Post by Gigachad on Mar 13, 2022 20:29:32 GMT
Interstellar space-South of Yada Confederacy
Ka'nod was tense,sitting silently on the bridge of his vessel. For almost a day,his fleet had been silently tailing the Dark Hegemony,homing in on the psionic signature of the fake captives they had so foolishly taken in. He became worried when the force split up,thinking that they caught on to their scheme,but they was quickly dispelled when both of those groups seemingly stopped in their tracks. That was a few hours ago. Still,the pirates hadn't moved a bit and the lithorians in turn sent probes to make sense of the situation,yet all was silent still.
Without warning,a psionic display illuminated the chamber,and by extension the alien's visage,with a barrage of violet light. On it was a familiar face,one of his subordinates.
"Ah,Naz'kid. I assume our scouts sent back results?" He inquired,eager to finally get an accurate read on their prey.
"Indeed they have. The Dark Hegemony fleets seem to be docked at a large space port each,some ten thousand lightyears apart."
"Interesting,they have two bases of operation?"
"Unlikely. The structures bear none of their design choices,their iconography. There are vessels not matching their designs as well,and those that do aren't consistent with their supposed capabilities. It is likely these are dens of crime,slavers,the like. Beacons of lawlessness across the northern Invilis Corridor."
"I see,then it is time for us to pay them a visit. Take the first taskforce and depart for the first of these establishments."
"Understood,we will depart at once"
Just like that,the display vanished,drenching the chamber in darkness once more. This would not last,Ka'nod summoned another one of the projections, contacting another underling. A blackened complexion was on the other side,the glow of two red eyes its only discernable feature.
"Striz'ed,it is time to move out. Assemble the second task force and move to these coordinates" He ordered,quickly transferring the location of the second star port directly to the lithorian's mind.
"Exquisite!I assure you,my performance shall be flawless"
"It better be. The administrator of Oncuix spoke highly of you,I expect results"
Halora-Invilis Corridor
The arrival of the lithorian forces was sudden,unexpected. One moment the newest band of raiders had just arrived to add another ancerium harvester to the growing collection around the space port,the next several hundred ftl signatures popped up on scanners,heralding the arrival of a veritable armada of bioships.
Within the largest of these vessels,four pairs of crimson eyes watched the sensor readings intently
"My my,they've got themselves quite the catch" Naz'kid remarked,referring to the dozens of ancerium harvesters which,judging by gravimetric readings,were at anywhere from half capacity to filled up to the brim. The way they were arrayed was also something of note,they were being used as shields,a clever tactic given the sheer value of their cargo in these trying times.
"They have us good,we'll have to be precise about this" The alien continued,one hand clasping her face. Even with this handicap,they had the tools needed for such a job. In an instant,meson beams fired from the spinal emplacements of over a dozen battleships,passing through the array of hulls harmlessly before unleashing their energy at the true targets,weapon emplacements of particular girth dotting the frame of the star port. In a moment,their forms glowed as the radiation within fried all of their finer components,leaving them useless.
Still,the fight wasn't over. Even now dozens of ramshackle vessels from various pirate bands were assembling to face them. Some of them were in much better condition however,those of the Dark Hegemony. They had to be kept relatively undamaged however,so that they could be boarded. Even so,there was still the matter of invading the station itself. Being more akin to a spaceborne state,it was going to be a colossal undertaking.
Habitation district-5 hours after assault
Dralnok came bursting out of the bulkhead,flattening several soldiers in the process. As the metallic plates that made his epidermis slowly flowed and shifted,repairing deformations and plasma burns,he found himself upon some kind of terrace overlooking a city scape. A toothy grin contorted itself into being,they had at last fought their way through the superstructure.
It seemed he was not alone,the forms of explosions visible in the distance. Lithorian bioforms must've made their own puncture and were now spreading out. Swiftly,the creature leapt off the edge,his fall slowed to a halt as sharpened digits dug themselves into the side of a building. The lithorian began to ascend,picking up speed to the point of effectively galloping up the surface before a final leap landed him atop the tower's roof. Overlooking the cityscape,he could see packs of drones engage with pirate gangs,fighting over street after street.
The arrangement of horns atop the creature's head began to vibrate,establishing telepathic contact with his superior back in the fleet
"Where exactly is this target of mine?"
"He was last seen taking refuge inside a club called 'Golden Memories' " Naz'kid replied,currently overseeing the boarding of the Hegemony ships that had participated in the fight.
Dralnok's ethereal eyes began to scout the horizon,their magenta glow intensifying while pupils narrowed to felinid slits.
"I see it,a few klicks from my current position. I'll have him delivered soon"
His gaze soon found itself diverted to the street below. A band of armed raiders and a pair of what he presumed to be IFVs was heading to reinforce a fierce firefight between more of their kind and lithorian infantry grade creatures.
"A few minutes of fun never killed anyone…." He said to himself,leaping off the building carefully ascertaining his course,occasionally adjusting it with small jets of plasma from the gaps of his overlapping plates. A quick roll ensured his bundled arms would crash into one of the vehicles like a living missile.
The thing was flattened,is fuel tank detonating and promptly knocking back a good half of the armed men. A pair of bladed tendrils darted out if the smoke filled impact,disemboweling those who had lost their footing in a swooping motion.
The creature leapt out aswell,fast as a blur and swung its arm at another man's midsection,the force splitting him cleanly in two. The alien rose up and faced the terrified survivors,easily twice the height of the largest man there,with steam pouring from between its fangs. The metal plates on its knuckles rippled and flowed like liquid,producing a pair of blades for each arm which were immediately put to good use,the creature forth and disemboweling another man with a swing from them.
A hail of gunfire met the creature,doing little more than creating sparks as they bounced off the chrome like dermal layers. Its back tendrils stirred once more,shooting over the creature's shoulders and spearing two soldiers in the face before rebounding sending their corpses flying down the street. The alien began taking slow deliberate steps towards its foes,wading through their bursts without slowing down.
