Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 15:32:30 GMT
The Arrow headed form of an Annointed frigate transitions back into real space well off what was recorded as the edge of the Singers territory, turning on its IFF's the vessel begins to release a series of rhythmic and obvious telepathic pulses into space, the intent was to grab the singers attention without announcing the visit to every asshole in the galaxy that might have a listening post nearby.
"Think they'll hear us captain."
Stracken spares his psi officer a glance as he drags himself away from the first reports of Skalia's little Dectrothian rampage long enough to answer.
The newly commissioned Scintillator Lament of Adraniel had just completed it shakedown flight. The new vessel was at the edges of the Anais Unity's territory, and was just about to turn back to Shimmering Veil when many of the crew picked up the telepathic broadcast from the Arrow.
A high percentage of the crew of all Scintillators were telepathically trained, due to the nature of the technology used in the new ships. The Ship Leader, Avrel-Naret was a particularly strong telepath and he soon zeroed in on the source of the telepathic signals. "ComScan, Signal Fleet Command at Shimmering Veil. Tell them we are investigating a telepathic broadcast, I am guessing Annointed in nature."
Avrel-Naret, like most highly developed telepaths in the Anais Unity, had picked up the ripples from the event at Kaikoma. Although he did not know the details he realized a psionic event of incredible power had taken place there. "Helm, take us in. Alert condition Digam" he said shortly before the massive Scintillator phased out of normal space for a quick trip to the spot of the Annointed vessel.
Emerging from the Void between Universes several thousand kilometers from the Annointed ship., Lament of Adraniel scanned the area, and then broadcast a telepathic signal of it's own.
Annointed Vessel. This is Ship Leader Avrel-Naret of SVS Lament of Adraniel. We have come in answer to your telepathic missive. What brings you to the Anais Unity? Am I to assume it is of great import as you have used a more secure means of communication?
The reply comes quickly and is delivered in Stracken's gruff particularly no nonsense voice. "I come seeking help Ship Leader Arvel-Naret, it seems as if an issue of.... incredible foreboding and danger has arisen, i would request an audience with Laenas- for myself and representatives from the Black Sail Organization."
As if on queue bright flashes began all over the area and moments later the distinct forms of the Black Sail Organization's vessels began emerging from slip space. By the time the last vessel had finished its transition there were a hundred and sixty ships bearing the distinct insignia's of both the Black Sail Organization and the West 49th Firm.
Almost as soon as the last vessel had finished the comms channel came to life.
"For fuck's sake Charlie! I told you to hold a few systems back!"
"No you didn't,"
"Yes I fucking did!!!"
"No you didn't, you said to come with you and bring everything,"
Avrel-Naret saw the incoming trans-dimensional shifts of the incoming BSO vessels in his neural display. The Scintillator's quantum computer near-instantly categorized them as mostly smaller vessels in the escort through destroyer classes. Still, this close to their territory the response was nearly automatic.
Two other Scintillators, Lament of Night and Lament of Eternity phased in-accompanied by 9 Battlecrystals and 15 Liadris units. The last to arrive was the eerily glowing Harvester Ship Laenas. Laenas' multiresonant voice echoed over the BSO and Annointed communications arrays. You seek an audience with me, It is granted. To what do I owe the...pleasure? The Harvester ship took on a mostly orange and blue mix of hues as it waited in space for a reply. The Scintillators and other ships floating silently.
Stracken groans out loud as his bridge crew winces at the BSO's minor fuck up.
"Limey cunts."
He mutters in aggravation. "Good day Laenas i am captain Stracken acting high admiral of the Annointed empire, i am afraid i come today to discuss the lead up to and future actions regarding a certain large scale psionic event I'm sure you have noticed."
Laenas "floated" inside her Harvester Ship and listened to Stracken's telepathic transmission. The actions of your compatriots have been analyzed and written off as sloppiness. No malice is ascribed to their actions. I have indeed sensed the disturbance in question, it was most impressive.
I also recognized the source of that disturbance. It seemed to be Skalia-but different somehow, like she was suffering from what humans would consider insanity or perhaps even possession. This is a matter of concern of course considering the magnitude of her psionic potential.
We can all meet on Lament of Adraniel if desired-or perhaps a station or other spot of mutual choice. Considering the matter at hand psionic communications might not be the most secure or private.
