OPEN SIGNUPS The Phoenix Nebula

[Presea_cousin]

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

Harli had gone from scowling at Blaster, to being absolutely giddy. As soon as she stepped into the new tunnel, she was frantically scribbling and sketching it all as the group made their way through. Then the group emerged into a verdant valley, a crashed ship on the hill, a scar leading to it, and a wide variety of pillars doting the valley. Harli was practically salivating. "This must be such a holy land!" She yelled as she sketched the view from the tunnel exit. "I can see the pilgrimages now! You trudge through the swamp of doubt, walk through the sacred tunnel of contemplation, and then come to visit these pillars-"

"I wouldn't touch them if I were you."

Harli stopped, her fingers a few inches from touching a rather terra cotta brown pillar, and withdrew her hand. "R-right, resist the urge to touch pillars of temptation as you make your way to the shipwreck." She corrected as she jotted it down. She kept sketching a map of the area as she checked the comms as well. Looked like they were still receiving signals from the Cotopaxi, so there was no interference around here. "Bridge crew, please try to scan the immediate area we're in for signs of life." She communicated up to them as she took out a PDA to confirm the scans. It wouldn't be good to be attacked by wild beasts again while everyone was split up. She looked up to look at the spaceship, following the shuttle group for awhile so she could get a better look at it. "So does anyone recognize the ship yet?" She asked as she started walking around the exterior, wanting to see if there were other entry points. "I don't recognize the ship type from all the damage. Oohh, do you think it's from this planet?" She asked as she took notes on the exterior damage.

 

[Verran]

The Dreamer
​

​

The AI pumped the data into intricately detailed reports and pinged the Captain, the XO, and Velshia the results. The lattermost rapidly scanned them and then summarized and hypothesized. "Based upon the data, we have confirmation that an unknown vessel has, within the last two hours, opened a wormhole within the system. Given the lack of other evidence, I believe it has not yet left the system. It would take at least two months for all traces of a wormhole formation to leave the system. We have yet to find it and I doubt it's there. Unless someone crashed or is operating illicitly, there is very little reason to stay on the planet. Although, given its temperament, this would make a potential colony and…sorry Captain, on task.

"I believe the vessel is the Cotopaxi. Analysis of the waves from the wormhole suggests a ship profile of similar size. Distinct patterns indicate that the drive, while possibly modified to meet modern standards, definitely predates the Khivux war. Given the attempts to hide it suggests either skilled smugglers or a military profile. But why hide when so isolated? Only if you think you are being followed, going to be intercepted, or rigid behavior. It suggests a military basis, Captain. I can compile further backing of Resistance strike tactics utilizing local stars to rapidly deploy vessels for operations should you wish. To me, all the evidence, though circumstantial points to the Cotopaxi, somehow, being in the system ahead of us." That was the second most intriguing point on her mind. How on earth had the Resistance gotten the drop on this location. Only the Jackrabbit had the coordinates before being…liberated of them. The only realistically possible explanations were either that the enemy had either a source of information from the Ophelia itself or had some outside source to guide them to the planet.

The most intriguing point was…well, was the entity on the surface. But how to go about explaining what she felt. Velshia wet her lips. Psionics were a tricky thing. Hard to get people to trust in something that could read your mind. The Captain had trusted in it so far but here Velshia was speaking as much on gut feeling as anything. Nothing with tangible, hard data like the results of interrogating the Jackrabbit. Just faithful certainty. And while Captain Angstrom absolutely had faith in the Empire and its doings, nothing inherently spoke to a certain…spirituality that danced around psionics. Scientists scoffed at this notion but Velshia…well, she had her own thoughts. Plucking up the resolve she continued, "I have also sensed an…entity upon the planet. An entity that holds psionic ability. The rough location of where I think it was is being transmitted to you. I felt a shout from it that came from the surface. Only something powerful could make itself known from such a distance. I couldn't say if this entity belongs to the other force in the system or if its native to the planet. Just that its powerful."

She took deep breath then made her bold request. "Captain, please authorize active scanning." The magnitude of the simple words would not be lost on anyone onboard the ship. Passive scanning was safe and kept the vessel hidden. As soon as someone turned on the radar or anything like it, however, the notion of stealth was borderline tossed out the window. Even the most minute scans increased the danger of being detected immensely. Yet it was the only way to get a detailed information as to what was going on planet-side from orbit.

