Post by Sheng on Mar 5, 2024 5:57:20 GMT
System 110183, Exoplanet "D-9", Second Dawn Outer-Territories.
Sand... so much sand. It was all one could see all the way far out into the horizon and even up into the yellow tinted sky as clouds of dusty sand blew high up above. Although one could somewhat see the surface of the planet and it's oddly reflective liquid oceans, it was completely unscannable with most instruments failing to pierce the the thick haze that was the atmosphere. The most that was able to be gleamed from any attempted scanning or probe deployment was that the planet had slightly elevated radiation levels and that there was some form of unnatural compound heavily polluting the atmosphere, but it couldn't be determined what it was specifically.
Yet this was the right world, the sandy exoplanet where the Second Dawn's supposed black site was. It supposedly had a low security presence, and by the lack of anything artificial being present within the system's vacuum itself that seemed to be an accurate determination. The system itself was only just barely in the Second Dawn's territory, technically being on the border itself with the Phasic Wastes in an almost uncomfortable proximity to the system. One could even see them in the vast backdrop of space itself from the system, far off into the distance.
Alas it was now time, the only way to determine more information about the planet was to land on the surface itself.
Deleted User — 30/04/2023 21:41
SERS. Established during a crisis in Anxios's space, involving a strange ship of unknown origin and the Bulwark's SpARC apertures, it grew rapidly since that first outing. Beginning as nothing more than a hodge-podge mixture of whatever techies the Selenicans could free from other projects in an emergency, SERS had become a sort of special operations division similar to the DOE, however fervently loyal to the SR's central government, and more specifically, Selia himself. They enjoyed a very brief period of relaxation and formal organization, wherein SERS was coopted under the SR's armed forces as a generalized special operations division.
However, this period of rest was shortened massively by the, as-known, aggressive strikes that the Second Dawn had committed against the Selenican people. A crime which would not go unpunished. Making use of SCUM as intelligence-gatherers to see what weak links in the SD existed led them to a remarkably unremarkable lifeless system, classified in most major starlogs as System 110183. What was to be found here? An SD R&D facility. Also known, a jackpot. With negotiations on the horizon, any and all ways to one-up the scum who had viciously murdered their brothers and sisters had to be considered and grasped with ferocity and haste.
Aboard Selenican Dropship E-45 -- System 110183, Exoplanet D-9
"Well. Looks like this is it." the captain of the team, a 14-foot long Selenican commander Kerena Lugos would speak first. "Barren sand, unhospitable atmosphere, and an SD research lab is all we know about this Almighty-forsaken place."
"Mission is to get in and grab some data on what these damnable robots are researching and get the hell out, right?" her subordinate, a 18-foot long Selenican soldier Leri Yuka would reply, in his normal carefree tone.
"Don't get cocky or we'll end up dying down there." She'd reply, cold and stern.
"Aye."
--
The two agents were equipped with heavy climate control outfits, completely sealed from outside weather. Along with this, some infantry-portable demolitions explosives, firecrackers, and light firebombs were given to Yuka with half of his role being to distract any "police" through causing commotion down on the planet below if the SD was arranged anything like a normal society. Lugos would be equipped with several system "bugs" to spider through their systems and upload any data to her most valuable possession -- the data logger stored on her back. Both would have small chemical kinetic pistols and a large stock of reserve ammunition in case anything were to happen.
Soon after a short briefing, re-explaining their mission a third time, the two agents would be deployed to the surface, landing the dropship E-45 nearby a major installation. The sand was never-ending, and blowing across the fields like a typhoon. Their climate control outfits were clocking overtime as the scorching heat beat down on the two.
"Definitely sandy, and hot..." Lugos would say, radioing over to her compatriate.
The two operatives would begin the slow, long trek up a sand dune to get a view at the installation. A massive fortress of a place, clearly well defended, likely impenetrable by any ground force...at least, it should have been. Approaching around the east side of the building, making use of the sand dunes as cover, the two noticed how...barren it looked. There were no outward defenses to be seen, soldiers which should have been out front and guarding major entrances were absent. A strange situation.
"Well...side entrance seems open..." Yuka would mention to his superior, noticing the same lack of defenses as her.
"We should still be cautious. Automated defenses are everywhere these days." she would reply, beginning to equip some improved IR binoculars. She could already see IR frequencies, but she needed precision.
However, even despite expectations it seemed...empty. No heat, no electricity, nothing. It seemed barren. Like a skeleton.
--
"Seems empty. We should look inside." She would say to her subordinate, beginning to slide down the sand dune together with him. Now would be the expected time for automated defenses to appear...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 30/04/2023 22:08
As the Selenicans slid down the dune the winds started to pick up blowing sand around on the dunes as the hazy clouds overhead continued to silently roll across the sky with a crack of thunder going off in the far distance, despite the lack of a storm adding to the oddity of the planet’s atmosphere. If the Selenicans had any radiation detecting equipment it’d report back that the closer it got to any physical material like the sand below them or the structure itself, radiation would spike significantly to levels that would be considered unhealthy to most organics. It’d rise up a little more as they got closer to the structure but wouldn’t go near anything too serious, but as they got closer to the structure the clouds in the distance cleared a little bit and revealed something… deeply concerning…
For about half a minute the distant sand clouds let up a little bit and revealed what looked to be the exterior of… a city? But there were no lights or visible activity, and there was certainly no response or indicator to show that they’d been detected upon atmospheric entry. If they looked at it with greater magnification they’d see that the city was… completely obliterated, with buildings having collapsed and some having chunks missing with clear explosive damage. There was even some smoke still rising from some of the buildings and with these atmospheric conditions that meant the damage had to be recent, within the last 14 hours guaranteed. Making the circumstances all the stranger..
As they approached the side entrance itself a small little infographic would become visible on the side of the entrance that would show basic decontamination instructions inside and a few paragraphs below showing a map of the facility and other misc info.
It was officially called the “NCBGC-3 Strategic Weapons Development Facility.” Below the name were 5 symbols with a description below, the first was one labeled “NUCLEAR” and was self explanatory. It was followed by “CHEMICAL”, “BIOLOGICAL”, “GENETIC”, and “CONTROL.” Beneath the genetic and control sections were descriptions that said that to enter the facility one required a full containment suit with regular decontamination intervals due to the storage of several “active compounds” and something called a “Fereizer-Contaminant.”
And as expected, no automated defences activated upon approach and the facility gave off no signatures to indicate that it even had any power let alone personnel presence. But then a few seconds later, a deeply robotic and corrupted sound emanated from inside the facility that sounded like a mix between a scream and a cry followed by various pieces of metal clattering to the ground…
Deleted User — 08/05/2023 16:11
"Yuka." Lugos would say, quiet, as the two enter the seemingly shelled city. The quiet is deafening, with every sound the two serpents make ringing down the streets like church bells, loud and intrusive, echoey. "I have a horrible feeling about this place."
"Obviously...Almighty above it's...dead here." Yuka would reply, trying to remain quiet. Then, the two would hear the screaming, the horrible discordant screaming and the clang of metal against the ground. Someone had died, and they were witness.
"Fuck, this is..." Yuka would begin, before being hushed by his superior, her cold exterior not doing anything to hide the disgust or anguish she felt from hearing the cry.
"Quiet. We need to get to the bottom of what these bastards are doing, ASAP, starting with weapons. Specifically, chemical weapons. We might use that as leverage later."
"Aye, ma'am."
Slowly the two made their way into the facility, beginning their dive into the chemical wing of the complex. Their climate-control suits, modified for this mission, were very resistant to outside chemical hazards, but by no means immune. Exposure would slowly kill the serpents, like it would for any humanoid.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 08/05/2023 16:46
As they entered the facility proper an alarm finally became audible, it was disturbingly quiet due to the lack of power causing the remaining systems (which had the ability to) to fall back on analog or reserve batteries. Inside they were met with a cracked apart screen that displayed the 5 symbols in flashing red followed by the words “CONTAINMENT BREACH. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. SELF DESTRUCT FAILED. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE.” repeating over and over and over but there was no audio. As they proceeded into the office space on the first level they were instantly met with a gruesome sight; shell casings littered the ground with drops of black liquid onto and below them, the floor cracked in some spaces and littered with fragments of armour on others.
At this time they would arrive at the first decontamination checkpoint which would be completely ripped apart, and once they passed through they’d be met with the corpse of a Reborn horribly shredded sat down against the wall with the front part of their robotic head having been completely ripped off, wiring and tubing exposed as a rifle lay to the side of them with more empty shell casings. The office space was dimly lit with red lighting that flickered in some places, and it was deathly quiet. If they searched the spaces they’d find that almost all of the equipment had been completely destroyed, some of it appeared to be blown apart, some of it had deep scratch marks as if something.. feral had ripped it apart and others had bullet holes going through them. As they proceeded there would be a sudden noise, a deeply corrupted robotic growl followed the sound of metal scraping against the floor in one of the nearby office spaces. With this proximity it was easier to tell that it was clearly a Reborn but it sounded… unnatural, unlike anything they would have ever heard from a Reborn before. After a second if they listened they might be able to make out barely coherent words in-between the corrupted growling
“The… Field… All..” was all that was discernible from the highly damaged voice, if they got within 4 metres of the Reborn’s position however then something strange would happen. A sort of presence would permeate the air, like a dark cloud hovering above them or the feeling of stickiness when the air is humid. But with this it was more cold, as if it was like they were suddenly walking into an ice cave… just what was going on here…
Deleted User — 15/05/2023 17:17
"What the fuck happened here...?!" Lugos would say, mortified at the sights and sounds. The cold, dying facility and the corpse of the Reborn pushed against the wall proved to be...frightening wasn't the word. She had expected horrors beyond her imagination. No, there was...wrong. Something happened here that wasn't supposed to. The cold was nearly unbearable, forcing the serpents away from the near-deceased Reborn. Something was terribly wrong.
"M-Ma'am?" Yuka would stammer, having his sidearm drawn, his arms shakey and hardly aiming straight as his superior examined the body, at least, as much as she could. "What...do you think h-happened here?"
"I haven't a clue..." she whispered back, planting a sensor on the ground to detect if any footsteps were coming. "But whatever it is, these fucking robots were messing with things beyond their understanding."
Slowly working down the hallway, the two operatives were slow, deliberate, and most of all, quiet. Risk was something the two did not wish to encounter, however, coming across the Reborn's body was the final wakeup call for Yuka. Drawn in by promises of grandeur and saving his nation from enemies, he was...hopelessly misled during training, then due to exemplary results, he was plucked by SERS for true high-stakes operations. He had been lied to.
The two rounded a corner, spotting a lab with a glass wall between it and the hallway. Inside was a terminal -- and there was their ticket, if it had been hooked up to the central system anyways. Any data on it would be siphoned and they could be extracted...aside from any complications requiring further infiltration.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 15/05/2023 17:54
The aura in the terminal room was significantly reduced and it was nearly back up to a standard room temperature but the permeating presence of that... unnatural dread still lingered in the air. As they approached the terminal the screen would flicker to life having detected a user enter in proximity and it would already be logged in, displaying what seemed to be some sort of report related to the research performed in this facility under the "Control" subsection, it was dated to 3 days ago. It read as follows:
Report-2PUR-CSTR
This is Dr. Paragon-XV, Chief Supervisor of the development of Controlling Substances. I regret to inform that patient A9XX8-SR3 has been labeled deceased following the failed implementation of the component prototype "Mandala 1." Subject survived for 53 minutes following installation in where the 2 security personnel safeguarding the patient reported extreme headache following exposure, as such the testing chamber was sealed and personnel removed from proximity. The patient displayed numerous capabilities from the installation including being able to manipulate objects through no visible tactile motion and being able to transmit auditory and visual hallucinations to a target. The subject also gained a distorted ring of space in the form of a halo approximately two inches above their head prior to death where they then screamed in pain until their voicebox shorted out and they collapsed to the ground in a violent seizure, which was so intense the servos in their neck snapped and caused instant death. We will begin fabrication of a new Mandala with an increase in Visonite concentration which will then be installed into patient B9XX8-SR3.
The report included an attachment that displayed a picture of the deceased Reborn, with visible claw marks on their face that seemed self inflicted and their neck bent at a very unnatural angle with snapped tubing and plating visible on the right side. There were 58 reports under the "Control" subsection along with a confidential key on the control subsection itself, which read;
CONTROL: Any element labeled with CONTROL is a memetic hazard to Reborn regardless of PPE in usage, should any staff member be exposed to a CONTROL element they are to be immediately restrained and anesthetized before being transported to the Citadel. CONTROL elements pose severe psionic risks, recent intelligence has confirmed the existence of unpredictable psionic entities of which information has been sparse, should any foreign psionic event be detected or otherwise [See latest information package on "Army of the Panopticon" and safety briefing SXD-R-AS-1902] the site is to be scuttled and the planet glassed to prevent confidential intelligence exposure.
However as the Selenicans were busy examining the terminal, combined with unknown parameters, they had failed to notice that the Reborn was now standing outside the room staring directly at them with a distorted halo shimmering above their head...
Deleted User — 21/05/2023 21:58
"Bingo." Lugos would say as they came across the terminal, quickly moving over to it and taking a seat in a chair most uncomfortable for her. "Let's see what the robots were up to..."
A brief flash of the screen coming to life and text flooding across the screen, an input bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. It read Input:, a sort of desire for a password.
"Now, let's not worry about a password..." she'd say, pulling a section of her body over which had a small container affixed to it through synthetic leather straps. Inside was a sort of "universal key," a prototype code-cracking device which linked to a quantum supercomputer back in Selenican territory through entanglement to quickly and efficiently crack passwords. However, due to the firewalls in place on this computer, Lugos would need a bit more to get in.
"One moment. Yuka, stand guard behind me. If you see anything, don't be hesitant to fire, we have no idea what's going on in this place."
"Aye, ma'am..." the younger operative would stammer out, obviously terrified.
After the order, she would turn back to the computer screen, rapidly keying in some kind of command, to access the internal mainframe of the device. Normally such an action wouldn't be possible, but given the dire circumstances in place at the facility, it seems some of the failsafes were disabled to try and erase as much data as possible.
"Now, let's..." she'd begin to say, keying in another command, which deactivated the firewall on this computer. She'd slam on the escape key a few times, returning to where the password input would be needed. "Get to work, little guy." She'd say again, letting the universal key do its work. Not more than 30 seconds later, an extremely loud pure tone of a DING! would be heard, notifying a success.
"Gotcha." She'd say, smiling at an easy hack job. Inside the terminal's database was a couple reports, in a sequential list. However, most of them turned out to be corrupted, so she'd begin to read through the sole unafflicted entry.
"Yuka..." She'd begin to say, horrified as to the reading. "I think there's more going on here than the SD let us on."
"M-ma'am?" He'd begin to say, now even more scared, his gun being shakily handled, hardly being able to grip straight.
"C'mere," she'd say, pulling him over with a waving hand motion. "I think they were experimenting with...let's see...Visonite? That means psionics, I think..."
"Psionics? What're those?" Her subordinate would ask, clearly not grasping the situation.
"I've no idea, but it's safe to say, given these test results, it's dangerous. Lemme grab this intel."
After latching a data-grabbing spider into the computer's memory, it'd slowly begin sifting through all the corrupted data and grabbing whatever files it could find. Mostly, those with the CONTROL label, as they were of seemingly great importance and note.
But, they were not alone...
The figure standing in the door was unnoticed, emitting an ominous low hum, beyond the two's hearing, until Yuka turned his back to his partner, staring it in the face.
He couldn't scream, or cry, or anything. He was gripped by nothing but an overwhelming sense of power and terror, beyond anything a normal creature could pose. Held firmly in place. And staring into the only part of the creature he could discern, that halo...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/05/2023 22:25
The Reborn... if it could even be called that anymore.. Just stared at Yuka, deadly silent and still as the walls around them. The Reborn itself was in a disturbing state, with the front portion of it's face just fucking gone as if it was ripped off by something, the plating was splattered with oil and the un-stained plating seemed almost corroded by something. It reached out towards Yuka with both arms, however it's left arm was ripped apart with everything below the elbow completely missing, and just screamed. It was a long, corrupted, robotic wail of agony from a creature that has been through god knows what.
After a second it started twitching slightly, but then the slight twitches and spasms grew rapidly in intensity and then escalated into what looked to be a full on seizure. Half a second later it pounced, sprinting towards the duo with unnatural speed as the halo above the Reborn started to distort itself even more and emit a electric-like crackling sound. However right before it got to the glass, something unexpected happened...
From within a hallway to the left, a sudden deep hum became audible as a glowing red light suddenly appeared before three deep, extremely loud, electric pulses could be heard. As the Reborn was about to burst through the glass three bolts of glowing red plasma rocketed through the afflicted synthetic, burning holes clean through it's abdomen, upper chest and head as the robot crumpled like a leaf and fell down to the side from the force of the impacts. Then it was silent, not a sound was made until the sound of hissing air could be heard followed by the thuds of something large, metallic and heavy came from the hallway where the laser shots came from.
Then, out from the hallway stepped out something the Selenican's had never seen before; A large robotic reptile standing at around 8 feet tall revealed itself, wearing full-body thick plate armour with a tactical vest resting over it. Two large tails were thrashing behind it as it stood on heavy muscular legs, with four arms it was holding a medium sized assumingly pulse rifle that was still aimed at the now KIA Reborn and two pistols of a similar design in the two free arms. After a second of staring at the Reborn it turned towards the Selenicans, it wasn't wearing a helmet which revealed a long crocodile-like robotic snout with two serpentine like fangs protruding from the upper lip near the front. It had four icy blue eyes with pupils narrowed into slits like a ball python's and every few seconds a long synthetic black forked tongue would flicker out form it's angular snout.
