Post by ingen on Apr 9, 2021 13:55:58 GMT
“I’ll send a transmission to house Zaoth. You should head down into the bay. Your friend is preparing your equipment there.” … Verma would be led to another secure room on the ship, where Katrina was waiting along side a Mediocine who bowed and introduced himself. “I am Zorg Torgue! A pleasure to meet you!” He said bowing looking up to her with a disjointed array of cybernetic eyes. “If you’re going to be operating with us its probably best you got some new kit. Luckily, medical was willing to give me your measurements from the scans they took while you were out…” He approached one of about a dozen metal cylinders inset into the back wall, pressing buttons on a panel. It opened to reveal a fabrication chamber, mechanical assemblers putting the finishing touches on a suit of dominion-made armor built exactly to Verma’s anatomy. “She’s got quad core 150KW Deuterium-Tritium microfusion reactors and Cryogenic Liquid Helium Kayon conversion system buffered with honkagium vacuum gyro batteries. The armor is made of Grade 3B Mazunsinium Composite with a Muran frame, completely resistant to most projectiles shy of 100 Megajoules. The driver servos max out at 50 tons per limb with only 100 microseconds of lag time, integrated thruster harness; argon fueled magnetoplasmodynamic thrusters able to output 10 kilonewtons of thrust each. Fully NBC sealed with built in life support system.”
The Mediocine pressed a button on a remote. The helmet folded out of the collar and assembled itself over where her head would be. “Integrated MK14 full color holographic hud system running on a 500 Teraflop Carbon-transistor core, hardened full EM spectrum sensor suite, inbuilt sonar and Lidar system, and four ESP drones and standard iris scan security system prevents anyone else from using it. Hardened comm line and external microphone linked to advanced audio analyisis software which deafens loud blasts and autonomously screens for infrasound. Your undersuit has the standard climate control and shock absorption, self medicating biofoam and over 200 doses of antibiotics, antidotes, painkillers and radiation drugs. Also the power ports in the palms-” “Zorg…” Katrina Began. “I know you’re proud of your work. But we don’t even know if she wants it. Shipmaster AI said she got off saying she wants her old kit back.” “Ugh… bring it up.” The Mediocine said. A large dumpster rolled into the room on its own accord with a “recycle” emblem projected onto a rugged LCD panel displayed on the side, apparently some type of low level automated drone in its own right. In it were some of the mangled remains of the shuttle and among them, Kal Verma’s gear, stained with her blood, a large gash on the abdomen and missing an arm.”
“If you want to fix it…” Katrina began. “The workshop is down the hall, first door on the left. But we’ve got about 15 minutes till we de-spin from subspace and both our asses are due in hangar 2, then, and not a second later. And don’t tell me you want to keep it for sentimental reasons… because we don’t do that here. Especially not special agents… it looks bad.” She shook her head. “Really bad.” She tapped a holographic control panel, armored sliding garage style doors moved aside and vast weapon racks extended from the walls. Hundreds of accelerator rifles and pistols, grenades, snipers, rocket launchers, ordinance rifles, rotary accelerators resembling gatling guns, hard-light melee weapons of almost every conceivable type lined the walls in addition to a variety of scopes, attachments and ammo… so much ammo. “Get kitted up because we don’t know what bullshit we’re going to find this agent in the middle of.”
Verma simply stood there blinking for a moment, dazed. A dreamy grin slowly spread across her face as she took in the vast array of weaponry. Then she shook herself slightly, but the smile only came back wider as she looked over the armor. "Hell to the yeah, I'm taking this suit. You have any idea how much better this is than standard kit for field agents? This is kind of shit that only the nobles usually get. As far as weapons..." She glanced back at the bin and went over to look at it. But as she bent over, a rippling pain flashed across her side, and her grip on the sides of the bin tightened briefly. Pushing through the pain, she rummaged around, yanking several devices off the wreck of the mech and setting them aside. When she was finished, she straightened, holding the maranil. Turning, she held it out to Torgue. "I need you to put this somewhere it can be accessed easily. It has to be returned to the Senate, it's a matter of protocol." Going back to the suit Zorg had prepared, she tapped one of the modules stripped from the mech and smirked when hair thin spikes misted into existence on the outside. She slapped it into the lower back of the suit, and did the same with the others, until there was only one left. Verma poked at it for a minute and then nodded before shoving it at Zorg. "Find a secure location, then stick this in a pile of metal scrap. It's a self-assembly unit for a teleport array, should be good for a quick withdrawal if needed."
Strapping herself into the actual armor took more time, but once done, Verma wasted no time in going for the heavy ordnance, grabbing plasma grenades, a shoulder mounted rotary accelerator, a hardlight great sword, and a rifle that looked more like a cinderblock than anything that actually fired munitions. Activating several of the modules she'd hooked into the Dominion armor, she suddenly moved much quicker than should've been possible before a crackling plasma shield flickered into existence around her. The helm receded as she gave Katrina a wide grin. "Well, you guys could do with some proper Imperial warblades in here, but I'm not complaining. Now then, where's the hangar? You can brief me more on the way, and I do hope you're better at that sort of thing than I was."
Katrina and the Mediocine swapped weird looks. "Ugh Shipaster... Tell her." "Right." The ship's AI spoke. "All dominion warcraft graded gunship and above are equipped with a second generation teleport denial system which blocks all teleportation signals on and off the ship. And that system will be activated once we arrive at our destination." "Unless you want to be turned into a cloud of exotic particles expanding in every direction across four dimensions you might be safer getting eaten alive out there." "As for this..." The mediocine responded, glancing at the maranil... "Shipmaster..." "On it..." An empty bin rolled into the room. The holographic display on the side changed from recycle to "Return to Zaoth". He gently tossed it in with a thunk. "Anything else you want shipped back can go in there. Shipmaster make sure that the transport gets arranged." "Aye." Katrina turned to another one of the cylinders, unveiling her power suit which did not look all that different albeit for a jet black and silver paint job over the generic tan. The armor stepped out on its own accord and folded open such that she could step inside. She grabbed a rifle and a hard light dagger and walked out. "I'll show you the way to the hangar..."
Mariko took a moment to compose herself, crossing into the doorway of the foreman's office and then recoiling in disgust. She stepped back into the corridor, nearly tripping over the security guard's body, and then stepped over to Takamo. "Hey, are you doing okay? I think we were in a psychic trap somehow. I don't think any of that stuff at the castle was real at all." she said, stating the obvious somewhat. MANY LIGHTYEARS AWAY Jade Empress Takara felt an unexpected wave of relief pass over her. Ever since learning that her daughter had gone missing during the Frankish assault on Legacy, she had been distraught, her energy split between concealing her emotions from her subjects and directing Imperial vengeance on those who had threatened, and perhaps killed, her cherished daughter. As she stood absently, leaning against one of the great pillars in the throne room, her mind blank and numb as she waited for Shogun Kanbei to arrive, she heard a bird singing outside and inexplicably, it filled her with the incontrovertible feeling that her daughter was alive and safe. Where and how, she had no idea, and she tried to shrug it off as a superstition, but the gut feeling persisted…
Ingenous Mining Station
“Y… yeah kid… I’m fine.” Takamo grunted. He glanced at his reflection on a fragment of reflective material, noting the dilated pupils and twitching ears. He was a dead ringer for psychic compromise it couldn’t be more obvious, and would be killed the second those troops arrived and saw him in that state. With that he folded up his helmet, hoping to conceal this fact for just a bit longer. … “And remember.” The woman with the neon blue eyes said sternly. “You see someone like this.” She gestured to a looping video of a go’shii woman. Her pupils were dilated just like his were now and her ears twitched ever so slightly. It wasn’t a real case of psychic compromise but instead a lifelike animation and everyone knew that. And now, Takamo realized how disturbingly accurate that animation had been. “You kill them swiftly and without compromise.” … Smoke and dust choked the battlefield. Nuclear hellifre rained from the heavens as through a gap in the clouds he could make out the narrow white daggers of a thousand ships in disarray in orbit. Atomic blasts from torpedoes like a million stars blinking in and out of existence each second. Takamo shouldn’t have been here. He was a spy, not a solider. The gifts of power armor and heavy weapons were meant only for emergencies such as this.
A Courdeel warrior lunged on top of him, bringing down its jagged crimson hardlight glaive. He raised his hardlight claws in defense. The two exchanged a flurry of strikes. Tendrils on the warriors back, barbed with jagged hardlight stingers drove into him, piercing him through the abdomen. His armor sealed the wounds as he slashed the tendrils off, leaving the severed ends dangling out of his abdomen. He stumbled backward grabbed the rifle of a dead solider and fired several rounds in quick succession. The Kur inside caught fire, igniting and exploding from the inside out. He got up out of the trench. The battlefield had been decimated. Courdeel warriors were everywhere. An Artemis MBT equipped with a rotary accelerator rolled into view. Sweeping from side to side, sawing courdeel grievers in half. Then, he felt it. His head throbbed as all around him the battlefield warped and distorted. He recognized the pain. The psychic assault and began to breathe deeply. A battle of wills played out between him and the Mindflayer. He turned to the solider next to him. He was badly wounded along the abdomen, biofoam failing to seal the wound in its entirety and he sat in a puddle of blood, gore, biofoam and mangled power armor. He was the commander of this division. His faceplate was retracted, or had broken off and his face bloodied. His pupils were dilated and he tremors. He had succumbed to the mindflayer. Tears streamed down his eyes as he cried for his mother and father, begging for the pain to stop. Takamo didn’t flinch. When he saw Takamo raise the rifle, he let out a whimper. “Please… don’t.”
He fired. The commander was decapitated by a single shot from the rifle. If the commander was psychically compromised he was nothing more than a liability, for vital data to be leaked to the Courdeel and for another disabled and mentally dead individual to return home to their family. It was better this way. And he had his orders. He justified it to himself in that he had ended the commander’s physical and mental suffering, and carried on. …
Omniscience
Commader Valeem looked up and down the rows of troops that had assembled. Several dozen KR2 units and about a dozen soldiers. Some of which had specially painted custom black armor, such as Katrina. “Alright listen up. We’ve got a sector agents medical distress beacon coming from somewhere on that station. We don’t know what he’s doing all the way out here but X2C2 is a long way from his assignment.” He said presenting a full color full size hologram of the agent. An Ebony-black Go’shii with golden yellow eyes, displaying next to him his cybernetic augmentations and combat capabilities which were listed as top of the line. "He has access to a power suit not unlike yours and if he’s gone cookoo for cocoa puffs we may well need to put him down. We don’t know what else is on this ingenious station. Might just be a bunch of drunk miners, might be something out of the deepest pits of hell…” Two dozen SpAMbots working in unison carried a dropship up to the group. The ramp opened and they were invited onboard. The hangar blast doors began to open as the ship exited subspace near the Ingenous mining facility.
Verma contemplated the mission data as the dropship neared the station. A potentially hostile station, a potentially hostile super agent whose state of mind was unknown, a potentially fucked up situation... She laughed softly and turned to Katrina. "And you complained about our date not having enough info? At least I was able to tell you something. But oh no, you had to bring me into what could either be a milk run or an abattoir. Wow. I'm definitely picking the venue for our next date." As she finished mocking Voss, the dropship docked with the station with a jolt, and the ramp slammed down in a dimly lit hangar. Verma unhooked her harness and was the first one to actually set foot on the station, rifle raised and scanning for any threats.
ABOARD THE MINING STATION Mariko blinked. Takamo's reply had been a little more brusque than she had expected, and then he had suddenly thrown up his visor, as if he were expecting trouble. She turned warily, taking in the ruins of the corridor. She suddenly wished that the Rainblade had been real and she had it in her hands, but all she had was the pistol Takamo had given her earlier. She was no soldier, and so the gun was probably an easier choice to use, but at the same time the Rainblade was....magical, for want of a better word, and right now having a bit of magic would be a nice reassurance. The voice of the mining station's Narrow Artificial Intelligence echoed through the halls again. ATTENTION all staff members. I apologise for the technical difficulties experienced. All staff members please evacuate via Hangar 2. A distress call has been placed to the Imperial Jade Navy. I repeat, please evacuate to Hangar 2." APPROACHING THE STATION An automated voice hailed the Omniscience class vessel as it approached the facility, a pleasant female cadence that could fool someone not familiar with artificial intelligences. "Greetings. This is KanshoCorp Mining Facility XEN-KT-1615. We have experienced catastrophic systems failure and the station is currently under an all-hands evacuation order. Please exercise caution. Hangar Bays 1 and 2 are still operational." Sure enough, the facility seemed to be in a state of disarray. It seemed only sporadically lit up, with some sections appearing to suffer momentary brownouts, and one section appeared to be venting atmosphere or gasses. There were no ships or automated collectors moving to or from the facility either, and scans would reveal much biological matter on the platform, very little of it alive. Takamo and Mariko were on one of the habitation decks, near to Hangar 2.
With that they boarded the dropship. The marines engaged their faceplates and filed onto the ship. It was a short trip, only lasting about a minute before arriving in hangar 3. The shuttle was eclipsed in scale by the large disabled mining transport left over from Takamo's earlier landing, and the exit ramp opened. The other agents filed out, clusters of ESP drones swarming out around them, sweeping the area with scanning beams looking for any surprises, and the heavy footfalls of the 8 foot tall, quarter-ton robotic infantry units jogging out and taking point at the doors, sweeping their laser sights across any possible points of cover or concealment. One marine ducked down, catching sight of a poor ingenious citizen warped by the merger. His face was distorted and covered in boils and growths. "Ugh... think this place is NBC hotzone. Commander Valeem, have a decontamination team ready for us when we get back." "Rodger." Valeem said back. "Well here's his undercover ship." Another agent said, this one female. She ran her armored hand across the hull noticing the holes and damage. "What the hell happened to it, though." "Scans show deposits of... salts...? on the exterior hull. Check the ship's computer." "Come on. The medical distress is coming from this direction." Katrina said, gesturing to Verma as she headed for the exit to the hangar. Four KR2 units stood at attention next to Verma and a dozen ESP drones hovered in a cluster around her, manifesting on her hud as additional camera feeds including thermals and a live 3D Lidar holographic map. All 16 robots had a red blinking alert next to their status display saying in basic 'Awating Orders'.
As they emerged, they saw much the same sight as Takamo and Mariko originally had. An unlovely, spartan hangar with only the smooth black floor to differentiate it from some pre-galactic ironworks, the lights were erratic and there were corpses here and there. Both the drones and the shipboard scanners began to blare to life as movement several decks below was detected, only trace at first but spiking rapidly as more and more contacts were detected. There was a hideous chattering and roaring as a noise that could not exactly be described as footsteps echoed towards them. From a lower deck, a crowd of shambling figures, looking for the world like humans splashed with thick tar, rushed Valeem's troopers in a crude human wave attack, their limbs outstretched and those eyes that were visible wide and wild. If any of the marines had time to consider before opening fire, they would notice with discomfort that the number of limbs did not quite match the number of figures rushing towards them, even taking into account the human paucity compared to the Go'Ishii and other species
A rush of virulent curses filled the comms before she called out "Contact! Open fire!" Verma's eyes narrowed as she leveled the rifle and opened fire, the snarling roar of the weapon filling the hangar as accelerator rounds chewed into the abominations rushing towards the Dominion contingent. Walking backwards as she fired, she toggled the drones and ordered them to keep their distance in the air but to move ahead and see how many of these freaks there were. As they reached her, Verma ceased fire, locked the rifle to her back, and withdrew the hardlight greatsword hilt and activated it, all in one smooth motion. Then she started to cleave her way through the horde, stopping occasionally to fling a plasma grenade when needed.
The soliders stood back, their bots filling in the formation. For a few seconds they barked through their armors' external speakers, echoing out through their robotic shadows which took positions between them and their organic superiors. "Stay Back!" "Hold it right there!" "Put your hands in the air!" "Fire At will!" Valeems voice came over the line. "Alright ladies, this is where the fun begins." Katrina responded. Blue laser sights from the ESP drones painting the targets. After seeing that the wave was not slowing down, they opened fire. In such close quarters and against such great numbers of enemies the bots carried a majority of the fight, standing in a line. With quick, snappy motions they lined up rapid sequences of headshots with the plethora of targeting data they acquired from their drones fueling their supernatural reaction times.
Verma's drones obliged by their orders, sweeping through the hangar and down the hallway, darting about to avoid being grabbed or destroyed and hugging the ceiling, as her combat bots followed her into the fray. Forced into melee the bots engaged their melee combat protocols, throwing kicks and sequences of hand strikes with the skill of a grandmaster martial artist and thrice the speed and strength, but surrounded against overwhelming numbers even they would surely have their limits. "The hell does she think she's doing?" A solider came over the comm. "Verma, get into formation here! You are not a one-woman army!" Katrina shouted. "Get her to pull back. I'm bringing out the big guns." Valeem said. Exiting the dropship came a quartet of prototype KR units. They looked like autonomous heavy machine guns, rolling to the battle line on their own omni-wheel tipped quadruped legs, followed by support bots carrying additional ammo boxes. … The sounds of accelerator fire echoed through the station. The occasional detonation of a grenade causing the hall to shake and the already damaged lighting to flicker. Takamo’s ears twitched. “Those are dommie guns. I can tell by the sound. Sounds like the rescue crew met a few of their friends…” “Comm Check. X2C2? This is Commander Valeem of the GDMC! Please report to hangar 2 for immediate extraction.” “Yes, sir!” “Come on Mariko… we’d best get going…” He said, activating his helm. Verma would receive a ping that a new individual had been added to their operation.
Fighting the hideous horde in melee was like trying to punch fog. Every blow felt robbed of momentum, as though struggling through a dream, but the weapons fire was a different story. Punching through them with ease, it sent sprays of blood, gore and some kind of black soot or gas spewing into the air, provoking screeches from the crowd. They briefly swamped Verma, but the gunfire from the boarding team soon drove them back, raking the corridor clean. This was very much how the Jade military had learned to deal with Corruption, tight and overwhelming volleys of gunfire sweeping infestations corridor by corridor. Counterintuitively, it was easier to deal with them in confined spaces, rather than in the open where their blinding speed, unpredictable numbers and strange abilities left ground forces exposed. -- Mariko heard the cool distance in Commander Valeem's voice, and the faint hint of hesitation in Takamo's reply, but they were in no position to be choosy. With the mining facility practically collapsing around them and unknown horrors still lurking in the dark, anything was preferable to staying right now, and so she jogged after the Go'Ishii in his power armour.
Verma's tirade of cursing was loud and vehement enough to blister paint as she came storming back to the group deployed around the shuttle. "What do you cowardly, cockless, motherfucked, donkeysuckers think you were doing just standing there? Do you just not believe in supporting someone in a fight? Shadow Below, it's a miracle you ever managed to get into orbit, let alone build an empire." Her armour was scratched and scored where the fiends had clawed at her, but still intact. Meanwhile, her shielding module was sparking fitfully, damaged almost beyond repair, and the hilt of the hardlight sword had been cleaved open in the middle.
Takamo arrived at the entrance to the hangar, Mariko in tow. Only to see it having devolved into streams of rapidfire accelerator bodies and a rapidly thickening layer of bodies on the floor. Hearing a violent salvo of insults being shouted over the comm line he wondered just what was going on in there. Whoever they were he knew they would probably be reprimanded once the operation had concluded. “What the fuck is going on?” Takamo shouted over the comm. “What’s a donkey?” Asked one of the soldiers, who sounded more confused than insulted. Katrina had some things she wanted to say on the matter, but thought they would best be kept until after the operation. “Keep the comm sterile, ladies. We have a guest in our ranks…” Commander Valeem said sternly. “One who will be getting reprimanded and sent home after this op for acting like a child.” He said muting Verma’s microphone to the other soldiers and activating the override on her power armor, allowing him to control the servos driving the armor remotely, forcing her to walk back to the drop ship and wait. Meanwhile Takamo was pinned at the entrance, the crossfire and mob of blackened zombies changing sides. With the effectiveness of the heavy weapons fire the group slowly started to advance, making an effort to push the horde back to their origin such that Takamo could pass.
The swarm began to peter out, their numbers clearly dwindling. The last few malformed beings lurched into the hangar and were cut down, leaving a sudden silence punctuated only by the hissing of cooked flesh, the clanks and clicks of soldiers checking their equipment, and the creaking of the damaged station. Mariko peered around, seeing the hangar thronged with foreign soldiers. The mining facility was still bleating its distress call, but was momentarily drowned out by Takamo calling to the newcomers for answers. They seemed to be wrapping up their operation, but rather than relief Mariko felt a knot of apprehension in her gut....
Upon arriving back in the hangar commander Valeem was standing by along with two Cauldarion knights with belt-fed rocket launchers and some mediocine techs in hasmat gear with specialized equipment, everyone was lined up. Only a few moments after they got off the dropship did the massive armored hangar door seal over the plasma wall. Over the ships PA. “All crew standby for jump to subspace.” The ship seemed to spin for a moment, and the change in sounds indicated they were now at FTL. “Alright, ladies. We had contact with an unknown enemy, you know the drill.” One of them had a sprayer linked to canister jug of some fluid that produced a fine mist. To Mariko, the only one out of armor she would note that this smelled like salt water and lilies. It was a mixture of chemicals, a powerful disinfectant and series of antitoxins designed to break down chemical or biological weapons. “Agent X2C2, do you mind telling me who it is you’re with here. My files show you’re supposed to be inspecting a mining colony on Deredict 5.” Commander Valeem said. “Shes… she’s princess Mariko Kuribayashi of the Jade Empire of Ingen.” He said sounding nervous. “She was being pursued I was escorting her home.” One of the hasmat workers held up a data pad, taking a picture of her. It checked against the ancnet reporting a 99.87% match. "Inform the Admiral. We'll need to make an immediate change of course."
Then one came waving a wand about. A magnetized wand designed to detect and destroy nanomachines. Then one came with another one, a device which checked the right wrist of everyone on the squad and made a loud beeping and displayed a long list of numbers in kimbeau. “It’s a long story… sir.” He said, sounding like a nervous child. “And tell me, Agent X2; why didn’t you call for military support. If the Jade Empire finds out we didn’t make every effort to return their princess home safe and unharmed, who knows what they’ll think of us.” “I… I did sir. The comm line was jammed.” Valeem frowned at this, as if to say that was not an appropriate excuse. One of the hazmat mediocines approached Mariko and shined a light in her eye. “The capillaries are inflamed and her photosensitive response is delayed. She’s got a textbook case of psychic compromise.” “Check the others!” Commander Valeem ordered. “Helmets!” The troops’ helmets folded into their collars. Verma’s folding on its own. They went down the line checking everyone for signs of psychic compromise and mind manipulation. Takamo looked apprehensive. They seemed to take a bit longer to check him than the others. “Agent X2 has been compromised, sir.” The hasmat worker said.
Commander Valeem raised the admiral on a comm line. “Admiral Peldon. Agent X2C2 has been compromised.” “You know what to do. Take him to the medical bay, have him euthanized immediately.” Commander Valeem nodded to the knights. Takamo gave a mournful look to Mariko, his ears hanging with sadness as two Cauldarion Knights came from behind and practically dragged him out of the room. The Hazmat workers went to work sterilizing the robotic infantry and the ship. “Now… that leaves the issue of what to do with you. Agent. Verma.” Commander Valeem said sternly. “Agent Katrina. Did you even brief her on our order of battle-“ “No sir… I thought-” “Whatever you thought, You thought wrong!” The commander snapped back. “You’re demoted two degrees. Now get out of your armor and get out of my sight! I’ll decide on your punishment later…” Valeem shouted. Katrina dipped her head and headed away. “Now, get her out of that suit. Take her armor to be recycled and take her to the brig. Once we have returned the princess to her home we will return agent Verma here to her home… Knew I had a bad feeling about this from the start.”
"Euthanized?" asked Mariko, barely believing her own ears. "What are you talking about? Takamo saved my life, he nearly died in the line of duty! You can't execute him!" she cried out, trying to follow him as he was dragged away. IN THE MINING SYSTEM Minutes later, two slipgate apertures opened in the darkness of space, lime-emerald light blazing in a brief flashing window as two Imperial warships slipped through. In the silence of space, small winking lights betrayed the flow of landing craft from the hulking destroyers to the ruined station. Responding to reports of Merger activity was always a priority for the Jade Empire
A snarl of cold fury filled the hangar as the rotary cannon on Verma's shoulder, not having been locked with the rest of her armor, activated and moved to target Valeem. Verma's voice was icier than hard vaccum when she spoke. "Scum. You would execute one of your own who fought valiantly? I dare say if anyone should be euthanized, it should be you." And yet, in that split second before Verma could give the mental command to fire, something flickered, off in a shadowed corner of the hangar, drawing her gaze. Staring into that darkened space, she was motionless for several moments before the canon deactivated and she turned back to the Admiral. "Perhaps you may have your will done here today, but know this. Fools who sow their own doom shall always reap it when the whirlwind comes howling in." Stepping back, she lifted her hands in the air for the Dominion techs to take her armor off.
Commander Valeem glared sternly at her. He knew there were safeguards in place to prevent the weapon from engaging in such blatant friendly fire, but he still couldn’t help but sneer at her uncontrollable temper. The commander was clearly pissed, his own anger simmering like a pot reaching a boil. “Are either of you familiar with what happened to Helmdara during the 47th Courdeel war?” He paced up and down the line of soldiers as techs went to remove Verma’s armor, a mobile bin rolling up “A single mindflayer read the clearance codes out of the mind of the admiral of the system’s defense fleet. With them he was able to get by the planetary defense grid and land on the surface. Once there, he unleashed a biological weapon on a planet of 50 billion people. After three weeks of confusion and suffering, every last citizen on that planet was dead. Because of one breach in our security” The commander wagged a finger like a scolding mother, touching it to Verma’s nose. “more people than you could meet in a hundred lifetimes met a premature and agonizing fate. We are the vanguard against the threats to the dominion, and it is a sacrifice we are willing to make, no matter the cost.” He took pause, glancing up and down at the other troops. “So tell me, Kal Verma. How do you think your cowardly, cockless, motherfucked, donkeysucker race would fare against such a foe? Its a miracle your people ever managed to get into orbit when a pirate group can amass the firepower to build battleships right under your noses…” Not giving pause he looked to the solider nearest to Verma, a Farrian woman with buzzed black hair. “You! Take this toddler down to the brig, then you can take your leave. The rest of you, dismissed.” The woman nodded. She and her contingent of KR units formed up around Verma and began the escort as a Mediocine walked off humming with her armor in a recycle bin.
He turned to Mariko. His tone of voice instantly less hostile, but still authoritative and firm. “I know… how you must feel about this. I know it seems callous but its for the greater good, and procedure is procedure. If you’d like you can go see X2- I mean… Takamo down in the medbay one last time before they put him under.” He raised his comm line to his wrist. “Admiral. The princess in onboard. Get us an emergency comm line to the Jade Empire. We need to figure out what to do with her.” “Right.” Admiral Peldon responded from the omniscience sphere. He brought up an emergency comm line to the Jade Empire. “This is Admiral Peldon Shum of the Gauss Dominion Astronavy transmitting in the blind. We have recently taken into custody Princess Mariko Kuribayashi and are making an immediate course change to Jade Empire space. She was under attack by um… Merger… forces. Please advise, over.”
Mariko, unable to get past the hulking warriors crowding the room, fought back tears. The concept of seppuku was well known to her, and her own grandfather had committed the final act of redemption years before she was born, but that did not mean she liked it. She felt it was a waste, but she was keenly aware she had no authority here. Maybe her brothers would have ranted and threatened the displeasure of the Jade Empire, but she understood the position the commander was in. "Yes, I...please take me to him." Meanwhile, Admiral Shum's hail went unanswered for a while before a communication, audio-only, came back. "This is the IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. We are standing by, please advise your location. Please be prepared for Merger activity."
"This is Admiral 4th Degree Peldon Shum the GDAN Omniscience. We have just departed into subspace from your current location, we are presently at Subspace W=230,500,000. On outbound vector 221-938 Depression 2.21, approxomately 5 lightyears from your position. (Twoards Ingen space) Please advise; did you say Merger. Over." ... Verma was led down to a brig facility. Like everywhere else on the ship, it was immaculately maintained by robotic units. The prison blocks were small minimalist rooms rooms, each with their own bed, toilet and a slot in the door for supplying food. One of the guards approached the first cell on the right and directed her in. ... Takamo was brought to the medical bay and strapped down to a bed before being hooked to an IV in the bed. A Mediocine doctor (apparently one not pledged to the hippocratic oath) withdrew two vials and placed them into slots on the bed before he began to program it. "Alright... you're going to get two injections. First one will put you to sleep, second one will put you out for good. Do you have any last words?" Takamo glanced at Mariko with a longing look and started to tear up. He clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes tight. "Let's do this."
Mariko cuffed tears from her eyes, barely believing that after everything they'd been through Takamo was going to die in some sterile lab room, poisoned by his own people. She placed a hand on the glass... OUTSIDE The Omniscience's bridge crew would be alerted to the presence of a huge shadow suddenly blocking their FTL transit. Emergency systems pulled them back into realspace, where proximity alarms would shriek as they detected multiple inbound contacts. In front of them, a half-dozen 12km warships loomed with angular menace, their hulls battered and worn, overgrown with filth, moss and other detritus. Despite their ramshackle, leprous appearance, their angular prows with sweeping bowsprits in the shape of a bearded axehead exuded menace. Around them, many more smaller vessels, of a similar shape but with flaring wings, held position. Oblivion class destroyers and Enfer class frigates, they were leftovers from the early days of the Shogunate. "RELEASE THE CHILD TO US" came a snarling voice on an open hail, the line distorted by static and the voice seeming to echo through the bridge, the ships giving off large energy signals as they slowly drifted towards the Omniscience warship carrying Mariko, a few sporadic blasts of simple plasma energy thumping out from seemingly random turrets across the fleet towards their prey, as if one or two gunners could not restrain themselves whilst the rest of the attackers waited for a response
The Ship was arrested with a jolt, causing anyone standing to stumble or fall. Seeing the ships appear in his command sphere and open fire, Peldon went to work, using all four arms to operate holographic controls and execute a complex series of orders. A few of the less experienced crew on the bridge looked mildly nervous but most, including the admiral in charge of the ship remained completely stalwart. “Subspace master caution. Graviometery check. We’re being interdicted.” The Ship’s Ci said. “Take us to condition orange. Sound general quarters; I want all hands battle stations.” “It’s the merger… Mazungaten help us.” One officer muttered. “Get me maximum sublight reverse; get us out of this interdiction well. Begin evasive maneuvers.” Peldon snapped. Outside, as the first plasma shots whizzed by, some striking the outer shields doing little more than superficial damage to the armor, the ship’s engine reversed its spin; the plasma deflecting out the sides of the engine at an angle. As it did it began preforming random maneuvers. Even with their considerable mass, with four minutes of light lag the probability of a hit with unguided projectiles could be reduced to nearly zero.The inertial dampeners prevented the massive accelerations from being felt by the crew but the ship still buckled ever so slightly as its active support lattice adjusted to constantly changing stresses.
“Prepare to return fire. Raise high command on the QE line. Inform them of our position and situation. Request emergency reinforcements to our position. Transmit detailed imagery on these ships.” “Seventeenth fleet is two hours out and departing to our position now.” A comms officer responded. “What about those IJN? Raise them too; inform them of our situation. Maybe they’re closer. Where’s the Princess?” “Medbay in block 14; Deck 112.” An operations officer said, showing CCTV footage. “Get someone to escort her to the bridge. She’s safest here.”
… Medbay
14 A Klaxon blared a moment after the jolt; as Peldon’s order of the ship’s crew to their battle stations came over the comm. The doctor had been thrown off his feet moments before initiating the euthanization process. From behind the glass, Mariko would see the doctor get up and turn his attention to a wrist comm that was flashing; apparently indicating that he was urgently needed elsewhere on the ship. The wormy mediocine doctor hastily grabbed some critical equipment and ordered a few of his nurse drones to follow him before he slipped out the far side of the room, leaving Takamo restrained on the bed. From behind the glass, Takamo craned his head up and glanced at Mariko; then to the bed’s control panel which was out of sight from his angle. “Begin Injection Sequence” still occupied most of the touchscreen console on a large flashing button. Around her and on the decks of above and below she could hear the heavy thumping of suits of powered armor.
… Brig
The Robotic Guards didn’t waiver when the ship rocked, magnetically affixing their feet onto the floor. They placed her into the cell, though before they could configure the door to lock, a solider ran past outside; apparently one assigned to guard duty. Frantic to round up RUs for the general quarters order, he paired the robots and ran off. Due to a minor prioritization oversight in their programming the RUs ran off with the guard before actually locking the prison door. As this was the low security brig; the phenumatic door, when unlocked would appear closed but could be pried open with sufficient strength.
Verma blinked for a moment, watching the bots leave. That...was odd. And from the way the ship had jerked like that, taken in conjunction, it could only mean that the ship was under attack. Not an implausible scenario, given that the fleet action at Tergral had left the capital ship without any escorts, but still a daunting prospect. However, this just might be her chance to get them to stop being regimented idiots with a stick up their ass. If nothing else, maybe she could find Katrina and get her to convince Admiral Asshole to let her help. Taking a breath, she stepped forward, set her shoulder to the door, and pushed. Her boots skidded across the floor for a moment, and she stumbled a bit as the ship shuddered again, then tried once more. This time the door clunked as the seal disengaged and Verma spilled out into the hallway. Pulling herself to her feet, she took a moment to get her bearings, then sidled out into the hall. Glancing around, she slipped through the shadows as she followed the signs and proceeded to make her way across the ship towards the bridge.
Outside, the hulking warships began to accelerate towards the Gauss ship, an inhuman screech of frustration blasting over the comms, reeking of hunger and a vicious malignity. The ships opened fire in earnest, swathes of sickly green fire pouring in waves across the emptiness of space as they closed the gap, the frigates racing ahead to begin snaring the ship in a web of lights and corroded steel. The Imperial response to the hail was almost immediate. "IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. The Merger will attempt to board your vessel, do not permit them the attempt. We are en-route to reinforce you, please stand by." -- Mariko glanced around as she was apparently left alone with the restrained Takamo. She hesitated for a moment, scarcely believing it, and then slipped quickly into the medbay and began to tug at his restraints. "We're under attack!" she whispered, as though anyone would hear them over the general clangour of a ship beating to quarters, managing to free one of his arms before remembering he had three more, not just one.
Bridge
Peldon ordered a hard cut of the line from the comm receiver, his senior communications officer flicking open a panel on his control console and pulling a small breaker which cut the ship’s primary communications grid preventing any signals from being received. This was followed by a hard wipe of the recorded communications feeds and an antidotal infrasound to be played over the bridge’s PA system. Instead he would rout a comm line through a secure quantum entangled line to high command, who could then forward his message to the IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. “Confirm. Will deny boarding action at all costs. Will continue to maintain range but will not attempt FTL until contact can be safely established.” “Lockdown all hangars. Engage point defense systems. Cue torpedo launch.” … The ship continued to reverse thrust, though the intense fire was having a more noticeable effect. Though while under fire the ship was at its strongest as the absorptive shields went to work and began to return fire, focusing its efforts on the frigates that were the closest, switching back and fourth between hardlight vectors and mass drivers; the crew attempting to ascertain what would be more effective. Countless thousands of torpedoes ejected from stator tubes. And after a momentary pivot on reaction control thrusters, they ignited their fusion drives and disappeared like arrows fired from an unseen bow, flowering off a bit away from the ship in several clusters. Their mothership bombarding the merger ships with electronic warfare to give their missiles the best possible chance against their point defense systems.
Medbay
Even the best dampening technologies could not completely conceal the repercussions of accelerating a ten story rod of metal to relativistic velocities, nor the sheets of neon green plasma vaporizing their way through layers of high temperature ablative armor. Takamo tried to sit up, but with his other arms still bound he couldn’t do so much. He strained to reach the console. “Mariko… okay… ugh…” Takamo grunted, rolling his eyes at the console and sounding more annoyed than anything. He let out a frustrated grunt as the sliding door opened and two cauldarions entered in full powered armor. “Princess Mariko. We’re here to escort you to the bridge! The ship could loose pressure! Put this on!” One said, presenting her with a breathing collar. He ordered her, seemingly oblivious to her attempting to free Takamo from the bed.
Near Brig
Two familiar figures approached Verma. One was Katrina, and the other was commander Valeem who had since suited up. Both of their helmets were retracted. “The hell did she get out?” Valeem scowled. “Katrina, put her back in there!” “Doesn’t matter. We’re short on hands, we need people to help lock down the reactor room. Brass on the bridge says we could be facing boarders.” Katrina urged. Valeem’s face appeared absolutely livid. “No. Protocol mandates-“ “You want to lecture me on protocol, commander?! When we’re under attack by an unknown enemy…?!”
Verma huffed in irritation. "Look, you can take my help if you want, but I think you should know that I did a tour with the Legions. Toughest motherfuckers in the Killian Verge, and they specialize in shipboard combat. Give me some armor, a gun, and a squad, and I can break any boarders, or at least hold them back. Hell, the only reason the mess on the station went down the way it did was cause those buggers were just plain unnatural, and even that would've gone a hell of a lot different if I'd had a fighting front." She glanced over to Katrina . "Against flesh and blood, I promise you that I will either hold the line or die trying." Then she turned to Valeem. "What do you say, commander? Take the chance, and maybe hold the ship, or stick me back in the brig and die with me when they land? Because they will land. I don't care how good your point defenses are, no battery ever made can hit everything."
OUTSIDE
The physical weapons seemed barely effective against the irregular flanks of the giant warships. Mass driver rounds simply disappeared as if swallowed, like throwing a coin into a fogbank, whilst the missiles lit the darkness with their explosions but didn't seem to achieve much, at least not in any way easily discernible. The hardlight vectors, however, hacked into the enemy hulls, leaving searing wounds of bright light that glowed sickly against the rotten Merger metal. One of the vast destroyers began to drift, billowing a roiling smoke, as the others intensified their barrages, their fire erratic. The smaller ships sprang forwards, several already blown to pieces or floating with broken backs from the Gauss barrage, their own CIWS and interceptor systems buzzing with argent light as they fended off the missiles and mass driven slugs, lunging forwards as tentacle-like appendages began to uncoil, clearly in anticipation of a boarding maneuver. MEDBAY Mariko jumped as the door slid open, frozen as the giant knights stamped towards them, but then one held out a huge hand and proffered some kind of device, telling her to put it on. She had assumed they were there to finish off Takamo, and maybe arrest her for trying to free him, but since they were not she quickly slipped the collar around her neck and then turned back to Takamo. "We can't leave him! Help me get him loose!" she cried over the din, tugging at another arm restraint
Bridge
The chief weapons officer quickly took note of what was effective and what was not, ordering swiftly all power to the vector emitters in lieu of the mass drivers. As the Merger grew dangerously close the point defense came online, sweeping across the tendrils as they grew close. Individually the point defense nodes were a few orders of magnitude less impressive than the meters thick rods of neon blue light produced by the main turrets, but numbering in the hundreds and deadly precise they could stave off the boarding tendrils. “Is there a problem?” Peldon asked, noticing the concerned look on the officer’s face. “There’s too many… no matter which targeting configuration we use; they’re going to get through…” He said, his jaw clenching up in frustration as several simulations played by on his console at an accelerated speed; frantically cueing the computer with new targeting algorithms in an attempt to find one that countered the merger’s erratic and ferocious assault. Frantic chatter from his junior officers echoing over the communications console. “Let them in the bow; keep them off the sides and rear; whatever you have to do.” “Sir…” The officer muttered reluctantly. “That’s an order.” He reminded. “If they want to board so bad, we’ll make them work for it. Make them fight through the whole ship front to back. That should bide us enough time…” The officer nodded, reassured by his commander’s logic and began orchestrating the change in targeting.
Near Brig
Valeem Scowled; as though the mere suggestion that his marines needed help was offensive. Before he could respond he was informed of Peldon’s defensive plan and let out an annoyed, frustrated grunt. Recognizing that a conflict onboard the ship was all but inevitable. “Fetch me some handheld weapons and an EVA pack; double time it!” He snapped to one of his machines. “Alright fine. And since you two lovely ladies get along so well, You can tag along with ‘er. Her powered armor had since been scrapped; there was no time to reproduce it. But she could be supplied with a generic vacuum collar helmet and vehicle operator’s body plate to offer decent protection; as well as a carbine and her apparent favorite; hard-light great-sword. The two were deployed alongside a battalion and a few light tanks fitted with rotary accelerators in a large open corridor several dozen meters wide and tall. On the journey here they had passed through the hangars; seeing the rear ends of the handful of Shogun frigates that had survived the battle with house Jaros. The group stood in a formation; with the first row comprised mostly of turreted suppression weapons and KR units on their knees and a second row; standing of marines and more KR units. “Valeem’s holding back on the bridge to help with the macro fight. Every other corridor on this ship is gonna be hell to fight through; winding and about a million crenelated bulkheads.” She gestured to a section of the wall that was in fact a retracted bulkhead. “If they’re going to make a push to the stern of the ship, they’re going to do it through here… So stay in fucking formation or that thing-” She pointed to the rotary accelerator on one of the tanks. “Is gonna ram a hundred two-kilo rounds up your ass every second.”
Valeem came over the main comm. “Alright! We are about to have the esteemed pleasure of hosting the merger aboard our ship! Now I don’t care if these assholes crawled outta the anus at the center of the galaxy or some scummy backwards planet; and I’m not about to discriminate! We will give them a warm and courteous GDMC welcome! They will all leave our ship satisfied with bellies full of bullets and topped off with warm plasma! Rahbakun Parakos Los Dominion! Rahbakun Parakos Kragleosha Gauss!” “Rahbakun Parakos Los Dominion! Rahbakun Parakos Kragleosha Gauss!” The troops repeated back; the autonomous volume adjustment making no effort to drown out their war cry.
Medbay
The Cauldarions looked confused for a moment. The obviously knew that he was probably restrained for a reason, but they had also been given orders to look out for the princess; and if any of the dominion’s member races respected royal bloodlines even an iota; it was the Cauldarions. One of the battle brothers stepped forward and tapped the touchscreen a few times; causing the restraints to withdraw with a hiss. Takamo sat up, massaging his wrists. He glanced around; an odd almost unreadable mixture of emotions spread across his face. He was thankful for the circumstances that had allowed him to avoid his untimely euthanasia, but deep down a part of him knew this was only a delaying action. Either whatever crisis had stricken the ship would be his demise; or when it passed and the crew were able to reorganize themselves he would be put right back where he started with an order of magnitude more precautions. For this he wore a long, sullen face and glazed over eyes; detached from the urgent mood of soldiers and robots scurrying up and down the corridor and the blaring of the ship’s alarms. The Knights led the four down a maze of corridors and down an elevator which led them nearest to the bridge. Here they would pass through the numerous security measures put into place around the reinforced bridge; forced to pass through the grid of lasers, the bioweapon scrubbing mist and the large bulkhead door onto the ship’s bridge where crew members were strapped into seats in the event of gravity failure and carrying out their duties. The door sealed shut behind them as another pair of knights crossed their spears in front of it. “Admiral.” One of the knights began. “As you requested.” Peldon turned, gesturing to passenger seats. “Get her strapped in.” Takamo was already sitting down, glancing warily at the ship’s senior officers as though he no longer trusted them.
THE PROW OF THE OMNISCIENCE
The first enemy ships closed to within range, the tentacles reaching out and clamping onto the hull with heavy, lugubrious thuds, shuddering the infrastructure. Giant beaks, crackling with energy, began to gnaw at the tough exterior of the ship, grinding and punching into the durable metal. Even as they chewed, however, Merger forces were also flowing into the ship, a sort of black gas pouring through the tiniest of gaps between molecules. Some of these clouds simply dispersed, as though the effort had exhausted them, unbinding their vital energy, but many more reformed, coalescing into nightmarish forms that stepped from dark corners, from blank walls and from doorways across the front of the ship. The Merger warriors were a hideous sight. Some of them were familiar, humans and felidaens, and other mammalian species which scholars might recognise as Katasians and Canidaens. Others took a more vague form, hulking and large, but the cacophony of figures was unified by a single element. They were all grotesque, foul and offensive to the eyes, covered in unnatural growths, misshapen limbs, rotting and decaying in places. Horns, claws and teeth jutted at strange angles, and the limbs that gripped a mismatched assortment of weapons were gnarled and foul, bent and broken. A chorus of cries, some guttural and deep, some shriekingly mad, sounded as the hordes began to throw themselves at the Dominion troops, heedless of the weaponsfire that reaped through their ranks. Crude lasers and blackpowder weapons fired alongside archaic but potent energy weapons and cruel projectile launchers, whilst blades, claws, teeth and a hundred other melee weapons lashed at the defenders, the rancid stench of the attacking Merger forces a physical assault on their senses.
THE BRIDGE
Outside, the continued fire of the Merger ships was visible even as another Oblivion destroyer began to gout an unholy flame, listing to one side as the Dominion fire took its toll. As they watched, tendrils snaked out from its flank to snare one of the smaller Merger frigates, hauling it into the shadow of the great ship. Mariko sat and stared, wide-eyed. She was young, and had never seen the Merger in force. She had not been alive to see the brutal realities of the Keystone Campaign, or the fall of FB-1. To her generation, the Merger had always been nothing more than a cult of lunatics, crazed and emaciated half-wits who would occasionally try to stab people at a mall or blow up a shipping freighter. To see them thus, arrayed in full panoply of war and threatening a powerful flagship like this, chilled her to her core. After a moment, she realised what she was seeing on the readouts ahead of her. The ship was being boarded, Merger forces pouring onto the decks of the ship, and they had nowhere to go. For every Merger ship the Dominion sank, and they seemed to be exacting a bloody toll, two more sprang up to press the attack, and she was trapped in a padded chair surrounded by strangers. She looked over at Takamo and then reached out, straining to grip his paw in her hand.
The Prow Verma gritted her teeth and held position with the rest of the Dominion soldiers as the Merger came on, howling. She could feel the madness scratching at her mind, could taste the fury and despair behind her eyes. The thunder of the tanks firing shook the deck beneath her feet, and still they charged. And then it all...stopped. The Merger warforms, the weapons fire, the front ranks of the Dominion position shooting at the attackers, everything. And then it showed itself, the thing that had been at her heels ever since she was discharged from her unit. It had been there at Tergral, and it had been there in the hangar bay when they'd returned from the station. Always just out of sight, but making sure she knew it was there. It didn't have any one form, how could it? It was made of shadows, pulled out of their rightful shapes, sliding around and melting into one another, thinner here or thick and black there. Unfortunately, none of that impaired the weight of its gaze that she could feel boring into her. But before she could open her mouth to try and demand an explanation, it tsked at her. SUCH A SHAME. I HAD HIGHER HOPES FOR YOU THAN DYING ON SOME FORSAKEN WRECK AT THE FAR EDGE OF NOWHERE. She blinked for a minute, stunned. However, for all of her shock, nothing could stop her mouth, and - "What the fuck? Are you seriously giving me shit about being here while you've got time stopped like it's nothing?" There was a distinct feeling of amusement. AND YOU WONDER WHY YOU WERE THROWN INTO THE BRIG? AND THIS IS HARDLY AN EASY FEAT, I MIGHT ADD. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION. Her eyes widened as the implications of that statement hit her. "Nuh uh. No way. I've seen what happens to heralds. Get fucked." ONE WORD, KAR VERMA. ONE WORD FROM YOU, AND I CAN SAVE YOU. BUT ULTIMATELY, THE CHOICE BELONGS TO YOU. ---
Before she could respond, the shadows fell apart, and time resumed with the crash of accelerator fire and the shaking of the deck as the tank fired again. Stumbling, she looked about. It was obvious that holding this position was just a losing proposition, and...and Verma found that she really didn't want to prove the meddling bastard right and die out here in the ass end of nowhere. Fuck this shit. She shoved and pushed her way through the ranks to Katrina. "Katrina! Listen to me, we gotta get out of here, there's no way we can hold. Signal the withdrawal!"