It swiftly caught a missile in its hand,eyes skimming it over before throwing the projectile back at the shooter,pulverized him and a score of his allies. Dralnok then extended his hand forward,a blade tipped shooting out of his wrist and coiling around a soldier's leg,crushing it and dragging the screaming man to his feet. With his other arm,he dug his claws into a nearby car and swiftly brought it down upon the soul,crushing the soldier in an instant before kicking the vehicle. The thing flew like a play ball,straight into two more men and into the concrete wall behind them.
As it became lost in the sickening amusement,the creature's five horns faintly vibrated,alerting it to a bout of movement from behind,much too big to be a soldier. The second IFV turned its autocannon and let loose upon the lithorian,who swiftly cartwheeled ahead of the lead rain before leaping onto the side of a housing complex. Now faced with an actual threat,the creature figured it was time to take things seriously. It jumped down and began circling the vehicle,being far too fast for the spinning to target. It steadily closed in,step by step,before grabbing the barrel with both hands,one foot set against the IFV's front. A few metallic groans were heard from the machine as it tried to pull away or move its gun to no avail,a sudden motion managing to rip the turret right off from the rest of the hull. The alien used it like a club,swinging it into the vehicles side which sent it swirling away. Unrelenting,it ran up to it and hit it from above,then did so again before leaping a good dozen meters off the ground and coming down with a final strike. The impact detonated the target's fuel tank,veiling them both in a fiery explosion and then smoke.
Emerging from the mess,the lithorian discreetly wiped the thick coating of dust now staining its metallic hide.
"Well,that went rather well. Now,about that club…"
The creature rounded a street corner,its target now in sight. A few klicks from it stood the supposed refuge of the station's top brass,a fact supported by the number of forces gathered at around it,and the copious amounts of heavy weapons they were using. If he had to guess,the man was probably awaiting extraction,so he had to hurry.
Getting on all fours,Dralnok's ethereal eyes carefully scouted the perimeter. His enemies had erected a crude barricade to block up the street,but leaping over it would be trivial. More concerning was the presence of machine guns and missile launchers,a few mortars too but he knew they could never hope to land a hit on him with those,at least barring some serious luck. No snipers in nearby buildings as far as he could tell,this would be straightforward.
In a blink,the alien took off,kicking off a storm of dust and debris in his wake as he accelerated. Naturally he was noticed immediately,with missiles flying out already while men frantically moved to target him with their machine guns. The lithorian narrowly avoided one atgm,leaping off to the side swiftly enough that the projectile had no time to course correct and hit the pavement. As the shrapnel of the resulting explosion bounced off his not so pristine dermal covering,the creature leapt into the sir. One hand extended,a bladed wire once more shot out of his wrist,hooking onto a car which was promptly swung into the second rocket.
Dralnok came out of the airborne detonation and landed through the makeshift barricade,going right through and skidding across the pavement for a few dozen meters,his legs creating sparks as the metal slid against the ground. Much to his surprise,all of the combatants began running for their lives,abandoning their position and desperately clambering up their own barricade. None of them were professional soldiers,and it seemed that no amount of payment by the crime lords of Halora was worth fighting a monstrosity like that.
His goal now within reach,the alien burst into the main lounge. It was quiet,with the chamber connected to a myriad of doors. One of them was rather heavy duty,the kind of bulkhead you'd need one hell of a bomb to get through. He was there,he had to be. The lithorian engaged in a battle of attrition against the construction,each punch denting the metal just a little more while each slash of hid digits of tendrils produced inch thick gashes in the construction. It took more than a minute,but eventually the abomination buried his arms,in the shredded center of the door and strained,slowly pulling the slabs of material open. The hydraulic lock gave in,tearing off its hinges and falling to the floor,the vault now swinging wide open.
"Knock knock motherfucker"
The highly modulated voice was all Dralnok heard before a strong impact to the lower jaw sent him flying. He got back to his feet,just in time to see a massive figure walking out of the hole he just made. The Capitol shock trooper chuckled,his mace still throbbing with a residual energy field after the hit. Another one of the giants emerged,then another,another yet. Soon enough ten of the goliaths were staring him down.
Behind was the man he has come here for,alongside a bodyguard of more regular troops.
"You better get to the roof chief,we'll handle this freak" The middle trooper blared,seemingly the group's leader judging by a number of medals dotting his power armour.
With a flurry of autocannons pointed his way,Dralnok could do little but watch as his objective slipped out of reach,leaving him alone with the newfound enemies.
"Leave him to me boys,this baby's had its fair share of seraphs back in the day,but never something this exotic!" He clenched the handle of his mace,causing it to once more be wreathed in pulsing energy. The bayonet on his autocannon expanded as well,he was looking to engage in close combat.
By now Dralnok had snapped his mandible back into place,black cords he had for muscles knitted themselves back together before his metallic exterior flowed over,erasing any proof of damage.The lithorian smiled,finally he could get his first taste of proper combat since escaping that wretched pit. He braced himself,expecting the shock trooper to go first.
He was right of course. The psychotic,metal clad man charged forward,aiming to swing his mace straight for the alien's skull. A well timed duck spared him that grim fate,followed by swiftly grabbing the brute's autocannon and forcing it to point at the ceiling,just in case he thought about sullying their duel. His other hand grabbed the mace,although the power field bit away at his palm as he did so.
"Not bad,chump,but I ain't about to lose to a bug" A headbutt from the ex capitolite broke their struggle and made the alien struggle back. The creature felt the mace hit him in the side,the force literally making him spin a few times before landing face first on the club floor. Thankfully,he had shifted his vital organs out of harm's way before the blow,but he was still going to be impaired before the giant dent in his side could heal.
Swiftly,he balanced upon one hand and delivered a pair of kicks to the shock troopers helmet,giving himself enough respite to flip back to his feet. From there,he bear hugged the man before supplexing him into the club floor,leaving a humanoid imprint. While his opponent still had the wind knocked out of them,the alien leapt a good dozen meters in the air,coming down upon the soldier's chest. As expected,all the fancy armour in the galaxy couldn't protect the fragile human within,the chest caved in and the pilot was reduced to a bloody mess judging by the bloodstains behind his visor.