It stared at the Selenicans before reaching up to a radio on it's vest and pressing down on it before saying (in a way more organic, hissing tone then the Reborn): "Хеы, гет тхе Цаптаин лике- Ригхт фуцкинг нощ. И гот тщо оф тхосе "Селеницанс" ригхт ин фронт оф ме." It then lowered it's hand back onto the rifle which was also lowered to a more casual position, it stared at the Selenicans seemingly both confused, concerned and sympathetic before a similar language started speaking from the radio in a quiet tone. The... robo-reptile listened for a second before nodding slightly and then reaching up to it's radio again, this time pushing a different button before speaking in the Selenican's native tone although it was slightly distorted at first:
" -eemsss I'm not the only one here... Before you freak out, which I wouldn't blame you for, allow me to introduce myssself; I'm Fangcommander Taressseryxisss of the Etherian Free Navy, I'm not here to hurt you. I was sssent here by my Captain Nevasssarax when we intercepted a dissstresss call from thisss location- and don't worry, the SSSecond Dawn never received it- we made sssure of that. Now, may I asssk who you are and what you're doing on thisss godforsssaken radioactive rock?"
Deleted User — 21/05/2023 23:14
Once the gargled scream was heard from the Reborn, Lugos would snap her head over to where her comrade was stood, frozen in place.
"YUKA!!" She'd yell, watching the malformed abomination twitch and shake, a long drawn-out scream as it looked in immense pain. "GET DOWN!" She'd yell, the Reborn blasted into the ground, the horrible smell of metal, oil, and other synthetics mixing together into a putrid miasma.
"We're...not...alone..." Yuka managed to croak out before passing out due to sheer terror and shock, crumpling to a heap on the floor where he once stood, staring at the abomination.
"Yuka!" the female serpent would call out before he collapsed, hearing their voices in a strange unknown language. "Shit..." She'd whisper, grabbing her pistol and hiding behind a table turned over in the Reborn's rampage.
It was a tense few seconds, hearing the clunking of metal against the floor, the hulking behemoth showing itself soon after, a four-armed creature armed to match its size, however, it did not appear hostile, in fact, when it spoke, it seemed...friendly.
"Damn, I'm glad you came..." She'd begin, still hiding behind the table, only slowly beginning to peak her long snout above it. "Well, you're on our side it seems, so no harm telling you -- us two're operatives of the SR. We came to this radioactive hellscape to grab some intel on the bioweapons and other chemical agents the SD used against us in a recent battle."
She would pause for a while, dragging her subordinate to a slightly safer location behind cover in case another screeching abomination showed its face.
"Well...we were, until that monster showed its face. Seems like my subordinate had some malfunction, and couldn't shoot."
She was now entirely away from the cover, showing her true size and face to the commander, a much slimmer and lengthier appearance compared to him.
"I don't know what these damn robots are researching, but I feel like it's no good. Whatever they're looking into, we need to find out more then we can get the hell out. Any data gathered here will be instrumental."
"Now, enough talk from me. Who the fuck are you aligned with?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/05/2023 23:36
The Etherian nodded at what she said before they slowly walked over to the deceased Reborn, the halo over their head having dissipated as small tendrils of smoke rose from the subtly glowing small orange holes punched through them. They reached down and poked the corpse with the barrel of their rifle before standing back up and raising their left leg over it’s head which they then brought down on it, crushing the already damaged head and destroying the central processor as the Reborn spasmed one last time before going still once more. The Etherian nodded in approval before slinging their rifle down to their side and reaching into one of their pouches and pulling out a holographic device out and staring at it for a few seconds before putting it back and turning to Lugos seemingly thinking for a second before answering; “Monssster isss putting it lightly, but there ssshouldn’t be anymore. I arrived here a few hoursss ago and cleared thisss floor out- don’t know how thisss one ssslipped passst me though.. But anyway the elevator to the lower levelsss isss completely locked up ssso I wasss looking for a terminal to accesss the facilitiesss sssubsssyssstemsss. It ssseemsss that they were resssearching all sssortsss of ssshit here, when I did a preliminary enviro-ssscan after I thought I had sssecured thisss floor and found faint trace elementsss of both sssome kind of advanced nerve agent and a very very very tiny amount of caesssium resssidue, both have me worried. SSShould be fine to sssurvive here for a few hoursss, maybe a day with no adverssse affectsss but thisss place definitely had sssomething go horribly wrong.”
The Etherian shook his head before they readied their rifle again and looked down the hallways before aiming it up and balancing it on their hip and continuing “Guesss you could sssay I’m aligned with no one except my Captain really, we only arrived in… wherever thisss place isss a few weeksss ago where our ssship wasss lit up by the ssso-called ‘SSSecond Dawn’ and we were forced to abandon ssship, we found ssshelter on thisss oily world and managed to make contact with sssome of the other crew who sssurvived. Then we caught wind of thisss place and figured it’d be good asss any to get sssome more intel then what we gleaned from intercepting commsss from the SSSecond Dawn.” The Etherian chuckled a little bit before lowering their rifle into a more ready position and glancing down the hallway again before turning to the Selenican and saying “SSSecure them and leave them here, there ssshouldn’t be any more afflicted wandering around but even if there are they’ll avoid him if he ssseemsss unconsssciousss; they fear what they think to be dead. Don’t assk me why I have no idea.”
Deleted User — 28/05/2023 18:58
While the seemingly friendly creature was talking, Lugos was working to bring her subordinate back to consciousness. It wouldn't take but so long, and a few hard slaps to the nostrils, for Yuza to wake back up.
"There you are." She'd say, annoyed at how apparently lacking her companion's constituion was.
"...Hunh...?" He'd blurt out, not exactly asleep but definitely unconscious moments before. "Right, right..."
"Well, you're fucking lucky you're alive." she'd reply, "And we have an ally now."
"Great." He'd say, still processing what he could of the new situation. Most notably, the Etherian. "I don't know what you are but I'm glad you saved my ass."
He wouldn't talk for the rest of the conversation.
"Anyways," Lugos would begin, stern as ever, especially frustrated at her colleague, "You said the SD has nerve agents and cesium on this floor, correct? Well, in a recent fight between the SR and SD, the damn robots chucked a nerve agent at us, leading to the losses of one of our ships. Whatever data we can grab on that is data we can use as an axe over the SD's head during negotiations."
The three's discovery of the SD's brutal experimentation had only begun, however, as this complex, constructed more like a fortified city than a research lab, would contain many secrets...secrets that the SR's operatives needed to uncover.
"We have more dirt to dig up on these robots. Wanna come with?" Lugos would ask.
---
Following their interaction with the Etherian, the two serpents would continue down the halls, to where what they believed to be an elevator stood. As the Etherian said, it was completely locked, both by doors and a special code. The masterkey wouldn't work on this, it seems that it had been completely busted after the first password cracking. Looks like they'd need to search around on this floor, down the further wing of the building...where more horrors would await.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 28/05/2023 19:32
The Etherian snorted at the two Selenican’s antics before respond to Lugos' inquiry "Yes there are trace amounts of their nerve agent on this floor, too degraded to be sampled at this point but no doubt they have more cannisters in storage on the lower levels. If they also haven't changed from the old Republic procedures then there should be a terminal that contains an emergency access code in a catastrophic event that's on a separate grid and power supply then the rest of the facility, judging by how the still functional doors and such are locked and asking for a 'Master Code' I believe it is there where we will find our way down to the lower levels."
Twenty Minutes Later
After they had discovered they had returned to the completely shut down elevator, which asked for a Master Code, The Fangcommander turned to the two Etherians and said "Alright, this facility is too dangerous to traverse solo. Not to incur any offense, but we both saw how your colleague reacted to that... thing. I will lead us through the facility and show you what surviving objects I encountered for you to retrieve for yourselves, maintain total awareness throughout the entirety of our journey- I cannot stress that enough. You are currently trespassing in a highly classified black-site created by a government who's only goal is the increase of their dollar value, at any moment you could encounter automated defenses or hostile survivors. Do not, rely, on me."
After staring at the two with her four eyes narrowed she nodded before raising her pulse rifle and two pistols and proceeding down the closest corridor. They ecountered a vast increase in corpses as they went, some of them like the Reborn they had seen earlier but every so often they'd fine a maimed one with the same holes in them that the Etherian had put into the psionically charged Reborn. It appears that one was not the only surviving test subject...
After a few more minutes of careful walking the Etherian led them to a large office, the door having been blown open with blast marks on the frame where the handle would be. The Etherian gestured to the room with their upper left arm whilst remaining outside to stand guard. Inside the office there were 4 prominent objects of interest, but on the opposite side of the wall there appeared to be dripping liquid of some kind from the ceiling and it reeked of fuel. With the state of the room there was no way to be sure there wasn't an ignition source present and thus, they would only have time to safely investigate 2 of the 4 items before the room likely exploded. The items were as follows:
1) A black terminal that had been left powered and logged in that appeared to display some sort of unopened file sent by the Citadel approximately four days before the facilities radio-silence, judging by the size of the office they were in and the fact this file was not present on the last computer meant it had to be some highly confidential secret meant only for the command personnel of the facility.
2) A grey hard-drive that appeared to have some slight damage to it but was probably still functional, the markings of the EPA engraved onto the top of it. It was completely unknowable what was on it but something that required physical storage seperate from the rest of the terminal and bearing the markings of the SD's military? It could be the most valuable item in the room, or it could just be the bill for the security services.
3) Reborn have an internal hard-drive which acts as their memory bank, and there was a deceased Reborn sat down in the chair to the office's desk. The Reborn had a hole in the side of their head and a pistol in their right hand but judging by the positioning it was largely possible that the memory was unaffected, but Reborn parts have a tendency for system failures upon death.
4) A grenade was hooked onto the Reborn's armour bearing their crest for Chemical Hazards. Could this be a man-portable version of their infamous CDS system? Or could it just be a disorienting agent... moreso why would a race of synthetics, who are unaffected by chemical weapons, possess a grenade that allegedly uses one on their person on a planet with supposedly no organics?
Deleted User — 03/06/2023 18:59
Following the Etherians, the two Selenican operatives remained mostly silent aside from accepting orders and following behind them. Lugos was extremely displeased with her companion's complete lack of professionality, in passing out earlier. However, he wasn't exactly to blame -- the Selenicans, while as prone to psionics as most other native species, have no specific psionic resilience -- thus, even the most low-grade psionics have full effect upon them.
The office proved to be a virtual holy grail for the serpents, though the feeling of a presence even greater than the Reborn they had already encountered informed the choice to only take a small number of objects. Lugos would assume that staying too long would keep them open for too much time, so it would be best to grab what was portable and go.
"Yuza. Grab the hard drive out of the Reborn's head over there." The female serpent would say, brashly and cold.
Despite every gut feeling in his stomach telling him that grabbing the memory bank out of a corpse was a bad idea, Yuza...
"Aye ma'am..." he'd reply, very clearly still coming to his senses even 20 minutes after the incident.
While her colleague began to dig through the cavity in the Reborn's head to find whatever he could, Lugos would eject the hard drive which had EPA markings in it. While the psionic dealings were of great concern, her mission wasn't to begin the Selenican's delving into psionics -- it was to grab whatever information she could on their chemical weapons and get the hell out.
"Thank you for accompanying us." She'd tell the Etherians, cold and professional. However, despite her tone, she was...nervous. Extremely nervous. Despite her species of Najarin not being known for having extremely averse reactions to high stress, the anxiety she felt was...different. Malicious, almost. Like whatever died here died angry, and wanting to hurt whoever did...something to it.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 04/06/2023 21:36
The Reborn's internal drive was eventually found by Yuza's scavenging and the assumption was correct; The drive was completely undamaged, but whether it still held anything of value was the question. The hard drive ejected properly and was fully ready for transports, hopefully this would be a successful pilferage but they wouldn't know until they returned to wherever they had arrived from and examined the contents of the hardware.
Tareseryxis nodded to Lugos' kind words and gave her a toothy smile in contrast to her own cold response, forked tongue flickering out like a python's as he did so. He then raised his pulse rifle and two handheld pistols and motioned for them to follow. It seemed he was completely unaware of the aura that Lugos was feeling, and so he led them down deeper into the facility with Tareseryxis saying "While you two were recovering the items I managed to locate the terminal I believe to possess the code required by the elevator. However, we may have a problem..."
As he finished talking they had reached a closed door which Tare reached out and slowly opened with a grim expression, at first the room appeared to be exactly like the other places within the building but then something would catch the Selenican's eye: A long cylinder appeared to be stuck in nearly the exact middle of the room, the paint was a different shade of black compared to the rest of the interior and the paint appeared to be scraped.. In fact now that they looked at it, it appeared that whatever it was had punched through the facility and gotten stuck where it was now. With the beginning of a white painted tip being visible where the object began to dissapear into the floor and it looked like there were fins sticking out from where it was in the roof.
However upon further examination they'd notice something, engraved in the centre plate of the object was an emblem that... wait a second, it was the emblem of the Executive Protection Agency... and what was that symbol below it? They had seen it earlier... what was it.. . Oh! Oh... below the EPA engraving was the Second Dawn's Nuclear symbol...
They were staring at an undetonated nuclear missile embedded into the facility.
Deleted User — 18/06/2023 18:16
"What the-!?" Yuza would exclaim, staring death potentially in the face. An undetonated nuke... Why in the name of the Great Power would the SD nuke their own research facility though?
"Don't touch it!" Lugos would shout. "We aren't able to defuse this thing here. I hope to the Great Power it doesn't detonate..."
The two serpents would begin to clamber about the room, sticking far from the missile in case any minor disturbance could set the explosive off.
"Tareseryix. What's the password? We're getting the hell out of here, ASAP!" Lugos would yell, that bad feeling she had been experiencing earlier only strengthening. Not only were they staring a nuke in the face, that malicious presence in the facility only becoming stronger. She couldn't know what was coming, or if something was coming close.
Lugos would pull her partner's ear close, and she began to whisper.
"I'm officially changing the mission objective. We aren't here to seek out the chemical weapons -- we're looking into this "Control" thing now. Whatever they were doing here is enough to make even the sickest bastard in the DOE shudder, and I want to know what the fuck they're planning to do to us. Got it?"
Yuza would lightly nod, confused as to why she was so...aggressive now. Sure, the nuke was...frightening, for lack of a better word, but it smashed into the place and didn't detonate. If that didn't cause it to go boom, what would? And why is she so interested in that "Control" thing? Normally his superior was extremely cold and professional, but something happened after the encounter with that Reborn...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/06/2023 15:40
Tareseryix nodded at Lugos inquiry and moved to the other end of the room and opened the door before turning back to the two Selenicans and saying to them "The passphrase is Satagon. If you come across any more objects which require a master key apart from the elevator then use that. I will depart immediately in an attempt to clear the lower facilities for your arrival while you finish up here, worry not about my safety I have measures in-place to ensure my survival."
With that he left the room and the thumping of his boots against the floor faded into silence, leaving the two Selenicans alone in the room. Or at least, that is what it seemed like...
After a few seconds that overwhelming feeling of malice tripled, emanating from a specific point in the opposite corner of the room behind them. Upon looking back they'd see quite the sight; A Reborn, fully intact this time, but in place of their traditional metal-plated skin there was only darkness. Space distorted around them as they stared at the two Selenicans before bowing their head and shaking with silent laughter. After that their radios would crackle and a highly distorted robotic voice would sound from them "You... You have made a grave mistake coming here as you have done so carelessly. He knows about you now, he always does... And he will be coming for you..."
But before they could do anything in response, the strange Reborn twitched before that distorted effect suddenly surrounded them and everything went black...
Unknown Desert Region | Unknown Province | Unknown Planet | Unknown Territory
The sky was on fire, as what would have been the expanse of space above them was replaced with flashes of bright orange lights and the tracers of high calibre naval cannons zipping through it. Lugos and Yuza were stood on top of a sand dune not too dissimilar from the one they had landed on, but as they looked around they'd realize the very ground they stood on was more akin to ash then sand, with black chunks of debris scattered about and pools of oil dotting around the landscape, a bombed out city visible in the far distance. A wing of what looked to be atmospheric fighters suddenly roared overhead, rocketing towards the city at supersonic speeds before a salvo of rockets fired out at the craft from deep within the concrete jungle, striking two of them down but the third one letting off a stream of cannon fire which was met with an explosion within the city where the projectiles had originated from.
In the distance several tanks became visible as well as muzzle flashes from their barrels as they fired into the ruined city, the muted booms of the cannons reaching their ears a few seconds later. If they looked to their left however they'd see what looked to be the remains of a shelled spaceport with seemingly no visible presence, perhaps this would be a good place to get their bearings and find out what exactly the fuck had just happened? Because the hellscape they were in now was certainly nothing they'd be able to immediately recognize. In-fact if they were perceptive enough they'd realize even the visible stars in the sky were of no recognizable constellations. How odd...
Deleted User — 27/06/2023 14:01
"GET DOWN!" Lugos screamed, tackling her colleague into the ashen sand, as the roar of cannons and bullets above and all around them burned its way into her mind.
"Wha-!!!" Yuza shouted, the grinding of ash against his pack.
"D-Don't show your face...don't...don't let them see you..." Lugos would whisper, a shakiness in her voice that betrayed her earlier confidence and stoic pushing to get this mission done. Her hands would be gripped tight onto Yuza's uniform, shaking as if her body were freezing.