"Apologies for my brother's fuck up," Reggie said, oblivious to the ongoing psionic conversation. "He didn't mean nothing by it, but he's an idiot,"
"Well fuck you Reg. You said to bring the whole fleet innit ya cunt,"
"Fuck off with that will you Charlie? Right well, I'd like to suggest we have this conversation face to face. Me, Charlie, a few of my men and women, and Stracken, yeah? Say... your ship? And before we come over Charlie will get the rest of the fleet out of here. Won't you Charlie?"
"Drives gotta recharge Reg. Whatchu think I am? A bloody fairy?" "Charlie, just move them to the other side of the bloody system!"
The three Scintillators took up a triangular formation around the Harvester. Laenas spoke to all over STS laser comm bands this time.
"Flight plans will be downloaded to your computers. Once aboard, you will be shown to a conference room where we will meet, I look forward to meeting with you all. This is after all a rather notable situation and I will do what I can to resolve it."
The Battlecrystals and Liadris units started flying patrol formations around the Scintillators and Harvester, several deploying Probe Pods for recon use. The pods moved out slowly with a series of soft beep sounds.
The West 49th Firm's ships began to make their way to the opposite end of the system save for a pair of battlecruisers. Both of the ships soon deployed shuttles which made their way along the flight courses to the Scintillator.
The two shuttles landed and their crews disembarked. The twins were the first off, each dressed professionally in cleanly pressed suits and ties. They looked identical except Charlie wore a pair of thick rimmed glasses.
After them came a quartet of combat operators, each dressed in ballistic body suits and tactical equipment. Their weapons remained holstered, and their faces remained hidden behind masks and helmets.
Finally, the last ones off the shuttles were the two pilots, both of who lit up cigarettes and seemingly had no intention of leaving the shuttles.
Stracken ran his hand through his hair shifting the preserved hyena head on his shoulder slightly.
"Alright get me a shuttle ready."
With a hiss of launch gas the small shuttle begins its journey to the Scintillator a short trip sped up by a simple telekinetic launch. As the shuttle touches down Stracken exits via the away ramp and steps onto the bay floors with a heavy thud alone.
As the BSO and Annointed delegations each landed on Lament of Adraniel they were met by a mall detachment of both diplomatic attaches and security personnel. They were shown to one of the ship's main conference/briefing chambers, where Ship Leader Avrel-Naret waited. The Ship Leader wore a black uniform with dark blue/purple piping, his blonde hair falling halfway down his back. Androgynous in appearance like most Mu, he nonetheless had a look about him of seriousness and strength.
"Please take a seat." he said to Stracken and the two BSO twins. "Blessed Laenas will be here shortly." As he finished speaking a multicolored flame started burning in midair, and an odd hum filled the air, Slowly the flame expanded and then a woman's shape slowly started taking form inside it. Blond like the Ship Leader, Laenas' hair went to mid-thigh, and she wore a simple white satin gown, similar in many ways to those worn by her parents, S(he) stood there, the multicolored flame limning her like an aura.
"Greetings and Salutations, High Admiral Stracken, Reggie and Charlie." S(he) looked at the twins for a moment, smiling. "Identical twins I see. Are you Bondtwins as well? In any case welcome to our vessel. We should get down to business. What happened to Skalia? Her essence has changed much since I saw her at the AGA meeting. If I had to guess, she appears to be possessed-though I am not sure of by what."
"Bondtwins? What is she on about Reg?"
"I don't know Charlie. Could you keep quiet?"
"Skalia got done," Charlie continued without pause. "Got stabbed in the child hood memories she did,"
"She was stabbed with a soul killing weapon Charlie," Reggie said. "If you're going to speak at least have the facts straight."
"We need better guns," One of the subjugators said abruptly, interrupting the conversation. Her voice came through an external speaker, face still hidden behind the opaque of her helmets mask.
"We can shoot them with Thermite or plasma but they won't die. They just reform again. We need to kill them so they stay dead,"
Both the Arnott twins stared at the Subjugator, making clear she'd spoken put of turn before turning back to Laenas.
"Protection too if we're on the subject," Reggie said. "We don't have any defense against their mind fuckery."