Logistics Shaft
The Battle raged. Accelerator fire transitioning from controlled bursts to sustained output; the tank at the rear of the formation losing any and all inhabitation and simply sweeping its stream of fire back and fourth across the enemy formation. The veritable potpourri of merger weapons had a mixture of effects. A good portion of them were primitive and largely too weak to pose any realistic threat to their armor. Though those that weren’t quickly dropped the robotic units. Reserves began to fill in their ranks. As the Merger charged they began to slowly fight a tactical retreat up the shaft; gradually withdrawing as to keep their foes tentatively out of range at all times. It seemed as though they had unintentionally began following her advice at least partially. "Five minutes ago you said you'd hold the line no matter what! Dammit we're either gonna die fighting these assoles or die when they push us back to the bridge and Peldon scuttles the ship."
Bridge Takamo responded, grabbing hold of Mariko’s hand and squeezing it tightly. He stared forward at the cacophony of activity on the bridge with a dead look in his eyes. He caught sight of a video feed of the battle occurring in the logistics shaft and let out a huff. The defeated merger frigate was cause for a mild celebration and a much needed boost in morale on the bridge, a few of the junior weapons officers cheering as the merger ship began to disintegrate under the combined fire of the piercing neon blue beams. Peldon nodded affirmatively to the senior weapons officer, as if to say ‘Good job, but don’t get cocky.’ He turned to his sensor officer. “Any word on our reinforcements?” “Still a ways out sir.” “Dammit.” He then turned his attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation with the boarding parties. Recognizing the airborne; almost ghostly merger threat he ordered the forward sections of the ship be quarantined; with the ventilation systems being shut to ensure their foe had no opportunity to take any shortcuts. “Where is commander Valeem?” Peldon pondered.
“Right here, Sir!” He said making a hasty jog onto the bridge. Suddenly his head snapped around and he withdrew his pistol and prepared to fire at Takamo. Fortunately one of the Knights at the door was quicker, muffling the pistol with his hand. He fired thrice and a moment later the knight plucked the pistol from his hand and held the commander up with one arm. The hand he had fired into; armored in muran seemed immune even to accelerator rounds as three pencil like flechettes clattered to the floor. “What the hell you dooin?” The Knight asked in a stereotypical deep and intimidating Cauldarion voice. “That Agent!” He declared, pointing to Takamo! “He’s compromised! He’s probably the reason this whole shitshow got started!” The ship’s senior logistics officer approached the two and studied them for a breif moment, then approached Takamo and studied him for a few moments. She nodded and the knight dropped the commander who dusted himself off, shooting the Knight a “I’m going to demote you” look and recovered his sidearm. He raised the pistol to Takamo once more. “Wait!” He shouted. “She’s been compromised too. And she’s the one they’re here for… not me! …And you can’t kill her… so why should you kill me?” Commander Valeem scowled, momentarily contemplating what the agent had said.
LOGISTICS SHAFT
The Dominion troopers were learning the same lesson the Axis had years ago. Despite their absolute tactical superiority, the Dominion simply couldn't butcher the monsters fast enough to stop the scrabbling horde. If any of them had been able to tear their eyes away from the immediate threat, they would have noticed that further back in the corridor, the charred and shattered flesh littering the floor kept reconstituting, sliding into foul heaps that grew into yet new malformed horrors, pouring new life into the attack. Though they were forcing the Dominion to fall back, the weight of powerful and accurate fire from the defenders was enough to keep the Merger monstrosities from reaching their lines, keeping the beasts just out of arms length of the disciplined withdrawal and leaving a trail of smoking and ruined Merger carcasses along the corridor. Behind them, however, Peldon had sealed the bulkheads, stopping the Merger's insidious penetration of the ship and forcing the attackers to concentrate their fury against the Dominion troops holding the front line in the prow. -
BRIDGE
As Valeem raised his pistol at Takamo, the muzzle only centimetres away from being pointed at her, Mariko scrambled to unbuckle her grav harness and stood, trying to dominate her fear by feeding her anger instead. Hearing Takamo use the phrase "compromised" shook her and, drawing herself up and momentarily managing not to look like a scared teen, she spoke to Valeem, screwing up her courage to a fever pitch as she stared practically down the barrel of his gun. "I am a Princess of the Jade Empire of Ingen!" she shouted, indignant and disbelieving as the realisation struck her at the same time she spoke the words, remembering that she was in fact heir to an Empire of billions and was being menaced by a mere infantry commander. "How dare you point that gun at me?!" she yelled, jabbing a finger at Valeem. As she did so, there was the sound of a thunderclap and the smell of rain, and a great physical force like a seething wave flooded the rear half of the bridge, crashing into Valeem and the Cauldarion knights and flowing around them to vent down the corridor beyond. It seemed as if even Mariko was astonished by the blast, her hands outstretched and held palm-up as if she had just dropped a firearm
Logistics Shaft
Verma shook her head. "That was against mortal enemies. Those? Those are not mortal. The last time I saw anything even close to that, it took a two hour bombardment from three dreadnoughts to put it down." A particularly vicious screech cut through the din of battle, and she winced. "Even if I had a full Legion here, I couldn't hold this shaft. We need to get off this ship, Katrina." She glanced back down the passage, thinking of the frigates she had seen on the way here. "Besides, Mariko is next in line for the throne of the Empire. What the hell do you think is gonna happen if she dies while aboard a Dominion warship? Cause I can guarantee you, it won't be a party. Not to mention that the Houses are probably not pleased over what happened to Tergral. Do you really think the GD can win a two-way war?" Holstering her pistol, she grabbed Katrina and spun her to face down the shaft. "I saw the frigates just sitting there. If I can get Mariko and Takamo, can you get one of them warmed up for launch?"
Bridge Valeem was flung backwards into the inner bulkhead with a loud clang and a handful of white sparks. The Knights less so, only staggered and momentarily dazed thanks to their larger size and denser nature. The ship’s automated life support system was a bit confused having detected a shift in the atmospherics due to the use of Mariko’s abilities onboard the bridge began spraying NBC countermeasures and rapidly cycling the atmosphere. The mist made the air on the bridge develop a slight haze which smelled of flowers and salt water but then being replaced with fresh, cold air. For a few moments the bridge was silent, with nothing but the sound of the ventilation system going into overdrive. Though after a moment the chatter restarted, crews rapidly spouting off technical data and targeting coordinates in an increasingly desperate bid to pull out a miracle victory in this fight. Valeem righted himself, a drop of violet blood working its way down from the corner of his mouth from when he’d struck the ground. He wiped it away, rapidly cycling through a wide array of mixed emotions. Confusion, frustration, fear. He drew in a long deep breath and all of these emotions were gone. He stood bolt upright, seemingly having returned to the stoic, unshakable demeanor so many of these individuals had. He seemed to ponder for a second longer, the voice of Kal Verma came through his collar microphone barely audible. “Admiral Peldon. He’s right…” Valeem said. The go’shii twisted his body around as Valeem drew in a breath. “Permission to escort Princess Mariko and Agent Verma off the ship.” The Admiral scowled at him, lamenting the breach in protocols. “Do what you have to do. I’ll bide you as much time as I can.” The Ship’s AI unbuckled the harnesses and the door to the bridge opened. Valeem closed his helmet, as did the two knights which he requested to follow.
Logistics Shaft/Main Hangar
By now, the forces had been pushed back into the main hangar. Here the Merger forces had much more opportunity to form more diverse battlefronts spread across the numerous levels. Though the smaller crewed decks would still prove vastly more challenging to take. But this larger area also meant they were bringing more firepower to bear. Where they had once been restricted to one or two vehicles, constrained by the shaft it was now possible for entire platoons of tank or mech units to participate in full, and it would be vastly easier for the two to get separated. Katrina was quiet behind her mask, more focused on shooting than anything. She took pause for a moment. “Valeem. I’m starting to think she’s right…” “She is.” He affirmed. “We’re heading to bay 12 now. The Falconer is already primed for takeoff. Just keep them back a little longer or we’re going to have a hell of a time getting onboard.”
Logistics Shaft A howl resounded across the decks as a Merger warform charged the tanks, and Verma faltered, looking out. Then her head dropped, and if Katrina listened closely, she might've been able to hear the Imperial sigh in defeat and murmur softly "You win, you damned bastard. Alright? You win. Get us out of here and it's a yes." The shadows along the walls suddenly exploded outwards, pouring across the broken and shattered forms of GD soldiers and robots. As it passed, the fallen rose up, with an eeire silvered light holding them together as they continued to fight. Further back, the deck shuddered and groaned as a particularly dense knot of shadows twisted in on itself before clearing to reveal a glimmering hedron drifting forward, firey runes ablaze on its surface as flickering bolts of the same silver light animating the dead lashed out into the Merger. Then, a voice whispered into Katrina and Verma's minds with a single unshakable command. FLEE, LITTLE MORTALS. Verma stumbled, grabbing her chest and gritting her teeth as agony etched its way across the skin of her chest. Then, she grabbed Katrina by the wrist and turned to run. This was no place for the living now…
Mariko stumbled as she staggered out of her seat, barely daring to look Valeem in the eye - she had not intended to hurt him, she hadn't even known she was capable of doing that, and even though he had been waving a gun around she felt guilty, as though she had overstepped. She followed Valeem, the soldiers and Takamo from the bridge, wishing with her whole being that an Imperial warship would arrive and pluck her from this unending riot…
Verma would turn around to realize that Katrina was nowhere in sight, the hud on her mask indicating that she had left a few moments earlier assuming that Verma was going to hold the line until then. The fire momentarily wained as the shadows infused into their fallen robotic units and animated them, but upon their completion; shambling and mangled constructs given a second chance to take on the encroaching merger were re-engaged in the fight. The soldiers simply counted fighting in defiance of Verma’s psychic message, accepting this odd reality. For every last solider was trained extensively to block out psychic powers. Even the tiniest intrusion into ones mind considered a critical security breach, it was questionable if any of them, for better or worse, had even heard her command. Their efforts though relentless, and their voices remained stern and fearless, they had become scattered, a tangle of radio chatter reporting failing lines and requests for reinforcements as the merger forces began to use the hangars to spread throughout the ship. -+- The bridge sealed shut behind them and the group began advancing down the corridors. Bulkheads opening and closing for them as they went past the officer’s cabins, mess and rec room before piling into an elevator and taking a trip down a few hundred decks to the far side of the launch bay. The elevator giving them a momentary reprieve from the chaos in where Takamo was able to breathe a long sigh, staring down at the floor. Though he knew it wasn’t the case, he couldn’t shake the fact that this was somehow his fault… The door opened as a veritable stampede of engineering crew ran past them, to the back of the ship. The now four cauldron knights that were with them each withdrew hard light weaponry, not sure how far behind the enemy was at this point.
Verma was fairly sure that she'd be grateful for her military conditioning allowing her to run like this...after she got of here in one piece. The ship was going to fall to the invaders, that was merely a matter of time. All around her, the Dominion forces struggled to hold the line against the Merger while she fled with Katrina. Stumbling, she sprawled across a section of decking covered in rubble and blood, just as the mark on her chest flared to life with scorching agony. Gritting her teeth against a scream, she shoved herself to her feet and staggered on after the rest. The Shadow would not be best pleased if it lost its herald so soon after expending so much energy.
As more and more sections of the Omniscience cruiser fell silent, the crew busy fighting or fleeing, the surviving Merger warships pressed in, nosing the debris of their ruined sister-ships aside as they closed the gap and began boarding, more and more hideous tendrils snaking out to besmirch the flanks of the sleek Gauss vessel. The roiling masses of Merger beings swelled even as the Dominion soldiers fought to hold them off. Behind Verma and Katrina there was a shuddering explosion and the reek of burning flesh, and what seemed to be a giant crab's claw, training blood and ichor, cartwheeling overhead, clanging to the deck in front of them where it twitched and shuddered. -- As Mariko, Takamo, Valeem and the knights clattered down the corridor, making their way through the lower decks, a black fog began to pour through seams in the wall ahead of them, coalescing into a towering form almost as tall as the Cauldarions, dripping with unidentifiable ooze, mandibles clacking as it began to move towards them. Mariko stepped forwards, right foot planted first and right hand outstretched, palm towards the enemy, her expression grim as she fought to mask her own fear. She paused for a second, her gaze flickering to her hand as if willing it to move, and then she clenched her hand into a fist with a wordless yell. The being staggered, as part of its chest seemed to contract like earth falling into a sinkhole. With a pained, gurgling roar, it shook itself and sprang towards the group. Her fist still clenched, Mariko pivoted, her left foot and hand coming forwards. As her left foot stamped down, her right arm came back, curled next to her side as her left hand came forwards in a shoving motion, held upright as if she were commanding the beast to halt.
An airburst slapped through the corridor as the creature was thrown backwards, a large chunk of mass in its core remaining behind, held hovering in the air. Torn apart, the monster screeched in hideous agony as dark ichor sprayed behind it, the corpse tumbling to the ground and falling to pieces which began to dissolve even as they watched. Unclenching her fist, Mariko staggered backwards in equal parts shock and exhaustion, the mutilated torso of the monster falling with a sickly slap to the ground. Even as it did, several more forms began to materialise, just as Mariko passed out and fell to the floor…
Katrina ducked behind a secured crate, several shots narrowly missing her. She threw a grenade over her shoulder without looking, anticipating where the enemy would be; and she was spot on, the blast flinging them over the edge of the hangar gangway, sending the merger zombies flying over the railing and plummeting a few hundred meters to the bottom of the hangar. She spotted Verma and gestured her to join her. They weren’t far from the frigate now, on a terraced loading platform mounting arrays of mechanical gantries and arms for reloading the building-sized munitions carried by the frigate. This left a sprawling, open loading platform that had been immaculate an hour earlier now littered with corpses and rubble. It looked as though the way to the frigate was being cleared by a mech squadron who was having little difficulties killing the smaller human-sized merger forms. Several of them clawing at the legs or firing with small weapons did little to harm them. But at that moment there was a deafening shriek as more boarding tendrils tore into the ship, wrenching all four of the ship’s primary weapons away from the hull. Some of these invading spines becoming visible at the far side of the platform.
The black mist began to form, drawing in an unusual amount into a large humanoid form more than able to match the members of the mech squadron. Its armor somewhat resembled that of an ancient ingenious samurai but the armor was in tatters. Rust, dry blood and crudely added spikes and skulls adorned the hulking warrior’s body; his only exposed flesh being his lower jaw, something between raw bone and gray decrepit skin; with far too many teeth for a human. His left arm carried a large wall shield covered in twisting metal barbs and his right hand was grafted into some form of gatling cannon with a large jagged bayonet that had at some point in the distant past been an elegant curved sword; now rusted and notched mounted below the barrels. … As the mist began to reform, the Knights turned to confront whatever monstrosity would manifest next. “Go! Take the Cargo Access! We’ll hold them off as long as we can!” One of the knights said sternly. “Come on!” Another yelled. “Let’s make it a warrior’s death! For the Princess of Ingen!”
“For the Princess of Ingen!” The Knights shouted in unison, readying their halberds and shields and charging down at whatever unholy threats would manifest next. As the Knights charged in yelling with righteous fury and carving ivory streaks of light through the Merger, Takamo scooped up the Unconscious princess, grunting in pain as the weight strained his wounded shoulder. Valeem accessed the logistics bay and cut through. The moment the automatic door opened. they were met with sprays of deafening high caliber fire. Some foreign and some familiar. The titanic warrior was challenging the entire squad of Mechs single handedly. One which had been caught out of position charged and promptly sandwiched between the monster’s spiked shield and the reinforced wall, the impact caving in the machine’s torso and cratering the wall behind it with a deafening clang. The machine crumpled to the ground; the shield’s barbs dripping with the viscera of its unfortunate pilot.
Recognizing that the Princess had just been carried onto the battlefield, and that the presence of this monster posed a threat to her, the squad initiated an ill advised charge. The gigantic samurai raised his weapon arm and spun up the gatling weapon. A spray of reddish orange rounds roared out. Their accuracy was scattered but their power overwhelming the defenses of the mechs. The demon swept his weapon across them, cutting them down one at a time. Though, partially exposed he took fire in return; a few well placed shots disabling his ranged weapon. Only a single mech managed to survive to rush past him, a neon-blue blade of light slicing the merger demon’s shield apart. The two exchanged a quick series of punches melee strikes, though the larger merger demon held a considerable advantage in this regard; pinning the machine to the wall with its cleated foot and tearing the arm off before plucking off the hatch and removing the pilot. A Farrian woman not too dissimilar to Katrina writhed in pain, bones snapping and organs popping as the demon crushed her alive. Only one arm free of the demon’s clutches she raised it, an explosive in her hand. She was already half-dead, but as her last act she weakly threw the explosive into the demon’s face.
It crumpled over, righting itself moments later. Its helmet had been destroyed revealing its emaciated head and coarse black hair tied into a messy bun; half its exposed jaw was gone, replaced with red-hot flesh and bone. The monster was clearly strained for stamina, seemingly heaving with exertion and exhaling a foul-smelling hot steam. Its chest and head riddled with craters from accelerator rounds that had torn clean through its form. Valeem gave the monster no quarry, firing a moment later at its exposed head. The rounds having little effect the monster, in frustration kicked a stray supply crate at him and Takamo. Takamo anticipated a moment earlier and barred out of the way, sliding across the floor to cover with Mariko in his arms. Valeem attempted to dodge, rolling away with the assistance of his armor’s thrusters but was too slow. The crate struck him. The impact was so great that the wall behind him had been dented as he crumpled to the ground. His left arm hung limp and mangled and down to his knee; his chest caved in an unnatural way and blood leaked from the seams of his armor which filled with bio foam. Still he tried to right himself with his one good arm, a pained gurgle coming over his comm.
The Merger demon let out a frustrated yell which was almost intelligible as “Give me the GIRL!” Katrina glanced around at the deck. The lone merger demon stood between them and the gangway to the ship. As if on cue a robotic PA announcement was broadcast over the ship. “Attention All Crew: Condition Zero. Condition Zero.” “Dammit!” Katrina shouted. “That’s A Condition Zero! They must be getting close to the bridge… Admiral Peldon’s gonna scuttle the ship! Anyone got any bright ideas how to deal with this asshole?!”
Verma shrugged. "We kill it or we die. Simple enough." The beast snarled and stomped its foot, causing the whole bay to shake, then charged. Eyes widening, Verma threw herself to the side by Valeem in a roll. As she did so, the pounding thunder of the monster's hooves passed her by, before it stopped and spun, snarling. Yanking her helmet off and gulping a breath, Verma juggled the grenade she'd grabbed from Valeem before arming it and pitching it overhand and stooping to grab her rifle. The blast lit up the room, accompanied by the demon's agonized shriek, shortly overlaid by the bone-shaking roar of Verma's accelerator. The stream of projectiles played across the Merger's form, flesh peeling away like water. Suddenly, there was a sharp click. Glancing down, Verma barely had time for a brief "Oh shit" before it surged forward to grab her by throat with the mangled remains of its right hand. Squeezing, it lifted her, growling as puffs of hot, fetid air washed over her face. "Prey. Tell me where she is." Struggling for breath, Verma managed a weak chuckle. "I know where she is. Right over there. But I got.... erk a better...question for you." As the ruined face turned towards her, its one remaining eye slitted in rage, she fumbled for the hilt of the sword on her belt before pulling it free.
"Do you...ngh know where your arm is?" The monsterous head tilted slightly in confusion before there was a crackle of energy and Verma dropped to the deck, spinning the activated greatsword around and cleaving the beast open vertically. There was a wet-sounding thunk behind her as the severed arm hit the floor before the bisected halves of the demon fell apart with a meaty noise. Gasping for air, Verma switched the sword off and staggered over to Valeem and dragged him up, hauling him up as she pulled him along towards the frigate. Glancing back, she hollered out "Get your asses moving, people! All aboard the Oh Fuck O'Clock to Zaoth, now boarding!" Shoving Valeem into the hands of a medic bot at the airlock, she ushered Katrina and Takamo, still carrying Mariko, in before slamming the lock and shouting into the intercom. "Get us the hell out of here! I'll be up the bridge ASAP to give coordinates, but for now just get us off this ship before it's blown to hell!"
“Why did you have to tell him that?” Katrina grunted as more merger began spilling over the gantry to the ship, like a tide flooding in the creatures clawed over one another screaming in what drowned into an incomprehensible wail in a final effort to get hold of the princess. The Gantry was curved; segmented in a sense as the ship was stored perpendicular to the ship’s artificial gravity requiring a curved retractable ramp. And slowly this demonic tide began to spill over, sporadic weapons fire battering the side of the ship. As the tide closed in, a few soldiers fought on to bide them a few more moments. Katrina let off a few token shots, several impacting her armor. Though they failed to pierce some left small craters dripping with molten metal. In a desperate panic she pulled a manual lever and the door to the ship slid shut, severing a warped hand and several blackened tendrils. The medical bot, less skilled and ambitious than any organic doctor defaulted into Valeem into hospice mode, managing a single painkiller injection. The commander retracted his helmet; the intricate mechanism becoming stuck halfway through. It became apparent just how grave his condition really was. The left hand side of his face was mangled and swollen beyond recognition, blood leaking from his eyes, nose and mouth had been filling his helmet which had filed it up to the neckline and was now spilling down his torso.
“Come on…” He grunted. “This ship’s not leaving without me.” The bridge of the Shogun was vastly more compact than that of it’s mother ship. Designed for only about a dozen people at most it was a small triangular room with the commander’s chair in the middle. Takamo scurried in, strapping the unconscious princess into the chair that would belong to the ship’s communications officer. Takamo took the Capitan’s chair and began to operate the console. The controls locked up immediately. “Access Denied.” Came the ship’s computer in a monotone female voice, accompanied by a loud bang against the hull. Katrina brought up an external camera feed as the hulking warrior had apparently reconstituted and was pounding against the door. “Override… Theta Epsilon Zero… Zero One.” Valeem managed, his head rolling to the side in his chair. “X2- I mean… Takamo… You trained to fly a ship like this?”
“I flew a freighter…” Takamo said with a hint of nervousness as the controls unlocked. Valeem’s head lulled over as he gave the Go’shii a crooked smile. The gantries and clamps began to withdraw much to the frustration of the merger hordes who plummeted over the sides and battered against the sides of the ship or fell hundreds of meters through the hangar. Takamo opened the engines and the ship lurched forward several dozen meters before instantly impacting the still closed hangar door while also roasting countless individuals, both allied and enemy with relativistic plumes of radioactive iron. The impact kicked through the dampeners throwing everyone forward in their seats. The medical bot; the only individual not strapped in went flying forward into a wall. “Shit!” He hissed. The door began to open; an AI or the ship’s bridge crew having apparently gotten the message. As the protracted seconds wore on, a boarding tendril worked its way into the hangar and approached the frigate. Katrina was quicker, bringing up the vector nodes and shearing it apart mere meters before it could strike the ship. “Come on… come on!” Takamo urged, as though it would somehow make the hangar door open any faster. Finally when there was barely enough clearance he opened the engine a second time and forced his way through; the ship catching on the doors and tearing them both loose as they rocketed away. “ The rearview sensors showed the ship they had fled, tangled and suffocated by the merger fleet greedily consuming the vessel. A message came over Mariko’s communications console on a video feed, being open broadcast on all frequencies. “This is Admiral Peldon Shum openly broadcasting on all frequencies. The Princess is away safely, I repeat the princess is away-“ There was was an explosion in the background; shearing metal and gunfire. He ignored it, bowing his head to the console and feeling for a button on the console. “Temudo nora Kragleosha Gauss.“
A single frame of blinding white light then a default blue screen with the words “transmission lost”. An instant later the rearview sensors nearly went blind as the ship and the surrounding merger were enveloped in a blinding blue-violet and white light; for a fleeting instant it looked photosphere of a star expanding outward at relativistic speeds, slowly fading over several seconds from blue and violet to yellow and then to a deep muddy scarlet. As the blast wave caught up with them, the ship was rocked once more, shaking violently as currents of vaporized starship battered the shield. A few moments later the interdiction dissipated and the ship was clear to spin into subspace.
Mariko groaned as the shaking of the escaping frigate slowly roused her back to consciousness. She shook her head to clear it and gasped for breath, clutching at the arms of her accelerator chair as she glanced up at the viewport ahead, then around at the sensors as they leapt from the site of the ambush. "What...what happened? Where are we?" BEHIND THEM The Merger warships were torn apart by Admiral Peldon's sacrifice, immolated and shredded by the ferocity of the Gauss reactor detonation. Only a handful survived, battered and venting atmosphere, flames flickering in the darkness as they flared up and were immediately suffocated by the void. Even as they scrambled to recover, three ships appeared among the wreckage, their forms elongated bizarrely for a mere moment before snapping into their proper shape. Blade-shaped prows angled towards the surviving Merger ships, they emerged from hyperspace at high speed, having switched from Slipgate to Hyperspace FTL several light-hours distant to enable a running arrival. Roaring towards the surviving Merger ships, their guns flared. Older models, a Tanto destroyer and a pair of Misericorde frigates, they mounted dozens of smaller guns, pouring sheets of crude plasma and volleys of railgun slugs at the stricken survivors. Their initial attack run sunk or disabled the few Merger ships still operational, and they gracefully curved back around to a halt in the middle of the debris field, their guns lashing out haphazardly at pieces of wreckage. Captain Kaho Watanabe breathed a sigh of relief as Peldon's transmission was intercepted. At least the princess was alive, but she yet again had disappeared, slipping through the Navy's fingers even as she evaded the Merger. "Launch search parties. I am sure any survivors would appreciate our efforts, and a black box wouldn't go amiss either."
There was a grinding shudder as the ship vanished into subspace and Verma's chair shook with it. Once they were safely into subspace, she unbuckled herself and went to stand up, but staggered and winced as biting fire flickered across her side. Damn, but she'd thought she had more time. Well, nothing for it, she'd just have to power through. Sitting back down heavily, she tried to breathe through it while glancing over at Valeem. "Damn, but you look like a mess. And that's saying something, coming from the woman who got disembowled and lost an arm to a demigod not even a week ago." Glancing back at the viewscreen, she paused for a moment, then continued speaking, her voice soft but audible to everyone on the bridge. "You asked me earlier about my experience with mind-compromised individuals and mocked me for the events of Tergral. Tell me, Valeem, do you know what it's like to watch an entire empire die by inches?" She turned to look at him, her eyes soft and sad, an old and bitter melancholy reflected across her face. "I was born at the end of an age. The Imperium had been waging a war against the Reich and the Illateri for decades before my birth and had been losing all that time, slowly but surely. Indeed, as the singers say, 'Against the might of the Alliance, none could prevail'. By the time I was old enough to fight, we were down to two dozen worlds across fifteen systems. Command was getting desperate. Had been desperate for years, I suppose. And in their despair, they dug things up that never should've seen the light of day."
Leaning back, a grimace twisted her mouth. "Old weapons and devices from the War in Heaven, built by the Shadow to enslave us and turn us against the galaxy. Don't know why it thought it needed them, we did a fine enough job of that all on our own, really. I was dispatched with the 841st to Havenhold to dig something up. The Allies turned up to stop us, 'course. But we found the blasted hunk of metal anyways. Turns out it had been the housing for a pyschic AI system. Damned thing hijacked a beam transmission back to the Allied fleet and took it over in minutes. Some sort of mind control on the officers and crew, I think it was. Then it followed its original orders and turned the fleet against the enemy. Kept spreading too, like a patch of mold you just couldn't scrape off." A soft sigh. "The worst of it...the worst of it was that it helped. Turned the fight around across five fronts. We were thinking it could win us the war. Then it took its fleets to the Allies' home space. We could pick up the screams of dying worlds from halfway across the galaxy. And when they inevitably shut it down, they started glassing every world they captured in retaliation and executing our people in ways you can't imagine in your most horrific nightmares." Verma met his gaze head-on this time. "And it was my fault, for helping dig that nightmare out of the hole it had been buried in. So yes, Commander. I know very well what the consequences of allowing a mind-broken individual free reign are. But I also know that there is healing. And that a good commander can take someone who's broken and reforge them into a weapon of unrivaled deadliness. And a great commander...can do even more." Before she could say anything else, agony scorched across her side, and she convulsed in her chair, eyes rolling back in her head as the wound on her soul finally manifested itself again on her body, shredding flesh and bone and soaking her clothes in blood as she jerked and whimpered.
There wasn’t much in the way of surviving equipment or crew of the ship, save for an expanding sphere of conventional radio waves and a diffuse cloud of gas. As the last of the merger were driven off, the dominion started to filter in. Subspace transitions began appearing all over the system. At first just a handful of sentinel cruisers pulled from escort duties on Ancerium caravans, then the entirety of the GDAN Seventh fleet arrived in attack formation and almost immediately opened up with a barrage of mass driver fire intent on pulverizing the limping merger vessels. Admiral Yunato announcing her presence to the Ingen captain and declaring their intent to help, only to realize they had arrived to late and swiftly shift to picking captain Wantanabe’s brain about the Merger, their history and capabilities. There was no black box to speak of, but the unrestrained transmissions negated any need for it, as in return he offered up uncut security camera footage confirming princess Mariko’s escape. Though it wasn’t long before more ships arrived from a different vector. This time it was the second fleet, helmed by the Galactic Admiral who had made an emergency departure straight from Assiduous with the Paragon super dreadnought in tow. She confirmed her arrival with Wantanabe, and made it known that the unprovoked destruction of a command ship and the death of an admiral would be taken as an act of rahbakun (war without honor), but seemed more concerned about a rouge frigate and compromised agent than smoothing things over with the Jade forces, delegating this duty to Yunato.
… Valeem jolted as his autodefibulator kicked on attempting to resuscitate him. His eyes had already started to glaze over. He had apparently expired somewhere during Verma’s story, an alarm attempting to alert the medic bot who lay in a heap next to the communications console. Finally the ship’s computer seemed to catch up to the situation and deliver the remainder of the ship’s medical bots to the bridge. A pair of autonomous stretchers and a handful of bots lifted Valeem, then Verma and shuttled them off to the ship’s medical room. Takamo reclined in his flight seat as the ship spooled deeper and deeper into subspace. Verma’s story hadn’t exactly put his mind at ease as it reminded him of the later Courdeel wars. Katrina stood and followed them, retracting her helmet into her collar. Medic bots were just attendees and assistants, their ability to execute more complex procedures was dubious. As a special agent she was trained as a battlefield medic and had the qualifications to properly orchestrate their efforts. “Hey…” Takamo said. “Bring me back some stims and pain meds…” He said glancing down to his wounded shoulder still bleeding from the merger bullet that had struck him prior. Katrina shot him a look, something between apathy and genuine concern, following it up with a brief nod.
By the time Verma arrived in the medbay the medical bots had already confirmed him as deceased. They finished removing the last of his power armor revealing just how grizzly the damage was. His torso was mangled, seemingly only held together by his half-functional armor, though the gruesome sight was short lived as he was carefully loaded into a bodybag and then lifted into the mortuary. Katrina slapped shut an arm brace on the bed, taking vitals and injecting more fluids via a small IV. She ducked down next to Verma and began examining her wound. “Whats all this… I didn’t see you get hit during that fight…?” Though not on the level of their late commander, it was pretty dire. She ordered the medical bots to bring bio foam and healthy supply of pain meds and clotting agents as she took a blood sample to flash-clone cells for a transfusion, as she had lost quite a bit of blood. She passed this sample to one of the bots. “I’m gonna try and operate on this, graft some of these bones back together and try and close this up. You want me to put you under or you good?” …
Mariko’s communications station came to life, presenting another Go’shii. This one possessing orange-tinted fur. Her voice was stern, a smoldering vindictive anger just beneath the surface. “This is Galactic Admiral Sulumai Luss to the Acting Commander of the GDAN Shogun. The Merger threat is clear. I repeat, the Merger threat is clear. This is a direct recall order. Return immediately for escort back to Ingenious space and debriefing… hold on… why can’t I see them?” “Shit! Mariko! Pull that lever!” Takamo shouted, pointing to a large breaker-like lever ergonomically positioned in the righthand side of her console. “Commander Valeem Authorized Override Theta-1” A voice said. The ship’s on semi-manual. “Would you like me to revert it?” “Y-” Mariko reached for the lever out of instinct, her hand pausing at the last second. If she let the Dominion recapture them, they would return her home, back to the Jade Empire. The running and constant fear would be over, and she would be safe behind the swords of her people. She glanced over at Takamo and the others, battered and bleeding. Her fingers curled, closing into a fist, and she closed her eyes. Takamo was the only one who had kept her safe. Every time anyone else had tried to intervene, to protect her from the Merger, they had failed, many of them dying in the process. She reached forwards and gripped the lever, taking a breath before hauling it back.
The ship’s communications console went dark and rebooted to a reserve manual system, detached from the ship at large. This was a very simplistic computer system; impossible to hack or corrupt for manual radio communication, but lacking any form of encryption and requiring manual calculation for FTL transmission beaming. A moment later override codes streamed in, appearing onscreen as a long line of numbers and letters. But with no connection to the rest of the ship they were useless machine language. Takamo let out a gasp. He seemingly clenched up, fidgeting violently in his seat for a moment. “This is just great.” He thought to himself. “Now I’m a fugitive from the closest thing I ever had to a home, I’ve just stolen a military grade ship. I’m responsible for a royal princess with uncontrollable powers… of course… I’m hurt but not bad enough to go back to the medbay cause if the merger jumps us again I’m the only one who can fly this bucket. And to top all that off we’ve now got a dead NCO in the trunk… By the way, verma, I don’t know how that story was supposed to make me feel any better. That sounds like some shit the Courdeel would pull.” He let out a sigh; hanging his head, he spoke aloud. “What did I ever do to deserve this…?”
Mariko watched as Takamo wrestled with himself, seeing the wind go from him as suddenly as a dying breeze. Although she felt homesick and bereft, she knew that hers was only a temporary exile, and that there was still a place for her among her people. From what she had seen, Takamo no longer had a home to go back to, as much as the Dominion had even been a home in any real sense. Quietly she rose from her seat and crossed over to him, tenderly putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. After a moment's pause, she spoke softly. "A man must do his best until his karma is revealed to him". AMBUSH SITE As the new arrivals identified themselves as Gauss Dominion warships, Captain Kaho Watanabe signalled for their request for information be granted. The Imperial vessels began transferring combat data about the site and dossiers on the Merger threat to the newcomers, and in return gratefully scooped up the information offered about the Jade Princess. As one of her tactical officers spoke with his Gauss counterparts about the basics of the Merger and their combat abilities, she opened up a series of video files from the doomed cruiser. Her first mate stole a glance and was surprised to see a look of shock on Kaho's face. Although she was Ingenious, not a Suedian, Admiral George Chase's habits had imprinted themselves across the IJN and senior officers rarely betrayed emotion. Despite this, Kaho's wide eyes and faintly agape mouth were undeniable. Standing swiftly, he approached her console and offered a quick salute. She caught herself and nodded back, realising he had only come over for her benefit, and quietly beckoned him to join her. *"Ma, nante koto!" Bosun Hideko uttered, forgetting himself and using Ingenious instead of Standard. On the screen in front of them, he watched as the diminutive princess slew a giant Merger daemon without even touching it, before falling faint and being carried away by Dominion soldiers. -
Kaho muttered "That's not all," and pulled up another clip, showing the Princess causing mayhem aboard the Dominion bridge. Bosun glanced at Captain, and they both were silent. Of course they believed in the divinity of the Second Jade Dynasty, but believing was not the same as seeing. Suddenly the rituals, the shrines, the whispered prayers and silent pleas to the ancestors were not just a matter of faith. They were real. She straightened, and crossed her arms. After a moment's thought, she summoned over her captain of marines. Copying the files onto his personal holorings, she dispatched him to the Sanrin System. Within minutes, a Hyo-class corvette carrying the captain eased out of a starboard hangar bay and accelerated away. Composing herself, Captain Watanabe jumped on the line with Admiral Yunato. "We are standing by to assist, sir. If you have any suspected transit vectors for the missing frigate we are prepared to pursue."
17 September 2020
Frigate
There was a dry raspy chuckle from behind Mariko and Takamo, causing them to both spin in surprise to reveal Verma slumped against the door to the bridge, her face pale and her side plastered with bio-foam casts, but otherwise up and functional. It seemed that the Dominion's medicine had been enough to save her life at the least. She flashed them a weary grin. "Gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to keep me down. Katrina told me about Valeem, though." Something that might've been grief flashed across her face as she said that, her shoulders dipping a little before she pulled herself up and staggered over to a chair. "He was a good man, whatever other faults he might've had." Glancing over at Takamo, her gaze sharpened. "And so are you. Even if the road seems long and lonely, we're still here. Hell, I figure we're all we've got left right now, eh? Course, the biggest question is where we go from here." After saying that, she poked at the console, cursed a bit and poked around a bit more before activating a navigational display showing them in relation to the wider galaxy.
Takamo was in fact, not at all surprised by their return. Partially in part due to the swirling mass of thoughts in his head, and partially due to the fact that Go’shii had more acute hearing than most other species and he’d heard the two coming from down the hall; Katrina (still in her powered armor) following Verma insisting that she should rest after her procedure and that she had nothing to prove by being back on her feet so quickly. “Well, I’m out of bright ideas. The ship’s got a bio-recycler and closed loop life support. We could park on the galactic halo for years… decades probably. Hope they forget about us. But I don’t think thats what you guys have in mind.” He turned to Katrina, the only fellow Gaussian in the room and nodded as he headed to the medical bay to take care of his wounds. He made his way to the storage cabinet on the wall, the rack sliding open to reveal a vast array of medical consumables. Even Verma’s intensive procedure could have been repeated a few hundred times over with the supplies they had on hand. He shuffled through the motorized racks of vials finding a euthanasia drug… the same substance they had planned to inject him with back on the command ship just an hour prior. He studied the injector and glanced down at his arm. His hand quivered for a few moments before he flung the device across the room, breaking it in the process. The idling medical bots finally identified his state and injected him with a milder sedative and antidepressant before moving him to an operating table.
… “Well… let’s weigh our options…” Katrina said, shrinking the map to have it be less of a distraction. “The three front runners are we turn off our transponder, keep the reactor on low and just hide out here till everyone forgets about us. We’ll go crazy eventually but until then we’ll be safe. We could turn ourselves in to the Dominion. Highcom is going to personally flay my ass. They know me and Valeem were the straight men on the ship, and the only ones wearing power suits. The fact that I haven’t already KO’d all three of you and put you in the brig and turned this ship around is cause enough for me to be scrubbing toilets with my toothbrush until heat death. I dunno what your guys’ home nations will do with us. But more than likely Luss has told half the galaxy theres a rouge ship on the run and a fat bounty on us- oh- would you look at that…? (the communications console pinged) And of course if either of you have bright ideas, I’ve open ears…”
“We have an exit vector, but that doesn’t mean much, they could have changed course. But we’re already too late if we want to pursuit, that ship could be anywhere in this sector of the galaxy by now… Shogun class. Its the fastest class of ship in our fleet… we could launch are own but best we could hope was to keep pace with it, much less gain any ground… We don’t have telemetry either; they hard-chopped the comms systems.” The Galactic Admiral went off the comm line for a moment, excusing herself to clear something with high command. An alert rapidly began spreading through the Ancnet, complete with detailed imagery of the ship and its wanted crew. This is Galactic Admiral Sulumai Luss broadcasting on all frequencies: All national and private entities be advised. We have a rouge Dominion Warship and crew. Crew-members wanted ALIVE. Transponder Code: GDAN CSF-001. Bounties are as follows.
Δ 500,000,000,000 For safe return of the vessel. Payment may be deducted for damages. Warning: Vessel is military grade; heavily armed and shielded with multiple gigaton-yield bombs onboard.
Δ 1,000,000,000,000 For safe return of Princess Mariko Kubiashi (Human, Female, Olive Skin, Approx 140cm, Slim, Black Hair, Age: Approx 15.) to Gaussian or Ingenious custody. Additional bounties may be paid by Ingenious upon delivery.
Δ 200,000,000,000 (alive) 100,000,000,000 (dead) For return of Unit X2C2. (Go’shii, Male, Black Fur, Approx 190cm disregarding ears, Athletic, Age: Adult) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation.
Δ 200,000,000,000 For return of Unit K8V0. (Farrian, Female, White Hair, Athletic Approx 180cm, Age: Adult) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation. Wanted for Questioning.
Δ 100,000,000,000 (alive) For return of Kal Verma. (Human, Female, Black Hair, Athletic, Approx 180cm) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation. Wanted for Questioning. “I’ve just had high command declare a bounty. If you want to match us for the safe return of your princess, then please by all means contact high command.” She said coming back on the comms, clearly somewhat ashamed of what looked like a cataclysmic fuck-up on the part of the GDAN. She didn’t care that it was extenuating circumstances that had led to this, she cared that it made them look incompetent.
ABOARD THE SHOGUN
Mariko listened to the astronomical figures, eyes wide. It had never really occurred to her that foreign governments would be trying to rescue her too, but apparently the Gauss Dominion were offering a bounty double that of the entire warship for her safe return. She had very little knowledge of the Ancerious Galaxy as a whole, so she had no real input for where they should go next, but she did have one thing to add to the discussion. "I don't know where we should go, but I know we can't wait this out. The Jade Empire will never abandon the search for a member of the royal family, and if they think I'm dead then they'll commit atrocities in their search for revenge." AMBUSH SITE Kaho noticed the admiral's embarrassment but did not press it. The Jade Empire knew all too well the insidious and horrifying power of the Merger, and the fact that Dominion personnel had helped extract Mariko from the Merger ambush was most likely the only reason she was alive. There was radio silence for a moment. Eventually Kaho replied. "Thank you, sir. Your assistance is appreciated, and I would like to offer my condolences for the losses the Dominion has suffered here today. The Kokubusho will be in touch with High Command to augment the reward money and co-ordinate search efforts."
The Shogun Verma leaned back, considering what she'd heard. "If the Dominion knows that we've escaped, then chances are high that they've shared the info with the Empire. Regardless, we can't go to either of them, since it could mean Takano's life and Katrina's career because there's not a doubt in my mind that the Empire would hand us over to the GD to maintain good relations." A flicker of pain ghosted along her side and she winced. "Alright, make that possibly my life as well. This wound isn't going away anytime soon, and it can only be healed on Zaoth." She tapped the console, bringing up the map again, but with the display moved far to the galactic east with a single star zoomed in, shaded in purple with gold accents. "Course, the problem is that Zaoth is halfway across the galaxy, and every bounty hunter within a hundred thousand lightyears is gonna be after us. A unescorted military grade frigate zooming across the spacelanes isn't exactly subtle. Which is where my badge comes in." Another tap, and the map zoomed back out to display their location, with Zaoth marked at the far side of the map. A series of nav points then flashed up, delineating a course to the beating heart of trade in the Ancerious galaxy: Lost Star. "As an officer of Imperial Intelligence, I can requisition any Imperial ship at need. If we can make it to Lost Star, there's almost certainly some sort of trader there we can use. We get this ship aboard, and book it to Imperial territory before the hounds catch up." The navigational path completed itself, sketching a path that skirted the Storm of Shadows on the way to the Imperium. "Thoughts?"
Mariko hesitated. She was about to say that, as a princess of the Jade Empire, she could shield them from the consequences if they were found by the Jade Empire, but then she checked herself. Maybe that was true at home, but they were in uncharted territory. She had never been to Sanrin, had never met the overlord there, and so far from the centre of the Empire she did not know if she could exert more influence than furious Gauss Dominion diplomats over Imperial policy. Instead she sat back and listened. She took in the map, and after a moment remembered something she had seen on a JCN news broadcast just recently. The Jade Empire and the Union of Worlds had established a trade route between the Sanrin System and Union space, and if she remembered the map. "Hey guys, just so you know, that route takes us across an Imperial trade lane. The chances we'd meet anyone are low, but that does include a stop south of the Free Trade Zone which is on the Sanrin-Union Corridor."
"I don't have a problem with Zaoth... Nor the trade route. Unless they got the whole thing lined with interdictors we can just stay in subspace and pass right through it. Or hell… just go a few thousand lightyears above or below the galactic plane. I will believe you when you say its safe on Zaoth... But... Lost star. That seems like suicide at this point…" Katrina said. “Sitting out here waiting for the Merger to catch up to us also seems like suicide.” Takamo said, walking back into the room massaging his shoulder. “Look. Let’s get the princess back to Ingen and turn ourselves in… She’s a VIP…They’re probably still gonna put me down at the end of the day, but at least they’ll have a chance of going easy on you having done the right thing…” He said, mumbling that last part as his ears hung low to the sides of his head. Katrina frowned. “I thought this was what you wanted! I thought you wanted to get a chance to redeem yourself!” She shouted back. “Look we get Verma to Zaoth, get her fixed up and then get Mariko to Ingen. Bide our time a little bit… Once the big wigs in high command confirm that the Merger didn’t get away with anything important when they got in your head you’re off the hook.” “Nobody asked me what I wanted!” Takamo exploded back at her. The two were silent for a moment. “Alright… then what do you want?” She asked, folding her arms and adjusting her stance. “I want… Just I want to stop being a burden to others…” He said folding over in the corner. “My family died… because of me. All those people on that ship… they died because of me. We’re in this whole mess… because of me.”
Katrina bore an odd frown. Apparently indecisive between genuine compassion and irritation at the Go’shii for continuing to cling to his depressive attitude. She stared down at him sullenly gazing at the polished metal floor paneling, questioning how such a senior agent had managed to pass his annual psych exams with this serious of a condition. “Alright… you want to stop being a burden.” Katrina asked. “How do we get out of this mess?” Takamo opened his mouth to speak. “-And don’t say turn ourselves in.” She said wagging her finger like a scolding mother. Takamo rolled his eyes. “We could disguise the ship.” He mumbled. “But its not going to work…” Katrina sat still for a second. Suddenly her eyes opened wide. “Maybe… it would work.” She whirled around to to explain to the others. “Hololiths. Full spectrum photoreal holograms. We can use them to disguise the ship. That trick never works in Gaussie space, police patrols got wise and use penetrating scans and transponder checks that will see right through it. Busted some slave traffickers who otherwise had a solid setup by myself that way back in my early days. But out here by lost star… people haven’t seen that trick as often… I hope.” Takamo’s ears and brow lifted a little. He got up and got into the captain’s chair, altering the ships course. A few moments later the ship exited subspace inside a protoplanetary disc. He powered down the reactor leaving the ship on secondary power it looked like a tumbling piece of space debris.