 

[Teryn180]

Trion Nixarn, Head Scientist​

'I wish our nanobots were that cool…Or maybe not, that was terrifying.' Zee said to Trion as they started following Blaster back to the out-of-place door the fuzzy pyromaniac had blasted. Trion nodded back to his cousin before he ducked to snap off a piece of the remaining metal and put it in a sample bag. 'Full recordings, I doubt we're going to get a lot of time to do a real study. Bag anything that looks notable.' Trion gave Zee and his VI instructions, even though they knew exactly what they were doing. Trion didn't particularly want to go into the dark tunnel, but it was the only lead they had. He really needed to get someone to explain where Aiko came from, but there had been no time. The tunnel put the archeologist on edge immediately, his eyes might be lying to him, but other augmented senses and the scanner he was holding caught the speed change. He stepped up next to Gabi looking back at the tunnel once they were out of it. "I don't know how, but that tunnel was shooting us along while looking like nothing…I hate to imagine what people who spend that kind of tricks on a mere *passageway* would have for security." He told her quietly. He looked up at the ship, triggering the telescopic function in the artificial eyes. "Pretty small…can't be much more than a scout ship. I don't know ships well enough to recognize the design." That was louder, pitched for everyone. He raised an eyebrow at Gabi's orders, but he wasn't arguing. He probably would have taken one of the engineers with her, but these pillar things were the right place for him and Zee.

"You want me to touch one and see what happens?" Zee asked, entirely too cheerful about it as she leaned to examine one as she scanned it, seemingly willing to do what Aiko had told them not to anyways. She wasn't actually moving to touch it already at least. "Let's maybe not try that just yet Zee. We're not that desperate, and I'd rather not find out if it holds through a memory wipe." Trion said dryly, looking up at the crashed ship before he shook his head and looked at another pillar. The info the scanner was giving him was a bizarre tangle that he wasn't going to be able to sort out the slow and methodical way. "What do you think Perseus? High-tech memory alteration with stored information, psychic focus, or both?" What got referred to as psychic phenomena weren't unheard of, even if they were very rare. The Dina Amor came to mind in particular. He spared a glance for the team going up to the crashed ship before he scanned the surrounding area. He didn't see even a single animal around here and the whole place set him on edge.

 

[Pigiron]

Captain Bernadette Angstrom
Ship time 1134 hrs, 12/01/5032
Location: Farsin system, unclaimed space

​

As Velshia spoke, Angstrom's features tightened, resolute yet beleaguered. 'Worst case scenario' was the term that immediately came to mind.
The Cotopaxi. It was very possible Angstrom knew just as much about the ship as the majority of those that crewed it, though she couldn't speak to any modifications made recently. As soon as intelligence reports started to point out the notable extraction of the terrorist icon, Angstrom had made it her business to gather as much information about the ship as possible.
The rumours about the Cotopaxi having incredible, unbelievable luck were true. How did it get here so- questions for later.
It was an ambush hunter, much like the Ophelia, and though it didn't have the kind of IFF alteration and drive plume control the Ophelia had, it matched the Navy black ops ship manoeuvrability-wise, despite (or perhaps due to) its slightly smaller size.
The Cotopaxi's main weakness was its lack of missiles. It had teeth, to be sure, with a formerly top-of-the-line spinal railgun and six heavy turret hardpoints the Cotopaxi struck a truly terrifying frontal munitions profile; however without missiles the Resistance flagship was unable to maintain consistent combat superiority, whereas the Ophelia was capable of launching salvo after salvo of missiles while her own railgun system recharged.

The Cotopaxi was unlikely to try for a ship to ship battle, with the lay of the land being what it was. Most likely the Cotopaxi would skulk around, hiding its emissions behind one of the bodies or asteroids within the system, waiting for a chance to pounce utilizing the element of surprise. The crew of the Cotopaxi was known to have a "no man left behind" policy in the last war, and Angstrom doubted that the ideals of the individualists would change now. She was also certain that resistance personnel were already on the planet, scurrying about, no doubt causing irreparable harm to the ancient site, which meant there was only one course of action that ensured a strategic advantage-
"Captain, please authorize active scanning."
That gave Angstrom pause. Tordren was a powerfully intelligent woman, and Angstrom trusted her intuition regarding psionics. However, as far as Angstrom was concerned, she not a military strategist.
"Tordren I trust your advice regarding this so-called psionic shout. We will be using it's location as an initial starting point for our operations on the surface. Regarding the suggestion to utilise active scanning; I applaud your bravery, but consider; the Cotopaxi is an ambush predator. They would be incredibly foolish to be anywhere in the system that active scans would easily find them, no doubt behind the radiation shadow of the local star, or perhaps nestled amongst the many asteroids in-system.
If we announce ourselves, we also give up the finest advantage we currently possess: We arrived via Hyperspace. There was no announcement of our arrival. As far as the Resistance dogs are concerned, they are alone here. No, we should remain on low emissions and send out a full deployment planetside; Please demarcate the location of this psionic yell; my gut tells me that's where we'll find our troublemakers, and perhaps our own objective."

