cords as the pirate templar suspended her in the air by them. For a moment relief flooded her as she felt her arm and all her nerve cords again, but then she began noticing the marines and other terran forces gathered around her, and the terrible feeling of failure filled her.
{No... No... No no no...} She muttered and cried. {No...}
{Well, I have no more use for you.} Darth Waiter said and threw her against a wall.
Pain shot through her entire body with the impact and she was dizzy, then the Pirate Templar grabbed her face and pulled her up and held her against the wall with such strength that she feared her skull would crack.
{You can't possibly imagine how long it has been since I last I got to truly horribly murder someone.}
{No...} She practically whimpered.
Small lines of red energy appeared in the air around her, and they began cutting through her skin and severing the ends of the nerve cords. She writhed and kicked and punched, but it only caused her more pain as her fists and legs collided with the pirate’s shields. And to make matters worse, the pirate’s laugh echoed through her mind as he enjoyed her pain.
And then even more energy appeared and she was entirely enveloped in it as it began disintegrating her body. Her entire body tensed and her mental screams could be heard by half the ship. She could feel the energy damaging her brain and nerve cords, but the Pirate was somehow able to keep her mind conscious and intact to feel all the pain and terror. She felt how what little was left of her body of pain grew thinner and thinner and practically faded into wall, until only her face underneath the pirates hand was left and that disintegrated as well, finally freeing her from the misery that was her death.
Grell and the marines - Men and women that had fought and lived through wars, attacked and survived the zerg, some even captured by them - stared in horror at the wall where the Prelate had just been, her image now burnt into it - in color.
{Quit starin’, we've got a prisoner to break out.}
Roughly 30 seconds later
She barely felt the stasis tube break and the hands that caught her before she collided with the floor. Everything was distant, removed. She was faintly aware of shouting and telepathic communication. Someone was trying to reach her. She opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by light, even though the inside of the chamber was dark. She closed her eyes and shook her head.
She felt movement and part of her right arm began to throb. A second later, pain filled her body and she convulsed on the spot, sending out a mental scream of pain. Her senses suddenly came back to her, crushing her under a barrage of sensory input and thought. As suddenly as it had begun, the pain disappeared and she opened her eyes. This time, she could see without a problem.
In front of her, blocking her view, was the face of a single protoss. But she didn’t recognize it. She was used to identifying others with her mind but that ability had been taken away from her along with her nerve cords. She could only recognize those she was truly familiar with.
“{Welcome back to tha world.}” There was no mistaking that language. Nor the voice that spoke inside her head. Its utter lack of emotion and tone was unmistakable even if one could no longer feel emotion telepathically.
Erana nodded and glanced past Darth Waiter’s head. She saw terrans standing in front of a door and more terrans standing outside of it. Marines. Crouched and with their rifles at the ready, pointed away from the door. She understood immediately.
“{Can ya walk, sista?}”
“{I am fine.}” She rose, using Waiters shoulders for support. She began to walk around the chamber aimlessly, drawing visored glance from the marines at the door. Her walk was unstable and erratic at first but gradually got better as she began to work feeling back into her legs. She had never been in stasis before and she did not plan on being in it again.
“The hell are we waiting for? Shouldn’t we be moving already?” this came from one of the terrans. Erana turned to face him and saw that he was considerably better armored and armed than the others. She shrugged. She had seen terrans use the gesture before and thought it an appropriate response. She looked at Waiter.
“{We’re ready. Kenny, ya got control of the warp matrix?}” the pirate protoss cocked his head to the side, presumably listening to a response. After two seconds, his head snapped upwards.
“{We can warp outta the ship but not from here. Place is isolated. And not like we can warp out your guys. We’ll have to get back to tha ships. Problem is there’s a buncha zerg heading our way.}” No sooner had the pirate finished than gunfire started.
“Zerg!” one of the marines warned. Waiter had apparently not been talking to everyone. The marine Erana took to be the terran leader quickly made for the door where he took up position next to his men and began firing at the zerg she couldn’t see.
“{Let’s move,}” Waiter said and made for the exit. Erana followed. They slipped past the wall of marines and she glimpsed the wave of zerg that was charging at them. There were only zerglings but there were a lot of them. They were crowding the corridor, scrambling over themselves in an attempt to reach the line of marines. And though they were dying by the score, they were making progress.
“{I’ll take care of this. You move,}” Waiter said and pushed her forward. She ran on, followed by two marines. Behind her, she could hear the screams and cries of the zerglings as Waiter got to work.
She ran on, still slightly unstable on her feet but powered by excitement and a sense of freedom. It had been four years since she had last run and it was she who led the marines, and the rest of the group when it caught up. She knew the inside of Imperium ships like the back of her hand and, though she didn’t know where exactly the boarders had entered the ship, she knew she was on the right path as Waiter did not try to stop her.
There was no one to stop them. The ship’s automated defenses had been thoroughly destroyed by the boarders and bodies, terran, protoss and zerg lay on the floor at random intervals. She jumped over them effortlessly, never lowering her pace.
“{Left ahead,}” Waiter informed her and she obeyed, barely slowing down as she turned the corner. And then she stopped dead. Waiter and the terrans behind her did the same. A few meters ahead of them stood a line of Imperium protoss. Three zealots, two dragoons and...
“{Sevethrun,}” Erana said, stepping forward, her telepathy not giving away any of the rage that had suddenly swelled within her. All sense of lethargy and numbness was gone. The stasis effect had worn off. She was in complete control of her body and mind.
Various Bridges
Kenny’s eyes stopped cycling through the spectrum of colors, at his usual green, as he smiled and the screens in front of him turned on again and he began the massive data transfer. Blue energy enveloped him and warped him into the docking bay.
A short warp-jump away, Doom sat in his captains chair and smiled as the summary of transferred files was getting bigger and bigger. Access to the warp matrix, dozens of schematics... What more could you wish for?
“Kosh! Bring me another--”
“Get it yourself!”
Back to the breakout...
“{Traitor and prisoner. Did you think you could escape so easily? That the might of the Imperium would not be here to stop you?}” though Erana felt no emotion in the Executor’s speech, she could tell he was trying to look more confident than he was. She surveyed the pathetic force he had mustered. It wasn’t nearly big enough to stop the terrans, let alone Waiter.
She took another confident step forward.
“{Sista...}” She shut Waiter out completely, concentrating on the protoss before her. The protoss wearing the armor of the Executor of the Imperium’s forces.
She knew Sevethrun. She had fought alongside him and commanded him when facing the zerg. He had always been rebellious, absorbed in his own thoughts and decisions, opposing Erana. No wonder the Council had chosen him to be Executor.
“{Stay where you are, prisoner}” Sevethrun warned. His soldiers seemed to focus on her.
“{Or what?}” she asked, her voice cold and unemotional but the words drawn out, as if sad. “{Are you going to cut off my nerve cords again? Kill me?}” She made another step towards Sevethrun. He seemed to tense.
“{Or are you going to let your warriors do so for you? After all, you have never faced me yourself. Why start now?}”
Erana knew that Sevethrun was prideful and stupid. But she hadn’t known he was this prideful and stupid. She had barely finished her sentence when the Executor charged at her, psi blades out and blazing. She knew he would be screaming emotionally, telepathy only those in the Khala could hear.
“{Mine,}” she said before the terrans could shoot. Not waiting for their reactions, she charged at Sevethrun. To the terrans, to Waiter, to Sevethrun, to his warriors, it looked stupid. An unarmed, weakened prisoner charging a fully armored protoss warrior. But she was in control. She hadn’t had the chance to train or fight while in prison. Her sense and instincts had been dulled, her muscles softened. But she had learned a lot during her imprisonment. She had had what many Khalai who had lost their nerve cords never got. Time to adjust.
The Executor’s blades came down, slashing diagonally. She easily stepped to the right, avoiding the blow completely. Realizing that he was in danger, the Executor jumped away.
“{Too wild. You exposed your entire left side,}” she said mockingly, like a combat master tutoring a student. Sevethrun sent out a mental roar and charged her again. It looked clumsy and stupid. But it wasn’t. Erana could see the expertise hidden behind his steps, the position of his arms, the slant of his shoulders. Whatever else he was, the new Executor was not a bad warrior. He was going in for the kill. And she knew that he would get it. He was well trained. She was unarmed and unarmored. She couldn’t dodge, not quickly enough.
Sevethrun had crossed half the distance between them. She held out her right hand towards him, as if telling him to stop.
“{I hope ya know what you’re doing, sista.}” Waiter’s sentence was quick as light, effortlessly breaking down the mental barriers she had set up. She ignored him. Sevethrun’s shields came into range of her hand. She lunged forward, activating them. Undeterred, Sevethrun brought back both his arms in preparation to stab her with both blades. He never got the chance.
One second the shields were there, a solid barrier beneath her hand. The next, they were gone. And with them went Executor Sevethrun. The disintegration started with his blades but quickly progressed up his arms. Wisps of red light and plumes of dust rose from his body, breaking it down as they went. His death was slow but he was stunned, unable to move.
Erana quickly grabbed him by the throat, hoisting up his decreasing weight. She looked him in the eyes, their faces almost touching. The light in his was fading. Hers were blazing.
“{Consider this mercy, Sevethrun,}” she said, knowing that there was still a mind in there to hear her. And then he was gone. His, eyes went dark and his body disappeared, followed by his head, particles being effortlessly ripped from their bonds and cast out into the air.
“{Executor!}” one of the protoss zealots cried out. But Erana was already on the floor, getting out of the way of the terrans’ needle-like bullets. The Imperial warriors stood no chance. They were cut down within two seconds.
Opheilm and Kelanin...
"{We have some company.}"
Opheilm turned around and barely dodged a psionic blade from an imperial zealot. "This isn't a good day to die." Opheilm struck back with his warp blade and decapitated his opponent, revealing more zealots behind him. At the same time a part of Kelanin's shield wore off.
"{It's too bad we couldn't find peace for you,}" he said and there was an explosion, which blasted the enemy zealots but left him and Opheilm unscathed
"{You are quite rude for an ambassador,}" Opheilm commented.
"{You are quite gentle for an assassin,}" Kelanin replied.
After the last few zealots were killed, an additional wave arrived, but they didn't reach them. Waiter and Grell appeared from another adjacent corridor and burst the imperial soldiers away. Erana was behind them, seemingly staggering but able to walk
"{Erana!}", Opheilm yelled and ran towards her. "{What happened to her?}" he asked, examining her.
"{She's fine, mon. Just fresh outta stasis. Now let's get of this ship}", said Waiter, running past him.
"{I am fine, Opheilm,}" Erana said when he didn't budge and pushed past him.
The Docking Bay
The rest of the escape was uneventful. The group quickly made it to the docking bay where the boarding ships were. The terran marines and their leader climbed into their medivacs while Waiter took hold of Erana. Opheilm, Kelanin and their own troops stood away from them.
“{Warp us out, Kenny,}” Waiter said. The view shifted, replaced by unbroken blue and then by the interior of a different ship.
“{Home,}” Erana said as she recognized the bridge of the Hawk. Her supercarrier. Her ship.
“{Erana!}” She turned around. It was Rassyr. Loyal Rassyr. She held up a hand in greeting but he did not return the gesture or even stop. His eyes were wide.
“{Praetor, yo-your...}” Rassyr’s words trailed off. He was standing right in front of her, staring at her. She realized he was looking at her severed nerve cords.
“{Another time, Rassyr,}” she replied, turning away from him to survey the bridge where dozens of protoss were hard at work managing the ship’s systems. She glanced at a nearby map of the battlefield and quickly identified the Imperium ships. They were in disarray. Either running away or in the process of being destroyed. All save one.
“{But Erana-}” this time, Rassyr was interrupted by another voice. And it came from no one nearby.
“{Stop this, Rassyr. Hand her over.}” The bridge’s crew stopped what they were doing and looked around, not knowing where the voice had come from. A single hologram flickered and a 3D model of the Hawk was suddenly replaced by the head of a protoss.
“{Khalos?}” Rassyr asked. For a second, he seemed surprised but he regained his composure almost immediately. “{Why would I? Do you plan on fighting me? You have one ship, I have four. You are hopelessly outnumbered.}”
“{Is that a challenge, Rassyr? Do you think I cannot do it?}” came the response, cold and threatening. Erana laughed.
“{You are good, Khalos, but nobody is that good. You have one ship. We have four. It is as simple as that. The moment you attack, you will be obliterated,}” she said. On the hologram, Khalos’ brow furrowed.
“{Reinforcements are already on their way, Erana. The zerg are here. They will follow you. The Imperium will follow you. Your Order cannot protect you. You know what your escape means.
“{You underestimate the zerg and overestimate your Council, Khalos. Speaking of which, why are you not Executor? Why is it that a fool like Sevethrun was put in charge of the Imperium’s fabled military?}” Khalos’ eyes flashed at the questions. It was hard to see on the hologram but Erana saw it. It was an opening.
“{He is dead now, you know. I killed him,}” she continued, “{but you are not going to replace him. The Council being what it is, they will probably blame my escape on you. You would be lucky to stay in the military as a Prelate.}” She let the words sink in for a moment. And then:
“{But if you joined me...}” she let his own mind finish the sentence. On the hologram, his brow seemed to relax. He half closed his eyes and inclined his head. He seemed to hesitate.
“{You always did have a way of making others obey you,}” he said and the hologram blinked out of existence. On the map, she noticed Khalos’ ship, the Enovy slow down and change course.
“{Is he going to join us?}” Rassyr asked.
“{No, he is not,}” Erana said. Then to the bridge and the rest of the fleet: “{Blast the ship out of existence.}”
Behind her, Rassyr’s eyes widened.
“{What do you mean? Didn’t he just say he would join us?}” he asked, bewildered.
“{What of it? He pledged his loyalty to me during the zerg invasion. And yet he was nowhere to be seen when the Council imprisoned me. He did not speak out. He did not try to stop them. He was there when they took the Khala away from me. What makes you so sure he will not do the same now? Turn on me like he did back then?}”
“{But many-}”
“{And they are all traitors.}” she was furious. Her eyes were flaring and her clamped nerve cords seemed to have taken on a life of their own. They were moving around wildly, like snakes.
“{Sista-}” Waiter tried to intervene.
“{This is none of your business, pirate. Destroy the ship.}” It was done. The four Order ships opened fire simultaneously. The Envoydidn’t stand a chance.
SoA:
Long, long post.
In short: mission "Break out Erana" was succesful. Imperium forces are destroyed
As the dust cleared and the last ships were leaving the region, Murkag was left disturbingly alone, for the time being. Dagganoth had quickly said his 'goodbyes' to Zemreh as the Nirogg forces turned back in order to go home. He wasn't pleased with the fact that Erana had slipped away, but he did not in the slightest blame Dagganoth for the mistake - which was exactly the plan Dagganoth had had. In the meantime, he was pleased to recognize that none of his forces had been severely harmed during the entire encounter, and that different parts of Murkag's body had mutated in order to hold the Protoss prisoners, some of which were now waking up. Those that struggled were instantly grabbed by goo and tendrils shooting out of the walls, though most of them simply sat down too scared to move.
As Dagganoth was preparing to adress them, he noticed another presence. Murkag had been drifting around the battlefield, gathering up what he could scavenge, and he had now reached the ruined leftovers of the Envoy. There was barely any sign of psionic activity, which told Dagganoth that everyone in the area had to be dead. Except for one being. There was just enough activity for Dagganoth to distinguish one single being. As Mutalisks flew out to collect it, Dagganoth looked through their eyes and recognized the body and outfit of a high ranking Protoss official. He thought to himself that this battle couldn't possibly have gone any better for him as his Mutalisks entered Dagganoth through one of his slimy access tendrils.
The Protoss official looked heavily wounded and was carefully deposited into a soft, desinfected room. As tendrils took samples from his body in order to mutate and heal the weary, unconscious Protoss, Murkag turned around and set off towards Domus when Dagganoth finally took the time to adress his prisoners.
"Protoss warriorss. I am Zerg. I realize there iss no way I will be able to make you trust me. You have been brought up and taught to hate my kind, and not without reason. Yet I differ from my brethren. I do not mean you any harm. My forces were not among the ones you fought. We are headed for Domus. Once that destination is reached, all of you who want to leave shall be allowed to do so. In the meantime, I will ssay this: fight, and you will make this trip harder for yourself. Remain calm, and you will remain as comfortable asss I can make it for you. I will talk to you again, but for now I suggest you rest. You fought hard and should heal your wounds and recover your strengths. En Taro Tasssadar, as I believe you ssay."
SoA
-Murkag picks up a heavily wounded Khalos, who is put in a special room to take care of his wounds.