There was no telling how long the two were on the ground, the hellish rain of bullets and cannonfire ringing in their ears, the stars in the sky being a mess of light and blinking. These...these weren't normal. That's what Yuza determined. Even though they were across the galaxy from the SD, some stars were bright enough for it not to matter. They weren't present....which portrayed an illusion. Or maybe the Reborn had control over their perception, or maybe they were whisked away to some unknown battlefield in the galaxy...He was none the wiser.
"We gotta move." Yuza replied, terrified but adrenaline pumping through him, beginning to drag his superior to what they believed was a bombed-out spaceport, ducking and remaining low to the ground as Lugos would be near-petrified, crying and shaking, her breathing portraying a form of terror far beyond what was normal. What the hell happened to her in the past?
It felt like days, but the two made it to the bombed-out spaceport, a place of relative safety. Lugos collapsed onto the ground, her breathing irregular and shaky. Yuza would prop her up on a wall, disguising the lady with a blanket coasted in dust and ash. It wasn't the best cover, but it would keep any trigger-happy soldiers from opening fire instantly.
"W-w-why..." Lugos would stammer out, her voice failing the confidence she had before. "I don't...N-n-not again..."
Yuza would grumble and draw his rifle, aiming at the entrance to the spaceport.
But...the fire never stopped. The gunshots never ended. Cannon fire continued over and over, almost...almost like there was endless ammo. The stars...they were wrong. The gunfire, the planes, none of it, none of it had to be real. Yuza recognized it, his superior paralyzed by...the only reasonable assumption is PTSD. Yuza lowered his rifle and begun to slink over to his superior, her breathing having somewhat regulated, still shivering and unable to move.
"Ma'am..." He'd begin, stopping soon after, beginning to gather his words in between the gunshots. "Ma'am! You gotta...YOU GOTTA THINK!" He yelled, grabbing her shoulders and staring right into his superior's eyes. "This isn't real, I don't know what that fucking Reborn did, but this isn't real, the stars!" He would continue shouting, grabbing her tight. "LOOK AT THE STARS!"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 27/06/2023 15:18
The Selenicans racing to the spaceport would be virtually unseen by those locked in combat as they were too busy with their own situations to notice two strange creatures running away from the fighting. The sound of more atmospheric aircraft roared overhead as a wing of similar but sleeker aircraft, presumably fighters, screamed towards the surviving aircraft that had fired upon the city. Once they passed over the spaceport they each would fire a missile or two which chased the attack craft as it started rapidly popping flares in an attempt to lose the missile’s track, the attempt was initially successful as the first wave missed by what looked to be mere inches but the situation went rapidly south as one managed to pierce through the cloud of flares and strike one of the attack craft’s engines which promptly burst into flame. The fighter wing ripped past it and promptly spun around before rocketing over the spaceport again and rapidly flying towards the horizon, meanwhile the attack craft sputtered before turning into a nosedive towards the ground. Two ejection seats fired out of the cockpit seconds before it hit the ground with a resounding boom, the flaming wreckaging sliding across the ground before coming to a stop.
The battle continued to rage on with renewed ferocity as the aerial threat was eliminated, though once the Selenicans had reached the spaceport the sounds would dampen considerably as they took refuge within it. As they settled into their newfound shelter they’d actually be able to see the contents of the interior, a screen on the opposite wall that was badly cracked but still powered showing a large number of launches that all were canceled. All of them going from “A3ISP” to various places, some having the same flag as the one flying outside but some having various foreign flags all of which were unrecognizable. Above the screen however they’d see the name of the spaceport, one which would invoke some sort of reaction if they knew even recent SD history for the sheer infamy of the planet. The words above the screen said that they were located in the Arkadia-3 International Space Port within the Nyproni Province of the Etherian Republic, that same flag flying outside being present below the inscription.
Deleted User — 03/07/2023 15:20
"Yuza..." Lugos would begin, her breathing steadying a slight amount, "Do you know what this place is?"
"N-Not really, its..." he'd begin, looking around at the sky and harsh sands all around them, the city itself a barren wasteland of bombed-out buildings, "It's death itself. That's all I can think of it as, but...just looking at the sky..." He'd continue, looking out from the roof to the night sky, "It can't be real. The stars aren't where they should be."
"This place is...death itself. It's the echoes of those who've passed." Lugos would say, finally coming to grips with herself after seemingly washed by a wave of panic and fear, "And it has to have something to do with the SD. It looks like the Etherians were here too, just looking at the departing vessels. Must be where we are, huh...?"
The two would remain in relative silence as the "battle" rages on outside, Yuza shouldering his coilgun rifle and Lugos finally rising from where she had laid, drawing her pistol and aiming it at the entrance with Yuza. Neither actually expected any enemies to arrive, but they wouldn't be caught off guard. They weren't outwardly afraid anymore -- though definitely anxious for what was to come. Neither knew where they were, or when they were, but neither would let this be their resting place.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 03/07/2023 16:14
They'd be left in relative peace as they gained their bearings and calmed themselves, but it wasn't going to last long and after about ten minutes a quiet rumbling could be heard outside of where they were located, the sound increasing rapidly in volume as whatever it was seemed to approaching them before it quieted suddenly as it seemed that whatever was approaching came to a stop outside. Their peace in quiet however was immediately interrupted by the sound of a heavy cannon firing from whatever had parked outside as well as muffled shouting and sporadic machine gun fire, eventually the sound of another atmospheric craft could be roaring ahead before a stream of autocannon fire ripped through the roof of where they hiding with the infamous Brrrrrt sound and shredded the wall that had the location inscribed as it ripped up towards where the vehicle had parked, an explosion followed by pained screaming echoing out a moment later as the craft sped away.
The screaming continued for a few minutes before more rumbled could be heard followed by what sounded like a brief firefight outside and then the screaming stopped. The rumbling continued though until it sounded like this new vehicle had parked next to the previous one, followed by the sounds of various personnel disembarking from the vehicle and talking to eachother. Their words were in-decipherable but after a couple of minutes of idle chatter the footsteps started again and it sounded like they were approaching the Selenican's position! As they approached the conversation became understandable and it was clear they were speaking in the same language the Etherian had as they said to eachother:
"-tanate, we're going to clear the spaceport out now see if there are any survivors inside." Another voice responded "Agreed, I have medical equipment in case there are any foreigners inside. Poor bastards, just trying to travel and they end up getting caught up in a fucking warzone..." The other voice muttered something before continuing "Aye, just keep weapons low it was reported that there was no Restorationist presence left inside. Anyone who's in here still alive is probably just going to be some SOL civie and last thing we need is to scare some fucking family of four. You got any of that candy the canteen served this morning left over?" The other was silent, probably just responding with a node before the other voice continued "Ok good, if we find any kids or anything we'll give it to them, hopefully calm their nerves. Let's just pray to the edicts that anyone we find in here is still fucking alive. Yeah, here's the main entrance, you ready?" The other was silent before two individuals clad in urban camo fatigues and body armour suddenly appeared in front of the Selenicans from the entrance.
The two were clearly Etherians, with the four arms and reptilian build standing out even under what had to be quite the hefty amount of kit. They stared at the two Selenicans in shock, rifles slung over their shoulders not even in hand whilst they stared at the two serpents who had strange arms pointed at them. After half a second they both held their four arms up in surrender and showed their palms openly towards them to indicate that they had no weapons on them, the one who asked about the candy saying in a calming tone "Hey, hey! It's alright we're Republic Legion! we were sent here to scout for survivors and give any we found medical aid, you're in no danger. I'm Lineman Ayrkis and he's Linemedic Bokhyn, it's all good we're not here to hurt you. What the hell are you two doing here- where the hell are you even from?"
Deleted User — 10/07/2023 23:20
"Who the fuck are-" Yuza would start saying, not having overheard much of their conversation. He'd keep his gun shouldered as he aimed down the two medics, listening to their explanation. "Well, you aren't Reborn, so I don't have a reason to mistrust you." He'd say, lowering his gun.
When the two medics showed up, Lugos sprung off the ground quickly and drew her pistol, however she had no intention of firing -- simply keeping aim while listening to their story.
"To answer your questions," she would begin, her fortitude reconstructed after the harsh blow it received being thrown back into a warzone, "We are soldiers of the Selenican Republic. We came here to fight against the Second Dawn, who have gassed our soldiers and begun to attack us. You two're Etherians, right? So we can trust you, sounds good?"
The two Selenicans would lower their arms and allow the Etherians to come inside the bombed-out spaceport. The serpents rested against a mostly intact wall for a minute, silent, before Yuza would begin to talk.
"Where the fuck are we? I know this is SD space but...the city didn't look like this on the trip in. It's different. And the stars are different too. What the fuck is going on here...?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 15/07/2023 22:51
The two Etherians listened to them talk with crowing confusion on their faces, this four eyes narrowing slightly before they turned to look at each other to convey some sort of unspoken understanding. Once the Selenicans had lowered their weapons the Etherians lowered their arms slowly before coming a bit closer and the medic, Bokhyn, even reached up and took off his helmet before sitting down across from the two serpents. Ayrkis remained standing and just crossed his arms, the two Etherians shared another brief look before Ayrkis started to speak.
"Ok, try not to freak out but neither of us have ever heard of the Selenican Republic before- nor have we heard of this 'Second Dawn'. We're just two Republic Legionnaires- soldiers, essentially, of the Etherian Republic.. Which is the nation you're currently in." Bokhyn nodded in agreement to what Ayrkis said before he himself piped up and said "Yeah.. this ain't no 'SD' space, this is the Marigold arm of the Republic. Y'know- the ancient territory of the Nyproni people? One of the most conflict ridden territories in the entire Vasyrian Galaxy. Maybe the two of you had some sort of wormhole malfunction and ended up here?"
Ayrkis held up a hand briefly before reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked to be some sort of touch screen mobile phone, tapping on it briefly before pulling up a map and showing it to the two Selenicans. It was indeed labeled "The Vasyrian Galaxy" with large patches of it taken by what appeared to be several different nations, those being; The Magari Concordiat, the Sunken Empire of Itaria, something called "T.C.A.S.O" and last but certainly not least; The Etherian Republic. There were two smaller splotches within the ER's space that were right next to eachother, one being labeled "Restorationist Occupied Space" and the other being "Contested Territory."
He tapped at a point right next to "Restorationist Occupied Space" within the "Contested Territory" section and said "And that's where we are, Arkadia-3. I imagine you must be on the opposite end of the galaxy to have never heard about this, the ER's been in civil war for a few years now and ever since Satagon rose up in the regions and formed that little clique in the abandoned territories he's been turning this war around quite quickly in our favour." Bokhyn nodded before snorting and adding on
"There's talks of him getting a medal by the very president herself, even though he's an experimental AI he's actually got quite the personality going. A bit of a pretentious douchebag if you ask me but hell his strategies have saved a lot of our asses over the past few weeks. Apparently there's some big grand test going on today that's going to determine if he's permitted to fully gain sentient rights, hell that's kind of why we're going around and checking up on the last little things before we pull back to HQ and return to orbit. We're scheduled for orders about it in about thirty minutes time."
Deleted User — 17/07/2023 22:24
"The hell're you talking about?" Yuza would say, baffled by the words being said slumped against the wall. "Well, last we knew, we were in the SD's space, and now we're fuckin' transplanted here..."
"Wormhole malfunction, hm?" Lugos would ask inquisitively, wondering if that's what the Reborn did to her and her partner. "Well, whatever the case, we aren't home." A short pause would follow her speech as she stands relaxed before the Legionnaires. "We don't come from this galaxy. We're from the Ancerious Galaxy, so unknown number of dimensions away.
After listening a little longer, Lugos would stop the man in his sentence. "Wait, did you say Arkadia-3?" She'd blurt out, clearly having stumbled upon something, "That's the name of some of the SD's ships, Arkadia-Class. So..." She'd begin, trailing off into her own thoughts, coming to the conclusion that, perhaps, they were perceiving a different time all together. Time travel was out of the question, but with the psionics they were researching, maybe it's possible to force someone to relive a different past as if it were a memory..."
"And you said Satagon, right?" Yuza would ask in his deep, gruff voice. "Well, I think we might know who he is. Would we be allowed to join you into seeing what would happen?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 23/07/2023 11:00
The others looked at each other before nodding and Bokhyn stood up and moved his hand to his radio, pressing down and muttering into it whilst Ayrkis reached into his pack and pulled out a Tupperware container that appeared to be filled with some kind of pasta-looking meal. He tossed it over to the Selenicans whilst he said "That's happened a few times before, where this galaxy has some pretty close neighbouring ones we've had extra-galactics show up from time to time and be confused as fuck. It always makes for a funny few weeks for them as they're introduced to essentially an entire new world for them but one of our neighbours has a stationary wormhole generator that can usually send 'em back. So we should be able to get you home pretty quick."
Bokhyn came back and nodded to Ayrkis who looked up at him before letting out a sigh of relief, turning back towards the Selenicans and saying in a slightly happier tone "Good news is we got safe evac for you back up to the fleet, since the enemies air defense zone just moved a kilometre east freeing up our shuttles to take off and land in this sector. Shuttle should be here in-" But he was cut off by what sounded like frantic shouting from Bokhyn's radio, who gave Ayrkis a concerned look before stepping away to respond to it. Meanwhile Ayrkis shook his head and looked back at them before saying
"Yeah, Satagon's our new premiere AI. The uniform's been calling him the Strategic Intelligence, whatever that means. He's been making waves too, ever since the start of our first dawn in this galaxy we've been looking for ways to improve our automation but AI was something we always struggled with. He's up in orbit now performing some sort of logic test like I said. After that he's probably going to take over the thea-" Once again he was cut off, but this time not by Bokhyn. No... this time it was air raid sirens starting up around them, and more following soon in the distance. Ayrkis snapped his head back to look at Bokhyn who was now sprinting towards them with a terrified expression on his face, something Ayrkis did not like the look of.
Once Bokhyn was in shouting range, he did just that and shouted at them "MISSILES! THEY'RE LAUNCHING FUCKING MISSILES! WE NEED TO BOARD THE SHUTTLE, NOW!" With that, the colour drained from Ayrkis scales and he looked over to the Selenicans, mainly Lugos before he rushed forward and wrapped his four hands around the serpent and throwing the addled serpent over his shoulders with a grunt.. Jesus how strong are these guys.. before shouting out to Bokhyn "SET THE LANDING ZONE, WE'LL FOLLOW CLOSE BY!" and turning to Yuza and extending a lower hand to pull him up off the ground.
Deleted User — 07/08/2023 21:05
"Getting us back? Sounds like a plan." Lugos said, finally relaxing her previously professional and curt tone.
The two serpents would finally relax against the walls of the bombed-out spaceport, feeling safe in the company of these Etherians -- one had saved them previously back in the SD's research lab, and here they were again to pull them out of a complicated situation. Perhaps once they got home, finding connections with the Etherians would assist in crippling the SD from the inside.
Yuza would listen closely to the description of Satagon, his eyes remaining wide and open -- not that he was able to close them, anyways. "Strategic Intelligence, huh? Well, the-
Sirens would blare in the two Selenican's ear holes, hardly able to discern the voices of the two Etherians over the deafening roar.
"DAMMIT!" Yuza would yell, the two Selenicans springing forward off the wall. "WE GOTTA BOOK IT, MA'AM!"
"Then let's-- W-W-whoa-!" Lugos would exclaim, surprised at the strength of the Etherian, capable of hoisting a massive 20-foot long Selenican over his shoulder.
"Grhh!!" Yuza would grunt in exasperated exhaustion, his length surpassing even his superior -- whatever muscles these Etherians were made out of were strong.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 12/08/2023 13:51
Ayrkis sprinted out of the decrepit spaceport, passing over various bits of debris before they came out to the front door. The remains of the earlier gunfight were still present with a worn-looking APC that was still smouldering sat dead a little ways away from the front entrance, a few Etherians strewn about wearing way more primitive gear and looking very dead. Up ahead Bokhyn pulled out some sort of pistol and aimed it into the air before firing it off, a bright flash rocketing up from the projectile before exploding in the air some ways above them spawning a persistently burning bright white light. Some sort of upgraded flare it seemed.
Ayrkis finally made it to the newly designated LZ before gently crouching down and lowering Lugos off of his shoulder and setting her down carefully onto the ground below before reaching down to his belt and pulling some sort of bricky communications device off and holding it up to his snout. He looked to Bokhyn who nodded at him, Ayrkis then pressed down on the button and said "This is Twentieth Republic Legion Medical Team Askos-Nine requesting immediate evac on L-Z Ergonim-Gaetyr Nine. Two times non-hostiles in accompaniment with one needing medical evaluation, priority one. Out."
A few seconds passed in silence before the device crackled to life and a gruff voice responded "This is Communicae Lineman Taesyrmanax of the Republican Naval Vessel 'Archonic Fire'. Dropship has been dispatched to L-Z Ergonim-Gaetyr Nine, estimated time of arrival slotted for forty-five seconds. Advance Warning; We are undergoing strategic operations of a restricted nature, you and your party will be disarmed of any electronics capable of transmission upon boarding and placed under discretion order Calyx. This is a direct order of Strategic Intelligence Satagon. Over and Out."
Ayrkis looked to Bokhyn and nodded before placing the communication device back onto his belt, waiting for the dropship to arrive. As they did so the ground would suddenly be lit up as if it were day, with blinding streaks of red light appearing high above in the atmosphere that appeared to be streaking across the sky. Bokhyn looked up in awe before realization flashed across his face and it morphed into terror as he looked back at Ayrkis and said "Holy fuck man... that's an entire salvo..."