Unsurprisingly,with their Commander reduced to a bloody pulp as a result of challenging the enemy to a duel,the other nine merely raised their weapons and unleashed their firepower upon him,not eager to meet the same fate. Dralnok was quite disappointed by this,as he was looking forward to more glorious one on one trials,but this was to be expected. If their enemies would use every trick at their disposal,so would he.
The creature backflipped high above the ground,the dent left by the Commander already seamlessly reformed. While in the air,the magenta glow around the lithorian's eyes intensified,then spilled forth as a pair of plasma beams. The shock trooper that was tagged by the attack died instantly,engulfed in a detonation that left his upper half a mangled mess.
Dralnok landed,then quickly took cover behind a pillar. The streams of shells remained unrelenting,but while peeking from behind the covered,he noticed that some of the capitolites were standing next to another support pillars. He ran out into the open,getting grazed by several shots in the process. Still,the bladed wires shot from his wrists and embedded themselves within the pillar. With a mighty pull,the thing was ripped off from its base,falling atop three of the power armored men and crushing them.
This victory was short lived,as a power mace hit him in the back and made him stumble. The trooper in question activated his built in grenade launcher,shooting one of the explosives straight at the lithorian's face,further disorienting them. The assault culminated in the bayonet of his autocannon finding itself within the alien's gut.
Sadly for him,this attack lacked the effectiveness of the others,as the creature before him was foreign to the concept of pain. Thus,when the soldier was about to fire their autocannon point blank into the wound,a quick fist to the weapon's middle split its barrel in two. The thing jammed as a result,quite catastrophically,creating an explosion and sending out a wave of shrapnel and smoke. The first two factors were of little concern to either one,but the latter limited the capitolite's visibility. He clutched his power mace with both hands quickly turning around to the sounds of footsteps and growls occasionally penetrating the hot exhaust.
He was as good as dead,a hand reached out and grabbed the mace,the energy peeling away at the metallic skin,but to no avail. It was forced aside as the rest of the lithorian became visible,first those glowing eyes,then its other hand which held onto his gun's barrel,bayonet attached. That would be the last thing he'd ever see,the lithorian proceeded to stab the blade through his left eye screen repeatedly,turning the face on the other side to a gorey mess.
More shots came in through the smoke,some of them dotting the alien's form with more wounds. They were firing blind,unlike Dralnok,whose eyes adjusted to the ultraviolet light given off the electronics in the troopers armour,appearing as faint dots amidst the smokescreen,good enough to locate them. His back tendrils shot up and plunged into the ceiling,propelling him out of the cloud. Spinning mid air,he was able to deliver an air kick to a soldier's center of mass,coring the armor and killing the person within. He leapt several body lengths towards another one,who had just managed to process the death of his squad mate. A swing of his arm was able to leave a set of deep claw marks upon the body,but not deep enough to reach the pilot,courtesy of him stepping back just in time.
In response,this new trooper stabbed his cannon's bayonet at Dralnok's chest. Not keen on being stabbed a second time,the creature managed to catch the blade between his palms,ripping it off in a swift motion and forcing it into one of the helmet's lenses,killing the opponent.
The remaining four were face to face with the alien,a tinge of fear present in their heavy modulated breaths. A scarlet glow built up in Dralnok's chest before a glob of plasma was expelled from his fanged maw,going straight through one of the troopers and indeed the wall behind him,artificial daylight shining through both of them for a moment before the former collapsed. The lithorian then pointed his arms at two of the remaining capitolites,the metal rippling violently before literally leaping upon then like some living creatures. While the two struggled to rip off these ferrous ooze restraining them,the third one bore witness as the lithorian's inky arms unravel into their constituent muscle cords. These proceeded to shoot out towards him like whips,lifting him off the ground in spite of his frantic slashing before tearing him limb from limb. At the same time,the metallic symbiotes tackling the other troopers oozed into their power armour,sprouted bladed protrusions and turned the men inside into minced meat.
When all was done,the oozed back to him,the tendrilic masses once more shaped into arms before being wrapped in their glistening armour. Across various wounds on his body,those same black muscles coiled and weaved into each other like serpents,before they too were covered by the liquid metal which smoothed and hardened to armour once more. Despite this,Dralnok fell to his knees,steam belowing forth from his mouth,he had overtaxed himself.
Unfortunately,there was no time to recuperate. The metal on his horns rippled,reacting to the sound of some sort of aerial vehicle. The lithorian quickly remembered that his target was on the roof and likely boarding this ride at that very moment. He reckoned he had about one more plasma strike in him,but there was no way to ascend the club in time,not in his current state. Looking at the corpses of his enemies,an idea crossed his mind. He picked up two autocannons from the perished shock troopers,one in each hand
After slicing off the ammo belts connecting to their backpack units,he let forth another plasma shot straight at the ceiling. As he hoped,it penetrated and went through the floors above,the fake light of the station shining down from the melted gash. Channeling what strength he had left,the lithorian leapt up,emerging from the gaping hole and onto the roof. The helicraft was in sight,already a few dozen meters in the distance,two turbines,one per wing,he had to be accurate. Bringing forth the autocannons,he let loose the lone burst of ammo that they had left,taking off both of the craft's wings,causing it to loose altitude and crash on the street below.
It was still in one piece,and should have had survivors as far as he could tell. The alien leapt back down to ground level,then proceeded to casually stroll towards the wreck,there was no rush after all. Already he could see a pilot clambering out of the wreckage,before sifting through the debris,likely looking for the same man he was. Without hesitation,he cut him down,then proceeded to toss away a piece of metal that had been pinning Halora's crime boss. The man bore an expression of pure terror as the lithorian grabbed him by the collar of his suit.
"W-WAIT! JUST WAIT! I've got a vault under my mansion! I'll give you everything in there! And our ancerium tanks,I'll hand you the codes to access them!"
"We don't need your help for that. What I want from you is answers. Why have the Dark Hegemony been raiding Garren's Clarity? Is someone hiring them?" The creature growled,emphasizing the message.
"I don't fucking know! They just use this place as a way point,I got no power over 'em!"
Dralnok wasn't satisfied,squeezing his throat.