The four squads of ten marines each that made up the onboard platoon reported "All Green, ready for launch". Angstrom was certain the platoon were eager for deployment. It had been a few months since they had seen action, and though they hadn't complained, it was clear that they were happy to have an opportunity to dish out some harm on those threatening galactic peace.
Two of the squads were technicals: five exosuit-clad heavies, each partnered with field combat-engineers. The third squad was Mobile infantry; equipped with jump packs and alloy combat armor, lightweight yet capable of taking a beating, by far the fastest moving land asset on the ship (it should be noted that this mobile infantry squad included specialist Wilsks, with this being the first deployment of the Lightwing suit). The fourth squad specialised in stealth operations, equipped with active camouflage and advanced sensor suites.
"All units are to deploy in all three shuttles, minimal emissions. Pilot Captain Yuo, contractor Di' Stella, I want the Variable and the Manta to maintain maximal stealth and escort the shuttles down, before providing close air support. Di' Stella, I want you relaying sensor data to infantry squad four. Yuo, I want you to be taking marked targets with heavy fire and preventing any escape for resistance shuttles in-atmo. You're our only fighter craft, so play it safe.

Gad, Have technical squads one and two manage the left and right flanks respectively. The mobile infantry in squad three is to locate secure high ground and relay sensor data for the rest of the squads. Squad four are to land, deploy, and immediately start searching for signs of resistance activity on the ground.
I will be leading the command squad myself. Tordren, I'll need you with me to track the psionic noise you've been referencing. I'm not familiar with the science involved, but I'm certain your intel is reliable. Elazar and I-6, I'll require both of you with the command squad on security detail.

Kindler, you have the bridge. Maintain stealth unless the Cotopaxi makes itself known, and make a low emission hyperspace jump a short distance away from the origin of the shuttles as soon as you safely can. It's entirely possible that combat between the Cotopaxi and Ophelia will be decided by who breaks stealth first.

All hands, this is your captain speaking. This is it. What we do here will not be reported in any battle logs available to the public. You will not have a hero's welcome back home. But make no mistake, this is the most important mission of your careers thus far. The target is the black box of the much celebrated ship INS Troubadour, located at the crash site of an unknown ship somewhere on the planet's surface, suspected to be somewhere in the region we will be dropping. I am certain all of you will do what you must for us to succeed. Emperor be with us all."
Angstrom rose, turning, nodding with rigid confidence to Kindler. As she passed though, she smiled, and with uncharacteristic warmth; "Keep good care of her, Ruri. This is the big one."

 

[Pigiron]

Perseus' trip down the ancient tunnel was taken in sullen silence. He looked to Gabi, who seemed wary, if not outright expectant of danger. Perseus straightened up. A quick polling of his suit informed him that it had been able to repair itself using standard self-sealing methods after the panther-things attacked. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much trouble and the captain could get whatever clues she was looking for, and Perseus could get back to the ship and his nice safe work station.
Perseus looked around, leery at the ancient tunnel. He needn't have been, however, as the thing was uncorroded. Untouched by the millennia. "The Phoenix Nebula civilisation... Just how advanced were they? This tunnel's been here for millennia, yet it's not corroded. Not damaged. There's not even dust on the floor. How does that even work?"

And then the tunnel ended, and the away team were... "Eve, how far are we from the dropship?" "Fifty-three kilometers, captain."
"What? how the- This place is going to give me conniptions-" Perseus' concerned muttering gave way to awe as the tunnel opened up and the vision of the valley, replete with pillars and crashed ship came into view.
Perseus' eyes widened "Hey! That's a Lustrian hull design! Ampersec 3900c, from the looks of it. Cargo hauler." Perseus squinted at the ship "What-the-crash is it doing here? And why's it so heavily modified? It looks like it has magreflect coating on it, which was a top of the line smuggling tactic for avoiding cargo scans about a decade ago." Perseus started over to the ship with gusto, before- "Mangrove, Perseus, Trion, and Vlare, can the four of you get to work on the pillars? I want to know what makes them do…that," "Aww, but I-" Perseus started, before pausing. Thinking for a second, Perseus sighed. It made sense. The ship was clearly the lesser of two engineering mysteries, and there was likely far more the engineers could find out from the clearly alien structures than the decade-old crashed ship. More likely the ship just had interesting bits and pieces of smuggled cargo, rather than the key to finding the Phoenix Nebula that the group was actually looking for.