-The other Protoss survivors have been spread out over several smaller rooms, Dagganoth has talked to them in an effort to keep them calm.
-Murkag leaves the battle site and sets off for Domus, 10 ICs until arrival.
"Did I miss anything?" Doom asked the holograms of Aranov and Keeva while taking a large sip of rum.
"I have the feeling that we don't want to know what you were doing." Aranov said.
"Dialability." Doom said.
"Deniability." Kenny corrected.
"That's what I said."
"The Outsiders launched an attack on the Aran system." Aranov said.
"And?"
"A large amount of my forces are in Dras Lana, in case whatever Erana's Order did causes the Imperium to retaliate. We lost Aran."
"Well, that's a shame. I really liked the place."
"You were never there."
"Now that's not true. Light security, malfunctioning radar, limited software protection, as good as no stealth detection. It was a nice place."
Aranov sighed.
"Let's just get to the point, shall we?" Keeva suggested. "Doom, we need someone to retake Aran. Aranov's forces are busy, and we'd like you to stay in the area as well as you are in charge of some of the most powerful ships the Coalition has. If it's no problem, we'd like you to patrol around the Dras Lana system."
"Sure." Doom said. "Got some business to finish up on Domus, and I know just the guy to take out Naran."
"Retake, not take out." Aranov clarified.
"Whatever, same shit." Doom emptied his bottle. "Anything else?"
"No, I think that's it." Aranov said, clearly annoyed.
The holographic screens turned off.
"Kenny!" Doom yelled.
"I'm right beside you, Cap'n." Kenny said from less than two metres away.
"Tell that Grell guy we got a job for him. Oh, and pay him for that last one."
"Aye aye, cap'n."
Kenny Subspace Link Subspace, obviously
"So Neal's been working on the warp matrix again, you say." Kenny said.
"Yea." Kenny answered. "Hasn't had much success though. I'm already ordering pretty expensive cleaning supplies and have five fire extinguishers ready."
"Yea, Warp Matrix is tricky business." Kenny said. "Too bad the Drunkman's and Arken's warp bays aren't standard issue but highly advanced..."
"Why are you bringing this up? You're a pirate, there's bound to be a reason."
"Remember where I wasn't supposed to go?"
"Yea."
"Let's say I did some hacking over there."
Kenny transferred some data over to Kenny.
"Warp prism schematics, pylons, warp bays..." Kenny said as he went over the file names. "That must've been a risky hack."
"Not really. Decently ranked military flagship, was able to get a good amount of data out before they realised the ship was compromised and a third party was requesting the data. Had to hack the ships systems anyway, this was just a bonus."
"Where's the catch?"
"Why does there always need to be a catch? Do you think that low of me?"
"Yes. You're you."
"Right, good point."
"Money?"
"Yea, I guess that works, unless you found something that would interest me personally."
"Sorry, no real coding breakthroughs you probably didn't figure out yourself yet."
"It's annoying being so advanced, isn't it?"
"Yup. As good as no room for improvement."
"Yea. I find myself rewriting the Viking auto targetting AI out of sheer boredom just to see I didn't make a single change in the end."
"Hate it when that happens. Anyway, money then?"
"Yea, money sounds good."
SoA:
Grell is tasked with retaking the Naran system from the Outsiders. A Pirate Patrol and Pirate Raiders fleet is under his control. They are currently in the Ratar system, and won't leave until told to.
The Pirates unofficially get 100 points from the Quantum Legion for questionably obtained not-terran information.
Grell is paid 10 points for helping in Erana's breakout
The gravity of the ship changed, going from normal earth gravity to half that and back again. The ship must have exited light-speed already. Steadying himself at the job at hand Grell continued checking the magnetic accelerator his gun used, making sure it hadn't been damaged after the battle on the Protoss ship. It had taken a bolt of energy from a stalker and needed to be checked over to make sure his gun Did Not explode in his hands.
Looking over the components he found that it was perfectly fine. Letting out a sigh of relief he grabbed the accelerator and slapped it back into his gun, snapping the four holding bolts in place and began to put his gun back together. The door to the room opened, and a quick check confirmed it was Mike. “Hey mate, what did you come down to the armory for?” he asked as he screwed in another piece that held the gun together.
“Well sir I got a transmission from the pirates again, seems they want you to take on another job. You know the pay is gonna be good, yet this one is abit different from the last.” as he finished he sat down and checked the work to see his friend hadn't misplaced or 'forgotten' a screw.
“Lemme guess, they want me to dive into another hell of a mission were I get to put my ass on the line for fame and glory of the world?”
“Not quite. You have heard of the outsiders right? The famous group of people who use old tech and continue to be a pain for the rest of the galaxy.”
“Yea, not only have I heard of them, I had met one before. Usually grusky looking fellows that seem to get on the badside of everyone. Now If it involves them I'm guessing we are hitting one of their fleets right?” He said slapping a fresh clip into the gun and setting it aside.
“Close, we will be hitting their planets, well technically speaking three planets they have just taken over.”
“Sounds like fun, I'm guessing we'll be getting an army for this, am-I-right?”
“The pirates want to negotiate this, I’m thinking they will provide some support, but this also allows us a chance to make deals with other people. You see the three planets there where originally under the control of the Tirion Republic, Magrathean Empire, and the Aranov Consectorate.”
Putting his gun away on the weapon rack he looked at Mike, thinking for a moment. “So your thinking we may be able to get some of those nations to give us support on this?”
“I'm fairly certain we can, and knowing you we will want to start with the Aranov and Tirion support.”
“And why's that Mike?”
“They have tanks sir.”
“You know me to well Mike, Imma handle this on my own, be back in about an hour.” he said putting away the data pad and heading up to the bay doors.
Tunnels of Domus Near Mikes Bar
Grell checked the vest he wore to make sure there where no stains on it and with that, proceeded on his way without Mike for once to the bar. The walk to the bar was a simple one, the few thugs and other shady characters keeping there distance as Grell went past. Coming through the authentic rock entrance leading to the bar, they quickly took a seat next to the Burly pirate sitting there drinking rum. "Doom, I believe you had a proposition for me." Grell said sliding a coin onto the counter, awaiting the usual whisky he had gotten every time he came to this place.
"Got a bit of a situation in Naran. Nice place, y'know, easy to raid and so on. Anyway, the Outsiders just decided to wreck and take over the place. Coalition wants the system taken out"
"Retaken." Kenny corrected.
"That's what I said. Anyway, intel says they got six flagships there, wouldn't be surprised if they called for reinforcements if they are attacked. Thing is, Aranov's busy holding Dras Lana in case the Protoss decide to do anything for... Well, the thing we weren't involved in in any way. I'm supposed to be patrollin' around there as well, and we can't really spare many ships either. Got two ships waitin' on ye orders in Ratar, ye'll have to get more support yourself."
“Well sounds easy enough, though I will say I don't seem to think getting the other factions on my side will be easy.” he said grabbing the glass that slid infront of him and taking a swig of it, giving the unknown drink a funny look.
"Go ask the other factions and make them an offer they can't refuse." Doom said emptying the bottle of rum in his hand.
“Got it, Ill stay in contact.” turning to the bartender he looked at him with distaste and then getting up, he left pocketing the coin he had set on the table.
Docking Tube to Gnarled Wolf
No sooner had Grell stepped into the tube connecting the Gnarled Wolf with Domus, then he saw Mike come to meet him. Expecting his friend to be angry at the quick negotiation and info yet he looked pleased. “Alright Grell I got info from Kenny about our mission, the ships provided and even some info on other possibilities for allies to help with this mission.”
“He never spoke a word to me while I was there, glad he sent us the files though, had forgotten all but the most important things.” he said taking out some hastily scribbled notes he had taken on the way back to his ship.
“Sir if I may say so you are a horrible captain.”
“Goods to hear it I was mean to lead people in the heat of battle, not this diplomatic shit. It'll, do for now though. So tell me what you gathered from Kenny and your sources.”
“Well I believe we may be able to strike a deal between us and the original owners of the planets. Im sure they are not to happy about the outsiders coming in and pushing them out of their territory, and even if we are pirates I am positive they will work with us to get them back if we can strike some negotiations with them. I personally know some Tirion higher ups that though weary of pirates are always willing to do whats needed to get ahead, and this will certainly be a prospect they wont want to turn away.
He tapped on his data pad bringing up some more relevant data and continued.”The Aranov faction most likely wont help us for nothing, gonna have to work to get them on our side. The Magratheans have a small amount of fighting forces, but I think alittle persuasion can get them on our side.”
Grell thought it over for a moment, then gave his friend a hug. “I must thank you for doing the hard work for me. I want you to set a course for your Tirion 'friends'. Now I'm going to head to the weight-room, get back to it. Send the data to my pad so I can look it over and remember to pick up your rifle and start practicing, I might need you if 'negotiations' fail.”
“Alright we'll be heading to Fyrd, and Grell, me and you in the ring today.”
Letting out a laugh Grell and his friend entered the ship.
SoA: Grell accepts the mission of taking over the 3 planets from outsider control in the Naran system. There course now is Fyrd to meet with Tirion diplomats wich Mike has an aqaintence with.
Khalos looked out the window at the Terran transport ship as the others of his race slowly came into motion. Behind the transport ship, off in the distance, was a large asteroid. He knew what was behind it. He turned around and joined his kin in their march. It had been a strange journey - perhaps the strangest he had made so far. After an enormous battle for the life of Erana he had gone from an escape pod to the insides of a Zerg Leviathan, followed it up by traveling in a Terran transport ship and was now situated on a pirate infested city.
Though he still did not fully trust the cerebrate that had called himself Dagganoth, he did seem to be one of a kind. When Khalos and most of his kinsmen awoke they had been filled with fear, rage, or both - the insides of a Zerg organism were never a good place to be for any Protoss. Yet, the cerebrate had calmly introduced himself, healed their wounds and even apologized for his part in the massacre that took place, claiming he had no choice and had attempted to minimize the damage. And not even just that - when arriving at Domus he had asked him and his fellow survivors to stay behind on his ship as a 'spokesman'. Obviously no one had accepted. But he had actually let them go. Whatever madness drove this cerebrate, Khalos was glad he made it out unscathed.
Unscathed. Khalos stared at his arm. A strange contraption of both metal and softly pulsating flesh stared back at him. The cerebrate had even attempted to heal his arm. Though the Zerg bio-matter he had used to create a new arm withered and died, as Khalos could've known, he had somehow managed to use Terran technology from his other 'guests' to mount a soft, steel skeleton on the stump that used to be his arm, and it had Zerg bio-circuitry running through it to grant him control. It felt akward, unlike his normal arm - though the arm performed the general ideas Khalos wanted it to, it seemed to have a bit of a will of its own. If he were to approach a ladder, the engineered arm would automatically grab and hold the bars for him if Khalos intended to go up, but Khalos would not feel or connect with the arm. The Protoss grinned grimly - he, as a living being, was now technically part of all three major races at once.
Back aboard Murkag, Dagganoth's thoughts were racing. Though none of the Protoss survivors ended up being as friendly towards him as he had hoped, one with a specific newfound hatred towards the Imperium had left him a little tip; apparently there was a point in space a bit outside of the Imperium border, close to the Great Wave, that had no obvious active Protoss activity but did have constant supply drops heading there. The Protoss himself hadn't known what it was, but Dagganoth was now thinking about whether it might be interesting to see what was going on there or maybe trade the information. For now however, he decided to remain put to see if the pirates would honour their word in regards to payment.
SoA
-Murkag arrives at Domus and the Terran Transport ship docks there to play spokesman, waiting to receive payment.
-Dagganoth has explained the situation to the Protoss as best he could, treated their wounds and let all of them leave in peace on Domus. Through the use of both Zerg and Terran technology, he has given Khalos a surrogate arm which follows up on Khalos' ideas or intentions but has its own will.
-Though none of the Protoss decide to remain on Murkag (like the Terran crew), one tells Dagganoth about an apparent Imperium point of interest near the Great Wave.
The rest of the escape carried the unmistakable air of a spoiled victory. Erana could sense it all too easily. The way the bridge crew avoided looking at her, kept their heads down and looked at nothing but their respective screens. The way Rassyr became silent and seemed to shrink after she told him how Sevethrun had taken away her nerve cords and, with them, her life. Only the terrans seemed happy during the debriefing.
Terrans didn't understand, of course. To them, a lost limb or organ was a physical handicap that was easy to repair. Terran invalids were still terrans: people. It was the same with protoss... unless you were a Khalai who had lost her nerve cords. Then it was completely different.
The nerve cords were a Khalai's connection to the Khala and the Khala was what made a Khalai a Khalai. Without them, a Khalai became insubstantial. Neither Khalai nor Nerazim but something alien, something weaker. An outsider. Repair was impossible: the nerve cords could be restored physically but their function never returned.
That was why Erana had gone from figurehead to something unknown. Protoss had died to save her and yet they hadn't saved her. They had saved someone who used to be her but was now a mere shell, a damaged body. And yet the shell did not behave as expected.
Most Khalai simply took their lives after losing their nerve cords: they no longer considered themselves alive. But Erana was as alive and as sharp as ever. She didn't have the luxury of being able to take her life in prison. Instead, she was forced to live with the silence. And in it, she found solace. In it, she found a new life. And while she still longed for the Khala's warmth, she immersed herself in the freezing depths of the Void. She observed the universe, fascinated by its laws and patterns. She had become tempered, not broken.
Perhaps this was what scared the Hawk's crew. That she wasn't broken. That she was still there and not begging for the Khala. They would get used to it. They were warriors. They would have to get used to it.
Because, beneath the layers of cold passivity and tempered thought, Praetor Erana was angry.
SoA
A filler/character development post. The Amadeus, Unnamed and Hawk are already back on Dras Lana. Chronologically, the post takes place before the return (since it is by no means crucial).
"SEE!?" Orion was rather angry. "The zerg are moving again!"
"Yes, but--" Dent tried to say.
"No buts." Orion cut him off. "We have evidence that the zerg aren't dormant! We should have finished them off when we had the time!"
"Orion, calm down." Aranov said.
"Calm down? If the zerg move again, it's going to be my people that are first in line to die! We've already lost majority of our planets and population the last time!"
Keeva Lane sighed. "Can we trust the evidence?"
"Of course!" Orion yelled furiously.
"Where did you get it from?"
"Well..." He started.
"I highly doubt Erana's Order would even talk to you." Keeva said. Orion seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Doom, do you know anything about this?"
"Well..." The massive pirate started. "Kenny, check the information brokers on Domus."
Everyone waited in silence for a reply.
"Multiple brokers have the information, gotten from Imperial soldiers dropped off at Domus." Kenny left out who brough them there.
"Can those protoss be trusted?" Keeva asked.
Yes, sistah. Darth Waiter answered. It's not possible ta transfer fake memories into a databank with such quality. Waiter made up on the spot.
"So? We should attack the zerg!" Orion was at it again.
"Shut up." Keeva said. "Lass, Dent, what do you think?"
"Well, this is a somewhat delicate situation." Lass said. "The zerg aren't aggressive towards us yet, it might not be a good idea to provoke them."
"I agree with lass." President Dent said. "We should wait it out a bit more."
"Aranov, Doom?" Keeva asked.
"Fine with anythin' 's long's the pay is good." Doom said and emptied a bottle of rum. "But those two have a good point."
"I'm more concerned about not having any information on them." Aranov said. "Attacking them just like that is not a good idea. We have no idea what they are up to and what's going on. We should scout some of the nearby systems, Lass should get the Tirion's production facilities ready and expand them a bit maybe, Dent could maybe focus on getting more people ready to fight, even just training some doctors would already be helpful."
"Sounds reasonable." Keeva said. The other faction leaders nodded in agreement, apart from Orion.
"Scout? SCOUT!? They're gonna kill us all, and all you want to do is scout!?"
"Yes, Orion. Scout." Aranov said. "If you want to send your troops in blind, go ahead. I'll wait until I know what the hell is going on."
"So... Who is going out to scout?" Keeva asked. "We're already too tied up with possible Imperium retaliation and the Outsiders in Naran."
"Oh, I've got a perfect candidate." Doom said.
"Alright then." Keeva said. "I guess this meeting is over."
Before Orion could protest, the holograms disappeared.
Bonecrusher Bay Domus
Kenny walked out of his personal docking bay, and as he opened the door Adam knocked onto the empty space just above his head where the door just was.
"Oh, hi." He said. "We're supposed to be getting paid."
Kenny paused for a fraction of a second. "Money's been transferred to your account."
"I don't have an account."
"You do now. On a side note, tell the big guy I need a ride to Dvergar and back, gotta scout the system. You're obviously gonna get paid for that as well."
