IMG_20221220_192758.jpg
Jlita let out a small yip of delight as she gently took Velshia’s crown and placed it on her own head, posing a bit like it was an accessory that absolutely tied her outfit together. Sorrin thought it looked more like she had gone shopping in the princess aisle right after shopping at the fake fur coat store. Jlita was happy though, so he said nothing, instead nodding his appreciation to Velshia. He was starting to be taken by her royal character, she was really good at embellishing a simple request to pick up the tab. He resumed his drink as Elazar spoke to Jlita.

“That girl was weeping about another man. That’s not…love-growing conditions,”

Jlita giggled, playfully adjusting the borrowed crown. “Doth the broody rogue know much about the ways of the heart? Prithe, one must wonder if the scars are not upon the skin, but upon the tender feelings.”

‘Oh no, the crown gives the wearer cheesy old speech.’ Thought Sorrin as he lifted his glass higher to start finishing his drink-

“Well, if the offer extends beyond tonight…I need your informatics expertise. If it doesn’t…then I’d take ten minutes of alone time with you.”

Sorrin sputtered out his drink. Jlita’s jaw nearly fell to the floor before it instead twisted to a big, mischievous grin once more. She slid on over to Elazar, starting to elbow his arm. “Look at you you rascal! One girl gets his number and he’s already casting his net wider!” She laughed “And I thought you wanted to just be alone and listen to your punk emo bands or whatever. Did you need ten minutes alone with me too?” She teased, sticking her tongue out playfully. She was half teasing him and half teasing Sorrin, who seemed to be turning beet red from both spitting out his drink and starting to imagine Elazar as some space-faring, explosion causing, scruffy-looking, scoundrel playboy.
 
all the king's horses, all the king's men couldn't put me together again
the archer
Gabi glanced over her shoulder at Team Prime one last time before disappearing into the trees. She tried to smile at Perseus, who looked a bit worried, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes - the feeling of trepidation sat too heavy on her chest. Something bad was going to happen. She could feel it, and not just because she’d seen something chasing one of the teams in her vision. They were trespassers on an unknown planet; of course the creatures living here were going to be defensive. No, something worse than that was coming.

She tried to force her thoughts away from this and focus instead on the task at hand. The lush greenery surrounding them reminded her a bit of Zhar, though the undergrowth here was far more dense and far softer to the touch - she could feel her boots sinking into the ground with every step she took. The chirping of unknown birds and insects filled the air, and it would have been relaxing if not for her current state of mind.

Thankfully, Trion chose that moment to fill them in on the air’s composition and suggest a possible path for the team to take. His poorly-concealed enthusiasm put her at ease, and she managed an actual smile for the first time since they’d left the Cotopaxi. “The structures would be an excellent place to start,” she said, thinking of the mystery ship. It had crashed into something, of that she was sure…maybe one of the structures Trion was talking about?

Harli’s statement that comms were clear and would work well helped her make the final decision. They’d be able to strike far out from Team Prime and still be able to hear if they needed help, so what was the harm? Gabi pulled up the navigational chart so that it was displayed on her HUD and studied it thoughtfully for a moment. ”There’s a cluster of them due north of here. Let’s move out,” she said, and the team took off.

The team was relatively quiet as they walked. Harli was scribbling furiously in her journal, Trion was studying his scanner, and Mangrove, Dr. Drayton, and Dmitri were keeping their heads on rotation as they walked, evidently trying to take in as much of this new planet as they could. Dmitri’s expression differed from the other two, however - he looked suspicious and kept his hand firmly on his spear, which looked unbelievably out of place here. “Everything alright?” Gabi asked, somewhat concerned. The last thing she needed was a trigger-happy Dina Amorian waking something big up.

Dmitri shook his head. A translator had been built into his suit to remove the language barrier, so everyone understood his words as he said, “We should not have come. Something evil is here.”

Dr. Drayton chose that moment to speak up. “That’s superstitious nonsen-”

The emergency comm channel interrupted him. It was Reginald, and it sounded as if he was trying to stay calm but was becoming increasingly aggravated. "Team Alpha. We have numerous contacts. Seemingly hostile wildlife. Be wary of magnetic fields. Help request…"

The structures flew from Gabi’s mind as her heart stopped before picking up in double time. She checked Team Prime’s location with shaking fingers. ”We have to go. Now,” she said and whirled around, striking out in the direction of the distress call. The rest of the team followed.

As they ran, Gabi tried to contact Reginald multiple times, but he didn’t answer, which only heightened her anxiety. Finally, though: "Team Alpha, looks like we're going to need that back up! Blaster, Perseus, Ana, we need to get out of the water. Do any of you have something that can generate a strong electrical current safely underwater?"

A distressed whine left her throat before she could stop it, and she responded. “We’re nearly there, Team Alpha.”

They burst out of the undergrowth in time to see mass chaos. A horde of horrifying black creatures had descended upon Team Prime and were attacking them with force. Her eyes scanned the chaos for Perseus, her heart in her throat, but she couldn’t see him. She did, however, see Reginald, Ana, Blaster, and Vlare huddled together on the edge of the water. She made a beeline for them, unsheathing her knife as she ran - clearly traditional weapons weren’t having much of an impact on whatever these things were.

"THIS SUIT'S INSULATED, HIT IT, HIT IT, HIT IT!"

She scanned the marsh again as she ran, looking for him, and finally spotted him still in the water. Hit. It. Had he lost his damned mind?! The shock of realizing what he was asking for stopped her dead in her tracks, causing Dmitri to knock into her and send her to the ground. She sat up at once, her eyes glued to him. “PERSEUS! What the hells do you think you’re doing?!”
'cause all of my enemies started out friends. help me hold onto you.
Code by Jenamos
 
elAzAr : weApons mAster
In that moment Elazar really and truly would have given anything to turn back the clock and keep those words from coming out of his mouth. Several people, including Sorrin, choked on their drinks, and a new round of teasing was volleyed at him by Jlita. Was she insinuating that he was some kind of playboy? If so, that took the trophy for most ridiculous sentence uttered this evening. His track record with women was, well, pretty much non-existent, aside from a few disastrous dates when he’d still been in the Resistance. The room was starting to spin as he tried to come up with a response to her asking if he needed ten minutes alone with her, too, and ultimately he failed.

At least Velshia wasn’t teasing him. She seemed…intrigued?...by his entirely out of character request. When she stated that he had to choose between the two and asked what he’d do with the ten minutes, he blinked owlishly at her. Was she flirting with him? Absolutely not, you buffoon. You are drunk, the reasonable Elazar shouted in the back of his mind, but it sounded quite distant at that particular moment in time. No, he was far from a playboy, but perhaps the ghost of one had possessed him this evening. He shrugged. “Well, it hardly matters, as I choose the former,” he said. It was the strangest thing - he was so thoroughly and completely hammered that his words sounded as if they were being spoken at the end of a very long tunnel. Praise the gods that he wasn’t slurring. A half-smile quirked his lips. “But if you’re willing to make an exception to the rule, I’m happy to oblige.”

Time to go, you damned fool, sane Elazar snarled, and he found himself standing up, shouldering his bag, and walking out of the pub, but not before glancing over his shoulder one final time at Velshia.
 