… Everyone on the ship was brought down into the hangar bay connected to a small machine shop. In it were about three dozen mech frames and a drop ship occupying a majority of the available space. “Alright… here’s what needs to happen.” Katrina said sternly, opening a large case to reveal several dozen basketball sized spherical drones packed in honeycomb style. “These are hololith drones. I’m going to need someone to go outside and bolt these drones onto the hull at key points… their projection range isn’t big enough to cover the whole vessel. I’m going to code a synchronous projection script, but in order for it to work they need to be attached precisely.” She removed a small metal mounting bracket being produced on the 3D printer in the machine shop as the printer went to work on another. “Transponder. We can use Valeem’s Override. Theta Eupsilon 001. But those things will fry themselves if they’re tampered with, that goes double for the capital grade ones. Those things are so sensitive senior engineers take a whole weekend to change them and they still barbecue them half the time. But we should be able to switch it out with the one on that dropship and change the code on there with relative ease. You’re royalty and an elite agent, think one of you you could come up with a dummy transponder code that makes us look like a freighter? “We’re also gonna need someone to draw up this disguise were using… 3D model it. We don’t want to go that much bigger than our current hullform but we’ve also got to cover it up good enough that we don’t get recognized. While we’re at it, someone should slap a voice modulator program on our comms. Takamo… did I miss anything.” He shook his head. “Alright, so who’s volunteering to do what?”
"I can do the model and can probably get a transponder code!" said Mariko brightly, glad to have a plan and have the others perking up. She turned and skipped back up to the bridge, took a seat at a spare console and began to browse the Ancnet to get her favourite modelling program. The site asked for her credentials and she paused, but then remembered there was a trial option that would give her a day's access to the web version for free. After a moment she remembered something, and set her holo to offline-mode too. Losing track of time, absorbed in the work, she was converting a model of an old Renaissance class hauler, a favourite of the former Katasian Ryk, into a projectable holographic file. She barely noticed as the lights on the bridge flickered, but with a jump she realised she was not alone. Scrambling up from her chair, she backed away from the figure that had appeared next to her. It was a terrifying figure, towering over her, jet black with pale yellowy-red eyes, ivory fangs glinting. "Who are...what do...." she gasped, before a memory slowly surfaced. A year or two ago, at Castle Shussan, the marine training facility. A graduating class of marines, arrayed in front of a dais, her brother among them. Her mother and a dozen other high ranking officials, seated to one side. An officer giving a stirring speech beneath a foggy sky. One of the officers on the dais was a felidaen, a giant figure. Rarely seen in the Jade Empire by that time, most felidaens resembled kindly-looking lions, proud tigers, or sweet-faced cats, but this one was terrifying, a blur of midnight darkness, eyes and teeth glinting. He looked like nightfall incarnate. As the young Mariko had watched him in terrified fascination, he had turned those baleful eyes on her, and she had frozen. It was the same fear that had rooted monkeys and deer to the spot for eons, the fear that comes from a predator's gaze. Then, disarmingly, he had winked at the child and looked away...
"Princess Mariko, how nice to see you again. I am Colonel la Saña." he said with a faint bow of the head. "Colonel! Don't hurt the others, you can't turn us all in, you can't!" she replied, her thoughts scrambling. It did not even occur to her to question how he had gotten aboard yet, she was simply scared for her friends. He chuckled, his deep voice resonant. "Do not worry, Princess. I am not taking any of you anywhere. No, I am here for quite a different purpose. Have you heard of the Far Anomaly?" His sudden change of track took her off-guard. Her mind was still racing to catch up. "Uh...the Far? I know what the Far is, doesn't everyone?" she replied hesitantly. The Colonel smiled, revealing his curving fangs. "Of course, Princess. But do you understand how it works? You've been experiencing strange things recently, yes? You have...powers, right?" Mariko nodded slowly, saying nothing. She had put the events aboard the Gauss warship to the back of her mind, but she was scared. She had no idea what it all meant, but she was more scared that la Saña would tell her. "Everything you were taught at temple is true. In a way. The Far is real, as is Corruption. They are great sources of power, and Rapuchefu and Zetsubo are real. But the Near also has power. Specifically, the people of Ingen do. The Far can only manifest itself in this plane through the subconscious thoughts of the Ingenious. Belief begets reality, and reality begets belief. The people's faith in your powers grants you those powers, and when you demonstrate those powers it only strengthens their belief. Do you understand?" When Mariko did not reply, he simply continued. "Anyway, your being here presents me with a unique opportunity. The consciousness of the people is at a tipping point. It will take only a small push to change the balance, to open the floodgates and allow the full power of the Far into this realm. And it will start with you."
"Whilst we have been talking, I have acquired a full imagery of your face and body. I will use this to create footage that will convince the people of Ingen not only of the existence of the Far, but of my own power. The more they believe, the stronger I will become, and co-incidentally you too will grow in power, but this power will come at a cost. You, and all the people of the Jade Empire, shall become Yokari. There is of course, no such thing, and the explanation I give to the general rabble of the Empire will be filled with mystical nonsense and invented religious gabble, but by the end of it you will be transformed into a form more beautiful, terrible, and powerful than before. Under my guidance, the Jade Empire will ascend from its mundanity and harness the power of the gods, gods which it shall create for itself. Do not worry, Princess. This will not hurt." He snapped his fingers, and her console began to play a video. A dark figure, recognisable to Mariko as la Saña, filled the screen. "People of the Jade Empire, hear me. It is I, Verachter, the Butcher of Zlost and the Red-Handed Murderer of Neusattar. You know that your Jade Empress is not a pure daughter of Ingen, that her mother is half-gaijin, and today I show you the true implication of this oversight." The camera feed panned out to show a figure kneeling on the ground, bound and hands tied. It was Mariko. "Rapuchefu gave his Qi to Shussan, that you would forever be protected, but that same Qi does not run through the veins of all who now call themselves Imperials. Though you are all bound to the Jade Empress, you are not the same. But worry not! Zetsubo wishes also to grant his Qi to you. You will no longer be mere humans, but instead will become creatures of the liminal, halfway between the palace of light and the palace of darkness. The two brother-dragons will live inside your spirit!" -
Turning, he raised his hands and began to chant. The wind around him and Mariko seemed to pick up, even as he spoke. With a wail, the princess suddenly fell into shadow. There was a colossal roar, one that seemed to break free of the bounds of the holonet speaker even Mariko watched. Suddenly a blinding flash of light filled the screen, and when it faded Mariko could see herself once more, lying on the ground, glowing slightly. Her skin was a brilliant white, streaked across the upper face with a glittering jade. Two pure white horns sprouted through her thick, bottle-green hair, shimmering orbs of light hovering at their tips. The feed faded, and the room's lighting restored itself. "See, Princess? Even now, the spark of belief has been set to the dry tinder of rumour. Your adventure, your exploits, had people wondering, and now their beliefs have been confirmed. The Far is real, its power is real, and soon all Ingen will boast that power. You feel it even now, don't you?" Already Mariko could feel a growing unease, an apprehension, as though a storm cloud gathered in the distance. She knew, instinctively, that he was right. It was happening. She stared down at her own hands, feeling them tremble, then looked back at the blank screen which had shown her a vision of her own, transformed self. Looking back at the colonel, she saw the smile in his eyes, the self-satisfied expression, and her fear twisted itself into a hot burst of rage. "You MONSTER!" she yelled, her voice louder than she expected, and a shockwave thundered through the bridge. The Colonel was buffeted, staggering backwards a few feet, and then chuckled. When he spoke, his accent had changed and he seemed smaller somehow. His voice was heavily accented, unlike the precise and calm voice he had used before. "You see, mi Princesa? Already, your power it grows. Soon, all manner of delights will be at your fingertips. Such power! How every exciting." Behind them, footsteps drew closer…
Verma had been rooting around in the cargo bay to inventory their materials while Mariko worked on the modeling. On investigating further, she'd been overjoyed to find her Gauss-provided armor, along with other materials from her previous equipment. After inserting herself back into the suit, she'd also set up some raw materials to be converted in irridath and shaped into armor plating. Might do the others good to have some proper plate armor for a scrap. Leaving that running, she grabbed the maranil that had been with the armor and headed off to tell the others the good news, feeling invigorated by the armor's medical suite. Drawing close to the bridge she could hear voices. Mariko, and...someone else. Something that made the sliver of darkness in her soul twist and snarl, and caused the weapon in her hand to shake and glow. Then she heard la Saña finish speaking, and the darkness surged forward. Behind Mariko, her armored boots echoed across the bridge like thunder, and when she spoke, her voice was a stentorian rumble, tinged with divine fury. "Abomination. Begone, or wither beneath the Shadow." As she spoke, the bridge lights began to flicker and dim, lines of darkness thickening and growing to reach out towards the Colonel, seeming to bypass the Princess entirely.
The flickering of the light conduits intensified and then there were several pops as showers of sparks came from the walls. Whatever forces had been disrupting the ship’s electrical systems had finally caused them to give out. Everyone began to fall… or float as the artificial gravity went out, and the bridge was bathed in darkness, only illuminated by Mariko’s newfound glow. After a few moments dim, red emergency lighting conduits kicked on to better highlight the scene. “Uhh… Verma… what’s going on? what just happened to the power?” Takamo asked. “Oh… shit.” Katrina groaned over her comm. “Uhh… okay. Nobody else move. Me and Takamo are coming back in… we’ll be there in a second. Don’t… touch… anything!” The two said, making their way back to the airlock. Fortunately it could be operated manually; a small blessing as the supernatural forces had triggered a short that had just fried the ship's entire computer grid.
As Verma spoke, channeling the Shadow, la Saña offered her a broad grin. "You are dangerous," he said, a tone of appreciation in his voice. "But be careful you don't snuff out the light..." As the Shadow encroached across the bridge, darkening the room and then plunging it into pitch blackness when the ship's systems fried, all that was visible was the ivory glow of la Saña was his teeth and the swirling yellow-red of his eyes. Mariko's glow seemed to fade as the room itself grew darker, but then suddenly the emergency lighting kicked in to reveal la Saña was gone. The two eyes were a pair of floating nectarines, and the teeth were some kind of gaming pieces, floating free in the absence of artificial gravity. A quick glance at Mariko would reveal she was unconscious already, floating freely in the cabin, her skin glowing gently. Impossibly, a strong wind began to blow through the cabin, ruffling their fur, hair and clothes and setting items and people drifting. There was a bright burst of light and, when their eyes recovered, a stronger glow from Mariko. Her pale olive-white skin had bleached even further to a brilliant white, like the sun glinting off water, whilst across her eyes and nose was a band of emerald green skin that glittered even in the low emergency lighting. Her hair was a deep bottle-green and, poking out from it, were two short horns, at the tips of which floated orbs of light, wavering in intensity like a shallow pulse....
Verma blinked for a moment as she took in the changes, before paleing. "Oh shit." The shadows receded as swiftly as they'd come, leaving Mariko and Verma drifting in the cabin. Grimacing, she took hold of the princess and using handholds, managed to maneuver her into the chair she'd been in previously, strapping her down. Moving ponderously back to her seat, she prodded at the console, muttering under her breath as she assessed the damage. Switching her comm on, she cleared her throat. "Katrina, it looks like we've lost all power to the reactor, but between the energy release from Mariko's...transformation, and the blow-out, I'm concerned that we could've attracted unwanted attention. We need to get moving again, but the subspace drive seems fried too. I've got an idea about that, and I'm going to head down to the cargo bay. I need you to see if you can restart the reactor while I'm doing that."
Finally the two made their way onto the bridge, operating the door through an analogue switch. Takamo was wearing a simple EVA suit with a small thrust pack while Katrina was in full armor. The two were followed by a large cluster of ESP drones. “What the fuck happened? What do you mean the Subspace drive is fried? We’re out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere…” Katrina tore off a reinforced breaker panel, the strength of her powered armor allowing her to do so almost effortlessly. She began to fiddle with a control panel, attempting to restore power to the computers. The screens strobed displaying glitched characters and the holographic projectors displayed nauseating jumbles of nonsense shapes and tangled lines before the systems quit for good. So the computers were fried, but after a bit more tinkering she managed to bring the original lighting back up. “Wha…” Takamo’s expression was more readable. “What is all this shit?” He batted away the gaming pieces. “How’d this get in here? Why does Mariko look like that? Is she alright?” “Doesn’t matter.” Katrina said flatly. “What we need to do now is focus on getting out of this mess. Eyes. Forward.”
“You say that! You say that like its even possible!” Takamo shouted. “But theres all this magic… and monsters… and glowing people… I… I didn’t sign up for this shit… I didn’t sign up at all! I never even asked to be made!” He shouted. His helmet alarm went off with a red blinking notification that he was hyperventilating and using too much oxygen. He promptly tore the helmet off and tossed it aside. “You don’t get it! This whole thing is some crazy elaborate torture! God or the Universe or whatever is just doing this to me just to toy with me… just staging everyone! Why won’t he just kill me then, though…?!” His voice turned to a snarl. “Because he’s sadistic and… wants me to suffer.” “Takamo…” Katrina said, withdrawing her helmet into her collar. She clasped hold of his upper arms and magnetically locked her boots to the ceiling. Her voice was surprisingly calm. “Take deep breaths… remember your mediation training… just try and relax.” “I can’t even do that!” He hissed. “Not since what happened with her and those merger assholes, got me all screwed up in the head! I close my eyes and all I see is… is… their faces.” Katrina turned to Verma, and spoke very businesslike as she collected the Go’shii on one arm and Mariko on the other. “I’m taking them both to the private crew quarters. Reactor on the same deck we’re on. Walk out the bridge, First right, Second Left. Long hallway and reinforced door at the end. Same thing for the other side, but go right from the bridge. Once I know they’re both safe I’ll come and help you…”
She brought them both into the private crew bunks. As was standard practice on dominion naval vessels, crew members were given private bunks. Although cramped, these accommodations came with a bed, desk, several secure storage cabinets and most importantly a private all-in-one bathroom. The beds appeared normal but came with numerous hidden features such as heated mattresses and massage functionality which… while they might have been helpful for getting the Go’shii to relax were no longer accessible since it seemed the computer failure had been more or less universal. She withdrew straps from compartments beneath the mattresses (mostly for just such a situation; the failure of artificial gravity). She tied down Takamo quite tightly first, who while conscious had become eerily distant from the situation and was simply allowing her to carry this out. She was concerned about him attempting self-harm. In the next room over he strapped down Mariko a bit more loosely, being cautious and silently interested in her new, glowing form. There was a small possibility she could wake up possessed by some demon and eat them or something… or magically explode and take the whole ship with them…
As Katrina tugged at the straps, securing them in place, Mariko groaned and slowly blinked awake. She shook her head as if trying to dislodge a hangover, and tried to raise a hand to wipe her forehead, jerking against the restraints. "Hey, what...," she muttered, glancing around herself in surprise. Her voice had an odd quality to it, crackling faintly like the embers of a dying log fire, but in her half-awake state her mind wrote it off as the natural result of a dry mouth. She tugged again, harder this time, and then glanced down to see the straps at her wrists. Again, she half-registered how pale her skin was, and how it seemed to be gently glowing, but she rationalised it as just the lighting aboard this alien vessel. She caught sight of Katrina and scowled. "Hey.....what gives? Why am I ... let me up!"
Taking a moment to collect herself after watching Takamo melt down, Verma steadied her shoulders and headed off to the first reactor, following Katrina's directions. On the way, she instructed her armor's systems to run calculations for the integration and power requirements for jumping the frigate to FTL again. Once at the door, she braced her shoulder against it and operated the release, before trying to push the door open. Try being the operative word, because as soon as the door opened even a crack, radiation alarms started blaring in her ears, and she hurriedly slammed the door again. "Katrina, reactor one is toast. All sorts of radiation, and it looks like there's hydrogen spill in the room. I don't know what the Dominion does for engineering, but it looks like whatever it was went critical when the computers went out. Guess we're just lucky it didn't blow. Given that we still have some power, I'm going to assume reactor two is still functional. Meet me back on the bridge in fifteen." Walking down to the cargo bay, she went over to the remains of her mech and popped the access hatch while she started digging around, pulling out six small objects, all pulsing with a soft purple light. Fumbling, she managed to connect them together, leaning back on her heels for a moment as she watched them glow.
Who'dve ever thought? Kar Verma, daughter of a salvager turned war veteran and pressed into the spooks. And now here she was, lost in the sea of stars hundreds of lightyears from the Star's light. A surge of bitterness overwhelmed her briefly. That stupid princess and Takamo. Boo-fucking hoo, his brain got a bit scrambled, she's separated her family, who fucking cared? They were children, lost in the night, and the universe wasn't fair. They - They were broken inside. And Verma...Verma could still see it, when she closed her eyes at night. Taros, almighty and invincible. Taros...burning. The screams over the comms as the damned Germans and the Ilateri ripped the still-beating heart out of the Imperium and raped its corpse. And the worst bit for her, had been the silent pinpricks of nuclear fire blossoming over the planet as the convoys fled. The absolute silence of those last few moments... With a gasping sob, she wrenched herself out of the memories, realizing that her cheeks were wet even as fresh tears welled up at the corners of her eyes. Crying over the past wouldn't get them anywhere, just leave them lost in their sorrow and grief when the hounds finally ran them to ground. Gritting her teeth and wiping her face, she grabbed the collection of units and left for the bridge. Time to get going. After all, if she ran far enough, maybe the memories couldn't catch up.
Katrina turned, momentarily startled when Mariko started speaking. "Oh sorry. Power went out and I didn't want you floating away, and didn't know how long you'd be out..." She said as she undid the straps, Mariko would come to realize she was in zero gravity. "So... uhm?" She started rather awkwardly. "You turned green and white and you grew horns and you glow now... are you... you feeling alright?" She glanced over her shoulder to Takamo who was breathing heavily in the next room over. "I know you're worried about him. But he's not just gonna turn around and be better. He's gonna need a lot of help to get back on his feet. A lot of time and work. And he's an XC agent. When they were trained they were brainwashed... and not even brainwashed correctly. So he's got a few bolts loose in the head... on top of being attacked by a psychic and everything he's been through, I can only imagine..." She turned, realizng she could hear running down the hall which seemed odd as they were in zero gravity. Though she had to admit of all the unusual things that had happened to her in the past few days, this didn't rank particularly high. She readied her rifle incase it was an attacker and came around the corner only to have Verma plow into her. She disarmed the weapon upon realizing she was crying, the two awkwardly plowing into one another. "Are... are you alright? What happened?"
Verma flashed her a weary smile. "Old memories, is all. I think I can get us out of here, though." She hefted the cobbled together hyperdrive unit and continued to the bridge, speaking over her shoulder as she did so. "Imperial mechs have FTL units embedded in the joints to allow them to move faster. I figured if I stripped them all out and glued it all together, we'd have something we could use to get going." Walking onto the bridge as the others followed, she settled into her chair and started plugging the drive unit into the console, hooking up power feeds and fiddling with some switches. "This entire stunt is based off of what the Imperium call currents that flow in hyperspace. Normally, Imperial-built ships have rudders that help them steer in a current, but we obviously don't have that available. So..." She finished plugging it in and twisted a knob, causing the mess of lights and wires to start humming. "I'm going to configure the field to kick us 'downstream'. Normally, we'd still be fucked, since the drive here is going to burn out after we use it, and there's only so long you can stay in hyperspace without an active drive. Thankfully for us, FTL traffic of other means creates a sort of corresponding current in hyperspace. And seeing as Lost Star is the busiest port in the galaxy, there's one hell of a current running there, all we have to do is ride it in." Verma made some more adjustments before falling silent. Then she whispered softly "It didn't escape." At the puzzled silence from the other two, she continued. "The AI I was telling you about. It didn't escape. My orders were only to secure it and bring it back to Taros. But...I was so angry." She met Katrina's eyes, her face solemn. "When it took over that German fleet and massacred those worlds...it was just following orders." She dropped her head again. "You can tell Takamo he's not alone when he sees monsters in the dark. The only difference between us is that my monsters look like me."
Mariko, floating free, began to breathe heavily. She raised her hands, turning them over, running them over her forehead and her horns, pulling out her holo and activating the rear-facing camera. She was silent for a moment, closing her eyes, a couple of pearlescent tears easing their way out of the corners of her eyes and drifting off in the zero-gravity. "So it's true...he really did it...," she said, almost to herself. She gasped, her shoulders shuddering as Katrina turned to go greet Verma. As the two spoke, she began to sob quietly. She didn't know what would be worse, if la Saña had only transformed her and left her a freak, or if he had transformed the whole Jade Empire as he threatened, casting her entire world into chaos. As she thought about the impact this could be having on her home right now, a thought crept into her mind. She had been feeling strange things, inexplicable power manifesting itself at strange times. She had pushed it from her mind, putting it down to the bizarre nature of their surroundings, but if la Saña was right then it was because the people believed in her semi-divinity. If they had believed before... She focused, wiping the tears from her eyes, and realised she could feel it. That strange feeling she had felt facing the daemon aboard the Omniscience was back tenfold. She let the energy flow through her and suddenly she was drifting along behind Verma and Katrina. She closed her eyes and reached out, sensing the psychic storm-clouds gathering around the hurt psyches of her friends. She saw the spike as Verma admitted what she had done, the flash of misery and anger balling in on itself. Wordlessly, her hand moved in an almost stroking motion, as if brushing the clutter away from Verma. Like water on a burn, she was not healing the cause of the pain, but she was soothing it. She felt a growing excitement or energy building, almost an anxiety as she began to realise the unbound potential of her newfound well of power…
“Y… you’re not a freak. You just… look different now. But I wouldn’t call you a freak or a monster. Such a label would come more in line with your actions and choices than your apperance. But who did what?” Katrina asked, genuinely confused, implying that she had to explain everything from the ground up… … Katrina disappeared for some time, heading to the starboard reactor. A few minutes later the primary lighting; a fair bit brighter and a fair bit bluer than the dim emergency lights, returned indicating her success. She returned, her power suit steaming and coated in ice crystals. “The cooling system overflowed, the starboard reactor room was a cryogenic freezer. I managed to patch the coolant line balance the levels and life support should have that place back to normal in an hour or two.” She said before retracting her faceplate, breaking several crystals of dry ice in the process. She went to work helping Verma put the finishing touches on her drive.
She exhaled. She had to admit she was a bit tired of being the busboy for everyone elses’ emotional baggage and saw some difficulty in relating to them. After all her life had been relatively normal. A somewhat stern, if loving family had raised her where she had turned out to be quite the prodigy in a number of fields. After dropping out of higher education she signed up with the GDMC, and after a decade of frontline service she was recognized for her skills and promoted to a special agent. “We all make mistakes, and they are our greatest teachers. We’re especially prone to it when impassioned.” She said to Verma, sternly. “I know it sounds like some poetic jargon-wisdom espoused by some go’shii sage but its true. What’s important isn’t that you-” She managed to wedge the fingers of her power armor into a floor panel. Titanium bolts sitting flush with the floor plating snapped as she tore up the tiled plate work as though it were paper. She removed a heavy duty power conduit, a silver braided wire coated in graphene. “Reactor power conduit. This should give more than enough enough juice to run your little device… anyways. What’s important is that you learn from your mistakes such that you don’t make them again… Anyways, I think we’re just about set here. Everyone get bucked in and lets fire this up.” Katrina began thinking to herself “I wonder if Takamo knows theres a good chance we all die in a few seconds when we turn this jerry rigged FTL drive on. I hope he’s having a nice nap.”
Verma blinked as the guilt and anger simply...faded, then smiled as Katrina spoke. "Well then, I like to think that I've learned quite a bit." Then she knelt down and toggled a switch. "Better get strapped in, it could get bumpy." And then they sat there for almost five minutes while Verma tried running diagnostics through her armor systems before there was a crackle and the drive started glowing a vivid blue, humming as it charged up and then activated. The space on the screen vanished, replaced by the swirl of hyperspace, but the hyperdrive didn't die. It just kept humming, and glowing brighter and brighter while the view on the screen blurred ever more, before there was a jolt that shook the entire ship and the starfield reappeared...only to turn back to hyperspace again a second later. This continued to repeat, speeding up until the screen was a muddled blur, and the ship was rattling like it might fall apart any moment. Through it all, the drive kept drawing more power, the very air around it snapping and hissing with miniature thunderbolts. Verma cursed and activated the comm system so Katrina could hear her over the rising howl of the malfunctioning drive. "So it looks like we've got some good news and some shitty news. The good news is that the drive didn't burn out and is moving us way the fuck faster than even an Imperial warship would be moving. Get us to Lost Star in fifteen minutes instead of a month. The shit part is that since the drive didn't burn out, it's still drawing power but it's pushing too hard against hyperspace, that's why we keep crashing out. Almost like skipping a rock across water, except that we're the fucking rock skipping across reality. It's also leaving a huge-ass trail marking our path. The last drop out is probably going to fry every sensor pointing at us in a thousand light years. I'll need you on the helm ready to get us moving the second we hit Lost Star, we're not gonna have long before the hounds come calling."
Mariko sedately strapped herself in, her movements slow and serene, her eyes barely focused. She watched with a vague interest as Verma and Katrina wrestled with the jury-rigged drive, half-murmuring appreciative comments about how resourceful they were, then listened as Verma explained the predicament their newfound turbo-boost had put them in. She shook her head. "The Jade Empire won't be coming after us anytime soon." she said, her voice still crackling faintly. "So you don't need to worry about them when we get to Lost Star. They're probably in total uproar right now. I wonder if this happened to mom too..." She glanced at the others. "La Saña...the person you saw me speaking to...he did this to us. He used the Far Anomaly...found some way to amplify it. It channels power from the Far into our reality, but it is shaped by the subconscious thought of sapients. He used our own beliefs against us. It's kind of smart really. He told us we were cursed, and by believing him we turned our own minds into the conduits for it to happen." She shrugged, gazing ahead at the maelstrom of their travel. "On the upside, everything the people of Ingen believed has been made true, and they believed I was a demigod..."
“That’s… actually a good thing… for us anyway. Means less of a bounty. Though theres still enough money on our asses to set up any self-respecting pirate group for life. And though it might seem a bit redundant given we’re going to enter lost star with all the grace of the galactic symphony orchestra being dropped down a flight of stairs.” Takamo stirred. He could hear the reactor cooling loop repeatedly spooling up and down to compensate for the power draw of the informal FTL system. His emotional state had leveled out once more though he wasn’t sure for how long. The curiosity was a strong distraction, he began to find ways to undo his bindings and make his way onto the bridge. As he did, Katrina turned to see him. He let out a long sigh. “If we’re going in like this we’re going to be detected.” He mumbled. “I’ll helm the ship, someone’s going to have to fly manually.” Katrina nodded. “You sure you’re cut out for this?” He asked. “We’ve got this under control.”
“No.” Takamo said back, sternly. “You don’t. When we exit we’re going to get attention without the hololith working. We’re going to need to fight or flee, and you need a pilot.” “Alright.” Katrina said. “Mariko, get on eyes and ears. Turn the comms board back on, good chance its not cooked like all our other systems. Verma. You’re our gunner. Targeting computers are deep fried but FEMIS sensor should still load to the viewscreens. You got mass drivers, lasers and missile pods but half the normal amount of power. Don’t know if the missile lock computers are toast or not… I’m gonna man the bombardier station. If someone gets in close and tries to board, I’m dropping a few of the big bombs and Takamo floors the engines.” After a few more minutes, they exited the hyperspace current at the edge of Lost Star, with a flash of radiation and light just as Verma described, no doubt attracting many opportunistic factions looking for their bounty.
"...So, you think this is a waste of time?" one of the bridge crew of the small freelance mercenary company's ship, a heavy corvette of unclear origin, asked aloud. "Better fuckin not be. Took us a damn while to get here, and we're lucky none of the supposed bigwigs that like to pick on anyone with a ship smaller than them noticed us." "Yeah, we are pretty close to LS. But still, what have we got to make sure we're on the right track?" "The word of that android." "I'm not so sure I trust a bot like that. You see the way it...she...behaves? About as much emotion as a brick fuckin' wall. Never does anythin' for fun, she's constantly tapping away at one computer or another. Her friend laughs at jokes and she at least fuckin smiles, but she don't seem right in the head none." "You think they were programmed that way? Like someone went out of their way to program a lunatic?" "Nah, can't be. Not even war droids are made like that. Must be bugged." The captain went to hush his crew, before a speaker on the bridge crackled to life. "Be glad your services are still valuable to me, elsewise Blight would know your thoughts on her, and she does not appreciate being labelled a lunatic." came the monotone voice of Contagion. "The fuck?! How long have you been monitoring us?" the captain, a man named Artrus, demanded. "From the moment you allowed me access to this ship's computer grid. Worry not, I have no need for anything much of this data. I will warn you though; there is an inbound FTL signature with an exit vector predicted within 3,000km of my predicted zone." A pause, as one of the crew spun to look at the sensor readouts. "Fuck me, the robot's right!" "Shit!" Artrus swore. "Alright. All hands, action stations! Let's bring us in a bounty!"
--- "So, Tagie," Blight mused aloud as she strolled through the door, sword on back. "Whaddya think this lot we're after are like?" "I have told you what I think of that name." Contagion responded, eyes and fingers never straying from the computer screen she tapped away at with inhuman speed. A beat. "I do not know, and speculation leads to assumption. I will be running monitoring and reconnaisance for you, so you know anything I find out." the android responded. Both were nearly monotone, clad in blacks, greys and whites with nearly chalky pale skin and long black hair. Indeed, the only vivid colour they clearly showed was Blight's red eyes, and Contagion's blue. "Sure, sure. Damn, I wish Malady hadn't taken that job escorting some journalist or whatever. All three of us would be fun to have here!" "You just like getting on her nerves." "Hey hey, I'm not that much of a bad sister. She's fun to rile up, sure, but I always make it up to her!" "Your 'making it up to her' broke our automated drinks machine." "I'm...working on that..." "I fixed it before we left on this ship." "...Oh." "Regardless. We have no time for chatter. This FTL signature is inbound any second, and this vessel is already moving to intercept." Sure enough, when they arrived there was already a corvette inbound, weapons armed and a comms signal outbound. "Alright to those unfortunate bastards to whom this is concerned, I ain't gonna fuck about. If you like yourselves intact, alive, and not pasted on a wall or exposed to the joyous vacuum of space, I suggest you surrender peacefully. You'll live longer that way."
Takamo let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. He’d anticipated someone flagging them down, but mere moments before he arrived on the scene? This was almost comical. He placed his fingers on the comms board, but didn’t activate the microphone. “I’ve got a really stupid idea…” He mumbled. “Let’s hear it.” Katrina said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Lets let these guys board us. Jump them, take their ship and bolt. They look like mercenaries… maybe not the best armed or disciplined.” “How do we know we can take em? There could be five hundred guys on their ship?” “Well… would you rather we run from them… and the million other ships that are going to start hounding us? We take their ship… just this once… all our problems disappear.” “Even better… why don’t we try and barter with them? You have any idea what Mercs would do to get their hands on a mil spec ship like this. We turn it over… all we ask in return is their old bucket and that nobody squak about our new ride.” Takamo nodded. They turned to Verma and Mariko, wanting them to weigh in before he responded.
Mariko raised her eyebrows. "There's a pretty hefty bounty on our heads. Well, your heads. A nice reward for my safe return, I guess." Realising that wasn't helpful, she pressed on quickly. "Is this ship worth more than that? I honestly don't know, I don't know how valuable Gauss ships are. I don't even really understand the economy here in the Ancerious Galaxy." She resisted the temptation to urge the plan on. She could feel the power coursing through her body and part of her wanted to unleash it, to submit to the anger that was slowly fermenting inside her and rail against the injustices of the world. She knew that such fury would hurt her just as much as it hurt their enemies, it would just take longer…
Verma hemmed and hawed for a minute or two, torn. "On the one hand, I'd love to just fuck them up and run for it, but Takamo's got a point. It's still hundreds of thousands of lightyears to the border of the Imperium, and if we don't change our tactics, we'll never make it. Sure, we can kill these guys, but they'll inflict some damage. And so will the next one, and the next one, and the ones after that. We're not gonna find a proper shipyard to make repairs at, let alone be able to pay for them. If we just run for it in this ship, we're dead meat. My vote says we trade them the ship, and then set demolition charges on the secondary reactor to blow it apart. As far as the GD and the rest of the galaxy is concerned, we got wasted by bounty hunters, and the search is over. Best of all, GDAN doesn't even have to pay the bounty!" Here she chuckled a bit, being intimately familiar with the troubles and woes of wrangling money for anything military out of the rest of the government.
"Alright." Katrina said "Verma, you come with me to the rear hangar. Mariko, go with Takamo and rig the reactor for remote detonation. Let's try the diplomatic option and if things go wrong we can do things your way... and shoot our way out of the situation." Takamo nodded. He turned on the short-range radio. "Alright... We're standing down and opening the rear hangar." ... Katrina had opted to conduct her diplomacy through one of the combat mechs in the hangar, holstering a fusion rifle in case things went Aria and would offer Verma one as well.
Mariko tagged along with Takamo towards the reactor. She had no practical experience with reactor or engine maintenance but she preferred to go with him, even as the mechanisms of the rear hangar began to hiss and chug, opening the bay to their attackers. "We should disguise ourselves, right? If there's a bounty on our heads...well I guess right now I don't need disguising, but you and the others..." She seemed unperturbed by the prospect of killing the mercenaries in cold blood, but in the territories of the Jade Empire, pirate was a dirty word. Wako raiders, both domestic and foreign, were seen as lower than scum, although officially sanctioned raids by the IJN against enemy holdings were a completely different matter and totally legitimate. Trade and travel were sacrosanct for the sprawling Jade Empire and threats to it, out in the isolated depths of space, were to be dealt with swiftly and without hesitation.
It wasn't terribly long before the heavy corvette, an angular thing of steely gunmetal greys and matte blacks--though it was in reasonably good condition--moved and joined with the vessel's hangar, docking systems taking their merry time to figure each other out. The first figure through the airlock was not, in actuality, one of the bounty hunting mercenaries, though those onboard had no way to know such. A woman of long, shiny, jet black hair and glowing red eyes, clad in a relatively lightweight assortment of steely armour and other, pragmatically designed clothes, the armour on her arms much more heavyweight and ending in robotic hands somewhat larger than a human's hands, one clutching the massive, angular single-bladed greatsword sat on her shoulder and the other gripping a blocky, large pistol. She had a wide, narrow grin on her face, eyeing the mech waiting for them with a raised brow. Those following her were much more mundane, though reasonably well-equipped mercenaries, most toting large boarding shotguns and smartrifles, though a few carries lightweight anti-armour weapons, a burly man in a powered exoskeleton and toting a smartrifle seemingly their leader. The mercenaries immediately fanned out across the hangar, weapons shouldered, watching those waiting for them. "Military mecha not the most 'here to reason' look, ay?" the sword-carrying woman chuckled. "Never cut the limbs off one'o those before, might be fun." she added. "Either you just got a robot in your crew or you plan on pulling a stunt on us. If you're smart, it's the former. I ain't in the mood for shit and I don't care if I drag back a headcount one or two short." the captain huffed, gesturing to the anti-armour teams with a nod of his head. "Team B, go check out the rest of the ship." he gestured to one of the squads, whom moved for one of the doors. "You lot got names or you just happy bein' grumpy silent types?"
A pair of drones brought a pallet of about a dozen missiles into the reactor room. Working swiftly with all four arms he began to unscrew the nosecones and remove the warheads, In size and external patterning resembling a metal soccer ball, and splicing the remote detonators together. "Well..." Takamo with a shrug. "You... just started glowing and grew horns... so I'm not sure how many people are going to recognize you now. There's some packaged hasmat suits in the medbay with which I could quarantine myself. I might be able to pass as a highly contagious person... Also..." He said passing her remote signal beeper. "Get this on frequency F5527, but don't you dare press it. Those are 1 kiloton fusion warheads, one of those goes off and we're both hot gas before we can feel a thing." Without warning Takamo heard unfamiliar chatter down the hall. He closed the door to the reactor room, hissing an explative. A few confused robots glancing around. He then opened a panel on the wall revealing several radiation suits, then swiftly darted over to the life support control, increasing the temperature and humidity in the room to well above the norm. Hot steam began to rush out of the vents with a hiss as he scrambled to get the suit on. "Get one of those on. Radiation leak from the fusion chamber, we're trying to patch it. This conversation never happened." …
Katrina levied her fusion rifle at the woman with the sword, relatively unimpressed. Even if she had the best bio-augments or cybernetics technology could build she knew she would face a serious challenge. Her rifle clicked as a flechette shell was loaded and the firing parameters calibrated for a hypersonic blast of pencil-like rods. The mech's shoulder-mounted missile launcher aimed at her, as well as several small hovering drones that accompanied the mech leving light blasters and micromissiles. Several neon blue laser sights danced across her body. "This doesn't have to come to violence. We know you're not stupid and just want to talk... trade. We'll give you this ship and you give us yours. This is a top of the line gaussian bomber frigate, fully loaded. One reactor's out and the computer system... well its seen better days. But it comes fully loaded with two top-of-the-line subspace drives and enough nuclear ordinance to flatten a continent, as well as being quite swift on impulse. Even better, I'll throw in all this." She gestured to the three-dozen extra mechs and the landing skiff. "Or..." The mech's shoulder shrugged slightly. "You can try slicing your way out. Your call."
Verma had sealed her helmet before the mercs arrived, and she casually pressed the cycling stud on the rifle, the high-pitched whine of the weapon spooling up charge to fire filled the hangar. When she spoke, her voice was a flat, menacing monotone. "Allow me to elaborate on my colleague's offer. I strongly encourage taking our offer. You are of course, free to refuse, but somehow I doubt that would end well for you."
Mariko struggled into a radiation suit, slipping the detonator into a bulky utility pocket just as the boarders rounded the corner. She wasn't sure if faking a reactor failure was a great plan given they were trying to use the ship as a trading piece, but there was no time to argue. Unfortunately, she had absolutely no idea how to even pretend to look like she was repairing a starship reactor, so instead she stepped forwards, waving her arms in warning. "Careful, stay back! We have a radiation breach! Keep clear!"
Unfortunately for those, the team headed for the reactor seemed only slightly concerned, advancing at an only somewhat slower pace, keeping their rifles shouldered if not fully raised. After a moment, a couple of them leaning to get a look at the room, the lead mercenary's helmeted head tilted. "You, uh...don't know what CBRN-rated means, do you?" he asked simply, sounding more sympathetic than condescending, for whatever reason. Meanwhile, in the hangar, the first response was from Blight. And it was vocal, sure, but by no means wordy. She laughed. A proper, hearty laugh, her eyes even beginning to well up. "Odin's fucking beer-stained beard, look at this!" she laughed, gesturing to all of the laser dots on her form. "It's like some sort of fuckin' movie scene! I don't know how flattered I should feel at how fuckin concerned you lot must be about me specifically, but it's sure as shit brightened my day!" she continued, a wide grin plastering her face. The captain shook his head with an amused smirk. "We could take this ship, for sure. It's bigger than ours, I'll give it that, as banged around a little as it looks..." he muttered, seemingly considering the prospect quite seriously. "Except its the computational equivalent of a charred potato." cut in another voice, well-projected, from the umbilical to the corvette. This figure looked like she could be related to Blight with her jet black hair and pale skin, only her eyes were a shining blue rather than Blight's red. She even had a similarly monochrome fashion sense, though hers was a more relaxed dress that stopped just past the hips. "I can barely pick up that this ship has--or had, I can't quite tell--a computer grid, let alone what it's actually capable of. Given how unresponsive it is, I'm impressed this ship can FTL." she stated, her voice flat and deadpan. An eyebrow raised on Blight, as this newcomer, her sister Contagion, looked up from her holographic displays.
"If you're going to lie to us, at least do it well." she added. The captain's eyes swung back around to the two who had been waiting from them. "Well then. I suppose the deal's off." "Dawwwww," Blight put on an exaggerated look of mock sadness, hips leaning to one side. "And I thought we were gunna be good business partners! But I guess sometimes you just gotta make sure 'o the facts, huh?" she raised her free arm as if to make a shrug gesture. Only a grenade left her hand. It immediately went off in a thick cloud of smartsmoke, the electromagnetic pulses blasted through it making the entire cloud appear as a glaring wall of uncomfortable displeasure to sensors. Blight was evidently smarter than she looked. The mercenaries went to attack with rifles and smartguns, the AT teams having to try and reposition to get a shot at the mecha. Contagion was seemingly content to back off, more concerned with her business than the fight going on ahead of her. Blight, meanwhile, exploded at a blinding speed out of the smoke, racing for the mecha's legs, sword swinging!
Mariko recoiled, crossing her arms in the bulky suit. "Do you know what leck mich means?" she retorted sharply, employing a popular Neusattran phrase that was not particularly suited to the lips of a princess of the Jade Empire. "You can't go in. If you have a problem with it take it up with the captain." she said, her voice shot through with the imperious tones of one easy with authority.
The mech seemed nearly invincible to infantry smart rounds, projecting a scrambler field which threw off their guidance, though one managed to strike true at the knee joint, forcing her to a knee on the floor. Unimpressed, Hundreds of needle like flechettes encased in plasma roared from the gun in a rhythmic thumping in return, like some high tech and gargantuan descendant of an automatic shotgun. The steel floor plates were minced by the periphery blast, but the armored drop skiff that sat behind them was unyielding. As Blight charged from the smoky haze she opened continued to pump rounds into her until the clip was empty. All the while the missile launcher on her right shoulder pivoted. “Verma, hold onto something.” She fired. The missile struck the plasma wall which retained the hangar’s atmosphere. The field failed and for a moment as the atmosphere rushed out in a tremendous gale. The skiff skidded across the floor, the drones wavered before they compensated with their thrusters, and they were in a hard vacuum. Katrina knew full well violent depressurization was a myth, but simply looked to dispose of the smoke… …
“Alright…” Takamo said with a shrug. “guess you’ve never dealt with hyper frequency gamma radiation before… but it’s your funeral.” With that he somewhat cautiously orbited the invaders allowing them entry to the room. As soon as he was behind them he drew a finger across his throat with one hand, pointed out three of the invaders with another, and began counting down with the fingers on a third hand, while with his fourth reaching for a heavy duty hand screwdriver that went with his suit and holding it in a reverse grip. It was a long shot… he wasn’t sure how off guard the men would be taken… or if Mariko understood his signal… or had enough control over her anomalous powers to make it happen. When his countdown reached zero he pounced on the leader, aiming to drive the screwdriver through the top of his head. Chaining into a swift and trained series of hand to hand movements which if executed successfully would result in the last foe to be taken to the floor by an elegant leg choke hold and stabbed through the neck by his improvised weapon a moment later.
Mariko panicked. She did not have enough control over her powers to do anything as clever as disconnect the mercenaries' weapon clips, and with only moments to think of a plan she threw her left arm out, fingers splayed wide. A psionic blast of kinetic energy caught all of the mercenaries except the two nearest Takamo, tossing them perhaps four feet into the air almost directly upwards, just a little bit backwards. Her right hand came forwards and she tried to tug at their guns with tendrils of power, but she knew even as she made the attempt she couldn't quite focus enough on the guns to make it stick. If any of the mercenaries had already lost their grip the tumbling rifles would fly towards Mariko, but otherwise all they would feel was an insistent tugging at the weapon in their hands. Light flared from inside her radiation suit, obscuring her face momentarily as the energies silently flowed around her.
Forewarned by Katrina, Verma braced herself for the atmosphere evacuation, but still staggered and stumbled as air rushed past her. Straightening up after the initial blast, she waited a moment for the smoke to clear some, then leveled the rifle at the one who'd put themselves forward as the captain and fired off a burst, before ducking behind the skiff for cover. While venting the cargo bay was a sound plan, Verma could admit that she hadn't reckoned with Katrina simply blowing a hole in her own ship. Hadn't the Dominion ever heard of boarding countermeasures? Regardless, hopefully turning the captain into a smear on the floor would make the rest of the crew settle down some.
Unfortunately for Verma, the second shot turning the captain to paste had the seemingly opposite effect, his men instead getting angrier, volumes of rifle fire flying her way even as she ran for cover, some moving to try and flank her. Contagion was glad she was near the docking tube, grabbing a handhold as the hangar momentarily vented, grumbling under her breath. Why did Blight have to be so reckless? Regardless, Blight had started a fight and now she was caught in one. Said sister was also currently getting shot at by a mecha. What a pain. Grumbling under her breath again, Contagion rolled her multi-weapon around, the antimateriel rifle part whirring and firing, aiming for that same gun firing at Blight. Speaking of that android, she hissed between grinning teeth as a flechette shot caught her arm, system readouts in her head flashing red. Regardless, she didn't need two arms to fight. Bringing the sword to her mouth Blight threw the shotgun pistol to her good arm, snapping off some beehive shells at the mecha's guns and the gun drones, tossing the weapon aside when it clicked blank, grabbing her sword again and leaping for melee.
As for the fight in the reactor room, results were mixed. Mariko's telekinetic toss worked better than she had likely intended, one man striking the ceiling with an audible crack as his head turned sharply to the side, another hitting it flat and being dazed as they fell back down, both dropping their weapons, though the third managed to react far better, landing on all fours with gun in hand. Unfortunately for Takamo, heavy or not a screwdriver wasn't built to counter armoured space helmets, though it did succeed in damaging the metal armour and sending the squad leader crashing to the floor. The last attempted to defend himself, but with his bulky gear this mostly amounted to ineffectually blocking with his arms as he crashed to the floor, barely managing to register the screwdriver before it crashed into the neck of his suit and crushed his windpipe. The squad leader rolled back to his feet, drawing a large combat knife. "You son of a bitch!" he growled through a polarised visor, rushing to attack.
"Shit" Katrina hissed, mumbling to herself how the girl should have, by all logic. been minced by her fire. The shotgun seemed to rather easily, reduce the drones to glittering ribbons of debris before they could retaliate though a few managed to fire off homing micromissiles at their mark before their untimely destruction. She raised her free arm to block the strike, a neon-blue spear of Hardlight extending from the wrist of the mecha a good two and a half meters long. While she blocked, she tossed the fusion rifle to herself, changing the grip from the handle to midway down the barrel and swinging it like an immense club. Such a maneuver was by no means standard practice and would likely warp the barrel and damage it, but the gun had already been taken offline anyway. ... Takamo attempted to intercept the attacker, removing the bloodied tool from the neck of the assailant and turning to face him. Clearly he had been trained to use his extra set of arms as an advantage, at least in theory. Apparently miscalculating in his effort to grab and control the knife, being stabbed through the arm. He struck the wall with a loud clang before crumping to the ground with the squad leader on top of him. The head of his hazmat suit coming undone to reveal his face warped with aggression, the arm with holding screwdriver pinned by his attacker's knee and the knife slowly working its way closer to his torso as he wrestled to keep it away, frantically looking for an opportunity to turn the fight or another weapon.
Mariko gasped at the damage she had wrought, nearly bowled over by one of the rifles which had flown at her far faster than she intended. She struggled to heft it, half-remembering training from her private tutors on how to check a weapon's safety. By the time she got it gripped right, the last mercenary had Takamo on his back and was inching a knife towards his chest. "Hey! Stop!" she yelled, leveling the gun at the mercenary. "Stop or I'll shoot!"