Alright, what're we- uh- Perseus was immediately distracted by the feeling of Ana curving an arm around his. Perseus looked down to see the sensors operator glancing around, clearly nervous. "This place is pretty spooky huh? Say, have you ever, like, heard of the suspension bridge effect?" Ana looked up at Perseus owlishly, biting her lip, a look of slight worry on her features "Suspension bridge effect? Is that a human thing? Look, you shouldn't worry, Ana, I'm sure the worst is past us. Seriously. Also, honestly I am the last person you should go to if we actually do get into a fight-" "You got that right!" came a call from Engineer Mangrove, somewhere off to the right, "Oi! Back to scanning, smartass!" Perseus lobbed back, a grin on his face "Hey you said it boss, not me!" came a hearty reply.
"But I wouldn't worry about it. Seriously. We need you at the top of your game, Ana. Your sensor skills are absolutely essential to mapping this place and making sure that nothing sneaks up on us."

Perseus raised his scanner, flicked it to a mode that wasn't made utterly useless by the magnetic interference that seemed to be particularly strong here, and gently extracted himself from Ana, ("Sorry, just need to scan, yep-") and began to circle one of the strange pillars dotting the valley.
"It's crazy how vivid the colours are. I imagine it must all be the same material, perhaps with some kind of light-resistant property, that avoids sun-bleaching and other causes of dye-fading. The topography is interesting too, the more I watch, the more it changes, why it feels like I've circled this thing twice already, and I- Woah!" Perseus let out a surprised yelp as he looked away from the pillar, to find he was now about a hundred metres away from the rest of the group.

Snapping on his radio, Perseus eloquently rejoindered: "Guys? What uuh... What?"
Perseus looked up. The tower was different from the one he had started at. Unmistakeably so. The colours were different, the shape was different. The lines and shapes that made up the pillar he had started at were angular, almost thorn-like, reminiscent of a sea anemone or a pile of oddly-shaped caltrops. But the one he now stood beside was bulbous, with rolls and bumps that looked for all the world like boils.
"When I was circumnavigating the pillar it didn't seem to change immediately, the switch from one to the other was so smooth I barely noticed. It just... gently progressed from one pillar to the other, as if they... As if they were part of some larger pattern, hmm... Like they were somehow the same object. Hey, how much do you all know about higher-dimensional topography? Something odd is going on here."

 

[muffinphobia]

elAzAr : weApons mAster

Hearing Angstrom's initial announcement had stirred excitement in Elazar. At last, a concrete step in the direction of taking the Resistance down. He'd left the training room quickly upon reading the follow-up message from the bridge regarding his specific assignment. A quick trip to his quarters, and he'd geared up for the expedition with his knife, pulse cannon, and vibro double-blade, his blood humming with excitement. Finally. Finally!

He was making his way to the dropship when the captain pulled him aside, her expression grave. With a look and a flick of her chin she took Elazar into one of the workshop rooms off the hangar bay and stood tall and imperious amongst the workbenches and 3D printers.

"Elazar, I'm sure you've heard the rumors; Velshia and I believe the Cotopaxi is in the system." Angstrom paused, taking a breath. He felt the excitement sour in his stomach and was thankful for the mask that was now surely covering a murderous expression. No, he hadn't heard such rumors, as a matter of fact.

"We may be in combat with your family... Your father." Angstrom paused again, speaking slowly, carefully watching Elazar's reaction. "Will that be a problem? You have my full permission to speak freely."

Elazar waited to respond until he trusted his voice not to shake. His right hand clenched and unclenched into a fist at his side, unnoticed. "It won't be a problem, captain," he responded in an even, neutral tone. It was empty of any emotion, any inflection at all, made all the more eerie by the mechanization of his mask. "They mean nothing to me."

"Very well. Elazar, I trust you with my life. I hope that you know that you can tell me anything." Angstrom leaned back, heaving a deep sigh. "After all you've lost to the Resistance... Well I can only ask that you try to maintain composure and discipline. Though I am certain that you will not disappoint. Let's go to work."

"Yes, captain," he said, and the pair returned to the hangar. He boarded the dropship and dropped his pack unceremoniously at his feet, too lost in his own thoughts to take much note of anyone or anything around him. He knew the captain had meant his uncle, and it had taken everything in him not to snarl at her that that man was not his father. Regardless, he doubted Hyde would be present. No, the man clung too dearly to his morals, his personal code, always at the expense of others. He was safely in exile on Zhar - of that Elazar was certain.