Teamwork and Guardian Protocol

Aiko lay beneath the surface of the marsh. Silt kicked up about her. Teeth gnawed against her. Hungry. A voracious appetite for her mind. The creatures remained foiled against her metal skin. Her stomach began a long, slow, grow as the milliseconds slowly passed. Something the crew of both the Cotopaxi and the Troubadour was incorrect about her. That she and the machine were separate entities. This was, ultimately, a falsehood. The nanites were quantum bound to her will and hers alone. Separation was impossible. How much conscious access Aiko had to the system was another matter entirely. How much she even could access, was another matter entirely.

What wasn't another was the current situation. Aiko didn't have the answers to her questions. The slowing of the motors threatened to overwhelm her. So, she took the alternative and bypassed it. Generating new electrical pathways for her machine thoughts to travel. Isolating the gunking, plaguing thoughts into their own feedback loops to be analyzed and processed later. Rerouted, Aiko found clarity. She wasn't blind to everything happening around her. She just had been unable to meaningfully focus on it. Outside, some of the beasts had shot beyond her with one latching onto Percy. This…wasn't a problem. The solution was obvious. Reginald, Vlare, Blaster, and Ana were collecting upon a local bank. They were assembling some device too…how quaint. This, too, wasn't a problem. Aiko registered the rapid approach of five bipedal lifeforms. A collection of similar races, being that all were biologically compatible. The thought amused Aiko for some reason. One that she couldn't pin down. Turning aside from the matter, she ran through the basic checklist.

System rebooting…
Antimatter Core: Stable.
CPU: Online. Biological portions rerouted. Reason not quantified. Entry "Homosapien" is incomplete.
Antimatter Production: Ready.
Matter Intake System: Online.
Nanite Proliferation Systems: On Standby
Situation Analysis calls for Guardian Protocol.
Nanite Status for the following systems:

  • Manipulation: Green
  • Wings: Red
  • Limbs: Green
  • Psi-Ops: Unstable. Irrelevant
  • Defenses: Full Guardian Suite
  • Sensors: Green
  • Weapons: Authorized. Non-lethal preferred outside of energy needs.
  • Production: Limited to Fledging rank.
Systems reboot complete.
Guardian Template: Homosapien
Form: Dread
Source: Myself
Checklist Complete
Operation "Magnetic Attraction" is a go.


Aiko felt a smile begin to tease the corners of her mouth. The beasts were hungry. On that point, she could agree. It was time to eat.

Reginald cursed silently as Perseus went under. But could do nothing as the team was driven back with Blaster, seeing the sudden sinking of the metallic titan, opened up with his own array of weapons. Unfortunately, with how murky the water was, it was impossible to tell how effective they were being. He didn't dare risk anything larger without knowing where the other two shipmates were.

Reginald left him to it. Relying on the weapons fox to hold the beasts at bay for the crucial period of time.

"We can't just…" Ana began.

"We won't," Reginald overrode, "Ana, will you be able to jury rig what's needed."

"I don't…I'm not an engineer so I don't…" she stuttered.

Reginald looked at her, "I need you to do it. What device do you have that has wires rated for underwater work."

"My long-range comms. In the event that the case cracked it would still run fine."

"Good, crack open its power source and rig it so its activity is easily detected," he said as he rummaged a defibrillator out of his medical kit, "Vlare, broadly describe the frequencies and strength of the fields those things are making."

"They're rapid and strong enough to deflect basic energy weapons."

Rapid and strong, Reginald's mind raced. If these creatures somehow operated off of magnetic fields and the planet was chocked full of them, it stood to reason that other lifeforms would produce such fields. If a predator was fast and strong, perhaps…

"Ana," Reginald said as he overrode the safeties on the defib device, "wire this into the comms power and rig it to produce a strong field with a low frequency. Make sure not a single jolt of electricity gets outside of it."

"I…yes. I can do that. Yes." Utilizing her tools, she hooked in the additional power before spraying any exposed wires with protective coating, "It's ready."

"What's the plan doctor?" Vlare worried.

"Hopefully, this will fool whatever those are into thinking this is a large, tasty target. Or distract them somehow."

"But you don't even know if they would go for that!"

"No," Reginald agreed as Blaster sprayed the water with fire, "but we've got to try something."

Suddenly, rushing up, came Alpha team. Reginald had almost forgotten about them. Perseus erupted from the water and, despite having no idea as to the plan, shouted to do it. Gabi yelled in dismay. The good doctor didn't even glance between the two. Without hesitation, activated then hurled the device. It didn't even hit the water. A silver tendril caught it. Ava shrieked. Vlare's eyes bulged. Blaster didn't know whether to shoot it or not. Reginald didn't even move yet his memory flashed back to the moment Aiko exploded from her absolute zero prison as the water erupted. Twisting out of the water was an eldritch shape. Sending the creatures around it flying. It arched into an alien shape, forming what could only be described as a fanged maw.

Numerous tendrils rose, batting some creatures away as dust-mites before a fan. A few, squealing in absolute fear, were stuck in the silver. One, in desperation, fear, or some primordial urge, lunged again at Perseus. It never reached him as the maw lashed out and caught the beast. It let out a single squeal before it was suddenly engulfed. Crunch!

The silver beast took the impromptu device and made only one modification to it: frequency amplification. Following along some sort of primordial instinct, it twisted the generated magnetic field to be one of some great beast of dread. A predator that the swarm had unwisely wandered into and was paying the price. It let out a demonic roar that blasted upon the party's ears and seemed to rake across their minds. The hunters turned prey scattered. Terrified. Swishing and splashing away as fast as they could go.

The machine began to implode as Aiko activated one of its most quietly potent abilities. Cannibalizing numerous nanites for energy while endless others took the mass and energy and began printing. Before their very eyes, black metal plates formed. Smooth golden skulls adorned it. Forming into the image Reginald had seen half of when he had first met and studied the entity known as Aiko Takeda. Nine feet tall. Born from the imaginings of a demented miner turned warrior. Power armor to daunt and intimidate the sentient races of the Empire. The form that had nearly crushed the good doctor with a single hand. He suppressed a shiver.

A sound like a person slurping a straw echoed out from the machine before it giggled, "aaah. That was delicious! And yet I'm still not satisfied."

"Delicious? What do you mean? What happened to that animal?" Vlare questioned. Reginald knew exactly what happened and anticipated Aiko's reply.

"What else, I ate it."

It whipped to face them. The helmet's visor was a silvery sheen that betrayed nothing as to what lay behind. A childish giggle came from the armor. "What's wrong?" she said as she, despite the bulky form, smoothly moved over to Perseus and forked over the impromptu device the team had made, "he's fine and Blaster found something. Isn't this what you wanted? Let's go."

Reginald pulled himself together. "She's right. We need to keep moving. Good work everyone. Thank you for the support, captain. We should be fine going forward."

He hoped he was right.

Far away, but still on the planet, Aiko's psionic roar washed across the decrepit ruins of a tower. Decay had seen it covered in layers upon layers of growth, but what looked like bulbous bubbles of black oil could still be seen. The roost began to glow. Its owner had returned.
 
The Sleeper

Velshia watched him attempt to formulate an answer. Letting the teasing and shock of her crewmates wash over her ears with simple delight. His struggle was one of silent brooding only hinted at by his flickering eyes. But his answer did eventually come. Velshia's smile curled up ever so slightly, before shifting back to its traditional mysterious shape. Internally, the blue woman let out a sigh of mild disappointment. The Weapons Master wanted, to use a human expression, to have his cake and eat it. It was one that Velshia never quite understood. Sure, the intent behind it made sense but why wouldn't one not eat the cake they had? Regardless, Velshia wasn't about to let him have his way as she opened her mouth and let out her last bit of propaganda, "I'm sorry, but a sovereign can never go back upon their decisions. To do so would show wavering weakness and needs to be purged. Our Emperor understands this and, thusly, reigns. You have chosen the first, therefore, the first you should have. I look forward to working with you Weapon's Master."