Swearing vociferously, Verma fumbled at her belt for a pair of grenades, then popped up for a moment to toss them in a smooth arc at the incoming men, counting down in her head before... The blast shook the already battered decking, and she used the cover of the light and thunder to jump out of cover and charge across the hangar towards Contagion, firing at the mercs as she went before her gun clicked dry and she tossed it aside, electing to unhook the hilt of the hardlight sword and igniting it with a crackle.
The blades met with a raucous crash of thunder, hardlight meeting metal, energy fields colliding. Blight held the blade lock for a second, bracing it against her shoulder, before swearing under her breath and rolling, aiming to dodge the club. "See?!" she laughed, evidently still having a riot of a time. "If you'd have opened with the sword, we wouldn't have had to fuck about with all the gun business! This is a fight!" she called, attempting to get between the mecha's legs to give herself an opening at its back. "Aren't sword duels a whole lot more fun?" she asked, her tone...seemingly indicating she expected an answer. The mercenaries recoiled as Verma dumped fire at them, a few unable to get clear of the shrapnel and fire, at least solidly halving their number, most likely further. Contagion, a solid distance away, seemed entirely unconcerned by the grenades, her long jet-black hair billowing in the pressure wave of their combined blast. Noticing the same combatant barreling straight for her with a sword in hand, however, did faze her. The android's eyes went wide, scrambling to respond. She raised her multi-weapon but gave no time to aim, the submachine gun built into it thudding with a low-pitched rattle. Contagion herself, entirely untrained in hand to hand, scrambled to get away, stumbling and tripping as she attempted to escape back through the corvette's docking umbilical, her fire rapid but wild. -
The dazed mercenary on the floor was evidently coming back to his senses, shaking his head as he pulled himself to one knee, still supporting himself with one hand. "D...Dammit, what the hell was that?" he muttered, looking up. A beat. "Ah, ah crap!" he swore, scrambling for his dropped rifle, picking it up and aiming it with an audible clack-clack that echoed through the room, its sights setting on Mariko. "Drop the gun!" he yelled. On the plus side, Mariko's own threat of gun-related violence momentarily distracted the mercenary on top of Takamo, his visored helmet turning to look up at Mariko.
"Verma, Duck!" Katrina turned the cockpit, facing out the exit to the hangar. Her foe hadn't fallen to two dozen blasts from a shotgun, several micromissiles and was swift enough to evade her strikes... all without wearing any sort of visible exoskeleton. This wasn't a fight, she was merely playing with her. But she was a solider, and if it meant victory she would make that ultimate sacrifice. She had but one strategem remaining. Allowing her the opening to get behind her, she rotated the cockpit and set the self destruct and ejected herself out the front of the cockpit and out the hangar door. A moment later the machine detonated, shaking the entire ship with a tremendous explosion. Most of the blast was directed out of the hangar, propelling Katrina (still in her power armor) outside the ship and drifting away in tandem with an expanding wave of debris. By the time she oriented herself the two ships were already shrinking away in the distance, and were well out of reach of her grapple. And her armor had no thrusters to speak of. For a moment she thought all would be alright. Verma clearly had the fight under control, and in due time they could simply fly and pick her up. However her visor alerted her to oxygen loss, a hologram of her exo suit showing in flashing red, diagnosing a failed seal that had been damaged during her rapid ejection, accompanied with bars of the suits small internal oxygen tanks rapidly depleting. "No way that bitch survived that..." She hissed with her last breath of oxygen. ... The ship-shaking blast, combined with the distracted mercenary gave the Go'shii the opportunity to reverse the pin on the merc and get hold of the knife. With his two good arms he drove the knife into his visor, anticipating that would net him the kill, then reached to swipe the would-be-cedaver's gun and take down the mercenary threatening Mariko.
Mariko froze. She was well-trained and could shoot well, but she had never killed a person before. She had only ever fought against the unreal monsters of the Merger, the destruction of which was for most sentient beings, a matter of instinct. She did not squeeze the trigger of her own rifle, but desperately she willed the harrowing black chasm of the mercenary's gun barrel away from her, and subconsciously she exerted a psionic pressure that pushed against the gun, trying to force it away from both herself and Takamo, a slow but strong impulse. Her eyes were wide, almost entirely black, a look of shock and fear on her face even as she hunched her own rifle in a professional grip, aiming at the prone mercenary, her finger trembling on the trigger as she fought for the courage to pull the trigger herself. Behind them, she saw the feline Go'shii lash into action, writhing his lean muscles in a blur as he tried to butcher the other mercenary, moving too fast for her to even keep track…
Stumbling as the ship shuddered again, a backwards glance had Verma watching as Katrina blasted the hangar apart...and then died. Everything went blank for a moment as the soldier stood there, unable to come to terms with what had just happened. Then her gaze flickered between where Blight had been and Contagion, and everything vanished in a haze of fury. Screaming wordlessly, she charged heedlessly into Contagion's fire, bullets bouncing and pinging off of her armor, even as some punched through with tiny sprays of blood. Bio-foam applicators immediately sealed up the wounds as they occurred, but lost in rage and adrenaline, Verma paid them no mind. Running at Contagion, she made a leap, the blade of the greatsword arcing down towards the android in a gleaming blue flash.
"So quick to turn your?--" Blight had gone to make a jab as she rolled behind the mech, before noticing what was going on. Well. That was quick. And Blight was unnervingly close to the mech. "Son of a bit--!" she yelled, sprinting and diving to get away. Then, in a blinding flash, her optics went white and her audio receptors blanked, both going into automatic reboot. That was promising. Initially, the diagnostic warned of damage to her external cladding layers and several servos going into lockup. Then, with a hard slam against what the blinded Blight assumed was the hangar wall, a lot of things went red. Both of her legs, combat support systems, so on and so forth. Her sense of taste, though that was hardly a priority for the android at the moment. Fortunately, one of her arms was only orange--operational, though she should by no means stress it--and her primary processor casing had held out. Damaged, but it held out. Another, barely registered hard thump. That was the floor. Probably. It depended on if that mech had blown the ship apart or something; maybe it was just a piece of debris and when her eyes recalibrated she'd find herself floating in space. That'd be fun. As for Contagion, she was processing things with a far less calm demeanour. She shrieked, scrambling to try and evade, hucking her multi-weapon aside and attempting to roll over, to get on all fours. The action got her centre of mass out of the way of the sword, but it did not entirely save her from it. The sword plunged into the android's shoulder, almost severing her arm in entirety, the petite blue-eyed android letting out a wailing shriek, desperately trying to pull herself away with her other hand to no avail. Evidently, only the red-eyed android put up much of a fight when you got too close.
-- Fortune was on Takamo's side today; the foot-long blade of the combat knife finding itself embedded almost to the crossguard in the mercenary's shoulder. He let out a short scream trailing off into a gurgle as his eyes fell limp, the inside of his visor stained red and fortunately obscuring a view of what was behind. The other mercenary went to fire, his aim shoved off by Mariko, the man losing his balance as he fought to right himself. The dead mercenary's gun, a mundane and blocky mass of black metal and plastic, was fortunately both loaded and set to full auto. Both guns leveled at the same time, and both fired. Unfortunately for the mercenary, his aim was the worse of the day. His shots went wild save one that grazed Takamo's arm, while in return two shots landed in his chest and a third his throat, the man stumbling back and collapsing, gurgling for a long, painful few moments. And then, the reactor room was silent once more. -- Your audio receptors rebooting to the sound of your younger sister's cries of pain and desperation was a deeply unpleasant experience, as Blight discovered, followed shortly by the fuzzy input of her damaged but functional eyes. Or, right eye. Left was unresponsive. Excellent. The other woman, whom she had overheard being called Verma, was currently pinning Contagion to the floor with a particularly large sword Blight wouldn't have minded trying out herself. Through their already-sustained casualties, gun drones and shrapnel given off from the mech's explosion, the rest of the mercenaries were, uh...a mess. Well. "W-Wait!" Blight cried out, reaching out towards them with her damaged but functional arm, her voice now distorted. "W-W-We ha-ave no reason to-ooo fight you an-n-y-nymore!" she called, gesturing towards the dead mercenaries. "Ple-e-Ease! Just don-on't hurt...don't hurt Tagie..."
Mariko flinched as the gunfire roared in the close confines of the reactor room, and stifled a shriek as she saw the blood on Takamo's arm. She realised quickly that it was a flesh wound, whilst the mercenary was dead before his head fell back to the floor. Flicking the safety back on, she dropped the rifle and rushed over to Takamo, crouching beside him. Struggling out of the hazmat suit, she placed her hands on his forearm, her wide black eyes filled with concern. "Takamo, are you okay?" she asked, glancing down at the bullet wound.
Moving to take Contagion's head off, Verma halted as she heard Blight plead for the life of her sister. For just a brief moment she considered ignoring the other android and killing them both, but then a small part of her, one that she'd tried very hard to ignore and bury after the war snarled and whispered thoughts of pain and fury. After all, you've lost someone. Why not take that grief out on the stupid bitch that caused it? Turning slightly to regard the other, ignoring the wailing figure at her feet, she sneered. "Don't hurt her? Don't you think it's a little late for that, you fucking rustbucket? Katrina is dead, and you might as well have pulled the trigger." Savagely kicking Contagion, she laughed bitterly as the android screamed again. "Don't hurt her, hmm? Well, I've already done that, but I'll go ahead and let her live." Reaching down, she seized Contagion by her remaining arm and hauled her up, securing a grip around her neck as she held her in front of her and turned to face Blight. "Sisters are supposed to help each other aren't they? I'll let her live, and she can help fix you. And in return, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to help her with her own...disabilities." Spinning the droid around, she slammed her up against the wall and dug her armored fingers into Contagion's right eye, twisting and tugging until the eye came free with a sickening pop and a gush of lubricants. Then she let the woman drop to ground and kicked her again for good measure.
“Yeah. I’m okay…” He snarled, dismissing her question in the heat of the moment as he peeled out of the mangled hasmat suit. Both his lower arms had been disabled and were left hanging rather uselessly. One by the Mercanary’s less than stellar aim, and the other from the prior stab. “Come on, I don’t know what’s happening with the other girls, but it doesn’t sound good.” He snatched up a spare rifle in one hand and the detonator they had prepared in the other, he held it high as he made his way down the hall, holding the remote high as he did making it apparent to any more mercanaries they might encounter that one wrong move would have everyone involved and the ship itself turned into a rapidly expanding cloud of hot gas. All his thoughts were a rabid tangle that raced by a mile a minute, rolling in and out of reality. In the rush of adrenaline he’d forgotten virtually anything, his duty to escort the princess redeem his name in the eyes of his country. Perhaps it was anemia, or perhaps the pain which he was doing everything into the power. He shambled up to the hangar bay without bothering to spare a glance at the carnage inside, only to find that when he opened the door on the threshold between the corridor and the hangar that the atmosphere began to rush out into the void of space. Utterly unphased, he hurled himself against the wall beside the door, fumbling amidst a manual button panel until he found on which would close the hangar’s shutters doors. The doors began to close as red lighting conduits pulsed. His mind went blank as he stood their heaving, simply relishing a moment’s rest while waiting for the winds to stop as the doors came to a close around the corvette’s docking gangway. The doors intially stopped, withdrawing slightly and attempting agian to close again. They withdrew a second time, only for the hydralics to come back in full force to either side of the boarding walkway.
Mariko tagged along in his wake, staggering slightly as he nearly vented them into space, clinging on to a doorjam until he managed to shut the doors again. Eyes wide, she crossed to an overlook window and peered down into the hangar below, her nose pressed against the glass as she tried to get a good view of everything going on. "Takamo, look! It looks like Verma and Katrina took care of the others, they're all down except...hey wait...." She paused for a moment, squinting at the scatter of broken equipment, drones, mercenaries and the injured 'droids next to the bleeding, blood-spattered Verma. "Where's Katrina?" she asked, almost to herself, even though she had a sinking feeling in her gut that told her the answer…
Contagion screamed, an unnervingly human sound for an android piercing the hangar as Verma's armoured hand dug into her eye socket, the dull light illuminating her bright blue eyes fizzling and fading out as it was torn from her metal skull, leaving the socket bent and mangled out of shape, her forced-aside eyelids fluttering and spasming as they attempted to close over the bare metal and spilled lubricant. The comparatively tiny android crashed to the hangar floor, rolled over at Verma's second kick, her hand clamped over her freshly evicted eye socket, her other arm held on only by synthetic skin and a couple of wires. Blight, meanwhile, could only watch. Neither of her legs would respond, and a good few dozen flechettes at lazy stone tossing distance had meant her other arm would only twitch under the greatest will to move. One of her eyes, too, was damaged and grey, but her brow could go no lower, her remaining red eye fixed unerringly on Verma. Over the fire and smoke and hiss of damaged electronics, the soft scrape of Blight slowly dragging herself in the direction of her sister was nigh inaudible. What was her plan? She couldn't fight like this, what was she supposed to do? Grasp at the woman's leg? Bang at the metal of her armour, yelling obscenities like a drunken dockworker? Ask Contagion to put her in a chair so she could write a harshly worded letter? These thoughts only momentarily passed through her mind, brushed off by the livid rage that gripped her artificial mind, her eye drawn off by sparks bouncing from her bicep. If she pushed it too hard, this arm would give out too. Dammit. "You..." she hissed lowly, forced through clenched teeth. "...You bitch..."
Mariko found the exterior console to the hangar and stabilized the atmosphere, closing the emergency blast doors before reopening the inner doors Takamo had prematurely opened in his haste. Light on her feet, she skipped into the room, nearly tripping over debris and the occasional corpse as she approached Verma. "Verma, are you okay? What happened?" she said, taking in the scene and biting back vomit as she saw the injuries inflicted on the two androids.
Verma's soft laughter echoed in the still air of the hangar. "What happened? What happened is that Katrina's dead because of that circuitbox over there. So I paid her back some. A couple screams, a bit of the excuse they use for blood, and I figure our bill is settled." Still smirking, she strolled over to Blight and looked down at her. "And you'd do better to keep your mouth shut lest I rip your jaw off...bitch."
Takamo shambled into the room with two limp, still-bleeding arms, holding the reactor suicide detonator with a dull look in his eyes. He glanced around seeing only Katrina, some considerable blast damage to the hangar and the heap of corpses on the ground. Slowly he became more lucid of the situation, aware that Verma was the last one standing and the room lacked any obvious threats. "Dammit!" He snarled. "We needed their ship..." He glanced to where the gangway had been pinched off blast doors, leaving the crumpled portal on the floor.
The bridge crew of the Corvette would detect something approaching at high speeds on the edge of sensor range. The vessel began to slow down, returning four relativistic columns of radioactive iron as it engaged a full reverse thrust. Commodore Lacurna Riton watched as the image rectified on his scopes. The Farrian of indeterminite gender smirked with satisfaction. It was a shogun class that appeared to have sustained some minor damage, drifting and offline and a nearby corvette with a severed docking gantry. “Inform high command we’ve found their missing ship, and their princess too. Prep boarding parties and deploy interdiction. Tightbeam those ships, maximum broadcast power.” … “This is Commodore Lacurna Riton of the GDAN Axiom of Purpose to the GDAN Shogun and Unidentified vessel. Stand down and prepare to be boarded. Over.”
Blight's face contorted with rage stared back up at Verma, and the android went to make some defiant, snarky remark, before of all things the dead mercenary captain's comms unit buzzed. "Hey!" came a male voice--presumably of the corvette's bridge crew--with an annoyed sound. "I don't know what the fuck you or those damn androids did or whoever the fuck is on that ship, but a whole fucking battleship just dropped out of FTL!" he snarled, sounding like he was narrowly restraining himself from yelling. "Get the fuck back on this ship! We're bugging out, and I don't give a damn if you're back on here or not when we do!" Contagion, disregarding her current state of being, stumbled to the captain's obliterated remains, yanking the radio from what was left of his gear. "This is Contagion. The captain is dead, but we have hostages. Emergency safety protocols sealed the hangar bay; the umbilical is severed. We need the other one, armed with thermal cutters." she explained, letting off lies without a hint of a tell. A pause. "The bastard got himself shot? Fuck. Alright, hold tight tin lady, those hostages better be worth it." Contagion looked up at the others with her one remaining eye, the other having finally managed to shut itself. "I know how to get rid of the bridge crew and fly that ship, but I'm not doing either without my sister." --- As for Commodore Lacurna, the response from the corvette was equally as frustrated. "Yeah? Boarding under who's authority, motherfucker? This is the Lost Star FTZ dickhead, you got no right aboard my boat! If you wanna go salvage scrap from the burnt out tin can then be my fuckin guest, but the only people who get inside this hull are people I say can, you got that?" Around this time, a low thud echoed through the hangar, the metal door glowing in a circle. Thermal cutters.
Mariko's mind raced. The Dominion were here for Takamo, and in only a few moments their armoured soldiers would be swarming aboard this ship and would probably execute everyone except for her on the spot. As much as a tiny part of her wanted simply to give in, to step aboard an allied ship and be returned to the safety of the Jade Empire and her mother, she couldn't do that to Takamo. "Takamo's right," she said, "we need that corvette, and it looks like we need help to take it, quickly." She crossed over to Contagion and crouched, trying not to blanch at the injuries the android had sustained. Even though they were, unlike an organic, theoretically completely repairable, if this android were anything like the RAI of Ingen she would be feeling the physical and mental trauma just as keenly as any biological victim. She reached out a hand, her alabaster skin casting a faint glow that reflected off Contagion's blood-and-fluid-spattered armour. "Let me help you up," she said in accented Common, her voice deliberate and slow. With her one good eye Contagion would see a young woman, a teenager in truth, with pale glowing skin marked by an emerald band over her upper face and nose, and two white horns topped by glowing orbs poking through a tangle of thick, bottle-green hair. Her eyes were large and doe-like, her expression full of concern, whilst despite her travel-stained red jacket the jewelry on her fingers, at her neck and on her ears marked her as a woman of extreme wealth.
Verma snarled at Contagion's demand, but softened as Mariko helped the android to her feet. Resignation filled her voice as she sighed. "Deal. But one wrong twitch from either of you, and I find out what your insides look like." Pausing slightly to glance out the shattered section of hull, she sounded slightly wistful as she added "And we need to grab Katrina's body before we go. I have an idea." Then she turned on her heel and went over to Blight before bending down and hoisting the damaged robot into her arms. When she spoke again, the hard tones of a commander filled the hangar. "Takamo, I need you to go retrieve Valeem from the morgue, along with any medical supplies you think we might be able to use, then set the engines to blow after we undock. Mariko, get Blight settled once we're on the other ship, I'll take point with Contagion in clearing their bridge. Then we need to get to Lost Star."
Takamo glanced at a pair of KR units which had survived the engagement. "Retrieve... the body of Valeem Udar.” Takamo grunted. "Error. Valeem Udar has been clinically dead for over six hours. Possibility of successful recessitation is 0.00069%.” The machine glanced down at his bleeding arm. “Warning. Severe hemmoraging of lurmo-brachial artery on detected. Reccomend immediate administartion of clotting agents or biofoam.” “I… I got it.” Takamo said, shambling to the first aid kit in a compartment by the wall of the hangar and using his good arms to begin administering a series of drugs to his wounds. “Just… go get him… that’s an order.” With that he withdrew the first aid kit, retrieving a smaller package from it. The entire kit stood up. A drone in its own right, like a pack mule laden with supplies on four wheeled feet. He could have gone back to the sick bay and retrieved a much more comprehensive supply of medicines, but didn’t have the time nor energy. The bots returned, hauling Valeem’s bodbyag onto the ship. Takamo following shortly thereafter. … Outside, Commodore Lacurna had ordered the launch of fighters. After what they had returned on comms their marks may attempt to flee, several fighter units each consisting of a single manned fighter and a dozen or so drones were being scattered to multiple points in three dimensional space around the two docked ships, closing around them like a sphere. The boarding craft had their own drone escorts and were drawing their way in through the middle, slowing to rendevouz with them. Judging by the fact that half a dozen troop carrier skiffs had been used (each one carrying hundreds of war droids) they were anticipating just about anything.
Contagion's one good eye settled on Mariko, though her hard and cold gaze softened a little. Overall, Contagion was the vastly lesser damaged of the two, though an arm hanging by some skin was hardly a pleasant thing to look at, android or no. "Thank you. But I think my sis--" she started, before Verma picked up the tattered remnants of Blight. "....Oh. Never mind." she blinked, kneeling down again to draw a pistol from the holster of a dead mercenary. "I would appreciate it if you retrieved her sword, though. I will make sure there is nobody waiting for us onboard." she added, turning as the ring of glowing metal finally turned to slag as the thermal cutters broke through, induction beams a second later knocking the loose ring of metal into the ship. Contagion was already there, slinging her combi-gun over her shoulder. "Hey, you lot!" buzzed through the radio. "That damn ship's launching buzzers! Not long before I'll have no choice but to tell the guns to have a field day, so get the fuck in here!" "...Understood." Contagion replied, dropping the radio. "Watch your step." she called over her shoulder, heading inside ahead of the drones. Murmurs from the other end, followed by the echoing crack of two pistol shots, signaled that Contagion had indeed dealt with a welcome party. --- The corvette remained idle, though numerous point defence weapons rose out of armoured covers. Another signal went out, the captain seemingly annoyed at the lack of response. "Hey, dickhead! I don't know what hot shit you think you are, but if you'd like any of those shiny tinker toys of yours to come home hole free I'd suggest you back them the fuck up buddy. I do what I must to protect me and mine, and no boarding craft's integrity is vital to that, you understand me?"
Mariko glanced around, searching for Blight's sword among the wreckage. After a moment she spotted a blade whose design matched Blight's armour and which looked too specialised for the mercenaries around them, and hefted it with a grunt. It was too heavy for her to use, practically speaking, but she carried it just fine as she cautiously followed Contagion and the others into the corvette. She flinched as gunshots sounded ahead of them. Contagion was either true to her word, or was enacting a mummer's play to trick them into the corvette where her surviving mercenary friends could turn the tables on her, Takamo and Verma. Either way, she knew that stepping onto the corvette was a serious risk, but compared to getting blown to atoms aboard the Shogun frigate or else seeing Takamo and Verma hauled away to execution for treason it didn't seem so bad…
Stepping through the gap into the corvette, Verma set Blight down gently, then unhooked the hilt of her sword and strolled forwards, spinning it smoothly. Stepping lightly over the bodies of the welcome party, she caught up to Contagion and flicked a glance over her. Chewing her lip for a moment, she sighed. "Now would be a good time to apologize for your eye, I suppose. At least, it might be if I was sorry. I lost my temper, I'll admit to that. " Turning to face the android, she halted briefly. "My word, given freely that no further harm will come to you or your sister by my hand, and I will do my best to see you repaired. In return, I want your word you won't stab us in the back or sell us out the first chance you get."
Takamo crumpled down on the floor, sitting down next to Mariko and gripping her shoulder with his good arm. The first aid drone and the a handful of confused looking war droids that had escorted stood on standby near to him. "I sure hope these guys know what they're doing..." The droids stood by for a moment, making an odd series of movements. "Remote override code accepted. Primary objective: Retrieve Princess Mariko." They spoke in unison. Two of the their droids raised their rifles at Verma, two more at Contagion as a fifth got between them, Prying away Takamo's grip effortlessley and reaching to snatch up the princess and carry her back into the dominion frigate for recovery. ... Outside the fighter craft observed the point defense guns at the ready. There were a series of bright flashes and their numbers had seemingly multiplied tenfold, systems producing a series of holographic decoys sweeping in from every angle simultaneously. In that same moment the ship was struck by powerful electronic countermeasures. They fired missiles dialed to a low yield, just enough to disable the guns of the corvette.
Blight was, to her infinite fortune, out of sight when the drones were hacked. Or, that's what it sounded like, anyway, from the telltale whirring of energy weapons spooling up and their declaration of orders spouted in unison. Spectacular. Blight thought to herself, looking at the safety harness currently pinning her to a seat. The notion occurred to her that she felt lucky not to be doing the same, but that was a notion for another time. The red-eyed android looked about, inspecting her situation. Three of four limbs were out of action, though internal redundancies and what limited damage mitigation systems she had had stabilised her one remaining arm's function and rebooted her eye. There was a small locker on the wall near here, usually intended for emergencies. Blight's armoured hand grasped at it, virtually wrenching the door open and mangling the simple plastic lock in the process. A medical kit, a small rebreather in the event of decompression and to mitigate the effects of radiation pump damage, and... Blight grinned. A hand cannon, so a crewman could defend himself from boarders. Or, in the android's case, herself. Blight pulled it out, feeling the weight of the loaded magazine as she shoved it into her mouth to free her arm, unlocking the safety harness and swinging herself down, attempting to propel herself around the corner. And falling just short, scrabbling at the floor ineffectual thanks to its smooth surface. Fuck. Fuck!
-- Contagion looked back up at Verma. "If I can--or, more likely, when I can--access the captain's accounts, we will have far more money than he originally offered us, as well as his ship. Overall, once repairs are complete, we will have come out of this job better off than originally expected. I have no reason to--" she explained, her tone her usual deadpan, before she was cut off by the raising of weapons in their direction. Contagion tensed, gripping her multi-gun tighter. "Correction. I will especially have no reason to stab you in the back if you think you can handle those while I deal with the bridge crew." she stated, shuffling to put Verma more between her and the droids. --
"Captain!" one of the bridge officers called. "What is it? The fuck're they doing now?" "Missile contacts! Something's fucking with our systems, I'm counting somewhere between ten and fifteen munitions! I can't track hostile vessel count either!" "Damn it. They're trying to throw us off, so we can't defend ourselves. Is our umbilical retracted?" "Detached, withdrawing." "Good enough. Helm, plot an evasive path, blast the engines to full, on my mark, and give us a spin! They can throw off our guns, but we can throw off their aim!" "Aye aye!" The captain grabbed a microphone, the ship's speakers abruptly calling out. "Hold onto your asses, you sons of bitches! We're going for a ride!" he all but yelled, dropping the microphone. "Alright...three...two...one, now!" Abruptly, the corvette's engines would flare bright, spikes of glowing blue ejecting from the thrusters as the vessel suddenly gained speed away from the Gauss ships, barrel rolling as it went, the guns suddenly firing ablaze. It seemed they weren't content standing around in a fighter net. -- Blight, as inertial dampeners raced to catch up, skidded across the floor in a shower of sparks, grinding into view of the scene around the corner. Fate was on her side, it seemed. She grinned as she grabbed the gun from her mouth, lining up the sights with one of the droids. "Hey dickheads!" she called. "You missed one!" And gunshots rang through the ship.
Mariko screamed in surprise as the droids turned on them. She hefted Blight's giant sword and, to her surprise, it felt light in her hands. She swung at the droid reaching for her, a huge haymaker blow that would have exasperated Sensei Chiba, her sword-fighting instructor, but she had no idea how to properly use the strange, angular weapon that crackled with harmonic resonance as it smashed into the droid. There was a shower of sparks and the grinding scream of metal, as the blade ploughed straight through the unfortunate automaton and buried itself in the wall to Mariko's right. Mariko staggered at the impact, nearly losing her footing amid the tumbling remnants of the first droid. Looking up, everything seemed to move in slow-motion as the other droids aimed their rifles at her friends. A few yards away, Blight tumbled around the corner and began firing from the floor - it was almost funny. She focused. She knew she had powers now, she knew she wasn't helpless. She took a deep breath and pushed forwards with all her willpower, tossing the droids aside in a storm of energy. Or so she hoped. But nothing happened. Confused, she repeated the motion, a simple tai-chi move that helped to focus her thoughts, to no avail…
Swearing under her breath, Verma staggered as the ship rolled, before activating her sword and taking a swing at a drone, shearing it in half. Bracing against the wall, she snapped a kick at the drone between her and Contagion before dropping into a roll and coming up in a smooth jump, spinning the blade in a arc in front of her.
As they pulled away the first round of missiles spiraled away or missed their intended targets; the point defense guns either impacting the hull (their yields dialed back considerably such that they would be unlikely to penetrate) or detonating prematurely. As the corvette rocketed away from the fray the fighters and boarding craft followed behind. The battleship paused for a moment before its immense engines spooled to life and trailed behind them in an effort to keep them within interdiction range. For a brief moment, there was reprieve and they did not fire, before the skiffs began to jettison large numbers of torpedoes from their holds; larger and more advanced than the missiles that had been employed a moment ago. Left drifting in a cloud behind the ship for a moment before kicking online. These were pulse torpedoes, designed to disable electronic systems through immense electromagnetic distortions created upon detonation. There were well over a hundred of them closing on different vectors (seemingly 10 times as many thanks to the holograms) meant to saturate and overwhelm the corvette's PD grid. Takamo took Mariko, helping her get buckled back into a chair before buckling himself in. As the corvette's structure creaked and the dampeners struggled to keep up he placed his hand around Mariko and felt for something. The remote detonator he had rigged in the gunship. He mulled for a moment, recognizing that triggering it probably meant the death of dozens of his former brothers and sisters. His mind raced, imagining them turning around and passing the frigate, blasting the derelict ship to smithereens and using the blast for cover to throw off the pursuing fighters. He couldn't. One of them probably would. "I... I know how to lose them! Turn the ship around, lead them by the Shogun and press this." He shouted, showing the detonator to Blight and Contagion.
Blight grinned, watching her fire put down a drone and Mariko use her sword to end another. "One arm, one eye, I still got it." she chuckled, her tone a mix of satisfaction and whatever amounted to android pain. "Hey can...someone put me back in a chair? I only got this arm working and I shouldn't stress it too much." she asked, tossing the empty hand cannon aside. Contagion looked to Takamo as she spoke, her eyes fixing on the detonator. She nodded, walking back over and taking it--firmly, but in no way harshly--and stepping back as she stuffed it into a pocket, turning to Verma. "I can get to the controls quickly, but the crew will most likely try to kill me. I need you to stop that. Don't worry too much about the consoles; I only need the one to fly this ship." Without waiting for a response, the android all but stormed to the door to the bridge, tapping some buttons. The lights turned green and slid open, the android stepping in. The bridge was a somewhat dark, semicircular-shaped room, with a raised section at the middle back for the captain and his XO, the helmsman directly in front; the two boarders had entered through a door on the bridge's left, another opposite. "Hey, how'd the--Hey, what the fu?--" the captain started, a burst of fire from the SMG in Contagion's multi-weapon cutting him down. A second left the helmsman slumped over his console, the same one the android then stormed over to, dropping her gun and tapping on it like she hadn't just killed two of the crew. Sure enough, the rest of the bridge crew--three men--all went to grab weapons, the XO next to the dead captain grabbing a shotgun with the others reaching for handguns. None of them had seemingly noticed Verma. "Too many targets to bother counting in pursuit." Contagion stated flatly, pausing. "Standby. I am launching a warhead to give us some breathing room." A deep rumble, and the brief rumble of a rocket engine.
Verma grumbled under her breath. "Would it be too much to not have something go wrong or have someone trying to kill us? I mean, come on! This entire trip has been like something out of a shitty B-grade action holo. One fucking twist after another." As Contagion burst into the bridge and killed the captain, Verma paused and scooped up a rifle from the dead GD drone, before following. Watching the remaining crew go for their guns, she proceeded to empty the clip at the XO to eliminate the threat of the shotgun, before chucking the rifle at one of the other crew and leaping over the console at him, sword raised.
Mariko followed cautiously, peeking through the door and seeing Contagion working calmly at a console amid the sprawl of corpses and Verma in the middle of a brawl with another crew member. One last man was fumbling with a handgun, nobody seemingly marking him. Verma had her back to the man and Contagion seemed busy, but the man had also not noticed Mariko. Letting Blight's sword rest against the wall she focused again. This time she did not rush, but reached out to feel the room, tracing a pattern with her foot and focusing slowly, clearing her mind. She felt rather than saw the man finally flick off the safety and begin leveling the handgun, almost in slow motion. With an almost lazy motion, slow and graceful, she pulled and he was lifted from his feet, soaring across the bridge towards her. In the split moment before he crashed into her, she extended her palm and he stopped short, as if he had hit a wall, crumpling to the deck in front of her, bones broken by blunt force trauma. She opened her eyes and gasped, her onibi radiating bright light for a moment before settling back to their usual glow.
Takamo forced his way into then co-pilot's control seat with a loud grunt and studied the controls for a moment. All he needed was the control yoke and the throttle. Though he wasn't entirely certain why the crew had to die so that he could take the stick, he was more focused on getting himself out of this situation; less so focused on the tedious how and why. Behind them the nuke detonated. A however telegraphed attack which the pulse missiles were able to respond. They shot off on all directions, like a blooming flower; the detonation harmlessly expanding in the middle and only providing momentary cover. He cut the main drive, and fired the corvette's reaction thrusters as they tumbled into a reversed position. By the time the enemy fighters and missiles had started to come around, they were passing back through the fading explosion in the opposite direction, racing back twoards the crippled Shogun. As the ship made a harrowingly close pass, they caught a momentary glance at the ship's idle gun batteries; larger than the corvette itself and refusing to fire on account of their possession of the princess. Commodore Lacurna watched from the bridge of the Axiom of Purpose in confusion. "What... are they doing?"
Contagion made an only momentary noise of annoyance at Takamo's taking of the controls, though she quickly switched to regulating the corvettes power and heat. "The spacefold drive is charging and the exotic fuel injector is armed, but the system will not work while we are within interdiction. I am entering foldpoint coordinates now." she explained, tapping rapidly on the console with her working hand. As the vessel made its blitzing flyby, however, the android reached into a pocket, holding the detonator high above her head, staring at the screen. "Pulling the trigger in five...four...three...two--" "Hey, are we blowing shit up?" Blight's voice echoed down the hall. "If we're blowing shit up I wanna se-" "One." Click
A small blast erupted from the Shogun's port engine, reaching to the aft bomb bay on the port side. This set off the massive ball of anti-osmium seated within the first antiship bomb. This promptly set off the other 23 bombs. A majority of the fighter craft and torpedoes in immediate pursuit withered like ice cubes tossed on a hot skillet, while others further away were tossed tumbling clear of the ship. The battleship had enough distance from the blast to avoid more than superficial damage, but was still rocked heavily by the expanding wave of vaporized matter. The entire ship was shunted ungracefully to the side as the commodore Lacurna, who was standing was flung against the far wall of the bridge. The commodore stood, dazed but not seriously hurt. Takamo hung his head regretfully. Even though he had not been the one to pull the trigger, he felt remorse for the men he'd once called his brothers... just trying to do their job... to get the princess to safety. "Its unfair." He thought. "That all of them should have to die so that I can live." That same blast wave had given the corvette a respectable boost away from the fray, and he had a rough estimate they were already about halfway there. The Falconer had interdiction, but its range was short compared to dedicated interdictors. Takamo leaned into the controls with all of his strength, trying to get the ship to go faster through sheer force of will. A single dominion fighter and a handful of drones which had been clear of the first blast were still riding their tail. This pilot was clearly a veteran, weaving through the ropes of point defense fire with grace and returning bolts of hardlight to the ship with lethal accuracy, attempting to clip the point defenses. "Dammit..." He snarled out loud. "We're almost clear. Someone deal with that guy!"
Mariko stared, wide-eyed. The significance of the Dominions arrival had been lost on her until the Shogun frigate exploded, killing Gauss pilots in a blaze of detonating ordnance. Despite everything that had happened, this had all seemed like a game up until this moment, but now good, innocent men and women had been killed. One fighter had not given up and was still following them. She stepped to the viewport and tried to push the fighter away, but she could feel her strength waning and the fighter was a huge object with a great deal of force behind it. She settled for working with it instead of against it, adding extra momentum every time the pilot turned, making his ship overreact to his controls. Hopefully he would lose ground or give up
A kick had the remaining crew member folding over with a grunt, and a sweep of the sword relieved him of his head. Verma nudged the corpse aside and deactivated the blade, going over to lean over Takamo, studying the display. "Damn, but that's one persistent fucker. We got any missiles on this boat? Could just smack him with one of those."
"Yes, but not many. We should save our guided munitions; we may need them later." Contagion responded, her one working hand a blur as always. A pause. "I have an idea. Strap in and hold on tight, I'm about to perform a high-G maneuver." she added, giving the assorted persons on the bridge mere moments to do so. "Oh shit, whats this about maneuvers? Can someone please come strap me i--" Blight's voice echoed down the hall. Abruptly, Contagion cut the primary engines, instead blasting the retrorockets on full burn, aiming to close the gap far too quickly for the fighter to accommodate for. Everything fired forward as inertial force now threatened to rip everyone out of their seats and fling them into the primary digital viewport. Grinding of metal signalled Blight sliding helplessly on the floor. She only barely managed to make eye contact with the crew, however, before Contagion reversed her action. Retrorockets were left to cool as the main engines' brief respite ended, blasting to full in a wave of hot gas and radiation, intending to blast the fighter and send them scattering. Failing that, they were now much closer to the point defence cannons. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiiiiiiiii!-" echoed from increasingly far away as Blight now sailed across the metal floor back the way she came, cut off abruptly by a crash of metal and a distant 'Fuck!'
The fighter waivered for a moment. The pilot was unable to control his direction, and too reluctant to fire in a way that could more critically damage the craft. Though when the corvette reversed thrust into him, unable to properly maneuver thanks in part to the telekenetic lock his fighter impacted the exterior hull of the ship, doing minimal damage to the corvette but causing the fighter to explode on contact with the hull. The pilot ejected without a moment to spare, but was targeted all the same by the point defense system, a handful of rounds reducing them to an expanding cloud of red mist and metal shrapnel. His drone escorts autonomously looped around to return to fill in gaps elsewhere in the squadron before turning around again on a direct order from the flagship to reengage. Additional squadrons were forming up in an attempt to continue to grind down their foe such that they could eventually board and the battleship was racing towards them. “Go, go, go!” Takamo urged, throwing the forward thruster back on, leaning into the throttle lever with all of his remaining strength as though it would somehow make the ship exceed its mechanical capabilities.
Mariko barely made it back to a seat in time, buckling herself down and then promptly being bounced around by Takamo and Contagion's evasive maneuvers. She closed her eyes as he pushed the ship into FTL, feeling momentarily sick. Eventually the ship settled and she opened her eyes again, taking in Takamo's grim look of concentration and Verma's nonchalant look of mild relief. She unbuckled herself, rising shakily. They had just killed multiple Dominion pilots and she did not know how to console Takamo, nor how to deal with the indecent cheerfulness of the others, so she turned to leave the bridge. "They must have a galley here somewhere. I can't remember the last time I ate..." she said as she left.
Contagion was, comparatively, unaffected by spacefold, the ship rumbling as the folding and stretching of space caused the stars to twist and tumble, constellations intertwining and being horribly warped beyond recognition as the vessel was politely shoved forward an astronomical nanometer--and in doing so, crossed dozens, maybe hundreds of lightyears, Contagion had admittedly punched in the foldout coordinations in a hurry--before those same constellations whipped back, now replaced by new ones. She relaxed a moment, before leaning forward over the nav console. "Where is it you're actually going? I'm going to enter information for the autopilot." she asked. In the main chamber, spattered with the blood of dead mercenaries someone had shoved back out the airlock and the forms of torn Dominion drones, Mariko came across Blight, unceremoniously crumpled in the corner after having been tossed about by those same evasive maneuvers. The android offered a tired smirk, raising a hand in greeting. "Heya, girl. You doin' alright? You, uh...look a lil pale."
Verma grunted and dropped into a seat with a sigh. "Gotta say, could've done without that just now." At Contagion's question, she glanced over. "Set course for Zaoth. Should be somewhere in there, I can give you coordinates if it's not." Shifting, she winced as pain flickered along her side, the effects of the last hour making themselves known as her wound flared up, and bio-monitor warnings flashing on her HUD. According to the display, she was hemorrhaging on the inside, and the only reason she wasn't feeling it was due to the support systems of the Gaussian-made armor and a frankly absurd amount of painkillers.
The Go'shii slumped back in his chair, finally relaxing if only slightly. His ears rotated to the familiar sound of a medical drone ping. The mobile first aid kit he'd dragged along had not been overriden and was dutifully trotting in place next to her, attempting to resupply her armor's stockpile of painkillers. He couldn't bear to watch the woman suffer, rising from his chair, he raced over. "Sit down... sit down..." Takamo was no augmentation, but general medical training had been a part of his indoctrination. He swiped a portable MRI scanner from the bot, booting it up and waiving it across her abdomen and the cask of biofoam which encompassed it. He looked for a second, lacking the energy to sugarcoat it. "You're pretty much fucked. But way I see it you got two choices... you bleed out. Or you have about coin flip odds of surviving the stupid thing I'm about to do. Anyone who's squeamish about blood... look away..." He retrieved a small plasma torch off his belt; one that came with the reactor technician's rad suit he'd been wearing and ignited it. "Also I know you're doped on a week's worth of painkillers but you're probably still going to feel this..." He then gripped the cask of biofoam wedged into her gut and pulled. Scartlet fluids surged out the wound and onto the floor, just as he'd predicted. Hastily he drove the torch in, igniting it and cauterizing the internal bleeding over several agonizing seconds. Once the bleeding stopped he tossed the instrument aside, grabbing half a dozen doses of healing stims from the medical droid which protested that such a dose would probably result in the body overworking itself trying to heal its own wounds... leading to a short coma... or worse. He bit the caps off the needles, spitting them out and driving them in around the injury. Satisfied, he ketered over, slumping against the wall next to her. "Stubborn bitch..." He joked, cracking a half smile.
Mariko stopped short as Blight called out to her. "Grandad's teeth," she cursed, a common exclamation in the Jade Empire and one made more effacious by the fact her grandfather was Shogun Kuribayashi. "Are you okay?" She crossed over to Blight, crouching down and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Three of Blight's limbs looked badly damaged, as did the rest of her, but her one good eye watched Mariko clearly. The princess took hold of Blight's hand and tugged her into a sitting position, though the android was too heavy for her to lift outright. She fell backwards with the effort, pulling herself back so that she was seated opposite Blight. "Can we like...repair you? I know it's pretty complicated for Frames in the Jade Empire..."
"Eyy, careful there girlie." Blight chuckled. "Thanks though." she added, shifting her weight slightly to sit more comfortably. Blight's one good arm shrugged, and she sighed. "Yeah, probably. There's a tech bay opposite the medbay on this boat and my lil' sis Tagie knows my workings like the back of her hand." Blight grinned. Contagion, punching in coordinates for Zaoth, glanced at the back of her ungloved hand at a scratch in the skin that hadn't been there earlier. "Huh, that's new." she muttered. "So she can get all my bits working again at the very least." Blight smiled. "What about you? You're lookin a little pale. Somethin' bothering you?" Contagion, for her part, finally punched in the coordinates, the corvette turning as its engines slowly burned the ship towards standard cruise velocity. "The ship can't get there in one jump, but it's calculated the five jumps needed to do so by itself. The ship computer will let us know if something comes up. Now," she rose to her feet, turning to look at Verma and Takamo. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go reattach my arm, and fix my sister." she stated bluntly, striding for the exit.
Mariko flinched, thinking it was a jab at her expense, but then remembered that Blight and the others had come aboard after her dramatic transformation. It felt like a lifetime ago already... "I uh...it's complicated." she said, unsure how much she wanted to discuss. News of what had happened might take time to filter through the AncNet, and she didn't know if anyone in this galaxy would even recognize her as a human, let alone as a Yokari. "It's been a....a long day. And I think we just killed a bunch of Dominion soldiers who just thought they were trying to rescue me and bring me home to the Jade Empire..."
Verma's agonized shrieks resounded throughout the ship as the plasma torch crackled. When Takamo clicked it off, she shuddered as the bots began stitching her wound up. Then an armored fist shot out and seized Takamo by his collar while she raised her head and glared at him. Her voice was a grating rasp cut with gasps and stutters as she shook in pain . "If you...ever f-f-fu-fucking stick a plasma torch in my guts again, I'll- nghh tear your...arms off and- gah! Rape you to death with them!"
Contagion paused at the doorway, eyes...or eye, rather, fixed on Verma and Takamo. A ghost of a smile cracked across her features. Payback, if indirect, was sweet. "Have fun with that. Is...now a bad time to mention this ship has a meday?" she said simply, quickly vanishing out of sight. "Thought? What do you reckon they actually wanted, then?" Blight raised an eyebrow. "And if you ain't goin home, where are you goin?" she added, spotting her sister with her good eye. "Heya, Tagie! I was just talkin to green n mean here! How are things?" she asked. Contagion strode over, crouching down, her one good arm reaching out to make a cursory inspection of the tattered remains of her sister. "We are safe, and headed for the Zaoth system. As you've likely heard, Miss...Verma, is having some difficulties, at the behest of our three-eyed companion." she stated simply, blinking as she took a look as Blight's black, unresponsive eye. "H-Hey...Tagie, I'm...sorry, for all this." Blight sighed, gesturing to Contagion's arm. Contagion paused, making eye contact. "I should be saying that to you, Blight." "No, no, you shouldn't. I'm the bigger sister, I'm supposed to keep you safe, and all I could do was watch as that bitch took your eye out." Blight sighed, shaking her head, her eye switching to Mariko. "Sorry. She's your friend, but she did dig out my sister's eye to get at me." Contagion leant back into a more upright position, her head turning to look at Mariko. "On that note. Would you be so kind as to open the door to the tech bay? It's just there, but I only have one arm, and need to get my sister to repairs before she does something stupid and damages herself further." Contagion asked, pointing to the door just around the corner, further towards the ship's rear.
"I'll take that as a 'thank you' " Takamo grunted with an empty growl, rising to his feet and leading the group down to the tech bay and opening the door for them. Then he turned and scowled. Leaving the door open, he paced off down the hall, weary from the events of the past few days. Finally distanced from the others he realized just how tired he was. Every joint and bone in his body ached and his eyelids were heavy. With all the grace of an undead zombie he shambled into the crew quarters, finding a made bed and climbing in. Almost instantly, the Go'shii lost consciousness.
Mariko shrugged. "That's a good question. I guess I'm following you guys for now. I want to go home, I guess, but if the Dominion would euthanize Takamo if they ever caught him." She stood and crossed to the tech bay, leaning on the control panel and opening the door. "I...I'm sorry about all the....I don't know Verma that well. I'm only here because Takamo saved my life. More than once, in fact."
There was a grunt from behind Mariko as Verma leaned heavily on the wall and gasped raggedly. "I'll admit, I deserved that. What I did earlier...I've never dealt well when it comes to losing those i consider friends." Lifting her head, she looked at Blight and Contagion. " I don't know if there can be words to apologize for that, but I am sorry. I'll see to it that both of you have state-of-the-art repairs when we get to Zaoth. Although speaking of-" and here she glanced at Mariko. "What do you intend to do once we get there? It wouldn't be any problem to have an Imperial task force escort you back, and I imagine your mother might be...somewhat upset if you decide to stay on with us."
Blight looked at Verma, while Contagion gave Mariko a soft, appreciative smile. "If it's any consolation, I just wanted a cool sword fight, not for the lady to space herself." she shrugged as Contagion found a place to grab her sister by, dragging her across the floor to the tech bay, eliciting a quiet 'wheeeeeeee' from the larger android. "Oh." said Contagion, stopping suddenly. "There's an EMP device I hid in the engines in case the original owners of the ship tried to abandon me and my sister. It's not on a timer or anything, but it is mostly jury-rigged, so I would be very careful if you have to go in there. I'll remove it once I've put my arm back on and restored Blight to working order." she explained, hitting the button so the door to the tech bay slid shut before anyone could respond. That left the others alone, for now. A bing from the ship's PA, followed by a robotic voice. "EIGHT HOURS TO FOLDPOINT."
