The 11th Doctor
@AIM Leader Wade
"This one is different. It displays an intelligence far beyond any other Spriggan, speaking our own language, no Spriggan I've ever met can do that, yet I find it clear its motives are not to help with the greater good. Someone created her for a different purpose, the bodies she's devoured, the spirits she holds in the soul Carin, a place of limbo that acts more like a prison than a safe haven, and the most troubling, a connection to greater evils of my world.... Daedra. I believe she may be an agent of gods who wish to harm my world."
The words of the knight intrigued the Doctor and he nodded slowly, processing the information as he continued to put up with sitting on a bed instead of pacing around it. Despite looking like a man in his twenties, his clothes and expression suggested a much older man, drawn and perhaps a bit weary with his labors if not for an unrelenting almost maniacal energy that only deserted him at moments like this. "
Right. A Spriggan. A race made of pure magica," he said, repeating Callintus' earlier remarks. Abruptly he smiled. "
That's new."
At which point, nearly on cue, the lights went out.
"
That's not," the Doctor muttered, sounding cross as he rose from his tentative seat on the bed. Stalking towards the prison cell door, he tried to peer out, evidently not much bothered by the flashing red emergency lights that kicked on or the general dark atmosphere. The cell door abruptly swung open and hit him in the face, sending the Time Lord reeling back against a wall, cradling his face. A guard stepped in, rifle leveled at the nearly prone prisoner, and smirked at his handiwork. At which point the knight took the guard apart with a well placed uppercut, a tackle and a scuffle on the ground that ended with the guard unconscious.
"
Right, our first prison break and I'm felled by a door." The Doctor sighed as he rose to his feet, gingerly prodding his nose. "
Not off to a terribly good start, am I."
"We must find the others!" Callintus said, picking up the guard's rifle though it was even money if he had any idea how to work the thing.
"
Ah, I think I can help with that. Let me see here." The Doctor bent over one of the prone guards, just as music began blaring over speakers scattered throughout the prison complex. "
Mmmmm, well, I've good news and bad news." Callintus just raised a skeptical eyebrow. The Doctor grinned boyishly and tapped the interface to a screen set in the armor of the downed guard's left hand. "
The good news is someone's hacked this facility, sprung the locks and locked everyone out of the system."
"And the bad news?"
"
Everyone includes us. Without my sonic, there's no pathway I can use to access the prison's intranet. Welllll, if I had a probe, a welding kit and about six hours I might-"
At that point, screaming began. All traces of joviality fled his face as the Doctor rose to his feet, straightened his bowtie and peeked his head out of the cells. Everywhere, cell doors stood open and already people began to emerge from their individual prisons. In the flickering red light of the facility, skittering monsters moved with predatory speed and instinct, triangulating in all directions on prison guards shooting frantically at them. The Doctor took one good look at a passing Xenomorph before he shook his head, casting a grim backwards look towards the knight.
"
Run!"
What resulted was an improbable mix between the most graceful and the most graceless scampering Callintus had probably ever seen. The Doctor naturally couldn't run like a normal human being but alternated effective sprinting with windmill arms and pirouettes as he maneuvered around dead bodies, torn railing and the occasional Xenomorph on its way to other prey. It was remarkable to watch how neatly he evaded every one of the monsters, often by simply darting to one side at the exact moment the monster looked towards the other side. Sticking close meant remarkably swift passage as he dashed down a hallway, scrambled up stairways already slick with gore and bolted around the ongoing battle.
And as he passed prisoners, every one, the Doctor called out, "
Follow me!"
The Time Lord cleared the last metal staircase up to the top cell-level. Sure enough, small platforms provided a natural dock for an internal tram system to deliver prisoners, guards or supplies. Without any power, the trams were shut down...but they were sealable. Perhaps not perfect protection against the relentless aliens savaging the prison guards but each car had been overengineered for durability, likely owing to the need to contain prisoners of extraordinary power. Each car could accommodate perhaps twenty people. And the instant the Time Lord the top floor, he dashed straight into the tram car closest to a set of sealed doors.