Gabi, on the other hand…

Perhaps it was just his imagination, but he felt he could already sense her presence in the system, much like one could smell the acrid burn of a candle recently blown out. Six years. Would she still be recognizable, or would she too have vanished behind some kind of mask?

If he was being honest, he didn't intend to let the Resistance operatives live long enough to find out.

 

[Verran]

Ṫ̶̢̡̛̗̙̳̰̼̤͙̹͙͈͒̐̄̓̆̿͆͆̌͠ʜ̴̨̡͓̝̫̠̻͎̬̟̮̔̍́͛̍͆̓̉͊̈́͠͠ǝ̵̧̪͎̼͓͕̼̘̝̭͔͌̍̈́͑̔͂̓͗̿͋̓̌ͅ ̶̧̘͖̗̦̥̫͕͉͙̙̬̓͌̏͆͒͑̈̄̊͘͘Ә̴̮̞̤̳̳͉͎̻͈̙̭͑̊̿̇̓̓̍̈́̆̚͝ͅυ̷̨̪̬͕͈̯̳̹͖̳̙͋͛͋̾̓̍̀͛̈̚̕ɒ̷̯̥̳̯̙̞̪͔̤̝̘͗̓͛̅̉͌͆̍̄̚̚͜͝ɿ̵̨̨̡̛͚̘̮͕̠̝͕̭͇͗͗̊̐̈́̒̌̎̽̑͋ḅ̶̨̨̛͍͈͉͇̼̮̦͕͈̾͆̊̍̽̈́̇̒͌̚i̸̡̢̛̭͍̙͉̺̘̱͖̹̾̽̀͌͒̃͐͆͘̚͜ɒ̸̦̖̗͇͎̬̭̱̥̼̘̌͑́̓̒́̒͊̽̇͘͜͝n̴̳̫͔̘͕̬̣̩̰̺̱͔̳̤̩̗̑̈́̀̆̄̎̈́͐̓͛͘͠ͅ

​

Harli's prattle grated upon Aiko's ears. Sparking up a flock of fury that took wing across her soul. A powerful emotion that startled even her. However, she tamped down on it with a silent snarl. Exploding with wroth here would do nothing. If the woman, that Harli, would continue to plan the thorough desolation and abuse of her home, Aiko would do something about it. For now…wait…she had just thought of the realm as her home. The woman cursed silently. This was certainly not her home. Never her home. Yet all memory of the place where she had been born remained distant and faded. Aiko could pick out the planet, no doubt, and could even travel there if she had the chance. However, all events, all joys, all pains, all laughter was a vague smear across her head. Like most things today, Aiko shoved that aside too as she continued to wander from pillar to pillar. Quite unconcerned with any potential order to send her to the ship and with the sudden jumps in space and time that occurred at random intervals. All the while, avoiding going anywhere near a particular pillar with oil-like stains upon it that had, as her mood had fluxed, changed ever so slightly. Aiko was particularly hoping no one would notice that. Knowing better than to believe it, she just continued on.

The eggheads, too, were knackering away in their smarty-pants manner and, as was so often the case, failing to comprehend to the basics. Rambling about memory alteration, extra-dimensional movement, and stating what was overly obvious in oddness. She sighed. These children were going to get themselves killed, or kill themselves, if they kept on as they were. The wardens were silent at the moment. If they stayed that way, it would be blessing.

"No, no," she finally vocalized, "you are in the right ballpark but playing the wrong game. You dream of machines that sing songs of madness to sear upon your mind. You seek solutions beyond your ken because the assumption lies in your heart that what lies around you is beyond your understanding. And so, by your very nature, you mutate the land in your eyes to one that fits your domain. That of ignorance and depravity.

"These stones around you are no more 'high tech' than a man etching upon tablets. Yet, as the writing upon them may move entire civilizations, so too can these topple the inhibitions of your soul." Aiko continued to stalk, feeling the ebb and flow of the pillars' psionic memories gnaw at her. As words flew from her mouth, less and less of them were Imperial. Yet, while the ears could not discern what she spoke, the searing impression they left upon the mind gave no room for doubt as to what they conveyed. "The stone is not painted. It is not resistant. It merely remembers far beyond your memories, children of dust. Renewed beyond your dreams. In its memory, it remains whole, true, and unchangeable. Therefore, nothing can truly change it. Break it down, turn it into powder, it will still remember. And when you are dead, it will remember on. So, dream your dreams, children of flesh! Wallow in your passions! They will lead you to what you seek. But as you pick over these stones like carrion, pray to whatever gods are left among the stars that the wardens will not say 'enough!' For…"

She broke off. Attempting to draw her hand across her face. Resulting in her putting a massive gauntlet over her helm. Aiko felt the tears rush down her face as she tried to shove the dead from her mind. A breath passed. And then two. Before she spoke again, Imperial this time. "You stand upon the edge of a banquet of sorrows. If you had any sense, you'd leave. But you don't. And you won't. So, as you sit down to table, I'll tell you this: connect with a pillar and some…memory or instinct might help you connect with the rest of this rotten corpse. Then I'll wonder when, after you finish eating, you'll turn to devour me."