"ALRIGHT! MY SPIES TELL ME IT'S SOME GOVERNMENT IN THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR! THAT'S ALL I KNOW,PLEASE!"
He let the man out of his grip,whom promptly back back in the dust and started gasping for air. To think a nation was hiring these raids was unthinkable. Worse,it wasn't someone they expected,like the Clanholds,but a polity that may well be their immediate neighbours.
Eclipso-Invilis Corridor
Striz'ed paced around the line of kneeling prisoners,each a captain from a Dark Hegemony ship they had seized. While they and other pirate groups put up a surprising resistance,the invasion of the space port was already well underway. By all projection,Eclipso would be theirs within hours.
He stopped in front of one captive whose face clad in wounds,some old scars,others more recent.
"You,are you going to tell me where your filthy den is,or would you like to spend more time with my drones?"
The man looked,a look of disdain in his eyes. He promptly spat on the creature in front of him. The thing didn't seem to react,or even be too bothered.
"Go to hell!"
"I see you need more time. Take him"
He began pacing once more,eyeing a man that seemed much more shaken than the others,his gaze always subtly trailing the alien.
"You,are you willing to talk?"
"Fuck you…"
A swift kick connected to his gut,leaving the pirate groaning mess on the floor. The creature squatted down by him.
"How about now? Was that persuasive enough?"
"S-….s-screw…."
Undeterred,the lithorian lifted the man up by his arm,then proceeded to break his fingers one by one. The precision was uncanny,his hand moving without the slightest hint of hesitation as if it were a surgical tool,completely unaffected by the captor's increasing cries.
"I'll ask you one more time. Tell me where your base is,or I'll break a lot more than just extremities"
"Th-....
The….
Hamilton
Hamilton system!
That's….th-the place"
"See? Was that so hard?" The Austral spawn said in a derogatory tone,swiftly turning to one of the other alien's in the room.
"Inform Ka'nod immediately,we know where to strike next"
With that out of the way,he propped the man up by the shoulder,noticing tears of pain still streaming down his face.
"I have one more question. Who? Who hired you to do all this?"
He turned around,visibly shaken
"I can't
The Commander would kill me"
"Unlikely. I doubt this Commander of yours will see the end of this day. If he does,it'll be in one of our holding pits. Now spill it before I loose my patience"
"The empire! It was the Carmeni Empire! They wanted reserves for the ancerium shortage!"
Striz'ed let him go,needing to contemplate the information. Apparently one of their neighbours,albeit an unpopular one with several A.C.O.M members,had been actively paying pirates to plunder the routes to Garren's Clarity. This was severe,but alas it was not him who would have to decide the response.
Interstellar space-Invilis Corridor
Ka'nod was pleased with the results. The two stations were effectively theirs save for isolated pockets of resistance,they had acquired more than a hundred armed vessels,questionable quality or not,alongside a hefty plunder of hyperfuel. While the news of Carmeni involvement was troubling,it did not matter in the scope of the operation.
Now,all that needed to be done was converging upon the Hegemony's base of operations,its location revealed by courtesy of their prisoners. He opened a psionic channel to both Naz'kid and Striz'ed,needing the undivided attention of both subordinates.
"I want both strike force Alpha and Omega to converge upon the Hamilton system in T-minus 500 seconds. Synchronise your ftl systems,we will all arrive at the same time"
The last statement was no doubt puzzling to the two. Ka'nods command ship,the Magnum Opus,was supposed to be just that,a safe place from where he would direct the fleet movements and reinforce only under absolute necessity. Still,it wasn't everyday that one had the chance to field test a strategic weapon…
Hamilton system-North of Umpreta Enterprises
At first,the operators thought this was some kind of malfunction,perhaps even a sick joke. One moment,their base's scanners showed nothing of note,just raiding parties going in and out,the former bringing back plunder,slaves and ancerium. Then they suddenly registered an ftl jump,followed by a gravimetric signature you'd expect to see from a celestial body,not a vessel. It was when hundreds of other signatures joined it that their fears were confirmed.
Facing the dwarf planet they called headquarters was a behemoth of a ship,five hundred kilometers long and biological in nation. Flanking it were entire fleets worth of more diminutive warships,each armed to the teeth with military hardware. This wasn't some pack of space vermin,it was a genuine pre meditated attack.
Communications were a nightmare,filled with frantic babblings of people who were yet to process the gravity of the situation or aggressively barking orders. A somewhat coherent response was made,with the fleet of ramshackle vessels releasing an alpha strike of missiles,supported by bases on the planet itself.
A wave of munitions went screaming towards the would be attackers,prompting a build up of gravity waves in the lead vessel. In an instant,kinetic waves ripped out of a handful of the ship's emplacements,destroying the brunt of the missiles while those in the back were thrown off course,easy picking for lithorian energy projectors.
The thing quickly responded in kind,firing out a trio of space distortions from its main emplacements,swirling vortexes of gravity waves that impacted particularly large vessels of the Hegemony,former supervisor haulers outfitted with copious amounts of missile and laser emplacements. Normally,such weapons were precise scalpels,bypassing armour and destroying vulnerable internals or the crew itself. The Magnum Opus did nor play by those rules,the gravitic "donuts" tore right through the hulks,turning everything they did not directly impact to an abstract art piece. In the end,the ship's were reduced to swirling spirals of material,warped around a gaping nothingness where the shots connected.
While the rest of the lithorian fleet engaged the scrambling reaver forces,the fourth gravitic mount of the Magnum Opus,the spinal,aimed at the base itself. This time,the flow of the gravity waves was inverted,turning the gravitic vortex cannon into something more akin to a tractor beam. To the utter disbelief of the enemy commanders,the dwarf planet stopped in its tracks,then proceeded to be pulled towards the lithorian fleet,its orbit being altered by the moment. Suffice to say,this show of the strategic weapon completely broke their morale,those who did not bolt for an escape instead flooded comms with pleas of mercy. The operation was over,the Hegemony's base belonged to alien masters now. While there were still plenty of ships that escaped,alongside others that remained unaccounted for,they would likely think twice before testing the collective's patience again. Better yet,it seemed their strategic weapon program was well worth the effort,though the other two were yet to be proven in combat. Of course,with the current state of the galaxy,this was bound to change…
Ka'nod was tense,sitting silently on the bridge of his vessel. For almost a day,his fleet had been silently tailing the Dark Hegemony,homing in on the psionic signature of the fake captives they had so foolishly taken in. He became worried when the force split up,thinking that they caught on to their scheme,but they was quickly dispelled when both of those groups seemingly stopped in their tracks. That was a few hours ago. Still,the pirates hadn't moved a bit and the lithorians in turn sent probes to make sense of the situation,yet all was silent still.