Ayrkis merely just looked at him and shook his head in response before looking down to the ground and idly kicking a rock. The sounds of rocket engines started to enter their surroundings as a craft in the far distance started approaching them. He chuckled and said "They're cutting their losses and pulling back, Bokhyn. They're glassing the entire fucking planet..." Both of them were silent after that, meanwhile the shuttle swooped over them before turning around and started to descend in front of them. It touched down a light bounce and a side door opened up to reveal an Etherian in some sort of armoured space suit waving them over rapidly before screaming out "C'mon bhys we need to get the fuck outta here! Get on!"
Ayrkis immediately snapped back into it and reached down to lift Lugos once more, hoisting her over his shoulder and dropping his rifle to the ground so he could carry her better. Bokhyn motioned to Yuza to follow as they both started sprinting forward before arriving at the edge of the shuttle, Ayrkis hefted Lugos up over his shoulder and onto the shuttle floor before pushing himself up. Bokhyn hopped up before turning around and offering a hand to Yuza, luckily it was a cargo shuttle so there was more than enough room for the Selenicans as the Etherians sat down and buckled themselves up whilst the door slid shut and the shuttle started rapidly ascending.
Deleted User — 31/08/2023 22:20
It was mildly embarrassing for Lugos to need to be carried by the Etherian, but she knew she didn't have it in her to make it out. Glassing the entire planet...? What in the Great Power's name could need that kind of response? She thought to herself, amid the chaos. She was hardly stirring anymore, the earlier episode in the spaceport and just outside of it finally hitting her with its reverbs. She merely laid in the shuttle, staring aimlessly at the roof.
Yuza only managed to hardly keep up with the Etherians, his body not making for an exceptionally fast slitherer. He only barely grappled onto the Etherian's hand before liftoff, hoisting himself into the shuttle and beside his superior. She....looked absent. Missing. She needs some serious time to recoup... He'd think to himself, looking obviously worried.
"Hey, Bokhyn." Yuza would start, offering his hand to the Etherian. "You've saved our lives...probably for the second time today. Whatever's happening, we're in debt to you."
Silence would follow for a short time, the Selenican watching his superior. Her eyes looked empty, and she wasn't having an...episode like earlier. What was going on...? Yuza'd think to himself, those thoughts appearing on his face like a neon sign. He was slumped against a chair, his enormous length proving...difficult to fit inside the shuttle.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 17/09/2023 18:59
The shuttle ride was rather somber after that, the two Etherians sitting quietly with sunken looks on their faces as they ascended. One could only imagine the thoughts going through their head, but whatever they were they couldn't be all that good considering what had just happened. Bright flashes of yellow light started painting the shuttle and leaking in through the windows a little bit as big balls of fire appeared on the planet down below, Bokhyn shivered and slowly wrapped his tails around his leg whilst Ayrkis stared down below, frozen at the sight.
An older looking naval ship came into view in front of them, eerily reminiscent of the Second Dawn's "Arkadia" Class vessels, but missing a few key features like the shielded engines and opaque windows. It was clearly a different class but so, so similar one might have been able to mistake it as one at a quick glance. However in place of the infamous "Councilor's Star" there was instead four horizontal lines, an emblem they had seen on the flag in the spaceport and on the Etherian's uniforms. The emblem of the Etherian Republic.
The shuttle slowly burned into a very small hangar before the outer door slid shut and the hangar was re-pressurized, the exterior doors beeping slightly before they started hissing as the interior of the shuttle was matched with the pressure outside. After that the shuttle doors slowly slid open and the two Etherians quickly made to get off, that was until they were stopped by four heavily armoured Etherians marching forward and pushing them back, rather harshly too. Ayrkis made to glare at them before he saw who was in the centre of the four.
A Reborn, clad in some sort of officer's uniform with two of the Etherians stood by each side of them. The Reborn didn't quite look like the modern chassis one might see today, but it was a Reborn nonetheless. It strode forward and stared at the two Selenicans curiously before turning to look at Ayrkis and giving him a nod, then they spoke in a rather disinterested but significantly robotic [way more then standard] and heavily accented tone
"That shall be all, Lineman Ayrkis. You are to report to the Mediciaries Quarter post haste. Your service in retrieving these two civillians was admirable and will be noted, good day."
The Reborn then turned to the two Selenicans and offered a hand, continuing
"It is good to meet you two, though I wish it was under better circumstances. You found yourself in quite the unfortunate situation, worry not however as we shall see to it you are returned to your home nation in time. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Strategic Intelligence Satagon of the Navale Commandiere. Do either of you require Medical Aide?"
Deleted User — 08/10/2023 12:24
Lugos stared at the assault on the planet below, orange and yellow flashes of light beaming into the shuttle's windows and piercing into her eyes, the enormous IR signature of the blasts half-blinding one pair of the Selenican's eyes. Bringing one hand to shield them, she was reminded of what happened onboard that...ship, in orbit of Anxios. She killed that man, in panic and fear. She saw the heat draining from his body as he slumped to the floor, and now...millions, millions who don't deserve to die, are being sent to oblivion. She remained slumped against the window, continuing to stare throughout the long shuttle ride, the silence palpable and tensions strained.
Yuza, by contrast, was more worried about where in the FUCK they were going. Sure, they were leaving the planet's surface, but they definitely weren't anywhere that the Selenicans knew about, and how the fuck they'll get home is the question. He laid across from his superior, his rifle resting on some of his many coils, eyes closed and breathing light. You could almost mistake he were sleeping.
That is, until the tell-tale rocking of a ship docking shook the two from their contemplative silence. A hiss, a door flinging open, and...one of THEM. A Reborn. Not an Etherian, who were tennuous allies at best, but the enemy, Satagon. They didn't know who he was, but...if he were a Reborn amongst Etherians, that couldn't be a good sign.
Lugos, the first to see the Reborn, was equally shocked and ready to draw. Her pistol, nearly out of ammunition, could probably blast a hole the size of a tennis ball through one of these damn things, but...what the FUCK was a Reborn doing here?
Yuza looked to his left slowly opening his eyes, seeing the creature. One of them. The enemy. However it didn't look...right. It looked old. However, he began to uncoil himself, and "stood" before the creature, Lugos by his side as the two stood before a facsimile of who they were fighting in-present.
---
"Pleased to meet you." Lugos said, forcing her voice to sound appreciative to mask the hate she felt, "My name's Lugos, and he's Yuza, first names not important. We hail from the Selenican Republic, and ended up on this planet by chance. I'm thankful you'll return us, but, you don't look like the Etherians we've seen so far. Did something happen?"
Yuza would elbow Lugos in the side, trying indicate to her that she's asking too many questions.
"O-ow!" she exclaimed softly, beaming with anger towards her partner. "E-Excuse that last question, think nothing of it, I'm asking too much."
Yuza would then speak, his lower and gruffer voice serving as contrast to his partner's. "We've not received any major damage, thanks for asking. Anyways, do you know when we'll be able to get home?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 08/10/2023 16:04
Satagon turned to the two Etherians and nodded to them before saying in an unrecognizable and thus untranslatable language "Questo è tutto, uomini della linea. Hai I tuoi ordini." The two Etherians looked at him with confused expressions marked by the exhaustion of todays events before hesitantly responding in the same language "Naturalmente, grande intelligenza... Solo Premium per la Repubblica." With that they both quickly saluted Satagon before one of the Etherians standing guard broke from formation and laid a hand on both of their shoulders before beginning to guide them out of the hangar, muttering to them in a comforting tone too quiet for the Selenicans to hear.
Satagon then turned to the solo remaining guard and gave him a brisk nod, the guard looking at him questionably but relenting when Satagon maintained his emotionless stare at them. The other Etherian relaxed slightly before hastily saluting the Reborn then breaking off and moving to follow their comrade. Satagon then turned to the two Selenicans and saying, now once again in a language translatable by them, "I'm going to be perfectly honest, you should not be aboard this ship. Were it not done with admirable intentions, Ayrkis and Bokhyn would have been court martialed for this but... well as you can tell by the events occurring below us, I believe an exception is warranted for this case. For had you have remained on the surface below, you'd be naught but radioactive ash and bone right about now."
He gestured to one of the windows on the close left side of the hangar, where the planet below was visible. The atmosphere now held a dull brown haze as titanic mushroom clouds continued to rise up from the surface, the fire that had been within them having already burnt out. He closed his extended hand into a fist before shakily lowering it to rest behind him once more. He stood there, the hangar dead silent for a few moments until he broke it once more. "Try not to dwell on it. The planet was a lost cause, there was no way of avoiding the casualties and most of the civillians fled weeks ago, that's why I ordered the bombing now and not earlier. What you should be most worried about now is getting back home to your families, so tell me. Where is it you originate from?"
Deleted User — 24/10/2023 14:00
“We originate from the Selenican Republic of the Ancerious Galaxy. We don’t know where, why, or how we got here, and we just wish to return home at present.” She spoke, a mild hint of distaste in her voice for the AI in front of her.
“Simply put,” Yuza started, “We weren’t supposed to be here. We…don’t know how we got on that rock. And Hell, I’m not even sure how we’ll get home.”
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 25/10/2023 12:01
Satagon paused at the mention of their origin and reached a hand up to scratch at his chin, the Proto-Reborn seemingly deep in thought before he said "We've had extra-galactic visitors before due to F-T-L malfunctions so worry not about our ability to return you home, though I must admit I fail to recall an 'Ancerious' Galaxy but information on foreign galaxies has been in short supply since the Colour Revolution." Satagon made a 'hmph' sound before turning around with a clack of his shoes and motioning to the Selenicans behind him
"Come, we will adjourn to my office where I can see if there's any mention or protocol on 'Ancerious' on my terminal. There will be an answer somewhere, if it is not on this vessel then I will alert my superiors and see if they can uncover it." And with that, the Proto-Reborn started walking off towards a corridor opposite of the one the Etherians disappeared into, shoes clacking against the cold metal floor in an unnaturally precise rhythm.
Deleted User — 09/11/2023 17:24
The two Selenicans would follow Satagon, their serpentine forms struggling to maintain what appeared to be a Reborn's speed. The interior of the shuttle was reminiscent of a spinning factory in the Yuza system, a self-sustaining labyrinth of piping and track which cannibalized the asteroid it was occupant to, leaving in its wake a bubble of safety for the Selenican people in the harsh vacuum of space.
Troubles raced through Lugos' mind. Why is Satagon trying to help them? Why are they here, seemingly in the past? Was this real? Was it just a delusion in their minds? Clearly, the events were real, but ... they couldn't have possibly been there. They didn't exist even, so...?
Yuza the man was steely-faced and following along. His mind kept popping questions, but he didn't entertain them. Not yet. There would be time to think on the circumstances later; for now, all that mattered was returning home, with some very valuable data.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 23/12/2023 13:58
As they walked through the corridors of the Etherian ship they'd see a few more Etherians buzzing around in fatigues performing various tasks. Each one stopped and gave quite the salute to Satagon as they passed, and in an even stranger twist the Proto-Reborn stopped and returned every single one he was given. They walked for what felt around five minutes until the corrider seemed to come to an end up ahead, with only a single corridor left of a fancy door at the end of the corridor that they had been walking down, Satagon gestured to it as if to confirm that it was in fact the correct one and made to go over and open it. But before he could, a snarky voice called out from the corridor to his left:
"Well, well, well. The prodigal son returns." And out from it appeared a slender red Etherian dressed up in some sort of fancy black and gold dress uniform, it was quite obviously a she, and contrary to her military dress she had long, loose raven hair dyed crimson at the ends of its locks draping down to her shoulders. A lengthy single edged sword was belted to her hip. Satagon stiffened upon hearing her and promptly turned to face her before snapping to a rigid pose, likely their form of attention, before belting out "First Intelligence, Ma'am." The Etherian chuckled at his antics before shaking her head with an amused sigh, she looked him up and down before catching sight of the two Selenicans behind him. Her gaze sharpened as it focused on the two of them and she stepped forward to approach them whilst saying "Oh well look here, this little killer of mine has made a couple friends~"
She came to a stop just in front of Yuza, at a distance borderline uncomfortable as her four eyes slowly examined the Selenican before her. Satagon remained speechless as she said "Indeed, quite the sight I must say. Especially considering you're here about a hundred-ish years too early, eh? How'd you manage that I wonder..." Satagon seemed slightly confused at that last part but remained silent and motionless as she continued "Couldn't be any temporal anomaly, Ancerious has natural resistance to such things in ways that's baffled even our own scientists. Perhaps psionics? But the Army of the Panopticon is rather quick to shut such experimentation down, and I don't see a stigmata on either of you... Hmmm, or maybe it's an illusion. After all I'm fairly sure that there weren't any Selenicans present during the Holocaust of Arkadia. Unfortunately for whoever is behind this, I had safeguards installed into my consciousness shortly after my ascension that would grant me and any copies of me a limited amount of decision-making so that if someone created a simulation, AI or illusion in my image I couldn't be compelled to give out national secrets. It is also capable of deciphering and telling me a little bit about who approached the copy, that way if the real me ever discovers this fake me, I can ask it for clues as to who you really are and track you down."
Rubikon nodded before turning around to face Satagon who seemed entirely confused about whatever was going on, she reached up and scratched her chin before turning her attention back to the Selenicans "I fear what's occurred in the future for someone to have created some sort of false image involving both me and Satagon, but whoever did so clearly did so sloppily. Likely either out of accident or something similar, if you aren't here willingly then know that at this depth of false-reality the only way to escape is to convince yourself it isn't real and then force yourself to 'wake up' in a sense. If you're here for information on either of us, I'm afraid I don't know the present so I can't tell you for fear of you having ill intentions so you might as well leave. Any questions? I'm sure none of this makes sense to you at the moment."
Ana (SR) — 02/02/2024 18:37
"I..." Lugos began, catching herself just before blurting something out. "...I'll wake myself up."
She was deeply confused, reminded of Yuza's similar outburst earlier before being saved from Arkadia's surface. This...wasn't real? But it felt real, the wind and heat, it all felt like reality. Looking out the window to the office, she observed the destruction of Arkadia below, flashes of orange and white light bombarding its surface as the planet began to turn to glass.
"I would ask questions, but you're not exactly in the position to answer." Yuza huffed out, clearly angry at the Etherian. He slithered beside his commanding officer, observing the destruction below. The simulated reality felt so real, not like a pleasant dream but like...reality. Every movement he made, he could feel his muscles and scales tensing up beneath him, his ribs squeezing and stretching apart like an accordion against the floor.
The two remained side-by-side, appearing stoic in the face of an unusual situation but beneath their cold visages was confusion and doubt.
"We're leaving. Thank you for saving us." Yuza barked out, curt as always.
He was the first to "wake up," concentrating on the fake starline he could see beyond Arkadia's surface. It was wrong, nothing even remotely like Ancerious's. He continued to focus, blocking out the sounds and even sensations of touch from his surroundings, focusing only on what he knew to be false.
Lugos tried to follow suit, beginning to squeeze her body mid-way down; the feeling was almost real, the movement of muscle and bone, the flow of blood through the arteries and veins. But...it wasn't exact. It was too...sharp. Unlike the real sensation of touch, it was too cut and dry-- the fading in and out that predicated and followed the action weren't present. She focused on this sensation, continuing to rhythmically squeeze her body, praying that it sent her to reality.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — Today at 00:54
And so they awoke, ripped from the psionic hallucination like their very minds were pulled apart and stitched back together back into their own bodies. A surreal experience but not a painful one at least, though when they came to the Etherian... was gone...
As was the Reborn.
And the missile...
Instead there was naught but sand wafting down in faint tendrils through the hole that it once filled, dust caking their surroundings as the world slowly came back to reality. But as they glanced around and recollected themselves they might have noticed a brief dull red flash in the corner of the room, what it was? Well who knew. Maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe it was something else entirely. They would never know. Nonetheless it seemed the best idea was to escape with what information they had already been to acquire, which was by all means a treasure trove that was sure to help them in the war to come. After all, there was little that wasn't priceless this deep in the bowels of the Second Dawn's most illusive facility.
But so deep they were, they wouldn't know of the stealth ship in orbit plated in a solid mirror-like material. They wouldn't see it's fiery engines spool up and eject bright red plumes out into the vacuum of space before vanishing with a bright flash.
Operasjonell Avdeling "VERDENSORGEN"
Jörmungandr chuckled to himself as he played back the footage again, silver scales gleaming in the dark red light of his ship's bridge. He watched with narrowed serpentine eyes, bright crimson irises practically glowing in the diminutive lighting. He watched as the two Selenicans sped across the screen towards the bunker and descended into it, he watched it over and over as his chuckle died out and his hood flared in amusement. After watching it a few more times he finally reached down and swiped a scaled hand over a holographic controller and the screen died. He shook his head before placing a cigarette in his snout and lighting it with a wordless command, then reaching down and flipping a phone open before raising it to his head.
The other line was quiet for a few seconds before a raspy robotic voice asked "Well?" to which he replied "They're in." And a pause on the other side before the voice answered "Good. What will they find? Will we be accountable?" Jörmungandr shook his head, even though the caller couldn't see it, and said "Some of what they find will benefit them, some of it will benefit us. How exactly remains to be seen but I'm sure it will be quite the surprise regardless." The voice on the other end sighed "I see. Thank you for informing me anyways, some things are better kept unseen."
Jörmungandr chuckled as he took another draw on his cigarette before flipping the phone closed and ending the call. It was true, that some things were better off remaining undiscovered, but what was down in that facility was perfect for the Selenicans to find. A few hints, a couple tips, things that would allow them to draw their own conclusions when they eventually decided to start fighting the Second Dawn. But he had done his job and he had done it well.
For now there was nought to be found there, nought but secrets...