Verma gave Blight a considering look. "A sword fight, huh? Hang around, once both of us aren't going to keep over, you might get one." Then she turned and hobbled down the corridor to a crew room and dropped into the bed. --- Eight Hours Later - Zaoth Even without the ship alarm warning of dropping out of FTL, the immediate broadcast directed at the corvette as it emerged from hyperspace would've alerted them all that they had arrived. "Herald Verma. Welcome home."
The Mediocine pressed a button on a remote. The helmet folded out of the collar and assembled itself over where her head would be. “Integrated MK14 full color holographic hud system running on a 500 Teraflop Carbon-transistor core, hardened full EM spectrum sensor suite, inbuilt sonar and Lidar system, and four ESP drones and standard iris scan security system prevents anyone else from using it. Hardened comm line and external microphone linked to advanced audio analyisis software which deafens loud blasts and autonomously screens for infrasound. Your undersuit has the standard climate control and shock absorption, self medicating biofoam and over 200 doses of antibiotics, antidotes, painkillers and radiation drugs. Also the power ports in the palms-” “Zorg…” Katrina Began. “I know you’re proud of your work. But we don’t even know if she wants it. Shipmaster AI said she got off saying she wants her old kit back.” “Ugh… bring it up.” The Mediocine said. A large dumpster rolled into the room on its own accord with a “recycle” emblem projected onto a rugged LCD panel displayed on the side, apparently some type of low level automated drone in its own right. In it were some of the mangled remains of the shuttle and among them, Kal Verma’s gear, stained with her blood, a large gash on the abdomen and missing an arm.”
“If you want to fix it…” Katrina began. “The workshop is down the hall, first door on the left. But we’ve got about 15 minutes till we de-spin from subspace and both our asses are due in hangar 2, then, and not a second later. And don’t tell me you want to keep it for sentimental reasons… because we don’t do that here. Especially not special agents… it looks bad.” She shook her head. “Really bad.” She tapped a holographic control panel, armored sliding garage style doors moved aside and vast weapon racks extended from the walls. Hundreds of accelerator rifles and pistols, grenades, snipers, rocket launchers, ordinance rifles, rotary accelerators resembling gatling guns, hard-light melee weapons of almost every conceivable type lined the walls in addition to a variety of scopes, attachments and ammo… so much ammo. “Get kitted up because we don’t know what bullshit we’re going to find this agent in the middle of.”
Verma simply stood there blinking for a moment, dazed. A dreamy grin slowly spread across her face as she took in the vast array of weaponry. Then she shook herself slightly, but the smile only came back wider as she looked over the armor. "Hell to the yeah, I'm taking this suit. You have any idea how much better this is than standard kit for field agents? This is kind of shit that only the nobles usually get. As far as weapons..." She glanced back at the bin and went over to look at it. But as she bent over, a rippling pain flashed across her side, and her grip on the sides of the bin tightened briefly. Pushing through the pain, she rummaged around, yanking several devices off the wreck of the mech and setting them aside. When she was finished, she straightened, holding the maranil. Turning, she held it out to Torgue. "I need you to put this somewhere it can be accessed easily. It has to be returned to the Senate, it's a matter of protocol." Going back to the suit Zorg had prepared, she tapped one of the modules stripped from the mech and smirked when hair thin spikes misted into existence on the outside. She slapped it into the lower back of the suit, and did the same with the others, until there was only one left. Verma poked at it for a minute and then nodded before shoving it at Zorg. "Find a secure location, then stick this in a pile of metal scrap. It's a self-assembly unit for a teleport array, should be good for a quick withdrawal if needed."
Strapping herself into the actual armor took more time, but once done, Verma wasted no time in going for the heavy ordnance, grabbing plasma grenades, a shoulder mounted rotary accelerator, a hardlight great sword, and a rifle that looked more like a cinderblock than anything that actually fired munitions. Activating several of the modules she'd hooked into the Dominion armor, she suddenly moved much quicker than should've been possible before a crackling plasma shield flickered into existence around her. The helm receded as she gave Katrina a wide grin. "Well, you guys could do with some proper Imperial warblades in here, but I'm not complaining. Now then, where's the hangar? You can brief me more on the way, and I do hope you're better at that sort of thing than I was."
Katrina and the Mediocine swapped weird looks. "Ugh Shipaster... Tell her." "Right." The ship's AI spoke. "All dominion warcraft graded gunship and above are equipped with a second generation teleport denial system which blocks all teleportation signals on and off the ship. And that system will be activated once we arrive at our destination." "Unless you want to be turned into a cloud of exotic particles expanding in every direction across four dimensions you might be safer getting eaten alive out there." "As for this..." The mediocine responded, glancing at the maranil... "Shipmaster..." "On it..." An empty bin rolled into the room. The holographic display on the side changed from recycle to "Return to Zaoth". He gently tossed it in with a thunk. "Anything else you want shipped back can go in there. Shipmaster make sure that the transport gets arranged." "Aye." Katrina turned to another one of the cylinders, unveiling her power suit which did not look all that different albeit for a jet black and silver paint job over the generic tan. The armor stepped out on its own accord and folded open such that she could step inside. She grabbed a rifle and a hard light dagger and walked out. "I'll show you the way to the hangar..."
Mariko took a moment to compose herself, crossing into the doorway of the foreman's office and then recoiling in disgust. She stepped back into the corridor, nearly tripping over the security guard's body, and then stepped over to Takamo. "Hey, are you doing okay? I think we were in a psychic trap somehow. I don't think any of that stuff at the castle was real at all." she said, stating the obvious somewhat. MANY LIGHTYEARS AWAY Jade Empress Takara felt an unexpected wave of relief pass over her. Ever since learning that her daughter had gone missing during the Frankish assault on Legacy, she had been distraught, her energy split between concealing her emotions from her subjects and directing Imperial vengeance on those who had threatened, and perhaps killed, her cherished daughter. As she stood absently, leaning against one of the great pillars in the throne room, her mind blank and numb as she waited for Shogun Kanbei to arrive, she heard a bird singing outside and inexplicably, it filled her with the incontrovertible feeling that her daughter was alive and safe. Where and how, she had no idea, and she tried to shrug it off as a superstition, but the gut feeling persisted…
Ingenous Mining Station
“Y… yeah kid… I’m fine.” Takamo grunted. He glanced at his reflection on a fragment of reflective material, noting the dilated pupils and twitching ears. He was a dead ringer for psychic compromise it couldn’t be more obvious, and would be killed the second those troops arrived and saw him in that state. With that he folded up his helmet, hoping to conceal this fact for just a bit longer. … “And remember.” The woman with the neon blue eyes said sternly. “You see someone like this.” She gestured to a looping video of a go’shii woman. Her pupils were dilated just like his were now and her ears twitched ever so slightly. It wasn’t a real case of psychic compromise but instead a lifelike animation and everyone knew that. And now, Takamo realized how disturbingly accurate that animation had been. “You kill them swiftly and without compromise.” … Smoke and dust choked the battlefield. Nuclear hellifre rained from the heavens as through a gap in the clouds he could make out the narrow white daggers of a thousand ships in disarray in orbit. Atomic blasts from torpedoes like a million stars blinking in and out of existence each second. Takamo shouldn’t have been here. He was a spy, not a solider. The gifts of power armor and heavy weapons were meant only for emergencies such as this.
A Courdeel warrior lunged on top of him, bringing down its jagged crimson hardlight glaive. He raised his hardlight claws in defense. The two exchanged a flurry of strikes. Tendrils on the warriors back, barbed with jagged hardlight stingers drove into him, piercing him through the abdomen. His armor sealed the wounds as he slashed the tendrils off, leaving the severed ends dangling out of his abdomen. He stumbled backward grabbed the rifle of a dead solider and fired several rounds in quick succession. The Kur inside caught fire, igniting and exploding from the inside out. He got up out of the trench. The battlefield had been decimated. Courdeel warriors were everywhere. An Artemis MBT equipped with a rotary accelerator rolled into view. Sweeping from side to side, sawing courdeel grievers in half. Then, he felt it. His head throbbed as all around him the battlefield warped and distorted. He recognized the pain. The psychic assault and began to breathe deeply. A battle of wills played out between him and the Mindflayer. He turned to the solider next to him. He was badly wounded along the abdomen, biofoam failing to seal the wound in its entirety and he sat in a puddle of blood, gore, biofoam and mangled power armor. He was the commander of this division. His faceplate was retracted, or had broken off and his face bloodied. His pupils were dilated and he tremors. He had succumbed to the mindflayer. Tears streamed down his eyes as he cried for his mother and father, begging for the pain to stop. Takamo didn’t flinch. When he saw Takamo raise the rifle, he let out a whimper. “Please… don’t.”
He fired. The commander was decapitated by a single shot from the rifle. If the commander was psychically compromised he was nothing more than a liability, for vital data to be leaked to the Courdeel and for another disabled and mentally dead individual to return home to their family. It was better this way. And he had his orders. He justified it to himself in that he had ended the commander’s physical and mental suffering, and carried on. …
Omniscience
Commader Valeem looked up and down the rows of troops that had assembled. Several dozen KR2 units and about a dozen soldiers. Some of which had specially painted custom black armor, such as Katrina. “Alright listen up. We’ve got a sector agents medical distress beacon coming from somewhere on that station. We don’t know what he’s doing all the way out here but X2C2 is a long way from his assignment.” He said presenting a full color full size hologram of the agent. An Ebony-black Go’shii with golden yellow eyes, displaying next to him his cybernetic augmentations and combat capabilities which were listed as top of the line. "He has access to a power suit not unlike yours and if he’s gone cookoo for cocoa puffs we may well need to put him down. We don’t know what else is on this ingenious station. Might just be a bunch of drunk miners, might be something out of the deepest pits of hell…” Two dozen SpAMbots working in unison carried a dropship up to the group. The ramp opened and they were invited onboard. The hangar blast doors began to open as the ship exited subspace near the Ingenous mining facility.
Verma contemplated the mission data as the dropship neared the station. A potentially hostile station, a potentially hostile super agent whose state of mind was unknown, a potentially fucked up situation... She laughed softly and turned to Katrina. "And you complained about our date not having enough info? At least I was able to tell you something. But oh no, you had to bring me into what could either be a milk run or an abattoir. Wow. I'm definitely picking the venue for our next date." As she finished mocking Voss, the dropship docked with the station with a jolt, and the ramp slammed down in a dimly lit hangar. Verma unhooked her harness and was the first one to actually set foot on the station, rifle raised and scanning for any threats.
ABOARD THE MINING STATION Mariko blinked. Takamo's reply had been a little more brusque than she had expected, and then he had suddenly thrown up his visor, as if he were expecting trouble. She turned warily, taking in the ruins of the corridor. She suddenly wished that the Rainblade had been real and she had it in her hands, but all she had was the pistol Takamo had given her earlier. She was no soldier, and so the gun was probably an easier choice to use, but at the same time the Rainblade was....magical, for want of a better word, and right now having a bit of magic would be a nice reassurance. The voice of the mining station's Narrow Artificial Intelligence echoed through the halls again. ATTENTION all staff members. I apologise for the technical difficulties experienced. All staff members please evacuate via Hangar 2. A distress call has been placed to the Imperial Jade Navy. I repeat, please evacuate to Hangar 2." APPROACHING THE STATION An automated voice hailed the Omniscience class vessel as it approached the facility, a pleasant female cadence that could fool someone not familiar with artificial intelligences. "Greetings. This is KanshoCorp Mining Facility XEN-KT-1615. We have experienced catastrophic systems failure and the station is currently under an all-hands evacuation order. Please exercise caution. Hangar Bays 1 and 2 are still operational." Sure enough, the facility seemed to be in a state of disarray. It seemed only sporadically lit up, with some sections appearing to suffer momentary brownouts, and one section appeared to be venting atmosphere or gasses. There were no ships or automated collectors moving to or from the facility either, and scans would reveal much biological matter on the platform, very little of it alive. Takamo and Mariko were on one of the habitation decks, near to Hangar 2.
With that they boarded the dropship. The marines engaged their faceplates and filed onto the ship. It was a short trip, only lasting about a minute before arriving in hangar 3. The shuttle was eclipsed in scale by the large disabled mining transport left over from Takamo's earlier landing, and the exit ramp opened. The other agents filed out, clusters of ESP drones swarming out around them, sweeping the area with scanning beams looking for any surprises, and the heavy footfalls of the 8 foot tall, quarter-ton robotic infantry units jogging out and taking point at the doors, sweeping their laser sights across any possible points of cover or concealment. One marine ducked down, catching sight of a poor ingenious citizen warped by the merger. His face was distorted and covered in boils and growths. "Ugh... think this place is NBC hotzone. Commander Valeem, have a decontamination team ready for us when we get back." "Rodger." Valeem said back. "Well here's his undercover ship." Another agent said, this one female. She ran her armored hand across the hull noticing the holes and damage. "What the hell happened to it, though." "Scans show deposits of... salts...? on the exterior hull. Check the ship's computer." "Come on. The medical distress is coming from this direction." Katrina said, gesturing to Verma as she headed for the exit to the hangar. Four KR2 units stood at attention next to Verma and a dozen ESP drones hovered in a cluster around her, manifesting on her hud as additional camera feeds including thermals and a live 3D Lidar holographic map. All 16 robots had a red blinking alert next to their status display saying in basic 'Awating Orders'.
As they emerged, they saw much the same sight as Takamo and Mariko originally had. An unlovely, spartan hangar with only the smooth black floor to differentiate it from some pre-galactic ironworks, the lights were erratic and there were corpses here and there. Both the drones and the shipboard scanners began to blare to life as movement several decks below was detected, only trace at first but spiking rapidly as more and more contacts were detected. There was a hideous chattering and roaring as a noise that could not exactly be described as footsteps echoed towards them. From a lower deck, a crowd of shambling figures, looking for the world like humans splashed with thick tar, rushed Valeem's troopers in a crude human wave attack, their limbs outstretched and those eyes that were visible wide and wild. If any of the marines had time to consider before opening fire, they would notice with discomfort that the number of limbs did not quite match the number of figures rushing towards them, even taking into account the human paucity compared to the Go'Ishii and other species
A rush of virulent curses filled the comms before she called out "Contact! Open fire!" Verma's eyes narrowed as she leveled the rifle and opened fire, the snarling roar of the weapon filling the hangar as accelerator rounds chewed into the abominations rushing towards the Dominion contingent. Walking backwards as she fired, she toggled the drones and ordered them to keep their distance in the air but to move ahead and see how many of these freaks there were. As they reached her, Verma ceased fire, locked the rifle to her back, and withdrew the hardlight greatsword hilt and activated it, all in one smooth motion. Then she started to cleave her way through the horde, stopping occasionally to fling a plasma grenade when needed.
The soliders stood back, their bots filling in the formation. For a few seconds they barked through their armors' external speakers, echoing out through their robotic shadows which took positions between them and their organic superiors. "Stay Back!" "Hold it right there!" "Put your hands in the air!" "Fire At will!" Valeems voice came over the line. "Alright ladies, this is where the fun begins." Katrina responded. Blue laser sights from the ESP drones painting the targets. After seeing that the wave was not slowing down, they opened fire. In such close quarters and against such great numbers of enemies the bots carried a majority of the fight, standing in a line. With quick, snappy motions they lined up rapid sequences of headshots with the plethora of targeting data they acquired from their drones fueling their supernatural reaction times.
Verma's drones obliged by their orders, sweeping through the hangar and down the hallway, darting about to avoid being grabbed or destroyed and hugging the ceiling, as her combat bots followed her into the fray. Forced into melee the bots engaged their melee combat protocols, throwing kicks and sequences of hand strikes with the skill of a grandmaster martial artist and thrice the speed and strength, but surrounded against overwhelming numbers even they would surely have their limits. "The hell does she think she's doing?" A solider came over the comm. "Verma, get into formation here! You are not a one-woman army!" Katrina shouted. "Get her to pull back. I'm bringing out the big guns." Valeem said. Exiting the dropship came a quartet of prototype KR units. They looked like autonomous heavy machine guns, rolling to the battle line on their own omni-wheel tipped quadruped legs, followed by support bots carrying additional ammo boxes. … The sounds of accelerator fire echoed through the station. The occasional detonation of a grenade causing the hall to shake and the already damaged lighting to flicker. Takamo’s ears twitched. “Those are dommie guns. I can tell by the sound. Sounds like the rescue crew met a few of their friends…” “Comm Check. X2C2? This is Commander Valeem of the GDMC! Please report to hangar 2 for immediate extraction.” “Yes, sir!” “Come on Mariko… we’d best get going…” He said, activating his helm. Verma would receive a ping that a new individual had been added to their operation.
Fighting the hideous horde in melee was like trying to punch fog. Every blow felt robbed of momentum, as though struggling through a dream, but the weapons fire was a different story. Punching through them with ease, it sent sprays of blood, gore and some kind of black soot or gas spewing into the air, provoking screeches from the crowd. They briefly swamped Verma, but the gunfire from the boarding team soon drove them back, raking the corridor clean. This was very much how the Jade military had learned to deal with Corruption, tight and overwhelming volleys of gunfire sweeping infestations corridor by corridor. Counterintuitively, it was easier to deal with them in confined spaces, rather than in the open where their blinding speed, unpredictable numbers and strange abilities left ground forces exposed. -- Mariko heard the cool distance in Commander Valeem's voice, and the faint hint of hesitation in Takamo's reply, but they were in no position to be choosy. With the mining facility practically collapsing around them and unknown horrors still lurking in the dark, anything was preferable to staying right now, and so she jogged after the Go'Ishii in his power armour.
Verma's tirade of cursing was loud and vehement enough to blister paint as she came storming back to the group deployed around the shuttle. "What do you cowardly, cockless, motherfucked, donkeysuckers think you were doing just standing there? Do you just not believe in supporting someone in a fight? Shadow Below, it's a miracle you ever managed to get into orbit, let alone build an empire." Her armour was scratched and scored where the fiends had clawed at her, but still intact. Meanwhile, her shielding module was sparking fitfully, damaged almost beyond repair, and the hilt of the hardlight sword had been cleaved open in the middle.
Takamo arrived at the entrance to the hangar, Mariko in tow. Only to see it having devolved into streams of rapidfire accelerator bodies and a rapidly thickening layer of bodies on the floor. Hearing a violent salvo of insults being shouted over the comm line he wondered just what was going on in there. Whoever they were he knew they would probably be reprimanded once the operation had concluded. “What the fuck is going on?” Takamo shouted over the comm. “What’s a donkey?” Asked one of the soldiers, who sounded more confused than insulted. Katrina had some things she wanted to say on the matter, but thought they would best be kept until after the operation. “Keep the comm sterile, ladies. We have a guest in our ranks…” Commander Valeem said sternly. “One who will be getting reprimanded and sent home after this op for acting like a child.” He said muting Verma’s microphone to the other soldiers and activating the override on her power armor, allowing him to control the servos driving the armor remotely, forcing her to walk back to the drop ship and wait. Meanwhile Takamo was pinned at the entrance, the crossfire and mob of blackened zombies changing sides. With the effectiveness of the heavy weapons fire the group slowly started to advance, making an effort to push the horde back to their origin such that Takamo could pass.
The swarm began to peter out, their numbers clearly dwindling. The last few malformed beings lurched into the hangar and were cut down, leaving a sudden silence punctuated only by the hissing of cooked flesh, the clanks and clicks of soldiers checking their equipment, and the creaking of the damaged station. Mariko peered around, seeing the hangar thronged with foreign soldiers. The mining facility was still bleating its distress call, but was momentarily drowned out by Takamo calling to the newcomers for answers. They seemed to be wrapping up their operation, but rather than relief Mariko felt a knot of apprehension in her gut....
Upon arriving back in the hangar commander Valeem was standing by along with two Cauldarion knights with belt-fed rocket launchers and some mediocine techs in hasmat gear with specialized equipment, everyone was lined up. Only a few moments after they got off the dropship did the massive armored hangar door seal over the plasma wall. Over the ships PA. “All crew standby for jump to subspace.” The ship seemed to spin for a moment, and the change in sounds indicated they were now at FTL. “Alright, ladies. We had contact with an unknown enemy, you know the drill.” One of them had a sprayer linked to canister jug of some fluid that produced a fine mist. To Mariko, the only one out of armor she would note that this smelled like salt water and lilies. It was a mixture of chemicals, a powerful disinfectant and series of antitoxins designed to break down chemical or biological weapons. “Agent X2C2, do you mind telling me who it is you’re with here. My files show you’re supposed to be inspecting a mining colony on Deredict 5.” Commander Valeem said. “Shes… she’s princess Mariko Kuribayashi of the Jade Empire of Ingen.” He said sounding nervous. “She was being pursued I was escorting her home.” One of the hasmat workers held up a data pad, taking a picture of her. It checked against the ancnet reporting a 99.87% match. "Inform the Admiral. We'll need to make an immediate change of course."
Then one came waving a wand about. A magnetized wand designed to detect and destroy nanomachines. Then one came with another one, a device which checked the right wrist of everyone on the squad and made a loud beeping and displayed a long list of numbers in kimbeau. “It’s a long story… sir.” He said, sounding like a nervous child. “And tell me, Agent X2; why didn’t you call for military support. If the Jade Empire finds out we didn’t make every effort to return their princess home safe and unharmed, who knows what they’ll think of us.” “I… I did sir. The comm line was jammed.” Valeem frowned at this, as if to say that was not an appropriate excuse. One of the hazmat mediocines approached Mariko and shined a light in her eye. “The capillaries are inflamed and her photosensitive response is delayed. She’s got a textbook case of psychic compromise.” “Check the others!” Commander Valeem ordered. “Helmets!” The troops’ helmets folded into their collars. Verma’s folding on its own. They went down the line checking everyone for signs of psychic compromise and mind manipulation. Takamo looked apprehensive. They seemed to take a bit longer to check him than the others. “Agent X2 has been compromised, sir.” The hasmat worker said.
Commander Valeem raised the admiral on a comm line. “Admiral Peldon. Agent X2C2 has been compromised.” “You know what to do. Take him to the medical bay, have him euthanized immediately.” Commander Valeem nodded to the knights. Takamo gave a mournful look to Mariko, his ears hanging with sadness as two Cauldarion Knights came from behind and practically dragged him out of the room. The Hazmat workers went to work sterilizing the robotic infantry and the ship. “Now… that leaves the issue of what to do with you. Agent. Verma.” Commander Valeem said sternly. “Agent Katrina. Did you even brief her on our order of battle-“ “No sir… I thought-” “Whatever you thought, You thought wrong!” The commander snapped back. “You’re demoted two degrees. Now get out of your armor and get out of my sight! I’ll decide on your punishment later…” Valeem shouted. Katrina dipped her head and headed away. “Now, get her out of that suit. Take her armor to be recycled and take her to the brig. Once we have returned the princess to her home we will return agent Verma here to her home… Knew I had a bad feeling about this from the start.”
"Euthanized?" asked Mariko, barely believing her own ears. "What are you talking about? Takamo saved my life, he nearly died in the line of duty! You can't execute him!" she cried out, trying to follow him as he was dragged away. IN THE MINING SYSTEM Minutes later, two slipgate apertures opened in the darkness of space, lime-emerald light blazing in a brief flashing window as two Imperial warships slipped through. In the silence of space, small winking lights betrayed the flow of landing craft from the hulking destroyers to the ruined station. Responding to reports of Merger activity was always a priority for the Jade Empire
A snarl of cold fury filled the hangar as the rotary cannon on Verma's shoulder, not having been locked with the rest of her armor, activated and moved to target Valeem. Verma's voice was icier than hard vaccum when she spoke. "Scum. You would execute one of your own who fought valiantly? I dare say if anyone should be euthanized, it should be you." And yet, in that split second before Verma could give the mental command to fire, something flickered, off in a shadowed corner of the hangar, drawing her gaze. Staring into that darkened space, she was motionless for several moments before the canon deactivated and she turned back to the Admiral. "Perhaps you may have your will done here today, but know this. Fools who sow their own doom shall always reap it when the whirlwind comes howling in." Stepping back, she lifted her hands in the air for the Dominion techs to take her armor off.
Commander Valeem glared sternly at her. He knew there were safeguards in place to prevent the weapon from engaging in such blatant friendly fire, but he still couldn’t help but sneer at her uncontrollable temper. The commander was clearly pissed, his own anger simmering like a pot reaching a boil. “Are either of you familiar with what happened to Helmdara during the 47th Courdeel war?” He paced up and down the line of soldiers as techs went to remove Verma’s armor, a mobile bin rolling up “A single mindflayer read the clearance codes out of the mind of the admiral of the system’s defense fleet. With them he was able to get by the planetary defense grid and land on the surface. Once there, he unleashed a biological weapon on a planet of 50 billion people. After three weeks of confusion and suffering, every last citizen on that planet was dead. Because of one breach in our security” The commander wagged a finger like a scolding mother, touching it to Verma’s nose. “more people than you could meet in a hundred lifetimes met a premature and agonizing fate. We are the vanguard against the threats to the dominion, and it is a sacrifice we are willing to make, no matter the cost.” He took pause, glancing up and down at the other troops. “So tell me, Kal Verma. How do you think your cowardly, cockless, motherfucked, donkeysucker race would fare against such a foe? Its a miracle your people ever managed to get into orbit when a pirate group can amass the firepower to build battleships right under your noses…” Not giving pause he looked to the solider nearest to Verma, a Farrian woman with buzzed black hair. “You! Take this toddler down to the brig, then you can take your leave. The rest of you, dismissed.” The woman nodded. She and her contingent of KR units formed up around Verma and began the escort as a Mediocine walked off humming with her armor in a recycle bin.
He turned to Mariko. His tone of voice instantly less hostile, but still authoritative and firm. “I know… how you must feel about this. I know it seems callous but its for the greater good, and procedure is procedure. If you’d like you can go see X2- I mean… Takamo down in the medbay one last time before they put him under.” He raised his comm line to his wrist. “Admiral. The princess in onboard. Get us an emergency comm line to the Jade Empire. We need to figure out what to do with her.” “Right.” Admiral Peldon responded from the omniscience sphere. He brought up an emergency comm line to the Jade Empire. “This is Admiral Peldon Shum of the Gauss Dominion Astronavy transmitting in the blind. We have recently taken into custody Princess Mariko Kuribayashi and are making an immediate course change to Jade Empire space. She was under attack by um… Merger… forces. Please advise, over.”
Mariko, unable to get past the hulking warriors crowding the room, fought back tears. The concept of seppuku was well known to her, and her own grandfather had committed the final act of redemption years before she was born, but that did not mean she liked it. She felt it was a waste, but she was keenly aware she had no authority here. Maybe her brothers would have ranted and threatened the displeasure of the Jade Empire, but she understood the position the commander was in. "Yes, I...please take me to him." Meanwhile, Admiral Shum's hail went unanswered for a while before a communication, audio-only, came back. "This is the IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. We are standing by, please advise your location. Please be prepared for Merger activity."
"This is Admiral 4th Degree Peldon Shum the GDAN Omniscience. We have just departed into subspace from your current location, we are presently at Subspace W=230,500,000. On outbound vector 221-938 Depression 2.21, approxomately 5 lightyears from your position. (Twoards Ingen space) Please advise; did you say Merger. Over." ... Verma was led down to a brig facility. Like everywhere else on the ship, it was immaculately maintained by robotic units. The prison blocks were small minimalist rooms rooms, each with their own bed, toilet and a slot in the door for supplying food. One of the guards approached the first cell on the right and directed her in. ... Takamo was brought to the medical bay and strapped down to a bed before being hooked to an IV in the bed. A Mediocine doctor (apparently one not pledged to the hippocratic oath) withdrew two vials and placed them into slots on the bed before he began to program it. "Alright... you're going to get two injections. First one will put you to sleep, second one will put you out for good. Do you have any last words?" Takamo glanced at Mariko with a longing look and started to tear up. He clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes tight. "Let's do this."
Mariko cuffed tears from her eyes, barely believing that after everything they'd been through Takamo was going to die in some sterile lab room, poisoned by his own people. She placed a hand on the glass... OUTSIDE The Omniscience's bridge crew would be alerted to the presence of a huge shadow suddenly blocking their FTL transit. Emergency systems pulled them back into realspace, where proximity alarms would shriek as they detected multiple inbound contacts. In front of them, a half-dozen 12km warships loomed with angular menace, their hulls battered and worn, overgrown with filth, moss and other detritus. Despite their ramshackle, leprous appearance, their angular prows with sweeping bowsprits in the shape of a bearded axehead exuded menace. Around them, many more smaller vessels, of a similar shape but with flaring wings, held position. Oblivion class destroyers and Enfer class frigates, they were leftovers from the early days of the Shogunate. "RELEASE THE CHILD TO US" came a snarling voice on an open hail, the line distorted by static and the voice seeming to echo through the bridge, the ships giving off large energy signals as they slowly drifted towards the Omniscience warship carrying Mariko, a few sporadic blasts of simple plasma energy thumping out from seemingly random turrets across the fleet towards their prey, as if one or two gunners could not restrain themselves whilst the rest of the attackers waited for a response
The Ship was arrested with a jolt, causing anyone standing to stumble or fall. Seeing the ships appear in his command sphere and open fire, Peldon went to work, using all four arms to operate holographic controls and execute a complex series of orders. A few of the less experienced crew on the bridge looked mildly nervous but most, including the admiral in charge of the ship remained completely stalwart. “Subspace master caution. Graviometery check. We’re being interdicted.” The Ship’s Ci said. “Take us to condition orange. Sound general quarters; I want all hands battle stations.” “It’s the merger… Mazungaten help us.” One officer muttered. “Get me maximum sublight reverse; get us out of this interdiction well. Begin evasive maneuvers.” Peldon snapped. Outside, as the first plasma shots whizzed by, some striking the outer shields doing little more than superficial damage to the armor, the ship’s engine reversed its spin; the plasma deflecting out the sides of the engine at an angle. As it did it began preforming random maneuvers. Even with their considerable mass, with four minutes of light lag the probability of a hit with unguided projectiles could be reduced to nearly zero.The inertial dampeners prevented the massive accelerations from being felt by the crew but the ship still buckled ever so slightly as its active support lattice adjusted to constantly changing stresses.
“Prepare to return fire. Raise high command on the QE line. Inform them of our position and situation. Request emergency reinforcements to our position. Transmit detailed imagery on these ships.” “Seventeenth fleet is two hours out and departing to our position now.” A comms officer responded. “What about those IJN? Raise them too; inform them of our situation. Maybe they’re closer. Where’s the Princess?” “Medbay in block 14; Deck 112.” An operations officer said, showing CCTV footage. “Get someone to escort her to the bridge. She’s safest here.”
… Medbay
14 A Klaxon blared a moment after the jolt; as Peldon’s order of the ship’s crew to their battle stations came over the comm. The doctor had been thrown off his feet moments before initiating the euthanization process. From behind the glass, Mariko would see the doctor get up and turn his attention to a wrist comm that was flashing; apparently indicating that he was urgently needed elsewhere on the ship. The wormy mediocine doctor hastily grabbed some critical equipment and ordered a few of his nurse drones to follow him before he slipped out the far side of the room, leaving Takamo restrained on the bed. From behind the glass, Takamo craned his head up and glanced at Mariko; then to the bed’s control panel which was out of sight from his angle. “Begin Injection Sequence” still occupied most of the touchscreen console on a large flashing button. Around her and on the decks of above and below she could hear the heavy thumping of suits of powered armor.
… Brig
The Robotic Guards didn’t waiver when the ship rocked, magnetically affixing their feet onto the floor. They placed her into the cell, though before they could configure the door to lock, a solider ran past outside; apparently one assigned to guard duty. Frantic to round up RUs for the general quarters order, he paired the robots and ran off. Due to a minor prioritization oversight in their programming the RUs ran off with the guard before actually locking the prison door. As this was the low security brig; the phenumatic door, when unlocked would appear closed but could be pried open with sufficient strength.
Verma blinked for a moment, watching the bots leave. That...was odd. And from the way the ship had jerked like that, taken in conjunction, it could only mean that the ship was under attack. Not an implausible scenario, given that the fleet action at Tergral had left the capital ship without any escorts, but still a daunting prospect. However, this just might be her chance to get them to stop being regimented idiots with a stick up their ass. If nothing else, maybe she could find Katrina and get her to convince Admiral Asshole to let her help. Taking a breath, she stepped forward, set her shoulder to the door, and pushed. Her boots skidded across the floor for a moment, and she stumbled a bit as the ship shuddered again, then tried once more. This time the door clunked as the seal disengaged and Verma spilled out into the hallway. Pulling herself to her feet, she took a moment to get her bearings, then sidled out into the hall. Glancing around, she slipped through the shadows as she followed the signs and proceeded to make her way across the ship towards the bridge.
Outside, the hulking warships began to accelerate towards the Gauss ship, an inhuman screech of frustration blasting over the comms, reeking of hunger and a vicious malignity. The ships opened fire in earnest, swathes of sickly green fire pouring in waves across the emptiness of space as they closed the gap, the frigates racing ahead to begin snaring the ship in a web of lights and corroded steel. The Imperial response to the hail was almost immediate. "IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. The Merger will attempt to board your vessel, do not permit them the attempt. We are en-route to reinforce you, please stand by." -- Mariko glanced around as she was apparently left alone with the restrained Takamo. She hesitated for a moment, scarcely believing it, and then slipped quickly into the medbay and began to tug at his restraints. "We're under attack!" she whispered, as though anyone would hear them over the general clangour of a ship beating to quarters, managing to free one of his arms before remembering he had three more, not just one.
Bridge
Peldon ordered a hard cut of the line from the comm receiver, his senior communications officer flicking open a panel on his control console and pulling a small breaker which cut the ship’s primary communications grid preventing any signals from being received. This was followed by a hard wipe of the recorded communications feeds and an antidotal infrasound to be played over the bridge’s PA system. Instead he would rout a comm line through a secure quantum entangled line to high command, who could then forward his message to the IJN Crystal Clear Cenote. “Confirm. Will deny boarding action at all costs. Will continue to maintain range but will not attempt FTL until contact can be safely established.” “Lockdown all hangars. Engage point defense systems. Cue torpedo launch.” … The ship continued to reverse thrust, though the intense fire was having a more noticeable effect. Though while under fire the ship was at its strongest as the absorptive shields went to work and began to return fire, focusing its efforts on the frigates that were the closest, switching back and fourth between hardlight vectors and mass drivers; the crew attempting to ascertain what would be more effective. Countless thousands of torpedoes ejected from stator tubes. And after a momentary pivot on reaction control thrusters, they ignited their fusion drives and disappeared like arrows fired from an unseen bow, flowering off a bit away from the ship in several clusters. Their mothership bombarding the merger ships with electronic warfare to give their missiles the best possible chance against their point defense systems.
Medbay
Even the best dampening technologies could not completely conceal the repercussions of accelerating a ten story rod of metal to relativistic velocities, nor the sheets of neon green plasma vaporizing their way through layers of high temperature ablative armor. Takamo tried to sit up, but with his other arms still bound he couldn’t do so much. He strained to reach the console. “Mariko… okay… ugh…” Takamo grunted, rolling his eyes at the console and sounding more annoyed than anything. He let out a frustrated grunt as the sliding door opened and two cauldarions entered in full powered armor. “Princess Mariko. We’re here to escort you to the bridge! The ship could loose pressure! Put this on!” One said, presenting her with a breathing collar. He ordered her, seemingly oblivious to her attempting to free Takamo from the bed.
Near Brig
Two familiar figures approached Verma. One was Katrina, and the other was commander Valeem who had since suited up. Both of their helmets were retracted. “The hell did she get out?” Valeem scowled. “Katrina, put her back in there!” “Doesn’t matter. We’re short on hands, we need people to help lock down the reactor room. Brass on the bridge says we could be facing boarders.” Katrina urged. Valeem’s face appeared absolutely livid. “No. Protocol mandates-“ “You want to lecture me on protocol, commander?! When we’re under attack by an unknown enemy…?!”
Verma huffed in irritation. "Look, you can take my help if you want, but I think you should know that I did a tour with the Legions. Toughest motherfuckers in the Killian Verge, and they specialize in shipboard combat. Give me some armor, a gun, and a squad, and I can break any boarders, or at least hold them back. Hell, the only reason the mess on the station went down the way it did was cause those buggers were just plain unnatural, and even that would've gone a hell of a lot different if I'd had a fighting front." She glanced over to Katrina . "Against flesh and blood, I promise you that I will either hold the line or die trying." Then she turned to Valeem. "What do you say, commander? Take the chance, and maybe hold the ship, or stick me back in the brig and die with me when they land? Because they will land. I don't care how good your point defenses are, no battery ever made can hit everything."
OUTSIDE
The physical weapons seemed barely effective against the irregular flanks of the giant warships. Mass driver rounds simply disappeared as if swallowed, like throwing a coin into a fogbank, whilst the missiles lit the darkness with their explosions but didn't seem to achieve much, at least not in any way easily discernible. The hardlight vectors, however, hacked into the enemy hulls, leaving searing wounds of bright light that glowed sickly against the rotten Merger metal. One of the vast destroyers began to drift, billowing a roiling smoke, as the others intensified their barrages, their fire erratic. The smaller ships sprang forwards, several already blown to pieces or floating with broken backs from the Gauss barrage, their own CIWS and interceptor systems buzzing with argent light as they fended off the missiles and mass driven slugs, lunging forwards as tentacle-like appendages began to uncoil, clearly in anticipation of a boarding maneuver. MEDBAY Mariko jumped as the door slid open, frozen as the giant knights stamped towards them, but then one held out a huge hand and proffered some kind of device, telling her to put it on. She had assumed they were there to finish off Takamo, and maybe arrest her for trying to free him, but since they were not she quickly slipped the collar around her neck and then turned back to Takamo. "We can't leave him! Help me get him loose!" she cried over the din, tugging at another arm restraint
Bridge
The chief weapons officer quickly took note of what was effective and what was not, ordering swiftly all power to the vector emitters in lieu of the mass drivers. As the Merger grew dangerously close the point defense came online, sweeping across the tendrils as they grew close. Individually the point defense nodes were a few orders of magnitude less impressive than the meters thick rods of neon blue light produced by the main turrets, but numbering in the hundreds and deadly precise they could stave off the boarding tendrils. “Is there a problem?” Peldon asked, noticing the concerned look on the officer’s face. “There’s too many… no matter which targeting configuration we use; they’re going to get through…” He said, his jaw clenching up in frustration as several simulations played by on his console at an accelerated speed; frantically cueing the computer with new targeting algorithms in an attempt to find one that countered the merger’s erratic and ferocious assault. Frantic chatter from his junior officers echoing over the communications console. “Let them in the bow; keep them off the sides and rear; whatever you have to do.” “Sir…” The officer muttered reluctantly. “That’s an order.” He reminded. “If they want to board so bad, we’ll make them work for it. Make them fight through the whole ship front to back. That should bide us enough time…” The officer nodded, reassured by his commander’s logic and began orchestrating the change in targeting.
Near Brig
Valeem Scowled; as though the mere suggestion that his marines needed help was offensive. Before he could respond he was informed of Peldon’s defensive plan and let out an annoyed, frustrated grunt. Recognizing that a conflict onboard the ship was all but inevitable. “Fetch me some handheld weapons and an EVA pack; double time it!” He snapped to one of his machines. “Alright fine. And since you two lovely ladies get along so well, You can tag along with ‘er. Her powered armor had since been scrapped; there was no time to reproduce it. But she could be supplied with a generic vacuum collar helmet and vehicle operator’s body plate to offer decent protection; as well as a carbine and her apparent favorite; hard-light great-sword. The two were deployed alongside a battalion and a few light tanks fitted with rotary accelerators in a large open corridor several dozen meters wide and tall. On the journey here they had passed through the hangars; seeing the rear ends of the handful of Shogun frigates that had survived the battle with house Jaros. The group stood in a formation; with the first row comprised mostly of turreted suppression weapons and KR units on their knees and a second row; standing of marines and more KR units. “Valeem’s holding back on the bridge to help with the macro fight. Every other corridor on this ship is gonna be hell to fight through; winding and about a million crenelated bulkheads.” She gestured to a section of the wall that was in fact a retracted bulkhead. “If they’re going to make a push to the stern of the ship, they’re going to do it through here… So stay in fucking formation or that thing-” She pointed to the rotary accelerator on one of the tanks. “Is gonna ram a hundred two-kilo rounds up your ass every second.”
Valeem came over the main comm. “Alright! We are about to have the esteemed pleasure of hosting the merger aboard our ship! Now I don’t care if these assholes crawled outta the anus at the center of the galaxy or some scummy backwards planet; and I’m not about to discriminate! We will give them a warm and courteous GDMC welcome! They will all leave our ship satisfied with bellies full of bullets and topped off with warm plasma! Rahbakun Parakos Los Dominion! Rahbakun Parakos Kragleosha Gauss!” “Rahbakun Parakos Los Dominion! Rahbakun Parakos Kragleosha Gauss!” The troops repeated back; the autonomous volume adjustment making no effort to drown out their war cry.
Medbay
The Cauldarions looked confused for a moment. The obviously knew that he was probably restrained for a reason, but they had also been given orders to look out for the princess; and if any of the dominion’s member races respected royal bloodlines even an iota; it was the Cauldarions. One of the battle brothers stepped forward and tapped the touchscreen a few times; causing the restraints to withdraw with a hiss. Takamo sat up, massaging his wrists. He glanced around; an odd almost unreadable mixture of emotions spread across his face. He was thankful for the circumstances that had allowed him to avoid his untimely euthanasia, but deep down a part of him knew this was only a delaying action. Either whatever crisis had stricken the ship would be his demise; or when it passed and the crew were able to reorganize themselves he would be put right back where he started with an order of magnitude more precautions. For this he wore a long, sullen face and glazed over eyes; detached from the urgent mood of soldiers and robots scurrying up and down the corridor and the blaring of the ship’s alarms. The Knights led the four down a maze of corridors and down an elevator which led them nearest to the bridge. Here they would pass through the numerous security measures put into place around the reinforced bridge; forced to pass through the grid of lasers, the bioweapon scrubbing mist and the large bulkhead door onto the ship’s bridge where crew members were strapped into seats in the event of gravity failure and carrying out their duties. The door sealed shut behind them as another pair of knights crossed their spears in front of it. “Admiral.” One of the knights began. “As you requested.” Peldon turned, gesturing to passenger seats. “Get her strapped in.” Takamo was already sitting down, glancing warily at the ship’s senior officers as though he no longer trusted them.
THE PROW OF THE OMNISCIENCE
The first enemy ships closed to within range, the tentacles reaching out and clamping onto the hull with heavy, lugubrious thuds, shuddering the infrastructure. Giant beaks, crackling with energy, began to gnaw at the tough exterior of the ship, grinding and punching into the durable metal. Even as they chewed, however, Merger forces were also flowing into the ship, a sort of black gas pouring through the tiniest of gaps between molecules. Some of these clouds simply dispersed, as though the effort had exhausted them, unbinding their vital energy, but many more reformed, coalescing into nightmarish forms that stepped from dark corners, from blank walls and from doorways across the front of the ship. The Merger warriors were a hideous sight. Some of them were familiar, humans and felidaens, and other mammalian species which scholars might recognise as Katasians and Canidaens. Others took a more vague form, hulking and large, but the cacophony of figures was unified by a single element. They were all grotesque, foul and offensive to the eyes, covered in unnatural growths, misshapen limbs, rotting and decaying in places. Horns, claws and teeth jutted at strange angles, and the limbs that gripped a mismatched assortment of weapons were gnarled and foul, bent and broken. A chorus of cries, some guttural and deep, some shriekingly mad, sounded as the hordes began to throw themselves at the Dominion troops, heedless of the weaponsfire that reaped through their ranks. Crude lasers and blackpowder weapons fired alongside archaic but potent energy weapons and cruel projectile launchers, whilst blades, claws, teeth and a hundred other melee weapons lashed at the defenders, the rancid stench of the attacking Merger forces a physical assault on their senses.
THE BRIDGE
Outside, the continued fire of the Merger ships was visible even as another Oblivion destroyer began to gout an unholy flame, listing to one side as the Dominion fire took its toll. As they watched, tendrils snaked out from its flank to snare one of the smaller Merger frigates, hauling it into the shadow of the great ship. Mariko sat and stared, wide-eyed. She was young, and had never seen the Merger in force. She had not been alive to see the brutal realities of the Keystone Campaign, or the fall of FB-1. To her generation, the Merger had always been nothing more than a cult of lunatics, crazed and emaciated half-wits who would occasionally try to stab people at a mall or blow up a shipping freighter. To see them thus, arrayed in full panoply of war and threatening a powerful flagship like this, chilled her to her core. After a moment, she realised what she was seeing on the readouts ahead of her. The ship was being boarded, Merger forces pouring onto the decks of the ship, and they had nowhere to go. For every Merger ship the Dominion sank, and they seemed to be exacting a bloody toll, two more sprang up to press the attack, and she was trapped in a padded chair surrounded by strangers. She looked over at Takamo and then reached out, straining to grip his paw in her hand.
The Prow Verma gritted her teeth and held position with the rest of the Dominion soldiers as the Merger came on, howling. She could feel the madness scratching at her mind, could taste the fury and despair behind her eyes. The thunder of the tanks firing shook the deck beneath her feet, and still they charged. And then it all...stopped. The Merger warforms, the weapons fire, the front ranks of the Dominion position shooting at the attackers, everything. And then it showed itself, the thing that had been at her heels ever since she was discharged from her unit. It had been there at Tergral, and it had been there in the hangar bay when they'd returned from the station. Always just out of sight, but making sure she knew it was there. It didn't have any one form, how could it? It was made of shadows, pulled out of their rightful shapes, sliding around and melting into one another, thinner here or thick and black there. Unfortunately, none of that impaired the weight of its gaze that she could feel boring into her. But before she could open her mouth to try and demand an explanation, it tsked at her. SUCH A SHAME. I HAD HIGHER HOPES FOR YOU THAN DYING ON SOME FORSAKEN WRECK AT THE FAR EDGE OF NOWHERE. She blinked for a minute, stunned. However, for all of her shock, nothing could stop her mouth, and - "What the fuck? Are you seriously giving me shit about being here while you've got time stopped like it's nothing?" There was a distinct feeling of amusement. AND YOU WONDER WHY YOU WERE THROWN INTO THE BRIG? AND THIS IS HARDLY AN EASY FEAT, I MIGHT ADD. NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS ANOTHER OPTION. Her eyes widened as the implications of that statement hit her. "Nuh uh. No way. I've seen what happens to heralds. Get fucked." ONE WORD, KAR VERMA. ONE WORD FROM YOU, AND I CAN SAVE YOU. BUT ULTIMATELY, THE CHOICE BELONGS TO YOU. ---
Before she could respond, the shadows fell apart, and time resumed with the crash of accelerator fire and the shaking of the deck as the tank fired again. Stumbling, she looked about. It was obvious that holding this position was just a losing proposition, and...and Verma found that she really didn't want to prove the meddling bastard right and die out here in the ass end of nowhere. Fuck this shit. She shoved and pushed her way through the ranks to Katrina. "Katrina! Listen to me, we gotta get out of here, there's no way we can hold. Signal the withdrawal!"