An agent's work was never done. They were never off duty. Even when they were out and about with comrades. Playing teasing games. They still had their duty. Velshia gave Elazar a teasing salute with her wine glass along with the same simple smile as he left the bar. A little disappointing, but what can you do? She thought.

Turning back to her party she said as the door closed, "what now my comrades? How shall we close out the evening?"
 
Captain Bernadette Angstrom
Ship time 1300 hrs, 11/01/5032
Current Location: Naval FOB SOLOMON-GREEN, Pripyat system.


Angstrom calmly and slowly strode from her sleeping chamber down the short causeway to the bridge. She knew that the crew would be refreshed after the shore leave, and as such had given orders for the ship to be ready to depart at 1300hrs sharp. The crew, as ever, had proven their competency by being sure to be present and correct well ahead of time.
Angstrom's pacing was silent on the pristeen gunmetal grey floors of the Ophelia. Her legs, both cybernetic prosthesis, allowed every step to be silent and sure. They were similar to the model the Jackrabbit had stolen, except they bent the correct, human way, and had some additional functionality, tested and implemented by Empire engineers. For one thing, they had minor shapeshifting capability to change outward appearance, to be in-keeping with Naval uniform standards. Currently, they took the form of standard issue sailor's dress boots.
Though not able to change form quite as freely as her powerful right arm, they afforded a number of useful utilities. Being able to run at the speed of a land speeder, for one. They were silent when they needed to be, with the undersides made of a smart-fibre that gripped surfaces on a microscopic level. In the case of uneven terrain, spikes could extend diagonally downward from the calf and be driven into the earth.

Naturally, her silent approach did not alert the two guards at the entrance of the bridge before she turned the corner onto the command corridor. As Angstrom came into view, the guards visibly straightened, snapping off crisp salutes, no doubt minimizing the subvocal comms they had been using to chat while on duty. Angstrom stalked past them with a nod, into the CIC section of the bridge.
The Combat Information Center was on a raised section of the bridge behind the captain's chair, the second level allowing for more to be packed into the precious space at the very heart of the spaceship. A large star map was currently displayed, with the jump route to the black box location plotted. The classic call of "captain on deck" caused a smattering of salutes from those that were not actively on comms with the docks and/or elbow deep in work, per naval code. Angstrom nodded, announced an "as you were" and went to find her XO. On the way, she took a deep breath, and announced; "All hands are to be at their stations ahead of the jump. Weapons, I want guns warm and ready for engagement, we don't know what we're going to find out there. Deck crews, have the fighters and shuttles fuelled and ready to launch. All Marine Squads armed and ready for deployment. Where is Tordren-" Angstrom looked around, before saying "Tordren I want your full team on analysis the moment we enter the system. You have permission to overclock the AI to frame-shift level 3. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this but don't just analyse the planet, we may find clues about the nature of the crash anywhere in the system." Sitting down at the captain's chair, angstrom raised her reflective right hand and brought up a holographic display that showed an exact copy of the map in the CIC.
Her quicksilver skinned prosthesis reflected the glowing lights on the bridge, the green of the holographic display, the reds and blues of the notification lights on the consoles clustered in banks to the left and right, and the deep carmine of the holographic Imperial Aquila proudly presented behind the CIC behind her.
"Kindler, what does our wormhole jump route look like. I notice we're not taking the most direct path."
 
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Trion Nixarn, Head Scientist

trionside-jpg.235738

Trion nodded to Gabi in agreement and glanced at Harli, bemused by the pilot’s odd proclamation. Back home he would have been able to have Aurora look up the religious behaviors, but they were well out of contact with the home archives, and the ones he’d brought were somewhat limited. “Comms are good here too. I’ve got a solid link to Zeetha still.” He added on to the pilot’s comment about communications. Usually, the four would have a tight network sharing info, but they knew how to operate independently as well.

Trion had been fine taking the lead with the Dina Amor, scanner and sensor augmentations probing the jungle around them for trouble. “We should not have come. Something evil is here.” Now, he wasn’t superstitious, he didn’t believe in objective good and evil, but this place…something definitely felt off. Something about this place was putting him on edge, so he wasn’t as quick to object as Dr. Drayton. Trion’s train of thought was broken by his link to Zeetha alerting him to the explosion. “Zee! Update!” The scientist snapped out, already turning.
“Many contacts with powerful magnetic fields! Blaster pissed them off!” He started running right with Gabi. His team had been in a few tight places before, but it had only really gotten to him the one time he’d come close to losing one of his people. The idea of losing one of his family because he wasn’t there was chilling. He burst onto the scene with the rest of the team, sliding to a stop. At least he could see Zee firing, and everyone but Perseus and Aiko relatively safe out of the water. They seemed to have some kind of plan, but Perseus was still fighting in the water. "His suit will protect him from the shock, do it!"
Targeting programs came up and he got a couple of bursts off to try and cover the chief engineer, non-magnetic tungsten slivers his gun fired proving perfectly effective at shredding the creatures despite the magnetic field. Until he was distracted by the surreal horror of Aiko dealing with the problem. That was…a lot to take in. He looked at the captain for direction, still not prepared to relax yet.
 
The Dreamer

Velshia, the child, hummed. Sitting upon the edge of a rustic wooden dock of her home while splashing her feet in the pond. Singing a song to the time of her swinging legs. "I live to serve, to serve I do. I live to serve for all of you. I seek to serve, to serve I do. I seek to serve, through and through. For the delight to is mine, in the light I shine."

'In the light I shine?' she suddenly paused and wondered, or is it 'in thy light I shine'?

Considering the matter, she figured it was a fine enough change. After all, the light of the emperor was one to shine in. Wasn't it? Off she went, "for the delight to is mine, in thy light I shine. In service no less, to my bright…to my bright…"

The intelligence agent swung her legs no longer. Sitting on the edge of the pier, surrounded by an ocean of blood. Yet, paradoxically, this didn't strike her as much as trying to remember the right word. It had to 'Emperor.' Right? Nothing else would fit. Meaningfully. Right? But it didn't rhyme. Everything else properly rhymed. It wouldn't be the right song if it didn't rhyme. So, what would? That, of course, was obvious. "Goddess," she whispered.

Immediately, the sea of blood churned. Splashing as though disturbed by an unseen tempest of winds. Bodies surfaced and sank. Ones she knew. El erupted and soared a full meter into the air before splashing back down beneath the waves. As one, though she could hardly keep track of them all, they spoke in a terrible chorus, "does this serve the Goddess?"

Velshia fumbled around in her head before…she woke up. She didn't start. Didn't jolt upright, despite the unnerving nature of the dream. Velshia remained as she was, sprawled lazily upon her bed. Keenly aware of the camera that had its eye upon her. It would not do for anyone to begin wondering if the head of IT was suffering from anything from stress to night terrors. Eventually, she fell back to sleep.

It seemed a mere instant later that she awoke to her alarm. Velshia always began her days with reading. Waking up an hour early specifically to do so. Stretching her four, blue arms, she snagged up the datapad and continued where she had left off. It was, of course, the text Gavorn Cadiastra. Or, translated, Of Mists and Oceans. It was the text she had picked up with her new clearance. It was quite archaic. Most likely an original text of her people and required her to often refer to ye old dictionary. Velshia refused to let the computer translate it for her. How could she be sure that it wouldn't sensor this pure text?