Secrets in the Sand...
Sand... so much sand. It was all one could see all the way far out into the horizon and even up into the yellow tinted sky as clouds of dusty sand blew high up above. Although one could somewhat see the surface of the planet and it's oddly reflective liquid oceans, it was completely unscannable with most instruments failing to pierce the the thick haze that was the atmosphere. The most that was able to be gleamed from any attempted scanning or probe deployment was that the planet had slightly elevated radiation levels and that there was some form of unnatural compound heavily polluting the atmosphere, but it couldn't be determined what it was specifically.
Yet this was the right world, the sandy exoplanet where the Second Dawn's supposed black site was. It supposedly had a low security presence, and by the lack of anything artificial being present within the system's vacuum itself that seemed to be an accurate determination. The system itself was only just barely in the Second Dawn's territory, technically being on the border itself with the Phasic Wastes in an almost uncomfortable proximity to the system. One could even see them in the vast backdrop of space itself from the system, far off into the distance.
Alas it was now time, the only way to determine more information about the planet was to land on the surface itself.
Deleted User — 30/04/2023 21:41
SERS. Established during a crisis in Anxios's space, involving a strange ship of unknown origin and the Bulwark's SpARC apertures, it grew rapidly since that first outing. Beginning as nothing more than a hodge-podge mixture of whatever techies the Selenicans could free from other projects in an emergency, SERS had become a sort of special operations division similar to the DOE, however fervently loyal to the SR's central government, and more specifically, Selia himself. They enjoyed a very brief period of relaxation and formal organization, wherein SERS was coopted under the SR's armed forces as a generalized special operations division.
However, this period of rest was shortened massively by the, as-known, aggressive strikes that the Second Dawn had committed against the Selenican people. A crime which would not go unpunished. Making use of SCUM as intelligence-gatherers to see what weak links in the SD existed led them to a remarkably unremarkable lifeless system, classified in most major starlogs as System 110183. What was to be found here? An SD R&D facility. Also known, a jackpot. With negotiations on the horizon, any and all ways to one-up the scum who had viciously murdered their brothers and sisters had to be considered and grasped with ferocity and haste.
Aboard Selenican Dropship E-45 -- System 110183, Exoplanet D-9
"Well. Looks like this is it." the captain of the team, a 14-foot long Selenican commander Kerena Lugos would speak first. "Barren sand, unhospitable atmosphere, and an SD research lab is all we know about this Almighty-forsaken place."
"Mission is to get in and grab some data on what these damnable robots are researching and get the hell out, right?" her subordinate, a 18-foot long Selenican soldier Leri Yuka would reply, in his normal carefree tone.
"Don't get cocky or we'll end up dying down there." She'd reply, cold and stern.
"Aye."
--
The two agents were equipped with heavy climate control outfits, completely sealed from outside weather. Along with this, some infantry-portable demolitions explosives, firecrackers, and light firebombs were given to Yuka with half of his role being to distract any "police" through causing commotion down on the planet below if the SD was arranged anything like a normal society. Lugos would be equipped with several system "bugs" to spider through their systems and upload any data to her most valuable possession -- the data logger stored on her back. Both would have small chemical kinetic pistols and a large stock of reserve ammunition in case anything were to happen.
Soon after a short briefing, re-explaining their mission a third time, the two agents would be deployed to the surface, landing the dropship E-45 nearby a major installation. The sand was never-ending, and blowing across the fields like a typhoon. Their climate control outfits were clocking overtime as the scorching heat beat down on the two.
"Definitely sandy, and hot..." Lugos would say, radioing over to her compatriate.
The two operatives would begin the slow, long trek up a sand dune to get a view at the installation. A massive fortress of a place, clearly well defended, likely impenetrable by any ground force...at least, it should have been. Approaching around the east side of the building, making use of the sand dunes as cover, the two noticed how...barren it looked. There were no outward defenses to be seen, soldiers which should have been out front and guarding major entrances were absent. A strange situation.
"Well...side entrance seems open..." Yuka would mention to his superior, noticing the same lack of defenses as her.
"We should still be cautious. Automated defenses are everywhere these days." she would reply, beginning to equip some improved IR binoculars. She could already see IR frequencies, but she needed precision.
However, even despite expectations it seemed...empty. No heat, no electricity, nothing. It seemed barren. Like a skeleton.
--
"Seems empty. We should look inside." She would say to her subordinate, beginning to slide down the sand dune together with him. Now would be the expected time for automated defenses to appear...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 30/04/2023 22:08
As the Selenicans slid down the dune the winds started to pick up blowing sand around on the dunes as the hazy clouds overhead continued to silently roll across the sky with a crack of thunder going off in the far distance, despite the lack of a storm adding to the oddity of the planet’s atmosphere. If the Selenicans had any radiation detecting equipment it’d report back that the closer it got to any physical material like the sand below them or the structure itself, radiation would spike significantly to levels that would be considered unhealthy to most organics. It’d rise up a little more as they got closer to the structure but wouldn’t go near anything too serious, but as they got closer to the structure the clouds in the distance cleared a little bit and revealed something… deeply concerning…
For about half a minute the distant sand clouds let up a little bit and revealed what looked to be the exterior of… a city? But there were no lights or visible activity, and there was certainly no response or indicator to show that they’d been detected upon atmospheric entry. If they looked at it with greater magnification they’d see that the city was… completely obliterated, with buildings having collapsed and some having chunks missing with clear explosive damage. There was even some smoke still rising from some of the buildings and with these atmospheric conditions that meant the damage had to be recent, within the last 14 hours guaranteed. Making the circumstances all the stranger..
As they approached the side entrance itself a small little infographic would become visible on the side of the entrance that would show basic decontamination instructions inside and a few paragraphs below showing a map of the facility and other misc info.
It was officially called the “NCBGC-3 Strategic Weapons Development Facility.” Below the name were 5 symbols with a description below, the first was one labeled “NUCLEAR” and was self explanatory. It was followed by “CHEMICAL”, “BIOLOGICAL”, “GENETIC”, and “CONTROL.” Beneath the genetic and control sections were descriptions that said that to enter the facility one required a full containment suit with regular decontamination intervals due to the storage of several “active compounds” and something called a “Fereizer-Contaminant.”
And as expected, no automated defences activated upon approach and the facility gave off no signatures to indicate that it even had any power let alone personnel presence. But then a few seconds later, a deeply robotic and corrupted sound emanated from inside the facility that sounded like a mix between a scream and a cry followed by various pieces of metal clattering to the ground…
Deleted User — 08/05/2023 16:11
"Yuka." Lugos would say, quiet, as the two enter the seemingly shelled city. The quiet is deafening, with every sound the two serpents make ringing down the streets like church bells, loud and intrusive, echoey. "I have a horrible feeling about this place."
"Obviously...Almighty above it's...dead here." Yuka would reply, trying to remain quiet. Then, the two would hear the screaming, the horrible discordant screaming and the clang of metal against the ground. Someone had died, and they were witness.
"Fuck, this is..." Yuka would begin, before being hushed by his superior, her cold exterior not doing anything to hide the disgust or anguish she felt from hearing the cry.
"Quiet. We need to get to the bottom of what these bastards are doing, ASAP, starting with weapons. Specifically, chemical weapons. We might use that as leverage later."
"Aye, ma'am."
Slowly the two made their way into the facility, beginning their dive into the chemical wing of the complex. Their climate-control suits, modified for this mission, were very resistant to outside chemical hazards, but by no means immune. Exposure would slowly kill the serpents, like it would for any humanoid.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 08/05/2023 16:46
As they entered the facility proper an alarm finally became audible, it was disturbingly quiet due to the lack of power causing the remaining systems (which had the ability to) to fall back on analog or reserve batteries. Inside they were met with a cracked apart screen that displayed the 5 symbols in flashing red followed by the words “CONTAINMENT BREACH. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. SELF DESTRUCT FAILED. EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE.” repeating over and over and over but there was no audio. As they proceeded into the office space on the first level they were instantly met with a gruesome sight; shell casings littered the ground with drops of black liquid onto and below them, the floor cracked in some spaces and littered with fragments of armour on others.
At this time they would arrive at the first decontamination checkpoint which would be completely ripped apart, and once they passed through they’d be met with the corpse of a Reborn horribly shredded sat down against the wall with the front part of their robotic head having been completely ripped off, wiring and tubing exposed as a rifle lay to the side of them with more empty shell casings. The office space was dimly lit with red lighting that flickered in some places, and it was deathly quiet. If they searched the spaces they’d find that almost all of the equipment had been completely destroyed, some of it appeared to be blown apart, some of it had deep scratch marks as if something.. feral had ripped it apart and others had bullet holes going through them. As they proceeded there would be a sudden noise, a deeply corrupted robotic growl followed the sound of metal scraping against the floor in one of the nearby office spaces. With this proximity it was easier to tell that it was clearly a Reborn but it sounded… unnatural, unlike anything they would have ever heard from a Reborn before. After a second if they listened they might be able to make out barely coherent words in-between the corrupted growling
“The… Field… All..” was all that was discernible from the highly damaged voice, if they got within 4 metres of the Reborn’s position however then something strange would happen. A sort of presence would permeate the air, like a dark cloud hovering above them or the feeling of stickiness when the air is humid. But with this it was more cold, as if it was like they were suddenly walking into an ice cave… just what was going on here…
Deleted User — 15/05/2023 17:17
"What the fuck happened here...?!" Lugos would say, mortified at the sights and sounds. The cold, dying facility and the corpse of the Reborn pushed against the wall proved to be...frightening wasn't the word. She had expected horrors beyond her imagination. No, there was...wrong. Something happened here that wasn't supposed to. The cold was nearly unbearable, forcing the serpents away from the near-deceased Reborn. Something was terribly wrong.
"M-Ma'am?" Yuka would stammer, having his sidearm drawn, his arms shakey and hardly aiming straight as his superior examined the body, at least, as much as she could. "What...do you think h-happened here?"
"I haven't a clue..." she whispered back, planting a sensor on the ground to detect if any footsteps were coming. "But whatever it is, these fucking robots were messing with things beyond their understanding."
Slowly working down the hallway, the two operatives were slow, deliberate, and most of all, quiet. Risk was something the two did not wish to encounter, however, coming across the Reborn's body was the final wakeup call for Yuka. Drawn in by promises of grandeur and saving his nation from enemies, he was...hopelessly misled during training, then due to exemplary results, he was plucked by SERS for true high-stakes operations. He had been lied to.
The two rounded a corner, spotting a lab with a glass wall between it and the hallway. Inside was a terminal -- and there was their ticket, if it had been hooked up to the central system anyways. Any data on it would be siphoned and they could be extracted...aside from any complications requiring further infiltration.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 15/05/2023 17:54
The aura in the terminal room was significantly reduced and it was nearly back up to a standard room temperature but the permeating presence of that... unnatural dread still lingered in the air. As they approached the terminal the screen would flicker to life having detected a user enter in proximity and it would already be logged in, displaying what seemed to be some sort of report related to the research performed in this facility under the "Control" subsection, it was dated to 3 days ago. It read as follows:
Report-2PUR-CSTR
This is Dr. Paragon-XV, Chief Supervisor of the development of Controlling Substances. I regret to inform that patient A9XX8-SR3 has been labeled deceased following the failed implementation of the component prototype "Mandala 1." Subject survived for 53 minutes following installation in where the 2 security personnel safeguarding the patient reported extreme headache following exposure, as such the testing chamber was sealed and personnel removed from proximity. The patient displayed numerous capabilities from the installation including being able to manipulate objects through no visible tactile motion and being able to transmit auditory and visual hallucinations to a target. The subject also gained a distorted ring of space in the form of a halo approximately two inches above their head prior to death where they then screamed in pain until their voicebox shorted out and they collapsed to the ground in a violent seizure, which was so intense the servos in their neck snapped and caused instant death. We will begin fabrication of a new Mandala with an increase in Visonite concentration which will then be installed into patient B9XX8-SR3.
The report included an attachment that displayed a picture of the deceased Reborn, with visible claw marks on their face that seemed self inflicted and their neck bent at a very unnatural angle with snapped tubing and plating visible on the right side. There were 58 reports under the "Control" subsection along with a confidential key on the control subsection itself, which read;
CONTROL: Any element labeled with CONTROL is a memetic hazard to Reborn regardless of PPE in usage, should any staff member be exposed to a CONTROL element they are to be immediately restrained and anesthetized before being transported to the Citadel. CONTROL elements pose severe psionic risks, recent intelligence has confirmed the existence of unpredictable psionic entities of which information has been sparse, should any foreign psionic event be detected or otherwise [See latest information package on "Army of the Panopticon" and safety briefing SXD-R-AS-1902] the site is to be scuttled and the planet glassed to prevent confidential intelligence exposure.
However as the Selenicans were busy examining the terminal, combined with unknown parameters, they had failed to notice that the Reborn was now standing outside the room staring directly at them with a distorted halo shimmering above their head...
Deleted User — 21/05/2023 21:58
"Bingo." Lugos would say as they came across the terminal, quickly moving over to it and taking a seat in a chair most uncomfortable for her. "Let's see what the robots were up to..."
A brief flash of the screen coming to life and text flooding across the screen, an input bar appeared at the bottom of the screen. It read Input:, a sort of desire for a password.
"Now, let's not worry about a password..." she'd say, pulling a section of her body over which had a small container affixed to it through synthetic leather straps. Inside was a sort of "universal key," a prototype code-cracking device which linked to a quantum supercomputer back in Selenican territory through entanglement to quickly and efficiently crack passwords. However, due to the firewalls in place on this computer, Lugos would need a bit more to get in.
"One moment. Yuka, stand guard behind me. If you see anything, don't be hesitant to fire, we have no idea what's going on in this place."
"Aye, ma'am..." the younger operative would stammer out, obviously terrified.
After the order, she would turn back to the computer screen, rapidly keying in some kind of command, to access the internal mainframe of the device. Normally such an action wouldn't be possible, but given the dire circumstances in place at the facility, it seems some of the failsafes were disabled to try and erase as much data as possible.
"Now, let's..." she'd begin to say, keying in another command, which deactivated the firewall on this computer. She'd slam on the escape key a few times, returning to where the password input would be needed. "Get to work, little guy." She'd say again, letting the universal key do its work. Not more than 30 seconds later, an extremely loud pure tone of a DING! would be heard, notifying a success.
"Gotcha." She'd say, smiling at an easy hack job. Inside the terminal's database was a couple reports, in a sequential list. However, most of them turned out to be corrupted, so she'd begin to read through the sole unafflicted entry.
"Yuka..." She'd begin to say, horrified as to the reading. "I think there's more going on here than the SD let us on."
"M-ma'am?" He'd begin to say, now even more scared, his gun being shakily handled, hardly being able to grip straight.
"C'mere," she'd say, pulling him over with a waving hand motion. "I think they were experimenting with...let's see...Visonite? That means psionics, I think..."
"Psionics? What're those?" Her subordinate would ask, clearly not grasping the situation.
"I've no idea, but it's safe to say, given these test results, it's dangerous. Lemme grab this intel."
After latching a data-grabbing spider into the computer's memory, it'd slowly begin sifting through all the corrupted data and grabbing whatever files it could find. Mostly, those with the CONTROL label, as they were of seemingly great importance and note.
But, they were not alone...
The figure standing in the door was unnoticed, emitting an ominous low hum, beyond the two's hearing, until Yuka turned his back to his partner, staring it in the face.
He couldn't scream, or cry, or anything. He was gripped by nothing but an overwhelming sense of power and terror, beyond anything a normal creature could pose. Held firmly in place. And staring into the only part of the creature he could discern, that halo...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/05/2023 22:25
The Reborn... if it could even be called that anymore.. Just stared at Yuka, deadly silent and still as the walls around them. The Reborn itself was in a disturbing state, with the front portion of it's face just fucking gone as if it was ripped off by something, the plating was splattered with oil and the un-stained plating seemed almost corroded by something. It reached out towards Yuka with both arms, however it's left arm was ripped apart with everything below the elbow completely missing, and just screamed. It was a long, corrupted, robotic wail of agony from a creature that has been through god knows what.
After a second it started twitching slightly, but then the slight twitches and spasms grew rapidly in intensity and then escalated into what looked to be a full on seizure. Half a second later it pounced, sprinting towards the duo with unnatural speed as the halo above the Reborn started to distort itself even more and emit a electric-like crackling sound. However right before it got to the glass, something unexpected happened...
From within a hallway to the left, a sudden deep hum became audible as a glowing red light suddenly appeared before three deep, extremely loud, electric pulses could be heard. As the Reborn was about to burst through the glass three bolts of glowing red plasma rocketed through the afflicted synthetic, burning holes clean through it's abdomen, upper chest and head as the robot crumpled like a leaf and fell down to the side from the force of the impacts. Then it was silent, not a sound was made until the sound of hissing air could be heard followed by the thuds of something large, metallic and heavy came from the hallway where the laser shots came from.
Then, out from the hallway stepped out something the Selenican's had never seen before; A large robotic reptile standing at around 8 feet tall revealed itself, wearing full-body thick plate armour with a tactical vest resting over it. Two large tails were thrashing behind it as it stood on heavy muscular legs, with four arms it was holding a medium sized assumingly pulse rifle that was still aimed at the now KIA Reborn and two pistols of a similar design in the two free arms. After a second of staring at the Reborn it turned towards the Selenicans, it wasn't wearing a helmet which revealed a long crocodile-like robotic snout with two serpentine like fangs protruding from the upper lip near the front. It had four icy blue eyes with pupils narrowed into slits like a ball python's and every few seconds a long synthetic black forked tongue would flicker out form it's angular snout.