Without warning,a psionic display illuminated the chamber,and by extension the alien's visage,with a barrage of violet light. On it was a familiar face,one of his subordinates.
"Ah,Naz'kid. I assume our scouts sent back results?" He inquired,eager to finally get an accurate read on their prey.
"Indeed they have. The Dark Hegemony fleets seem to be docked at a large space port each,some ten thousand lightyears apart."
"Interesting,they have two bases of operation?"
"Unlikely. The structures bear none of their design choices,their iconography. There are vessels not matching their designs as well,and those that do aren't consistent with their supposed capabilities. It is likely these are dens of crime,slavers,the like. Beacons of lawlessness across the northern Invilis Corridor."
"I see,then it is time for us to pay them a visit. Take the first taskforce and depart for the first of these establishments."
"Understood,we will depart at once"
Just like that,the display vanished,drenching the chamber in darkness once more. This would not last,Ka'nod summoned another one of the projections, contacting another underling. A blackened complexion was on the other side,the glow of two red eyes its only discernable feature.
"Striz'ed,it is time to move out. Assemble the second task force and move to these coordinates" He ordered,quickly transferring the location of the second star port directly to the lithorian's mind.
"Exquisite!I assure you,my performance shall be flawless"
"It better be. The administrator of Oncuix spoke highly of you,I expect results"
Halora-Invilis Corridor
The arrival of the lithorian forces was sudden,unexpected. One moment the newest band of raiders had just arrived to add another ancerium harvester to the growing collection around the space port,the next several hundred ftl signatures popped up on scanners,heralding the arrival of a veritable armada of bioships.
Within the largest of these vessels,four pairs of crimson eyes watched the sensor readings intently
"My my,they've got themselves quite the catch" Naz'kid remarked,referring to the dozens of ancerium harvesters which,judging by gravimetric readings,were at anywhere from half capacity to filled up to the brim. The way they were arrayed was also something of note,they were being used as shields,a clever tactic given the sheer value of their cargo in these trying times.
"They have us good,we'll have to be precise about this" The alien continued,one hand clasping her face. Even with this handicap,they had the tools needed for such a job. In an instant,meson beams fired from the spinal emplacements of over a dozen battleships,passing through the array of hulls harmlessly before unleashing their energy at the true targets,weapon emplacements of particular girth dotting the frame of the star port. In a moment,their forms glowed as the radiation within fried all of their finer components,leaving them useless.
Still,the fight wasn't over. Even now dozens of ramshackle vessels from various pirate bands were assembling to face them. Some of them were in much better condition however,those of the Dark Hegemony. They had to be kept relatively undamaged however,so that they could be boarded. Even so,there was still the matter of invading the station itself. Being more akin to a spaceborne state,it was going to be a colossal undertaking.
Habitation district-5 hours after assault
Dralnok came bursting out of the bulkhead,flattening several soldiers in the process. As the metallic plates that made his epidermis slowly flowed and shifted,repairing deformations and plasma burns,he found himself upon some kind of terrace overlooking a city scape. A toothy grin contorted itself into being,they had at last fought their way through the superstructure.
It seemed he was not alone,the forms of explosions visible in the distance. Lithorian bioforms must've made their own puncture and were now spreading out. Swiftly,the creature leapt off the edge,his fall slowed to a halt as sharpened digits dug themselves into the side of a building. The lithorian began to ascend,picking up speed to the point of effectively galloping up the surface before a final leap landed him atop the tower's roof. Overlooking the cityscape,he could see packs of drones engage with pirate gangs,fighting over street after street.
The arrangement of horns atop the creature's head began to vibrate,establishing telepathic contact with his superior back in the fleet
"Where exactly is this target of mine?"
"He was last seen taking refuge inside a club called 'Golden Memories' " Naz'kid replied,currently overseeing the boarding of the Hegemony ships that had participated in the fight.
Dralnok's ethereal eyes began to scout the horizon,their magenta glow intensifying while pupils narrowed to felinid slits.
"I see it,a few klicks from my current position. I'll have him delivered soon"
His gaze soon found itself diverted to the street below. A band of armed raiders and a pair of what he presumed to be IFVs was heading to reinforce a fierce firefight between more of their kind and lithorian infantry grade creatures.
"A few minutes of fun never killed anyone…." He said to himself,leaping off the building carefully ascertaining his course,occasionally adjusting it with small jets of plasma from the gaps of his overlapping plates. A quick roll ensured his bundled arms would crash into one of the vehicles like a living missile.
The thing was flattened,is fuel tank detonating and promptly knocking back a good half of the armed men. A pair of bladed tendrils darted out if the smoke filled impact,disemboweling those who had lost their footing in a swooping motion.
The creature leapt out aswell,fast as a blur and swung its arm at another man's midsection,the force splitting him cleanly in two. The alien rose up and faced the terrified survivors,easily twice the height of the largest man there,with steam pouring from between its fangs. The metal plates on its knuckles rippled and flowed like liquid,producing a pair of blades for each arm which were immediately put to good use,the creature forth and disemboweling another man with a swing from them.
A hail of gunfire met the creature,doing little more than creating sparks as they bounced off the chrome like dermal layers. Its back tendrils stirred once more,shooting over the creature's shoulders and spearing two soldiers in the face before rebounding sending their corpses flying down the street. The alien began taking slow deliberate steps towards its foes,wading through their bursts without slowing down.
