A
Asuras
Guest
Original poster
GOD SHELL
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Primordial - Baldr Besatt
"'Life' is an easily warped word. As malleable as the flesh that it often features."
Aboard the ODD cruiser, 'Virtue'
An elevator of metal monstrosities descended outside the reinforced window, partially organized in a series of curved lines. The ODD's 4th Fleet hovered silently in formation above the skies of an inconsequential planet. So unrecognizable and commonplace was its surface, Baldr could not possibly deduce whether or not the thing served as a colony. It sufficed to say, they were in the middle of nowhere.
Baldr had been commanded to meet with a certain commander aboard the vessel despite having no 'official' ties with the ODD in service or duty. An unknown job was put forth, which meant pay of course, but the details were withheld until he complied and met in person with the one who offered it. Waiting in the lobby of the private docking bay, Baldr was faced with an empty room with cushy furniture and a broad view of the fleet outside. Having landed Spectral Siren in the bay, he was told to keep his position in the lobby until someone retrieved him.
After a few minutes of silent waiting, a door hissed open and an attendant greeted him with a characteristically robotic demeanor.
"Mr. Besatt, I am here to bring you to the Commander," she said monotonically and with a short, perfectly executed bow. Following her through the long hallways, they eventually came upon a massive circular elevator dotted with a few groupings of large steel crates. Likely a service elevator. The machine lifted noisily and slowly, eventually bringing Baldr's vision up to floor-level of another dock, this one massively greater in size to the private one he entered initially.
Though the war had ended, the dock was nevertheless quite busy somehow. What the engineers and pilots needed to do at the time was beyond him. The attendant gestured for Baldr's attention and continued the trek onward, proceeding further into the dock past fighters, other mecha, and red-eyed drones.
Standing in the middle of the dock, facing two others, was presumably the 'commander' he was to meet with. Noticing their approach, the commander, a tall and black-haired woman with a sharp gaze, dismissed her conversation participants and turned towards Baldr with a vague smile.
"Baldr Besatt. Well met," she said apathetically, extending a nevertheless firm hand to shake with.
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The Ascendants - Nidalie Haste
"They choose us for a reason. And just like any mysterious reason, it is up to us to decide what that is."
The rumor was common; Nidalie knew that much was true. Its validity however was doubtful. The words of a military's suspicious and frantic populace were vague at best, but this one in particular had seemed quite cemented. The story changed rarely, and soldiers seemed particular sure of themselves when they spoke of it; perhaps they had retrieved it from a higher ranking officer?
A group of dissatisfied God Shell wielders had gone and formed their own society, or so the rumor went. There was a clear worry of power rifts in the ODD ever since the end of the war, but through that it would make sense for rumors and legends to crop up whenever someone had the time to shit their pants. What were these God Shell pilots thinking after getting their newfound power? Did they feel special?
A belief that they would form a society seemed to fall in line with those sorts of worries, but all the same it seemed quite logical to do; Nidalie wouldn't pass up the chance to investigate. After all, a location was found within the rumors as well, pinpointing this "God Shell society" to a particular planet. The very idea reeked of a sense of superiority, and where pride went, bad behavior often followed. Were these the war criminals she was searching for?
The planet, which went by the code GXC-49 (unnamed at the time), was an arid earth-like world that had been discovered late into the Orion War and marked for future colonization efforts. The society likely jumped at the chance to secure it first and for themselves.
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To Me It's All a Game - Marcus White
"Man often makes the mistake of assuming the greatest powers lack in desire."
It was particularly eerie, but the message was sincere and hopeful all the same; a transmitted signal from deep space, seemingly targeted at Marcus's very God Shell, distorted and enigmatic. It spoke of a similar situation, and a desire to understand what had transpired during the war, specifically for themselves. No name was mentioned, but the individual (sounding male) clearly sounded as if they knew Marcus and furthermore, his very life.
A code for a location to meet at was included, pointing in the direction of an unnamed moon somewhere in the outer spindles of the Orion Arm; quite a distance to travel, and far from the reaches of human-controlled space. Given its remoteness, it seemed strange that the mysterious entity spoke as if it were human, but with a few moments of consideration, it didn't seem all that impossible. It reeked of association with the God Shells.
Without a hyperdrive, however, Marcus had no chance of reaching the destination; he'd need to get a ride.
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What's Justice - T.J. Johnson, Gerald Sinn, Leon Hexer, Orion Caster, & Aurelia Antilles
"Might makes right, and we have a right to make might."
Skith homeworld, Jhovus
The place was decimated everywhere they cast their eyes. Though the architecture was alien, they could nevertheless deduce where things had gone wrong, where the structures had split in two, and how beautiful they must have been before. Jhovus was reduced to a collection of dust that just barely held its former shape, able to be distinguished as a home, but dilapidated nonetheless. Not many stopped to reflect upon it, however; no one could count how many human worlds looked the same at the hands of the Skith.
A gargantuan mobile land base stood over the crumbled remains of a Skith compound, its immense tracks crushing the concrete underneath like paper. Bright halogen lights illuminated the ground in front of it, ensuring those standing at its feet had ample light to traverse the wreckage. A docking rampart was left opened, revealing a similarly grandiose interior where countless trudged about.
T.J. Johnson, Gerald Sinn, Leon Hexer, Orion Caster, and Aurelia Antilles had all gathered at the base of the ramp, their God Shells standing upright a couple hundred feet from the mobile base. They'd been proscribed a special mission to be carried out by themselves alone by a rather slow-to-move superior officer. In the aftermath of the war, and upon the scorched remains of their enemies, a good number of the human military had become lazier, as if basking in the delight of seeing their success.
And so they awaited the go-ahead, biding their time before setting off.
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A Back Door - Vahan Darbinian
"200 years gives you more than a technological advantage."
While the 'war' had ended, the battles had not. Zera was still under the vengeful eye of a Skith fleet hiding behind another planet's moon within the same solar system. The ODD had only just arrived, answering the call to action as a cleanup crew. The Skith force was quite large, undoubtedly a gathering military of escaping Skith fleets hoping to regroup. Either they would retreat and hide away elsewhere, or they would attack the planet in a final, suicidal attempt at maintaining their honor as a species. Whichever decision they made, the result would be unfavorable and the ODD had planned to attack them before they could do either.
Vahan Darbinian, having proven himself as a capable warrior aboard his God Shell would then, of course, be a valuable asset in such an assault. What was unfavorable, however, was the fact that the pilot seemed to be entirely focused on ground combat skills. His effectiveness in a stellar environment was questionable, as powerful as the machine he operated was. Without a military background, he surely had learned of battle solely through his experience in the God Shell, and thus lacked a sense of familiarity with space.
The executive decision was made to keep him on Zera as a backup force. He wouldn't be alone, as the ODD had proscribed a retinue of forces to stay behind on the planet, including a traveling God Shell pilot by the name of Seika, whom Vahan was encouraged to meet. With a phone number and a few texts, he'd agreed to meet with the pilot at a local cafe in his hometown (likely the most intact locations on Zera at the time), if only to shake hands and be on his way at the most.