Logistics Shaft
The Battle raged. Accelerator fire transitioning from controlled bursts to sustained output; the tank at the rear of the formation losing any and all inhabitation and simply sweeping its stream of fire back and fourth across the enemy formation. The veritable potpourri of merger weapons had a mixture of effects. A good portion of them were primitive and largely too weak to pose any realistic threat to their armor. Though those that weren’t quickly dropped the robotic units. Reserves began to fill in their ranks. As the Merger charged they began to slowly fight a tactical retreat up the shaft; gradually withdrawing as to keep their foes tentatively out of range at all times. It seemed as though they had unintentionally began following her advice at least partially. "Five minutes ago you said you'd hold the line no matter what! Dammit we're either gonna die fighting these assoles or die when they push us back to the bridge and Peldon scuttles the ship."
Bridge Takamo responded, grabbing hold of Mariko’s hand and squeezing it tightly. He stared forward at the cacophony of activity on the bridge with a dead look in his eyes. He caught sight of a video feed of the battle occurring in the logistics shaft and let out a huff. The defeated merger frigate was cause for a mild celebration and a much needed boost in morale on the bridge, a few of the junior weapons officers cheering as the merger ship began to disintegrate under the combined fire of the piercing neon blue beams. Peldon nodded affirmatively to the senior weapons officer, as if to say ‘Good job, but don’t get cocky.’ He turned to his sensor officer. “Any word on our reinforcements?” “Still a ways out sir.” “Dammit.” He then turned his attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation with the boarding parties. Recognizing the airborne; almost ghostly merger threat he ordered the forward sections of the ship be quarantined; with the ventilation systems being shut to ensure their foe had no opportunity to take any shortcuts. “Where is commander Valeem?” Peldon pondered.
“Right here, Sir!” He said making a hasty jog onto the bridge. Suddenly his head snapped around and he withdrew his pistol and prepared to fire at Takamo. Fortunately one of the Knights at the door was quicker, muffling the pistol with his hand. He fired thrice and a moment later the knight plucked the pistol from his hand and held the commander up with one arm. The hand he had fired into; armored in muran seemed immune even to accelerator rounds as three pencil like flechettes clattered to the floor. “What the hell you dooin?” The Knight asked in a stereotypical deep and intimidating Cauldarion voice. “That Agent!” He declared, pointing to Takamo! “He’s compromised! He’s probably the reason this whole shitshow got started!” The ship’s senior logistics officer approached the two and studied them for a breif moment, then approached Takamo and studied him for a few moments. She nodded and the knight dropped the commander who dusted himself off, shooting the Knight a “I’m going to demote you” look and recovered his sidearm. He raised the pistol to Takamo once more. “Wait!” He shouted. “She’s been compromised too. And she’s the one they’re here for… not me! …And you can’t kill her… so why should you kill me?” Commander Valeem scowled, momentarily contemplating what the agent had said.
LOGISTICS SHAFT
The Dominion troopers were learning the same lesson the Axis had years ago. Despite their absolute tactical superiority, the Dominion simply couldn't butcher the monsters fast enough to stop the scrabbling horde. If any of them had been able to tear their eyes away from the immediate threat, they would have noticed that further back in the corridor, the charred and shattered flesh littering the floor kept reconstituting, sliding into foul heaps that grew into yet new malformed horrors, pouring new life into the attack. Though they were forcing the Dominion to fall back, the weight of powerful and accurate fire from the defenders was enough to keep the Merger monstrosities from reaching their lines, keeping the beasts just out of arms length of the disciplined withdrawal and leaving a trail of smoking and ruined Merger carcasses along the corridor. Behind them, however, Peldon had sealed the bulkheads, stopping the Merger's insidious penetration of the ship and forcing the attackers to concentrate their fury against the Dominion troops holding the front line in the prow. -
BRIDGE
As Valeem raised his pistol at Takamo, the muzzle only centimetres away from being pointed at her, Mariko scrambled to unbuckle her grav harness and stood, trying to dominate her fear by feeding her anger instead. Hearing Takamo use the phrase "compromised" shook her and, drawing herself up and momentarily managing not to look like a scared teen, she spoke to Valeem, screwing up her courage to a fever pitch as she stared practically down the barrel of his gun. "I am a Princess of the Jade Empire of Ingen!" she shouted, indignant and disbelieving as the realisation struck her at the same time she spoke the words, remembering that she was in fact heir to an Empire of billions and was being menaced by a mere infantry commander. "How dare you point that gun at me?!" she yelled, jabbing a finger at Valeem. As she did so, there was the sound of a thunderclap and the smell of rain, and a great physical force like a seething wave flooded the rear half of the bridge, crashing into Valeem and the Cauldarion knights and flowing around them to vent down the corridor beyond. It seemed as if even Mariko was astonished by the blast, her hands outstretched and held palm-up as if she had just dropped a firearm
Logistics Shaft
Verma shook her head. "That was against mortal enemies. Those? Those are not mortal. The last time I saw anything even close to that, it took a two hour bombardment from three dreadnoughts to put it down." A particularly vicious screech cut through the din of battle, and she winced. "Even if I had a full Legion here, I couldn't hold this shaft. We need to get off this ship, Katrina." She glanced back down the passage, thinking of the frigates she had seen on the way here. "Besides, Mariko is next in line for the throne of the Empire. What the hell do you think is gonna happen if she dies while aboard a Dominion warship? Cause I can guarantee you, it won't be a party. Not to mention that the Houses are probably not pleased over what happened to Tergral. Do you really think the GD can win a two-way war?" Holstering her pistol, she grabbed Katrina and spun her to face down the shaft. "I saw the frigates just sitting there. If I can get Mariko and Takamo, can you get one of them warmed up for launch?"
Bridge Valeem was flung backwards into the inner bulkhead with a loud clang and a handful of white sparks. The Knights less so, only staggered and momentarily dazed thanks to their larger size and denser nature. The ship’s automated life support system was a bit confused having detected a shift in the atmospherics due to the use of Mariko’s abilities onboard the bridge began spraying NBC countermeasures and rapidly cycling the atmosphere. The mist made the air on the bridge develop a slight haze which smelled of flowers and salt water but then being replaced with fresh, cold air. For a few moments the bridge was silent, with nothing but the sound of the ventilation system going into overdrive. Though after a moment the chatter restarted, crews rapidly spouting off technical data and targeting coordinates in an increasingly desperate bid to pull out a miracle victory in this fight. Valeem righted himself, a drop of violet blood working its way down from the corner of his mouth from when he’d struck the ground. He wiped it away, rapidly cycling through a wide array of mixed emotions. Confusion, frustration, fear. He drew in a long deep breath and all of these emotions were gone. He stood bolt upright, seemingly having returned to the stoic, unshakable demeanor so many of these individuals had. He seemed to ponder for a second longer, the voice of Kal Verma came through his collar microphone barely audible. “Admiral Peldon. He’s right…” Valeem said. The go’shii twisted his body around as Valeem drew in a breath. “Permission to escort Princess Mariko and Agent Verma off the ship.” The Admiral scowled at him, lamenting the breach in protocols. “Do what you have to do. I’ll bide you as much time as I can.” The Ship’s AI unbuckled the harnesses and the door to the bridge opened. Valeem closed his helmet, as did the two knights which he requested to follow.
Logistics Shaft/Main Hangar
By now, the forces had been pushed back into the main hangar. Here the Merger forces had much more opportunity to form more diverse battlefronts spread across the numerous levels. Though the smaller crewed decks would still prove vastly more challenging to take. But this larger area also meant they were bringing more firepower to bear. Where they had once been restricted to one or two vehicles, constrained by the shaft it was now possible for entire platoons of tank or mech units to participate in full, and it would be vastly easier for the two to get separated. Katrina was quiet behind her mask, more focused on shooting than anything. She took pause for a moment. “Valeem. I’m starting to think she’s right…” “She is.” He affirmed. “We’re heading to bay 12 now. The Falconer is already primed for takeoff. Just keep them back a little longer or we’re going to have a hell of a time getting onboard.”
Logistics Shaft A howl resounded across the decks as a Merger warform charged the tanks, and Verma faltered, looking out. Then her head dropped, and if Katrina listened closely, she might've been able to hear the Imperial sigh in defeat and murmur softly "You win, you damned bastard. Alright? You win. Get us out of here and it's a yes." The shadows along the walls suddenly exploded outwards, pouring across the broken and shattered forms of GD soldiers and robots. As it passed, the fallen rose up, with an eeire silvered light holding them together as they continued to fight. Further back, the deck shuddered and groaned as a particularly dense knot of shadows twisted in on itself before clearing to reveal a glimmering hedron drifting forward, firey runes ablaze on its surface as flickering bolts of the same silver light animating the dead lashed out into the Merger. Then, a voice whispered into Katrina and Verma's minds with a single unshakable command. FLEE, LITTLE MORTALS. Verma stumbled, grabbing her chest and gritting her teeth as agony etched its way across the skin of her chest. Then, she grabbed Katrina by the wrist and turned to run. This was no place for the living now…
Mariko stumbled as she staggered out of her seat, barely daring to look Valeem in the eye - she had not intended to hurt him, she hadn't even known she was capable of doing that, and even though he had been waving a gun around she felt guilty, as though she had overstepped. She followed Valeem, the soldiers and Takamo from the bridge, wishing with her whole being that an Imperial warship would arrive and pluck her from this unending riot…
Verma would turn around to realize that Katrina was nowhere in sight, the hud on her mask indicating that she had left a few moments earlier assuming that Verma was going to hold the line until then. The fire momentarily wained as the shadows infused into their fallen robotic units and animated them, but upon their completion; shambling and mangled constructs given a second chance to take on the encroaching merger were re-engaged in the fight. The soldiers simply counted fighting in defiance of Verma’s psychic message, accepting this odd reality. For every last solider was trained extensively to block out psychic powers. Even the tiniest intrusion into ones mind considered a critical security breach, it was questionable if any of them, for better or worse, had even heard her command. Their efforts though relentless, and their voices remained stern and fearless, they had become scattered, a tangle of radio chatter reporting failing lines and requests for reinforcements as the merger forces began to use the hangars to spread throughout the ship. -+- The bridge sealed shut behind them and the group began advancing down the corridors. Bulkheads opening and closing for them as they went past the officer’s cabins, mess and rec room before piling into an elevator and taking a trip down a few hundred decks to the far side of the launch bay. The elevator giving them a momentary reprieve from the chaos in where Takamo was able to breathe a long sigh, staring down at the floor. Though he knew it wasn’t the case, he couldn’t shake the fact that this was somehow his fault… The door opened as a veritable stampede of engineering crew ran past them, to the back of the ship. The now four cauldron knights that were with them each withdrew hard light weaponry, not sure how far behind the enemy was at this point.
Verma was fairly sure that she'd be grateful for her military conditioning allowing her to run like this...after she got of here in one piece. The ship was going to fall to the invaders, that was merely a matter of time. All around her, the Dominion forces struggled to hold the line against the Merger while she fled with Katrina. Stumbling, she sprawled across a section of decking covered in rubble and blood, just as the mark on her chest flared to life with scorching agony. Gritting her teeth against a scream, she shoved herself to her feet and staggered on after the rest. The Shadow would not be best pleased if it lost its herald so soon after expending so much energy.
As more and more sections of the Omniscience cruiser fell silent, the crew busy fighting or fleeing, the surviving Merger warships pressed in, nosing the debris of their ruined sister-ships aside as they closed the gap and began boarding, more and more hideous tendrils snaking out to besmirch the flanks of the sleek Gauss vessel. The roiling masses of Merger beings swelled even as the Dominion soldiers fought to hold them off. Behind Verma and Katrina there was a shuddering explosion and the reek of burning flesh, and what seemed to be a giant crab's claw, training blood and ichor, cartwheeling overhead, clanging to the deck in front of them where it twitched and shuddered. -- As Mariko, Takamo, Valeem and the knights clattered down the corridor, making their way through the lower decks, a black fog began to pour through seams in the wall ahead of them, coalescing into a towering form almost as tall as the Cauldarions, dripping with unidentifiable ooze, mandibles clacking as it began to move towards them. Mariko stepped forwards, right foot planted first and right hand outstretched, palm towards the enemy, her expression grim as she fought to mask her own fear. She paused for a second, her gaze flickering to her hand as if willing it to move, and then she clenched her hand into a fist with a wordless yell. The being staggered, as part of its chest seemed to contract like earth falling into a sinkhole. With a pained, gurgling roar, it shook itself and sprang towards the group. Her fist still clenched, Mariko pivoted, her left foot and hand coming forwards. As her left foot stamped down, her right arm came back, curled next to her side as her left hand came forwards in a shoving motion, held upright as if she were commanding the beast to halt.
An airburst slapped through the corridor as the creature was thrown backwards, a large chunk of mass in its core remaining behind, held hovering in the air. Torn apart, the monster screeched in hideous agony as dark ichor sprayed behind it, the corpse tumbling to the ground and falling to pieces which began to dissolve even as they watched. Unclenching her fist, Mariko staggered backwards in equal parts shock and exhaustion, the mutilated torso of the monster falling with a sickly slap to the ground. Even as it did, several more forms began to materialise, just as Mariko passed out and fell to the floor…
Katrina ducked behind a secured crate, several shots narrowly missing her. She threw a grenade over her shoulder without looking, anticipating where the enemy would be; and she was spot on, the blast flinging them over the edge of the hangar gangway, sending the merger zombies flying over the railing and plummeting a few hundred meters to the bottom of the hangar. She spotted Verma and gestured her to join her. They weren’t far from the frigate now, on a terraced loading platform mounting arrays of mechanical gantries and arms for reloading the building-sized munitions carried by the frigate. This left a sprawling, open loading platform that had been immaculate an hour earlier now littered with corpses and rubble. It looked as though the way to the frigate was being cleared by a mech squadron who was having little difficulties killing the smaller human-sized merger forms. Several of them clawing at the legs or firing with small weapons did little to harm them. But at that moment there was a deafening shriek as more boarding tendrils tore into the ship, wrenching all four of the ship’s primary weapons away from the hull. Some of these invading spines becoming visible at the far side of the platform.
The black mist began to form, drawing in an unusual amount into a large humanoid form more than able to match the members of the mech squadron. Its armor somewhat resembled that of an ancient ingenious samurai but the armor was in tatters. Rust, dry blood and crudely added spikes and skulls adorned the hulking warrior’s body; his only exposed flesh being his lower jaw, something between raw bone and gray decrepit skin; with far too many teeth for a human. His left arm carried a large wall shield covered in twisting metal barbs and his right hand was grafted into some form of gatling cannon with a large jagged bayonet that had at some point in the distant past been an elegant curved sword; now rusted and notched mounted below the barrels. … As the mist began to reform, the Knights turned to confront whatever monstrosity would manifest next. “Go! Take the Cargo Access! We’ll hold them off as long as we can!” One of the knights said sternly. “Come on!” Another yelled. “Let’s make it a warrior’s death! For the Princess of Ingen!”
“For the Princess of Ingen!” The Knights shouted in unison, readying their halberds and shields and charging down at whatever unholy threats would manifest next. As the Knights charged in yelling with righteous fury and carving ivory streaks of light through the Merger, Takamo scooped up the Unconscious princess, grunting in pain as the weight strained his wounded shoulder. Valeem accessed the logistics bay and cut through. The moment the automatic door opened. they were met with sprays of deafening high caliber fire. Some foreign and some familiar. The titanic warrior was challenging the entire squad of Mechs single handedly. One which had been caught out of position charged and promptly sandwiched between the monster’s spiked shield and the reinforced wall, the impact caving in the machine’s torso and cratering the wall behind it with a deafening clang. The machine crumpled to the ground; the shield’s barbs dripping with the viscera of its unfortunate pilot.
Recognizing that the Princess had just been carried onto the battlefield, and that the presence of this monster posed a threat to her, the squad initiated an ill advised charge. The gigantic samurai raised his weapon arm and spun up the gatling weapon. A spray of reddish orange rounds roared out. Their accuracy was scattered but their power overwhelming the defenses of the mechs. The demon swept his weapon across them, cutting them down one at a time. Though, partially exposed he took fire in return; a few well placed shots disabling his ranged weapon. Only a single mech managed to survive to rush past him, a neon-blue blade of light slicing the merger demon’s shield apart. The two exchanged a quick series of punches melee strikes, though the larger merger demon held a considerable advantage in this regard; pinning the machine to the wall with its cleated foot and tearing the arm off before plucking off the hatch and removing the pilot. A Farrian woman not too dissimilar to Katrina writhed in pain, bones snapping and organs popping as the demon crushed her alive. Only one arm free of the demon’s clutches she raised it, an explosive in her hand. She was already half-dead, but as her last act she weakly threw the explosive into the demon’s face.
It crumpled over, righting itself moments later. Its helmet had been destroyed revealing its emaciated head and coarse black hair tied into a messy bun; half its exposed jaw was gone, replaced with red-hot flesh and bone. The monster was clearly strained for stamina, seemingly heaving with exertion and exhaling a foul-smelling hot steam. Its chest and head riddled with craters from accelerator rounds that had torn clean through its form. Valeem gave the monster no quarry, firing a moment later at its exposed head. The rounds having little effect the monster, in frustration kicked a stray supply crate at him and Takamo. Takamo anticipated a moment earlier and barred out of the way, sliding across the floor to cover with Mariko in his arms. Valeem attempted to dodge, rolling away with the assistance of his armor’s thrusters but was too slow. The crate struck him. The impact was so great that the wall behind him had been dented as he crumpled to the ground. His left arm hung limp and mangled and down to his knee; his chest caved in an unnatural way and blood leaked from the seams of his armor which filled with bio foam. Still he tried to right himself with his one good arm, a pained gurgle coming over his comm.
The Merger demon let out a frustrated yell which was almost intelligible as “Give me the GIRL!” Katrina glanced around at the deck. The lone merger demon stood between them and the gangway to the ship. As if on cue a robotic PA announcement was broadcast over the ship. “Attention All Crew: Condition Zero. Condition Zero.” “Dammit!” Katrina shouted. “That’s A Condition Zero! They must be getting close to the bridge… Admiral Peldon’s gonna scuttle the ship! Anyone got any bright ideas how to deal with this asshole?!”
Verma shrugged. "We kill it or we die. Simple enough." The beast snarled and stomped its foot, causing the whole bay to shake, then charged. Eyes widening, Verma threw herself to the side by Valeem in a roll. As she did so, the pounding thunder of the monster's hooves passed her by, before it stopped and spun, snarling. Yanking her helmet off and gulping a breath, Verma juggled the grenade she'd grabbed from Valeem before arming it and pitching it overhand and stooping to grab her rifle. The blast lit up the room, accompanied by the demon's agonized shriek, shortly overlaid by the bone-shaking roar of Verma's accelerator. The stream of projectiles played across the Merger's form, flesh peeling away like water. Suddenly, there was a sharp click. Glancing down, Verma barely had time for a brief "Oh shit" before it surged forward to grab her by throat with the mangled remains of its right hand. Squeezing, it lifted her, growling as puffs of hot, fetid air washed over her face. "Prey. Tell me where she is." Struggling for breath, Verma managed a weak chuckle. "I know where she is. Right over there. But I got.... erk a better...question for you." As the ruined face turned towards her, its one remaining eye slitted in rage, she fumbled for the hilt of the sword on her belt before pulling it free.
"Do you...ngh know where your arm is?" The monsterous head tilted slightly in confusion before there was a crackle of energy and Verma dropped to the deck, spinning the activated greatsword around and cleaving the beast open vertically. There was a wet-sounding thunk behind her as the severed arm hit the floor before the bisected halves of the demon fell apart with a meaty noise. Gasping for air, Verma switched the sword off and staggered over to Valeem and dragged him up, hauling him up as she pulled him along towards the frigate. Glancing back, she hollered out "Get your asses moving, people! All aboard the Oh Fuck O'Clock to Zaoth, now boarding!" Shoving Valeem into the hands of a medic bot at the airlock, she ushered Katrina and Takamo, still carrying Mariko, in before slamming the lock and shouting into the intercom. "Get us the hell out of here! I'll be up the bridge ASAP to give coordinates, but for now just get us off this ship before it's blown to hell!"
“Why did you have to tell him that?” Katrina grunted as more merger began spilling over the gantry to the ship, like a tide flooding in the creatures clawed over one another screaming in what drowned into an incomprehensible wail in a final effort to get hold of the princess. The Gantry was curved; segmented in a sense as the ship was stored perpendicular to the ship’s artificial gravity requiring a curved retractable ramp. And slowly this demonic tide began to spill over, sporadic weapons fire battering the side of the ship. As the tide closed in, a few soldiers fought on to bide them a few more moments. Katrina let off a few token shots, several impacting her armor. Though they failed to pierce some left small craters dripping with molten metal. In a desperate panic she pulled a manual lever and the door to the ship slid shut, severing a warped hand and several blackened tendrils. The medical bot, less skilled and ambitious than any organic doctor defaulted into Valeem into hospice mode, managing a single painkiller injection. The commander retracted his helmet; the intricate mechanism becoming stuck halfway through. It became apparent just how grave his condition really was. The left hand side of his face was mangled and swollen beyond recognition, blood leaking from his eyes, nose and mouth had been filling his helmet which had filed it up to the neckline and was now spilling down his torso.
“Come on…” He grunted. “This ship’s not leaving without me.” The bridge of the Shogun was vastly more compact than that of it’s mother ship. Designed for only about a dozen people at most it was a small triangular room with the commander’s chair in the middle. Takamo scurried in, strapping the unconscious princess into the chair that would belong to the ship’s communications officer. Takamo took the Capitan’s chair and began to operate the console. The controls locked up immediately. “Access Denied.” Came the ship’s computer in a monotone female voice, accompanied by a loud bang against the hull. Katrina brought up an external camera feed as the hulking warrior had apparently reconstituted and was pounding against the door. “Override… Theta Epsilon Zero… Zero One.” Valeem managed, his head rolling to the side in his chair. “X2- I mean… Takamo… You trained to fly a ship like this?”
“I flew a freighter…” Takamo said with a hint of nervousness as the controls unlocked. Valeem’s head lulled over as he gave the Go’shii a crooked smile. The gantries and clamps began to withdraw much to the frustration of the merger hordes who plummeted over the sides and battered against the sides of the ship or fell hundreds of meters through the hangar. Takamo opened the engines and the ship lurched forward several dozen meters before instantly impacting the still closed hangar door while also roasting countless individuals, both allied and enemy with relativistic plumes of radioactive iron. The impact kicked through the dampeners throwing everyone forward in their seats. The medical bot; the only individual not strapped in went flying forward into a wall. “Shit!” He hissed. The door began to open; an AI or the ship’s bridge crew having apparently gotten the message. As the protracted seconds wore on, a boarding tendril worked its way into the hangar and approached the frigate. Katrina was quicker, bringing up the vector nodes and shearing it apart mere meters before it could strike the ship. “Come on… come on!” Takamo urged, as though it would somehow make the hangar door open any faster. Finally when there was barely enough clearance he opened the engine a second time and forced his way through; the ship catching on the doors and tearing them both loose as they rocketed away. “ The rearview sensors showed the ship they had fled, tangled and suffocated by the merger fleet greedily consuming the vessel. A message came over Mariko’s communications console on a video feed, being open broadcast on all frequencies. “This is Admiral Peldon Shum openly broadcasting on all frequencies. The Princess is away safely, I repeat the princess is away-“ There was was an explosion in the background; shearing metal and gunfire. He ignored it, bowing his head to the console and feeling for a button on the console. “Temudo nora Kragleosha Gauss.“
A single frame of blinding white light then a default blue screen with the words “transmission lost”. An instant later the rearview sensors nearly went blind as the ship and the surrounding merger were enveloped in a blinding blue-violet and white light; for a fleeting instant it looked photosphere of a star expanding outward at relativistic speeds, slowly fading over several seconds from blue and violet to yellow and then to a deep muddy scarlet. As the blast wave caught up with them, the ship was rocked once more, shaking violently as currents of vaporized starship battered the shield. A few moments later the interdiction dissipated and the ship was clear to spin into subspace.
Mariko groaned as the shaking of the escaping frigate slowly roused her back to consciousness. She shook her head to clear it and gasped for breath, clutching at the arms of her accelerator chair as she glanced up at the viewport ahead, then around at the sensors as they leapt from the site of the ambush. "What...what happened? Where are we?" BEHIND THEM The Merger warships were torn apart by Admiral Peldon's sacrifice, immolated and shredded by the ferocity of the Gauss reactor detonation. Only a handful survived, battered and venting atmosphere, flames flickering in the darkness as they flared up and were immediately suffocated by the void. Even as they scrambled to recover, three ships appeared among the wreckage, their forms elongated bizarrely for a mere moment before snapping into their proper shape. Blade-shaped prows angled towards the surviving Merger ships, they emerged from hyperspace at high speed, having switched from Slipgate to Hyperspace FTL several light-hours distant to enable a running arrival. Roaring towards the surviving Merger ships, their guns flared. Older models, a Tanto destroyer and a pair of Misericorde frigates, they mounted dozens of smaller guns, pouring sheets of crude plasma and volleys of railgun slugs at the stricken survivors. Their initial attack run sunk or disabled the few Merger ships still operational, and they gracefully curved back around to a halt in the middle of the debris field, their guns lashing out haphazardly at pieces of wreckage. Captain Kaho Watanabe breathed a sigh of relief as Peldon's transmission was intercepted. At least the princess was alive, but she yet again had disappeared, slipping through the Navy's fingers even as she evaded the Merger. "Launch search parties. I am sure any survivors would appreciate our efforts, and a black box wouldn't go amiss either."
There was a grinding shudder as the ship vanished into subspace and Verma's chair shook with it. Once they were safely into subspace, she unbuckled herself and went to stand up, but staggered and winced as biting fire flickered across her side. Damn, but she'd thought she had more time. Well, nothing for it, she'd just have to power through. Sitting back down heavily, she tried to breathe through it while glancing over at Valeem. "Damn, but you look like a mess. And that's saying something, coming from the woman who got disembowled and lost an arm to a demigod not even a week ago." Glancing back at the viewscreen, she paused for a moment, then continued speaking, her voice soft but audible to everyone on the bridge. "You asked me earlier about my experience with mind-compromised individuals and mocked me for the events of Tergral. Tell me, Valeem, do you know what it's like to watch an entire empire die by inches?" She turned to look at him, her eyes soft and sad, an old and bitter melancholy reflected across her face. "I was born at the end of an age. The Imperium had been waging a war against the Reich and the Illateri for decades before my birth and had been losing all that time, slowly but surely. Indeed, as the singers say, 'Against the might of the Alliance, none could prevail'. By the time I was old enough to fight, we were down to two dozen worlds across fifteen systems. Command was getting desperate. Had been desperate for years, I suppose. And in their despair, they dug things up that never should've seen the light of day."
Leaning back, a grimace twisted her mouth. "Old weapons and devices from the War in Heaven, built by the Shadow to enslave us and turn us against the galaxy. Don't know why it thought it needed them, we did a fine enough job of that all on our own, really. I was dispatched with the 841st to Havenhold to dig something up. The Allies turned up to stop us, 'course. But we found the blasted hunk of metal anyways. Turns out it had been the housing for a pyschic AI system. Damned thing hijacked a beam transmission back to the Allied fleet and took it over in minutes. Some sort of mind control on the officers and crew, I think it was. Then it followed its original orders and turned the fleet against the enemy. Kept spreading too, like a patch of mold you just couldn't scrape off." A soft sigh. "The worst of it...the worst of it was that it helped. Turned the fight around across five fronts. We were thinking it could win us the war. Then it took its fleets to the Allies' home space. We could pick up the screams of dying worlds from halfway across the galaxy. And when they inevitably shut it down, they started glassing every world they captured in retaliation and executing our people in ways you can't imagine in your most horrific nightmares." Verma met his gaze head-on this time. "And it was my fault, for helping dig that nightmare out of the hole it had been buried in. So yes, Commander. I know very well what the consequences of allowing a mind-broken individual free reign are. But I also know that there is healing. And that a good commander can take someone who's broken and reforge them into a weapon of unrivaled deadliness. And a great commander...can do even more." Before she could say anything else, agony scorched across her side, and she convulsed in her chair, eyes rolling back in her head as the wound on her soul finally manifested itself again on her body, shredding flesh and bone and soaking her clothes in blood as she jerked and whimpered.
There wasn’t much in the way of surviving equipment or crew of the ship, save for an expanding sphere of conventional radio waves and a diffuse cloud of gas. As the last of the merger were driven off, the dominion started to filter in. Subspace transitions began appearing all over the system. At first just a handful of sentinel cruisers pulled from escort duties on Ancerium caravans, then the entirety of the GDAN Seventh fleet arrived in attack formation and almost immediately opened up with a barrage of mass driver fire intent on pulverizing the limping merger vessels. Admiral Yunato announcing her presence to the Ingen captain and declaring their intent to help, only to realize they had arrived to late and swiftly shift to picking captain Wantanabe’s brain about the Merger, their history and capabilities. There was no black box to speak of, but the unrestrained transmissions negated any need for it, as in return he offered up uncut security camera footage confirming princess Mariko’s escape. Though it wasn’t long before more ships arrived from a different vector. This time it was the second fleet, helmed by the Galactic Admiral who had made an emergency departure straight from Assiduous with the Paragon super dreadnought in tow. She confirmed her arrival with Wantanabe, and made it known that the unprovoked destruction of a command ship and the death of an admiral would be taken as an act of rahbakun (war without honor), but seemed more concerned about a rouge frigate and compromised agent than smoothing things over with the Jade forces, delegating this duty to Yunato.
… Valeem jolted as his autodefibulator kicked on attempting to resuscitate him. His eyes had already started to glaze over. He had apparently expired somewhere during Verma’s story, an alarm attempting to alert the medic bot who lay in a heap next to the communications console. Finally the ship’s computer seemed to catch up to the situation and deliver the remainder of the ship’s medical bots to the bridge. A pair of autonomous stretchers and a handful of bots lifted Valeem, then Verma and shuttled them off to the ship’s medical room. Takamo reclined in his flight seat as the ship spooled deeper and deeper into subspace. Verma’s story hadn’t exactly put his mind at ease as it reminded him of the later Courdeel wars. Katrina stood and followed them, retracting her helmet into her collar. Medic bots were just attendees and assistants, their ability to execute more complex procedures was dubious. As a special agent she was trained as a battlefield medic and had the qualifications to properly orchestrate their efforts. “Hey…” Takamo said. “Bring me back some stims and pain meds…” He said glancing down to his wounded shoulder still bleeding from the merger bullet that had struck him prior. Katrina shot him a look, something between apathy and genuine concern, following it up with a brief nod.
By the time Verma arrived in the medbay the medical bots had already confirmed him as deceased. They finished removing the last of his power armor revealing just how grizzly the damage was. His torso was mangled, seemingly only held together by his half-functional armor, though the gruesome sight was short lived as he was carefully loaded into a bodybag and then lifted into the mortuary. Katrina slapped shut an arm brace on the bed, taking vitals and injecting more fluids via a small IV. She ducked down next to Verma and began examining her wound. “Whats all this… I didn’t see you get hit during that fight…?” Though not on the level of their late commander, it was pretty dire. She ordered the medical bots to bring bio foam and healthy supply of pain meds and clotting agents as she took a blood sample to flash-clone cells for a transfusion, as she had lost quite a bit of blood. She passed this sample to one of the bots. “I’m gonna try and operate on this, graft some of these bones back together and try and close this up. You want me to put you under or you good?” …
Mariko’s communications station came to life, presenting another Go’shii. This one possessing orange-tinted fur. Her voice was stern, a smoldering vindictive anger just beneath the surface. “This is Galactic Admiral Sulumai Luss to the Acting Commander of the GDAN Shogun. The Merger threat is clear. I repeat, the Merger threat is clear. This is a direct recall order. Return immediately for escort back to Ingenious space and debriefing… hold on… why can’t I see them?” “Shit! Mariko! Pull that lever!” Takamo shouted, pointing to a large breaker-like lever ergonomically positioned in the righthand side of her console. “Commander Valeem Authorized Override Theta-1” A voice said. The ship’s on semi-manual. “Would you like me to revert it?” “Y-” Mariko reached for the lever out of instinct, her hand pausing at the last second. If she let the Dominion recapture them, they would return her home, back to the Jade Empire. The running and constant fear would be over, and she would be safe behind the swords of her people. She glanced over at Takamo and the others, battered and bleeding. Her fingers curled, closing into a fist, and she closed her eyes. Takamo was the only one who had kept her safe. Every time anyone else had tried to intervene, to protect her from the Merger, they had failed, many of them dying in the process. She reached forwards and gripped the lever, taking a breath before hauling it back.
The ship’s communications console went dark and rebooted to a reserve manual system, detached from the ship at large. This was a very simplistic computer system; impossible to hack or corrupt for manual radio communication, but lacking any form of encryption and requiring manual calculation for FTL transmission beaming. A moment later override codes streamed in, appearing onscreen as a long line of numbers and letters. But with no connection to the rest of the ship they were useless machine language. Takamo let out a gasp. He seemingly clenched up, fidgeting violently in his seat for a moment. “This is just great.” He thought to himself. “Now I’m a fugitive from the closest thing I ever had to a home, I’ve just stolen a military grade ship. I’m responsible for a royal princess with uncontrollable powers… of course… I’m hurt but not bad enough to go back to the medbay cause if the merger jumps us again I’m the only one who can fly this bucket. And to top all that off we’ve now got a dead NCO in the trunk… By the way, verma, I don’t know how that story was supposed to make me feel any better. That sounds like some shit the Courdeel would pull.” He let out a sigh; hanging his head, he spoke aloud. “What did I ever do to deserve this…?”
Mariko watched as Takamo wrestled with himself, seeing the wind go from him as suddenly as a dying breeze. Although she felt homesick and bereft, she knew that hers was only a temporary exile, and that there was still a place for her among her people. From what she had seen, Takamo no longer had a home to go back to, as much as the Dominion had even been a home in any real sense. Quietly she rose from her seat and crossed over to him, tenderly putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. After a moment's pause, she spoke softly. "A man must do his best until his karma is revealed to him". AMBUSH SITE As the new arrivals identified themselves as Gauss Dominion warships, Captain Kaho Watanabe signalled for their request for information be granted. The Imperial vessels began transferring combat data about the site and dossiers on the Merger threat to the newcomers, and in return gratefully scooped up the information offered about the Jade Princess. As one of her tactical officers spoke with his Gauss counterparts about the basics of the Merger and their combat abilities, she opened up a series of video files from the doomed cruiser. Her first mate stole a glance and was surprised to see a look of shock on Kaho's face. Although she was Ingenious, not a Suedian, Admiral George Chase's habits had imprinted themselves across the IJN and senior officers rarely betrayed emotion. Despite this, Kaho's wide eyes and faintly agape mouth were undeniable. Standing swiftly, he approached her console and offered a quick salute. She caught herself and nodded back, realising he had only come over for her benefit, and quietly beckoned him to join her. *"Ma, nante koto!" Bosun Hideko uttered, forgetting himself and using Ingenious instead of Standard. On the screen in front of them, he watched as the diminutive princess slew a giant Merger daemon without even touching it, before falling faint and being carried away by Dominion soldiers. -
Kaho muttered "That's not all," and pulled up another clip, showing the Princess causing mayhem aboard the Dominion bridge. Bosun glanced at Captain, and they both were silent. Of course they believed in the divinity of the Second Jade Dynasty, but believing was not the same as seeing. Suddenly the rituals, the shrines, the whispered prayers and silent pleas to the ancestors were not just a matter of faith. They were real. She straightened, and crossed her arms. After a moment's thought, she summoned over her captain of marines. Copying the files onto his personal holorings, she dispatched him to the Sanrin System. Within minutes, a Hyo-class corvette carrying the captain eased out of a starboard hangar bay and accelerated away. Composing herself, Captain Watanabe jumped on the line with Admiral Yunato. "We are standing by to assist, sir. If you have any suspected transit vectors for the missing frigate we are prepared to pursue."
17 September 2020
Frigate
There was a dry raspy chuckle from behind Mariko and Takamo, causing them to both spin in surprise to reveal Verma slumped against the door to the bridge, her face pale and her side plastered with bio-foam casts, but otherwise up and functional. It seemed that the Dominion's medicine had been enough to save her life at the least. She flashed them a weary grin. "Gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to keep me down. Katrina told me about Valeem, though." Something that might've been grief flashed across her face as she said that, her shoulders dipping a little before she pulled herself up and staggered over to a chair. "He was a good man, whatever other faults he might've had." Glancing over at Takamo, her gaze sharpened. "And so are you. Even if the road seems long and lonely, we're still here. Hell, I figure we're all we've got left right now, eh? Course, the biggest question is where we go from here." After saying that, she poked at the console, cursed a bit and poked around a bit more before activating a navigational display showing them in relation to the wider galaxy.
Takamo was in fact, not at all surprised by their return. Partially in part due to the swirling mass of thoughts in his head, and partially due to the fact that Go’shii had more acute hearing than most other species and he’d heard the two coming from down the hall; Katrina (still in her powered armor) following Verma insisting that she should rest after her procedure and that she had nothing to prove by being back on her feet so quickly. “Well, I’m out of bright ideas. The ship’s got a bio-recycler and closed loop life support. We could park on the galactic halo for years… decades probably. Hope they forget about us. But I don’t think thats what you guys have in mind.” He turned to Katrina, the only fellow Gaussian in the room and nodded as he headed to the medical bay to take care of his wounds. He made his way to the storage cabinet on the wall, the rack sliding open to reveal a vast array of medical consumables. Even Verma’s intensive procedure could have been repeated a few hundred times over with the supplies they had on hand. He shuffled through the motorized racks of vials finding a euthanasia drug… the same substance they had planned to inject him with back on the command ship just an hour prior. He studied the injector and glanced down at his arm. His hand quivered for a few moments before he flung the device across the room, breaking it in the process. The idling medical bots finally identified his state and injected him with a milder sedative and antidepressant before moving him to an operating table.
… “Well… let’s weigh our options…” Katrina said, shrinking the map to have it be less of a distraction. “The three front runners are we turn off our transponder, keep the reactor on low and just hide out here till everyone forgets about us. We’ll go crazy eventually but until then we’ll be safe. We could turn ourselves in to the Dominion. Highcom is going to personally flay my ass. They know me and Valeem were the straight men on the ship, and the only ones wearing power suits. The fact that I haven’t already KO’d all three of you and put you in the brig and turned this ship around is cause enough for me to be scrubbing toilets with my toothbrush until heat death. I dunno what your guys’ home nations will do with us. But more than likely Luss has told half the galaxy theres a rouge ship on the run and a fat bounty on us- oh- would you look at that…? (the communications console pinged) And of course if either of you have bright ideas, I’ve open ears…”
“We have an exit vector, but that doesn’t mean much, they could have changed course. But we’re already too late if we want to pursuit, that ship could be anywhere in this sector of the galaxy by now… Shogun class. Its the fastest class of ship in our fleet… we could launch are own but best we could hope was to keep pace with it, much less gain any ground… We don’t have telemetry either; they hard-chopped the comms systems.” The Galactic Admiral went off the comm line for a moment, excusing herself to clear something with high command. An alert rapidly began spreading through the Ancnet, complete with detailed imagery of the ship and its wanted crew. This is Galactic Admiral Sulumai Luss broadcasting on all frequencies: All national and private entities be advised. We have a rouge Dominion Warship and crew. Crew-members wanted ALIVE. Transponder Code: GDAN CSF-001. Bounties are as follows.
Δ 500,000,000,000 For safe return of the vessel. Payment may be deducted for damages. Warning: Vessel is military grade; heavily armed and shielded with multiple gigaton-yield bombs onboard.
Δ 1,000,000,000,000 For safe return of Princess Mariko Kubiashi (Human, Female, Olive Skin, Approx 140cm, Slim, Black Hair, Age: Approx 15.) to Gaussian or Ingenious custody. Additional bounties may be paid by Ingenious upon delivery.
Δ 200,000,000,000 (alive) 100,000,000,000 (dead) For return of Unit X2C2. (Go’shii, Male, Black Fur, Approx 190cm disregarding ears, Athletic, Age: Adult) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation.
Δ 200,000,000,000 For return of Unit K8V0. (Farrian, Female, White Hair, Athletic Approx 180cm, Age: Adult) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation. Wanted for Questioning.
Δ 100,000,000,000 (alive) For return of Kal Verma. (Human, Female, Black Hair, Athletic, Approx 180cm) to Gaussian custody. Warning; has extensive military and combat training and augmentation. Wanted for Questioning. “I’ve just had high command declare a bounty. If you want to match us for the safe return of your princess, then please by all means contact high command.” She said coming back on the comms, clearly somewhat ashamed of what looked like a cataclysmic fuck-up on the part of the GDAN. She didn’t care that it was extenuating circumstances that had led to this, she cared that it made them look incompetent.
ABOARD THE SHOGUN
Mariko listened to the astronomical figures, eyes wide. It had never really occurred to her that foreign governments would be trying to rescue her too, but apparently the Gauss Dominion were offering a bounty double that of the entire warship for her safe return. She had very little knowledge of the Ancerious Galaxy as a whole, so she had no real input for where they should go next, but she did have one thing to add to the discussion. "I don't know where we should go, but I know we can't wait this out. The Jade Empire will never abandon the search for a member of the royal family, and if they think I'm dead then they'll commit atrocities in their search for revenge." AMBUSH SITE Kaho noticed the admiral's embarrassment but did not press it. The Jade Empire knew all too well the insidious and horrifying power of the Merger, and the fact that Dominion personnel had helped extract Mariko from the Merger ambush was most likely the only reason she was alive. There was radio silence for a moment. Eventually Kaho replied. "Thank you, sir. Your assistance is appreciated, and I would like to offer my condolences for the losses the Dominion has suffered here today. The Kokubusho will be in touch with High Command to augment the reward money and co-ordinate search efforts."
The Shogun Verma leaned back, considering what she'd heard. "If the Dominion knows that we've escaped, then chances are high that they've shared the info with the Empire. Regardless, we can't go to either of them, since it could mean Takano's life and Katrina's career because there's not a doubt in my mind that the Empire would hand us over to the GD to maintain good relations." A flicker of pain ghosted along her side and she winced. "Alright, make that possibly my life as well. This wound isn't going away anytime soon, and it can only be healed on Zaoth." She tapped the console, bringing up the map again, but with the display moved far to the galactic east with a single star zoomed in, shaded in purple with gold accents. "Course, the problem is that Zaoth is halfway across the galaxy, and every bounty hunter within a hundred thousand lightyears is gonna be after us. A unescorted military grade frigate zooming across the spacelanes isn't exactly subtle. Which is where my badge comes in." Another tap, and the map zoomed back out to display their location, with Zaoth marked at the far side of the map. A series of nav points then flashed up, delineating a course to the beating heart of trade in the Ancerious galaxy: Lost Star. "As an officer of Imperial Intelligence, I can requisition any Imperial ship at need. If we can make it to Lost Star, there's almost certainly some sort of trader there we can use. We get this ship aboard, and book it to Imperial territory before the hounds catch up." The navigational path completed itself, sketching a path that skirted the Storm of Shadows on the way to the Imperium. "Thoughts?"
Mariko hesitated. She was about to say that, as a princess of the Jade Empire, she could shield them from the consequences if they were found by the Jade Empire, but then she checked herself. Maybe that was true at home, but they were in uncharted territory. She had never been to Sanrin, had never met the overlord there, and so far from the centre of the Empire she did not know if she could exert more influence than furious Gauss Dominion diplomats over Imperial policy. Instead she sat back and listened. She took in the map, and after a moment remembered something she had seen on a JCN news broadcast just recently. The Jade Empire and the Union of Worlds had established a trade route between the Sanrin System and Union space, and if she remembered the map. "Hey guys, just so you know, that route takes us across an Imperial trade lane. The chances we'd meet anyone are low, but that does include a stop south of the Free Trade Zone which is on the Sanrin-Union Corridor."
"I don't have a problem with Zaoth... Nor the trade route. Unless they got the whole thing lined with interdictors we can just stay in subspace and pass right through it. Or hell… just go a few thousand lightyears above or below the galactic plane. I will believe you when you say its safe on Zaoth... But... Lost star. That seems like suicide at this point…" Katrina said. “Sitting out here waiting for the Merger to catch up to us also seems like suicide.” Takamo said, walking back into the room massaging his shoulder. “Look. Let’s get the princess back to Ingen and turn ourselves in… She’s a VIP…They’re probably still gonna put me down at the end of the day, but at least they’ll have a chance of going easy on you having done the right thing…” He said, mumbling that last part as his ears hung low to the sides of his head. Katrina frowned. “I thought this was what you wanted! I thought you wanted to get a chance to redeem yourself!” She shouted back. “Look we get Verma to Zaoth, get her fixed up and then get Mariko to Ingen. Bide our time a little bit… Once the big wigs in high command confirm that the Merger didn’t get away with anything important when they got in your head you’re off the hook.” “Nobody asked me what I wanted!” Takamo exploded back at her. The two were silent for a moment. “Alright… then what do you want?” She asked, folding her arms and adjusting her stance. “I want… Just I want to stop being a burden to others…” He said folding over in the corner. “My family died… because of me. All those people on that ship… they died because of me. We’re in this whole mess… because of me.”
Katrina bore an odd frown. Apparently indecisive between genuine compassion and irritation at the Go’shii for continuing to cling to his depressive attitude. She stared down at him sullenly gazing at the polished metal floor paneling, questioning how such a senior agent had managed to pass his annual psych exams with this serious of a condition. “Alright… you want to stop being a burden.” Katrina asked. “How do we get out of this mess?” Takamo opened his mouth to speak. “-And don’t say turn ourselves in.” She said wagging her finger like a scolding mother. Takamo rolled his eyes. “We could disguise the ship.” He mumbled. “But its not going to work…” Katrina sat still for a second. Suddenly her eyes opened wide. “Maybe… it would work.” She whirled around to to explain to the others. “Hololiths. Full spectrum photoreal holograms. We can use them to disguise the ship. That trick never works in Gaussie space, police patrols got wise and use penetrating scans and transponder checks that will see right through it. Busted some slave traffickers who otherwise had a solid setup by myself that way back in my early days. But out here by lost star… people haven’t seen that trick as often… I hope.” Takamo’s ears and brow lifted a little. He got up and got into the captain’s chair, altering the ships course. A few moments later the ship exited subspace inside a protoplanetary disc. He powered down the reactor leaving the ship on secondary power it looked like a tumbling piece of space debris.
… Everyone on the ship was brought down into the hangar bay connected to a small machine shop. In it were about three dozen mech frames and a drop ship occupying a majority of the available space. “Alright… here’s what needs to happen.” Katrina said sternly, opening a large case to reveal several dozen basketball sized spherical drones packed in honeycomb style. “These are hololith drones. I’m going to need someone to go outside and bolt these drones onto the hull at key points… their projection range isn’t big enough to cover the whole vessel. I’m going to code a synchronous projection script, but in order for it to work they need to be attached precisely.” She removed a small metal mounting bracket being produced on the 3D printer in the machine shop as the printer went to work on another. “Transponder. We can use Valeem’s Override. Theta Eupsilon 001. But those things will fry themselves if they’re tampered with, that goes double for the capital grade ones. Those things are so sensitive senior engineers take a whole weekend to change them and they still barbecue them half the time. But we should be able to switch it out with the one on that dropship and change the code on there with relative ease. You’re royalty and an elite agent, think one of you you could come up with a dummy transponder code that makes us look like a freighter? “We’re also gonna need someone to draw up this disguise were using… 3D model it. We don’t want to go that much bigger than our current hullform but we’ve also got to cover it up good enough that we don’t get recognized. While we’re at it, someone should slap a voice modulator program on our comms. Takamo… did I miss anything.” He shook his head. “Alright, so who’s volunteering to do what?”