"
Right, this is what we're going to do," the Doctor said to anyone who followed him, panting from the mad dash. Then he sealed the door "
You lot, stay quiet, absolutely quiet. It seems they react to sound and movement. I happened to notice battery cabling when I was down there. Judging by these controls, there's an emergency power reserve, independent of the main complex's power. Better yet, it means that once I do this," and the Doctor flipped open a panel before pulling a jumble of wires out, "
We're cut off from the main complex's computer control as well."
Grinning like a schoolboy, the Doctor rubbed his hands together and said, "
Now, I need a volunteer. When you see that auxiliary light on the cargo door turn on, you need to push these three buttons and throw that lever there. That'll trigger a local override and unseal the lock. That lever there will send the tram car forward, and out of here."
"
Here's the tricky part. I'll need a volunteer as well to come with me. I might be able to reroute that emergency lighting to power the door's servos and, if I do, brilliant! And if not, I'll have to pop out the manual crank and we'll have to...well...crank it. Could make a little noise." He swallowed, suddenly serious. "
Could make a lot of noise. If we're quick, we can get it open and hop onto the car before those creatures get the same idea."
Clearing his throat, the Doctor straightened both his spine and his bowtie. "
Yes, any questions? Volunte-what?" The Time Lord peered out the tram car window as a light flickered on the cargo door.
Moire B-220
"
Well, that's a hell of a thing."
Moire crouched at the exposed maw of an elevator shaft. Around her, the bodies of the prison guards were strewn like broken matchsticks. In all of her engagements, she'd never witnessed such savagery. Even the Covenant didn't fight with the raw ferocity and complete lack of self-preservation that the Xenomorphs fought with. They weren't invulnerable but in numbers they could be an overwhelming force, as this prison showed ample evidence of.
Not even a day ago, she'd been on Reach, readying for deployment back to the
By Scarlet Forged for a long-range reconnaissance mission. But a flash of green light had stolen her away to a ruined city. Not destroyed by bombs but seemingly abandoned for no reason she could see. Once the sun set, Moire's telemetry software in her HUD confirmed those stars didn't match any known astrological positioning; this was somewhere utterly unknown to the UEG. That night, they came for her. Special forces soldiers with advanced armament who were plainly trained to play cat-and-mouse through the wreckage of the city. One got a shot off and it...well, it numbed her. Didn't knock her out, though. Moire was conscious when they dragged her half-ton armor-clad bulk onto a multipurpose utility helicopter that looked a hell of a lot like a Falcon.
She quit playing dumb when they tried to take her armor off, though. There were ten of them but it was an enclosed space and she wore the most powerful suit of power armor ever created. The fight took exactly 13 seconds. By the time the pilot realized there was anything wrong, she'd kicked in the doors to the cockpit and knocked him out. Moire had to admit the controls gave her a bit of trouble but continuing on in a straight line eventually put her in sight of this very facility. With a grim smile, she set the autopilot for their command tower, as soon as it tried to hail the helicopter. It didn't make it, obviously. But by the time they shot it down, she'd already triggered the drop harness delivery system and fell a hundred feet to land on top of one of the vehicle maintenance bays.
That was about four hours ago. Moire had spent the time verifying she hadn't been spotted and then conducting her own reconnaissance of the facility, as best as she could. Her HUD amplified her already augmented vision, letting her pick out troop disposition, approximate heavy element based on traffic in and out of those bays, as well as confirming this was a prison judging by the next ship that unloaded here. Breaching the interior would probably trip alarms, yet they definitely used both a password and a keycard style protocol for accessing the base. Moire had just picked out a password from one guard's keystrokes as he entered another hanger. She'd made plans to take him out on his next pass when everything went to hell.
First the base went dark. Well, relatively. Her eyes instantly adapted, even as her MJOLNIR Powered Armor's HUD compensated by switching on night-vision. Which is how she saw a veritable tide of the most bizarre aliens she'd ever seen, crawling towards the base once some idiot decided to start blasting music. At that point, everyone started dying and she found herself in a fight for her life. At first, Moire thought they might miss her, crouched between a cooling unit and a bulkhead on the roof of a hanger. Something tipped one off, though, and it took a run for her. One punch, driven by enhanced muscle augmented by powered exoskeleton, caved in its face. The blood spray scored her armor, though, and only lightning fast thinking gave her the presence of mind to wipe it off with bandages drawn from her stored first-aid kit before it could compromise the MJOLNIR's integrity.