Laenas listened to what Reggie had to say about the soul killer weapon. "Am I to understand then that Skalia's original essence was trapped/stored somewhere? Or has her essence been terminated? We can provide some defensive equipment-though against someone of Skalia's magnitude I do not honestly know how effective it would be. As far as for dealing with Skalia herself it seems the best thing to do would be in essence-pardon the pun, the same thing that was done to her but in revere."
"Drain off/absorb the possessing life essence, and infuse Skalia's original essence back into her. Would you by chance happen to have the specific weapon that was used?"
"I need weapons!" The Subjugator snapped, slamming both hands down on the table and once more drawing the gaze of the twins.
"We don't have shit. We have these two, a hundred and sixty ships and Stracken. That's it. We don't have a single goddamn thing and we can't get a single fucking thing unless someone gives me a fucking gun that can actually kill these fuckers!"
After a prolonged silenced Reggie cleared his throat.
"What Angel means is..."
"I said what I fucking mean," She growled returning to her position in line with the other Subjugators.
Laenas said "Well, I can send someone along with you who will be able to perform the final takeout/cure on Skalia. I can provide some synaptic disruption weapons which should prove effective in action against Skalia. Be aware that these are loans for the duration of the mission. My representative will be equipped with Lyrium based weaponry that should be able to purge the possessing force from Skalia." S(he) nodded to Avrel-Naret, who left the room after bowing to Laenas.
"This is the best I can offer for now. We should probably try to find the weapon that holds Skalia's essence. That would make this affair a lot easier to deal with." Turning to Stracken, Laenas sad "High Admiral. What is the current magnitude of energy Skalia is capable of manipulating?"
Laenas then turned back to the twins. "What can you tell me about the force that did this to Skalia? It could provide clues as to their future actions."
"She don't mean a weapon to kill the sheep lady," Charlie said. "She wants a gun that can kill the rest of the blokes. Tell her Reg,"
"Don't encourage her Charlie. She's supposed to stay silent and just do as she's told. She was killed by some rogue element of the Annointed,"
"Red Letter they call themselves," Charlie added.
"Whatever. They shot up one of our freeports as well,"
Stracken clears his throat loudly, he had been content to let the sheep talk among themselves for the time being but there were some details that required clarification.
Fixing Angel with a stern stair he speaks.
"While Angel is correct in that we need weapons to properly slay theses "Red letter soldiers" she seems to have gotten rather excited and i apologize for my friends excitability."
Having finished his apology he turns to face Laenas.
"On the topic of possession i am afraid that what has happened to her is much more insidious, us Annointed are not a single soul, it is hard to tell without knowing but "i" am actually several thousand different souls working together to create the person you know as Stracken, within this gestalt my morals, opinions and convictions are decided by the majority opinions of each person forming my "neurons" for lack of a better word, it seems Skalia's gestalt was selectively murdered using the soul killing blade until only individuals with views aligning to her kidnappers were left, it would explain why she is so weak at the moment to."
"The synaptic disruptor should work against the more typical Annointed soldiers." Laenas said. "My emissary will deal with our wayward lamb..." At this moment the door to the conference room opened and Avrel-Naret returned. He was now wearing a black bodystocking, with a crystalline and metal exoskeleton of sorts.
"Is there anything left of Skalia's primary gestalt left to restore?" Laenas spoke to Stracken. "Or is this mission more extermination then rescue?"
"We simply need to render her more.... pliable and docile so we can inject replacements for her missing souls so as to realign her views to what they once were."
"Very well then." Laenas replied. "My emissary will be able to... nullify the hostile souls in question. With a little assistance" s(he said with a smile.
"Realigning Skalia's all well and good," Reggie interceded. "But we still gotta kill the bastards that did this to her in the first place. If you want to go after Skalia, be my guest, but someone's gotta go after the Red Letter blokes,"
"I will send some additional units to help deal with any Red Letter ships or troops." Laenas says. "This will enable the attempt to purge Skalia to proceed."
"Thank you."
Stracken responds with a small nod, the briefness of his response doing more to convey his gratitude than any long speech the admiral could muster.
Clicking his tongue Stracken's eyes drift back to Angel. "If you want i may be able to call In a favour from the church and have a shard rifle bought in for you, it's very good at piercing our psi shields but it wont put us down permanently, perhaps how ever used in tandem with the Singers' synaptic disintegrators it may prove much more effective, constructed into a single rifle stock with Laenas' permission? A joint project of sorts."