"Sorry, what?"
"Someone dropped off some 'toss here which spilled the beans about a zerg attack, giving the Auruleans an excuse to go batshit crazy, and now we're forced to scout nearby zerg systems. And you have to agree, you guys are perfect for scouting out zerg systems."
"Yea, you got a point there..." Adam said.
"Anyway, I'll be waiting at your ship. You go and clear stuff with your boss."
"What makes you so sure he'll accept?"
"I'd tell you, but it would sound an awful lot like a threat, so I'd rather not. I mean, I don't see why you should not want an easy job as this one - You get to visit exotic places, meet exotic people, possibly kill them and maybe you'll even make some friends! If you need more info, you know where to find me."
Middle of the Desert Deiliri, Rasalin system
"Fire!" Dr. James said.
The four guards emptied their clips into the limp body propped up against the wall. After they were done, James and the other scientists walked up to it to check the damage. There were light bruises where the bullets hit. James poked one of them to make sure they were actual bruises and not just discoloration. He then took out a stopwatch. It took forty two seconds for the bruises to disappear entirely.
"Alright, defensive and regenerative genes seem to be fully functional."
The white haired limp man groaned.
"Up the dosage!" James screamed. "He's not ready to wake up yet!"
The scientists quickly scrambled to get more anaestethics and pumped enough into the man to knock out a blue whale two times over.
"Sir, I think his regenerative and immunity genes may be a bit too good." One of the other scientists said.
"There is no such thing as "too good" in this project." James said. "Chuck him back into the capsule, that was enough tests for today. Make sure he stays knocked out."
SoA:
Auruleans make a fuss
Coalition decides to send scouts into zerg territory, starting with Dvergar.
The Pirates want to hire Dagganoth to scout the Dvergar system. Kenny will accompany them if they accept.
EDIT: Forgot Mozared's payment. Dagganoth gets 35 points.
Dr. Straczinski wandered what appeared to be the half formed idea of a great royal ball, a grand party of beautiful and egregiously expensive things and people. He could marvel at the goings on, the rich and often physics defying decor in golds and rich purples, the people in all manner of expensive and impressive garb, the buffet and waitstaff with every type of food and drink imaginable, but the moment he shifted his gaze to look at something new, the old would fade away into barely cognisant obscurity, becoming a dark shadowy realm of monsters. It was as if the party existed purely as an illusion, to keep the Doctor from seeing the monstrous reality of it all. However, that was only partially the case. The Doctor himself maintained the illusion. The ball was merely a facade, a subtle reflection of what truly transpired in the minds of the monsters that lived in this place. Each being likely saw the proceedings differently, as their own lives and experiences colored their perceptions.
Dr. Straczinski was a learned man before he became the Prophet Orloth, Lord of Shadows, so he perceived this place as a series of references and metaphors. Every piece of the illusion existed because it triggered some thought, some memory, some part of his brain that reminded him of the nature of the creature he was truly looking at. The ancient samurai decked out in full ceremonial armor, glimmering with equal parts regalness and wrath, was a reflection of the Cerebrate Draal, who followed an old code of honor and integrity that had both set him apart and allowed him to rise among the Cerebrates throughout the centuries, if not millennia he had been alive. Draal was silently observing a fierce debate between two other prominent figures, A regal noble lady with fierce and hungry eyes and a small swarm of servants and suitors, the most favored of which looked ready to physically attack a Jester, whose outfit sported a deep red reminiscent of newly spilled blood, and a blackness so deep as to hint at the Abyss itself, all gilded in shining gold and trumpeted by a myriad swarm of tiny bells, his own entourage seeming to go out of their way to laugh uproariously at every slight quib that came out of his mouth. The lady and the Jester, Shaharaz and Zemreh, were barely containing themselves from ripping each other apart, and Draal silently watched, stone faced and imperious.
As he watched the argument from a safe distance, a stunningly beautiful woman with raven black hair and barely clothed in a backless black dress that covered her body but left nothing to the imagination broke away from her string of admirers to approach the doctor.
“I see you still prefer your illusions, brother,” Lilith purred by way of greeting.
“What can I say, I allow myself to be inspired by Jung.” the doctor wistfully replied.
“Yes, the young are delusional.” Lilith, retorted, revealing her ignorance.
Orloth did not bother to correct the Nightmare Queen, “Do you know why the meeting was called, sister? Has the time come for us to renew our conquest of this sector?”
“No, nothing like that, dear brother,” Lilith teased seductively, “Our master did not call this meeting. You are still free to pursue your distractions for a while longer. No, I understand that Zemreh and that lovely black lamb, Dagganoth, ambushed a Protoss caravan carrying something of importance a few days ago. I suspect this has something to do with that.”
“I see,” Orloth murmured, wondering where Lilith got her information, “How goes your fiefdom, have things in Pern quieted down?”
“They have. Your tactic amazed me, who would have believed that Shaharaz would have been so simple minded as to believe Aria’s little ruse. Honestly, Orloth, your talents are wasted over in Terran space. With you as my concubine we could have the other broods dancing like puppets to our whims.”
“They don’t already?” The Doctor queried, and pointed out the form of Draal, marching his way over to the pair with eyes only for the Nightmare Queen. The ancient Celebrate’s armored form stood an imposing eight feet tall, and his aged face was bordered by a neatly trimmed mane of Silver Hair, and a long goatee. His eyes quickly dismissed Orloth, who lowered his own gaze and stood aside to allow the Cerebrate to converse with Lilith.
“Lilith, child, it was good of you to join us. I was hoping that the four of us could discuss recent events civilly, but it seems the other’s are too caught up in their argument. I will therefore inform you of recent events, and what I hope the Brood will do about them.”
“Of course, Draal. You may proceed.” Lilith acquiesced with the barest hint of condescension. Draal was not the best of beings to slight, even if the two were involved in a bloody and costly feud over the Jorin system.
“Very well. Zemreh recently conducted a raid, based on information provided to him by the rogue cerebrate Dagganoth, on a convoy carrying the Engineer of Apoca, Erana.” The words, ‘Engineer of Apoca’ carried with them the weight of a harsh memory of defeat, as an entire planet, brimming with Zerg and carrying the full weight of the Swarm’s plans for conquest was suddenly and horrifically burned out of the Hive Mind. Apoca was the first horrific strike in the battle that finally halted the Swarm’s conquest of Eurim, and the name of Erana and the Arken she and the Terrans had created carried with it the full weight of that day. “Unfortunately there was a third party involved in that battle, who ultimately escaped, we believe with the Engineer.” Draal’s words were accompanied by a series of thoughts and images, an overview of how the battle went along with snippets of memory from several of the involved forces, largely zerglings running through the long halls of Protoss flagships and mutalisks in vicious dogfights with Protoss squadrons. “I feel that this situation warrants a continued assault against the Protoss, However the Brood Mother Shaharaz is refusing to agree to a ceasefire for such a purpose, probably because that fool Zemreh continues to antagonize her.”
“I see, so not everything is well among the Cerebrates?” Lilith teased gently.
“While I wish Zemreh would consider the long term repercussions of his actions, I am not yet willing to turn on him. I am, however, willing to allow him and Shaharaz to fight it out, while you and I focus on more important matters.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, I suggest that the two of us pause our feud in Jorin so that we may pursue the means to break apart the Imperium and the Coalition. I fear that by leaving them alone for so long we are allowing them to unite against us.”
“Oh, Draal, that is where you are simply mistaken. I can not speak for the Protoss but you must acknowledge that I have some knowledge on how the Terrans think and operate. The longer we leave them be, the closer they are to stabbing each other in the back and doing our work for us. Trust me, we are far better off leaving the terrans alone for the time being.”
“That may be the case, but the Protoss are not likely to ignore Zemreh’s slight. We should at the very least be pressing the attack.”
“No, you know as well as I that some of the party that rescued Erana consisted of Protoss. That shows that the Protoss may already be fighting each other.”
“But Zemreh’s attack may have ruined that. We should attack before they have time to consider us active and ready their defenses. We should attack while they are still wondering if this was an isolated incident.”
“Then attack, Draal, but know that should you do so you will do so without the rest of the Swarm. Only the Overmind may command Me, and he has not deemed it time.”
Orloth’s imagined Avatar of Draal was red in the face with anger, and nearly shouting, his words carrying over to the Lady and the Jester, who had paused in their argument to watch. Draal gazed over him and directed his next words for the entire crowd. “The Overmind has been silent since Dras Lana, in that time we have waited, we have plotted, and we have set ourselves against each other. This is not how the Swarm was meant to operate. We must begin to consider that the Overmind will never speak again, and we must again act as one Swarm against our enemies.”
Lilith’s next words came unbidden from her lips, “And who will lead us Cerebrate? You?”
“Yes, me. Who else?” Draal asked in righteous fury.
“I will not allow a pitous and weak lump of flesh to dictate my will,” Shaharaz hissed. “I will see you both destroyed that the Swarm may be finally rid of your weakness.” With that, the Brood Mother and her entourage departed into the darkness, out of the illusion.
The jester approached mockingly, “Draaaaaal, you take yourself far to seriously. Why not simply enjoy our freedom, and the chaos that it causes?"
“Because it’s not who we are!” Draal yelled at the hysterically laughing form of Zemreh as he fled into the darkness at the edge of the illusion. Draal lastly turned to Lilith, looked her up and down and sneered at her in disgust, before marching to himself plunge into the abyss.
Lilith merely stood there, stunned, before turning to Orloth, “What have you done?”
The aged doctor shrugged dismissively, “You ruined things quite nicely on your own, why share the credit?”
“Then it wasn’t you, hmm...” Lilith left the illusion as if in a daze, leaving the place dark and shrouded, Orloth’s old form alone on the black and white marble floor. He took a moment to appreciate his old body, how it felt to be back into the weak and timid form of the old Professor of Psychology at Fjelstead University of Sar Shar, the same professor that had taken much care over the years to hide his considerable psionic talents from the various powers that be, and how he had used those same talents to seek out the best and most talented of students and give them the opportunities to go above and beyond what they might otherwise have been capable of, giving them rare opportunities and unforeseen insights, all while remaining invisible himself. He had to remind himself that it was all but a clever illusion, built so that he could better interpret this council, taking place within the massive Mind of the Overmind himself, to whom all of his servants were connected. But as Orloth began to step into the darkness and return to his own mind, and as the illusion began to fade from his mind, he heard one last far away sound, the sound of distant and hysterically mad laughter, echoing through the very halls of the darkened and monster filled ball room.
SoA:
The Brood Leaders Psionically meet to discuss events, through their mutual links to the Overmind. They each leave the meeting hating each other even more then when they started.
Dagganoth was assessing the situation. On the one hand, he was eager to find out what was present at that 'important' Imperium area. On the other hand, he knew he shouldn't let his eagerness become his death. While the Imperium area surely held something worthwhile - be it information, good or technology - it would also surely be well protected. And while he could probably again use the Nirogg brood to gain his ends, he'd be both taking a risk, and would be forced to recieve the short end of the stick if any valuables were to be uncovered. Dagganoth seemed certain at this point: he stood more to gain by staying on the Pirates' good side, and this 'job' they had for him could perhaps be spinned to be even more valuable for him. Again, he gave the order.
Sometime later, Murkag opened his 'mouth' as the Terran transport ship flew right in. Even though it was an eerie sight, Adam felt safe. As Murkags third stomach connected itself to the transport's door, the Terrans walked back into their 'compound', Kenny among them. Dagganoth felt their mind enter the compound but noticed that Kenny wasn't quite like the others. There was something... 'off' about him. He made a note to mention this information to Doom as Murkag set off for the Dvergar system.
SoA
-Dagganoth accepts the Zerg scouting mission and sets off for the Dvergar system. He will arrive in 6 posts from this one.
-When Kenny boards alongside the Terran crew, Dagganoth notices his psionic activity isn't quite like the other Terrans, and plans on notifying Doom of this.
Playing hardball with the man who owns your contract!?, David looked down his arm, over his sidearm, and into the face of Krag the Bloody. I deserve the shitstorm coming my way. I won't be surprised if I buy it right here.
It reassured him only slightly that Leo was at his right shoulder, and the two pistols that looked like toys in his hands were trained on Krag's lackeys and not on him. There were two standing on his side, and six of them, not including Krag's ugly mug. If things turned sour, David was entirely sure that he would buy it first, followed closely by his friend Leo.
“-tched. Why don't we just put our guns away and go back to the way things were,” Krag was saying. “I like you David. I really do. I'd hate to have to end you right here and lose such a valuable man. Come on. You know I'm a man of my word. You can-”
David was knocked out of his panicked thinking suddenly, and he took a step forward, brandishing his sidearm. As the ruffians around Krag raised their guns and prepared to fire, he stopped. “Man of your word? Oh really? A man of your word.”
Krag raised his hands defensively. “Come on, David. Don't make this harder than it has to be.”
“I should say the same to you. Why don't you give me the ship I bought from you, and we can all go away and live out our respective lives of crime.”
Krag looked to either side, and seeing the multitude of guns around him, he regained some of his confidence. “Look, David. You aren't in the best of positions to be bargaining with me. You can either put down your guns and I'll overlook this incident, or you can die right here. It's your choice.”
David smirked, even though he was starting to feel quite conspicuous standing in the middle of the docking bay with guns pointed every which way. He thought it was somewhat odd that he had time to notice the passers-by studiously ignoring the exchange as he prepared to roll the dice and die in a blaze of glory.
“Well, as I see it, you shoot me, and you've got a whole different set of problems.”
“Oh?” Krag said. “I think Leo here is the only one who will miss you, and he'll be joining you.”
Taking a deep breath, David set the hook. “You're right.” He dropped his gun, and re-holstered it. He felt the confusion from behind him as Leo debated whether to lower his own guns. David ignored him and focused all of his attention on Krag. “But it's not those that will miss me that you have to worry about. How do you think it is going to look for you when word gets around that you went back on a deal you made with one of your men? That you denied him the prize that you promised him?”
Looking to the thugs pointing guns at him, he went on. “It looks to me like Krag the Bloody can't be trusted to uphold his end of the bargain. How is that gonna look to all of the 'respectable' businessmen you deal with?” David could see the realization beginning to click in Krag's mind.
“It was part of the deal that you not spread the word of what we agreed,” Krag said through gritted teeth.
“Good for me that I did,” David said, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. If I'm caught in this lie, it's all over. “If I hadn't, I wouldn't have anything to bargain with, now would I? You give me the ship I was promised, and your reputation stays intact. You shoot me, and things will get mighty tough for you.”
He could see the wheels turning in Krag's eyes, and he waited.
“You wouldn't dare have risked our deal by telling someone,” Krag said.
“Shoot me, and you'll find out just how wrong you are.”
Seconds passed, and David concentrated on breathing evenly. He couldn't help his hand from straying to his sidearm, ready to pull and fire if his ruse failed. He wouldn't survive it, but at least he'd get a shot at taking Krag out first.
Krag raised his arms again. “All right boys. Put 'em down. You win, David. Your ship is waiting for you.” He stepped forward and handed David a file. As the file switched hands, Krag leaned forward, “Good luck. You'll need it.” David noted the fury in Krag's voice and the way he quickly turned and stalked out of the docking bay. He sure isn't going to be making things easy for me any time soon.
“Now we need to go tell people,” David said to Leo as they watched Krag's lackeys leave the bay.
“I'm surprised he didn't shoot you,” Leo said as David opened the file and gave it a cursory glance to make sure all of the essential paperwork was there.
“Of course he wouldn't shoot me. He wouldn't want to soil his reputation for being 'trustworthy'.”
“Everyone knows he's a lying backstabber,” Leo said slowly.
“He doesn't know that, does he?” David said with a smirk as he led Leo towards Bay 4, and his shot at freedom.
“What's a pretty lady like you doing looking for work as a gunhand?” David inquired as he made no attempts to hide his blatantly appreciative glances at the woman's athletic figure. The woman shyly standing in front of him had long, mousy brown hair, and her small nose and thin-chin gave her the appearance of a school-teacher instead of the mercenary she was trying to be. She wore a simple, black bodysuit that showed off her figure very well, and she had a small pistol holstered at her hip. She carried a case that obviously held a rifle of some kind, possibly a sniper rifle, and a small sling-bag hung from her shoulder.
“C-Casey. My name is Casey,” she said quietly, darting a glance up into David's face. Something in his eyes reassured her, and she confidently went on. “There aren't many places where a woman like me can be treated decently.”