The blood scent drew more and then things
really went to hell.
She fired off precise bursts of 40mm ammunition but it took a staggering amount of firepower to actually put one down for good. The bastards kept coming even if she blew an arm or tail off. Two dozen of the monsters perished when her BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle ammo gauge lit up empty in her HUD. Moire tossed it, drew her pistol and headed for the ground, fending off more of the monsters with shots from her M6H Magnum. Thankfully, UEG Spartan training had long since drilled into her the usefulness of coopting native resources to prolong combat efficacy. The rifles the guards used weren't ones she recognized but the essential elements remained the same. It kept her in the fight, even when it ran empty and she just picked up another rifle instead of reloading the first.
In the end, there'd just been too many. They'd overrun her position, forced her back and one finally head-butted her so hard that it launched her off her feet. She hit an armored van hard enough to roll it and, by the time she tumbled into the side of a tank, the van tumbled on top of her.
That was six minutes ago. Getting the vehicle off had taken that long, mostly due to her sheer lack of leverage thanks to being pinned. When Moire squirmed out from beneath the armored van, she found the hanger utterly deserted, filled with nothing but the dead. The dead and what was plainly the entrance to a giant underground elevator.
"
The question is, do I go down or do I bug out?" Unfortunately, her MJOLNIR's dedicated military AI had been in storage since she hadn't been deployed right then and no one anticipated Spartans might be transported to foreign planets at a moment's notice. It meant she had no one to talk to. So Moire talked to herself, though she did it with the external comm speaker switched off. No sense in alerting anything that might be lingering out there.
"
Looks like one of those Falcon wannabes is still serviceable. And there's a couple of weird ships over there. But-" she paused, then sighed. "
But where the hell would I go? I need answers and if I'm going to get them, I need someone alive."
With a heavy sigh, Moire toggled the elevator and unsurprisingly found it without power. Whoever had shut the base down had done a thorough job of it. Maybe power failure? Maybe computer override. Either way, she didn't intend to be stuck down there. She wasn't an engineer at all but she had enough field experience to open up one of those armored vans, scrounge up some cables and find an auxiliary plug-in for powering the elevator up. Moire didn't feel especially inclined to try her luck activating the elevator from up here, of course. That would probably bring the whole horde of monsters back down on her.
Instead, she opened up another van, picked up some more cables and popped out the vehicle's power cell for good measure. The tube didn't fit the cables but a tool kit turned up an adapter that she could snap on to make it work.
At which point Moire did what any sane Spartan would do; she jumped down the open elevator shaft.
Dropping like a half ton boulder, Moire angled for the far side and spread the fingers of her armored glove. The concrete surface scored beneath her fingertips but as she dug in, the crumbling rock slowed her descent. By the time she hit the bottom, her landing wasn't much more than a small jump for her.
The aliens had already been here, judging by the claw marks scoring every surface. The elevator doors had slammed shut, though, either an automatic protocol of some kind or perhaps the work of whoever felt like turning this facility into a deathtrap for the people inside. Moire gave an experimental tug and nodded once, determining that trying to force open the great doors would cause a
vast amount of noise. Instead, she set the battery down, took up its cables and found an outlet in an auxiliary panel. Plugging it in, she powered the doors up again. At which point the Spartan realized it had the same password/keycard combination and she didn't have either.
Shaking her head, Moire considered drawing her plasma sword or just giving the metal a mighty tug...when suddenly the cargo doors slid open to reveal a metal tram car just outside. Peering in through the window, she saw a group of people including a young man dressed like an old man. He raised one hand and wiggled his fingers at her in a wave.