"Shard type weapons are used by us...and often as a means of conducting psychometric attacks. Laenas said, nodding to Stracken. "It should be possible to modify a weapon as you desire." Turning to Avrel-Naret s(he) said "Are you ready?" to which the Ship Leader said "As ready as is possible..."
Laenas started to fade, her physical form almost dissipating. The cloud of multihued energy moved over Avrel-Naret and then seemed to disappear, absorbed into his body. Avrel-Naret went rigid as if subjected to an electric shock. The crystalline parts of the exoskeletal like garment he wore glowed a multicolored light, and then faded. Laenas then reformed a short distance from the table.
"I will be accompanying you in Lament of Innocence as well. I hope she will not be needed in her primary mode-but she could prove useful in other aspects."
"I'm sure the shard guns and such will be enough boom for Angel and the rest of the Subjugators. Now all they'll need is someone to use them on," Reggie concluded, digging through his pockets for his cigarette pack.
"That about cover it for now?"
"Aye it does." Laenas replied. "I will begin assembling my forces for the mission, we will be ready to depart within the hour." Avrel-Naret, having recovered from his experience, looked toward Laenas, and at a nod began issuing orders through his comms relay. Turning to Stracken, Laenas added "As you are most familiar with the quarry, You should probably have operational command during the pursuit phase."
"Yes that is for the best blessed Laenas." Pushing his shoulder bound hyena head backwards to rest more comfortably on his shoulders he lingers his gaze over everyone assembled. "There are several high value targets i would like to hit before we go for Skalia directly, may i borrow some of your subjugators, lamb?"
Why's he calling us lambs Reg? He knows we're human don't he?"
"It would be kind of hard to miss Charlie," Reggie answered with a sigh. "Yeah, take Angel. She seems real keen to get in the shit. Charlie and I gotta go meet up with the Dectrose after we're done here so we'll catch up with you once we've got them sorted."
"The whole lamb/sheep thing is religious nomenclature. Priests and such are the Shepherds, the lay worshippers are the flock or lambs/sheep. Yes, I know that you do not follow their religion, but such is the nature of Faith." Laenas said. "Among our own faith we use 'nestling' in much the same way. I am sure no insult is intended though it doe sound a bit odd at first."
"What are the galactic coordinates that our forces should meet up at?" s(he) added, her gaze moving between Stracken and the Twins.
"Its formality for us in the military, I couldn't care less about the church's religion"
Taking a few moments to poor over his own meta concert for a suitable muster location Stracken draws a blank.
"Here I'm afraid my expertise dries up, nomadic life has not exactly given us a suitable staging ground."
Maybe we're best off just keeping in contact," Reggie suggested. "That way once we've wrapped up with the Dectrose we can meet back up somewhere strategic based on the latest intel. Skalia probably won't stay in one place so why should our rendezvous?"
"That is logical Reggie. she will likely stay moving." Laenas said "So I concur that we should have some sort of common comms frequency or method and respond accordingly to her movements. High Admiral, it might also help if I knew what the strategic goal of these Shades and Red Letter Day soldiers are. Knowing an enemy's motivation is naturally very important."
"Their only goal is to kill humans en masse where ever they find them in some warped mission of mercy to our creators, believing foolishly that sending mankind to the afterlife will keep them safe from any whom seek to harm them."
"Very well then. Our fleet will follow behind in the Void between Universes. Conditions will be arranged so Stracken can contact us when we are needed." Laenas said.
"Lament of Innocence will be contacted by Avrel-Naret when the time come for the final confrontation with Skalia. I feel I should personally remain in the background before that point as to not alert Skalia to my presence." Fleet Leader Avrel-Naret, you have command." Laenas then phased out, shimmering in the air before disappearing.
Outside Lament of Adraniel, the Anais Unity's fleet had gathered, and now stood ready, awaiting orders. Avrel-Naret turned to Stracken. "It's your show now, High Admiral."
Standing up Stracken nods sharply to Avrel-Naret.
"I will contact you all when the time comes."
Looking now to the BSO reps he continues.
"For the sake of efficiency perhaps it best Angel leave with me now, the matter we require her for is urgent enough that time is a valuable commodity and should not be spent "fucking around""
"Top," Reggie said. "Saves me having to deal with her dour attitude."