It swiftly caught a missile in its hand,eyes skimming it over before throwing the projectile back at the shooter,pulverized him and a score of his allies. Dralnok then extended his hand forward,a blade tipped shooting out of his wrist and coiling around a soldier's leg,crushing it and dragging the screaming man to his feet. With his other arm,he dug his claws into a nearby car and swiftly brought it down upon the soul,crushing the soldier in an instant before kicking the vehicle. The thing flew like a play ball,straight into two more men and into the concrete wall behind them.
As it became lost in the sickening amusement,the creature's five horns faintly vibrated,alerting it to a bout of movement from behind,much too big to be a soldier. The second IFV turned its autocannon and let loose upon the lithorian,who swiftly cartwheeled ahead of the lead rain before leaping onto the side of a housing complex. Now faced with an actual threat,the creature figured it was time to take things seriously. It jumped down and began circling the vehicle,being far too fast for the spinning to target. It steadily closed in,step by step,before grabbing the barrel with both hands,one foot set against the IFV's front. A few metallic groans were heard from the machine as it tried to pull away or move its gun to no avail,a sudden motion managing to rip the turret right off from the rest of the hull. The alien used it like a club,swinging it into the vehicles side which sent it swirling away. Unrelenting,it ran up to it and hit it from above,then did so again before leaping a good dozen meters off the ground and coming down with a final strike. The impact detonated the target's fuel tank,veiling them both in a fiery explosion and then smoke.
Emerging from the mess,the lithorian discreetly wiped the thick coating of dust now staining its metallic hide.
"Well,that went rather well. Now,about that club…"
The creature rounded a street corner,its target now in sight. A few klicks from it stood the supposed refuge of the station's top brass,a fact supported by the number of forces gathered at around it,and the copious amounts of heavy weapons they were using. If he had to guess,the man was probably awaiting extraction,so he had to hurry.
Getting on all fours,Dralnok's ethereal eyes carefully scouted the perimeter. His enemies had erected a crude barricade to block up the street,but leaping over it would be trivial. More concerning was the presence of machine guns and missile launchers,a few mortars too but he knew they could never hope to land a hit on him with those,at least barring some serious luck. No snipers in nearby buildings as far as he could tell,this would be straightforward.
In a blink,the alien took off,kicking off a storm of dust and debris in his wake as he accelerated. Naturally he was noticed immediately,with missiles flying out already while men frantically moved to target him with their machine guns. The lithorian narrowly avoided one atgm,leaping off to the side swiftly enough that the projectile had no time to course correct and hit the pavement. As the shrapnel of the resulting explosion bounced off his not so pristine dermal covering,the creature leapt into the sir. One hand extended,a bladed wire once more shot out of his wrist,hooking onto a car which was promptly swung into the second rocket.
Dralnok came out of the airborne detonation and landed through the makeshift barricade,going right through and skidding across the pavement for a few dozen meters,his legs creating sparks as the metal slid against the ground. Much to his surprise,all of the combatants began running for their lives,abandoning their position and desperately clambering up their own barricade. None of them were professional soldiers,and it seemed that no amount of payment by the crime lords of Halora was worth fighting a monstrosity like that.
His goal now within reach,the alien burst into the main lounge. It was quiet,with the chamber connected to a myriad of doors. One of them was rather heavy duty,the kind of bulkhead you'd need one hell of a bomb to get through. He was there,he had to be. The lithorian engaged in a battle of attrition against the construction,each punch denting the metal just a little more while each slash of hid digits of tendrils produced inch thick gashes in the construction. It took more than a minute,but eventually the abomination buried his arms,in the shredded center of the door and strained,slowly pulling the slabs of material open. The hydraulic lock gave in,tearing off its hinges and falling to the floor,the vault now swinging wide open.
"Knock knock motherfucker"
The highly modulated voice was all Dralnok heard before a strong impact to the lower jaw sent him flying. He got back to his feet,just in time to see a massive figure walking out of the hole he just made. The Capitol shock trooper chuckled,his mace still throbbing with a residual energy field after the hit. Another one of the giants emerged,then another,another yet. Soon enough ten of the goliaths were staring him down.
Behind was the man he has come here for,alongside a bodyguard of more regular troops.
"You better get to the roof chief,we'll handle this freak" The middle trooper blared,seemingly the group's leader judging by a number of medals dotting his power armour.
With a flurry of autocannons pointed his way,Dralnok could do little but watch as his objective slipped out of reach,leaving him alone with the newfound enemies.
"Leave him to me boys,this baby's had its fair share of seraphs back in the day,but never something this exotic!" He clenched the handle of his mace,causing it to once more be wreathed in pulsing energy. The bayonet on his autocannon expanded as well,he was looking to engage in close combat.
By now Dralnok had snapped his mandible back into place,black cords he had for muscles knitted themselves back together before his metallic exterior flowed over,erasing any proof of damage.The lithorian smiled,finally he could get his first taste of proper combat since escaping that wretched pit. He braced himself,expecting the shock trooper to go first.
He was right of course. The psychotic,metal clad man charged forward,aiming to swing his mace straight for the alien's skull. A well timed duck spared him that grim fate,followed by swiftly grabbing the brute's autocannon and forcing it to point at the ceiling,just in case he thought about sullying their duel. His other hand grabbed the mace,although the power field bit away at his palm as he did so.
"Not bad,chump,but I ain't about to lose to a bug" A headbutt from the ex capitolite broke their struggle and made the alien struggle back. The creature felt the mace hit him in the side,the force literally making him spin a few times before landing face first on the club floor. Thankfully,he had shifted his vital organs out of harm's way before the blow,but he was still going to be impaired before the giant dent in his side could heal.
Swiftly,he balanced upon one hand and delivered a pair of kicks to the shock troopers helmet,giving himself enough respite to flip back to his feet. From there,he bear hugged the man before supplexing him into the club floor,leaving a humanoid imprint. While his opponent still had the wind knocked out of them,the alien leapt a good dozen meters in the air,coming down upon the soldier's chest. As expected,all the fancy armour in the galaxy couldn't protect the fragile human within,the chest caved in and the pilot was reduced to a bloody mess judging by the bloodstains behind his visor.