This day had been a strange one for Callintus. Or rather, the last two days, counting the flight time getting to this place. He was in no man's land, a city in ruins by disasters from creatures of other worlds. Such a catastrophe was but an omen to the Knight, of what may happen in the coming months of his home. Before he had arrived here, Callintus was on a mission. In his home country of Cyrodiil, tragedy had struck the empire. The emperor, Uriel Septim VII, was dead. Killed by the hands of an assassin, as they tried escaping the capital, Imperial City, through the sewers. The assassin's were unknown, but Callintus' close connections to the blades had told him only two had survived. A blade warrior, who had outlived his three other brothers in arms, and stayed behind in the sewers to guard the emperor's body, and a prisoner, who followed the emperor and his guards through a secret passage in his cell. With that prisoner, the emperor handed to him the most precious item in all the lands: The Amulet of Kings. A royal piece of Septim history, that is both beautiful, and powerful. All of Uriel's heirs to the throne had been cut down by these same assassin's, leaving both the throne empty for the first time in centuries, and the dragonfires unlit. These dragonfires were of a covenant, to build a barrier between Mundus, the plain of existence of all mortal beings, and Oblivion, a realm created by demons called 'Daedra.' Many view Callintus' world as a playground for their sadistic games or curiosities, but there are those who see it as land waiting to be conquered for themselves. And there is one, prophesied to bring about an invasion into his world, seeking what he believes is rightfully his. Mehrunes Dagon. Daedric Prince of destruction. His domain brings about change, revolution, energy, and ambition, and his greed for death is the foe of all mortal races; attempting to conquer the physical world Nirn many times. He is an agent of evil, and if the Dragonfires are not lit again, his plain of Oblivion will invade.
That was Callintus' mission. Find this prisoner. He holds a piece of the puzzle needed for his home world, and he had gone missing now for over two weeks now. Time was now a factor, and as a knight of the Nine Divine gods of his world, his task was to ensure either this prisoner would honor his fallen emperor, or act the coward and run from his fated duty. While there may not be any Septims left alive, the amulet could not fall into the wrong hands. That was his mission. And he needed to return, to continue the search. Yet, the means simply escaped him, and his new companions. And to make matters worse, they were now all captive by this worlds last remaining military might, kept in a prison made for men, women and creatures for him. People like Xiao, Ayana, Shirou, Luer and Trigger, they were angry with their kidnappers, holding them hostage and abusing them for their own pleasure, and they had all rights to. But, the knight simply stayed quiet. He spoke with resistance to this 'Elgin,' but he had no true anger behind his eyes. He was calm. If they allowed their anger to control their judgement, they would make mistakes, ones they could not afford in this place. They needed to be logical. When paired with the Doctor, the young man paced around the room like a young pup wishing to play outside, while Callintus simply sat on the bed, hands held together by intertwined fingers, and watched him. It took the timelord around a mintue of speaking a hundred worlds per second to finally realize he was in the same cell with another person, and ss the Doctor held out his hand for a shake, Callintus looked to the hand for a few silent seconds. Then started wheezing with laughter. "aaaHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" He then stood up and gave the Doctor a big hug, folding his arms around the Doctor like he was a bear. "Callintus Cadorna." He said, once he stopped laughing and broke away from the hug. "I never properly introduced myself to you." Then he finally shook his hand. With an uplifting old man smile, Callintus sat back down. "Relax yourself, Doctor, you'll tire yourself out. These men don't want us dead, we wouldn't be in these cells if they did, so it's best to wait until we can gather more information from them. They'll have to come back eventually. Either with food, or to escort us to some interrogation room, or just give us new clothing to wear."
From there, Callintus played the conversation game. To make the time pass, it was best to know your cellmate.... Even if the Doctor was too impatient for that. He constantly kept getting up, continuing to pace around the room, and Callintus had to remind him that the exercise wasn't worth it. They needed to wait. It was in one ear, out the other though, and the Timelord became so frantic with his pacing, Callintus actually had to grab the Doctor shoulders and put him back down on the bed. From there, the two conversed about the Ponds, Amy and Rory, and the Doctor's history with them, while also discussing Reegan, the strange Spriggan the Doctor had met. Calltinus described to the Doctor what the race was back in his home world, and why this Spriggan worried him so, that it could possibly have a connection to Daedra never before seen with a race that was made by one of the Divine he worshipped. If Daedra could start corrupting Divine species, the consequences of that could be far reaching in his home. The Doctor, however, smiled, and was fascinated; smiling like a curious child. Callintus took no ill-will from it though, once again laughing loudly to the enthusiasm of understanding something so new to him. "Hahahahahaha!" Callintus slapped the shoulder of the Doctor once he smiled and said to the knight, 'that's new.' "You're a curious man, Doctor." He complimented. "If we ever find a way back to our homes, I should let you visit mine. I'm sure you would have a field day." Terms like magica, Daedra, Spriggans, soul Carin, completely foreign for the young man, yet eager to learn. While Callintus didn't know it, the two spoke like the old men they were, sharing stories of days gone by. In the knight's case, he simply looked his age.