It stared at the Selenicans before reaching up to a radio on it's vest and pressing down on it before saying (in a way more organic, hissing tone then the Reborn): "Хеы, гет тхе Цаптаин лике- Ригхт фуцкинг нощ. И гот тщо оф тхосе "Селеницанс" ригхт ин фронт оф ме." It then lowered it's hand back onto the rifle which was also lowered to a more casual position, it stared at the Selenicans seemingly both confused, concerned and sympathetic before a similar language started speaking from the radio in a quiet tone. The... robo-reptile listened for a second before nodding slightly and then reaching up to it's radio again, this time pushing a different button before speaking in the Selenican's native tone although it was slightly distorted at first:
" -eemsss I'm not the only one here... Before you freak out, which I wouldn't blame you for, allow me to introduce myssself; I'm Fangcommander Taressseryxisss of the Etherian Free Navy, I'm not here to hurt you. I was sssent here by my Captain Nevasssarax when we intercepted a dissstresss call from thisss location- and don't worry, the SSSecond Dawn never received it- we made sssure of that. Now, may I asssk who you are and what you're doing on thisss godforsssaken radioactive rock?"
Deleted User — 21/05/2023 23:14
Once the gargled scream was heard from the Reborn, Lugos would snap her head over to where her comrade was stood, frozen in place.
"YUKA!!" She'd yell, watching the malformed abomination twitch and shake, a long drawn-out scream as it looked in immense pain. "GET DOWN!" She'd yell, the Reborn blasted into the ground, the horrible smell of metal, oil, and other synthetics mixing together into a putrid miasma.
"We're...not...alone..." Yuka managed to croak out before passing out due to sheer terror and shock, crumpling to a heap on the floor where he once stood, staring at the abomination.
"Yuka!" the female serpent would call out before he collapsed, hearing their voices in a strange unknown language. "Shit..." She'd whisper, grabbing her pistol and hiding behind a table turned over in the Reborn's rampage.
It was a tense few seconds, hearing the clunking of metal against the floor, the hulking behemoth showing itself soon after, a four-armed creature armed to match its size, however, it did not appear hostile, in fact, when it spoke, it seemed...friendly.
"Damn, I'm glad you came..." She'd begin, still hiding behind the table, only slowly beginning to peak her long snout above it. "Well, you're on our side it seems, so no harm telling you -- us two're operatives of the SR. We came to this radioactive hellscape to grab some intel on the bioweapons and other chemical agents the SD used against us in a recent battle."
She would pause for a while, dragging her subordinate to a slightly safer location behind cover in case another screeching abomination showed its face.
"Well...we were, until that monster showed its face. Seems like my subordinate had some malfunction, and couldn't shoot."
She was now entirely away from the cover, showing her true size and face to the commander, a much slimmer and lengthier appearance compared to him.
"I don't know what these damn robots are researching, but I feel like it's no good. Whatever they're looking into, we need to find out more then we can get the hell out. Any data gathered here will be instrumental."
"Now, enough talk from me. Who the fuck are you aligned with?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/05/2023 23:36
The Etherian nodded at what she said before they slowly walked over to the deceased Reborn, the halo over their head having dissipated as small tendrils of smoke rose from the subtly glowing small orange holes punched through them. They reached down and poked the corpse with the barrel of their rifle before standing back up and raising their left leg over it’s head which they then brought down on it, crushing the already damaged head and destroying the central processor as the Reborn spasmed one last time before going still once more. The Etherian nodded in approval before slinging their rifle down to their side and reaching into one of their pouches and pulling out a holographic device out and staring at it for a few seconds before putting it back and turning to Lugos seemingly thinking for a second before answering; “Monssster isss putting it lightly, but there ssshouldn’t be anymore. I arrived here a few hoursss ago and cleared thisss floor out- don’t know how thisss one ssslipped passst me though.. But anyway the elevator to the lower levelsss isss completely locked up ssso I wasss looking for a terminal to accesss the facilitiesss sssubsssyssstemsss. It ssseemsss that they were resssearching all sssortsss of ssshit here, when I did a preliminary enviro-ssscan after I thought I had sssecured thisss floor and found faint trace elementsss of both sssome kind of advanced nerve agent and a very very very tiny amount of caesssium resssidue, both have me worried. SSShould be fine to sssurvive here for a few hoursss, maybe a day with no adverssse affectsss but thisss place definitely had sssomething go horribly wrong.”
The Etherian shook his head before they readied their rifle again and looked down the hallways before aiming it up and balancing it on their hip and continuing “Guesss you could sssay I’m aligned with no one except my Captain really, we only arrived in… wherever thisss place isss a few weeksss ago where our ssship wasss lit up by the ssso-called ‘SSSecond Dawn’ and we were forced to abandon ssship, we found ssshelter on thisss oily world and managed to make contact with sssome of the other crew who sssurvived. Then we caught wind of thisss place and figured it’d be good asss any to get sssome more intel then what we gleaned from intercepting commsss from the SSSecond Dawn.” The Etherian chuckled a little bit before lowering their rifle into a more ready position and glancing down the hallway again before turning to the Selenican and saying “SSSecure them and leave them here, there ssshouldn’t be any more afflicted wandering around but even if there are they’ll avoid him if he ssseemsss unconsssciousss; they fear what they think to be dead. Don’t assk me why I have no idea.”
Deleted User — 28/05/2023 18:58
While the seemingly friendly creature was talking, Lugos was working to bring her subordinate back to consciousness. It wouldn't take but so long, and a few hard slaps to the nostrils, for Yuza to wake back up.
"There you are." She'd say, annoyed at how apparently lacking her companion's constituion was.
"...Hunh...?" He'd blurt out, not exactly asleep but definitely unconscious moments before. "Right, right..."
"Well, you're fucking lucky you're alive." she'd reply, "And we have an ally now."
"Great." He'd say, still processing what he could of the new situation. Most notably, the Etherian. "I don't know what you are but I'm glad you saved my ass."
He wouldn't talk for the rest of the conversation.
"Anyways," Lugos would begin, stern as ever, especially frustrated at her colleague, "You said the SD has nerve agents and cesium on this floor, correct? Well, in a recent fight between the SR and SD, the damn robots chucked a nerve agent at us, leading to the losses of one of our ships. Whatever data we can grab on that is data we can use as an axe over the SD's head during negotiations."
The three's discovery of the SD's brutal experimentation had only begun, however, as this complex, constructed more like a fortified city than a research lab, would contain many secrets...secrets that the SR's operatives needed to uncover.
"We have more dirt to dig up on these robots. Wanna come with?" Lugos would ask.
---
Following their interaction with the Etherian, the two serpents would continue down the halls, to where what they believed to be an elevator stood. As the Etherian said, it was completely locked, both by doors and a special code. The masterkey wouldn't work on this, it seems that it had been completely busted after the first password cracking. Looks like they'd need to search around on this floor, down the further wing of the building...where more horrors would await.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 28/05/2023 19:32
The Etherian snorted at the two Selenican’s antics before respond to Lugos' inquiry "Yes there are trace amounts of their nerve agent on this floor, too degraded to be sampled at this point but no doubt they have more cannisters in storage on the lower levels. If they also haven't changed from the old Republic procedures then there should be a terminal that contains an emergency access code in a catastrophic event that's on a separate grid and power supply then the rest of the facility, judging by how the still functional doors and such are locked and asking for a 'Master Code' I believe it is there where we will find our way down to the lower levels."
Twenty Minutes Later
After they had discovered they had returned to the completely shut down elevator, which asked for a Master Code, The Fangcommander turned to the two Etherians and said "Alright, this facility is too dangerous to traverse solo. Not to incur any offense, but we both saw how your colleague reacted to that... thing. I will lead us through the facility and show you what surviving objects I encountered for you to retrieve for yourselves, maintain total awareness throughout the entirety of our journey- I cannot stress that enough. You are currently trespassing in a highly classified black-site created by a government who's only goal is the increase of their dollar value, at any moment you could encounter automated defenses or hostile survivors. Do not, rely, on me."
After staring at the two with her four eyes narrowed she nodded before raising her pulse rifle and two pistols and proceeding down the closest corridor. They ecountered a vast increase in corpses as they went, some of them like the Reborn they had seen earlier but every so often they'd fine a maimed one with the same holes in them that the Etherian had put into the psionically charged Reborn. It appears that one was not the only surviving test subject...
After a few more minutes of careful walking the Etherian led them to a large office, the door having been blown open with blast marks on the frame where the handle would be. The Etherian gestured to the room with their upper left arm whilst remaining outside to stand guard. Inside the office there were 4 prominent objects of interest, but on the opposite side of the wall there appeared to be dripping liquid of some kind from the ceiling and it reeked of fuel. With the state of the room there was no way to be sure there wasn't an ignition source present and thus, they would only have time to safely investigate 2 of the 4 items before the room likely exploded. The items were as follows:
1) A black terminal that had been left powered and logged in that appeared to display some sort of unopened file sent by the Citadel approximately four days before the facilities radio-silence, judging by the size of the office they were in and the fact this file was not present on the last computer meant it had to be some highly confidential secret meant only for the command personnel of the facility.
2) A grey hard-drive that appeared to have some slight damage to it but was probably still functional, the markings of the EPA engraved onto the top of it. It was completely unknowable what was on it but something that required physical storage seperate from the rest of the terminal and bearing the markings of the SD's military? It could be the most valuable item in the room, or it could just be the bill for the security services.
3) Reborn have an internal hard-drive which acts as their memory bank, and there was a deceased Reborn sat down in the chair to the office's desk. The Reborn had a hole in the side of their head and a pistol in their right hand but judging by the positioning it was largely possible that the memory was unaffected, but Reborn parts have a tendency for system failures upon death.
4) A grenade was hooked onto the Reborn's armour bearing their crest for Chemical Hazards. Could this be a man-portable version of their infamous CDS system? Or could it just be a disorienting agent... moreso why would a race of synthetics, who are unaffected by chemical weapons, possess a grenade that allegedly uses one on their person on a planet with supposedly no organics?
Deleted User — 03/06/2023 18:59
Following the Etherians, the two Selenican operatives remained mostly silent aside from accepting orders and following behind them. Lugos was extremely displeased with her companion's complete lack of professionality, in passing out earlier. However, he wasn't exactly to blame -- the Selenicans, while as prone to psionics as most other native species, have no specific psionic resilience -- thus, even the most low-grade psionics have full effect upon them.
The office proved to be a virtual holy grail for the serpents, though the feeling of a presence even greater than the Reborn they had already encountered informed the choice to only take a small number of objects. Lugos would assume that staying too long would keep them open for too much time, so it would be best to grab what was portable and go.
"Yuza. Grab the hard drive out of the Reborn's head over there." The female serpent would say, brashly and cold.
Despite every gut feeling in his stomach telling him that grabbing the memory bank out of a corpse was a bad idea, Yuza...
"Aye ma'am..." he'd reply, very clearly still coming to his senses even 20 minutes after the incident.
While her colleague began to dig through the cavity in the Reborn's head to find whatever he could, Lugos would eject the hard drive which had EPA markings in it. While the psionic dealings were of great concern, her mission wasn't to begin the Selenican's delving into psionics -- it was to grab whatever information she could on their chemical weapons and get the hell out.
"Thank you for accompanying us." She'd tell the Etherians, cold and professional. However, despite her tone, she was...nervous. Extremely nervous. Despite her species of Najarin not being known for having extremely averse reactions to high stress, the anxiety she felt was...different. Malicious, almost. Like whatever died here died angry, and wanting to hurt whoever did...something to it.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 04/06/2023 21:36
The Reborn's internal drive was eventually found by Yuza's scavenging and the assumption was correct; The drive was completely undamaged, but whether it still held anything of value was the question. The hard drive ejected properly and was fully ready for transports, hopefully this would be a successful pilferage but they wouldn't know until they returned to wherever they had arrived from and examined the contents of the hardware.
Tareseryxis nodded to Lugos' kind words and gave her a toothy smile in contrast to her own cold response, forked tongue flickering out like a python's as he did so. He then raised his pulse rifle and two handheld pistols and motioned for them to follow. It seemed he was completely unaware of the aura that Lugos was feeling, and so he led them down deeper into the facility with Tareseryxis saying "While you two were recovering the items I managed to locate the terminal I believe to possess the code required by the elevator. However, we may have a problem..."
As he finished talking they had reached a closed door which Tare reached out and slowly opened with a grim expression, at first the room appeared to be exactly like the other places within the building but then something would catch the Selenican's eye: A long cylinder appeared to be stuck in nearly the exact middle of the room, the paint was a different shade of black compared to the rest of the interior and the paint appeared to be scraped.. In fact now that they looked at it, it appeared that whatever it was had punched through the facility and gotten stuck where it was now. With the beginning of a white painted tip being visible where the object began to dissapear into the floor and it looked like there were fins sticking out from where it was in the roof.
However upon further examination they'd notice something, engraved in the centre plate of the object was an emblem that... wait a second, it was the emblem of the Executive Protection Agency... and what was that symbol below it? They had seen it earlier... what was it.. . Oh! Oh... below the EPA engraving was the Second Dawn's Nuclear symbol...
They were staring at an undetonated nuclear missile embedded into the facility.
Deleted User — 18/06/2023 18:16
"What the-!?" Yuza would exclaim, staring death potentially in the face. An undetonated nuke... Why in the name of the Great Power would the SD nuke their own research facility though?
"Don't touch it!" Lugos would shout. "We aren't able to defuse this thing here. I hope to the Great Power it doesn't detonate..."
The two serpents would begin to clamber about the room, sticking far from the missile in case any minor disturbance could set the explosive off.
"Tareseryix. What's the password? We're getting the hell out of here, ASAP!" Lugos would yell, that bad feeling she had been experiencing earlier only strengthening. Not only were they staring a nuke in the face, that malicious presence in the facility only becoming stronger. She couldn't know what was coming, or if something was coming close.
Lugos would pull her partner's ear close, and she began to whisper.
"I'm officially changing the mission objective. We aren't here to seek out the chemical weapons -- we're looking into this "Control" thing now. Whatever they were doing here is enough to make even the sickest bastard in the DOE shudder, and I want to know what the fuck they're planning to do to us. Got it?"
Yuza would lightly nod, confused as to why she was so...aggressive now. Sure, the nuke was...frightening, for lack of a better word, but it smashed into the place and didn't detonate. If that didn't cause it to go boom, what would? And why is she so interested in that "Control" thing? Normally his superior was extremely cold and professional, but something happened after the encounter with that Reborn...
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 21/06/2023 15:40
Tareseryix nodded at Lugos inquiry and moved to the other end of the room and opened the door before turning back to the two Selenicans and saying to them "The passphrase is Satagon. If you come across any more objects which require a master key apart from the elevator then use that. I will depart immediately in an attempt to clear the lower facilities for your arrival while you finish up here, worry not about my safety I have measures in-place to ensure my survival."
With that he left the room and the thumping of his boots against the floor faded into silence, leaving the two Selenicans alone in the room. Or at least, that is what it seemed like...
After a few seconds that overwhelming feeling of malice tripled, emanating from a specific point in the opposite corner of the room behind them. Upon looking back they'd see quite the sight; A Reborn, fully intact this time, but in place of their traditional metal-plated skin there was only darkness. Space distorted around them as they stared at the two Selenicans before bowing their head and shaking with silent laughter. After that their radios would crackle and a highly distorted robotic voice would sound from them "You... You have made a grave mistake coming here as you have done so carelessly. He knows about you now, he always does... And he will be coming for you..."
But before they could do anything in response, the strange Reborn twitched before that distorted effect suddenly surrounded them and everything went black...
Unknown Desert Region | Unknown Province | Unknown Planet | Unknown Territory
The sky was on fire, as what would have been the expanse of space above them was replaced with flashes of bright orange lights and the tracers of high calibre naval cannons zipping through it. Lugos and Yuza were stood on top of a sand dune not too dissimilar from the one they had landed on, but as they looked around they'd realize the very ground they stood on was more akin to ash then sand, with black chunks of debris scattered about and pools of oil dotting around the landscape, a bombed out city visible in the far distance. A wing of what looked to be atmospheric fighters suddenly roared overhead, rocketing towards the city at supersonic speeds before a salvo of rockets fired out at the craft from deep within the concrete jungle, striking two of them down but the third one letting off a stream of cannon fire which was met with an explosion within the city where the projectiles had originated from.
In the distance several tanks became visible as well as muzzle flashes from their barrels as they fired into the ruined city, the muted booms of the cannons reaching their ears a few seconds later. If they looked to their left however they'd see what looked to be the remains of a shelled spaceport with seemingly no visible presence, perhaps this would be a good place to get their bearings and find out what exactly the fuck had just happened? Because the hellscape they were in now was certainly nothing they'd be able to immediately recognize. In-fact if they were perceptive enough they'd realize even the visible stars in the sky were of no recognizable constellations. How odd...
Deleted User — 27/06/2023 14:01
"GET DOWN!" Lugos screamed, tackling her colleague into the ashen sand, as the roar of cannons and bullets above and all around them burned its way into her mind.
"Wha-!!!" Yuza shouted, the grinding of ash against his pack.
"D-Don't show your face...don't...don't let them see you..." Lugos would whisper, a shakiness in her voice that betrayed her earlier confidence and stoic pushing to get this mission done. Her hands would be gripped tight onto Yuza's uniform, shaking as if her body were freezing.