"I can do the model and can probably get a transponder code!" said Mariko brightly, glad to have a plan and have the others perking up. She turned and skipped back up to the bridge, took a seat at a spare console and began to browse the Ancnet to get her favourite modelling program. The site asked for her credentials and she paused, but then remembered there was a trial option that would give her a day's access to the web version for free. After a moment she remembered something, and set her holo to offline-mode too. Losing track of time, absorbed in the work, she was converting a model of an old Renaissance class hauler, a favourite of the former Katasian Ryk, into a projectable holographic file. She barely noticed as the lights on the bridge flickered, but with a jump she realised she was not alone. Scrambling up from her chair, she backed away from the figure that had appeared next to her. It was a terrifying figure, towering over her, jet black with pale yellowy-red eyes, ivory fangs glinting. "Who are...what do...." she gasped, before a memory slowly surfaced. A year or two ago, at Castle Shussan, the marine training facility. A graduating class of marines, arrayed in front of a dais, her brother among them. Her mother and a dozen other high ranking officials, seated to one side. An officer giving a stirring speech beneath a foggy sky. One of the officers on the dais was a felidaen, a giant figure. Rarely seen in the Jade Empire by that time, most felidaens resembled kindly-looking lions, proud tigers, or sweet-faced cats, but this one was terrifying, a blur of midnight darkness, eyes and teeth glinting. He looked like nightfall incarnate. As the young Mariko had watched him in terrified fascination, he had turned those baleful eyes on her, and she had frozen. It was the same fear that had rooted monkeys and deer to the spot for eons, the fear that comes from a predator's gaze. Then, disarmingly, he had winked at the child and looked away...
"Princess Mariko, how nice to see you again. I am Colonel la Saña." he said with a faint bow of the head. "Colonel! Don't hurt the others, you can't turn us all in, you can't!" she replied, her thoughts scrambling. It did not even occur to her to question how he had gotten aboard yet, she was simply scared for her friends. He chuckled, his deep voice resonant. "Do not worry, Princess. I am not taking any of you anywhere. No, I am here for quite a different purpose. Have you heard of the Far Anomaly?" His sudden change of track took her off-guard. Her mind was still racing to catch up. "Uh...the Far? I know what the Far is, doesn't everyone?" she replied hesitantly. The Colonel smiled, revealing his curving fangs. "Of course, Princess. But do you understand how it works? You've been experiencing strange things recently, yes? You have...powers, right?" Mariko nodded slowly, saying nothing. She had put the events aboard the Gauss warship to the back of her mind, but she was scared. She had no idea what it all meant, but she was more scared that la Saña would tell her. "Everything you were taught at temple is true. In a way. The Far is real, as is Corruption. They are great sources of power, and Rapuchefu and Zetsubo are real. But the Near also has power. Specifically, the people of Ingen do. The Far can only manifest itself in this plane through the subconscious thoughts of the Ingenious. Belief begets reality, and reality begets belief. The people's faith in your powers grants you those powers, and when you demonstrate those powers it only strengthens their belief. Do you understand?" When Mariko did not reply, he simply continued. "Anyway, your being here presents me with a unique opportunity. The consciousness of the people is at a tipping point. It will take only a small push to change the balance, to open the floodgates and allow the full power of the Far into this realm. And it will start with you."
"Whilst we have been talking, I have acquired a full imagery of your face and body. I will use this to create footage that will convince the people of Ingen not only of the existence of the Far, but of my own power. The more they believe, the stronger I will become, and co-incidentally you too will grow in power, but this power will come at a cost. You, and all the people of the Jade Empire, shall become Yokari. There is of course, no such thing, and the explanation I give to the general rabble of the Empire will be filled with mystical nonsense and invented religious gabble, but by the end of it you will be transformed into a form more beautiful, terrible, and powerful than before. Under my guidance, the Jade Empire will ascend from its mundanity and harness the power of the gods, gods which it shall create for itself. Do not worry, Princess. This will not hurt." He snapped his fingers, and her console began to play a video. A dark figure, recognisable to Mariko as la Saña, filled the screen. "People of the Jade Empire, hear me. It is I, Verachter, the Butcher of Zlost and the Red-Handed Murderer of Neusattar. You know that your Jade Empress is not a pure daughter of Ingen, that her mother is half-gaijin, and today I show you the true implication of this oversight." The camera feed panned out to show a figure kneeling on the ground, bound and hands tied. It was Mariko. "Rapuchefu gave his Qi to Shussan, that you would forever be protected, but that same Qi does not run through the veins of all who now call themselves Imperials. Though you are all bound to the Jade Empress, you are not the same. But worry not! Zetsubo wishes also to grant his Qi to you. You will no longer be mere humans, but instead will become creatures of the liminal, halfway between the palace of light and the palace of darkness. The two brother-dragons will live inside your spirit!" -
Turning, he raised his hands and began to chant. The wind around him and Mariko seemed to pick up, even as he spoke. With a wail, the princess suddenly fell into shadow. There was a colossal roar, one that seemed to break free of the bounds of the holonet speaker even Mariko watched. Suddenly a blinding flash of light filled the screen, and when it faded Mariko could see herself once more, lying on the ground, glowing slightly. Her skin was a brilliant white, streaked across the upper face with a glittering jade. Two pure white horns sprouted through her thick, bottle-green hair, shimmering orbs of light hovering at their tips. The feed faded, and the room's lighting restored itself. "See, Princess? Even now, the spark of belief has been set to the dry tinder of rumour. Your adventure, your exploits, had people wondering, and now their beliefs have been confirmed. The Far is real, its power is real, and soon all Ingen will boast that power. You feel it even now, don't you?" Already Mariko could feel a growing unease, an apprehension, as though a storm cloud gathered in the distance. She knew, instinctively, that he was right. It was happening. She stared down at her own hands, feeling them tremble, then looked back at the blank screen which had shown her a vision of her own, transformed self. Looking back at the colonel, she saw the smile in his eyes, the self-satisfied expression, and her fear twisted itself into a hot burst of rage. "You MONSTER!" she yelled, her voice louder than she expected, and a shockwave thundered through the bridge. The Colonel was buffeted, staggering backwards a few feet, and then chuckled. When he spoke, his accent had changed and he seemed smaller somehow. His voice was heavily accented, unlike the precise and calm voice he had used before. "You see, mi Princesa? Already, your power it grows. Soon, all manner of delights will be at your fingertips. Such power! How every exciting." Behind them, footsteps drew closer…
Verma had been rooting around in the cargo bay to inventory their materials while Mariko worked on the modeling. On investigating further, she'd been overjoyed to find her Gauss-provided armor, along with other materials from her previous equipment. After inserting herself back into the suit, she'd also set up some raw materials to be converted in irridath and shaped into armor plating. Might do the others good to have some proper plate armor for a scrap. Leaving that running, she grabbed the maranil that had been with the armor and headed off to tell the others the good news, feeling invigorated by the armor's medical suite. Drawing close to the bridge she could hear voices. Mariko, and...someone else. Something that made the sliver of darkness in her soul twist and snarl, and caused the weapon in her hand to shake and glow. Then she heard la Saña finish speaking, and the darkness surged forward. Behind Mariko, her armored boots echoed across the bridge like thunder, and when she spoke, her voice was a stentorian rumble, tinged with divine fury. "Abomination. Begone, or wither beneath the Shadow." As she spoke, the bridge lights began to flicker and dim, lines of darkness thickening and growing to reach out towards the Colonel, seeming to bypass the Princess entirely.
The flickering of the light conduits intensified and then there were several pops as showers of sparks came from the walls. Whatever forces had been disrupting the ship’s electrical systems had finally caused them to give out. Everyone began to fall… or float as the artificial gravity went out, and the bridge was bathed in darkness, only illuminated by Mariko’s newfound glow. After a few moments dim, red emergency lighting conduits kicked on to better highlight the scene. “Uhh… Verma… what’s going on? what just happened to the power?” Takamo asked. “Oh… shit.” Katrina groaned over her comm. “Uhh… okay. Nobody else move. Me and Takamo are coming back in… we’ll be there in a second. Don’t… touch… anything!” The two said, making their way back to the airlock. Fortunately it could be operated manually; a small blessing as the supernatural forces had triggered a short that had just fried the ship's entire computer grid.
As Verma spoke, channeling the Shadow, la Saña offered her a broad grin. "You are dangerous," he said, a tone of appreciation in his voice. "But be careful you don't snuff out the light..." As the Shadow encroached across the bridge, darkening the room and then plunging it into pitch blackness when the ship's systems fried, all that was visible was the ivory glow of la Saña was his teeth and the swirling yellow-red of his eyes. Mariko's glow seemed to fade as the room itself grew darker, but then suddenly the emergency lighting kicked in to reveal la Saña was gone. The two eyes were a pair of floating nectarines, and the teeth were some kind of gaming pieces, floating free in the absence of artificial gravity. A quick glance at Mariko would reveal she was unconscious already, floating freely in the cabin, her skin glowing gently. Impossibly, a strong wind began to blow through the cabin, ruffling their fur, hair and clothes and setting items and people drifting. There was a bright burst of light and, when their eyes recovered, a stronger glow from Mariko. Her pale olive-white skin had bleached even further to a brilliant white, like the sun glinting off water, whilst across her eyes and nose was a band of emerald green skin that glittered even in the low emergency lighting. Her hair was a deep bottle-green and, poking out from it, were two short horns, at the tips of which floated orbs of light, wavering in intensity like a shallow pulse....
Verma blinked for a moment as she took in the changes, before paleing. "Oh shit." The shadows receded as swiftly as they'd come, leaving Mariko and Verma drifting in the cabin. Grimacing, she took hold of the princess and using handholds, managed to maneuver her into the chair she'd been in previously, strapping her down. Moving ponderously back to her seat, she prodded at the console, muttering under her breath as she assessed the damage. Switching her comm on, she cleared her throat. "Katrina, it looks like we've lost all power to the reactor, but between the energy release from Mariko's...transformation, and the blow-out, I'm concerned that we could've attracted unwanted attention. We need to get moving again, but the subspace drive seems fried too. I've got an idea about that, and I'm going to head down to the cargo bay. I need you to see if you can restart the reactor while I'm doing that."
Finally the two made their way onto the bridge, operating the door through an analogue switch. Takamo was wearing a simple EVA suit with a small thrust pack while Katrina was in full armor. The two were followed by a large cluster of ESP drones. “What the fuck happened? What do you mean the Subspace drive is fried? We’re out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere…” Katrina tore off a reinforced breaker panel, the strength of her powered armor allowing her to do so almost effortlessly. She began to fiddle with a control panel, attempting to restore power to the computers. The screens strobed displaying glitched characters and the holographic projectors displayed nauseating jumbles of nonsense shapes and tangled lines before the systems quit for good. So the computers were fried, but after a bit more tinkering she managed to bring the original lighting back up. “Wha…” Takamo’s expression was more readable. “What is all this shit?” He batted away the gaming pieces. “How’d this get in here? Why does Mariko look like that? Is she alright?” “Doesn’t matter.” Katrina said flatly. “What we need to do now is focus on getting out of this mess. Eyes. Forward.”
“You say that! You say that like its even possible!” Takamo shouted. “But theres all this magic… and monsters… and glowing people… I… I didn’t sign up for this shit… I didn’t sign up at all! I never even asked to be made!” He shouted. His helmet alarm went off with a red blinking notification that he was hyperventilating and using too much oxygen. He promptly tore the helmet off and tossed it aside. “You don’t get it! This whole thing is some crazy elaborate torture! God or the Universe or whatever is just doing this to me just to toy with me… just staging everyone! Why won’t he just kill me then, though…?!” His voice turned to a snarl. “Because he’s sadistic and… wants me to suffer.” “Takamo…” Katrina said, withdrawing her helmet into her collar. She clasped hold of his upper arms and magnetically locked her boots to the ceiling. Her voice was surprisingly calm. “Take deep breaths… remember your mediation training… just try and relax.” “I can’t even do that!” He hissed. “Not since what happened with her and those merger assholes, got me all screwed up in the head! I close my eyes and all I see is… is… their faces.” Katrina turned to Verma, and spoke very businesslike as she collected the Go’shii on one arm and Mariko on the other. “I’m taking them both to the private crew quarters. Reactor on the same deck we’re on. Walk out the bridge, First right, Second Left. Long hallway and reinforced door at the end. Same thing for the other side, but go right from the bridge. Once I know they’re both safe I’ll come and help you…”
She brought them both into the private crew bunks. As was standard practice on dominion naval vessels, crew members were given private bunks. Although cramped, these accommodations came with a bed, desk, several secure storage cabinets and most importantly a private all-in-one bathroom. The beds appeared normal but came with numerous hidden features such as heated mattresses and massage functionality which… while they might have been helpful for getting the Go’shii to relax were no longer accessible since it seemed the computer failure had been more or less universal. She withdrew straps from compartments beneath the mattresses (mostly for just such a situation; the failure of artificial gravity). She tied down Takamo quite tightly first, who while conscious had become eerily distant from the situation and was simply allowing her to carry this out. She was concerned about him attempting self-harm. In the next room over he strapped down Mariko a bit more loosely, being cautious and silently interested in her new, glowing form. There was a small possibility she could wake up possessed by some demon and eat them or something… or magically explode and take the whole ship with them…
As Katrina tugged at the straps, securing them in place, Mariko groaned and slowly blinked awake. She shook her head as if trying to dislodge a hangover, and tried to raise a hand to wipe her forehead, jerking against the restraints. "Hey, what...," she muttered, glancing around herself in surprise. Her voice had an odd quality to it, crackling faintly like the embers of a dying log fire, but in her half-awake state her mind wrote it off as the natural result of a dry mouth. She tugged again, harder this time, and then glanced down to see the straps at her wrists. Again, she half-registered how pale her skin was, and how it seemed to be gently glowing, but she rationalised it as just the lighting aboard this alien vessel. She caught sight of Katrina and scowled. "Hey.....what gives? Why am I ... let me up!"
Taking a moment to collect herself after watching Takamo melt down, Verma steadied her shoulders and headed off to the first reactor, following Katrina's directions. On the way, she instructed her armor's systems to run calculations for the integration and power requirements for jumping the frigate to FTL again. Once at the door, she braced her shoulder against it and operated the release, before trying to push the door open. Try being the operative word, because as soon as the door opened even a crack, radiation alarms started blaring in her ears, and she hurriedly slammed the door again. "Katrina, reactor one is toast. All sorts of radiation, and it looks like there's hydrogen spill in the room. I don't know what the Dominion does for engineering, but it looks like whatever it was went critical when the computers went out. Guess we're just lucky it didn't blow. Given that we still have some power, I'm going to assume reactor two is still functional. Meet me back on the bridge in fifteen." Walking down to the cargo bay, she went over to the remains of her mech and popped the access hatch while she started digging around, pulling out six small objects, all pulsing with a soft purple light. Fumbling, she managed to connect them together, leaning back on her heels for a moment as she watched them glow.
Who'dve ever thought? Kar Verma, daughter of a salvager turned war veteran and pressed into the spooks. And now here she was, lost in the sea of stars hundreds of lightyears from the Star's light. A surge of bitterness overwhelmed her briefly. That stupid princess and Takamo. Boo-fucking hoo, his brain got a bit scrambled, she's separated her family, who fucking cared? They were children, lost in the night, and the universe wasn't fair. They - They were broken inside. And Verma...Verma could still see it, when she closed her eyes at night. Taros, almighty and invincible. Taros...burning. The screams over the comms as the damned Germans and the Ilateri ripped the still-beating heart out of the Imperium and raped its corpse. And the worst bit for her, had been the silent pinpricks of nuclear fire blossoming over the planet as the convoys fled. The absolute silence of those last few moments... With a gasping sob, she wrenched herself out of the memories, realizing that her cheeks were wet even as fresh tears welled up at the corners of her eyes. Crying over the past wouldn't get them anywhere, just leave them lost in their sorrow and grief when the hounds finally ran them to ground. Gritting her teeth and wiping her face, she grabbed the collection of units and left for the bridge. Time to get going. After all, if she ran far enough, maybe the memories couldn't catch up.
Katrina turned, momentarily startled when Mariko started speaking. "Oh sorry. Power went out and I didn't want you floating away, and didn't know how long you'd be out..." She said as she undid the straps, Mariko would come to realize she was in zero gravity. "So... uhm?" She started rather awkwardly. "You turned green and white and you grew horns and you glow now... are you... you feeling alright?" She glanced over her shoulder to Takamo who was breathing heavily in the next room over. "I know you're worried about him. But he's not just gonna turn around and be better. He's gonna need a lot of help to get back on his feet. A lot of time and work. And he's an XC agent. When they were trained they were brainwashed... and not even brainwashed correctly. So he's got a few bolts loose in the head... on top of being attacked by a psychic and everything he's been through, I can only imagine..." She turned, realizng she could hear running down the hall which seemed odd as they were in zero gravity. Though she had to admit of all the unusual things that had happened to her in the past few days, this didn't rank particularly high. She readied her rifle incase it was an attacker and came around the corner only to have Verma plow into her. She disarmed the weapon upon realizing she was crying, the two awkwardly plowing into one another. "Are... are you alright? What happened?"
Verma flashed her a weary smile. "Old memories, is all. I think I can get us out of here, though." She hefted the cobbled together hyperdrive unit and continued to the bridge, speaking over her shoulder as she did so. "Imperial mechs have FTL units embedded in the joints to allow them to move faster. I figured if I stripped them all out and glued it all together, we'd have something we could use to get going." Walking onto the bridge as the others followed, she settled into her chair and started plugging the drive unit into the console, hooking up power feeds and fiddling with some switches. "This entire stunt is based off of what the Imperium call currents that flow in hyperspace. Normally, Imperial-built ships have rudders that help them steer in a current, but we obviously don't have that available. So..." She finished plugging it in and twisted a knob, causing the mess of lights and wires to start humming. "I'm going to configure the field to kick us 'downstream'. Normally, we'd still be fucked, since the drive here is going to burn out after we use it, and there's only so long you can stay in hyperspace without an active drive. Thankfully for us, FTL traffic of other means creates a sort of corresponding current in hyperspace. And seeing as Lost Star is the busiest port in the galaxy, there's one hell of a current running there, all we have to do is ride it in." Verma made some more adjustments before falling silent. Then she whispered softly "It didn't escape." At the puzzled silence from the other two, she continued. "The AI I was telling you about. It didn't escape. My orders were only to secure it and bring it back to Taros. But...I was so angry." She met Katrina's eyes, her face solemn. "When it took over that German fleet and massacred those worlds...it was just following orders." She dropped her head again. "You can tell Takamo he's not alone when he sees monsters in the dark. The only difference between us is that my monsters look like me."
Mariko, floating free, began to breathe heavily. She raised her hands, turning them over, running them over her forehead and her horns, pulling out her holo and activating the rear-facing camera. She was silent for a moment, closing her eyes, a couple of pearlescent tears easing their way out of the corners of her eyes and drifting off in the zero-gravity. "So it's true...he really did it...," she said, almost to herself. She gasped, her shoulders shuddering as Katrina turned to go greet Verma. As the two spoke, she began to sob quietly. She didn't know what would be worse, if la Saña had only transformed her and left her a freak, or if he had transformed the whole Jade Empire as he threatened, casting her entire world into chaos. As she thought about the impact this could be having on her home right now, a thought crept into her mind. She had been feeling strange things, inexplicable power manifesting itself at strange times. She had pushed it from her mind, putting it down to the bizarre nature of their surroundings, but if la Saña was right then it was because the people believed in her semi-divinity. If they had believed before... She focused, wiping the tears from her eyes, and realised she could feel it. That strange feeling she had felt facing the daemon aboard the Omniscience was back tenfold. She let the energy flow through her and suddenly she was drifting along behind Verma and Katrina. She closed her eyes and reached out, sensing the psychic storm-clouds gathering around the hurt psyches of her friends. She saw the spike as Verma admitted what she had done, the flash of misery and anger balling in on itself. Wordlessly, her hand moved in an almost stroking motion, as if brushing the clutter away from Verma. Like water on a burn, she was not healing the cause of the pain, but she was soothing it. She felt a growing excitement or energy building, almost an anxiety as she began to realise the unbound potential of her newfound well of power…
“Y… you’re not a freak. You just… look different now. But I wouldn’t call you a freak or a monster. Such a label would come more in line with your actions and choices than your apperance. But who did what?” Katrina asked, genuinely confused, implying that she had to explain everything from the ground up… … Katrina disappeared for some time, heading to the starboard reactor. A few minutes later the primary lighting; a fair bit brighter and a fair bit bluer than the dim emergency lights, returned indicating her success. She returned, her power suit steaming and coated in ice crystals. “The cooling system overflowed, the starboard reactor room was a cryogenic freezer. I managed to patch the coolant line balance the levels and life support should have that place back to normal in an hour or two.” She said before retracting her faceplate, breaking several crystals of dry ice in the process. She went to work helping Verma put the finishing touches on her drive.
She exhaled. She had to admit she was a bit tired of being the busboy for everyone elses’ emotional baggage and saw some difficulty in relating to them. After all her life had been relatively normal. A somewhat stern, if loving family had raised her where she had turned out to be quite the prodigy in a number of fields. After dropping out of higher education she signed up with the GDMC, and after a decade of frontline service she was recognized for her skills and promoted to a special agent. “We all make mistakes, and they are our greatest teachers. We’re especially prone to it when impassioned.” She said to Verma, sternly. “I know it sounds like some poetic jargon-wisdom espoused by some go’shii sage but its true. What’s important isn’t that you-” She managed to wedge the fingers of her power armor into a floor panel. Titanium bolts sitting flush with the floor plating snapped as she tore up the tiled plate work as though it were paper. She removed a heavy duty power conduit, a silver braided wire coated in graphene. “Reactor power conduit. This should give more than enough enough juice to run your little device… anyways. What’s important is that you learn from your mistakes such that you don’t make them again… Anyways, I think we’re just about set here. Everyone get bucked in and lets fire this up.” Katrina began thinking to herself “I wonder if Takamo knows theres a good chance we all die in a few seconds when we turn this jerry rigged FTL drive on. I hope he’s having a nice nap.”
Verma blinked as the guilt and anger simply...faded, then smiled as Katrina spoke. "Well then, I like to think that I've learned quite a bit." Then she knelt down and toggled a switch. "Better get strapped in, it could get bumpy." And then they sat there for almost five minutes while Verma tried running diagnostics through her armor systems before there was a crackle and the drive started glowing a vivid blue, humming as it charged up and then activated. The space on the screen vanished, replaced by the swirl of hyperspace, but the hyperdrive didn't die. It just kept humming, and glowing brighter and brighter while the view on the screen blurred ever more, before there was a jolt that shook the entire ship and the starfield reappeared...only to turn back to hyperspace again a second later. This continued to repeat, speeding up until the screen was a muddled blur, and the ship was rattling like it might fall apart any moment. Through it all, the drive kept drawing more power, the very air around it snapping and hissing with miniature thunderbolts. Verma cursed and activated the comm system so Katrina could hear her over the rising howl of the malfunctioning drive. "So it looks like we've got some good news and some shitty news. The good news is that the drive didn't burn out and is moving us way the fuck faster than even an Imperial warship would be moving. Get us to Lost Star in fifteen minutes instead of a month. The shit part is that since the drive didn't burn out, it's still drawing power but it's pushing too hard against hyperspace, that's why we keep crashing out. Almost like skipping a rock across water, except that we're the fucking rock skipping across reality. It's also leaving a huge-ass trail marking our path. The last drop out is probably going to fry every sensor pointing at us in a thousand light years. I'll need you on the helm ready to get us moving the second we hit Lost Star, we're not gonna have long before the hounds come calling."
Mariko sedately strapped herself in, her movements slow and serene, her eyes barely focused. She watched with a vague interest as Verma and Katrina wrestled with the jury-rigged drive, half-murmuring appreciative comments about how resourceful they were, then listened as Verma explained the predicament their newfound turbo-boost had put them in. She shook her head. "The Jade Empire won't be coming after us anytime soon." she said, her voice still crackling faintly. "So you don't need to worry about them when we get to Lost Star. They're probably in total uproar right now. I wonder if this happened to mom too..." She glanced at the others. "La Saña...the person you saw me speaking to...he did this to us. He used the Far Anomaly...found some way to amplify it. It channels power from the Far into our reality, but it is shaped by the subconscious thought of sapients. He used our own beliefs against us. It's kind of smart really. He told us we were cursed, and by believing him we turned our own minds into the conduits for it to happen." She shrugged, gazing ahead at the maelstrom of their travel. "On the upside, everything the people of Ingen believed has been made true, and they believed I was a demigod..."
“That’s… actually a good thing… for us anyway. Means less of a bounty. Though theres still enough money on our asses to set up any self-respecting pirate group for life. And though it might seem a bit redundant given we’re going to enter lost star with all the grace of the galactic symphony orchestra being dropped down a flight of stairs.” Takamo stirred. He could hear the reactor cooling loop repeatedly spooling up and down to compensate for the power draw of the informal FTL system. His emotional state had leveled out once more though he wasn’t sure for how long. The curiosity was a strong distraction, he began to find ways to undo his bindings and make his way onto the bridge. As he did, Katrina turned to see him. He let out a long sigh. “If we’re going in like this we’re going to be detected.” He mumbled. “I’ll helm the ship, someone’s going to have to fly manually.” Katrina nodded. “You sure you’re cut out for this?” He asked. “We’ve got this under control.”
“No.” Takamo said back, sternly. “You don’t. When we exit we’re going to get attention without the hololith working. We’re going to need to fight or flee, and you need a pilot.” “Alright.” Katrina said. “Mariko, get on eyes and ears. Turn the comms board back on, good chance its not cooked like all our other systems. Verma. You’re our gunner. Targeting computers are deep fried but FEMIS sensor should still load to the viewscreens. You got mass drivers, lasers and missile pods but half the normal amount of power. Don’t know if the missile lock computers are toast or not… I’m gonna man the bombardier station. If someone gets in close and tries to board, I’m dropping a few of the big bombs and Takamo floors the engines.” After a few more minutes, they exited the hyperspace current at the edge of Lost Star, with a flash of radiation and light just as Verma described, no doubt attracting many opportunistic factions looking for their bounty.
"...So, you think this is a waste of time?" one of the bridge crew of the small freelance mercenary company's ship, a heavy corvette of unclear origin, asked aloud. "Better fuckin not be. Took us a damn while to get here, and we're lucky none of the supposed bigwigs that like to pick on anyone with a ship smaller than them noticed us." "Yeah, we are pretty close to LS. But still, what have we got to make sure we're on the right track?" "The word of that android." "I'm not so sure I trust a bot like that. You see the way it...she...behaves? About as much emotion as a brick fuckin' wall. Never does anythin' for fun, she's constantly tapping away at one computer or another. Her friend laughs at jokes and she at least fuckin smiles, but she don't seem right in the head none." "You think they were programmed that way? Like someone went out of their way to program a lunatic?" "Nah, can't be. Not even war droids are made like that. Must be bugged." The captain went to hush his crew, before a speaker on the bridge crackled to life. "Be glad your services are still valuable to me, elsewise Blight would know your thoughts on her, and she does not appreciate being labelled a lunatic." came the monotone voice of Contagion. "The fuck?! How long have you been monitoring us?" the captain, a man named Artrus, demanded. "From the moment you allowed me access to this ship's computer grid. Worry not, I have no need for anything much of this data. I will warn you though; there is an inbound FTL signature with an exit vector predicted within 3,000km of my predicted zone." A pause, as one of the crew spun to look at the sensor readouts. "Fuck me, the robot's right!" "Shit!" Artrus swore. "Alright. All hands, action stations! Let's bring us in a bounty!"
--- "So, Tagie," Blight mused aloud as she strolled through the door, sword on back. "Whaddya think this lot we're after are like?" "I have told you what I think of that name." Contagion responded, eyes and fingers never straying from the computer screen she tapped away at with inhuman speed. A beat. "I do not know, and speculation leads to assumption. I will be running monitoring and reconnaisance for you, so you know anything I find out." the android responded. Both were nearly monotone, clad in blacks, greys and whites with nearly chalky pale skin and long black hair. Indeed, the only vivid colour they clearly showed was Blight's red eyes, and Contagion's blue. "Sure, sure. Damn, I wish Malady hadn't taken that job escorting some journalist or whatever. All three of us would be fun to have here!" "You just like getting on her nerves." "Hey hey, I'm not that much of a bad sister. She's fun to rile up, sure, but I always make it up to her!" "Your 'making it up to her' broke our automated drinks machine." "I'm...working on that..." "I fixed it before we left on this ship." "...Oh." "Regardless. We have no time for chatter. This FTL signature is inbound any second, and this vessel is already moving to intercept." Sure enough, when they arrived there was already a corvette inbound, weapons armed and a comms signal outbound. "Alright to those unfortunate bastards to whom this is concerned, I ain't gonna fuck about. If you like yourselves intact, alive, and not pasted on a wall or exposed to the joyous vacuum of space, I suggest you surrender peacefully. You'll live longer that way."
Takamo let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. He’d anticipated someone flagging them down, but mere moments before he arrived on the scene? This was almost comical. He placed his fingers on the comms board, but didn’t activate the microphone. “I’ve got a really stupid idea…” He mumbled. “Let’s hear it.” Katrina said, trying to sound enthusiastic. “Lets let these guys board us. Jump them, take their ship and bolt. They look like mercenaries… maybe not the best armed or disciplined.” “How do we know we can take em? There could be five hundred guys on their ship?” “Well… would you rather we run from them… and the million other ships that are going to start hounding us? We take their ship… just this once… all our problems disappear.” “Even better… why don’t we try and barter with them? You have any idea what Mercs would do to get their hands on a mil spec ship like this. We turn it over… all we ask in return is their old bucket and that nobody squak about our new ride.” Takamo nodded. They turned to Verma and Mariko, wanting them to weigh in before he responded.
Mariko raised her eyebrows. "There's a pretty hefty bounty on our heads. Well, your heads. A nice reward for my safe return, I guess." Realising that wasn't helpful, she pressed on quickly. "Is this ship worth more than that? I honestly don't know, I don't know how valuable Gauss ships are. I don't even really understand the economy here in the Ancerious Galaxy." She resisted the temptation to urge the plan on. She could feel the power coursing through her body and part of her wanted to unleash it, to submit to the anger that was slowly fermenting inside her and rail against the injustices of the world. She knew that such fury would hurt her just as much as it hurt their enemies, it would just take longer…
Verma hemmed and hawed for a minute or two, torn. "On the one hand, I'd love to just fuck them up and run for it, but Takamo's got a point. It's still hundreds of thousands of lightyears to the border of the Imperium, and if we don't change our tactics, we'll never make it. Sure, we can kill these guys, but they'll inflict some damage. And so will the next one, and the next one, and the ones after that. We're not gonna find a proper shipyard to make repairs at, let alone be able to pay for them. If we just run for it in this ship, we're dead meat. My vote says we trade them the ship, and then set demolition charges on the secondary reactor to blow it apart. As far as the GD and the rest of the galaxy is concerned, we got wasted by bounty hunters, and the search is over. Best of all, GDAN doesn't even have to pay the bounty!" Here she chuckled a bit, being intimately familiar with the troubles and woes of wrangling money for anything military out of the rest of the government.
"Alright." Katrina said "Verma, you come with me to the rear hangar. Mariko, go with Takamo and rig the reactor for remote detonation. Let's try the diplomatic option and if things go wrong we can do things your way... and shoot our way out of the situation." Takamo nodded. He turned on the short-range radio. "Alright... We're standing down and opening the rear hangar." ... Katrina had opted to conduct her diplomacy through one of the combat mechs in the hangar, holstering a fusion rifle in case things went Aria and would offer Verma one as well.
Mariko tagged along with Takamo towards the reactor. She had no practical experience with reactor or engine maintenance but she preferred to go with him, even as the mechanisms of the rear hangar began to hiss and chug, opening the bay to their attackers. "We should disguise ourselves, right? If there's a bounty on our heads...well I guess right now I don't need disguising, but you and the others..." She seemed unperturbed by the prospect of killing the mercenaries in cold blood, but in the territories of the Jade Empire, pirate was a dirty word. Wako raiders, both domestic and foreign, were seen as lower than scum, although officially sanctioned raids by the IJN against enemy holdings were a completely different matter and totally legitimate. Trade and travel were sacrosanct for the sprawling Jade Empire and threats to it, out in the isolated depths of space, were to be dealt with swiftly and without hesitation.
It wasn't terribly long before the heavy corvette, an angular thing of steely gunmetal greys and matte blacks--though it was in reasonably good condition--moved and joined with the vessel's hangar, docking systems taking their merry time to figure each other out. The first figure through the airlock was not, in actuality, one of the bounty hunting mercenaries, though those onboard had no way to know such. A woman of long, shiny, jet black hair and glowing red eyes, clad in a relatively lightweight assortment of steely armour and other, pragmatically designed clothes, the armour on her arms much more heavyweight and ending in robotic hands somewhat larger than a human's hands, one clutching the massive, angular single-bladed greatsword sat on her shoulder and the other gripping a blocky, large pistol. She had a wide, narrow grin on her face, eyeing the mech waiting for them with a raised brow. Those following her were much more mundane, though reasonably well-equipped mercenaries, most toting large boarding shotguns and smartrifles, though a few carries lightweight anti-armour weapons, a burly man in a powered exoskeleton and toting a smartrifle seemingly their leader. The mercenaries immediately fanned out across the hangar, weapons shouldered, watching those waiting for them. "Military mecha not the most 'here to reason' look, ay?" the sword-carrying woman chuckled. "Never cut the limbs off one'o those before, might be fun." she added. "Either you just got a robot in your crew or you plan on pulling a stunt on us. If you're smart, it's the former. I ain't in the mood for shit and I don't care if I drag back a headcount one or two short." the captain huffed, gesturing to the anti-armour teams with a nod of his head. "Team B, go check out the rest of the ship." he gestured to one of the squads, whom moved for one of the doors. "You lot got names or you just happy bein' grumpy silent types?"
A pair of drones brought a pallet of about a dozen missiles into the reactor room. Working swiftly with all four arms he began to unscrew the nosecones and remove the warheads, In size and external patterning resembling a metal soccer ball, and splicing the remote detonators together. "Well..." Takamo with a shrug. "You... just started glowing and grew horns... so I'm not sure how many people are going to recognize you now. There's some packaged hasmat suits in the medbay with which I could quarantine myself. I might be able to pass as a highly contagious person... Also..." He said passing her remote signal beeper. "Get this on frequency F5527, but don't you dare press it. Those are 1 kiloton fusion warheads, one of those goes off and we're both hot gas before we can feel a thing." Without warning Takamo heard unfamiliar chatter down the hall. He closed the door to the reactor room, hissing an explative. A few confused robots glancing around. He then opened a panel on the wall revealing several radiation suits, then swiftly darted over to the life support control, increasing the temperature and humidity in the room to well above the norm. Hot steam began to rush out of the vents with a hiss as he scrambled to get the suit on. "Get one of those on. Radiation leak from the fusion chamber, we're trying to patch it. This conversation never happened." …
Katrina levied her fusion rifle at the woman with the sword, relatively unimpressed. Even if she had the best bio-augments or cybernetics technology could build she knew she would face a serious challenge. Her rifle clicked as a flechette shell was loaded and the firing parameters calibrated for a hypersonic blast of pencil-like rods. The mech's shoulder-mounted missile launcher aimed at her, as well as several small hovering drones that accompanied the mech leving light blasters and micromissiles. Several neon blue laser sights danced across her body. "This doesn't have to come to violence. We know you're not stupid and just want to talk... trade. We'll give you this ship and you give us yours. This is a top of the line gaussian bomber frigate, fully loaded. One reactor's out and the computer system... well its seen better days. But it comes fully loaded with two top-of-the-line subspace drives and enough nuclear ordinance to flatten a continent, as well as being quite swift on impulse. Even better, I'll throw in all this." She gestured to the three-dozen extra mechs and the landing skiff. "Or..." The mech's shoulder shrugged slightly. "You can try slicing your way out. Your call."
Verma had sealed her helmet before the mercs arrived, and she casually pressed the cycling stud on the rifle, the high-pitched whine of the weapon spooling up charge to fire filled the hangar. When she spoke, her voice was a flat, menacing monotone. "Allow me to elaborate on my colleague's offer. I strongly encourage taking our offer. You are of course, free to refuse, but somehow I doubt that would end well for you."
Mariko struggled into a radiation suit, slipping the detonator into a bulky utility pocket just as the boarders rounded the corner. She wasn't sure if faking a reactor failure was a great plan given they were trying to use the ship as a trading piece, but there was no time to argue. Unfortunately, she had absolutely no idea how to even pretend to look like she was repairing a starship reactor, so instead she stepped forwards, waving her arms in warning. "Careful, stay back! We have a radiation breach! Keep clear!"
Unfortunately for those, the team headed for the reactor seemed only slightly concerned, advancing at an only somewhat slower pace, keeping their rifles shouldered if not fully raised. After a moment, a couple of them leaning to get a look at the room, the lead mercenary's helmeted head tilted. "You, uh...don't know what CBRN-rated means, do you?" he asked simply, sounding more sympathetic than condescending, for whatever reason. Meanwhile, in the hangar, the first response was from Blight. And it was vocal, sure, but by no means wordy. She laughed. A proper, hearty laugh, her eyes even beginning to well up. "Odin's fucking beer-stained beard, look at this!" she laughed, gesturing to all of the laser dots on her form. "It's like some sort of fuckin' movie scene! I don't know how flattered I should feel at how fuckin concerned you lot must be about me specifically, but it's sure as shit brightened my day!" she continued, a wide grin plastering her face. The captain shook his head with an amused smirk. "We could take this ship, for sure. It's bigger than ours, I'll give it that, as banged around a little as it looks..." he muttered, seemingly considering the prospect quite seriously. "Except its the computational equivalent of a charred potato." cut in another voice, well-projected, from the umbilical to the corvette. This figure looked like she could be related to Blight with her jet black hair and pale skin, only her eyes were a shining blue rather than Blight's red. She even had a similarly monochrome fashion sense, though hers was a more relaxed dress that stopped just past the hips. "I can barely pick up that this ship has--or had, I can't quite tell--a computer grid, let alone what it's actually capable of. Given how unresponsive it is, I'm impressed this ship can FTL." she stated, her voice flat and deadpan. An eyebrow raised on Blight, as this newcomer, her sister Contagion, looked up from her holographic displays.
"If you're going to lie to us, at least do it well." she added. The captain's eyes swung back around to the two who had been waiting from them. "Well then. I suppose the deal's off." "Dawwwww," Blight put on an exaggerated look of mock sadness, hips leaning to one side. "And I thought we were gunna be good business partners! But I guess sometimes you just gotta make sure 'o the facts, huh?" she raised her free arm as if to make a shrug gesture. Only a grenade left her hand. It immediately went off in a thick cloud of smartsmoke, the electromagnetic pulses blasted through it making the entire cloud appear as a glaring wall of uncomfortable displeasure to sensors. Blight was evidently smarter than she looked. The mercenaries went to attack with rifles and smartguns, the AT teams having to try and reposition to get a shot at the mecha. Contagion was seemingly content to back off, more concerned with her business than the fight going on ahead of her. Blight, meanwhile, exploded at a blinding speed out of the smoke, racing for the mecha's legs, sword swinging!
Mariko recoiled, crossing her arms in the bulky suit. "Do you know what leck mich means?" she retorted sharply, employing a popular Neusattran phrase that was not particularly suited to the lips of a princess of the Jade Empire. "You can't go in. If you have a problem with it take it up with the captain." she said, her voice shot through with the imperious tones of one easy with authority.
The mech seemed nearly invincible to infantry smart rounds, projecting a scrambler field which threw off their guidance, though one managed to strike true at the knee joint, forcing her to a knee on the floor. Unimpressed, Hundreds of needle like flechettes encased in plasma roared from the gun in a rhythmic thumping in return, like some high tech and gargantuan descendant of an automatic shotgun. The steel floor plates were minced by the periphery blast, but the armored drop skiff that sat behind them was unyielding. As Blight charged from the smoky haze she opened continued to pump rounds into her until the clip was empty. All the while the missile launcher on her right shoulder pivoted. “Verma, hold onto something.” She fired. The missile struck the plasma wall which retained the hangar’s atmosphere. The field failed and for a moment as the atmosphere rushed out in a tremendous gale. The skiff skidded across the floor, the drones wavered before they compensated with their thrusters, and they were in a hard vacuum. Katrina knew full well violent depressurization was a myth, but simply looked to dispose of the smoke… …
“Alright…” Takamo said with a shrug. “guess you’ve never dealt with hyper frequency gamma radiation before… but it’s your funeral.” With that he somewhat cautiously orbited the invaders allowing them entry to the room. As soon as he was behind them he drew a finger across his throat with one hand, pointed out three of the invaders with another, and began counting down with the fingers on a third hand, while with his fourth reaching for a heavy duty hand screwdriver that went with his suit and holding it in a reverse grip. It was a long shot… he wasn’t sure how off guard the men would be taken… or if Mariko understood his signal… or had enough control over her anomalous powers to make it happen. When his countdown reached zero he pounced on the leader, aiming to drive the screwdriver through the top of his head. Chaining into a swift and trained series of hand to hand movements which if executed successfully would result in the last foe to be taken to the floor by an elegant leg choke hold and stabbed through the neck by his improvised weapon a moment later.
Mariko panicked. She did not have enough control over her powers to do anything as clever as disconnect the mercenaries' weapon clips, and with only moments to think of a plan she threw her left arm out, fingers splayed wide. A psionic blast of kinetic energy caught all of the mercenaries except the two nearest Takamo, tossing them perhaps four feet into the air almost directly upwards, just a little bit backwards. Her right hand came forwards and she tried to tug at their guns with tendrils of power, but she knew even as she made the attempt she couldn't quite focus enough on the guns to make it stick. If any of the mercenaries had already lost their grip the tumbling rifles would fly towards Mariko, but otherwise all they would feel was an insistent tugging at the weapon in their hands. Light flared from inside her radiation suit, obscuring her face momentarily as the energies silently flowed around her.
Forewarned by Katrina, Verma braced herself for the atmosphere evacuation, but still staggered and stumbled as air rushed past her. Straightening up after the initial blast, she waited a moment for the smoke to clear some, then leveled the rifle at the one who'd put themselves forward as the captain and fired off a burst, before ducking behind the skiff for cover. While venting the cargo bay was a sound plan, Verma could admit that she hadn't reckoned with Katrina simply blowing a hole in her own ship. Hadn't the Dominion ever heard of boarding countermeasures? Regardless, hopefully turning the captain into a smear on the floor would make the rest of the crew settle down some.
Unfortunately for Verma, the second shot turning the captain to paste had the seemingly opposite effect, his men instead getting angrier, volumes of rifle fire flying her way even as she ran for cover, some moving to try and flank her. Contagion was glad she was near the docking tube, grabbing a handhold as the hangar momentarily vented, grumbling under her breath. Why did Blight have to be so reckless? Regardless, Blight had started a fight and now she was caught in one. Said sister was also currently getting shot at by a mecha. What a pain. Grumbling under her breath again, Contagion rolled her multi-weapon around, the antimateriel rifle part whirring and firing, aiming for that same gun firing at Blight. Speaking of that android, she hissed between grinning teeth as a flechette shot caught her arm, system readouts in her head flashing red. Regardless, she didn't need two arms to fight. Bringing the sword to her mouth Blight threw the shotgun pistol to her good arm, snapping off some beehive shells at the mecha's guns and the gun drones, tossing the weapon aside when it clicked blank, grabbing her sword again and leaping for melee.
As for the fight in the reactor room, results were mixed. Mariko's telekinetic toss worked better than she had likely intended, one man striking the ceiling with an audible crack as his head turned sharply to the side, another hitting it flat and being dazed as they fell back down, both dropping their weapons, though the third managed to react far better, landing on all fours with gun in hand. Unfortunately for Takamo, heavy or not a screwdriver wasn't built to counter armoured space helmets, though it did succeed in damaging the metal armour and sending the squad leader crashing to the floor. The last attempted to defend himself, but with his bulky gear this mostly amounted to ineffectually blocking with his arms as he crashed to the floor, barely managing to register the screwdriver before it crashed into the neck of his suit and crushed his windpipe. The squad leader rolled back to his feet, drawing a large combat knife. "You son of a bitch!" he growled through a polarised visor, rushing to attack.
"Shit" Katrina hissed, mumbling to herself how the girl should have, by all logic. been minced by her fire. The shotgun seemed to rather easily, reduce the drones to glittering ribbons of debris before they could retaliate though a few managed to fire off homing micromissiles at their mark before their untimely destruction. She raised her free arm to block the strike, a neon-blue spear of Hardlight extending from the wrist of the mecha a good two and a half meters long. While she blocked, she tossed the fusion rifle to herself, changing the grip from the handle to midway down the barrel and swinging it like an immense club. Such a maneuver was by no means standard practice and would likely warp the barrel and damage it, but the gun had already been taken offline anyway. ... Takamo attempted to intercept the attacker, removing the bloodied tool from the neck of the assailant and turning to face him. Clearly he had been trained to use his extra set of arms as an advantage, at least in theory. Apparently miscalculating in his effort to grab and control the knife, being stabbed through the arm. He struck the wall with a loud clang before crumping to the ground with the squad leader on top of him. The head of his hazmat suit coming undone to reveal his face warped with aggression, the arm with holding screwdriver pinned by his attacker's knee and the knife slowly working its way closer to his torso as he wrestled to keep it away, frantically looking for an opportunity to turn the fight or another weapon.
Mariko gasped at the damage she had wrought, nearly bowled over by one of the rifles which had flown at her far faster than she intended. She struggled to heft it, half-remembering training from her private tutors on how to check a weapon's safety. By the time she got it gripped right, the last mercenary had Takamo on his back and was inching a knife towards his chest. "Hey! Stop!" she yelled, leveling the gun at the mercenary. "Stop or I'll shoot!"
Swearing vociferously, Verma fumbled at her belt for a pair of grenades, then popped up for a moment to toss them in a smooth arc at the incoming men, counting down in her head before... The blast shook the already battered decking, and she used the cover of the light and thunder to jump out of cover and charge across the hangar towards Contagion, firing at the mercs as she went before her gun clicked dry and she tossed it aside, electing to unhook the hilt of the hardlight sword and igniting it with a crackle.