Unsurprisingly,with their Commander reduced to a bloody pulp as a result of challenging the enemy to a duel,the other nine merely raised their weapons and unleashed their firepower upon him,not eager to meet the same fate. Dralnok was quite disappointed by this,as he was looking forward to more glorious one on one trials,but this was to be expected. If their enemies would use every trick at their disposal,so would he.
The creature backflipped high above the ground,the dent left by the Commander already seamlessly reformed. While in the air,the magenta glow around the lithorian's eyes intensified,then spilled forth as a pair of plasma beams. The shock trooper that was tagged by the attack died instantly,engulfed in a detonation that left his upper half a mangled mess.
Dralnok landed,then quickly took cover behind a pillar. The streams of shells remained unrelenting,but while peeking from behind the covered,he noticed that some of the capitolites were standing next to another support pillars. He ran out into the open,getting grazed by several shots in the process. Still,the bladed wires shot from his wrists and embedded themselves within the pillar. With a mighty pull,the thing was ripped off from its base,falling atop three of the power armored men and crushing them.
This victory was short lived,as a power mace hit him in the back and made him stumble. The trooper in question activated his built in grenade launcher,shooting one of the explosives straight at the lithorian's face,further disorienting them. The assault culminated in the bayonet of his autocannon finding itself within the alien's gut.
Sadly for him,this attack lacked the effectiveness of the others,as the creature before him was foreign to the concept of pain. Thus,when the soldier was about to fire their autocannon point blank into the wound,a quick fist to the weapon's middle split its barrel in two. The thing jammed as a result,quite catastrophically,creating an explosion and sending out a wave of shrapnel and smoke. The first two factors were of little concern to either one,but the latter limited the capitolite's visibility. He clutched his power mace with both hands quickly turning around to the sounds of footsteps and growls occasionally penetrating the hot exhaust.
He was as good as dead,a hand reached out and grabbed the mace,the energy peeling away at the metallic skin,but to no avail. It was forced aside as the rest of the lithorian became visible,first those glowing eyes,then its other hand which held onto his gun's barrel,bayonet attached. That would be the last thing he'd ever see,the lithorian proceeded to stab the blade through his left eye screen repeatedly,turning the face on the other side to a gorey mess.
More shots came in through the smoke,some of them dotting the alien's form with more wounds. They were firing blind,unlike Dralnok,whose eyes adjusted to the ultraviolet light given off the electronics in the troopers armour,appearing as faint dots amidst the smokescreen,good enough to locate them. His back tendrils shot up and plunged into the ceiling,propelling him out of the cloud. Spinning mid air,he was able to deliver an air kick to a soldier's center of mass,coring the armor and killing the person within. He leapt several body lengths towards another one,who had just managed to process the death of his squad mate. A swing of his arm was able to leave a set of deep claw marks upon the body,but not deep enough to reach the pilot,courtesy of him stepping back just in time.
In response,this new trooper stabbed his cannon's bayonet at Dralnok's chest. Not keen on being stabbed a second time,the creature managed to catch the blade between his palms,ripping it off in a swift motion and forcing it into one of the helmet's lenses,killing the opponent.
The remaining four were face to face with the alien,a tinge of fear present in their heavy modulated breaths. A scarlet glow built up in Dralnok's chest before a glob of plasma was expelled from his fanged maw,going straight through one of the troopers and indeed the wall behind him,artificial daylight shining through both of them for a moment before the former collapsed. The lithorian then pointed his arms at two of the remaining capitolites,the metal rippling violently before literally leaping upon then like some living creatures. While the two struggled to rip off these ferrous ooze restraining them,the third one bore witness as the lithorian's inky arms unravel into their constituent muscle cords. These proceeded to shoot out towards him like whips,lifting him off the ground in spite of his frantic slashing before tearing him limb from limb. At the same time,the metallic symbiotes tackling the other troopers oozed into their power armour,sprouted bladed protrusions and turned the men inside into minced meat.
When all was done,the oozed back to him,the tendrilic masses once more shaped into arms before being wrapped in their glistening armour. Across various wounds on his body,those same black muscles coiled and weaved into each other like serpents,before they too were covered by the liquid metal which smoothed and hardened to armour once more. Despite this,Dralnok fell to his knees,steam belowing forth from his mouth,he had overtaxed himself.
Unfortunately,there was no time to recuperate. The metal on his horns rippled,reacting to the sound of some sort of aerial vehicle. The lithorian quickly remembered that his target was on the roof and likely boarding this ride at that very moment. He reckoned he had about one more plasma strike in him,but there was no way to ascend the club in time,not in his current state. Looking at the corpses of his enemies,an idea crossed his mind. He picked up two autocannons from the perished shock troopers,one in each hand
After slicing off the ammo belts connecting to their backpack units,he let forth another plasma shot straight at the ceiling. As he hoped,it penetrated and went through the floors above,the fake light of the station shining down from the melted gash. Channeling what strength he had left,the lithorian leapt up,emerging from the gaping hole and onto the roof. The helicraft was in sight,already a few dozen meters in the distance,two turbines,one per wing,he had to be accurate. Bringing forth the autocannons,he let loose the lone burst of ammo that they had left,taking off both of the craft's wings,causing it to loose altitude and crash on the street below.
It was still in one piece,and should have had survivors as far as he could tell. The alien leapt back down to ground level,then proceeded to casually stroll towards the wreck,there was no rush after all. Already he could see a pilot clambering out of the wreckage,before sifting through the debris,likely looking for the same man he was. Without hesitation,he cut him down,then proceeded to toss away a piece of metal that had been pinning Halora's crime boss. The man bore an expression of pure terror as the lithorian grabbed him by the collar of his suit.
"W-WAIT! JUST WAIT! I've got a vault under my mansion! I'll give you everything in there! And our ancerium tanks,I'll hand you the codes to access them!"
"We don't need your help for that. What I want from you is answers. Why have the Dark Hegemony been raiding Garren's Clarity? Is someone hiring them?" The creature growled,emphasizing the message.
"I don't fucking know! They just use this place as a way point,I got no power over 'em!"
Dralnok wasn't satisfied,squeezing his throat.
"ALRIGHT! MY SPIES TELL ME IT'S SOME GOVERNMENT IN THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR! THAT'S ALL I KNOW,PLEASE!"