There was no telling how long the two were on the ground, the hellish rain of bullets and cannonfire ringing in their ears, the stars in the sky being a mess of light and blinking. These...these weren't normal. That's what Yuza determined. Even though they were across the galaxy from the SD, some stars were bright enough for it not to matter. They weren't present....which portrayed an illusion. Or maybe the Reborn had control over their perception, or maybe they were whisked away to some unknown battlefield in the galaxy...He was none the wiser.
"We gotta move." Yuza replied, terrified but adrenaline pumping through him, beginning to drag his superior to what they believed was a bombed-out spaceport, ducking and remaining low to the ground as Lugos would be near-petrified, crying and shaking, her breathing portraying a form of terror far beyond what was normal. What the hell happened to her in the past?
It felt like days, but the two made it to the bombed-out spaceport, a place of relative safety. Lugos collapsed onto the ground, her breathing irregular and shaky. Yuza would prop her up on a wall, disguising the lady with a blanket coasted in dust and ash. It wasn't the best cover, but it would keep any trigger-happy soldiers from opening fire instantly.
"W-w-why..." Lugos would stammer out, her voice failing the confidence she had before. "I don't...N-n-not again..."
Yuza would grumble and draw his rifle, aiming at the entrance to the spaceport.
But...the fire never stopped. The gunshots never ended. Cannon fire continued over and over, almost...almost like there was endless ammo. The stars...they were wrong. The gunfire, the planes, none of it, none of it had to be real. Yuza recognized it, his superior paralyzed by...the only reasonable assumption is PTSD. Yuza lowered his rifle and begun to slink over to his superior, her breathing having somewhat regulated, still shivering and unable to move.
"Ma'am..." He'd begin, stopping soon after, beginning to gather his words in between the gunshots. "Ma'am! You gotta...YOU GOTTA THINK!" He yelled, grabbing her shoulders and staring right into his superior's eyes. "This isn't real, I don't know what that fucking Reborn did, but this isn't real, the stars!" He would continue shouting, grabbing her tight. "LOOK AT THE STARS!"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 27/06/2023 15:18
The Selenicans racing to the spaceport would be virtually unseen by those locked in combat as they were too busy with their own situations to notice two strange creatures running away from the fighting. The sound of more atmospheric aircraft roared overhead as a wing of similar but sleeker aircraft, presumably fighters, screamed towards the surviving aircraft that had fired upon the city. Once they passed over the spaceport they each would fire a missile or two which chased the attack craft as it started rapidly popping flares in an attempt to lose the missile’s track, the attempt was initially successful as the first wave missed by what looked to be mere inches but the situation went rapidly south as one managed to pierce through the cloud of flares and strike one of the attack craft’s engines which promptly burst into flame. The fighter wing ripped past it and promptly spun around before rocketing over the spaceport again and rapidly flying towards the horizon, meanwhile the attack craft sputtered before turning into a nosedive towards the ground. Two ejection seats fired out of the cockpit seconds before it hit the ground with a resounding boom, the flaming wreckaging sliding across the ground before coming to a stop.
The battle continued to rage on with renewed ferocity as the aerial threat was eliminated, though once the Selenicans had reached the spaceport the sounds would dampen considerably as they took refuge within it. As they settled into their newfound shelter they’d actually be able to see the contents of the interior, a screen on the opposite wall that was badly cracked but still powered showing a large number of launches that all were canceled. All of them going from “A3ISP” to various places, some having the same flag as the one flying outside but some having various foreign flags all of which were unrecognizable. Above the screen however they’d see the name of the spaceport, one which would invoke some sort of reaction if they knew even recent SD history for the sheer infamy of the planet. The words above the screen said that they were located in the Arkadia-3 International Space Port within the Nyproni Province of the Etherian Republic, that same flag flying outside being present below the inscription.
Deleted User — 03/07/2023 15:20
"Yuza..." Lugos would begin, her breathing steadying a slight amount, "Do you know what this place is?"
"N-Not really, its..." he'd begin, looking around at the sky and harsh sands all around them, the city itself a barren wasteland of bombed-out buildings, "It's death itself. That's all I can think of it as, but...just looking at the sky..." He'd continue, looking out from the roof to the night sky, "It can't be real. The stars aren't where they should be."
"This place is...death itself. It's the echoes of those who've passed." Lugos would say, finally coming to grips with herself after seemingly washed by a wave of panic and fear, "And it has to have something to do with the SD. It looks like the Etherians were here too, just looking at the departing vessels. Must be where we are, huh...?"
The two would remain in relative silence as the "battle" rages on outside, Yuza shouldering his coilgun rifle and Lugos finally rising from where she had laid, drawing her pistol and aiming it at the entrance with Yuza. Neither actually expected any enemies to arrive, but they wouldn't be caught off guard. They weren't outwardly afraid anymore -- though definitely anxious for what was to come. Neither knew where they were, or when they were, but neither would let this be their resting place.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 03/07/2023 16:14
They'd be left in relative peace as they gained their bearings and calmed themselves, but it wasn't going to last long and after about ten minutes a quiet rumbling could be heard outside of where they were located, the sound increasing rapidly in volume as whatever it was seemed to approaching them before it quieted suddenly as it seemed that whatever was approaching came to a stop outside. Their peace in quiet however was immediately interrupted by the sound of a heavy cannon firing from whatever had parked outside as well as muffled shouting and sporadic machine gun fire, eventually the sound of another atmospheric craft could be roaring ahead before a stream of autocannon fire ripped through the roof of where they hiding with the infamous Brrrrrt sound and shredded the wall that had the location inscribed as it ripped up towards where the vehicle had parked, an explosion followed by pained screaming echoing out a moment later as the craft sped away.
The screaming continued for a few minutes before more rumbled could be heard followed by what sounded like a brief firefight outside and then the screaming stopped. The rumbling continued though until it sounded like this new vehicle had parked next to the previous one, followed by the sounds of various personnel disembarking from the vehicle and talking to eachother. Their words were in-decipherable but after a couple of minutes of idle chatter the footsteps started again and it sounded like they were approaching the Selenican's position! As they approached the conversation became understandable and it was clear they were speaking in the same language the Etherian had as they said to eachother:
"-tanate, we're going to clear the spaceport out now see if there are any survivors inside." Another voice responded "Agreed, I have medical equipment in case there are any foreigners inside. Poor bastards, just trying to travel and they end up getting caught up in a fucking warzone..." The other voice muttered something before continuing "Aye, just keep weapons low it was reported that there was no Restorationist presence left inside. Anyone who's in here still alive is probably just going to be some SOL civie and last thing we need is to scare some fucking family of four. You got any of that candy the canteen served this morning left over?" The other was silent, probably just responding with a node before the other voice continued "Ok good, if we find any kids or anything we'll give it to them, hopefully calm their nerves. Let's just pray to the edicts that anyone we find in here is still fucking alive. Yeah, here's the main entrance, you ready?" The other was silent before two individuals clad in urban camo fatigues and body armour suddenly appeared in front of the Selenicans from the entrance.
The two were clearly Etherians, with the four arms and reptilian build standing out even under what had to be quite the hefty amount of kit. They stared at the two Selenicans in shock, rifles slung over their shoulders not even in hand whilst they stared at the two serpents who had strange arms pointed at them. After half a second they both held their four arms up in surrender and showed their palms openly towards them to indicate that they had no weapons on them, the one who asked about the candy saying in a calming tone "Hey, hey! It's alright we're Republic Legion! we were sent here to scout for survivors and give any we found medical aid, you're in no danger. I'm Lineman Ayrkis and he's Linemedic Bokhyn, it's all good we're not here to hurt you. What the hell are you two doing here- where the hell are you even from?"
Deleted User — 10/07/2023 23:20
"Who the fuck are-" Yuza would start saying, not having overheard much of their conversation. He'd keep his gun shouldered as he aimed down the two medics, listening to their explanation. "Well, you aren't Reborn, so I don't have a reason to mistrust you." He'd say, lowering his gun.
When the two medics showed up, Lugos sprung off the ground quickly and drew her pistol, however she had no intention of firing -- simply keeping aim while listening to their story.
"To answer your questions," she would begin, her fortitude reconstructed after the harsh blow it received being thrown back into a warzone, "We are soldiers of the Selenican Republic. We came here to fight against the Second Dawn, who have gassed our soldiers and begun to attack us. You two're Etherians, right? So we can trust you, sounds good?"
The two Selenicans would lower their arms and allow the Etherians to come inside the bombed-out spaceport. The serpents rested against a mostly intact wall for a minute, silent, before Yuza would begin to talk.
"Where the fuck are we? I know this is SD space but...the city didn't look like this on the trip in. It's different. And the stars are different too. What the fuck is going on here...?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 15/07/2023 22:51
The two Etherians listened to them talk with crowing confusion on their faces, this four eyes narrowing slightly before they turned to look at each other to convey some sort of unspoken understanding. Once the Selenicans had lowered their weapons the Etherians lowered their arms slowly before coming a bit closer and the medic, Bokhyn, even reached up and took off his helmet before sitting down across from the two serpents. Ayrkis remained standing and just crossed his arms, the two Etherians shared another brief look before Ayrkis started to speak.
"Ok, try not to freak out but neither of us have ever heard of the Selenican Republic before- nor have we heard of this 'Second Dawn'. We're just two Republic Legionnaires- soldiers, essentially, of the Etherian Republic.. Which is the nation you're currently in." Bokhyn nodded in agreement to what Ayrkis said before he himself piped up and said "Yeah.. this ain't no 'SD' space, this is the Marigold arm of the Republic. Y'know- the ancient territory of the Nyproni people? One of the most conflict ridden territories in the entire Vasyrian Galaxy. Maybe the two of you had some sort of wormhole malfunction and ended up here?"
Ayrkis held up a hand briefly before reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked to be some sort of touch screen mobile phone, tapping on it briefly before pulling up a map and showing it to the two Selenicans. It was indeed labeled "The Vasyrian Galaxy" with large patches of it taken by what appeared to be several different nations, those being; The Magari Concordiat, the Sunken Empire of Itaria, something called "T.C.A.S.O" and last but certainly not least; The Etherian Republic. There were two smaller splotches within the ER's space that were right next to eachother, one being labeled "Restorationist Occupied Space" and the other being "Contested Territory."
He tapped at a point right next to "Restorationist Occupied Space" within the "Contested Territory" section and said "And that's where we are, Arkadia-3. I imagine you must be on the opposite end of the galaxy to have never heard about this, the ER's been in civil war for a few years now and ever since Satagon rose up in the regions and formed that little clique in the abandoned territories he's been turning this war around quite quickly in our favour." Bokhyn nodded before snorting and adding on
"There's talks of him getting a medal by the very president herself, even though he's an experimental AI he's actually got quite the personality going. A bit of a pretentious douchebag if you ask me but hell his strategies have saved a lot of our asses over the past few weeks. Apparently there's some big grand test going on today that's going to determine if he's permitted to fully gain sentient rights, hell that's kind of why we're going around and checking up on the last little things before we pull back to HQ and return to orbit. We're scheduled for orders about it in about thirty minutes time."
Deleted User — 17/07/2023 22:24
"The hell're you talking about?" Yuza would say, baffled by the words being said slumped against the wall. "Well, last we knew, we were in the SD's space, and now we're fuckin' transplanted here..."
"Wormhole malfunction, hm?" Lugos would ask inquisitively, wondering if that's what the Reborn did to her and her partner. "Well, whatever the case, we aren't home." A short pause would follow her speech as she stands relaxed before the Legionnaires. "We don't come from this galaxy. We're from the Ancerious Galaxy, so unknown number of dimensions away.
After listening a little longer, Lugos would stop the man in his sentence. "Wait, did you say Arkadia-3?" She'd blurt out, clearly having stumbled upon something, "That's the name of some of the SD's ships, Arkadia-Class. So..." She'd begin, trailing off into her own thoughts, coming to the conclusion that, perhaps, they were perceiving a different time all together. Time travel was out of the question, but with the psionics they were researching, maybe it's possible to force someone to relive a different past as if it were a memory..."
"And you said Satagon, right?" Yuza would ask in his deep, gruff voice. "Well, I think we might know who he is. Would we be allowed to join you into seeing what would happen?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 23/07/2023 11:00
The others looked at each other before nodding and Bokhyn stood up and moved his hand to his radio, pressing down and muttering into it whilst Ayrkis reached into his pack and pulled out a Tupperware container that appeared to be filled with some kind of pasta-looking meal. He tossed it over to the Selenicans whilst he said "That's happened a few times before, where this galaxy has some pretty close neighbouring ones we've had extra-galactics show up from time to time and be confused as fuck. It always makes for a funny few weeks for them as they're introduced to essentially an entire new world for them but one of our neighbours has a stationary wormhole generator that can usually send 'em back. So we should be able to get you home pretty quick."
Bokhyn came back and nodded to Ayrkis who looked up at him before letting out a sigh of relief, turning back towards the Selenicans and saying in a slightly happier tone "Good news is we got safe evac for you back up to the fleet, since the enemies air defense zone just moved a kilometre east freeing up our shuttles to take off and land in this sector. Shuttle should be here in-" But he was cut off by what sounded like frantic shouting from Bokhyn's radio, who gave Ayrkis a concerned look before stepping away to respond to it. Meanwhile Ayrkis shook his head and looked back at them before saying
"Yeah, Satagon's our new premiere AI. The uniform's been calling him the Strategic Intelligence, whatever that means. He's been making waves too, ever since the start of our first dawn in this galaxy we've been looking for ways to improve our automation but AI was something we always struggled with. He's up in orbit now performing some sort of logic test like I said. After that he's probably going to take over the thea-" Once again he was cut off, but this time not by Bokhyn. No... this time it was air raid sirens starting up around them, and more following soon in the distance. Ayrkis snapped his head back to look at Bokhyn who was now sprinting towards them with a terrified expression on his face, something Ayrkis did not like the look of.
Once Bokhyn was in shouting range, he did just that and shouted at them "MISSILES! THEY'RE LAUNCHING FUCKING MISSILES! WE NEED TO BOARD THE SHUTTLE, NOW!" With that, the colour drained from Ayrkis scales and he looked over to the Selenicans, mainly Lugos before he rushed forward and wrapped his four hands around the serpent and throwing the addled serpent over his shoulders with a grunt.. Jesus how strong are these guys.. before shouting out to Bokhyn "SET THE LANDING ZONE, WE'LL FOLLOW CLOSE BY!" and turning to Yuza and extending a lower hand to pull him up off the ground.
Deleted User — 07/08/2023 21:05
"Getting us back? Sounds like a plan." Lugos said, finally relaxing her previously professional and curt tone.
The two serpents would finally relax against the walls of the bombed-out spaceport, feeling safe in the company of these Etherians -- one had saved them previously back in the SD's research lab, and here they were again to pull them out of a complicated situation. Perhaps once they got home, finding connections with the Etherians would assist in crippling the SD from the inside.
Yuza would listen closely to the description of Satagon, his eyes remaining wide and open -- not that he was able to close them, anyways. "Strategic Intelligence, huh? Well, the-
Sirens would blare in the two Selenican's ear holes, hardly able to discern the voices of the two Etherians over the deafening roar.
"DAMMIT!" Yuza would yell, the two Selenicans springing forward off the wall. "WE GOTTA BOOK IT, MA'AM!"
"Then let's-- W-W-whoa-!" Lugos would exclaim, surprised at the strength of the Etherian, capable of hoisting a massive 20-foot long Selenican over his shoulder.
"Grhh!!" Yuza would grunt in exasperated exhaustion, his length surpassing even his superior -- whatever muscles these Etherians were made out of were strong.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 12/08/2023 13:51
Ayrkis sprinted out of the decrepit spaceport, passing over various bits of debris before they came out to the front door. The remains of the earlier gunfight were still present with a worn-looking APC that was still smouldering sat dead a little ways away from the front entrance, a few Etherians strewn about wearing way more primitive gear and looking very dead. Up ahead Bokhyn pulled out some sort of pistol and aimed it into the air before firing it off, a bright flash rocketing up from the projectile before exploding in the air some ways above them spawning a persistently burning bright white light. Some sort of upgraded flare it seemed.
Ayrkis finally made it to the newly designated LZ before gently crouching down and lowering Lugos off of his shoulder and setting her down carefully onto the ground below before reaching down to his belt and pulling some sort of bricky communications device off and holding it up to his snout. He looked to Bokhyn who nodded at him, Ayrkis then pressed down on the button and said "This is Twentieth Republic Legion Medical Team Askos-Nine requesting immediate evac on L-Z Ergonim-Gaetyr Nine. Two times non-hostiles in accompaniment with one needing medical evaluation, priority one. Out."
A few seconds passed in silence before the device crackled to life and a gruff voice responded "This is Communicae Lineman Taesyrmanax of the Republican Naval Vessel 'Archonic Fire'. Dropship has been dispatched to L-Z Ergonim-Gaetyr Nine, estimated time of arrival slotted for forty-five seconds. Advance Warning; We are undergoing strategic operations of a restricted nature, you and your party will be disarmed of any electronics capable of transmission upon boarding and placed under discretion order Calyx. This is a direct order of Strategic Intelligence Satagon. Over and Out."
Ayrkis looked to Bokhyn and nodded before placing the communication device back onto his belt, waiting for the dropship to arrive. As they did so the ground would suddenly be lit up as if it were day, with blinding streaks of red light appearing high above in the atmosphere that appeared to be streaking across the sky. Bokhyn looked up in awe before realization flashed across his face and it morphed into terror as he looked back at Ayrkis and said "Holy fuck man... that's an entire salvo..."