Mulling over a rather convoluted section, she scribbled it down word by word, translated it, then restructured it to make it make sense to her modern home-world tongue. Drumming her fingers with three of her hands while scratching her head with the third, she structured the phrase back into the text as a whole reading, 'Beware all blooded. Who bath and swim in their oceans of death. For they walk the river to the Demon.'

Velshia felt a chill creep down her spine. The reading and her dream were too alike for her comfort. Was stress actually getting to her? No, no. She was a steadfast and trained agent. And all her duties had been for the greater good. A tenant of Cassadrel! According to…according to… Texts already examined and doctored by the Empire, she thought.

Frowning in frustration, Velshia wished, not for the first time, that the topic of religion was a bit more openly discussed back home. So much was hidden in mists and shadows. So, she was hooked to texts. To whatever she could scrounge up and read. To try and understand while having no guide whatsoever. Focusing on the word 'Demon,' it had appeared in other texts she'd read, Velshia flicked through her notes until she found all the translations that could be or were related to the word.

Demon: Unholy One, Psychotic One, Mad Entity, Senseless Soul, Killer in the Fog, Ravenous One. She wondered at that last one. What made it Ravenous? Or rather, why? Why was it equal to being a psychotic killer? What gluttony could match that?

Velshia didn't have the answer. Sighing, she threw herself off her bed and got ready for the day. She showered, dressed, and examined herself in the mirror. Her smile didn't look forced. Looking sharp! With cheery ease, Velshia whipped herself out of her quarters. Big day today and her excitement, despite the dream, could not be higher. Hunting down the Troubadour after that inelegant, but effective, operation. It was quite fun though. Speaking of fun…

She flashed Elazar a brilliant smile, a one-armed wave, backed up by a double thumbs-up as she shot passed him on her way to the bridge. He had been attempting, and miserably failing, to avoid her. Velshia had lapped up that knowledge with absolute delight. Teasing him and crashing in on him at every reasonable opportunity. She had even dragged her staff to sit with him one lunch. Beyond how rich and full of bluster-fluster his reactions were, her efforts were having a positive effect. Perhaps not on him. The man remained a brooding edge-lord. No harm nor foul in that. What was changing were some of the crew reactions. They skittered less in his presence. A few had even been bold enough to greet him. Good and excellent. The less people were worrying if the weaponry agent would suddenly go berserk and try and kill everyone, the better. By the by, her brief efforts so far weren't a lot, but it was a start.

Whipping into her station, she tacked away. Bringing up the reports for the day. The night crew reported that all was ready and, breezing through the checklist, everything still was green to go! The captain strode onto deck and, in Velshia's eyes, was full of ready purpose for the day's, or week's, operation. She gave out some general orders for full readiness and Velshia snapped off a "yes, Captain!" as Angstrom gave her orders.

She forwarded the info to her team and prepped to make the proper scans and studies as soon as the ship entered the system. The day was going to be fantastic, she was sure of it!
 

It had been a long time since he felt at home; the cold metal corridors of the Ophelia were pleasingly alien, their symmetries flowing and responding as his mind searched them. Each electric light was a note, and every note was part of a larger song -
A song for the Empire.

But there was no time to glory in the beauty of it all; duty asked for all, and he would oblige. The long dream of calibration was not idle; even in rest, the unmanned drones and subsentient cleaning automatons went about their work.

Subsystems operated with or without him, but responded politely to his requests; and even as countless questions danced in his waking mind -

Was there news, perhaps, from home?
Was this momentary serenity an armistice, or a good omen?
Was I-6 still smiling so sweetly..?


- they were cut gently down and discarded by a gentle mechanical chime, like a ringing bell, and a modulated voice radiating with affectionate, familial warmth.

"This is Scarbrooke, speaking.
All sub-sentient functions performing at level.
Housekeeping reports no errors that need to be addressed."

He wanted, quite dearly, to add that the Empire's eagle flew, and so long as the standard held, all was right with all worlds, but it was not the time. Distinguishing between when to lighten the mood and when to serve in silence were what separated a good aide from the truly great.

Still, that was not to say the mood was poor; through the lenses of so many eyes, he could see into the lives of others;
Where there actions in miniature reminded him of everything he fought for.
Ah, but there were the many-faceted gemstones of shipbound life; romances, rivalries, and miscommunications as he saw them.

Perhaps, he mused, it would do to lend his assistance...
Though only when asked, of course.
To do otherwise would be a terrible disservice to those he served with, and nothing more.


In the gentle tomb of the server core, he contemplated the future, and the chorus of eyes and hands warmed in the all-consuming peace of a blue and radiating light.
 
unknown.png

The Chosen Hand
The Messenger of Ink and Blood
The Herald of the Holy, Destined to Sail the Stars~~

'Our captain bids farewell and good luck to the other team, for destiny pulls in multiple directions, secrets awaiting to be uncovered, a strong step for the sacred ark's divine journey.' Harli was constantly shifting between writing and sketching as she and the rest of team Alpha walked through the jungle. The lush vegetation and unfamiliar fauna would get their own entries later when she had more time to describe them.

She heard Dmitri say there was something evil here. Harli put her pen in her mouth as she digested those words. Would make a great premonition for this chapter. She didn't know what to make of Dmitri yet, she hadn't observed him enough. She only knew he seemed to be trusted very well by Gabi, so that made him a person of interest. She was about to make a statement that they should continue on, but then Team Prime contacted them with a distress call. And Gabi was off quickly, calling for the squad to follow. Harli’s mouth began to curl up again. “Already the call to action has come! A daring rescue will inspire your crew!” She called out to Gabi as she and the rest of the squad ran after her.

The squad burst on the scene and Harli found quite the sight. The other squad split up, Perseus wading away from ferocious beasts that seemed to shine from both water droplets and metal in their fur. Harli didn’t seem to be as concerned as her other squad mates, instead she was her usual fanatic self. “What fantastic beasts! Are they emitting some sort of strange aura? This must be a trial of fate! Overcome this trial, Perseus, oh mighty holy discoverer and let the blessed might fill your-”

“HARLI!” Mangrove yelled at her.

“Ah, I digress.” The cultist stopped her mad rambling enough to put her journal away and whip out her pistols. She began firing into the water at the beast, her pistols letting out high pitched whined as lasers blasted out of them. Unfortunately, they seemed to have little effect as the laser bolts seemed to deflect away from the creatures. Ahh that must be the magnetic fields that somehow had been yelling about on the radio.

Harli pursed her lips, contemplating seeing if her knife did anything, contemplating also just shoving one of the less important members of the squad to see if that served as ample distraction. But it didn’t come to that as instead, a storm of silver happened as Aiko’s machinery burst from the water and began to wreck havoc upon the creatures. Silvery tendrils and a huge maw threw and thrashed into the black creatures, even consuming one of them. It was a terrifying sight.

And Harli was smiling. “Yes! Ha ha ha! What a magnificent thrashing! It’s like power incarnate that will smite anything that dare get in the way of our holy quest!” She cried out as she began to write all that down as Aiko finished the fight and soon took on a rather imposing form. “A mighty warrior, far flung from time and space itself! To be brought into the holy ark and will cleave the way forward!” She said in praise to Aiko. She turned to Gabi excitedly. “And we’ve only begun the foray on this planet! Please of gracious captain, let us continue onward for what destiny called us here for!”
 