He let the man out of his grip,whom promptly back back in the dust and started gasping for air. To think a nation was hiring these raids was unthinkable. Worse,it wasn't someone they expected,like the Clanholds,but a polity that may well be their immediate neighbours.
Eclipso-Invilis Corridor
Striz'ed paced around the line of kneeling prisoners,each a captain from a Dark Hegemony ship they had seized. While they and other pirate groups put up a surprising resistance,the invasion of the space port was already well underway. By all projection,Eclipso would be theirs within hours.
He stopped in front of one captive whose face clad in wounds,some old scars,others more recent.
"You,are you going to tell me where your filthy den is,or would you like to spend more time with my drones?"
The man looked,a look of disdain in his eyes. He promptly spat on the creature in front of him. The thing didn't seem to react,or even be too bothered.
"Go to hell!"
"I see you need more time. Take him"
He began pacing once more,eyeing a man that seemed much more shaken than the others,his gaze always subtly trailing the alien.
"You,are you willing to talk?"
"Fuck you…"
A swift kick connected to his gut,leaving the pirate groaning mess on the floor. The creature squatted down by him.
"How about now? Was that persuasive enough?"
"S-….s-screw…."
Undeterred,the lithorian lifted the man up by his arm,then proceeded to break his fingers one by one. The precision was uncanny,his hand moving without the slightest hint of hesitation as if it were a surgical tool,completely unaffected by the captor's increasing cries.
"I'll ask you one more time. Tell me where your base is,or I'll break a lot more than just extremities"
"Th-....
The….
Hamilton
Hamilton system!
That's….th-the place"
"See? Was that so hard?" The Austral spawn said in a derogatory tone,swiftly turning to one of the other alien's in the room.
"Inform Ka'nod immediately,we know where to strike next"
With that out of the way,he propped the man up by the shoulder,noticing tears of pain still streaming down his face.
"I have one more question. Who? Who hired you to do all this?"
He turned around,visibly shaken
"I can't
The Commander would kill me"
"Unlikely. I doubt this Commander of yours will see the end of this day. If he does,it'll be in one of our holding pits. Now spill it before I loose my patience"
"The empire! It was the Carmeni Empire! They wanted reserves for the ancerium shortage!"
Striz'ed let him go,needing to contemplate the information. Apparently one of their neighbours,albeit an unpopular one with several A.C.O.M members,had been actively paying pirates to plunder the routes to Garren's Clarity. This was severe,but alas it was not him who would have to decide the response.
Interstellar space-Invilis Corridor
Ka'nod was pleased with the results. The two stations were effectively theirs save for isolated pockets of resistance,they had acquired more than a hundred armed vessels,questionable quality or not,alongside a hefty plunder of hyperfuel. While the news of Carmeni involvement was troubling,it did not matter in the scope of the operation.
Now,all that needed to be done was converging upon the Hegemony's base of operations,its location revealed by courtesy of their prisoners. He opened a psionic channel to both Naz'kid and Striz'ed,needing the undivided attention of both subordinates.
"I want both strike force Alpha and Omega to converge upon the Hamilton system in T-minus 500 seconds. Synchronise your ftl systems,we will all arrive at the same time"
The last statement was no doubt puzzling to the two. Ka'nods command ship,the Magnum Opus,was supposed to be just that,a safe place from where he would direct the fleet movements and reinforce only under absolute necessity. Still,it wasn't everyday that one had the chance to field test a strategic weapon…
Hamilton system-North of Umpreta Enterprises
At first,the operators thought this was some kind of malfunction,perhaps even a sick joke. One moment,their base's scanners showed nothing of note,just raiding parties going in and out,the former bringing back plunder,slaves and ancerium. Then they suddenly registered an ftl jump,followed by a gravimetric signature you'd expect to see from a celestial body,not a vessel. It was when hundreds of other signatures joined it that their fears were confirmed.
Facing the dwarf planet they called headquarters was a behemoth of a ship,five hundred kilometers long and biological in nation. Flanking it were entire fleets worth of more diminutive warships,each armed to the teeth with military hardware. This wasn't some pack of space vermin,it was a genuine pre meditated attack.
Communications were a nightmare,filled with frantic babblings of people who were yet to process the gravity of the situation or aggressively barking orders. A somewhat coherent response was made,with the fleet of ramshackle vessels releasing an alpha strike of missiles,supported by bases on the planet itself.
A wave of munitions went screaming towards the would be attackers,prompting a build up of gravity waves in the lead vessel. In an instant,kinetic waves ripped out of a handful of the ship's emplacements,destroying the brunt of the missiles while those in the back were thrown off course,easy picking for lithorian energy projectors.
The thing quickly responded in kind,firing out a trio of space distortions from its main emplacements,swirling vortexes of gravity waves that impacted particularly large vessels of the Hegemony,former supervisor haulers outfitted with copious amounts of missile and laser emplacements. Normally,such weapons were precise scalpels,bypassing armour and destroying vulnerable internals or the crew itself. The Magnum Opus did nor play by those rules,the gravitic "donuts" tore right through the hulks,turning everything they did not directly impact to an abstract art piece. In the end,the ship's were reduced to swirling spirals of material,warped around a gaping nothingness where the shots connected.
While the rest of the lithorian fleet engaged the scrambling reaver forces,the fourth gravitic mount of the Magnum Opus,the spinal,aimed at the base itself. This time,the flow of the gravity waves was inverted,turning the gravitic vortex cannon into something more akin to a tractor beam. To the utter disbelief of the enemy commanders,the dwarf planet stopped in its tracks,then proceeded to be pulled towards the lithorian fleet,its orbit being altered by the moment. Suffice to say,this show of the strategic weapon completely broke their morale,those who did not bolt for an escape instead flooded comms with pleas of mercy. The operation was over,the Hegemony's base belonged to alien masters now. While there were still plenty of ships that escaped,alongside others that remained unaccounted for,they would likely think twice before testing the collective's patience again. Better yet,it seemed their strategic weapon program was well worth the effort,though the other two were yet to be proven in combat. Of course,with the current state of the galaxy,this was bound to change…