David chuckled a little, “And boy are you looking in the wrong place!” He gestured to the cantina around them, and the pirates and mercenaries that infested the place. “This place ain't exactly swimming in gentlemen. Doom's alright, if you can get work from him, but the further from him you get, to the point where you're takin' jobs in a dump like this, the less likely you are to find any decency. I'm surprised a doll like you ain't dead in an alley somewhere... or worse.” After a moment's thought, he shook his head and returned his gaze to Casey. “Look, girl, I'll tell you what. I'll give you half a share until you prove yourself. After this little jump into Protoss space, I might give you a full share if you prove yourself. Other than that, you got protection and food as long as you find a way to make yourself useful. Deal?”
Casey peered into David's eyes for what seemed to him to be an almost unbearably long time. Damn, is she a beaut! he thought to himself before shaking the his head. He extended his right hand across the table, “What do you say?”
“Deal,” she said after another moments pause and took his hand. She said it with a note of finality and determination that he had to respect her for. I think I'm gonna like this one.
----------------
Half an hour later, Docking Bay 04, Domus
“Hey! Leo!” David yelled as he walked across the bay floor towards the ship, Casey following behind him. “How's the loading going!?”
She looked up at the small ship that towered above her. Without any weapons, it was obviously meant to be nothing but a cargo ship. It strangely reminded her of a bird, and she cocked her head slightly as she studied the old and beaten ship that was now her home. Home, she thought to herself, tasting the word. She knew what it meant, but she had never had the experience. I wonder what it will be like, having a home, she mused.
David was now talking to a large, heavily-muscled man who was pushing a large cart of what looked to be spare parts into the hold of the ship. Three more carts were lined up in front of the first, and the man pushed the entire train, the veins on his arms almost bursting from the strain as he spoke quietly to David. Though his arms looked almost to the bursting point, the man was barely sweating, and his breathing was only slightly heavy.
She felt something behind her, and she turned to notice a make-shift baggage cart being pushed towards the ship by an older man in plain, civilian clothing. As the cart slid by her, she noticed that the cart was laden with mostly by a large case big enough to hold a fully armored marine. She wondered curiously to herself what could be inside, but purged the thought from her mind, as the man stopped and nodded to her.
“Good day, milady,” he began, bowing slightly to her, his kindly eyes and voice instantly making her feel welcome. “I am Dr. Jonathan Rark. You will be traveling with us as well?”
“Casey,” she replied, instinctively dipping in a shallow curtsy. Whatever possessed me to do that? She thought to herself. She had never curtsied before in her life, but this man's gentlemanly behavior somehow made it feel natural.
After a few moments, she realized that she hadn't answered the doctor's question, and she shook the absent-minded look from her eyes. “Yes, I will be traveling on- with you,” she said quietly, looking back up to the small ship. “What is it called?”
“Gambit,” David said proudly as he approached the two of them. “I named her myself. And 'it' is a 'she.' Doctor,” he said, nodding to the older man.
“What do you think?” he asked, looking back to Casey. “Isn't she pretty?”
Casey debated how to answer, and finally settled on the safe answer. “She is.”
“I'll let the doctor show you around. I've got business to see to before we can get under way,” he said as he stepped away from them and strode purposefully into the ship.
-----------------
Twenty-four minutes later, cockpit of Gambit, Domus
“No, Cap'n, don't!” Haley yelled as David flipped a switch and the ship powered to life. She dived for a fire extinguisher as the console in front of Captain exploded in sparks and fire, throwing him out of the chair onto the floor of the bridge. She could hear small explosions happening throughout the ship as she started putting the fires out. She tossed the fire extinguisher to Puck and leapt over the captain, exiting the cockpit and running to the engineering where she frantically put the fires out and began tinkering away. Haley was a tall, pale-skinned, fiery redhead, almost as tall as Leo. She wore a pair of ill-fitting coveralls and a plain white t-shirtcovered in grease and oil stains and her curly hair was pulled back from her face.
David rolled over, “Ugh... Lazarus' scrotem, that hurt!” He slowly got to his feet as the last of the fires were put out by Puck. Jerry “Puck” Pockin was the pilot that he had hired to fly Gambit, and Haley was the mechanic he had hired to repair her. Puck was a stockily-built blonde man in his late-twenties. He could have been a Viking pilot, David thought to himself as he watched Puck sit in the pilot's seat and assess the damage, quickly dismantling the console and pulling out the mess of wires.
“I told you not to,” Puck said, sighing heavily. While he seemed only slightly annoyed at the captain's blunder, David could hear Haley in the engineering room, yelling loudly, and inventing her own swear-words.
“You didn't tell me it would do that,” David petulantly replied. “Besides, you told me all the repairs were- What is it, Leo?” he interrupted himself as his earpiece beeped, letting him know that Leo wanted his attention.
“Cap'n, I got a protoss down here. Says he wants to talk to ya. Shall I send 'im up?”
Giving the obliviously working Puck a scalding glare, David replied, “Yea. Send him up to the cockpit.”
“Aye aye,” Leo said absently and the low beep ended the call.
David turned his attention back to Puck. “You told me all the repairs were done.”
“That I did. I, however, said nothing about this ship being ready for power yet. We still hadn't closed everything up. Now, thanks to your handiwork, we will be stuck here til at least the day after tomorrow.”
“No no no no,” David said, gritting his teeth in frustration. “Even if you have to work through the night, we are leaving tomorrow morning, on schedule.”
“As you wish, Cap'n,” Puck said sardonically as he continued separating and cutting wires from the console. “Now. About that-”
-----------------
Twenty minutes after David entered Gambit, Docking Bay 04, Domus
Po'Nath slowly observed each of the ships in the docking bay until he came to a small transport ship tucked in one of the corners. As his mind swept over the ship, he tilted his head, noting the unusual presence that resided in the ship. Barely psionic, and somehow familiar, yet completely foreign at the same time.
Interesting, he thought to himself as he glided over to where the monstrous man who thought of himself as 'Leo' pushed a train of carts into the ship. Po'Nath knew immediately that this was not the captain, but he approached him anyway.
{Excuse me, Leo-} he began. The human straightened, looking around. His eyes finally settled on the protoss.
“I'd keep yer grubby-” he began.
Po'Nath deciphered the thoughts faster than the human could speak the words. {I meant no offense. I simply assumed that since the thoughts were unguarded, that you wished others to know them. I am Po'Nath. I am looking for Captain David Kanaro. I have an offer for him.}
Leo looked taken aback for a moment, but then he raised a hand to his ear, and Po'Nath waited patiently.
“Cap'n, I got a protoss down here. Says he wants to talk to ya. Shall I send 'im up?”
Even before Leo was finished speaking, Po'Nath knew the answer and slowly starting to glide into the ship. Leo followed him with his eyes, but didn't say anything to stop him.
As he glided through the ships corriders, he tasted the minds of the other crew members. The human calling herself 'Haley' was an amusing specimen. So full of energy and misplaced rage. But very talented. Just the cursory glance he received made him quite confident in her abilities.
Then there was the Doctor. So much useless knowledge in that one. He will prove very useful.
Puck he dismissed with barely a thought. A savant pilot, there was little remarkable about him aside from the company he kept.
And finally David. A noble man. He tried very hard to appear the hardened criminal that could survive in the harsh world of piracy, but one cannot hide from oneself. At least not when seen from without, as Po'Nath now viewed him. He will make a fine captain, Po'Nath though. For a human.
He immediately chastised himself for the prejudiced thought. Give them a chance before you condemn them to inferioriy.
As he neared the cockpit, Po'Nath once again began paying close attention to his surroundings, but he still kept his mind aware of that one other presence on the ship. Casey.
He focused on the conversation in front of him, and kept his monitoring of the foreign presence in the back of his mind.
“-cargo is loaded up and Leo is putting away all of the supplies. We will be fully stocked by lights-out,” Puck was telling the captain.
Po'Nath studied the captain. He was of average height for a human, and was athletically built. He was wearing very functional cargo pants of a heavy fabric. He wore a tight black sleeveless shirt with a brown leather vest over it left open. His fingers poked out of black, fingerless gloves and heavy black boots were on his feet. The sidearm strapped to David's thigh seemed to be a part of his clothing, and didn't hinder him in the slightest. It belonged there.
David noticed Po'Nath approaching the cockpit and straightened from where he leaned over Puck in the pilot's seat. David's dark brown eyes and short brown hair made him look younger than his years, thirty-four. His brow gave him a constantly serious look, even when he smiled, which he did with his eyes as well as he greeted Po'Nath.
“You must be the protoss that Leo mentioned,” he said as he approached Po'Nath.
{I am Po'Nath. I come-} he began, but was cut off by David raising a hand.
“Stay out of my head,” he said. “If you're gonna speak, speak plain. None of that protoss 'mind stuff'.”
Po'Nath stared blankly at David for a few long moments. David stared back, waiting for him to go on. After a good fifteen seconds, he started to shift uncomfortably under the high templar's stare.
“Cap'n,” the pilot spoke up from where he was still re-wiring the console. “He's a protoss. They don't have mouths.”
The captain looked back at Puck, and then at the protoss. Po'Nath still watched him impassively. “Oh. Well then, you can do your 'mind stuff',” he said slowly. “But no funny business.”
{Of course not, captain.} Po'Nath said. {I am Po'Nath. I come to offer you an opportunity.}
David blinked. “What kind of opportunity?”
{As you may or may not know, a small number of protoss refugees are currently residing here since Executor Erana's prison ship was attacked. They-}
“Wait! Executor Erana was killed?” David asked incredulously.
{They wish passage back to their own territory.}
“No! Go back. Who attacked Executor Erana's prison ship? Is she dead?” David asked, and Puck had stopped working, turning in his chair to watch the high templar.
{That is irrelevant to the task at hand. The refugees wish passage back to their own territory.}
David scratched his head. “I don't know whether I want to be getting involved with any protoss if Executor Erana is involved. I aim to keep my head, not lose it because some up-start can't see I'm a civilian.
{It is, of course, your decision. I merely wished to inform you of the opportunity.} Po'Nath said, bowing his head in deference.
“What are they paying?” David said.
{That is between you and the Imperium when you arrive in Sendiris.} he answered calmly.
“Interesting,” David said. “And these are passengers, not prisoners?”
{Passengers,} Po'Nath replied. {And I would like to offer my services to you and your crew.}
David blinked again. “You want to what?”
{I wish to travel with you after the other passengers are dropped in Sendiris.} he said levelly. {I have no interest in returning to the Imperium at this point, and there is much to see in a vessel such as this.}
The human watched Po'Nath for a few seconds, and he could sense the thoughts rapidly firing through the captain's mind. He is debating whether or not he can trust me. A fair question.
“Set it up,” David finally said, and Po'Nath nodded.
SoA:
-Casey Yaff is introduced and hired as gunhand on Gambit
-Dr. Jonathan Rark is introduced, having paid his way with David to be taken into protoss space so he could study the aliens.
-Repairs are delayed by an idiot captain and Haley Morgan and Puck are introduced.
-Po'Nath offers Captain Kanaro an opportunity to help the Imperium by transporting the 18 protoss refugees back to Sendiris. Mission accepted, payment to be discussed on delivery of the refugees. Po'Nath also offers his services to David and is hired on as another member of the crew. The whole crew is now assembled. (Avengers! Assemble! XD)
-Gambit disembarks from Domus after supplying and repairing itself, delayed by 1 post because of last minute repairs. (4 * 12)/7 = 6.85 (rounded to 7) +1 (idiot captain XD) = 8 posts until arrival in Sendiris
Softly and silently Murkag drifted into the system. Dagganoth sent out a burst of thoughts and immediately directed the being towards one of the three planets. This mission was a seemingly unimportant one to whoever was at the helm, Dagganoth mused. The pirates could've sent a stronger force of their own if this system was regarded dangerous. It must seem at least mostly harmless to whoever wanted this system scouted. Dagganoth knew better: he realized the Dvergar system is where the derelict Fenguar brood was rumored to be. Even though he had never met the substitute-cerebrate Orloth personally, he had heard tales of his cunning.
Dagganoth knew his position, though. A Brood broken so loose from the Swarm was unlikely to attack any passing Zerg vessel without reason and would likely attempt to avoid detection altogether. And even if the Fenguar were here and did decide to attack, Dagganoth knew that Kenny was his key. Kenny could not be killed or kidnapped without the perpetrator arousing the pirates' suspicion and anger, and he would be quick to point this out if needed.
That's when he felt the presence. There were Zerg lifeforms on the planet he was nearing. They seemed... masked, or dormant - Dagganoth couldn't quite place it. Assured by Kenny's presence, though, he ordered Murkag closer.
And then he felt it. As Murkag closed in on the planet, the lifeforms lost their seemingly dormant shroud and a wild cloud of Zerg patterns and thoughts became apparent. A seemingly infested battlecruiser sped towards him from behind the planet's nearby moon, as Dagganoth spotted several flyers coming out of seemingly nowhere to patrol the area. Dagganoth realized he had sprung a carefully set trap, but was still assured by Kenny's presence. He patiently waited for something to happen when a psionic voice entered his head.
{I do not know which cerebrate you are, but it would seem a good idea for you to comply with my requests right now... Land.}
Dagganoth did not respond and ordered Murkag towards the planet's surface. Though some kind of 'worry' was present in his mind, curiosity played a larger role...
SoA
-Dagganoth arrives in the Dvergar system.
-When scouting around for detailed Zerg activity, he is ambushed by Fenguar forces and forced to land on Dalar.
Dras Lana
A flicker in the emptiness of space was all that heralded Ferrogs exit from Warp Space, as the Swarm Lord continued on towards Apoca, Runa found her thoughts drifting back to her last visit.
********************************************************************************************************
Apoca, Outpost 51 1657 hours , main Zerg invasion, several year ago
********************************************************************************************************
Sargent Thomas Harrison slowly walked down the darkened maintenance corridor, he was certain that he had seen something on the security monitor, something that just didn’t fit, he looked around at the rusty pipes that were leaking in more than a few places, the dripping sound only added to the sense of dread that was slowly building in the back of his mind, in fact nearly all of the hairs on his neck was standing straight out from his neck.
As he neared the small shaft going down into the reactor of the Command Centre he noticed that the hatch was open, not a good sign, he drew out his side arm, nothing more than a peashooter when compared to the gauss rifle he could have wielded had it been enough space to wear a Marine Suit inside the maintenance corridor.
He got down on one knee and peered down into the gloom of the reactor room before he carefully started to climb down the ladder, halfway down he heard a clanking noise, followed by what sounded like someone suppressing a frustrated scream.
He removed the safety of his gun and crept closer to the area where the sound had come from, he rounded the corner and prepared to fire.
“ Sarge lower your weapon!”
Thomas lowered his gun and peered towards the person in front of him.
“Davis, is that you?”
“Yes, Sir, it is Davis, Sir!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Thought I saw something on the security monitor when I came to check on you, with you gone and all I decided to check it out”
Thomas lowered his gun, relieved at the news, sure Davis’ voice was a little off, and he somehow seemed a bit out of focus, but then again, it was hot in the room and his own voice had cracked some same as Davis’ and the damp made it hard to see clearly.
“So did you find anything?”
“Nothing to report, Sir”
“Very well, let’s go”
Thomas secured his gun and holstered it, then turned and started walking towards the main exit as his comm. Unit lit up signaling that someone wanted a talk with him.
“This is Sgt. Thomas”
“Hey Sarge, me, Bill and Davis were talking here and we’re wondering if your game for that round of poker tonight or if you’re not stuck on night duty”
“Sure thing Olsen I... wait Davis?”
“What about him, Sarge?”
“Where are the three of you now?”
“Mass Hall, it’s Pizza Day today, you know I never miss out on Pizza Day!”
“I see...”
Sgt. Thomas knew his death was upon him as he slowly turned around and looked at Davis or what had moments before seemed to be Davis, but now was a lithe figure dressed in what seemed like a skintight suit made of Zerg Carapace and seemingly wielded a pair of Tekagi-shuko, a cynical smile was on her lips, clearly amused by his shocked expression, a pair of olive green snake-like eyes looked back at him.
“Are you done talking, Dude? I don’t have all day and I really need to overload this reactor to cause some havoc.
“Olsen?”
“Yeah Sarge what is it?”
“Send a response team into the R- GLARGH!”
“Sarge? Sargent? Common answer me, dammit! SARGE!”
Runa calmly crushed the device and placed the last charge on the reactor.
“Ok boys, only a little more and I’m done”
On Runas’ order the main host of Shuuls forces was thrown into the combat that was raging above to cover Runas’ retreat out of the base.
She calmly activated her chameleonic abilities and disappeared from view and as the proximity alarm went off she sneaked out behind a group of Marines heading for the bunkers outside, only to break up from them in order to follow a poor sap that had forgotten his gun in one of the Medivacs a quick detour to get round a few turrets and she was inside a Medivac and heading out with a squad of Marines to flank the Zerg, by the time the Medivac reached the Zerg lines, however, Runa was the only living individual on board.