Out of the corner of her eye, Aiko saw it. What she had been looking for. Movement upon a pillar that wasn't hers. Slight and tiny, she nevertheless zeroed in on it and, by taking the left turn away, she arrived at her destination before calling out one last time, "oh, eggheads with sundry. If they were all the same object, there wouldn't be a need for space between and they would all share the memory. The flock stays together. So you can visit whoever you want. But is never one. Reality isn't shattered for mere esthetic."

 

[Quake]

[01000101 01010010 01000001 01000100 00100000 01001001 00101101 00110110]

It had taken the rest of shore leave, but the INS Ophelia's security AI eventually finished installing into its new shell. The signature hulking frame had since been traded in for a slightly smaller, more streamlined design. No longer would it function as a towering bullet sponge, instead swapping its defensive capabilities for new levels of firepower and next-gen encryption against cyber attacks and digital intrusions. Dubbed the JUDAS series, it was clear the designers of this shell viewed medical capabilities as an afterthought. Surgical equipment and medical resources had been stripped away, replaced with an assault rifle and back-mounted railgun. It had been a divisive decision at first, but had reached approval following the success of the original ERAD shell. A defensive-focused shell had already succeeded. Why not an assault-focused one? Now was the time for an in-field test, and who could ask for a better target than resistance forces?

The storage room, which previously housed I-6, was now vacant once more as well. With the original ERAD deemed a veritable success, its shell had been reacquisitioned for analysis and eventual mass production. This also meant that its accompanying maintenance pod and other peripherals were taken away, leaving nothing in the space but a few spare boxes of miscellaneous loose parts. With the hope of the JUDAS series becoming the primary assault line for Imperial VIPs, ease of maintenance had become a high priority. These machines needed to be easy enough to maintain that someone with little to no experience could repair them if necessary, while simultaneously ensuring their coding and hardware were robust enough against any possible user errors. Thus, I-6 no longer needed specialized maintenance and would now share in receiving its repairs along with the other droids aboard the lightcruiser.

Having finished with some last minute self-diagnostics, I-6 strode across the hangar, climbing the ramp onto the dropship and taking a seat across from the Ophelia's weapons master. The man seemed deep in thought, and with no reason to bother him, the AI settled into its seat in silence.

 

[Presea_cousin]

The Cotopaxi huh.. Runi found herself intrigued at this theory Velshia threw out. It made some sense, there were few other factions the Empire was aware of who would be packing wormhole tech. Runi had already seen the articles (mostly her ex-navy comrade Cirele's) that the Cotopaxi may have started flying again. To think she might be up against that ship again. She wondered what some of her old teammates would say. It was almost like old times.

"Kindler, you have the bridge. Maintain stealth unless the Cotopaxi makes itself known,"

Ah right, not an infantry trooper anymore. Runi was starting to play in her mind a scenario where she just grabs a heavy rifle and hop into a shuttle anyway, but knew that would be a terrible idea. Nor would it be good for her to intentionally break stealth first so she could command a ship to ship fight. She sighed and just gave Angstrom a confident smile as she passed to leave the bridge. "I will captain. Don't hog all the action. The Ophelia hasn't had a live fire test in so long."