Teams Alpha & Prime

No amount of blinking erased the sight in front of her. Nope. Definitely not a hallucination. Takeda had morphed into an egregiously huge being with her new power armor, and the nonchalance with which she spoke about what had happened to the beasts who had just been swarming the group was unnerving. As if she’d had a delightful afternoon snack.

Dmitri helped her to her feet as Reginald thanked them for the support, though honestly, it wasn’t like she’d done a single useful thing. They all could have died if not for Takeda’s unexpected intervention. She eyed the poorly-constructed device they’d all constructed in their panic, and the knot in her stomach only grew. This could have gone so poorly so quickly, and Team Alpha had been too far away to help. She shook her head as her second-in-command said they’d be fine going forward. “No. We’re changing our approach. That was too close.”

Her thoughts stalled as Perseus waded towards them, and she rushed over to him. “You’re okay?” she asked, her eyes sweeping him from head to foot. “You’re okay,” she repeated, though this time in confirmation, relieved. She glanced over her shoulder at Reginald. “We’ll all sweep the jungle together. I don’t want the teams more than a mile apart moving forward.”

Harli interjected then with her excitement over having a new warrior and their continued explorations. Gabi took a deep breath. Breathe. Relax. It could have been a lot worse. But first… “Now what exactly happened? she asked. Something of an awkward silence fell, and she glanced down in time to see Blaster raise his tiny hand, his other covering his eyes as best it could with a helmet on.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. I swear,” he said.

“If I thought you had, I’d be feeding you to Takeda-san. No more explosives unless I directly authorize you to use them. We’ll discuss this further later.” She didn’t have time to be angry or to lecture the fox. The sense of dread that had settled heavy on her since their arrival hadn’t dissipated, and she wanted to finish this damned mission as soon as possible.

“Yes, captain,” he mumbled, sounding for all the world like a deflated balloon. He scuffed at the mud. “I, uh…I’m sorry, everybody. And thanks for stepping up, Takeda.”

“Yes. Thank you,” she agreed, turning her eyes to her. Motive didn’t matter. What mattered is that she’d acted in the best interest of the group, and she supposed that was a victory in itself. “Let’s move out, everyone.”

Meanwhile, Ana had approached Perseus. "That was so brave of you!" she said. "Were you scared?"
 
image.png

Blazing Hair Runi

“All engines running at optimal. Hyperspace and warp drives are primed and ready.”

“All weapon stock and ammo counts completed. All cargo is accounted for.”

“Outpost crew has confirmed scrubbing of the departure route. Records should not be traceable for our route.”

“Excellent, keep an eye on everything.” Runi said to the bridge crew and she continued her round around the bridge. She was getting everything ready for Captain Angstrom to take over just before they made the series of jumps plotted out to get to the Farsin system. The XO was noticeably more energetic and even sparkling compared to the Jackrabbit Operation. The shore leave had done its job, giving Runi time to unwind, catch up with some old navy mates, and just stretch her legs from having to stay on standby on the bridge. And even now she still felt good about being back since they were taking on a much more involved mission. She stood in front of the star map, going over the route again. She had plotted it herself, but she would get Angstrom’s final say when she got on deck.

“Captain on deck!”

Speak of the metal-armed devil. She listened to Angstrom’s announcement, doubtless that everyone on board would listen to every syllable. Runi had to always be in awe of the respect she commanded. Always gave her doubt if she could go higher than XO. Though she was perfectly happy in this position. Once she was done, Runi walked over to the captain to report. She looked at the map and nodded at the question. “That’s right, captain. We’re wormhole jumping to the Nerinam System first. It’s remote, but the Empire has a small outpost out there, mostly to keep watch for smugglers and trade routes.” She said, pointing to a system that was close to the Farsin system, before tracing from there to Farsin. “From there we’ll drop to hyperspace travel into the Farsin system. The blackbox gives us a location, but due to few exploratory ships making it out that far, we have little intel on the system itself. We’re not sure if a third party set up there. Or if indigenous species have some sort of defense system. Considering all these unknowns, it seemed safer to come in under hyperspeed conditions to lower detection.” She then folded her hands behind her back and looked back towards Angstrom. “If you approve, the ship is prepared to start the jump sequence now.” She said, waiting for the order.
 
[01000101 01010010 01000001 01000100 00100000 01001001 00101101 00110110]


NPC Color Code:
Head Scientist
Assistant
Lustre Base


1100Hrs:

While the crew of the INS Ophelia enjoyed their shore leave, I-6 was taken down to meet with the ERA scientists. The team had traveled from Lustre with the AI’s new shell in tow and its leads were anxious to install the newest chassis onto their standout AI. I-6's model, the Mark I, had proven to be a success in the short few years it had been in service, and now the heads of the ERAD program were moving forwards with their future plans.

Having arrived at one of the lower docking bays on the FOB. two teams disembarked the shuttle. The first was a small security team consisting of a sentry bot, a few armed men and a security droid. Working quickly, they silently cleared the bay out, locking down the entrance once the station was confirmed to be empty. Only then did the science team disembark. This job was the first transfer of the ERA program from one shell into another, and ensuring a successful installation was priority one. The home team had also checked in over hologram, and were actively observing the entire process from their offices on the forge world. Following the offloading of the new shell and its accompanying equipment, the technicians and team lead began setting up the transfer tanks that would transfer the AI's consciousness into it's new home.

1700hrs:

"Alright, are we ready?"
"Yes sir. The Mark I has been loaded into the tanks and safely disabled. Mark II—ready to receive."
"Okay then, here we go. Lustre Central, you still with us?"
"Affirmative. The Father is watching."
"Let's Begin."

[Initializing Rebirth.]

A few quick keystrokes and the transfer had begun. The Rebirth’s system’s tanks hummed and blinked, slowly downloading all the data it had accumulated over the past two years. 4 percent…5…6. As the numbers climbed into the double digits, the teams relaxed a little. All seemed well. Barring some unforseen complication, all they had to do was wait. With all that information, the installation would likely take quite a few hours to fin-

[Mark II Installation Complete.]

"Holy Shit."

The bay fell silent as the tanks winded down to a stop.

"It's...done?"
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"N-nothing, I swear."
"Well there's no way it finished. You must have done something. Run it again."
"I-i can't."
"What?"
"There's nothing to transfer over, sir. The Mark 1 is empty."
"Move over! And the Mark II?"
"I mean, sir—W-we're looking at the same thing. It seems to have taken."
“Damn, you're right. Well then, alright... let’s do this carefully. Cap the power it's receiving, then wake it up. Let’s see what we’ve got in there.”

Cautiously approaching the tank, the researcher cleared his voice, calling out to the bot as he peered through the viewing glass. "Good evening, ERAD."
“Good evening Dr!” a cheery voice responded.
“Oh! Um ok...Diagnostics Check.”
"System running at maximum efficiency."
“Uh-huh, I’d hope so. You’re just a head right now. Let’s go ahead and start waking up the rest of your systems. Carefully." The tech glared at his assistant. "We go slow: one section at a time. Once we confirm everythings in order, we'll put you through the paces for this new shell. Central, you have the floor. Let’s get this done.”