Runa calmly disembarked the Medivac about ten miles away from the outpost.
“I trrrusssst that the missssion wahss successful?”
Asked one of the two Overlords that waited for her in the small crater where she had landed, all around them the rest of the Magma Brood was moving out in order to join the Gracken brood on the front lines, this world would be theirs soon enough.
Runa pulled out a box of cigars she had pilfered, then lit one on the remains of the another Medevac that had carried evacuees from the base, but had been shot down by pretty much everything that the Zerg had to offer in the form of anti-air, Runa took a deep breath of the cigar and gave a wide and somewhat devilish grin as the sky behind her turned white.
“Destroyed the coolant lines, that flash was the reactor going critical, I will give you a full report upon my return to home, but seriously Boss, it’s me were talking about, have a little faith, would ya?”
She said as she entered the Overlord that was waiting to take her back into Orbit.
“OK time to head back to home, Dude, no doubt the Boss will want a full report of it all” she said as soon as she entered Ferrog, her personal Swarm Lord.
As Ferrog slowly turned about and prepared to leave the system Runa looked down at the planet, all across it Zerg spores were raining down as the other Zerg forces started their main assault of the planet itself, all around them the fighting grew ever more feverish as well, as the defenders fought back with all their might, but Runa knew that it was inevitable and the might of the Zerg would overcome them soon enough.
***********************************************************************************************************
A sudden jarring motion awoke Runa from her sleep inside Ferrog, she sat up and looked around slightly disoriented, with a sigh she stretched her arms and scratched her cheek, more out of old habit then anything as her carapace dulled the sensation somewhat.
“Status report”
“We are in Orbit over Apoca, I had to take a detour to avoid a patrol, but I don’t think they realized I was there, they seemed.... preoccupied with something”
“If they are on a heightened alert it would be bad if you were found, prep an infiltration pod then get out of the system, I’ll call you when I am ready to be extracted”
“As you wish, Mistress”
As Runa entered the Pod and it sealed around her then filled itself with a shock dampening liquid.
“Prepare for launch, Mistress”
The pod shook violently and then Runa was suddenly pressed towards the back of it, if it wasn’t for the liquid she would have most likely been crushed, but it absorbed so much of the force that only a few moments later she could press herself away from the wall.
The pod started to shake again and took on an orange hue as it entered the atmosphere; luckily the shock absorbing liquid also prevented Runa from being burned to a crisp as the pod tumbled towards the surface.
The pod hit the ground with a tremendous impact, creating a deep crater and rupturing the top of the pod, allowing Runa to crawl out, and after a few coughs she had cleared her lungs of the liquid.
“Good thing I no longer need to breathe”
Working quickly she started grabbed one of several dimly green orbs that grew on her arm and pulled, it came loose with a small pop and started to glow dimly in a bright green coloration, she threw the orb inside the pod and three more followed in quick succession.
Climbing out of the crater she activated her camouflage, and removed herself from the vicinity of the pod, just a few moments later the entire crater nearly doubled in size as Runa detonated the orbs with just a thought, incinerating the pod and evaporating the liquid in just a few seconds, no evidence of her arrival would be left come sunrise.
SOA: planned to go a bit further but this seemed like the perfect place to cut it.
Runa arrives in Dras Lana and lands on Apoca, a bit of back story, and that’s it.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
This should have been posted a week ago, unfortunetly that's not the case when RL desides to be an- well yeah, you get the point.
Think I might have forgotten to add my disembarking in my last post, if that’s the case I‘m sorry.
Aboard a Terran transport ship approaching Barkanos, Davir system, roughly 7 years ago from recent events
Everyone was talking. Jeremy Bender looked around. To his left, a scrawny man was standing to talk to a seated man with a large moustache, even though the pilot had just called in the landing and had requested everyone to sit down. Opposing him were two men and a girl, seemingly discussing biology or such as they sat down. To his right were two beefy men in army shirts - clients for the defense department, Jeremy thought to himself.
Though he was apparently in the company of scientists, marines and what he thought to be excavators of some sorts, Jeremy didn't belong in any of those categories. So far, everything about his life had been average. He had led an average life as a member of the Aranov Consectorate, did average in his education, had an average connection with his parents and worked some average jobs, never doing something special. When he caught wind of a ship moving to supply a small colony he had quickly signed up. The deal right now was that he'd be shipped to the colony and that they'd find some work for him there.
Jeremy had never been a particularly interesting individual, though he had always been regarded as unexpectedly brave by his friends and colleagues. He figured that this was mostly because he was generally a somewhat quiet type, really only talking when replying to others. He had a strong sense of justice, which is what caused him to jump out in the defense of people and speak out when something interesting did finally happen.
As the transport ship entered orbit, Jeremy looked out of the window. What he saw filled him with a sense of hope. The planet looked wildly green with a large ocean taking up at least half of this side of the planet that he could see. The planet looked quite a bit different from his original homeworld of Zagrov, which he remembered as gray looking and filled with buildings when he had left it a couple of days ago. As he observed the planet coming closer and closer through the window, he thought about possible jobs he could be needed for on the planet. Some kind of planetside exploration function seemed nice to him, where he'd be able to uncover new areas and map them out. Or maybe even an excavator, working on gathering raw materials to build up the small colony. Then again, he'd probably have to work with the two guys to his left, and he didn't really like them based on what he had seen and heard from them.
As soon as the actual landing commenced, Jeremy saw the transport ship blowing off a lot of steam through the window as he heard a lot of metalic clanking noises. The iconic four deep blunt "BAM"s resonated throughout the ship as it came to a complete standstill. It looks like they had landed. Jeremy unfastened his safety belt and got up, as did his companions. In fairly good spirits, he walked towards the passenger bay's door as it started opening. Thinking about the possibilities this planet opened up for him, Jeremy grinned slightly as he walked out of the transport ship and the harsh sun blinded his eyes...
SoA
-Flavour story, fleshing out Jeremy through his original arrival to the mind controlled colony on Barkanos.
Dagganoth decided it was time. He had had Adam contact Waiter one more time to get the final details on the Protoss transfer and now knew it was leaving from the Vetras system in 36 hours. Since his Leviathans were a lot slower than the transfer was bound to be, his Nirogg forces had to start moving early to catch the convoy halfway through their journey. He had told Waiter of his plan and suggested he'd move their forces in a roughly similar position in order for their advance.
He gave the order.
Halfway between the Ilyr and Vetras systems, roughly 52 hours later
As soon as Dagganoth sensed the ships, he noticed they were preparing arms. It was at that point that Dagganoth knew his plan had worked. The Protoss ships did exactly as he expected; they had not yet scouted the Spores yet and were planning on fighting a four against three battle against Murkag and the two Nirogg Leviathans. With another concentrated burst of thought Dagganoth put the spores into motion. As the four Protoss ships drew closer to the Leviathans the Spores came into their scanner range. By this point it was already too late, however. The Leviathans spewed forth a host of Mutalisks and other airspawns as Murkag fell back. As the clash broke loose, the two spores rapidly closed in on the two outermost Protoss ships, which had yet to get close enough to the Leviathans to use their weapons...
SoA
-Dagganoth has received precise information regarding the Protoss transfer from Waiter and the Nirogg fleet he commands started moving directly for the Khasan system, his aim being to intercept the transfer halfway along the route. The wedge formation stays intact.
-Dagganoth has told Waiter to advance towards the same location.
-The Nirogg forces meet the Protoss convoy head on and engage in combat.
Apoca – Night side, roughly 20 minutes after Runa’s landing
The Medivac slowly touched down at the edge of the crater, green flames were still burning strongly from it and the entire area was lit by an eerie green light, as well as bathed in a green foul smelling fog of vaporized acid, creating a rather nerve wrecking scene.
As the loading doors of the Medivac opened a quartet of Marines slowly walked out, combat visors down and air tanks running.
“Wut da ‘ell could’ve made this?”
The leading Marine walked over to the blaze in the crater and set his scanners to work.
“Looks like another dormant cocoon that fell from orbit, scans show traces of Baneling acid, buggers most likely ruptured on impact”
“You sound a little choked up, Corporal? Is something wrong?”
“Not much, just some bad memories from the war”
The Marine tunes his radio to private chat.
“Psst, Matthew, you know what the Corporal means?”
“Yeah I do, but I’m not telling”
“Common man!”
“No”
“I’ll call it even on those 200 Credits you owe me”
”Fine, just don’t tell him I told you”
“I won’t”
Matthew sighed deeply.
“Corporal Olsen are one of a very few survivors of Outpost 51”
“Shit, there were survivors in that damned hell hole?”
“Five in total, the lucky bastards had been inside one of two Medivacs sent out to flank them Zerg, the explosion sent ‘em flying out of the combat zone, took ‘em ‘bout a week to get back to civilization.”
“What happened to the other Medivac?”
“That’s the freaky part, no one knows, it just went off the grid, no maydays or anything”
“Freaky alright, you think that-“
“Hey! Can it you two, got a job to do now that the fires have started to die out”
The collective groaning from the three other Marines was quickly stamped out as they grabbed containment box and shovels.
“Man, this is worse than shit patrol!”
“I said: can it!”
“Sir, Yes, Sir!”
Meanwhile, Runa quietly closed in on the Medivac and waited; it took the Marines a good half an hour to finish cleaning up the waste from the pod and store it in containment boxes, and as soon as they were done and the Medivac was about to lift of, Runa set her claws into the hull, latching on the underbelly of the Medivac.
“Sheesh, Sally be a bit more careful”
“Not my doing Corporal, felt as something hit the hull, whatever it was is gone now though, as the sensors show nothing”
“Bah, we don’t have time for this, gotta get this stuff dealt with ASAP, let’s move!”
The Medivac quickly started off against New Tremlin, with more cargo then even the occupants was aware of.
New Tremlin
About twenty minutes later Runa dropped from the medevac and onto the roof of a rather tall building on the edge of town.
Quickly making her way down the fire escape she looked around at the dark streets
“Same ol’ Tremlin alright... done wonders recrating the stench of pollution, well since the towns unchanged, that should mean HE is still in business too...”
Runa wasted no time heading towards the older parts of town, where most of the stuff that was no longer being used was stored in large old and somewhat abandoned warehouses.
Walking down several alleys and past ramshackle buildings she noticed a few new additions here and there as well as several new build sites that was replacing some of the most ramshackle warehouses.
“Hey there girly, are ya lost?”
Runa looked towards the owner of the voice, a burly man who had three other fellows with him, then decided to simply ignore him, only to be stopped as he grabbed her arm.
“Oy girly, where do you think you’re going?”
He said, smiling lasciviously at her.
Runa broke his hold, kicked him in the groin, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him of the ground all in the span of about half a second, only then did she notice the four leaf clover pin in his neck collar.
“Dimitri, where is he?”
The lascivious grin that had been on his face was replaced with no small amount of fear.
“I-I don’t know what yer talking about girly!”
“Lie to me again and I will take the answer from you brain”
As if to demonstrate the point a piece of metal slowly rose from the ground and hovered ominously in front of the man’s eye.
“Rat’s Nest, he’s at the Rat’s Nest!”
Runa unceremoniously dropped him on the ground and started to leave without giving him another look. As she left the man sat up, chough.
“What are you waiting for, call the Boss!”
“This is Demitri, you better have a good reason for disturbing me”
“Boss, its Gonzales, some fancy broads heading you way, looks like trouble”
“Describe her”
“Black hair, scarlet green eyes, y shaped scar on her right eye and cheek, insane strength, bad attitude, body to die for”
“I see... you’re dismissed”
“Boss?”
“She is a valued customer, and you’re lucky you got away with just a beating, the Siege Breaker are not known for being gentle after all”
Gonzales just nodded and broke the connection, his skin as pale as death itself.
Rat’s Nest five minutes later
The Rat’s Nest was the gambling hall of Dimitri Immanow, a shrewd man whose intellect was only outweighed by his greed and cruelty.
“Keep her away from Dimi- GAAAARH!”
The door into Dimitri’s private poker table, which was nothing more than the side room in an abandoned warehouse, exploded in green flames and putrid smoke.
“You need to tighten up security Dude, your men spilled the beans about your location with so little effort... no fun at all”
Runa stood in the door with a pout on her face, tossing another of her explosive ampules up and down in her hand, the hallway behind her looked like something out of a horror movie, with dead or dying gangsters lying everywhere.
“At least you changed the password, although that meant I had to go through your security staff”
“Ah Runa, my beloved Ice Queen, don’t worry about those things, it can easily be rectified, more importantly what brings you to my establishment?”
“Arken, or more importantly all the information you can give me on it”
Dimitri’s smile vanished instantly.
“Runa, do you realize just how hard, not to mention expensive it would be to just get even a sliver of information about that thing?”
“Dude, seeing as you owe your life to me three times over and owe me a substantial amount of money I don’t see the issue, on top of it all it seems you have forgotten whom you’re addressing”
As if on cue, one of her blades sipped out of her seemingly human arm.
Dimitri swallowed, and then gave a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, FINE you win, I have no wish to experience THAT myself, I saw what you can do way back when, and I have no wish to be on the receiving end, however seeing how little information that’s floating around it will take time”
“How long?”
“At least a week, if not more, now I know it will take time, but I will get you place to stay while you wait”
“You have 5 days, as for accommodations, I can get that myself”
With that Runa left the warehouse, leaving Dimitri to clean up her mess.
SOA: Continuation of the last post.
Runa arrives in the city of New Tremlin and makes contact with an old associate known as Dimitri and gives him a 5 day time limit to cough up some info for her.
Space battle site between Ilyr and Vetras
Two huge explosions took place rapidly after another. Anyone who was in the position to see and wasn't fighting Zerg looked around to see what had happened. The two outermost Protoss ships had attempted to perform a flanking maneuvre on the two Nirogg Leviathans fighting their allies. In doing so, they had run straight into the two Spores that were coming for them. Both of them seemed to be dead in the water with massive damage all-over; one ship was missing its entire top deck while the other had been hit in the side, and debris was floating out slowly. As Zerg units began to make their way into the affected ships, the Spores started to slowly regather their cells and shape into the ever so feared cannons.
Dagganoth sent through another burst of thoughts and the Mutalisk turned. An exlosion suddenly took place just where the Mutalisk had flown a second earlier. It was a good thing he was keeping track of his own forces. The Leviathans were now in direct combat with the two damaged Protoss ships and the battle was most intense in that area, with Mutalisks and Protoss Scouts visible all over the place. Murkag was skirting around the edges of the battle, intercepting Protoss escape pods and serving as a base for Zerg Mutalisks both coming and going to harass the Protoss flagships and haul in any other living Protoss that may have somehow survived the warfare the Leviathans were facing. The two undamaged Protoss ships had actually fallen back a bit and seemed to be helping their brethren from a distance, with their fleets.
As the new ships arrived, Dagganoth quickly considered a few options. He would start with the first part of his little plan here. He directed a large taskforce of Mutalisks towards the new forces to keep them at bay, as well as a host of the army of a Leviathan. Immediately, just as he expected, he heard Zemreh's voice inside his head. {Nnnnoooooo! Focus on the main shipssss! One of them sseemss to hold her! Get them away from the two shipss fighting the Leviathanss!}. Dagganoth figured he had been succesful in his aim and directed all forces back to the two main ships. With another quick round of thoughts he set the second part of his plan into motion as he sent a decently sized host of Mutalisk forces towards the docking bay of the rightmost ship, where some of the new forces seemed to have just docked.
{Waiter. You have Nirogg Mutalisks incoming in your docking bay, from the right side. Aim stalker lasers for their mouths, that should shut them down}.
Dagganoth thought to himself that so far, everything was going rather well. The battle had barely started and he was already stocking up on Protoss survivors, Waiter and his forces had made their way in, and he had succesfully tricked Zemreh even further into thinking he was opposed to the newly appeared forces. As he fired off more thoughts, several Devourers left the Nirogg Leviathans and got into position...
SoA
-The battle continues.
-Murkag starts filling up on Protoss refugees.
-Dagganoth tricks Zemreh by acting like he wants to send units at the newly arrived Protoss and ends up sending a host of Nirogg Mutalisks towards the docking bay Waiters forces are in, but not before informing Waiter exactly about what's coming.
Space battle site between Ilyr and Vetras
Erana's Prison Ship
"{Waiting is the most annoying thing in this entire galaxis.}", Opheilm roams in the port where the infiltration team landed. Sometimes he goes to one of the Imperial ships, which are already destroyed by them, and seaching he wrecks for some useful parts.