He stretched and nodded to Stracken.
Avrel-Naret looked from Stracken to the BSO twins. "We shall b waiting for your call then, High Admiral. Good Luck, and Good Hunting"
"Think they'll hear us captain."
Stracken spares his psi officer a glance as he drags himself away from the first reports of Skalia's little Dectrothian rampage long enough to answer.
The newly commissioned Scintillator Lament of Adraniel had just completed it shakedown flight. The new vessel was at the edges of the Anais Unity's territory, and was just about to turn back to Shimmering Veil when many of the crew picked up the telepathic broadcast from the Arrow.
A high percentage of the crew of all Scintillators were telepathically trained, due to the nature of the technology used in the new ships. The Ship Leader, Avrel-Naret was a particularly strong telepath and he soon zeroed in on the source of the telepathic signals. "ComScan, Signal Fleet Command at Shimmering Veil. Tell them we are investigating a telepathic broadcast, I am guessing Annointed in nature."
Avrel-Naret, like most highly developed telepaths in the Anais Unity, had picked up the ripples from the event at Kaikoma. Although he did not know the details he realized a psionic event of incredible power had taken place there. "Helm, take us in. Alert condition Digam" he said shortly before the massive Scintillator phased out of normal space for a quick trip to the spot of the Annointed vessel.
Emerging from the Void between Universes several thousand kilometers from the Annointed ship., Lament of Adraniel scanned the area, and then broadcast a telepathic signal of it's own.
Annointed Vessel. This is Ship Leader Avrel-Naret of SVS Lament of Adraniel. We have come in answer to your telepathic missive. What brings you to the Anais Unity? Am I to assume it is of great import as you have used a more secure means of communication?
The reply comes quickly and is delivered in Stracken's gruff particularly no nonsense voice. "I come seeking help Ship Leader Arvel-Naret, it seems as if an issue of.... incredible foreboding and danger has arisen, i would request an audience with Laenas- for myself and representatives from the Black Sail Organization."
As if on queue bright flashes began all over the area and moments later the distinct forms of the Black Sail Organization's vessels began emerging from slip space. By the time the last vessel had finished its transition there were a hundred and sixty ships bearing the distinct insignia's of both the Black Sail Organization and the West 49th Firm.
Almost as soon as the last vessel had finished the comms channel came to life.
"For fuck's sake Charlie! I told you to hold a few systems back!"
"No you didn't,"
"Yes I fucking did!!!"
"No you didn't, you said to come with you and bring everything,"
Avrel-Naret saw the incoming trans-dimensional shifts of the incoming BSO vessels in his neural display. The Scintillator's quantum computer near-instantly categorized them as mostly smaller vessels in the escort through destroyer classes. Still, this close to their territory the response was nearly automatic.
Two other Scintillators, Lament of Night and Lament of Eternity phased in-accompanied by 9 Battlecrystals and 15 Liadris units. The last to arrive was the eerily glowing Harvester Ship Laenas. Laenas' multiresonant voice echoed over the BSO and Annointed communications arrays. You seek an audience with me, It is granted. To what do I owe the...pleasure? The Harvester ship took on a mostly orange and blue mix of hues as it waited in space for a reply. The Scintillators and other ships floating silently.
Stracken groans out loud as his bridge crew winces at the BSO's minor fuck up.
"Limey cunts."
He mutters in aggravation. "Good day Laenas i am captain Stracken acting high admiral of the Annointed empire, i am afraid i come today to discuss the lead up to and future actions regarding a certain large scale psionic event I'm sure you have noticed."
Laenas "floated" inside her Harvester Ship and listened to Stracken's telepathic transmission. The actions of your compatriots have been analyzed and written off as sloppiness. No malice is ascribed to their actions. I have indeed sensed the disturbance in question, it was most impressive.
I also recognized the source of that disturbance. It seemed to be Skalia-but different somehow, like she was suffering from what humans would consider insanity or perhaps even possession. This is a matter of concern of course considering the magnitude of her psionic potential.
We can all meet on Lament of Adraniel if desired-or perhaps a station or other spot of mutual choice. Considering the matter at hand psionic communications might not be the most secure or private.