Their found conversation was abruptly cut off, however, by the sudden blackness of their lights shutting off, before returning as emergency red lighting. Their door opened, and before they knew it, a voice started speaking over the megaphones everywhere in this place, with the added touch of music under his voice. Callintus acted fast, as while the Doctor stumbled back from the door hitting him, the Knight went over to the corner. Their guard was sure to investigate that they weren't going to try and escape, since both he and the doctor could see that it wasn't just their cell door opening. It was all doors. On cue, the guard entered their cell, told the Doctor to back up, and before he could notice a prisoner was missing, Callintus delivered one hell of an upper cut to the son of a bitch. The guard staggered, and Callintus picked him up; running into the railing outside their cell. The guard fell in pain from his back, and Callintus reached to remove the soldier's helmet. There was a skermish of the guard trying to hit the old man back, and Callintus tugging at his head, but the helmet was removed and what happened next looked a bit like this.
Callintus pounded the poor lad into unconsciousness, and for a man who looked to be entering his 70s, the Doctor got to witness first hand how much power he had. It was impressive, and Callintus, even with the dime red lights, clearly had barely broken a sweat! With an unconscious guard, the Doctor took his wrist communicator, and started looking through the screen of it to see what was going on. Nothing but emergency warnings, and a million notifications that everybody was lose, and the power was out in all sections. All while to the left and right of the catwalk they were on, prisoners a plenty were fighting off their guards. Some teamed up to grab a soldier's rifle, others were shot down, or gun noises went off because someone managed to aim the barrel at the ceiling before the guard pulled the trigger when aimed at their heads. Callintus aided one of the many prisoners by smashing his fist into the back of a guards head. Didn't do much, he was wearing a helmet, but the distraction was enough that the rioting prisoners overcame him, and started beating him down with their feet to get him to stay down. As prisoners made a run for it in all directions past them, the Doctor spoke up again with good news a bad news, with Callintus not at all skeptical or raising an eyebrow at him.
Good news, they were free, and it seemed all the guards were locked out of the system. Yay! They couldn't control the rioting, and now they could try to find the others and get out of here. "Bad news?" Callintus asked him. Not even the Doctor could use the systems. Went without saying, and Callintus wasn't at all shocked, in fact, he seemed rather calm about all the chaos happening around them. Really, the actual bad news came the moment after the Doctor spoke, because there was an alien screeching noise made down at the end of the room. And looking to where it came from, like water flowing, those demonic looking creatures busted out the ventilation shafts, as if they were ants coming out an anthill. They leaped out at everyone, with guards firing back, but missing by mere inches, costing them their lives. Blood splattered everywhere, with the aliens snatching their jaws onto people's skulls the moment they landed on top. One even jumped out the dark at the doctor, but Callintus acted quickly and dragged him down to the ground right before the creature could grab him. It instead grabbed the prisoner behind the two of them. As the prisoner screamed in pain, and the creature ate into his flesh, Callintus was horrified of such a creature. Even after years of being a knight, seeing it all, fighting the creepiest of creatures in all of Tamriel, with by far Frostbite Spiders taking the cake, whatever these were, they tied with the goddamn spiders.
With the order of,
'RUN!!!' By the Doctor, Callintus followed suit. While he had the strength of iron, his speed was noticeably lacking, barely able to keep up with the younger Doctor. Not only were the parts of his armor that weren't confiscated holding him down, but feeling the wear and tear of his body, he could feel the sore spots of his body, specifically his legs catch up to him the longer he tried running. If the Doctor looked back, he could see Callintus clenching at the railing, using it to prop himself up slightly by one side. The more forward they ran though, the more chaos they could see. Their cramped section of the prison was overflowing with prisoners, guards, and the aliens, with the Doctor scurrying through the gaps between all three, and Callintus bulldozing his way through them; smashing his fist into the faces of guards, pushing others aside, and trying to stay out of the way of any xenomorphs catching their share of fish in this metal pond. When he tripped over a poor guards lifeless body, having his throat slashed open by an alien, Calltinus could not even stand. He crawled on the floor for a few seconds, trying to stand, but falling back onto his hands. When he did finally stand up, a Xeno nearly nicked his throat, but he managed to pull back his face far enough to only receive a small cut. The creature was soon after shot dead before it could continue hunting the knight. When they finally reached the tram, Callintus collapsed onto the floor; just barely making it up the stairs that lead through the cable cars doorway.