 

Sitting in the siltwater, the weight of the dead hammerhead-panther-thing heavy on his lap, Perseus steadily rolled the thing, absent mindedly ignoring the blood on his hands, staining the water, still reeling from seeing Aiko turn into an eldritch mandala of nanite-meat and gnashing blade-teeth.
Dripping, Perseus began to emerge from the muck, the churned up lagoon painting his orange hardsuit with grit and mud. staggering slightly as he got to his feet, he turned toward Reginald, nodded as he took note that nobody seemed to have had it too bad, then turned toward the other team as they splashed through the water.
Harli was a sight, wading through the water with her usual bluster, bloviating about destiny and all her usual sermon. She held a pair of Laspistols that were steaming slightly, hot enough to evaporate the water the humid air had deposited on the formerly cool weapons. It made Perseus wonder if the magnetic field had damaged them somehow, to make them heat like that so quickly. He'd have to speak with her, when he caught his breath.
Engineer Mangrove seemed equal parts anxious and happy that nobody had been hurt. She was scanning the treeline, searching for more threats. She seemed to be debating whether or not to try and point out the seriousness of the situation to Harli, but it seemed she was holding back, for now.
Trion stood wide-eyed yet composed, muttering comms to the others in the team, still watching the perimeter and trying to not look like he was gawking at Aiko. He was holding some odd, high tech weapon. Hell, secret agent scientists get all the cool toys. Perseus wondered what he had been shooting at, before noting the numerous other specimens littered around the perimeter, dead, with clean holes punched in them, as if by a giant with a hole punch and a sadistic streak. Perseus caught the scientist's eye, and nodded in thanks. If Perseus had had to deal with more than one of the predators, Perseus was sure that he'd have been completely overwhelmed. Or... Well, overwhelmed worse, if that was possible.
Dmitri and Drayton made a beeline for the rest of Perseus' team, helping them to their feet, or down from the locations they had run to, as the case may be. The Dina seemed alright, if keyed up.

Gabi splashed over to Perseus and gave him the once over, a kind of careful distance in her stance, the old hard mask, showing itself again.
"Oh hi Gabi..." Perseus stood slowly, resting his hands on his knees, trying to let his heart slow. “You’re okay?” "Yeh?" “You’re okay,” "Yeh." Perseus straightened up, stretching a little. "Eugh."

“Now what exactly happened?
...
“I didn’t do it on purpose. I swear,” he said.

Perseus' eyes went dark as he restrained himself from rounding on the weasel and making a fool of himself, still, his gaze transfixed on the little pyromaniac, his expression dark. He wanted to yell, demand to know why the demoli-no, why this child was even on the ship, if he couldn't control himself for two damn minutes.
But the captain was admonishing him, as was her duty. She had admonished him the other times, when...
Hold on...
The party turned to leave at the captain's order.
The fireworks... The explosion at the playground that was slated to be demolished...
The Ana girl came over, started chatting good naturedly to Perseus, who muttered out an apology, asking for a second, not turning with the others-
"What... did you blow up, Blaster?" Perseus asked, darkly, stood still as a stone amongst the blood and churned silt. "You never just set up an explosive without justifying it to yourself, however terrible the justification is."
Perseus' eyes narrowed.
"So What. Did you. Blow up?" Perseus glanced to Reginald, then to Gabi.
He looked up, and began striding into the forest, forming a bow wave in the siltwater, toward the still-visible smoke line rising from the canopy beyond.

 
Captain Bernadette Angstrom
Ship time 1100 hrs, 12/01/5032
IN TRANSIT: Naval FOB SOLOMON-GREEN, Pripyat System >> Farsin system, unclaimed space


Despite the air of practised calm being outwardly presented by The Ophelia's Captain as she sat at her chair on the bridge, Angstrom's mind was abuzz with concern and strategy.
The Farsin system was outside even the most optimistic claims of human territory. In fact, it was far from the territory of any known species. This wasn't surprising; the galaxy of Ordaeus was vast; quite literally astronomical. The exploration the resistance had so eagerly pushed for was a hilariously tiny amount of mapped galaxy, when you actually ran the numbers; the entirety of human knowledge barely covered a tenth of a percent of the stars in the galaxy.
It was important to remember that, despite the size and strength of the Empire, there at any moment could be discovered an adversary that was as large as the human's polity, or even greater, with technology that rivalled or outstripped the known universe.

Even putting that sobering thought aside, a trip like this, into the wild systems beyond was bringing back old memories. Memories of the bad old days; desperately searching for a way to stop the Khivux, those costly two-minute-months at the black hole-circling meteorite temple.
The... The time with the Khivux in control.
Angstrom shook her head gently, closing her eyes but for a moment, rallying herself with the panacea for the horrors she had experienced; The memory of hunting down each and every Khivux host left in empire space and curing them of their vile parasite with cleansing Mindfire.
It was a satisfaction that never failed to return the titanium to her spine.

Regaining her composure, Angstrom drew up the map of their route; It had taken almost a day's travel to reach the point where the ship had to switch to hyperspace travel on final approach to the target system.
The Hyperspace leg of the trip was much shorter than the wormhole passage the ship had gently sewn through the fabric of spacetime, but also much slower, and much, much quieter. The three-hour trip would cross several light-years, but the emergence of The Ophelia would be stealthy and clean.

Wormholes were a loud, raucous shortcut that ignored the space in-between the entrance and exit points of the wormhole. The only delays caused were technological limitations; factors such as maximum jump distance, occasional reactor refuelling operations at appropriate stars, and having to charge up jump capacitors every few jumps, as well as having to move away from wormhole emergence points, to avoid twisting spacetime in unfortunate ways and threatening the loss of her ship, her crew and her life.
In contrast, the hyperspace drive didn't so much ignore spacetime so much as request a temporary diplomatic immunity from the speed of light limit, by transferring the ship into a higher dimension where the laws of nature were different. Angstrom didn't trouble herself with the minutiae of the technology, she had people for that; and if the minutiae became strategically important? Well, Angstrom never pretended to by omniscient, and welcomed pertinent information offered by the crew.

The strategic importance of all of this was essentially;
Wormholes: fast but loud
Hyperspace: slow but silent.

The plan drawn up by Kindler was the best of both worlds, but Angstrom was beginning to wonder if perhaps it was all overly cautious. What were the chances that others had reached the Farsin system first? Angstrom was certain that her people had snatched up the Jackrabbit before he could blurt out his little secret to anyone.

Well, what's done is done.

Addressing the ship's computer, Scarbrooke, Angstrom subvocalised, her mouth barely twitching: "Inform the crew we are about to leave hyperspace." there was a pause, before she made a decision to roll the dice on the ship's AI as she had on I-6, adding: "Please ensure you assist Velshia in any way you can. I want to see why they transplanted you off that agri-world and onto my ship, Scarbrooke. Impress me."

Like an owl swooping silently through the nights' sky, eyes wide and scanning for prey, The Ophelia slipped back into realspace.
 
The Dreamer

Velshia began drumming away at her interface as the vessel's sensors began streaming in a ceaseless torrent of data. Seamlessly mixing typing and manipulation of the holographic displays to sort, filter, and bring meaning to the numbers. As she worked, she muttered rapidly to herself. "Oxygen, nitrogen mix, good…a bit higher levels of CO2. I wonder what…no risk to us. Explains how green it is. Temperature rates an average 32 to 35 C with a running gradient down to the poles. Mmm just like home. And what is this?"