"Apologies for my brother's fuck up," Reggie said, oblivious to the ongoing psionic conversation. "He didn't mean nothing by it, but he's an idiot,"
"Well fuck you Reg. You said to bring the whole fleet innit ya cunt,"
"Fuck off with that will you Charlie? Right well, I'd like to suggest we have this conversation face to face. Me, Charlie, a few of my men and women, and Stracken, yeah? Say... your ship? And before we come over Charlie will get the rest of the fleet out of here. Won't you Charlie?"
"Drives gotta recharge Reg. Whatchu think I am? A bloody fairy?" "Charlie, just move them to the other side of the bloody system!"
The three Scintillators took up a triangular formation around the Harvester. Laenas spoke to all over STS laser comm bands this time.
"Flight plans will be downloaded to your computers. Once aboard, you will be shown to a conference room where we will meet, I look forward to meeting with you all. This is after all a rather notable situation and I will do what I can to resolve it."
The Battlecrystals and Liadris units started flying patrol formations around the Scintillators and Harvester, several deploying Probe Pods for recon use. The pods moved out slowly with a series of soft beep sounds.
The West 49th Firm's ships began to make their way to the opposite end of the system save for a pair of battlecruisers. Both of the ships soon deployed shuttles which made their way along the flight courses to the Scintillator.
The two shuttles landed and their crews disembarked. The twins were the first off, each dressed professionally in cleanly pressed suits and ties. They looked identical except Charlie wore a pair of thick rimmed glasses.
After them came a quartet of combat operators, each dressed in ballistic body suits and tactical equipment. Their weapons remained holstered, and their faces remained hidden behind masks and helmets.
Finally, the last ones off the shuttles were the two pilots, both of who lit up cigarettes and seemingly had no intention of leaving the shuttles.
Stracken ran his hand through his hair shifting the preserved hyena head on his shoulder slightly.
"Alright get me a shuttle ready."
With a hiss of launch gas the small shuttle begins its journey to the Scintillator a short trip sped up by a simple telekinetic launch. As the shuttle touches down Stracken exits via the away ramp and steps onto the bay floors with a heavy thud alone.
As the BSO and Annointed delegations each landed on Lament of Adraniel they were met by a mall detachment of both diplomatic attaches and security personnel. They were shown to one of the ship's main conference/briefing chambers, where Ship Leader Avrel-Naret waited. The Ship Leader wore a black uniform with dark blue/purple piping, his blonde hair falling halfway down his back. Androgynous in appearance like most Mu, he nonetheless had a look about him of seriousness and strength.
"Please take a seat." he said to Stracken and the two BSO twins. "Blessed Laenas will be here shortly." As he finished speaking a multicolored flame started burning in midair, and an odd hum filled the air, Slowly the flame expanded and then a woman's shape slowly started taking form inside it. Blond like the Ship Leader, Laenas' hair went to mid-thigh, and she wore a simple white satin gown, similar in many ways to those worn by her parents, S(he) stood there, the multicolored flame limning her like an aura.
"Greetings and Salutations, High Admiral Stracken, Reggie and Charlie." S(he) looked at the twins for a moment, smiling. "Identical twins I see. Are you Bondtwins as well? In any case welcome to our vessel. We should get down to business. What happened to Skalia? Her essence has changed much since I saw her at the AGA meeting. If I had to guess, she appears to be possessed-though I am not sure of by what."
"Bondtwins? What is she on about Reg?"
"I don't know Charlie. Could you keep quiet?"
"Skalia got done," Charlie continued without pause. "Got stabbed in the child hood memories she did,"
"She was stabbed with a soul killing weapon Charlie," Reggie said. "If you're going to speak at least have the facts straight."
"We need better guns," One of the subjugators said abruptly, interrupting the conversation. Her voice came through an external speaker, face still hidden behind the opaque of her helmets mask.
"We can shoot them with Thermite or plasma but they won't die. They just reform again. We need to kill them so they stay dead,"
Both the Arnott twins stared at the Subjugator, making clear she'd spoken put of turn before turning back to Laenas.
"Protection too if we're on the subject," Reggie said. "We don't have any defense against their mind fuckery."
Laenas listened to what Reggie had to say about the soul killer weapon. "Am I to understand then that Skalia's original essence was trapped/stored somewhere? Or has her essence been terminated? We can provide some defensive equipment-though against someone of Skalia's magnitude I do not honestly know how effective it would be. As far as for dealing with Skalia herself it seems the best thing to do would be in essence-pardon the pun, the same thing that was done to her but in revere."