Once Angstrom had left and Runi was now fully in command of the bridge, she took her position at the head of the bridge. "Encrypt all comm channels. Prep the hyperspace engines for a small jump. We'll orbit opposite of Farsin's moon…Yes, I said opposite the moon. That seems like too good of a place to hide. Have all guns primed in the slight chance we happen to pop up near whatever came before us." Runi then brought up surveillance feeds of the hangars so she could be ready once the shuttles launched.

~~~​

Sorrin had gotten Angstrom's announcement and just finished suiting up into his pilot suit. He grabbed his helmet and proceeded into the main hangar. It was abuzz with activity as marines boarded shuttles, hangar crew were making sure the shuttles, the Manta, and Micheal's Variable Fighter were fueled and supplied with all the ammo they needed, a brief pause to salute the captain as Angstrom entered the hangar, and then back to scrambling to finish prep for shuttle take-off. Sorrin headed first to a group of five pilots all lined up and dressed in identical pilot suits to his. These were the other members of the 'Phantom Wing' squad and flew the same kind of fighter as him. He stopped in front of them and addressed them. "Phantom Wing squad, you are to remain in the hangar at Battlestation 1. We're going in stealth, so it will be the shuttles, the Manta, and me. The rest of you will only deploy if open conflict occurs and only when the Captain or XO give the dispatch order. Understood?....then to your fighters. We fly and strike as phantoms!" With that, the other members of his squadron split to board their fighters. "....and has anyone seen Jlita?"

"Oh, she took her hoverboard and was skimming around the outside of the Ophelia." One of the other pilots spoke up.

"Oh for-" Sorrin turned on a comm channel. "Jlita! We're deploying! Get back in here! Captain's going to be mad if she finds out you deployed without permission!"

"Oh shiiiii- Be right in!"

Sorrin sighed. Which one of them was older? Sorrin made his way to one side of the hangar. Here, the hangar sloped up, levels of mechanical arms holding up various aircraft. The young pilot took a lift up the side of the hangar until he got to his black jet. He climbed into the cockpit, a few hangar attendants finishing last minute checks as he began to power up the engine. He looked back out onto the hangar, many of the shuttles finishing loading. He spotted someone slipping from the hangar's atmospheric gate, carrying a hoverboard. Jlita was trying to skirt around the outside of the hangar to the shuttles to avoid Angstrom spotting her.

Sorrin shook his head and flipped the rest of the switches he needed for his fighter to fully roar to life, then just as suddenly his engines purred into a much lower hum. "This is fighter commander Yuo, requesting permission to launch."

["This is hangar control, Phantom 1, you are clear the launch. Standby for tractor beam guidance."]

The mechanical arms in the hangar wall extended, bringing the variable fighter out from the wall. Tractor beam emitters then engaged, picking the fighter up and levitating it away from the metal arms and positioning it towards the hangar exit. Sorrin then engaged a gentle forward thrust as the tractor beams weakened, his fighter moving forward until it flew out of the hangar gate, followed shortly by the shuttles carrying the other squads. Once the last spacecraft left, the Ophelia warped away, leaving the shuttles and fighters to make their way down to the planet.

The descent went well, all ships entered the atmosphere and soon were flying over a heavy forest area. Sorrin had to admit it was nice to not have to worry about any patrols ships or satellites that they would've had to dodge on their way in. The only concern would've been the telltale burning from the ships entering the atmosphere. He frowned as he looked at his instruments. A few of his optical scopes were starting to glitch and fizz. "Shuttle crews, this is Phantom 1. I'm getting a lot of electromagnetic interference. Stay alert, it may mess with our sensors." Communications and radio seemed unaffected though, which would've been a lot worse. Sorrin began flying ahead of the shuttles, scouting out possible landing zones. But landing in an open plain might get them spotted too easily and a lot of areas were just outright swamp. Sorrin soon picked an area of the forest. It was covered in trees, but young ones that the shuttles could easily crush underneath them. Sorrin relayed the position to the shuttles and kept his jet hovering as they landed in the brush. He was going to keep a patrol of the area and support from the sky.

~~~​

Harli continued to walk around the crashed shuttle, still sketching a lot while writing a lot of prose about fallen messages from the divine heaven. She then heard the holy herald Perseus shout something as he apparently moved from one pillar to another, Harli's smile widening as she gladly took note of that. Perhaps this would've been more of a puzzle practice than a simple pilgrimage. As Harli was about to ask if Perseus could try all the other pillars, Aiko spoke up.

""No, no, you are in the right ballpark but playing the wrong game. You dream of machines that sing songs of madness to sear upon your mind."

For once, Harli was actually quiet, save as usual for her fingers which were furiously scribbling down everything Aiko was saying. Few made sense at the moment, but Harli felt like was delivering a gospel from this holy place. "Thank the cosmic patron.." She murmured as she looked up, thankful for all this revelation. It was then though that she noticed something: streaks of red white streaking across the sky. Objects falling through the atmosphere. Harli then radioed the Cotopaxi. "Cotopaxi, this is Harli. Is this planet experiencing a meteor shower?"

["Harli, this is the Coto. We aren't running any active scans and we are not in a position for visual confirmation. We weren't expecting any kind of meteors or asteroids when we arrived though."]