While still collecting intel with three hands, she let one handle the request that pinged in. Stemming from one Scarbrooke. AI. Along with a voice copy of Angstrom's permission to render assistance as so desired. How polite! And good. Velshia had been hoping for the speed born of the machine intelligence and she put it to work immediately. Subvocalizing, she stated, "passive scan of all weather patterns with predictions expanding into the next week. Deliver to Commander Gad for potential ground operations. Survey for potential sites for a FOB. Compile and summarize results in a report to send directly to Captain Angstrom and XO Kindler. Then…wait…"

Her eyes had landed upon a strain of data that might just be… "Scarbrooke, run this sequence as the against the wave function of wormhole ebbs. Account for background radiation of the local star. Match against possible drives and ship profiles. On a hunch, start with the Cotopaxi." Velshia had no real reason for her hunch. But the news on the ship had put it on the back of her mind and, if by chance, it was here then…

A sudden wave struck her mind as if hit with a lightly thrown blunt knife. She let out an involuntary wince, far more out of being startled than pain. What she picked up was far from pleasant. A blast of sound that would have blown out her eardrums if she had stood next to the creature that made it. One of raw power, dominance, yet of utter agony. Removing her hands from her computer, Velshia focused her mind. Few entities were psionic in the galaxy at large. And less still were beings with enough power whose shout would reach orbit. Both suggested something or, more likely, someone on the planet. It had only been a short burst. Yet, she sought the center. The source. With her eyes closed, she touched the interface again. Manipulating the planet until a broad section of forest and swamp was displayed before her.

"Scarbrooke," she said, "get me all data from our passive sensors on this region. I'm going to see if the Captain will allow an active sweep," then she addressed their directly, "Captain, I believe we are not the only ones in the system. Scarbrooke will have details in a moment."
 
Last edited:
Captain Bernadette Angstrom
Ship time 1121 hrs, 12/01/5032
Location: Farsin system, unclaimed spaceFlickering_cursor.gif




Angstrom's eyes were dispassionate and focused entirely on the data streams being fed through her augments and onto the holodisplay in front of her. No physical input interface was needed, not for an operation of this level of importance. Angstrom had sliced herself directly into the dataflow, trusting Scarbrooke to only give her what she could handle, raw data-wise, and distributing commands via wire. She spoke only to address those in the bridge around her, but that was rarely necessary; the Ophelia on alert was a single organism. All the Imperial citizens on board knew of the importance of the mission, and their place in it.
This is the empire. The crew seemed to announce with their actions. You are many. We are one.

She oversaw the marine platoon stationed on the ship calmly and professionally donning powered exoskeletons and prepping gear for deployment, each marine pinging their own augmetic interfaces for updates and information on the operation as soon as it became available. Commander Gad was creating two tactical plans, named in his private interface as "Game plan Cautious" and "Game plan Decisive".
The fighter bays were alight with activity. The hangar crews ran through a complete prep process for the YP-29S stealth fighter, codename Phantom wing, as it was sat in the fighter bay, lit by spotlights, as if the plane might turn invisible and soar away if not pinned down by a great amount of light. Angstrom was certain Pilot Yuo would be eager to set off, so maybe that wasn't so far from the truth.

Taking inspiration from Commander Gad's planning, Angstrom began work on two strategies, one for if the situation required decisive action, and one for a more cautious approach, if the system was as quiet as suspected.
The latter plan survived all of three minutes, as a data package came in to shatter all the captain's hopes for a simple mission;
"Captain, I believe we are not the only ones in the system. Scarbrooke will have details in a moment."
 
Blaster

Blaster’s tiny hands were tapping against his pockets as all eyes were on him. Gabi with her earnest, yet clearly angry eyes. Harli looked like she was two steps away from crucifying him. The other soldiers were a mix of annoyance, anger, and just relief they had made it out with no major issues. And Aiko….ahh it was impossible to tell with her.

"You never just set up an explosive without justifying it to yourself, however terrible the justification is."

“Oh man. No one’s told you the story of Halen-6 yet then.” He laughed, perhaps a bit too bluntly honest. He coughed as he quickly saw he was the only one to laugh about the situation, and pointed to where the smoke was wafting up from the forest, starting to disipate a little. “I found this…door. Over there near the forest floor. Not really much of a standing door, kinda like a cellar like thing? Looked old.” To illustrate it, he pulled out of his pocket a hinge that had blown off from the explosion. It looked textbook ‘ancient’. Clearly some kind of metal, rusted and mossy from age and exposure. Some kind of pattern or runes adorning it, but nothing anyone could recognize, was most likely decorative. “Here, this way.”

Blaster led the group to where the explosion had been. By now the smoke had mostly cleared, leaving behind a busted open rectangular hole in the ground. The doors had been blasted, both by explosion and monster, away from the opening and lay nearby. They were similarly patterned like the hinges. Ornate, but with clear purpose to keep the doorway shut. Actually upon closer inspection, Blaster was unsure if the doors were ever actually locked in the first place. He was going to keep that to himself though as he volunteered to take the first look into what he had unearthed.

The entryway led down a small flight of stairs into a tunnel. It seemed to be mostly made of stone and looked to cut under the marsh and forest to….somewhere. It wasn’t clear how far the tunnel went from here. Despite a leak and drip of water from the ceiling here and there, the structure clearly stood the test of time and didn’t seem to have lost any of its integrity. “Welp, I can’t speak for where it goes, but probably best lead we have?” He asked, hoping this discovery would overturn any animosity that might be growing towards him.
 
Ṫ̶̢̡̛̗̙̳̰̼̤͙̹͙͈͒̐̄̓̆̿͆͆̌͠ʜ̴̨̡͓̝̫̠̻͎̬̟̮̔̍́͛̍͆̓̉͊̈́͠͠ǝ̵̧̪͎̼͓͕̼̘̝̭͔͌̍̈́͑̔͂̓͗̿͋̓̌ͅ ̶̧̘͖̗̦̥̫͕͉͙̙̬̓͌̏͆͒͑̈̄̊͘͘Ә̴̮̞̤̳̳͉͎̻͈̙̭͑̊̿̇̓̓̍̈́̆̚͝ͅυ̷̨̪̬͕͈̯̳̹͖̳̙͋͛͋̾̓̍̀͛̈̚̕ɒ̷̯̥̳̯̙̞̪͔̤̝̘͗̓͛̅̉͌͆̍̄̚̚͜͝ɿ̵̨̨̡̛͚̘̮͕̠̝͕̭͇͗͗̊̐̈́̒̌̎̽̑͋ḅ̶̨̨̛͍͈͉͇̼̮̦͕͈̾͆̊̍̽̈́̇̒͌̚i̸̡̢̛̭͍̙͉̺̘̱͖̹̾̽̀͌͒̃͐͆͘̚͜ɒ̸̦̖̗͇͎̬̭̱̥̼̘̌͑́̓̒́̒͊̽̇͘͜͝n̴̳̫͔̘͕̬̣̩̰̺̱͔̳̤̩̗̑̈́̀̆̄̎̈́͐̓͛͘͠ͅ

Aiko, with barely concealed desire even with all that the suit hid of her, stalked down the corridor. Its appearance was absolutely deceiving. Yes, it was stone and yes, it was structurally sound. But the notion of it being a mere passageway wasn't entirely accurate. Aiko's cameras fed her real-time reactions of the crew to her brain as seamlessly as her biological eyes did. They didn't realize it at all. Realize that, with every step they took, the entire party's velocity was accelerating at a rapid rate. Ten kilometers and hour. Now twenty. Thirty. Through sensors hidden behind the passageway and technology she could hardly even begin to comprehend, the relative speed of everything except time itself was shot up. The construction of the tunnel was such that it deceived the naked eye. Through clever use of optical illusions, the service tunnel appeared deceptively shorter to the naked eye and most passive scans. If someone started pinging radar down the hall and back, then one would realize the truth.