"Drain off/absorb the possessing life essence, and infuse Skalia's original essence back into her. Would you by chance happen to have the specific weapon that was used?"
"I need weapons!" The Subjugator snapped, slamming both hands down on the table and once more drawing the gaze of the twins.
"We don't have shit. We have these two, a hundred and sixty ships and Stracken. That's it. We don't have a single goddamn thing and we can't get a single fucking thing unless someone gives me a fucking gun that can actually kill these fuckers!"
After a prolonged silenced Reggie cleared his throat.
"What Angel means is..."
"I said what I fucking mean," She growled returning to her position in line with the other Subjugators.
Laenas said "Well, I can send someone along with you who will be able to perform the final takeout/cure on Skalia. I can provide some synaptic disruption weapons which should prove effective in action against Skalia. Be aware that these are loans for the duration of the mission. My representative will be equipped with Lyrium based weaponry that should be able to purge the possessing force from Skalia." S(he) nodded to Avrel-Naret, who left the room after bowing to Laenas.
"This is the best I can offer for now. We should probably try to find the weapon that holds Skalia's essence. That would make this affair a lot easier to deal with." Turning to Stracken, Laenas sad "High Admiral. What is the current magnitude of energy Skalia is capable of manipulating?"
Laenas then turned back to the twins. "What can you tell me about the force that did this to Skalia? It could provide clues as to their future actions."
"She don't mean a weapon to kill the sheep lady," Charlie said. "She wants a gun that can kill the rest of the blokes. Tell her Reg,"
"Don't encourage her Charlie. She's supposed to stay silent and just do as she's told. She was killed by some rogue element of the Annointed,"
"Red Letter they call themselves," Charlie added.
"Whatever. They shot up one of our freeports as well,"
Stracken clears his throat loudly, he had been content to let the sheep talk among themselves for the time being but there were some details that required clarification.
Fixing Angel with a stern stair he speaks.
"While Angel is correct in that we need weapons to properly slay theses "Red letter soldiers" she seems to have gotten rather excited and i apologize for my friends excitability."
Having finished his apology he turns to face Laenas.
"On the topic of possession i am afraid that what has happened to her is much more insidious, us Annointed are not a single soul, it is hard to tell without knowing but "i" am actually several thousand different souls working together to create the person you know as Stracken, within this gestalt my morals, opinions and convictions are decided by the majority opinions of each person forming my "neurons" for lack of a better word, it seems Skalia's gestalt was selectively murdered using the soul killing blade until only individuals with views aligning to her kidnappers were left, it would explain why she is so weak at the moment to."
"The synaptic disruptor should work against the more typical Annointed soldiers." Laenas said. "My emissary will deal with our wayward lamb..." At this moment the door to the conference room opened and Avrel-Naret returned. He was now wearing a black bodystocking, with a crystalline and metal exoskeleton of sorts.
"Is there anything left of Skalia's primary gestalt left to restore?" Laenas spoke to Stracken. "Or is this mission more extermination then rescue?"
"We simply need to render her more.... pliable and docile so we can inject replacements for her missing souls so as to realign her views to what they once were."
"Very well then." Laenas replied. "My emissary will be able to... nullify the hostile souls in question. With a little assistance" s(he said with a smile.
"Realigning Skalia's all well and good," Reggie interceded. "But we still gotta kill the bastards that did this to her in the first place. If you want to go after Skalia, be my guest, but someone's gotta go after the Red Letter blokes,"
"I will send some additional units to help deal with any Red Letter ships or troops." Laenas says. "This will enable the attempt to purge Skalia to proceed."
"Thank you."
Stracken responds with a small nod, the briefness of his response doing more to convey his gratitude than any long speech the admiral could muster.
Clicking his tongue Stracken's eyes drift back to Angel. "If you want i may be able to call In a favour from the church and have a shard rifle bought in for you, it's very good at piercing our psi shields but it wont put us down permanently, perhaps how ever used in tandem with the Singers' synaptic disintegrators it may prove much more effective, constructed into a single rifle stock with Laenas' permission? A joint project of sorts."
"Shard type weapons are used by us...and often as a means of conducting psychometric attacks. Laenas said, nodding to Stracken. "It should be possible to modify a weapon as you desire." Turning to Avrel-Naret s(he) said "Are you ready?" to which the Ship Leader said "As ready as is possible..."