"{Patience is a useful gift, which can win an already lost battle.}", Kelanin responds in his wise way. He, Opheilm, some dark templar and stalker are ordered to cleanse the bay and protect their solely escape route.
"{Your words are the same as my old mentor. Even he belongs to the Imperium he's still a templar.}"
"{And a part of your past. Denying your own past will lead you to suffering.}"
"{Fighting is a most aggressive way to protect, he said. I finally know what he truly meant with it. Even staying here with you is a form of fighting and protection.}"
"{But that isn't the only thing we can do.}" Kelanin stares outwards to the ongoing battle, while the imperial ship firing at the zerg and the order's ships.
"{We can turn off the canons or even the whole energy of this ship. There are five six reactors on this ship. Four for the engines and two for the interior electricity. But after the seperation the Imperium changed the way of build a little bit. The reactors are still on the same position as before, but they aren't for the same needs.}"
"{That means we have to find out which reactor belongs to the weapons.}"
"{If we hit the wrong they will reinforce the other reactors. But at the first we shouldn't get many resistance. They are too focused at Erana and the other team.}"
"{My zealots and stalkers will defend the ship. Our dark templar will accompany us.}"
"{Let's do this.}"
After a short briefing with the rest of the troops, the new formed sabotage group starts to run down various corridors. Sometimes a zealot group or single stalkers patrol their ways but no one take notice of them.
"{Do you hear it?}", asked Opheilm while looking behind a corner to check if nobody is near.
"{Only metal.}"
"{This corridor down are zerg. 4 zerglings. And they are fighting with some protoss. Difficult to say how much they are. Forcefields are disturbing my senses.}"
"{Do you know whether there could be a reactor?}"
"{Possible. But not quite sure.}"
"{Hey, Opheilm?}"
"{Something missing?}", he asked without turning to him.
"{We have some company.}"
SOA:
- Tired of waiting, Kelanin and Opheilm are decided to sabotage a reactor of the prison ship.
- They left the zealots and stalkers nearby the ship and left with solely the dark templar.
- While searching for the reactors, they run into something.
Imperial Flagship Envoy, Bridge
Fools! Damn fools!
What were they thinking, flying into the trap like that? Khalos clenched his fists in frustration. Executor Sevethrun's words were still fresh in his mind: "I shall purge this infestation". Purge! As if this were some kind of purification mission! The trap had been obvious. The zerg had been waiting for them. They had known about the convoy. Not even a civilian would have mistaken the ambush as a chance encounter. It was a trap, a trap that had been sprung all too easily.
Khalos had refused to follow the Executor in his blind charge against the enemy. He was familiar with the zerg's tactics and even more familiar with the Executor's flaws. He had foreseen the spores, had kept his ship back and had urged the other commanders to do the same. But they hadn't listened to him. It had taken the impact of a zerg spore to stop Sevethrun's accusations of treason and force him to concentrate on the battle instead.
Now, the Imperial forces were in disarray. The Niflheim and the Augur had been hit by spores and were fighting a desperate battle against the zerg, both in space and inside the ships themselves. Flocks of zerg flyers were ravaging the ill prepared and outnumbered Imperium ships, destroying them with ruthless efficiency. The zerg were no doubt scouring the insides of the ships, searching for Erana and killing any protoss that got in their way.
Meanwhile, Khalos surveyed the battle from afar, keeping his own ship, the Envoy, out of zerg range. He could already see several protoss escape pods launch themselves away from the compromised ships. He briefly considered rescuing them but dismissed the idea. He had a battle to fight.
"{Praetor, we are detecting foreign warp-ins,}" Naxxar, his second-in-command informed him.
"{More zerg?}" Khalos asked, surprised.
"{No, praetor. These are protoss vessels.}"
"{What? Display them.}"
The screen in front of Khalos shifted from the main battlefield to show the new arrivals. Four ships. Two of which were colored a dark green. One of which Khalos knew all too well.
"{The Order,}" Khalos declared. There was no reply. The ship was silent, awaiting his orders. He mentally ordered the AI to bring up a map of the battlefield. It did so, showing the four new ships, spread out behind the Imperial convoy and away from the battle. Even as Khalos assessed the situation, the Order's flagships launched a large detachment of smaller vessels. The ships flew right past the Envoy, ignoring it completely. They made short work of a pathetic group of Imperium fighters sent to stop them and made right for the Augur. As if they knew where Erana was.
Khalos' eyes narrowed as they darted back and forth across the screen, assessing the situation. The Order was clearly staying away from the zerg and it looked like it was avoiding conflict in general. It was planning on grabbing Erana and getting out as quickly as possible. And if the zerg were on the same ship...
"{Prepare the ship for maneuvering. I want us circling the battlefield, away from the Order, not charging into it. Deploy all our phoenixes, scouts and observers,}" he ordered and immediately saw the ship turn on the map. The fleet of fighters it stored was released and assembled in a defensive formation around the ship.
"{Prepare all weapons.}"
"{Our target, praetor?}"
Khalos hesitated. He knew that what he was about to do was risky and dangerous, even treacherous. But he also knew that he could not allow Erana to fall into enemy hands and that the convoy stood little chance against the combined assault of the rebels and the zerg.
"{Target the Augur. All fighter vessels are to make for the Augur and fire at it in the absence of enemy flyers.}" His order was met with a stunned silence.
"{T-the Augur, praetor? Surely, you me-}"
"{Yes, the Augur. A-u-g-u-r. You understood correctly,}" he said, irritated. Nothing happened. He sighed inwardly.
"{Both the zerg and the rebels are obviously here to capture Erana. At this rate, that will almost certainly happen. We cannot allow it. The Augur is already badly damaged. If we threaten to destroy it along with Erana, the enemy will be forced to call off their assault or lose their prize.}"
"{And if they do not? What if they simply try to secure the prisoner as quickly as possible? What if they think our threat a bluff?}"
There was a pause, a moment of silence. All eyes rested on Khalos.
"{Then a dead Erana is better than a captured one,}" he said.
"{But the Executor is on the Augur! If we destroyed it, he would... would...}" Naxxar's sentence was completed by a surge of emotion. Revulsion, fear.
"{I will face the consequences of such an act, not you Naxxar. But it is you who will be punished if you disobey me or hesitate one more time. It has been a while since I was last forced to cut off a nerve cord. Do you wish to change that?}" Khalos threatened, angered. They were wasting time. There was no retort. He could sense Naxxar's anger receding, replaced by a horde of other emotions, among them fear. He turned around to look at the bridge. It was quiet, once again awaiting his orders.
"{Good,}" he said, satisfied, and turned back to face the screen. It displayed a battlefield little changed since the last time he had last seen it. The zerg forces were pounding on the Augur and Niflheim, repeatedly scattering the meager fleets defending them. The Order had moved closer to the Augur and was flying in a sort of wall formation, the ships switching between a front and back row. If protoss could smile, Khalos would have. This was what he was. A warrior. Years on New Aiur, silent, bored. And now...
"{Now... target the area around the zerg spore and order the fighter craft to do the same. Fire in volleys, wait for my command before firing each volley. Be ready to stop firing at any moment.} This time, the crew scrambled to obey his orders. Screens and crystals lit up, information was exchanged, orders were transmitted. The first volley was fired.
A mix of missiles and particle disruptor fire slammed into the hole of the Augur's hull that had been made by the zerg spore, followed by the Envoy's own barrage of projectiles. The resulting explosion sent hundreds of pieces of metal and spore flying off into space, some of them colliding with nearby protoss fighters and zerg flyers.
"{Wait,}" Khalos said before the next volley was fired. He watched for movement, a reaction from the zerg. Nothing came.
"{Fire,}" he ordered. Again, the Augur was hit, releasing volumes of debris and gas into space. The ship shook visibly and violently. Nearby flyers were knocked away by the plume of debris, some of them destroyed on the spot. This time, however, the zerg responded. The two leviathans that had been fighting the Augur and Niflheim stopped attacking and made directly for the Envoy, leaving behind only half of their forces to deal with the two damaged ships.
"{Stop firing and recall half our fighters. I want them around the ship, bubble formation. The rest are to engage the zerg flyers around the Augur. Order the troop carrier to deploy its own phoenixes and follow us away from the leviathans. Prioritize evasion and defense. We want to drag the enemy away from the Augur, not engage them. Contact the Imperial forces in Ilyr and request immediate reinforcements.}"
"{Yes, praetor,}" this time, Naxxar's voice had no hint of doubt in it. It was pure loyalty and unquestioning trust. Khalos nodded to himself. It had been far too long.
SoA:
Praetor Khalos' ship (the Envoy) and fleet fire at the Augur (the flagship carrying Erana) and succeed in dragging the Nirogg leviathans away from the ships.
Reinforcements have been called from Ilyr. 2 ICs until arrival. 2 flagships and their cargo.
Space battle site between Ilyr and Vetras
As the dust cleared and the last ships were leaving the region, Murkag was left disturbingly alone, for the time being. Dagganoth had quickly said his 'goodbyes' to Zemreh as the Nirogg forces turned back in order to go home. He wasn't pleased with the fact that Erana had slipped away, but he did not in the slightest blame Dagganoth for the mistake - which was exactly the plan Dagganoth had had. In the meantime, he was pleased to recognize that none of his forces had been severely harmed during the entire encounter, and that different parts of Murkag's body had mutated in order to hold the Protoss prisoners, some of which were now waking up. Those that struggled were instantly grabbed by goo and tendrils shooting out of the walls, though most of them simply sat down too scared to move.
As Dagganoth was preparing to adress them, he noticed another presence. Murkag had been drifting around the battlefield, gathering up what he could scavenge, and he had now reached the ruined leftovers of the Envoy. There was barely any sign of psionic activity, which told Dagganoth that everyone in the area had to be dead. Except for one being. There was just enough activity for Dagganoth to distinguish one single being. As Mutalisks flew out to collect it, Dagganoth looked through their eyes and recognized the body and outfit of a high ranking Protoss official. He thought to himself that this battle couldn't possibly have gone any better for him as his Mutalisks entered Dagganoth through one of his slimy access tendrils.
The Protoss official looked heavily wounded and was carefully deposited into a soft, desinfected room. As tendrils took samples from his body in order to mutate and heal the weary, unconscious Protoss, Murkag turned around and set off towards Domus when Dagganoth finally took the time to adress his prisoners.
"Protoss warriorss. I am Zerg. I realize there iss no way I will be able to make you trust me. You have been brought up and taught to hate my kind, and not without reason. Yet I differ from my brethren. I do not mean you any harm. My forces were not among the ones you fought. We are headed for Domus. Once that destination is reached, all of you who want to leave shall be allowed to do so. In the meantime, I will ssay this: fight, and you will make this trip harder for yourself. Remain calm, and you will remain as comfortable asss I can make it for you. I will talk to you again, but for now I suggest you rest. You fought hard and should heal your wounds and recover your strengths. En Taro Tasssadar, as I believe you ssay."
SoA
-Murkag picks up a heavily wounded Khalos, who is put in a special room to take care of his wounds.
-The other Protoss survivors have been spread out over several smaller rooms, Dagganoth has talked to them in an effort to keep them calm.
-Murkag leaves the battle site and sets off for Domus, 10 ICs until arrival.
Inside Armory of Gnarled Wolf nearing Domus
The gravity of the ship changed, going from normal earth gravity to half that and back again. The ship must have exited light-speed already. Steadying himself at the job at hand Grell continued checking the magnetic accelerator his gun used, making sure it hadn't been damaged after the battle on the Protoss ship. It had taken a bolt of energy from a stalker and needed to be checked over to make sure his gun Did Not explode in his hands.
Looking over the components he found that it was perfectly fine. Letting out a sigh of relief he grabbed the accelerator and slapped it back into his gun, snapping the four holding bolts in place and began to put his gun back together. The door to the room opened, and a quick check confirmed it was Mike. “Hey mate, what did you come down to the armory for?” he asked as he screwed in another piece that held the gun together.
“Well sir I got a transmission from the pirates again, seems they want you to take on another job. You know the pay is gonna be good, yet this one is abit different from the last.” as he finished he sat down and checked the work to see his friend hadn't misplaced or 'forgotten' a screw.
“Lemme guess, they want me to dive into another hell of a mission were I get to put my ass on the line for fame and glory of the world?”
“Not quite. You have heard of the outsiders right? The famous group of people who use old tech and continue to be a pain for the rest of the galaxy.”
“Yea, not only have I heard of them, I had met one before. Usually grusky looking fellows that seem to get on the badside of everyone. Now If it involves them I'm guessing we are hitting one of their fleets right?” He said slapping a fresh clip into the gun and setting it aside.
“Close, we will be hitting their planets, well technically speaking three planets they have just taken over.”
“Sounds like fun, I'm guessing we'll be getting an army for this, am-I-right?”
“The pirates want to negotiate this, I’m thinking they will provide some support, but this also allows us a chance to make deals with other people. You see the three planets there where originally under the control of the Tirion Republic, Magrathean Empire, and the Aranov Consectorate.”
Putting his gun away on the weapon rack he looked at Mike, thinking for a moment. “So your thinking we may be able to get some of those nations to give us support on this?”
“I'm fairly certain we can, and knowing you we will want to start with the Aranov and Tirion support.”
“And why's that Mike?”
“They have tanks sir.”
“You know me to well Mike, Imma handle this on my own, be back in about an hour.” he said putting away the data pad and heading up to the bay doors.
Tunnels of Domus Near Mikes Bar
Grell checked the vest he wore to make sure there where no stains on it and with that, proceeded on his way without Mike for once to the bar. The walk to the bar was a simple one, the few thugs and other shady characters keeping there distance as Grell went past. Coming through the authentic rock entrance leading to the bar, they quickly took a seat next to the Burly pirate sitting there drinking rum. "Doom, I believe you had a proposition for me." Grell said sliding a coin onto the counter, awaiting the usual whisky he had gotten every time he came to this place.
"Got a bit of a situation in Naran. Nice place, y'know, easy to raid and so on. Anyway, the Outsiders just decided to wreck and take over the place. Coalition wants the system taken out
""Retaken." Kenny corrected.
"That's what I said. Anyway, intel says they got six flagships there, wouldn't be surprised if they called for reinforcements if they are attacked. Thing is, Aranov's busy holding Dras Lana in case the Protoss decide to do anything for... Well, the thing we weren't involved in in any way. I'm supposed to be patrollin' around there as well, and we can't really spare many ships either. Got two ships waitin' on ye orders in Ratar, ye'll have to get more support yourself."
“Well sounds easy enough, though I will say I don't seem to think getting the other factions on my side will be easy.” he said grabbing the glass that slid infront of him and taking a swig of it, giving the unknown drink a funny look.
"Go ask the other factions and make them an offer they can't refuse." Doom said emptying the bottle of rum in his hand.
“Got it, Ill stay in contact.” turning to the bartender he looked at him with distaste and then getting up, he left pocketing the coin he had set on the table.
Docking Tube to Gnarled Wolf
No sooner had Grell stepped into the tube connecting the Gnarled Wolf with Domus, then he saw Mike come to meet him. Expecting his friend to be angry at the quick negotiation and info yet he looked pleased. “Alright Grell I got info from Kenny about our mission, the ships provided and even some info on other possibilities for allies to help with this mission.”
“He never spoke a word to me while I was there, glad he sent us the files though, had forgotten all but the most important things.” he said taking out some hastily scribbled notes he had taken on the way back to his ship.
“Sir if I may say so you are a horrible captain.”
“Goods to hear it I was mean to lead people in the heat of battle, not this diplomatic shit. It'll, do for now though. So tell me what you gathered from Kenny and your sources.”
“Well I believe we may be able to strike a deal between us and the original owners of the planets. Im sure they are not to happy about the outsiders coming in and pushing them out of their territory, and even if we are pirates I am positive they will work with us to get them back if we can strike some negotiations with them. I personally know some Tirion higher ups that though weary of pirates are always willing to do whats needed to get ahead, and this will certainly be a prospect they wont want to turn away.
He tapped on his data pad bringing up some more relevant data and continued.”The Aranov faction most likely wont help us for nothing, gonna have to work to get them on our side. The Magratheans have a small amount of fighting forces, but I think alittle persuasion can get them on our side.”
Grell thought it over for a moment, then gave his friend a hug. “I must thank you for doing the hard work for me. I want you to set a course for your Tirion 'friends'. Now I'm going to head to the weight-room, get back to it. Send the data to my pad so I can look it over and remember to pick up your rifle and start practicing, I might need you if 'negotiations' fail.”
“Alright we'll be heading to Fyrd, and Grell, me and you in the ring today.”
Letting out a laugh Grell and his friend entered the ship.