The Doctor spoke, trying to figure out a plan of escape, pacing back and forth with worry in his voice, and the rush of adrenaline making him speak a hundred miles an hour, and he needed a volunteer to help him if they were all going to get out of this prison alive.... The moment he turned around to face what he thought was a crowd of people in the tram with him to take questions though, theeeeeere was no one else but Callintus, who was trying to slow his heavy breathing, while laying his back against the cable car walls. No one seemingly followed him when he shouted 'follow me.' That's a bit disappointed. Though Callintus did chuckle when the Doctor noticed this. "Never pay attention to the foreground much, do you Doctor?" He joked, before coughing a few times. Callintus wasn't well, or as in shape as he wanted to be. His knees hurt, and his chest ached, the old knight was feeling the age right now, since his armor wasn't fully complete. Took away the helmet, weapons, shield, and gauntlets, and he was left without all of the powers the relics imbued onto its wearer.
There was, however, a bright spot in all of this. They weren't dead yet.... Alright, it was clutching at straws, but Callintus wasn't the type anymore to not see any positives. From the floor though, even the Knight could see the flashing lights illuminating from the window of their car, and mustering up the strength, he slowly stood back up to see what the Doctor was waving at. It was.... some sort of knight? Her armor was bulking and run down, but the shape was clearly of a woman, wielding a weapon similar to what the guards had, only smaller and of different design. "Where did she come from?" She wasn't on the plane ride with them, but unless she was right next door to where all the equipment was confiscated, she couldn't have gotten all of that in the ten minutes since the power went out. Speaking off, the music didn't seem to stop, it almost seemed to be on a lope, continuing to attract more and more of those creatures, and Callintus finding it unbearable now; holding his hands over his ears when the bass once again kicked in. "What in the Gods' names is this!" He shouted, looking to the small speaker inside their car. "It's worse than those creatures screams!" The old man part of him was talking now.
As they talked, The Doctor would see something move ever so slightly in the darkness of the cargo room. Something shifting. A head then slowly peaked out into the red lights. Before Moire could even see it, the creature pounced onto her from behind, putting its full weight on her and shoving her face into the ground. Its massive clawed hands grabbed around her head and tried pulling it upright, wishing to break through her armor and taste the inside of her skull. As that was happening though, Callintus turned around to see something glistening in from behind, and starting to become brighter. A wave of fire was coming their way, and guards, prisoners and aliens were being torched alive by, all three screaming in pain. In the center of that wave was a tornado, and it had a glow of blue. For a brief second, Callintus could make out a girl's face, angered and hurt, like that of a vengeful ghost. It was that bender girl! Oh crap!
"Down!" Callintus yelled, pulling the Doctor down to the floor yet again, as Xiao's fire broke through the glass and filled their car full of flames. The whole cargo bay was scorched as she passed by, shouting of where 'Elgin' was. Where her pet companion was being kept. The benefit was, the fire burned at the Xeno on Moire. The downside was, it also engulfed her too. Several things blew up in the cargo bay as the fire stretched out, and the tram fell off its hinges as the heat grew; hitting the ground at an angle, before landing on its side from a slight bounce. Xiao didn't say, leaving for the next section of the prison, and the fire only lasted a few moments, but everything was burned to a crisp. Thexeno let out a shriek of pain as it flailed about on fire, while Moire was sure to feel how hot her suit became. By the grace of Akatosh, both Callintus and the Doctor were alive, covered in ash and small burn marks on their clothing, but somehow, minus the pain of bruising from falling in the cable car, they weren't goners yet. Though the fire build up smoke quickly, and a lot of people were screaming from where they once came from.