Ayrkis merely just looked at him and shook his head in response before looking down to the ground and idly kicking a rock. The sounds of rocket engines started to enter their surroundings as a craft in the far distance started approaching them. He chuckled and said "They're cutting their losses and pulling back, Bokhyn. They're glassing the entire fucking planet..." Both of them were silent after that, meanwhile the shuttle swooped over them before turning around and started to descend in front of them. It touched down a light bounce and a side door opened up to reveal an Etherian in some sort of armoured space suit waving them over rapidly before screaming out "C'mon bhys we need to get the fuck outta here! Get on!"
Ayrkis immediately snapped back into it and reached down to lift Lugos once more, hoisting her over his shoulder and dropping his rifle to the ground so he could carry her better. Bokhyn motioned to Yuza to follow as they both started sprinting forward before arriving at the edge of the shuttle, Ayrkis hefted Lugos up over his shoulder and onto the shuttle floor before pushing himself up. Bokhyn hopped up before turning around and offering a hand to Yuza, luckily it was a cargo shuttle so there was more than enough room for the Selenicans as the Etherians sat down and buckled themselves up whilst the door slid shut and the shuttle started rapidly ascending.
Deleted User — 31/08/2023 22:20
It was mildly embarrassing for Lugos to need to be carried by the Etherian, but she knew she didn't have it in her to make it out. Glassing the entire planet...? What in the Great Power's name could need that kind of response? She thought to herself, amid the chaos. She was hardly stirring anymore, the earlier episode in the spaceport and just outside of it finally hitting her with its reverbs. She merely laid in the shuttle, staring aimlessly at the roof.
Yuza only managed to hardly keep up with the Etherians, his body not making for an exceptionally fast slitherer. He only barely grappled onto the Etherian's hand before liftoff, hoisting himself into the shuttle and beside his superior. She....looked absent. Missing. She needs some serious time to recoup... He'd think to himself, looking obviously worried.
"Hey, Bokhyn." Yuza would start, offering his hand to the Etherian. "You've saved our lives...probably for the second time today. Whatever's happening, we're in debt to you."
Silence would follow for a short time, the Selenican watching his superior. Her eyes looked empty, and she wasn't having an...episode like earlier. What was going on...? Yuza'd think to himself, those thoughts appearing on his face like a neon sign. He was slumped against a chair, his enormous length proving...difficult to fit inside the shuttle.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 17/09/2023 18:59
The shuttle ride was rather somber after that, the two Etherians sitting quietly with sunken looks on their faces as they ascended. One could only imagine the thoughts going through their head, but whatever they were they couldn't be all that good considering what had just happened. Bright flashes of yellow light started painting the shuttle and leaking in through the windows a little bit as big balls of fire appeared on the planet down below, Bokhyn shivered and slowly wrapped his tails around his leg whilst Ayrkis stared down below, frozen at the sight.
An older looking naval ship came into view in front of them, eerily reminiscent of the Second Dawn's "Arkadia" Class vessels, but missing a few key features like the shielded engines and opaque windows. It was clearly a different class but so, so similar one might have been able to mistake it as one at a quick glance. However in place of the infamous "Councilor's Star" there was instead four horizontal lines, an emblem they had seen on the flag in the spaceport and on the Etherian's uniforms. The emblem of the Etherian Republic.
The shuttle slowly burned into a very small hangar before the outer door slid shut and the hangar was re-pressurized, the exterior doors beeping slightly before they started hissing as the interior of the shuttle was matched with the pressure outside. After that the shuttle doors slowly slid open and the two Etherians quickly made to get off, that was until they were stopped by four heavily armoured Etherians marching forward and pushing them back, rather harshly too. Ayrkis made to glare at them before he saw who was in the centre of the four.
A Reborn, clad in some sort of officer's uniform with two of the Etherians stood by each side of them. The Reborn didn't quite look like the modern chassis one might see today, but it was a Reborn nonetheless. It strode forward and stared at the two Selenicans curiously before turning to look at Ayrkis and giving him a nod, then they spoke in a rather disinterested but significantly robotic [way more then standard] and heavily accented tone
"That shall be all, Lineman Ayrkis. You are to report to the Mediciaries Quarter post haste. Your service in retrieving these two civillians was admirable and will be noted, good day."
The Reborn then turned to the two Selenicans and offered a hand, continuing
"It is good to meet you two, though I wish it was under better circumstances. You found yourself in quite the unfortunate situation, worry not however as we shall see to it you are returned to your home nation in time. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Strategic Intelligence Satagon of the Navale Commandiere. Do either of you require Medical Aide?"
Deleted User — 08/10/2023 12:24
Lugos stared at the assault on the planet below, orange and yellow flashes of light beaming into the shuttle's windows and piercing into her eyes, the enormous IR signature of the blasts half-blinding one pair of the Selenican's eyes. Bringing one hand to shield them, she was reminded of what happened onboard that...ship, in orbit of Anxios. She killed that man, in panic and fear. She saw the heat draining from his body as he slumped to the floor, and now...millions, millions who don't deserve to die, are being sent to oblivion. She remained slumped against the window, continuing to stare throughout the long shuttle ride, the silence palpable and tensions strained.
Yuza, by contrast, was more worried about where in the FUCK they were going. Sure, they were leaving the planet's surface, but they definitely weren't anywhere that the Selenicans knew about, and how the fuck they'll get home is the question. He laid across from his superior, his rifle resting on some of his many coils, eyes closed and breathing light. You could almost mistake he were sleeping.
That is, until the tell-tale rocking of a ship docking shook the two from their contemplative silence. A hiss, a door flinging open, and...one of THEM. A Reborn. Not an Etherian, who were tennuous allies at best, but the enemy, Satagon. They didn't know who he was, but...if he were a Reborn amongst Etherians, that couldn't be a good sign.
Lugos, the first to see the Reborn, was equally shocked and ready to draw. Her pistol, nearly out of ammunition, could probably blast a hole the size of a tennis ball through one of these damn things, but...what the FUCK was a Reborn doing here?
Yuza looked to his left slowly opening his eyes, seeing the creature. One of them. The enemy. However it didn't look...right. It looked old. However, he began to uncoil himself, and "stood" before the creature, Lugos by his side as the two stood before a facsimile of who they were fighting in-present.
---
"Pleased to meet you." Lugos said, forcing her voice to sound appreciative to mask the hate she felt, "My name's Lugos, and he's Yuza, first names not important. We hail from the Selenican Republic, and ended up on this planet by chance. I'm thankful you'll return us, but, you don't look like the Etherians we've seen so far. Did something happen?"
Yuza would elbow Lugos in the side, trying indicate to her that she's asking too many questions.
"O-ow!" she exclaimed softly, beaming with anger towards her partner. "E-Excuse that last question, think nothing of it, I'm asking too much."
Yuza would then speak, his lower and gruffer voice serving as contrast to his partner's. "We've not received any major damage, thanks for asking. Anyways, do you know when we'll be able to get home?"
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 08/10/2023 16:04
Satagon turned to the two Etherians and nodded to them before saying in an unrecognizable and thus untranslatable language "Questo è tutto, uomini della linea. Hai I tuoi ordini." The two Etherians looked at him with confused expressions marked by the exhaustion of todays events before hesitantly responding in the same language "Naturalmente, grande intelligenza... Solo Premium per la Repubblica." With that they both quickly saluted Satagon before one of the Etherians standing guard broke from formation and laid a hand on both of their shoulders before beginning to guide them out of the hangar, muttering to them in a comforting tone too quiet for the Selenicans to hear.
Satagon then turned to the solo remaining guard and gave him a brisk nod, the guard looking at him questionably but relenting when Satagon maintained his emotionless stare at them. The other Etherian relaxed slightly before hastily saluting the Reborn then breaking off and moving to follow their comrade. Satagon then turned to the two Selenicans and saying, now once again in a language translatable by them, "I'm going to be perfectly honest, you should not be aboard this ship. Were it not done with admirable intentions, Ayrkis and Bokhyn would have been court martialed for this but... well as you can tell by the events occurring below us, I believe an exception is warranted for this case. For had you have remained on the surface below, you'd be naught but radioactive ash and bone right about now."
He gestured to one of the windows on the close left side of the hangar, where the planet below was visible. The atmosphere now held a dull brown haze as titanic mushroom clouds continued to rise up from the surface, the fire that had been within them having already burnt out. He closed his extended hand into a fist before shakily lowering it to rest behind him once more. He stood there, the hangar dead silent for a few moments until he broke it once more. "Try not to dwell on it. The planet was a lost cause, there was no way of avoiding the casualties and most of the civillians fled weeks ago, that's why I ordered the bombing now and not earlier. What you should be most worried about now is getting back home to your families, so tell me. Where is it you originate from?"
Deleted User — 24/10/2023 14:00
“We originate from the Selenican Republic of the Ancerious Galaxy. We don’t know where, why, or how we got here, and we just wish to return home at present.” She spoke, a mild hint of distaste in her voice for the AI in front of her.
“Simply put,” Yuza started, “We weren’t supposed to be here. We…don’t know how we got on that rock. And Hell, I’m not even sure how we’ll get home.”
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 25/10/2023 12:01
Satagon paused at the mention of their origin and reached a hand up to scratch at his chin, the Proto-Reborn seemingly deep in thought before he said "We've had extra-galactic visitors before due to F-T-L malfunctions so worry not about our ability to return you home, though I must admit I fail to recall an 'Ancerious' Galaxy but information on foreign galaxies has been in short supply since the Colour Revolution." Satagon made a 'hmph' sound before turning around with a clack of his shoes and motioning to the Selenicans behind him
"Come, we will adjourn to my office where I can see if there's any mention or protocol on 'Ancerious' on my terminal. There will be an answer somewhere, if it is not on this vessel then I will alert my superiors and see if they can uncover it." And with that, the Proto-Reborn started walking off towards a corridor opposite of the one the Etherians disappeared into, shoes clacking against the cold metal floor in an unnaturally precise rhythm.
Deleted User — 09/11/2023 17:24
The two Selenicans would follow Satagon, their serpentine forms struggling to maintain what appeared to be a Reborn's speed. The interior of the shuttle was reminiscent of a spinning factory in the Yuza system, a self-sustaining labyrinth of piping and track which cannibalized the asteroid it was occupant to, leaving in its wake a bubble of safety for the Selenican people in the harsh vacuum of space.
Troubles raced through Lugos' mind. Why is Satagon trying to help them? Why are they here, seemingly in the past? Was this real? Was it just a delusion in their minds? Clearly, the events were real, but ... they couldn't have possibly been there. They didn't exist even, so...?
Yuza the man was steely-faced and following along. His mind kept popping questions, but he didn't entertain them. Not yet. There would be time to think on the circumstances later; for now, all that mattered was returning home, with some very valuable data.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — 23/12/2023 13:58
As they walked through the corridors of the Etherian ship they'd see a few more Etherians buzzing around in fatigues performing various tasks. Each one stopped and gave quite the salute to Satagon as they passed, and in an even stranger twist the Proto-Reborn stopped and returned every single one he was given. They walked for what felt around five minutes until the corrider seemed to come to an end up ahead, with only a single corridor left of a fancy door at the end of the corridor that they had been walking down, Satagon gestured to it as if to confirm that it was in fact the correct one and made to go over and open it. But before he could, a snarky voice called out from the corridor to his left:
"Well, well, well. The prodigal son returns." And out from it appeared a slender red Etherian dressed up in some sort of fancy black and gold dress uniform, it was quite obviously a she, and contrary to her military dress she had long, loose raven hair dyed crimson at the ends of its locks draping down to her shoulders. A lengthy single edged sword was belted to her hip. Satagon stiffened upon hearing her and promptly turned to face her before snapping to a rigid pose, likely their form of attention, before belting out "First Intelligence, Ma'am." The Etherian chuckled at his antics before shaking her head with an amused sigh, she looked him up and down before catching sight of the two Selenicans behind him. Her gaze sharpened as it focused on the two of them and she stepped forward to approach them whilst saying "Oh well look here, this little killer of mine has made a couple friends~"
She came to a stop just in front of Yuza, at a distance borderline uncomfortable as her four eyes slowly examined the Selenican before her. Satagon remained speechless as she said "Indeed, quite the sight I must say. Especially considering you're here about a hundred-ish years too early, eh? How'd you manage that I wonder..." Satagon seemed slightly confused at that last part but remained silent and motionless as she continued "Couldn't be any temporal anomaly, Ancerious has natural resistance to such things in ways that's baffled even our own scientists. Perhaps psionics? But the Army of the Panopticon is rather quick to shut such experimentation down, and I don't see a stigmata on either of you... Hmmm, or maybe it's an illusion. After all I'm fairly sure that there weren't any Selenicans present during the Holocaust of Arkadia. Unfortunately for whoever is behind this, I had safeguards installed into my consciousness shortly after my ascension that would grant me and any copies of me a limited amount of decision-making so that if someone created a simulation, AI or illusion in my image I couldn't be compelled to give out national secrets. It is also capable of deciphering and telling me a little bit about who approached the copy, that way if the real me ever discovers this fake me, I can ask it for clues as to who you really are and track you down."
Rubikon nodded before turning around to face Satagon who seemed entirely confused about whatever was going on, she reached up and scratched her chin before turning her attention back to the Selenicans "I fear what's occurred in the future for someone to have created some sort of false image involving both me and Satagon, but whoever did so clearly did so sloppily. Likely either out of accident or something similar, if you aren't here willingly then know that at this depth of false-reality the only way to escape is to convince yourself it isn't real and then force yourself to 'wake up' in a sense. If you're here for information on either of us, I'm afraid I don't know the present so I can't tell you for fear of you having ill intentions so you might as well leave. Any questions? I'm sure none of this makes sense to you at the moment."
Ana (SR) — 02/02/2024 18:37
"I..." Lugos began, catching herself just before blurting something out. "...I'll wake myself up."
She was deeply confused, reminded of Yuza's similar outburst earlier before being saved from Arkadia's surface. This...wasn't real? But it felt real, the wind and heat, it all felt like reality. Looking out the window to the office, she observed the destruction of Arkadia below, flashes of orange and white light bombarding its surface as the planet began to turn to glass.
"I would ask questions, but you're not exactly in the position to answer." Yuza huffed out, clearly angry at the Etherian. He slithered beside his commanding officer, observing the destruction below. The simulated reality felt so real, not like a pleasant dream but like...reality. Every movement he made, he could feel his muscles and scales tensing up beneath him, his ribs squeezing and stretching apart like an accordion against the floor.
The two remained side-by-side, appearing stoic in the face of an unusual situation but beneath their cold visages was confusion and doubt.
"We're leaving. Thank you for saving us." Yuza barked out, curt as always.
He was the first to "wake up," concentrating on the fake starline he could see beyond Arkadia's surface. It was wrong, nothing even remotely like Ancerious's. He continued to focus, blocking out the sounds and even sensations of touch from his surroundings, focusing only on what he knew to be false.
Lugos tried to follow suit, beginning to squeeze her body mid-way down; the feeling was almost real, the movement of muscle and bone, the flow of blood through the arteries and veins. But...it wasn't exact. It was too...sharp. Unlike the real sensation of touch, it was too cut and dry-- the fading in and out that predicated and followed the action weren't present. She focused on this sensation, continuing to rhythmically squeeze her body, praying that it sent her to reality.
Sheng [RoM | VA | KoA] — Today at 00:54
And so they awoke, ripped from the psionic hallucination like their very minds were pulled apart and stitched back together back into their own bodies. A surreal experience but not a painful one at least, though when they came to the Etherian... was gone...
As was the Reborn.
And the missile...
Instead there was naught but sand wafting down in faint tendrils through the hole that it once filled, dust caking their surroundings as the world slowly came back to reality. But as they glanced around and recollected themselves they might have noticed a brief dull red flash in the corner of the room, what it was? Well who knew. Maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe it was something else entirely. They would never know. Nonetheless it seemed the best idea was to escape with what information they had already been to acquire, which was by all means a treasure trove that was sure to help them in the war to come. After all, there was little that wasn't priceless this deep in the bowels of the Second Dawn's most illusive facility.
But so deep they were, they wouldn't know of the stealth ship in orbit plated in a solid mirror-like material. They wouldn't see it's fiery engines spool up and eject bright red plumes out into the vacuum of space before vanishing with a bright flash.
Operasjonell Avdeling "VERDENSORGEN"
Jörmungandr chuckled to himself as he played back the footage again, silver scales gleaming in the dark red light of his ship's bridge. He watched with narrowed serpentine eyes, bright crimson irises practically glowing in the diminutive lighting. He watched as the two Selenicans sped across the screen towards the bunker and descended into it, he watched it over and over as his chuckle died out and his hood flared in amusement. After watching it a few more times he finally reached down and swiped a scaled hand over a holographic controller and the screen died. He shook his head before placing a cigarette in his snout and lighting it with a wordless command, then reaching down and flipping a phone open before raising it to his head.
The other line was quiet for a few seconds before a raspy robotic voice asked "Well?" to which he replied "They're in." And a pause on the other side before the voice answered "Good. What will they find? Will we be accountable?" Jörmungandr shook his head, even though the caller couldn't see it, and said "Some of what they find will benefit them, some of it will benefit us. How exactly remains to be seen but I'm sure it will be quite the surprise regardless." The voice on the other end sighed "I see. Thank you for informing me anyways, some things are better kept unseen."
Jörmungandr chuckled as he took another draw on his cigarette before flipping the phone closed and ending the call. It was true, that some things were better off remaining undiscovered, but what was down in that facility was perfect for the Selenicans to find. A few hints, a couple tips, things that would allow them to draw their own conclusions when they eventually decided to start fighting the Second Dawn. But he had done his job and he had done it well.
For now there was nought to be found there, nought but secrets...
Secrets in the Sand...