SoA: Grell accepts the mission of taking over the 3 planets from outsider control in the Naran system. There course now is Fyrd to meet with Tirion diplomats wich Mike has an aqaintence with.
Domus
Khalos looked out the window at the Terran transport ship as the others of his race slowly came into motion. Behind the transport ship, off in the distance, was a large asteroid. He knew what was behind it. He turned around and joined his kin in their march. It had been a strange journey - perhaps the strangest he had made so far. After an enormous battle for the life of Erana he had gone from an escape pod to the insides of a Zerg Leviathan, followed it up by traveling in a Terran transport ship and was now situated on a pirate infested city.
Though he still did not fully trust the cerebrate that had called himself Dagganoth, he did seem to be one of a kind. When Khalos and most of his kinsmen awoke they had been filled with fear, rage, or both - the insides of a Zerg organism were never a good place to be for any Protoss. Yet, the cerebrate had calmly introduced himself, healed their wounds and even apologized for his part in the massacre that took place, claiming he had no choice and had attempted to minimize the damage. And not even just that - when arriving at Domus he had asked him and his fellow survivors to stay behind on his ship as a 'spokesman'. Obviously no one had accepted. But he had actually let them go. Whatever madness drove this cerebrate, Khalos was glad he made it out unscathed.
Unscathed. Khalos stared at his arm. A strange contraption of both metal and softly pulsating flesh stared back at him. The cerebrate had even attempted to heal his arm. Though the Zerg bio-matter he had used to create a new arm withered and died, as Khalos could've known, he had somehow managed to use Terran technology from his other 'guests' to mount a soft, steel skeleton on the stump that used to be his arm, and it had Zerg bio-circuitry running through it to grant him control. It felt akward, unlike his normal arm - though the arm performed the general ideas Khalos wanted it to, it seemed to have a bit of a will of its own. If he were to approach a ladder, the engineered arm would automatically grab and hold the bars for him if Khalos intended to go up, but Khalos would not feel or connect with the arm. The Protoss grinned grimly - he, as a living being, was now technically part of all three major races at once.
Back aboard Murkag, Dagganoth's thoughts were racing. Though none of the Protoss survivors ended up being as friendly towards him as he had hoped, one with a specific newfound hatred towards the Imperium had left him a little tip; apparently there was a point in space a bit outside of the Imperium border, close to the Great Wave, that had no obvious active Protoss activity but did have constant supply drops heading there. The Protoss himself hadn't known what it was, but Dagganoth was now thinking about whether it might be interesting to see what was going on there or maybe trade the information. For now however, he decided to remain put to see if the pirates would honour their word in regards to payment.
SoA
-Murkag arrives at Domus and the Terran Transport ship docks there to play spokesman, waiting to receive payment.
-Dagganoth has explained the situation to the Protoss as best he could, treated their wounds and let all of them leave in peace on Domus. Through the use of both Zerg and Terran technology, he has given Khalos a surrogate arm which follows up on Khalos' ideas or intentions but has its own will.
-Though none of the Protoss decide to remain on Murkag (like the Terran crew), one tells Dagganoth about an apparent Imperium point of interest near the Great Wave.
Supercarrier Hawk, Warpspace
The rest of the escape carried the unmistakable air of a spoiled victory. Erana could sense it all too easily. The way the bridge crew avoided looking at her, kept their heads down and looked at nothing but their respective screens. The way Rassyr became silent and seemed to shrink after she told him how Sevethrun had taken away her nerve cords and, with them, her life. Only the terrans seemed happy during the debriefing.
Terrans didn't understand, of course. To them, a lost limb or organ was a physical handicap that was easy to repair. Terran invalids were still terrans: people. It was the same with protoss... unless you were a Khalai who had lost her nerve cords. Then it was completely different.
The nerve cords were a Khalai's connection to the Khala and the Khala was what made a Khalai a Khalai. Without them, a Khalai became insubstantial. Neither Khalai nor Nerazim but something alien, something weaker. An outsider. Repair was impossible: the nerve cords could be restored physically but their function never returned.
That was why Erana had gone from figurehead to something unknown. Protoss had died to save her and yet they hadn't saved her. They had saved someone who used to be her but was now a mere shell, a damaged body. And yet the shell did not behave as expected.
Most Khalai simply took their lives after losing their nerve cords: they no longer considered themselves alive. But Erana was as alive and as sharp as ever. She didn't have the luxury of being able to take her life in prison. Instead, she was forced to live with the silence. And in it, she found solace. In it, she found a new life. And while she still longed for the Khala's warmth, she immersed herself in the freezing depths of the Void. She observed the universe, fascinated by its laws and patterns. She had become tempered, not broken.
Perhaps this was what scared the Hawk's crew. That she wasn't broken. That she was still there and not begging for the Khala. They would get used to it. They were warriors. They would have to get used to it.
Because, beneath the layers of cold passivity and tempered thought, Praetor Erana was angry.
SoA
A filler/character development post. The Amadeus, Unnamed and Hawk are already back on Dras Lana. Chronologically, the post takes place before the return (since it is by no means crucial).
The Mindscape of the Great and Powerful Overmind,
as interpreted by Orloth, Lord of Shadows.
Dr. Straczinski wandered what appeared to be the half formed idea of a great royal ball, a grand party of beautiful and egregiously expensive things and people. He could marvel at the goings on, the rich and often physics defying decor in golds and rich purples, the people in all manner of expensive and impressive garb, the buffet and waitstaff with every type of food and drink imaginable, but the moment he shifted his gaze to look at something new, the old would fade away into barely cognisant obscurity, becoming a dark shadowy realm of monsters. It was as if the party existed purely as an illusion, to keep the Doctor from seeing the monstrous reality of it all. However, that was only partially the case. The Doctor himself maintained the illusion. The ball was merely a facade, a subtle reflection of what truly transpired in the minds of the monsters that lived in this place. Each being likely saw the proceedings differently, as their own lives and experiences colored their perceptions.
Dr. Straczinski was a learned man before he became the Prophet Orloth, Lord of Shadows, so he perceived this place as a series of references and metaphors. Every piece of the illusion existed because it triggered some thought, some memory, some part of his brain that reminded him of the nature of the creature he was truly looking at. The ancient samurai decked out in full ceremonial armor, glimmering with equal parts regalness and wrath, was a reflection of the Cerebrate Draal, who followed an old code of honor and integrity that had both set him apart and allowed him to rise among the Cerebrates throughout the centuries, if not millennia he had been alive. Draal was silently observing a fierce debate between two other prominent figures, A regal noble lady with fierce and hungry eyes and a small swarm of servants and suitors, the most favored of which looked ready to physically attack a Jester, whose outfit sported a deep red reminiscent of newly spilled blood, and a blackness so deep as to hint at the Abyss itself, all gilded in shining gold and trumpeted by a myriad swarm of tiny bells, his own entourage seeming to go out of their way to laugh uproariously at every slight quib that came out of his mouth. The lady and the Jester, Shaharaz and Zemreh, were barely containing themselves from ripping each other apart, and Draal silently watched, stone faced and imperious.
As he watched the argument from a safe distance, a stunningly beautiful woman with raven black hair and barely clothed in a backless black dress that covered her body but left nothing to the imagination broke away from her string of admirers to approach the doctor.
“I see you still prefer your illusions, brother,” Lilith purred by way of greeting.
“What can I say, I allow myself to be inspired by Jung.” the doctor wistfully replied.
“Yes, the young are delusional.” Lilith, retorted, revealing her ignorance.
Orloth did not bother to correct the Nightmare Queen, “Do you know why the meeting was called, sister? Has the time come for us to renew our conquest of this sector?”
“No, nothing like that, dear brother,” Lilith teased seductively, “Our master did not call this meeting. You are still free to pursue your distractions for a while longer. No, I understand that Zemreh and that lovely black lamb, Dagganoth, ambushed a Protoss caravan carrying something of importance a few days ago. I suspect this has something to do with that.”
“I see,” Orloth murmured, wondering where Lilith got her information, “How goes your fiefdom, have things in Pern quieted down?”
“They have. Your tactic amazed me, who would have believed that Shaharaz would have been so simple minded as to believe Aria’s little ruse. Honestly, Orloth, your talents are wasted over in Terran space. With you as my concubine we could have the other broods dancing like puppets to our whims.”
“They don’t already?” The Doctor queried, and pointed out the form of Draal, marching his way over to the pair with eyes only for the Nightmare Queen. The ancient Celebrate’s armored form stood an imposing eight feet tall, and his aged face was bordered by a neatly trimmed mane of Silver Hair, and a long goatee. His eyes quickly dismissed Orloth, who lowered his own gaze and stood aside to allow the Cerebrate to converse with Lilith.
“Lilith, child, it was good of you to join us. I was hoping that the four of us could discuss recent events civilly, but it seems the other’s are too caught up in their argument. I will therefore inform you of recent events, and what I hope the Brood will do about them.”
“Of course, Draal. You may proceed.” Lilith acquiesced with the barest hint of condescension. Draal was not the best of beings to slight, even if the two were involved in a bloody and costly feud over the Jorin system.
“Very well. Zemreh recently conducted a raid, based on information provided to him by the rogue cerebrate Dagganoth, on a convoy carrying the Engineer of Apoca, Erana.” The words, ‘Engineer of Apoca’ carried with them the weight of a harsh memory of defeat, as an entire planet, brimming with Zerg and carrying the full weight of the Swarm’s plans for conquest was suddenly and horrifically burned out of the Hive Mind. Apoca was the first horrific strike in the battle that finally halted the Swarm’s conquest of Eurim, and the name of Erana and the Arken she and the Terrans had created carried with it the full weight of that day. “Unfortunately there was a third party involved in that battle, who ultimately escaped, we believe with the Engineer.” Draal’s words were accompanied by a series of thoughts and images, an overview of how the battle went along with snippets of memory from several of the involved forces, largely zerglings running through the long halls of Protoss flagships and mutalisks in vicious dogfights with Protoss squadrons. “I feel that this situation warrants a continued assault against the Protoss, However the Brood Mother Shaharaz is refusing to agree to a ceasefire for such a purpose, probably because that fool Zemreh continues to antagonize her.”
“I see, so not everything is well among the Cerebrates?” Lilith teased gently.
“While I wish Zemreh would consider the long term repercussions of his actions, I am not yet willing to turn on him. I am, however, willing to allow him and Shaharaz to fight it out, while you and I focus on more important matters.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, I suggest that the two of us pause our feud in Jorin so that we may pursue the means to break apart the Imperium and the Coalition. I fear that by leaving them alone for so long we are allowing them to unite against us.”
“Oh, Draal, that is where you are simply mistaken. I can not speak for the Protoss but you must acknowledge that I have some knowledge on how the Terrans think and operate. The longer we leave them be, the closer they are to stabbing each other in the back and doing our work for us. Trust me, we are far better off leaving the terrans alone for the time being.”
“That may be the case, but the Protoss are not likely to ignore Zemreh’s slight. We should at the very least be pressing the attack.”
“No, you know as well as I that some of the party that rescued Erana consisted of Protoss. That shows that the Protoss may already be fighting each other.”
“But Zemreh’s attack may have ruined that. We should attack before they have time to consider us active and ready their defenses. We should attack while they are still wondering if this was an isolated incident.”
“Then attack, Draal, but know that should you do so you will do so without the rest of the Swarm. Only the Overmind may command Me, and he has not deemed it time.”
Orloth’s imagined Avatar of Draal was red in the face with anger, and nearly shouting, his words carrying over to the Lady and the Jester, who had paused in their argument to watch. Draal gazed over him and directed his next words for the entire crowd. “The Overmind has been silent since Dras Lana, in that time we have waited, we have plotted, and we have set ourselves against each other. This is not how the Swarm was meant to operate. We must begin to consider that the Overmind will never speak again, and we must again act as one Swarm against our enemies.”
Lilith’s next words came unbidden from her lips, “And who will lead us Cerebrate? You?”
“Yes, me. Who else?” Draal asked in righteous fury.
“I will not allow a pitous and weak lump of flesh to dictate my will,” Shaharaz hissed. “I will see you both destroyed that the Swarm may be finally rid of your weakness.” With that, the Brood Mother and her entourage departed into the darkness, out of the illusion.
The jester approached mockingly, “Draaaaaal, you take yourself far to seriously. Why not simply enjoy our freedom, and the chaos that it causes?"
“Because it’s not who we are!” Draal yelled at the hysterically laughing form of Zemreh as he fled into the darkness at the edge of the illusion. Draal lastly turned to Lilith, looked her up and down and sneered at her in disgust, before marching to himself plunge into the abyss.
Lilith merely stood there, stunned, before turning to Orloth, “What have you done?”
The aged doctor shrugged dismissively, “You ruined things quite nicely on your own, why share the credit?”
“Then it wasn’t you, hmm...” Lilith left the illusion as if in a daze, leaving the place dark and shrouded, Orloth’s old form alone on the black and white marble floor. He took a moment to appreciate his old body, how it felt to be back into the weak and timid form of the old Professor of Psychology at Fjelstead University of Sar Shar, the same professor that had taken much care over the years to hide his considerable psionic talents from the various powers that be, and how he had used those same talents to seek out the best and most talented of students and give them the opportunities to go above and beyond what they might otherwise have been capable of, giving them rare opportunities and unforeseen insights, all while remaining invisible himself. He had to remind himself that it was all but a clever illusion, built so that he could better interpret this council, taking place within the massive Mind of the Overmind himself, to whom all of his servants were connected. But as Orloth began to step into the darkness and return to his own mind, and as the illusion began to fade from his mind, he heard one last far away sound, the sound of distant and hysterically mad laughter, echoing through the very halls of the darkened and monster filled ball room.
SoA:
The Brood Leaders Psionically meet to discuss events, through their mutual links to the Overmind. They each leave the meeting hating each other even more then when they started.
Aboard Murkag
Dagganoth was assessing the situation. On the one hand, he was eager to find out what was present at that 'important' Imperium area. On the other hand, he knew he shouldn't let his eagerness become his death. While the Imperium area surely held something worthwhile - be it information, good or technology - it would also surely be well protected. And while he could probably again use the Nirogg brood to gain his ends, he'd be both taking a risk, and would be forced to recieve the short end of the stick if any valuables were to be uncovered. Dagganoth seemed certain at this point: he stood more to gain by staying on the Pirates' good side, and this 'job' they had for him could perhaps be spinned to be even more valuable for him. Again, he gave the order.
Sometime later, Murkag opened his 'mouth' as the Terran transport ship flew right in. Even though it was an eerie sight, Adam felt safe. As Murkags third stomach connected itself to the transport's door, the Terrans walked back into their 'compound', Kenny among them. Dagganoth felt their mind enter the compound but noticed that Kenny wasn't quite like the others. There was something... 'off' about him. He made a note to mention this information to Doom as Murkag set off for the Dvergar system.
SoA
-Dagganoth accepts the Zerg scouting mission and sets off for the Dvergar system. He will arrive in 6 posts from this one.
-When Kenny boards alongside the Terran crew, Dagganoth notices his psionic activity isn't quite like the other Terrans, and plans on notifying Doom of this.
Playing hardball with the man who owns your contract!?, David looked down his arm, over his sidearm, and into the face of Krag the Bloody. I deserve the shitstorm coming my way. I won't be surprised if I buy it right here.
It reassured him only slightly that Leo was at his right shoulder, and the two pistols that looked like toys in his hands were trained on Krag's lackeys and not on him. There were two standing on his side, and six of them, not including Krag's ugly mug. If things turned sour, David was entirely sure that he would buy it first, followed closely by his friend Leo.
“-tched. Why don't we just put our guns away and go back to the way things were,” Krag was saying. “I like you David. I really do. I'd hate to have to end you right here and lose such a valuable man. Come on. You know I'm a man of my word. You can-”
David was knocked out of his panicked thinking suddenly, and he took a step forward, brandishing his sidearm. As the ruffians around Krag raised their guns and prepared to fire, he stopped. “Man of your word? Oh really? A man of your word.”
Krag raised his hands defensively. “Come on, David. Don't make this harder than it has to be.”
“I should say the same to you. Why don't you give me the ship I bought from you, and we can all go away and live out our respective lives of crime.”
Krag looked to either side, and seeing the multitude of guns around him, he regained some of his confidence. “Look, David. You aren't in the best of positions to be bargaining with me. You can either put down your guns and I'll overlook this incident, or you can die right here. It's your choice.”
David smirked, even though he was starting to feel quite conspicuous standing in the middle of the docking bay with guns pointed every which way. He thought it was somewhat odd that he had time to notice the passers-by studiously ignoring the exchange as he prepared to roll the dice and die in a blaze of glory.