So smoothly was the whole operation that one would have to know where to look to find it. Or one could simply be wearing a piece of power armor that just so happened to be Phoenix tech. From the moment Aiko's armored boot had hit the first step, it had pinged her system. Aiko had already established several shell operating systems and utilized one to accept the ping. That was about it. It simply registered that she was there and that she accepted the ping and returned it. It could just as easily lead to nothing as something. After all, while Aiko could not even begin to pretend to understand how it operated, she knew it was a very simple transportation system. Nothing more. Why it lead to where they entered or even where they were going was anyone's guess.

Just like that, they were slowing back down. Returning to their starting walking speed just before Aiko placed her metal foot on the first step back up to the surface. In the space of what felt like a forty meter walk, the group had traveled just over forty full kilometers. Eagerly, she pushed her way out of the passage and into the sun. Immediately, she felt the wash of energy. Echos, sharp but distant, of screams, pain, joy, love, lust, gluttony, and sorrow stabbed into her.

And she laughed. Cackle raking across the air as the birds screeched in chorus or protest. It wasn't the psionic memories that drove her to doubling up with her laughter. It wasn't the strange sight of the crashed ship before her. It was the fact that there, not twenty meters in front of her, was a tower with black oily blisters on it. Because, of course, why wouldn't one be here too.

The Good Doctor

"Takeda, what's wrong?"

He couldn't make sense of it. One moment she was moving like a blood-hound on the scent and now this.

She stopped laughing as soon as he asked. "It's nothing. Let's go."

Reginald could tell full well that it wasn't nothing. Unfortunately, Aiko was giving the air of putting her foot down. No amount of gainsaying was going to shift her. He raised an eyebrow to Gabi before letting the matter drop. Getting Aiko to open up was a bit beyond him right now as he looked around.

The party had come out into a broad, thoroughly forested valley. The swamp they had been on the edge of was nowhere in sight or smell. How that could be, they couldn't have walked more than half a hundred meters, Reginald had no idea. What drew his eyes first was a long, jarring gash cut into the landscape on the hill opposite where they stood. A ship had smashed across the face of it. Seeming to come in at an angle that first went up the slope somewhat before leveling out and coming to a ruined rest. Reginald had no idea what sort of ship it was. Beyond that is was sizable, no mere shuttle, and that it didn't seem like a warship. The slopes were steep and it looked to be a good trek down and back up again through thick underbrush to reach it.

Dotted all around the valley were strange towers or, perhaps, pillars. Some almost invisible among the trees and underbrush. A scattering had been knocked down, mostly along the path of the ship's wreck. However, what made them odd was the sheer variety of them. They were all the same basic design, a simple pillar with a set of supporting posts, that looked to be about three to four times his height and broad enough for Aiko, suited up, Gabi, and Harli to just hid behind. They were still dwarfed by the ship though. Each pillar was…decorated differently. Splashed with colors from bright blue to ancient Pepto-Bismol pink to dark brown and deep golden yellow mixing with everything in between. Some had streamers, others mysterious canisters, while one had strange boils. To Reginald's eyes, the strangest thing about them was how…unfaded they were. The colors looked as vibrant as if someone had just painted them before the crew had arrived. Even those that had fallen over were still pristine in color. He pointed this out to the scientists and sundry as quiet conversation had begun as Aiko's laughter, and the chatter of the birds, died away. He couldn't see them and the feeling of being watched settled heavily upon him.

"What do you think," he asked Gabi for orders, "start with the pillars, the ship, or both?"

Blaster had wandered over to one of the pillars and was just reaching out to touch one before Aiko suddenly spoke up, "I wouldn't touch them if I were you."

"Why not? What are they?" Reginald asked.

Aiko shrugged as she started to walk down, deeper into the valley. "Let's just say the stone remembers what's better forgotten. And the more you poke it, the more it sinks its talons into your head heart and head."

"Takeda, if there's danger here…"

"Danger? Of course there is. There are plenty of reasons why I'm the sole survivor of the last expedition into the realm of your Phoenixes. Spikes in my head keep me from remembering," she said, tapping her head, "but my heart knows. It knows that, before the day is done, you'll be quite busy dear Doctor Meadows."

She walked on, leaving Reginald twice as concerned for the lives in their operation than he had been.
 
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all the king's horses, all the king's men couldn't put me together again
the archer
Gabi eyed the flight of stairs warily. She supposed the danger was minimal since the tunnel’s inhabitants had been the ones accosting the group, but it still seemed abysmally stupid to go in blind. Before she could order Trion to conduct a scan, however, Takeda had taken off down the stairs. “Takeda-san, wait!” But the woman ignored her and vanished from view. She expected no less. She closed her eyes, praying for patience, and opened them again. “Keep your eyes open, everyone,” she said and started down after her.

The journey was, thankfully, unremarkable, and soon enough a staircase appeared ahead of them. As they stepped back out into the sunlight, Takeda began to laugh, but the manner of it made the hairs on Gabi’s arms stand up. It wasn’t one of joy, no. It was something far more sinister. But once again Takeda proved to be as useful as Blaster’s experimental exploding skateboards (programmed with AI to say things like “That was a BOMB jump!” before blowing up), which were sitting decommissioned somewhere back on base. Gabi was beginning to feel she should have left more than just those behind.

Her gaze swept across the landscape, and her eyebrows drew together in confusion. Nothing looked remotely the same. The swamp and the forest had disappeared entirely, replaced now by a lush valley. “Eve, how far are we from the dropship?” she asked.

“Fifty-three kilometers, captain,” came the response, though not without some static.

She kept the unease from her expression, but shot Reginald a significant look. It shouldn’t have been possible - but that seemed to be the theme of this trip, and she didn’t like it one bit. She followed Reginald’s gaze then to a ship, which had left a sizable scar in the face of the greenery around them. Her heartbeat picked up when she recognized it as the one from her vision, both from excitement and dread. Whatever they’d come for was here. She could feel it.

Dmitri came to stand beside her as Reginald asked for orders: ship or the pillars. Takeda’s flippant comments made the decision a rather easy one.

“Mangrove, Perseus, Trion, and Vlare, can the four of you get to work on the pillars? I want to know what makes them do…that,” she said, gesturing after Takeda. The cryptic comments were a cause for concern but not exactly something she didn’t already know. They should have sought somewhere else for their first mission, not this accursed place. She looked over to Harli and Ana and had to work very hard to suppress her irritation when she noticed Ana had looped her arm through Perseus’s, presumably under the context of being afraid. “Harli, Ana, keep scanning the area for approaching lifeforms. Call me paranoid but I think we’re not alone. Everyone else, let’s split off into pairs and search the ship. The sooner we find something the sooner we can get the hell out of here.” She glanced at Dmitri. “Come on,” she said to him, and together they began to climb the hill the ship had come to rest on. It was larger than a personal shuttle but still not very big, sleek and black in design.

Accessing the interior would be simple: the crash had left a sizable gash in the hull, though it was too high to reach with any amount of ease. “I’m not sure how we’ll get all the way up the-” she started to say, but was cut off by Dmitri scooping her up. He tossed her over his head and into the hull as if she were a ragdoll. She landed squarely on her ass and grimaced. Nice. She scrambled to her feet and looked down, scowling. A smirk was on his stupid face. “Show-off,” she grumbled, then glanced around as he helped the others up by carefully boosting them. The only other one who received the same treatment as her was Blaster, who was sent flying through the air with an indignant howl.
'cause all of my enemies started out friends. help me hold onto you.
Code by Jenamos
 
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