The blades met with a raucous crash of thunder, hardlight meeting metal, energy fields colliding. Blight held the blade lock for a second, bracing it against her shoulder, before swearing under her breath and rolling, aiming to dodge the club. "See?!" she laughed, evidently still having a riot of a time. "If you'd have opened with the sword, we wouldn't have had to fuck about with all the gun business! This is a fight!" she called, attempting to get between the mecha's legs to give herself an opening at its back. "Aren't sword duels a whole lot more fun?" she asked, her tone...seemingly indicating she expected an answer. The mercenaries recoiled as Verma dumped fire at them, a few unable to get clear of the shrapnel and fire, at least solidly halving their number, most likely further. Contagion, a solid distance away, seemed entirely unconcerned by the grenades, her long jet-black hair billowing in the pressure wave of their combined blast. Noticing the same combatant barreling straight for her with a sword in hand, however, did faze her. The android's eyes went wide, scrambling to respond. She raised her multi-weapon but gave no time to aim, the submachine gun built into it thudding with a low-pitched rattle. Contagion herself, entirely untrained in hand to hand, scrambled to get away, stumbling and tripping as she attempted to escape back through the corvette's docking umbilical, her fire rapid but wild. -
The dazed mercenary on the floor was evidently coming back to his senses, shaking his head as he pulled himself to one knee, still supporting himself with one hand. "D...Dammit, what the hell was that?" he muttered, looking up. A beat. "Ah, ah crap!" he swore, scrambling for his dropped rifle, picking it up and aiming it with an audible clack-clack that echoed through the room, its sights setting on Mariko. "Drop the gun!" he yelled. On the plus side, Mariko's own threat of gun-related violence momentarily distracted the mercenary on top of Takamo, his visored helmet turning to look up at Mariko.
"Verma, Duck!" Katrina turned the cockpit, facing out the exit to the hangar. Her foe hadn't fallen to two dozen blasts from a shotgun, several micromissiles and was swift enough to evade her strikes... all without wearing any sort of visible exoskeleton. This wasn't a fight, she was merely playing with her. But she was a solider, and if it meant victory she would make that ultimate sacrifice. She had but one strategem remaining. Allowing her the opening to get behind her, she rotated the cockpit and set the self destruct and ejected herself out the front of the cockpit and out the hangar door. A moment later the machine detonated, shaking the entire ship with a tremendous explosion. Most of the blast was directed out of the hangar, propelling Katrina (still in her power armor) outside the ship and drifting away in tandem with an expanding wave of debris. By the time she oriented herself the two ships were already shrinking away in the distance, and were well out of reach of her grapple. And her armor had no thrusters to speak of. For a moment she thought all would be alright. Verma clearly had the fight under control, and in due time they could simply fly and pick her up. However her visor alerted her to oxygen loss, a hologram of her exo suit showing in flashing red, diagnosing a failed seal that had been damaged during her rapid ejection, accompanied with bars of the suits small internal oxygen tanks rapidly depleting. "No way that bitch survived that..." She hissed with her last breath of oxygen. ... The ship-shaking blast, combined with the distracted mercenary gave the Go'shii the opportunity to reverse the pin on the merc and get hold of the knife. With his two good arms he drove the knife into his visor, anticipating that would net him the kill, then reached to swipe the would-be-cedaver's gun and take down the mercenary threatening Mariko.
Mariko froze. She was well-trained and could shoot well, but she had never killed a person before. She had only ever fought against the unreal monsters of the Merger, the destruction of which was for most sentient beings, a matter of instinct. She did not squeeze the trigger of her own rifle, but desperately she willed the harrowing black chasm of the mercenary's gun barrel away from her, and subconsciously she exerted a psionic pressure that pushed against the gun, trying to force it away from both herself and Takamo, a slow but strong impulse. Her eyes were wide, almost entirely black, a look of shock and fear on her face even as she hunched her own rifle in a professional grip, aiming at the prone mercenary, her finger trembling on the trigger as she fought for the courage to pull the trigger herself. Behind them, she saw the feline Go'shii lash into action, writhing his lean muscles in a blur as he tried to butcher the other mercenary, moving too fast for her to even keep track…
Stumbling as the ship shuddered again, a backwards glance had Verma watching as Katrina blasted the hangar apart...and then died. Everything went blank for a moment as the soldier stood there, unable to come to terms with what had just happened. Then her gaze flickered between where Blight had been and Contagion, and everything vanished in a haze of fury. Screaming wordlessly, she charged heedlessly into Contagion's fire, bullets bouncing and pinging off of her armor, even as some punched through with tiny sprays of blood. Bio-foam applicators immediately sealed up the wounds as they occurred, but lost in rage and adrenaline, Verma paid them no mind. Running at Contagion, she made a leap, the blade of the greatsword arcing down towards the android in a gleaming blue flash.
"So quick to turn your?--" Blight had gone to make a jab as she rolled behind the mech, before noticing what was going on. Well. That was quick. And Blight was unnervingly close to the mech. "Son of a bit--!" she yelled, sprinting and diving to get away. Then, in a blinding flash, her optics went white and her audio receptors blanked, both going into automatic reboot. That was promising. Initially, the diagnostic warned of damage to her external cladding layers and several servos going into lockup. Then, with a hard slam against what the blinded Blight assumed was the hangar wall, a lot of things went red. Both of her legs, combat support systems, so on and so forth. Her sense of taste, though that was hardly a priority for the android at the moment. Fortunately, one of her arms was only orange--operational, though she should by no means stress it--and her primary processor casing had held out. Damaged, but it held out. Another, barely registered hard thump. That was the floor. Probably. It depended on if that mech had blown the ship apart or something; maybe it was just a piece of debris and when her eyes recalibrated she'd find herself floating in space. That'd be fun. As for Contagion, she was processing things with a far less calm demeanour. She shrieked, scrambling to try and evade, hucking her multi-weapon aside and attempting to roll over, to get on all fours. The action got her centre of mass out of the way of the sword, but it did not entirely save her from it. The sword plunged into the android's shoulder, almost severing her arm in entirety, the petite blue-eyed android letting out a wailing shriek, desperately trying to pull herself away with her other hand to no avail. Evidently, only the red-eyed android put up much of a fight when you got too close.
-- Fortune was on Takamo's side today; the foot-long blade of the combat knife finding itself embedded almost to the crossguard in the mercenary's shoulder. He let out a short scream trailing off into a gurgle as his eyes fell limp, the inside of his visor stained red and fortunately obscuring a view of what was behind. The other mercenary went to fire, his aim shoved off by Mariko, the man losing his balance as he fought to right himself. The dead mercenary's gun, a mundane and blocky mass of black metal and plastic, was fortunately both loaded and set to full auto. Both guns leveled at the same time, and both fired. Unfortunately for the mercenary, his aim was the worse of the day. His shots went wild save one that grazed Takamo's arm, while in return two shots landed in his chest and a third his throat, the man stumbling back and collapsing, gurgling for a long, painful few moments. And then, the reactor room was silent once more. -- Your audio receptors rebooting to the sound of your younger sister's cries of pain and desperation was a deeply unpleasant experience, as Blight discovered, followed shortly by the fuzzy input of her damaged but functional eyes. Or, right eye. Left was unresponsive. Excellent. The other woman, whom she had overheard being called Verma, was currently pinning Contagion to the floor with a particularly large sword Blight wouldn't have minded trying out herself. Through their already-sustained casualties, gun drones and shrapnel given off from the mech's explosion, the rest of the mercenaries were, uh...a mess. Well. "W-Wait!" Blight cried out, reaching out towards them with her damaged but functional arm, her voice now distorted. "W-W-We ha-ave no reason to-ooo fight you an-n-y-nymore!" she called, gesturing towards the dead mercenaries. "Ple-e-Ease! Just don-on't hurt...don't hurt Tagie..."
Mariko flinched as the gunfire roared in the close confines of the reactor room, and stifled a shriek as she saw the blood on Takamo's arm. She realised quickly that it was a flesh wound, whilst the mercenary was dead before his head fell back to the floor. Flicking the safety back on, she dropped the rifle and rushed over to Takamo, crouching beside him. Struggling out of the hazmat suit, she placed her hands on his forearm, her wide black eyes filled with concern. "Takamo, are you okay?" she asked, glancing down at the bullet wound.
Moving to take Contagion's head off, Verma halted as she heard Blight plead for the life of her sister. For just a brief moment she considered ignoring the other android and killing them both, but then a small part of her, one that she'd tried very hard to ignore and bury after the war snarled and whispered thoughts of pain and fury. After all, you've lost someone. Why not take that grief out on the stupid bitch that caused it? Turning slightly to regard the other, ignoring the wailing figure at her feet, she sneered. "Don't hurt her? Don't you think it's a little late for that, you fucking rustbucket? Katrina is dead, and you might as well have pulled the trigger." Savagely kicking Contagion, she laughed bitterly as the android screamed again. "Don't hurt her, hmm? Well, I've already done that, but I'll go ahead and let her live." Reaching down, she seized Contagion by her remaining arm and hauled her up, securing a grip around her neck as she held her in front of her and turned to face Blight. "Sisters are supposed to help each other aren't they? I'll let her live, and she can help fix you. And in return, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to help her with her own...disabilities." Spinning the droid around, she slammed her up against the wall and dug her armored fingers into Contagion's right eye, twisting and tugging until the eye came free with a sickening pop and a gush of lubricants. Then she let the woman drop to ground and kicked her again for good measure.
“Yeah. I’m okay…” He snarled, dismissing her question in the heat of the moment as he peeled out of the mangled hasmat suit. Both his lower arms had been disabled and were left hanging rather uselessly. One by the Mercanary’s less than stellar aim, and the other from the prior stab. “Come on, I don’t know what’s happening with the other girls, but it doesn’t sound good.” He snatched up a spare rifle in one hand and the detonator they had prepared in the other, he held it high as he made his way down the hall, holding the remote high as he did making it apparent to any more mercanaries they might encounter that one wrong move would have everyone involved and the ship itself turned into a rapidly expanding cloud of hot gas. All his thoughts were a rabid tangle that raced by a mile a minute, rolling in and out of reality. In the rush of adrenaline he’d forgotten virtually anything, his duty to escort the princess redeem his name in the eyes of his country. Perhaps it was anemia, or perhaps the pain which he was doing everything into the power. He shambled up to the hangar bay without bothering to spare a glance at the carnage inside, only to find that when he opened the door on the threshold between the corridor and the hangar that the atmosphere began to rush out into the void of space. Utterly unphased, he hurled himself against the wall beside the door, fumbling amidst a manual button panel until he found on which would close the hangar’s shutters doors. The doors began to close as red lighting conduits pulsed. His mind went blank as he stood their heaving, simply relishing a moment’s rest while waiting for the winds to stop as the doors came to a close around the corvette’s docking gangway. The doors intially stopped, withdrawing slightly and attempting agian to close again. They withdrew a second time, only for the hydralics to come back in full force to either side of the boarding walkway.
Mariko tagged along in his wake, staggering slightly as he nearly vented them into space, clinging on to a doorjam until he managed to shut the doors again. Eyes wide, she crossed to an overlook window and peered down into the hangar below, her nose pressed against the glass as she tried to get a good view of everything going on. "Takamo, look! It looks like Verma and Katrina took care of the others, they're all down except...hey wait...." She paused for a moment, squinting at the scatter of broken equipment, drones, mercenaries and the injured 'droids next to the bleeding, blood-spattered Verma. "Where's Katrina?" she asked, almost to herself, even though she had a sinking feeling in her gut that told her the answer…
Contagion screamed, an unnervingly human sound for an android piercing the hangar as Verma's armoured hand dug into her eye socket, the dull light illuminating her bright blue eyes fizzling and fading out as it was torn from her metal skull, leaving the socket bent and mangled out of shape, her forced-aside eyelids fluttering and spasming as they attempted to close over the bare metal and spilled lubricant. The comparatively tiny android crashed to the hangar floor, rolled over at Verma's second kick, her hand clamped over her freshly evicted eye socket, her other arm held on only by synthetic skin and a couple of wires. Blight, meanwhile, could only watch. Neither of her legs would respond, and a good few dozen flechettes at lazy stone tossing distance had meant her other arm would only twitch under the greatest will to move. One of her eyes, too, was damaged and grey, but her brow could go no lower, her remaining red eye fixed unerringly on Verma. Over the fire and smoke and hiss of damaged electronics, the soft scrape of Blight slowly dragging herself in the direction of her sister was nigh inaudible. What was her plan? She couldn't fight like this, what was she supposed to do? Grasp at the woman's leg? Bang at the metal of her armour, yelling obscenities like a drunken dockworker? Ask Contagion to put her in a chair so she could write a harshly worded letter? These thoughts only momentarily passed through her mind, brushed off by the livid rage that gripped her artificial mind, her eye drawn off by sparks bouncing from her bicep. If she pushed it too hard, this arm would give out too. Dammit. "You..." she hissed lowly, forced through clenched teeth. "...You bitch..."
Mariko found the exterior console to the hangar and stabilized the atmosphere, closing the emergency blast doors before reopening the inner doors Takamo had prematurely opened in his haste. Light on her feet, she skipped into the room, nearly tripping over debris and the occasional corpse as she approached Verma. "Verma, are you okay? What happened?" she said, taking in the scene and biting back vomit as she saw the injuries inflicted on the two androids.
Verma's soft laughter echoed in the still air of the hangar. "What happened? What happened is that Katrina's dead because of that circuitbox over there. So I paid her back some. A couple screams, a bit of the excuse they use for blood, and I figure our bill is settled." Still smirking, she strolled over to Blight and looked down at her. "And you'd do better to keep your mouth shut lest I rip your jaw off...bitch."
Takamo shambled into the room with two limp, still-bleeding arms, holding the reactor suicide detonator with a dull look in his eyes. He glanced around seeing only Katrina, some considerable blast damage to the hangar and the heap of corpses on the ground. Slowly he became more lucid of the situation, aware that Verma was the last one standing and the room lacked any obvious threats. "Dammit!" He snarled. "We needed their ship..." He glanced to where the gangway had been pinched off blast doors, leaving the crumpled portal on the floor.
The bridge crew of the Corvette would detect something approaching at high speeds on the edge of sensor range. The vessel began to slow down, returning four relativistic columns of radioactive iron as it engaged a full reverse thrust. Commodore Lacurna Riton watched as the image rectified on his scopes. The Farrian of indeterminite gender smirked with satisfaction. It was a shogun class that appeared to have sustained some minor damage, drifting and offline and a nearby corvette with a severed docking gantry. “Inform high command we’ve found their missing ship, and their princess too. Prep boarding parties and deploy interdiction. Tightbeam those ships, maximum broadcast power.” … “This is Commodore Lacurna Riton of the GDAN Axiom of Purpose to the GDAN Shogun and Unidentified vessel. Stand down and prepare to be boarded. Over.”
Blight's face contorted with rage stared back up at Verma, and the android went to make some defiant, snarky remark, before of all things the dead mercenary captain's comms unit buzzed. "Hey!" came a male voice--presumably of the corvette's bridge crew--with an annoyed sound. "I don't know what the fuck you or those damn androids did or whoever the fuck is on that ship, but a whole fucking battleship just dropped out of FTL!" he snarled, sounding like he was narrowly restraining himself from yelling. "Get the fuck back on this ship! We're bugging out, and I don't give a damn if you're back on here or not when we do!" Contagion, disregarding her current state of being, stumbled to the captain's obliterated remains, yanking the radio from what was left of his gear. "This is Contagion. The captain is dead, but we have hostages. Emergency safety protocols sealed the hangar bay; the umbilical is severed. We need the other one, armed with thermal cutters." she explained, letting off lies without a hint of a tell. A pause. "The bastard got himself shot? Fuck. Alright, hold tight tin lady, those hostages better be worth it." Contagion looked up at the others with her one remaining eye, the other having finally managed to shut itself. "I know how to get rid of the bridge crew and fly that ship, but I'm not doing either without my sister." --- As for Commodore Lacurna, the response from the corvette was equally as frustrated. "Yeah? Boarding under who's authority, motherfucker? This is the Lost Star FTZ dickhead, you got no right aboard my boat! If you wanna go salvage scrap from the burnt out tin can then be my fuckin guest, but the only people who get inside this hull are people I say can, you got that?" Around this time, a low thud echoed through the hangar, the metal door glowing in a circle. Thermal cutters.
Mariko's mind raced. The Dominion were here for Takamo, and in only a few moments their armoured soldiers would be swarming aboard this ship and would probably execute everyone except for her on the spot. As much as a tiny part of her wanted simply to give in, to step aboard an allied ship and be returned to the safety of the Jade Empire and her mother, she couldn't do that to Takamo. "Takamo's right," she said, "we need that corvette, and it looks like we need help to take it, quickly." She crossed over to Contagion and crouched, trying not to blanch at the injuries the android had sustained. Even though they were, unlike an organic, theoretically completely repairable, if this android were anything like the RAI of Ingen she would be feeling the physical and mental trauma just as keenly as any biological victim. She reached out a hand, her alabaster skin casting a faint glow that reflected off Contagion's blood-and-fluid-spattered armour. "Let me help you up," she said in accented Common, her voice deliberate and slow. With her one good eye Contagion would see a young woman, a teenager in truth, with pale glowing skin marked by an emerald band over her upper face and nose, and two white horns topped by glowing orbs poking through a tangle of thick, bottle-green hair. Her eyes were large and doe-like, her expression full of concern, whilst despite her travel-stained red jacket the jewelry on her fingers, at her neck and on her ears marked her as a woman of extreme wealth.
Verma snarled at Contagion's demand, but softened as Mariko helped the android to her feet. Resignation filled her voice as she sighed. "Deal. But one wrong twitch from either of you, and I find out what your insides look like." Pausing slightly to glance out the shattered section of hull, she sounded slightly wistful as she added "And we need to grab Katrina's body before we go. I have an idea." Then she turned on her heel and went over to Blight before bending down and hoisting the damaged robot into her arms. When she spoke again, the hard tones of a commander filled the hangar. "Takamo, I need you to go retrieve Valeem from the morgue, along with any medical supplies you think we might be able to use, then set the engines to blow after we undock. Mariko, get Blight settled once we're on the other ship, I'll take point with Contagion in clearing their bridge. Then we need to get to Lost Star."
Takamo glanced at a pair of KR units which had survived the engagement. "Retrieve... the body of Valeem Udar.” Takamo grunted. "Error. Valeem Udar has been clinically dead for over six hours. Possibility of successful recessitation is 0.00069%.” The machine glanced down at his bleeding arm. “Warning. Severe hemmoraging of lurmo-brachial artery on detected. Reccomend immediate administartion of clotting agents or biofoam.” “I… I got it.” Takamo said, shambling to the first aid kit in a compartment by the wall of the hangar and using his good arms to begin administering a series of drugs to his wounds. “Just… go get him… that’s an order.” With that he withdrew the first aid kit, retrieving a smaller package from it. The entire kit stood up. A drone in its own right, like a pack mule laden with supplies on four wheeled feet. He could have gone back to the sick bay and retrieved a much more comprehensive supply of medicines, but didn’t have the time nor energy. The bots returned, hauling Valeem’s bodbyag onto the ship. Takamo following shortly thereafter. … Outside, Commodore Lacurna had ordered the launch of fighters. After what they had returned on comms their marks may attempt to flee, several fighter units each consisting of a single manned fighter and a dozen or so drones were being scattered to multiple points in three dimensional space around the two docked ships, closing around them like a sphere. The boarding craft had their own drone escorts and were drawing their way in through the middle, slowing to rendevouz with them. Judging by the fact that half a dozen troop carrier skiffs had been used (each one carrying hundreds of war droids) they were anticipating just about anything.
Contagion's one good eye settled on Mariko, though her hard and cold gaze softened a little. Overall, Contagion was the vastly lesser damaged of the two, though an arm hanging by some skin was hardly a pleasant thing to look at, android or no. "Thank you. But I think my sis--" she started, before Verma picked up the tattered remnants of Blight. "....Oh. Never mind." she blinked, kneeling down again to draw a pistol from the holster of a dead mercenary. "I would appreciate it if you retrieved her sword, though. I will make sure there is nobody waiting for us onboard." she added, turning as the ring of glowing metal finally turned to slag as the thermal cutters broke through, induction beams a second later knocking the loose ring of metal into the ship. Contagion was already there, slinging her combi-gun over her shoulder. "Hey, you lot!" buzzed through the radio. "That damn ship's launching buzzers! Not long before I'll have no choice but to tell the guns to have a field day, so get the fuck in here!" "...Understood." Contagion replied, dropping the radio. "Watch your step." she called over her shoulder, heading inside ahead of the drones. Murmurs from the other end, followed by the echoing crack of two pistol shots, signaled that Contagion had indeed dealt with a welcome party. --- The corvette remained idle, though numerous point defence weapons rose out of armoured covers. Another signal went out, the captain seemingly annoyed at the lack of response. "Hey, dickhead! I don't know what hot shit you think you are, but if you'd like any of those shiny tinker toys of yours to come home hole free I'd suggest you back them the fuck up buddy. I do what I must to protect me and mine, and no boarding craft's integrity is vital to that, you understand me?"
Mariko glanced around, searching for Blight's sword among the wreckage. After a moment she spotted a blade whose design matched Blight's armour and which looked too specialised for the mercenaries around them, and hefted it with a grunt. It was too heavy for her to use, practically speaking, but she carried it just fine as she cautiously followed Contagion and the others into the corvette. She flinched as gunshots sounded ahead of them. Contagion was either true to her word, or was enacting a mummer's play to trick them into the corvette where her surviving mercenary friends could turn the tables on her, Takamo and Verma. Either way, she knew that stepping onto the corvette was a serious risk, but compared to getting blown to atoms aboard the Shogun frigate or else seeing Takamo and Verma hauled away to execution for treason it didn't seem so bad…
Stepping through the gap into the corvette, Verma set Blight down gently, then unhooked the hilt of her sword and strolled forwards, spinning it smoothly. Stepping lightly over the bodies of the welcome party, she caught up to Contagion and flicked a glance over her. Chewing her lip for a moment, she sighed. "Now would be a good time to apologize for your eye, I suppose. At least, it might be if I was sorry. I lost my temper, I'll admit to that. " Turning to face the android, she halted briefly. "My word, given freely that no further harm will come to you or your sister by my hand, and I will do my best to see you repaired. In return, I want your word you won't stab us in the back or sell us out the first chance you get."
Takamo crumpled down on the floor, sitting down next to Mariko and gripping her shoulder with his good arm. The first aid drone and the a handful of confused looking war droids that had escorted stood on standby near to him. "I sure hope these guys know what they're doing..." The droids stood by for a moment, making an odd series of movements. "Remote override code accepted. Primary objective: Retrieve Princess Mariko." They spoke in unison. Two of the their droids raised their rifles at Verma, two more at Contagion as a fifth got between them, Prying away Takamo's grip effortlessley and reaching to snatch up the princess and carry her back into the dominion frigate for recovery. ... Outside the fighter craft observed the point defense guns at the ready. There were a series of bright flashes and their numbers had seemingly multiplied tenfold, systems producing a series of holographic decoys sweeping in from every angle simultaneously. In that same moment the ship was struck by powerful electronic countermeasures. They fired missiles dialed to a low yield, just enough to disable the guns of the corvette.
Blight was, to her infinite fortune, out of sight when the drones were hacked. Or, that's what it sounded like, anyway, from the telltale whirring of energy weapons spooling up and their declaration of orders spouted in unison. Spectacular. Blight thought to herself, looking at the safety harness currently pinning her to a seat. The notion occurred to her that she felt lucky not to be doing the same, but that was a notion for another time. The red-eyed android looked about, inspecting her situation. Three of four limbs were out of action, though internal redundancies and what limited damage mitigation systems she had had stabilised her one remaining arm's function and rebooted her eye. There was a small locker on the wall near here, usually intended for emergencies. Blight's armoured hand grasped at it, virtually wrenching the door open and mangling the simple plastic lock in the process. A medical kit, a small rebreather in the event of decompression and to mitigate the effects of radiation pump damage, and... Blight grinned. A hand cannon, so a crewman could defend himself from boarders. Or, in the android's case, herself. Blight pulled it out, feeling the weight of the loaded magazine as she shoved it into her mouth to free her arm, unlocking the safety harness and swinging herself down, attempting to propel herself around the corner. And falling just short, scrabbling at the floor ineffectual thanks to its smooth surface. Fuck. Fuck!
-- Contagion looked back up at Verma. "If I can--or, more likely, when I can--access the captain's accounts, we will have far more money than he originally offered us, as well as his ship. Overall, once repairs are complete, we will have come out of this job better off than originally expected. I have no reason to--" she explained, her tone her usual deadpan, before she was cut off by the raising of weapons in their direction. Contagion tensed, gripping her multi-gun tighter. "Correction. I will especially have no reason to stab you in the back if you think you can handle those while I deal with the bridge crew." she stated, shuffling to put Verma more between her and the droids. --
"Captain!" one of the bridge officers called. "What is it? The fuck're they doing now?" "Missile contacts! Something's fucking with our systems, I'm counting somewhere between ten and fifteen munitions! I can't track hostile vessel count either!" "Damn it. They're trying to throw us off, so we can't defend ourselves. Is our umbilical retracted?" "Detached, withdrawing." "Good enough. Helm, plot an evasive path, blast the engines to full, on my mark, and give us a spin! They can throw off our guns, but we can throw off their aim!" "Aye aye!" The captain grabbed a microphone, the ship's speakers abruptly calling out. "Hold onto your asses, you sons of bitches! We're going for a ride!" he all but yelled, dropping the microphone. "Alright...three...two...one, now!" Abruptly, the corvette's engines would flare bright, spikes of glowing blue ejecting from the thrusters as the vessel suddenly gained speed away from the Gauss ships, barrel rolling as it went, the guns suddenly firing ablaze. It seemed they weren't content standing around in a fighter net. -- Blight, as inertial dampeners raced to catch up, skidded across the floor in a shower of sparks, grinding into view of the scene around the corner. Fate was on her side, it seemed. She grinned as she grabbed the gun from her mouth, lining up the sights with one of the droids. "Hey dickheads!" she called. "You missed one!" And gunshots rang through the ship.
Mariko screamed in surprise as the droids turned on them. She hefted Blight's giant sword and, to her surprise, it felt light in her hands. She swung at the droid reaching for her, a huge haymaker blow that would have exasperated Sensei Chiba, her sword-fighting instructor, but she had no idea how to properly use the strange, angular weapon that crackled with harmonic resonance as it smashed into the droid. There was a shower of sparks and the grinding scream of metal, as the blade ploughed straight through the unfortunate automaton and buried itself in the wall to Mariko's right. Mariko staggered at the impact, nearly losing her footing amid the tumbling remnants of the first droid. Looking up, everything seemed to move in slow-motion as the other droids aimed their rifles at her friends. A few yards away, Blight tumbled around the corner and began firing from the floor - it was almost funny. She focused. She knew she had powers now, she knew she wasn't helpless. She took a deep breath and pushed forwards with all her willpower, tossing the droids aside in a storm of energy. Or so she hoped. But nothing happened. Confused, she repeated the motion, a simple tai-chi move that helped to focus her thoughts, to no avail…
Swearing under her breath, Verma staggered as the ship rolled, before activating her sword and taking a swing at a drone, shearing it in half. Bracing against the wall, she snapped a kick at the drone between her and Contagion before dropping into a roll and coming up in a smooth jump, spinning the blade in a arc in front of her.
As they pulled away the first round of missiles spiraled away or missed their intended targets; the point defense guns either impacting the hull (their yields dialed back considerably such that they would be unlikely to penetrate) or detonating prematurely. As the corvette rocketed away from the fray the fighters and boarding craft followed behind. The battleship paused for a moment before its immense engines spooled to life and trailed behind them in an effort to keep them within interdiction range. For a brief moment, there was reprieve and they did not fire, before the skiffs began to jettison large numbers of torpedoes from their holds; larger and more advanced than the missiles that had been employed a moment ago. Left drifting in a cloud behind the ship for a moment before kicking online. These were pulse torpedoes, designed to disable electronic systems through immense electromagnetic distortions created upon detonation. There were well over a hundred of them closing on different vectors (seemingly 10 times as many thanks to the holograms) meant to saturate and overwhelm the corvette's PD grid. Takamo took Mariko, helping her get buckled back into a chair before buckling himself in. As the corvette's structure creaked and the dampeners struggled to keep up he placed his hand around Mariko and felt for something. The remote detonator he had rigged in the gunship. He mulled for a moment, recognizing that triggering it probably meant the death of dozens of his former brothers and sisters. His mind raced, imagining them turning around and passing the frigate, blasting the derelict ship to smithereens and using the blast for cover to throw off the pursuing fighters. He couldn't. One of them probably would. "I... I know how to lose them! Turn the ship around, lead them by the Shogun and press this." He shouted, showing the detonator to Blight and Contagion.
Blight grinned, watching her fire put down a drone and Mariko use her sword to end another. "One arm, one eye, I still got it." she chuckled, her tone a mix of satisfaction and whatever amounted to android pain. "Hey can...someone put me back in a chair? I only got this arm working and I shouldn't stress it too much." she asked, tossing the empty hand cannon aside. Contagion looked to Takamo as she spoke, her eyes fixing on the detonator. She nodded, walking back over and taking it--firmly, but in no way harshly--and stepping back as she stuffed it into a pocket, turning to Verma. "I can get to the controls quickly, but the crew will most likely try to kill me. I need you to stop that. Don't worry too much about the consoles; I only need the one to fly this ship." Without waiting for a response, the android all but stormed to the door to the bridge, tapping some buttons. The lights turned green and slid open, the android stepping in. The bridge was a somewhat dark, semicircular-shaped room, with a raised section at the middle back for the captain and his XO, the helmsman directly in front; the two boarders had entered through a door on the bridge's left, another opposite. "Hey, how'd the--Hey, what the fu?--" the captain started, a burst of fire from the SMG in Contagion's multi-weapon cutting him down. A second left the helmsman slumped over his console, the same one the android then stormed over to, dropping her gun and tapping on it like she hadn't just killed two of the crew. Sure enough, the rest of the bridge crew--three men--all went to grab weapons, the XO next to the dead captain grabbing a shotgun with the others reaching for handguns. None of them had seemingly noticed Verma. "Too many targets to bother counting in pursuit." Contagion stated flatly, pausing. "Standby. I am launching a warhead to give us some breathing room." A deep rumble, and the brief rumble of a rocket engine.
Verma grumbled under her breath. "Would it be too much to not have something go wrong or have someone trying to kill us? I mean, come on! This entire trip has been like something out of a shitty B-grade action holo. One fucking twist after another." As Contagion burst into the bridge and killed the captain, Verma paused and scooped up a rifle from the dead GD drone, before following. Watching the remaining crew go for their guns, she proceeded to empty the clip at the XO to eliminate the threat of the shotgun, before chucking the rifle at one of the other crew and leaping over the console at him, sword raised.
Mariko followed cautiously, peeking through the door and seeing Contagion working calmly at a console amid the sprawl of corpses and Verma in the middle of a brawl with another crew member. One last man was fumbling with a handgun, nobody seemingly marking him. Verma had her back to the man and Contagion seemed busy, but the man had also not noticed Mariko. Letting Blight's sword rest against the wall she focused again. This time she did not rush, but reached out to feel the room, tracing a pattern with her foot and focusing slowly, clearing her mind. She felt rather than saw the man finally flick off the safety and begin leveling the handgun, almost in slow motion. With an almost lazy motion, slow and graceful, she pulled and he was lifted from his feet, soaring across the bridge towards her. In the split moment before he crashed into her, she extended her palm and he stopped short, as if he had hit a wall, crumpling to the deck in front of her, bones broken by blunt force trauma. She opened her eyes and gasped, her onibi radiating bright light for a moment before settling back to their usual glow.
Takamo forced his way into then co-pilot's control seat with a loud grunt and studied the controls for a moment. All he needed was the control yoke and the throttle. Though he wasn't entirely certain why the crew had to die so that he could take the stick, he was more focused on getting himself out of this situation; less so focused on the tedious how and why. Behind them the nuke detonated. A however telegraphed attack which the pulse missiles were able to respond. They shot off on all directions, like a blooming flower; the detonation harmlessly expanding in the middle and only providing momentary cover. He cut the main drive, and fired the corvette's reaction thrusters as they tumbled into a reversed position. By the time the enemy fighters and missiles had started to come around, they were passing back through the fading explosion in the opposite direction, racing back twoards the crippled Shogun. As the ship made a harrowingly close pass, they caught a momentary glance at the ship's idle gun batteries; larger than the corvette itself and refusing to fire on account of their possession of the princess. Commodore Lacurna watched from the bridge of the Axiom of Purpose in confusion. "What... are they doing?"
Contagion made an only momentary noise of annoyance at Takamo's taking of the controls, though she quickly switched to regulating the corvettes power and heat. "The spacefold drive is charging and the exotic fuel injector is armed, but the system will not work while we are within interdiction. I am entering foldpoint coordinates now." she explained, tapping rapidly on the console with her working hand. As the vessel made its blitzing flyby, however, the android reached into a pocket, holding the detonator high above her head, staring at the screen. "Pulling the trigger in five...four...three...two--" "Hey, are we blowing shit up?" Blight's voice echoed down the hall. "If we're blowing shit up I wanna se-" "One." Click
A small blast erupted from the Shogun's port engine, reaching to the aft bomb bay on the port side. This set off the massive ball of anti-osmium seated within the first antiship bomb. This promptly set off the other 23 bombs. A majority of the fighter craft and torpedoes in immediate pursuit withered like ice cubes tossed on a hot skillet, while others further away were tossed tumbling clear of the ship. The battleship had enough distance from the blast to avoid more than superficial damage, but was still rocked heavily by the expanding wave of vaporized matter. The entire ship was shunted ungracefully to the side as the commodore Lacurna, who was standing was flung against the far wall of the bridge. The commodore stood, dazed but not seriously hurt. Takamo hung his head regretfully. Even though he had not been the one to pull the trigger, he felt remorse for the men he'd once called his brothers... just trying to do their job... to get the princess to safety. "Its unfair." He thought. "That all of them should have to die so that I can live." That same blast wave had given the corvette a respectable boost away from the fray, and he had a rough estimate they were already about halfway there. The Falconer had interdiction, but its range was short compared to dedicated interdictors. Takamo leaned into the controls with all of his strength, trying to get the ship to go faster through sheer force of will. A single dominion fighter and a handful of drones which had been clear of the first blast were still riding their tail. This pilot was clearly a veteran, weaving through the ropes of point defense fire with grace and returning bolts of hardlight to the ship with lethal accuracy, attempting to clip the point defenses. "Dammit..." He snarled out loud. "We're almost clear. Someone deal with that guy!"
Mariko stared, wide-eyed. The significance of the Dominions arrival had been lost on her until the Shogun frigate exploded, killing Gauss pilots in a blaze of detonating ordnance. Despite everything that had happened, this had all seemed like a game up until this moment, but now good, innocent men and women had been killed. One fighter had not given up and was still following them. She stepped to the viewport and tried to push the fighter away, but she could feel her strength waning and the fighter was a huge object with a great deal of force behind it. She settled for working with it instead of against it, adding extra momentum every time the pilot turned, making his ship overreact to his controls. Hopefully he would lose ground or give up
A kick had the remaining crew member folding over with a grunt, and a sweep of the sword relieved him of his head. Verma nudged the corpse aside and deactivated the blade, going over to lean over Takamo, studying the display. "Damn, but that's one persistent fucker. We got any missiles on this boat? Could just smack him with one of those."
"Yes, but not many. We should save our guided munitions; we may need them later." Contagion responded, her one working hand a blur as always. A pause. "I have an idea. Strap in and hold on tight, I'm about to perform a high-G maneuver." she added, giving the assorted persons on the bridge mere moments to do so. "Oh shit, whats this about maneuvers? Can someone please come strap me i--" Blight's voice echoed down the hall. Abruptly, Contagion cut the primary engines, instead blasting the retrorockets on full burn, aiming to close the gap far too quickly for the fighter to accommodate for. Everything fired forward as inertial force now threatened to rip everyone out of their seats and fling them into the primary digital viewport. Grinding of metal signalled Blight sliding helplessly on the floor. She only barely managed to make eye contact with the crew, however, before Contagion reversed her action. Retrorockets were left to cool as the main engines' brief respite ended, blasting to full in a wave of hot gas and radiation, intending to blast the fighter and send them scattering. Failing that, they were now much closer to the point defence cannons. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiiiiiiiiii!-" echoed from increasingly far away as Blight now sailed across the metal floor back the way she came, cut off abruptly by a crash of metal and a distant 'Fuck!'
The fighter waivered for a moment. The pilot was unable to control his direction, and too reluctant to fire in a way that could more critically damage the craft. Though when the corvette reversed thrust into him, unable to properly maneuver thanks in part to the telekenetic lock his fighter impacted the exterior hull of the ship, doing minimal damage to the corvette but causing the fighter to explode on contact with the hull. The pilot ejected without a moment to spare, but was targeted all the same by the point defense system, a handful of rounds reducing them to an expanding cloud of red mist and metal shrapnel. His drone escorts autonomously looped around to return to fill in gaps elsewhere in the squadron before turning around again on a direct order from the flagship to reengage. Additional squadrons were forming up in an attempt to continue to grind down their foe such that they could eventually board and the battleship was racing towards them. “Go, go, go!” Takamo urged, throwing the forward thruster back on, leaning into the throttle lever with all of his remaining strength as though it would somehow make the ship exceed its mechanical capabilities.
Mariko barely made it back to a seat in time, buckling herself down and then promptly being bounced around by Takamo and Contagion's evasive maneuvers. She closed her eyes as he pushed the ship into FTL, feeling momentarily sick. Eventually the ship settled and she opened her eyes again, taking in Takamo's grim look of concentration and Verma's nonchalant look of mild relief. She unbuckled herself, rising shakily. They had just killed multiple Dominion pilots and she did not know how to console Takamo, nor how to deal with the indecent cheerfulness of the others, so she turned to leave the bridge. "They must have a galley here somewhere. I can't remember the last time I ate..." she said as she left.
Contagion was, comparatively, unaffected by spacefold, the ship rumbling as the folding and stretching of space caused the stars to twist and tumble, constellations intertwining and being horribly warped beyond recognition as the vessel was politely shoved forward an astronomical nanometer--and in doing so, crossed dozens, maybe hundreds of lightyears, Contagion had admittedly punched in the foldout coordinations in a hurry--before those same constellations whipped back, now replaced by new ones. She relaxed a moment, before leaning forward over the nav console. "Where is it you're actually going? I'm going to enter information for the autopilot." she asked. In the main chamber, spattered with the blood of dead mercenaries someone had shoved back out the airlock and the forms of torn Dominion drones, Mariko came across Blight, unceremoniously crumpled in the corner after having been tossed about by those same evasive maneuvers. The android offered a tired smirk, raising a hand in greeting. "Heya, girl. You doin' alright? You, uh...look a lil pale."
Verma grunted and dropped into a seat with a sigh. "Gotta say, could've done without that just now." At Contagion's question, she glanced over. "Set course for Zaoth. Should be somewhere in there, I can give you coordinates if it's not." Shifting, she winced as pain flickered along her side, the effects of the last hour making themselves known as her wound flared up, and bio-monitor warnings flashing on her HUD. According to the display, she was hemorrhaging on the inside, and the only reason she wasn't feeling it was due to the support systems of the Gaussian-made armor and a frankly absurd amount of painkillers.
The Go'shii slumped back in his chair, finally relaxing if only slightly. His ears rotated to the familiar sound of a medical drone ping. The mobile first aid kit he'd dragged along had not been overriden and was dutifully trotting in place next to her, attempting to resupply her armor's stockpile of painkillers. He couldn't bear to watch the woman suffer, rising from his chair, he raced over. "Sit down... sit down..." Takamo was no augmentation, but general medical training had been a part of his indoctrination. He swiped a portable MRI scanner from the bot, booting it up and waiving it across her abdomen and the cask of biofoam which encompassed it. He looked for a second, lacking the energy to sugarcoat it. "You're pretty much fucked. But way I see it you got two choices... you bleed out. Or you have about coin flip odds of surviving the stupid thing I'm about to do. Anyone who's squeamish about blood... look away..." He retrieved a small plasma torch off his belt; one that came with the reactor technician's rad suit he'd been wearing and ignited it. "Also I know you're doped on a week's worth of painkillers but you're probably still going to feel this..." He then gripped the cask of biofoam wedged into her gut and pulled. Scartlet fluids surged out the wound and onto the floor, just as he'd predicted. Hastily he drove the torch in, igniting it and cauterizing the internal bleeding over several agonizing seconds. Once the bleeding stopped he tossed the instrument aside, grabbing half a dozen doses of healing stims from the medical droid which protested that such a dose would probably result in the body overworking itself trying to heal its own wounds... leading to a short coma... or worse. He bit the caps off the needles, spitting them out and driving them in around the injury. Satisfied, he ketered over, slumping against the wall next to her. "Stubborn bitch..." He joked, cracking a half smile.
Mariko stopped short as Blight called out to her. "Grandad's teeth," she cursed, a common exclamation in the Jade Empire and one made more effacious by the fact her grandfather was Shogun Kuribayashi. "Are you okay?" She crossed over to Blight, crouching down and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Three of Blight's limbs looked badly damaged, as did the rest of her, but her one good eye watched Mariko clearly. The princess took hold of Blight's hand and tugged her into a sitting position, though the android was too heavy for her to lift outright. She fell backwards with the effort, pulling herself back so that she was seated opposite Blight. "Can we like...repair you? I know it's pretty complicated for Frames in the Jade Empire..."
"Eyy, careful there girlie." Blight chuckled. "Thanks though." she added, shifting her weight slightly to sit more comfortably. Blight's one good arm shrugged, and she sighed. "Yeah, probably. There's a tech bay opposite the medbay on this boat and my lil' sis Tagie knows my workings like the back of her hand." Blight grinned. Contagion, punching in coordinates for Zaoth, glanced at the back of her ungloved hand at a scratch in the skin that hadn't been there earlier. "Huh, that's new." she muttered. "So she can get all my bits working again at the very least." Blight smiled. "What about you? You're lookin a little pale. Somethin' bothering you?" Contagion, for her part, finally punched in the coordinates, the corvette turning as its engines slowly burned the ship towards standard cruise velocity. "The ship can't get there in one jump, but it's calculated the five jumps needed to do so by itself. The ship computer will let us know if something comes up. Now," she rose to her feet, turning to look at Verma and Takamo. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go reattach my arm, and fix my sister." she stated bluntly, striding for the exit.
Mariko flinched, thinking it was a jab at her expense, but then remembered that Blight and the others had come aboard after her dramatic transformation. It felt like a lifetime ago already... "I uh...it's complicated." she said, unsure how much she wanted to discuss. News of what had happened might take time to filter through the AncNet, and she didn't know if anyone in this galaxy would even recognize her as a human, let alone as a Yokari. "It's been a....a long day. And I think we just killed a bunch of Dominion soldiers who just thought they were trying to rescue me and bring me home to the Jade Empire..."
Verma's agonized shrieks resounded throughout the ship as the plasma torch crackled. When Takamo clicked it off, she shuddered as the bots began stitching her wound up. Then an armored fist shot out and seized Takamo by his collar while she raised her head and glared at him. Her voice was a grating rasp cut with gasps and stutters as she shook in pain . "If you...ever f-f-fu-fucking stick a plasma torch in my guts again, I'll- nghh tear your...arms off and- gah! Rape you to death with them!"
Contagion paused at the doorway, eyes...or eye, rather, fixed on Verma and Takamo. A ghost of a smile cracked across her features. Payback, if indirect, was sweet. "Have fun with that. Is...now a bad time to mention this ship has a meday?" she said simply, quickly vanishing out of sight. "Thought? What do you reckon they actually wanted, then?" Blight raised an eyebrow. "And if you ain't goin home, where are you goin?" she added, spotting her sister with her good eye. "Heya, Tagie! I was just talkin to green n mean here! How are things?" she asked. Contagion strode over, crouching down, her one good arm reaching out to make a cursory inspection of the tattered remains of her sister. "We are safe, and headed for the Zaoth system. As you've likely heard, Miss...Verma, is having some difficulties, at the behest of our three-eyed companion." she stated simply, blinking as she took a look as Blight's black, unresponsive eye. "H-Hey...Tagie, I'm...sorry, for all this." Blight sighed, gesturing to Contagion's arm. Contagion paused, making eye contact. "I should be saying that to you, Blight." "No, no, you shouldn't. I'm the bigger sister, I'm supposed to keep you safe, and all I could do was watch as that bitch took your eye out." Blight sighed, shaking her head, her eye switching to Mariko. "Sorry. She's your friend, but she did dig out my sister's eye to get at me." Contagion leant back into a more upright position, her head turning to look at Mariko. "On that note. Would you be so kind as to open the door to the tech bay? It's just there, but I only have one arm, and need to get my sister to repairs before she does something stupid and damages herself further." Contagion asked, pointing to the door just around the corner, further towards the ship's rear.
"I'll take that as a 'thank you' " Takamo grunted with an empty growl, rising to his feet and leading the group down to the tech bay and opening the door for them. Then he turned and scowled. Leaving the door open, he paced off down the hall, weary from the events of the past few days. Finally distanced from the others he realized just how tired he was. Every joint and bone in his body ached and his eyelids were heavy. With all the grace of an undead zombie he shambled into the crew quarters, finding a made bed and climbing in. Almost instantly, the Go'shii lost consciousness.
Mariko shrugged. "That's a good question. I guess I'm following you guys for now. I want to go home, I guess, but if the Dominion would euthanize Takamo if they ever caught him." She stood and crossed to the tech bay, leaning on the control panel and opening the door. "I...I'm sorry about all the....I don't know Verma that well. I'm only here because Takamo saved my life. More than once, in fact."
There was a grunt from behind Mariko as Verma leaned heavily on the wall and gasped raggedly. "I'll admit, I deserved that. What I did earlier...I've never dealt well when it comes to losing those i consider friends." Lifting her head, she looked at Blight and Contagion. " I don't know if there can be words to apologize for that, but I am sorry. I'll see to it that both of you have state-of-the-art repairs when we get to Zaoth. Although speaking of-" and here she glanced at Mariko. "What do you intend to do once we get there? It wouldn't be any problem to have an Imperial task force escort you back, and I imagine your mother might be...somewhat upset if you decide to stay on with us."
Blight looked at Verma, while Contagion gave Mariko a soft, appreciative smile. "If it's any consolation, I just wanted a cool sword fight, not for the lady to space herself." she shrugged as Contagion found a place to grab her sister by, dragging her across the floor to the tech bay, eliciting a quiet 'wheeeeeeee' from the larger android. "Oh." said Contagion, stopping suddenly. "There's an EMP device I hid in the engines in case the original owners of the ship tried to abandon me and my sister. It's not on a timer or anything, but it is mostly jury-rigged, so I would be very careful if you have to go in there. I'll remove it once I've put my arm back on and restored Blight to working order." she explained, hitting the button so the door to the tech bay slid shut before anyone could respond. That left the others alone, for now. A bing from the ship's PA, followed by a robotic voice. "EIGHT HOURS TO FOLDPOINT."
Verma gave Blight a considering look. "A sword fight, huh? Hang around, once both of us aren't going to keep over, you might get one." Then she turned and hobbled down the corridor to a crew room and dropped into the bed. --- Eight Hours Later - Zaoth Even without the ship alarm warning of dropping out of FTL, the immediate broadcast directed at the corvette as it emerged from hyperspace would've alerted them all that they had arrived. "Herald Verma. Welcome home."