“Well, as I see it, you shoot me, and you've got a whole different set of problems.”
“Oh?” Krag said. “I think Leo here is the only one who will miss you, and he'll be joining you.”
Taking a deep breath, David set the hook. “You're right.” He dropped his gun, and re-holstered it. He felt the confusion from behind him as Leo debated whether to lower his own guns. David ignored him and focused all of his attention on Krag. “But it's not those that will miss me that you have to worry about. How do you think it is going to look for you when word gets around that you went back on a deal you made with one of your men? That you denied him the prize that you promised him?”
Looking to the thugs pointing guns at him, he went on. “It looks to me like Krag the Bloody can't be trusted to uphold his end of the bargain. How is that gonna look to all of the 'respectable' businessmen you deal with?” David could see the realization beginning to click in Krag's mind.
“It was part of the deal that you not spread the word of what we agreed,” Krag said through gritted teeth.
“Good for me that I did,” David said, trying to keep the edge out of his voice. If I'm caught in this lie, it's all over. “If I hadn't, I wouldn't have anything to bargain with, now would I? You give me the ship I was promised, and your reputation stays intact. You shoot me, and things will get mighty tough for you.”
He could see the wheels turning in Krag's eyes, and he waited.
“You wouldn't dare have risked our deal by telling someone,” Krag said.
“Shoot me, and you'll find out just how wrong you are.”
Seconds passed, and David concentrated on breathing evenly. He couldn't help his hand from straying to his sidearm, ready to pull and fire if his ruse failed. He wouldn't survive it, but at least he'd get a shot at taking Krag out first.
Krag raised his arms again. “All right boys. Put 'em down. You win, David. Your ship is waiting for you.” He stepped forward and handed David a file. As the file switched hands, Krag leaned forward, “Good luck. You'll need it.” David noted the fury in Krag's voice and the way he quickly turned and stalked out of the docking bay. He sure isn't going to be making things easy for me any time soon.
“Now we need to go tell people,” David said to Leo as they watched Krag's lackeys leave the bay.
“I'm surprised he didn't shoot you,” Leo said as David opened the file and gave it a cursory glance to make sure all of the essential paperwork was there.
“Of course he wouldn't shoot me. He wouldn't want to soil his reputation for being 'trustworthy'.”
“Everyone knows he's a lying backstabber,” Leo said slowly.
“He doesn't know that, does he?” David said with a smirk as he led Leo towards Bay 4, and his shot at freedom.
SoA
-Introductory post... oh, and I got a ship.
OOC: Permission from GM Orloth to double-post.
To-Do Cantina, Domus
“What's a pretty lady like you doing looking for work as a gunhand?” David inquired as he made no attempts to hide his blatantly appreciative glances at the woman's athletic figure. The woman shyly standing in front of him had long, mousy brown hair, and her small nose and thin-chin gave her the appearance of a school-teacher instead of the mercenary she was trying to be. She wore a simple, black bodysuit that showed off her figure very well, and she had a small pistol holstered at her hip. She carried a case that obviously held a rifle of some kind, possibly a sniper rifle, and a small sling-bag hung from her shoulder.
“C-Casey. My name is Casey,” she said quietly, darting a glance up into David's face. Something in his eyes reassured her, and she confidently went on. “There aren't many places where a woman like me can be treated decently.”
David chuckled a little, “And boy are you looking in the wrong place!” He gestured to the cantina around them, and the pirates and mercenaries that infested the place. “This place ain't exactly swimming in gentlemen. Doom's alright, if you can get work from him, but the further from him you get, to the point where you're takin' jobs in a dump like this, the less likely you are to find any decency. I'm surprised a doll like you ain't dead in an alley somewhere... or worse.” After a moment's thought, he shook his head and returned his gaze to Casey. “Look, girl, I'll tell you what. I'll give you half a share until you prove yourself. After this little jump into Protoss space, I might give you a full share if you prove yourself. Other than that, you got protection and food as long as you find a way to make yourself useful. Deal?”
Casey peered into David's eyes for what seemed to him to be an almost unbearably long time. Damn, is she a beaut! he thought to himself before shaking the his head. He extended his right hand across the table, “What do you say?”
“Deal,” she said after another moments pause and took his hand. She said it with a note of finality and determination that he had to respect her for. I think I'm gonna like this one.
----------------Half an hour later, Docking Bay 04, Domus
“Hey! Leo!” David yelled as he walked across the bay floor towards the ship, Casey following behind him. “How's the loading going!?”
She looked up at the small ship that towered above her. Without any weapons, it was obviously meant to be nothing but a cargo ship. It strangely reminded her of a bird, and she cocked her head slightly as she studied the old and beaten ship that was now her home. Home, she thought to herself, tasting the word. She knew what it meant, but she had never had the experience. I wonder what it will be like, having a home, she mused.
David was now talking to a large, heavily-muscled man who was pushing a large cart of what looked to be spare parts into the hold of the ship. Three more carts were lined up in front of the first, and the man pushed the entire train, the veins on his arms almost bursting from the strain as he spoke quietly to David. Though his arms looked almost to the bursting point, the man was barely sweating, and his breathing was only slightly heavy.
She felt something behind her, and she turned to notice a make-shift baggage cart being pushed towards the ship by an older man in plain, civilian clothing. As the cart slid by her, she noticed that the cart was laden with mostly by a large case big enough to hold a fully armored marine. She wondered curiously to herself what could be inside, but purged the thought from her mind, as the man stopped and nodded to her.
“Good day, milady,” he began, bowing slightly to her, his kindly eyes and voice instantly making her feel welcome. “I am Dr. Jonathan Rark. You will be traveling with us as well?”
“Casey,” she replied, instinctively dipping in a shallow curtsy. Whatever possessed me to do that? She thought to herself. She had never curtsied before in her life, but this man's gentlemanly behavior somehow made it feel natural.
After a few moments, she realized that she hadn't answered the doctor's question, and she shook the absent-minded look from her eyes. “Yes, I will be traveling on- with you,” she said quietly, looking back up to the small ship. “What is it called?”
“Gambit,” David said proudly as he approached the two of them. “I named her myself. And 'it' is a 'she.' Doctor,” he said, nodding to the older man.
“What do you think?” he asked, looking back to Casey. “Isn't she pretty?”
Casey debated how to answer, and finally settled on the safe answer. “She is.”
“I'll let the doctor show you around. I've got business to see to before we can get under way,” he said as he stepped away from them and strode purposefully into the ship.
-----------------Twenty-four minutes later, cockpit of Gambit, Domus
“No, Cap'n, don't!” Haley yelled as David flipped a switch and the ship powered to life. She dived for a fire extinguisher as the console in front of Captain exploded in sparks and fire, throwing him out of the chair onto the floor of the bridge. She could hear small explosions happening throughout the ship as she started putting the fires out. She tossed the fire extinguisher to Puck and leapt over the captain, exiting the cockpit and running to the engineering where she frantically put the fires out and began tinkering away. Haley was a tall, pale-skinned, fiery redhead, almost as tall as Leo. She wore a pair of ill-fitting coveralls and a plain white t-shirtcovered in grease and oil stains and her curly hair was pulled back from her face.
David rolled over, “Ugh... Lazarus' scrotem, that hurt!” He slowly got to his feet as the last of the fires were put out by Puck. Jerry “Puck” Pockin was the pilot that he had hired to fly Gambit, and Haley was the mechanic he had hired to repair her. Puck was a stockily-built blonde man in his late-twenties. He could have been a Viking pilot, David thought to himself as he watched Puck sit in the pilot's seat and assess the damage, quickly dismantling the console and pulling out the mess of wires.
“I told you not to,” Puck said, sighing heavily. While he seemed only slightly annoyed at the captain's blunder, David could hear Haley in the engineering room, yelling loudly, and inventing her own swear-words.
“You didn't tell me it would do that,” David petulantly replied. “Besides, you told me all the repairs were- What is it, Leo?” he interrupted himself as his earpiece beeped, letting him know that Leo wanted his attention.
“Cap'n, I got a protoss down here. Says he wants to talk to ya. Shall I send 'im up?”
Giving the obliviously working Puck a scalding glare, David replied, “Yea. Send him up to the cockpit.”
“Aye aye,” Leo said absently and the low beep ended the call.
David turned his attention back to Puck. “You told me all the repairs were done.”
“That I did. I, however, said nothing about this ship being ready for power yet. We still hadn't closed everything up. Now, thanks to your handiwork, we will be stuck here til at least the day after tomorrow.”
“No no no no,” David said, gritting his teeth in frustration. “Even if you have to work through the night, we are leaving tomorrow morning, on schedule.”
“As you wish, Cap'n,” Puck said sardonically as he continued separating and cutting wires from the console. “Now. About that-”
-----------------Twenty minutes after David entered Gambit, Docking Bay 04, Domus
Po'Nath slowly observed each of the ships in the docking bay until he came to a small transport ship tucked in one of the corners. As his mind swept over the ship, he tilted his head, noting the unusual presence that resided in the ship. Barely psionic, and somehow familiar, yet completely foreign at the same time.
Interesting, he thought to himself as he glided over to where the monstrous man who thought of himself as 'Leo' pushed a train of carts into the ship. Po'Nath knew immediately that this was not the captain, but he approached him anyway.
{Excuse me, Leo-} he began. The human straightened, looking around. His eyes finally settled on the protoss.
“I'd keep yer grubby-” he began.
Po'Nath deciphered the thoughts faster than the human could speak the words. {I meant no offense. I simply assumed that since the thoughts were unguarded, that you wished others to know them. I am Po'Nath. I am looking for Captain David Kanaro. I have an offer for him.}
Leo looked taken aback for a moment, but then he raised a hand to his ear, and Po'Nath waited patiently.
“Cap'n, I got a protoss down here. Says he wants to talk to ya. Shall I send 'im up?”
Even before Leo was finished speaking, Po'Nath knew the answer and slowly starting to glide into the ship. Leo followed him with his eyes, but didn't say anything to stop him.
As he glided through the ships corriders, he tasted the minds of the other crew members. The human calling herself 'Haley' was an amusing specimen. So full of energy and misplaced rage. But very talented. Just the cursory glance he received made him quite confident in her abilities.
Then there was the Doctor. So much useless knowledge in that one. He will prove very useful.
Puck he dismissed with barely a thought. A savant pilot, there was little remarkable about him aside from the company he kept.
And finally David. A noble man. He tried very hard to appear the hardened criminal that could survive in the harsh world of piracy, but one cannot hide from oneself. At least not when seen from without, as Po'Nath now viewed him. He will make a fine captain, Po'Nath though. For a human.
He immediately chastised himself for the prejudiced thought. Give them a chance before you condemn them to inferioriy.
As he neared the cockpit, Po'Nath once again began paying close attention to his surroundings, but he still kept his mind aware of that one other presence on the ship. Casey.
He focused on the conversation in front of him, and kept his monitoring of the foreign presence in the back of his mind.
“-cargo is loaded up and Leo is putting away all of the supplies. We will be fully stocked by lights-out,” Puck was telling the captain.
Po'Nath studied the captain. He was of average height for a human, and was athletically built. He was wearing very functional cargo pants of a heavy fabric. He wore a tight black sleeveless shirt with a brown leather vest over it left open. His fingers poked out of black, fingerless gloves and heavy black boots were on his feet. The sidearm strapped to David's thigh seemed to be a part of his clothing, and didn't hinder him in the slightest. It belonged there.
David noticed Po'Nath approaching the cockpit and straightened from where he leaned over Puck in the pilot's seat. David's dark brown eyes and short brown hair made him look younger than his years, thirty-four. His brow gave him a constantly serious look, even when he smiled, which he did with his eyes as well as he greeted Po'Nath.
“You must be the protoss that Leo mentioned,” he said as he approached Po'Nath.
{I am Po'Nath. I come-} he began, but was cut off by David raising a hand.
“Stay out of my head,” he said. “If you're gonna speak, speak plain. None of that protoss 'mind stuff'.”
Po'Nath stared blankly at David for a few long moments. David stared back, waiting for him to go on. After a good fifteen seconds, he started to shift uncomfortably under the high templar's stare.
“Cap'n,” the pilot spoke up from where he was still re-wiring the console. “He's a protoss. They don't have mouths.”
The captain looked back at Puck, and then at the protoss. Po'Nath still watched him impassively. “Oh. Well then, you can do your 'mind stuff',” he said slowly. “But no funny business.”
{Of course not, captain.} Po'Nath said. {I am Po'Nath. I come to offer you an opportunity.}
David blinked. “What kind of opportunity?”
{As you may or may not know, a small number of protoss refugees are currently residing here since Executor Erana's prison ship was attacked. They-}
“Wait! Executor Erana was killed?” David asked incredulously.
{They wish passage back to their own territory.}
“No! Go back. Who attacked Executor Erana's prison ship? Is she dead?” David asked, and Puck had stopped working, turning in his chair to watch the high templar.
{That is irrelevant to the task at hand. The refugees wish passage back to their own territory.}
David scratched his head. “I don't know whether I want to be getting involved with any protoss if Executor Erana is involved. I aim to keep my head, not lose it because some up-start can't see I'm a civilian.
{It is, of course, your decision. I merely wished to inform you of the opportunity.} Po'Nath said, bowing his head in deference.
“What are they paying?” David said.
{That is between you and the Imperium when you arrive in Sendiris.} he answered calmly.
“Interesting,” David said. “And these are passengers, not prisoners?”
{Passengers,} Po'Nath replied. {And I would like to offer my services to you and your crew.}
David blinked again. “You want to what?”
{I wish to travel with you after the other passengers are dropped in Sendiris.} he said levelly. {I have no interest in returning to the Imperium at this point, and there is much to see in a vessel such as this.}
The human watched Po'Nath for a few seconds, and he could sense the thoughts rapidly firing through the captain's mind. He is debating whether or not he can trust me. A fair question.
“Set it up,” David finally said, and Po'Nath nodded.
SoA:
-Casey Yaff is introduced and hired as gunhand on Gambit
-Dr. Jonathan Rark is introduced, having paid his way with David to be taken into protoss space so he could study the aliens.
-Repairs are delayed by an idiot captain and Haley Morgan and Puck are introduced.
-Po'Nath offers Captain Kanaro an opportunity to help the Imperium by transporting the 18 protoss refugees back to Sendiris. Mission accepted, payment to be discussed on delivery of the refugees. Po'Nath also offers his services to David and is hired on as another member of the crew. The whole crew is now assembled. (Avengers! Assemble! XD)
-Gambit disembarks from Domus after supplying and repairing itself, delayed by 1 post because of last minute repairs. (4 * 12)/7 = 6.85 (rounded to 7) +1 (idiot captain XD) = 8 posts until arrival in Sendiris
Dvergar System
Softly and silently Murkag drifted into the system. Dagganoth sent out a burst of thoughts and immediately directed the being towards one of the three planets. This mission was a seemingly unimportant one to whoever was at the helm, Dagganoth mused. The pirates could've sent a stronger force of their own if this system was regarded dangerous. It must seem at least mostly harmless to whoever wanted this system scouted. Dagganoth knew better: he realized the Dvergar system is where the derelict Fenguar brood was rumored to be. Even though he had never met the substitute-cerebrate Orloth personally, he had heard tales of his cunning.
Dagganoth knew his position, though. A Brood broken so loose from the Swarm was unlikely to attack any passing Zerg vessel without reason and would likely attempt to avoid detection altogether. And even if the Fenguar were here and did decide to attack, Dagganoth knew that Kenny was his key. Kenny could not be killed or kidnapped without the perpetrator arousing the pirates' suspicion and anger, and he would be quick to point this out if needed.
That's when he felt the presence. There were Zerg lifeforms on the planet he was nearing. They seemed... masked, or dormant - Dagganoth couldn't quite place it. Assured by Kenny's presence, though, he ordered Murkag closer.
And then he felt it. As Murkag closed in on the planet, the lifeforms lost their seemingly dormant shroud and a wild cloud of Zerg patterns and thoughts became apparent. A seemingly infested battlecruiser sped towards him from behind the planet's nearby moon, as Dagganoth spotted several flyers coming out of seemingly nowhere to patrol the area. Dagganoth realized he had sprung a carefully set trap, but was still assured by Kenny's presence. He patiently waited for something to happen when a psionic voice entered his head.
{I do not know which cerebrate you are, but it would seem a good idea for you to comply with my requests right now... Land.}
Dagganoth did not respond and ordered Murkag towards the planet's surface. Though some kind of 'worry' was present in his mind, curiosity played a larger role...
SoA
-Dagganoth arrives in the Dvergar system.
-When scouting around for detailed Zerg activity, he is ambushed by Fenguar forces and forced to land on Dalar.