Laenas started to fade, her physical form almost dissipating. The cloud of multihued energy moved over Avrel-Naret and then seemed to disappear, absorbed into his body. Avrel-Naret went rigid as if subjected to an electric shock. The crystalline parts of the exoskeletal like garment he wore glowed a multicolored light, and then faded. Laenas then reformed a short distance from the table.
"I will be accompanying you in Lament of Innocence as well. I hope she will not be needed in her primary mode-but she could prove useful in other aspects."
"I'm sure the shard guns and such will be enough boom for Angel and the rest of the Subjugators. Now all they'll need is someone to use them on," Reggie concluded, digging through his pockets for his cigarette pack.
"That about cover it for now?"
"Aye it does." Laenas replied. "I will begin assembling my forces for the mission, we will be ready to depart within the hour." Avrel-Naret, having recovered from his experience, looked toward Laenas, and at a nod began issuing orders through his comms relay. Turning to Stracken, Laenas added "As you are most familiar with the quarry, You should probably have operational command during the pursuit phase."
"Yes that is for the best blessed Laenas." Pushing his shoulder bound hyena head backwards to rest more comfortably on his shoulders he lingers his gaze over everyone assembled. "There are several high value targets i would like to hit before we go for Skalia directly, may i borrow some of your subjugators, lamb?"
Why's he calling us lambs Reg? He knows we're human don't he?"
"It would be kind of hard to miss Charlie," Reggie answered with a sigh. "Yeah, take Angel. She seems real keen to get in the shit. Charlie and I gotta go meet up with the Dectrose after we're done here so we'll catch up with you once we've got them sorted."
"The whole lamb/sheep thing is religious nomenclature. Priests and such are the Shepherds, the lay worshippers are the flock or lambs/sheep. Yes, I know that you do not follow their religion, but such is the nature of Faith." Laenas said. "Among our own faith we use 'nestling' in much the same way. I am sure no insult is intended though it doe sound a bit odd at first."
"What are the galactic coordinates that our forces should meet up at?" s(he) added, her gaze moving between Stracken and the Twins.
"Its formality for us in the military, I couldn't care less about the church's religion"
Taking a few moments to poor over his own meta concert for a suitable muster location Stracken draws a blank.
"Here I'm afraid my expertise dries up, nomadic life has not exactly given us a suitable staging ground."
Maybe we're best off just keeping in contact," Reggie suggested. "That way once we've wrapped up with the Dectrose we can meet back up somewhere strategic based on the latest intel. Skalia probably won't stay in one place so why should our rendezvous?"
"That is logical Reggie. she will likely stay moving." Laenas said "So I concur that we should have some sort of common comms frequency or method and respond accordingly to her movements. High Admiral, it might also help if I knew what the strategic goal of these Shades and Red Letter Day soldiers are. Knowing an enemy's motivation is naturally very important."
"Their only goal is to kill humans en masse where ever they find them in some warped mission of mercy to our creators, believing foolishly that sending mankind to the afterlife will keep them safe from any whom seek to harm them."
"Very well then. Our fleet will follow behind in the Void between Universes. Conditions will be arranged so Stracken can contact us when we are needed." Laenas said.
"Lament of Innocence will be contacted by Avrel-Naret when the time come for the final confrontation with Skalia. I feel I should personally remain in the background before that point as to not alert Skalia to my presence." Fleet Leader Avrel-Naret, you have command." Laenas then phased out, shimmering in the air before disappearing.
Outside Lament of Adraniel, the Anais Unity's fleet had gathered, and now stood ready, awaiting orders. Avrel-Naret turned to Stracken. "It's your show now, High Admiral."
Standing up Stracken nods sharply to Avrel-Naret.
"I will contact you all when the time comes."
Looking now to the BSO reps he continues.
"For the sake of efficiency perhaps it best Angel leave with me now, the matter we require her for is urgent enough that time is a valuable commodity and should not be spent "fucking around""
"Top," Reggie said. "Saves me having to deal with her dour attitude."
He stretched and nodded to Stracken.
Avrel-Naret looked from Stracken to the BSO twins. "We shall b waiting for your call then, High Admiral. Good Luck, and Good Hunting"