"Captain, something's entered the atmosphere." Harli radioed to Gabi. "Cotopaxi couldn't get a read on it. Is there any scanning equipment intact in there?"

 

[muffinphobia]

all the king's horses, all the king's men couldn't put me together again

the archer

By the time Dmitri had finished helping everyone and climbed aboard himself, Gabi wanted to tell them all to turn around. The gash had led them into a rather nondescript hallway, which was dark and overrun with thick, thorny vines from the hillside. Nothing to be afraid of, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong, not helped at all by Takeda's monologue. Her decision about what to do next was very firmly made for her when she tried to run a scan on the ship for sources of power and received nothing in return except an error message, the alert sounding whiny and ineffective, the opposite of its usual soothing chime. "Everyone out except Dr. Meadows," she said, to a chorus of protests. "You all have to trust me on this one. This ship isn't big. It won't take long." When nobody moved she said sternly, "That's an order."

Once the others had disembarked, she looked to Reginald. "Let's split up and get this done as quickly as possible, yeah?" She tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out looking more like a grimace. "Ping me if you find something," she said, reaching for the comms panel built into the left forearm of her suit. She changed the settings so that only urgent messages would come through, and then she'd turned on her heel and disappeared down the hallway, heading in the direction of where the cargo bay would hopefully be, if the ship design had any sense to it.

As she walked away from the gash and into the looming darkness, she turned on the small line of lights spaced evenly across the crown of her helmet, as well as the two attached to her shoulders. In the distance, she could see a sign attached to the ceiling, presumably marked "EXIT" with an arrow pointing left. There was something oddly comforting about the sight of it in the midst of all of this - some semblance of normalcy amongst magic pillars and crewmates who spoke in incomprehensible riddles, sometimes not even in Imperial. She glanced down at her arm panel and briefly reactivated the channel, listening in on the chatter of the crew. A warm smile spread across her face as she listened to Perseus chatter on about topography and who knew what else. She muted the channel again and continued forward.

As her steps took her closer to the end of the hallway, her eyebrows drew together. She was positive that sign had said "EXIT" mere moments ago. She had seen the outline of the letters from afar, hadn't she? Now, as she drew nearer, the sign appeared to be inscribed with symbols she'd never seen in her life. It didn't resemble any language she knew, not that she was a great xenolinguist or anything, but still…

She tried to tell herself it was probably the language Takeda had just been speaking. That made the most sense, didn't it? After all, she knew a great deal about the place. She was beginning to sorely regret not trying harder to divulge more information as she carefully negotiated the stairs, which were at an odd angle due to the crash. She took a break on the first landing she came to, and her eyes fell on a map of the ship's interior, hung on the wall. Relief coursed through her as she realized it was marked in Imperial, but also confusion: why wouldn't everything be in the same language?

Gabi glanced down to watch her feet as she took a step closer towards the map, and when she looked back up she swore loudly. The Imperial had been replaced by the same symbols as before. How in the hells was this possible!? Her eyes were doing their best to discern meaning from what she saw, but all it earned her was a sudden and raging headache. She reached up to rub her eyes and was rewarded with her gloved hand clanking into the glass of her HUD, the sudden sound startling her in the oppressive silence. She needed to get out of here. Now. She crossed the metal walkway to the next set of stairs, climbing perhaps more quickly than was advisable.

Once she had climbed down and reached the door (again marked with that damned scribbling), she activated her comm to check in. "Reginald, have you found anything yet?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

It hit her like a ton of bricks then: the silence came not just from him but from everyone. She tried to ignore the rising panic in her stomach, but with everything else going on it threatened to choke her. "Hello? Does anyone copy?" Adrenaline-fueled panic hot in her veins, she violently pushed the door of the cargo bay open with her shoulder, too distracted by trying to get her comm to work to take much in around her. It appeared to be perfectly functional, but it was obviously not.

She continued to walk forward mindlessly, completely unaware of how empty the space was, and stopped only when the toe of her boot rammed into something solid. Her attention had been fixed solely on trying to hail the crew, and now she found herself gazing at a black box emblazoned with the symbols. Every fiber of her being told her she needed to get as far away from the thing as possible, and as she took a step back she looked at her surroundings for the first time.

Endless pairs of glowing, purple eyes stared at her from the walls.

There was no rhyme or reason to their pattern, except the fact that the highest concentration of them existed on the ceiling directly above the black box and, thus, her.

As she took the bone-chilling sight in, she stepped backwards in the direction of the door. Her suit lights flickered. It was then she realized the eyes weren't staring at her. No, they were staring at the damned box. The lights gave a final, feeble flicker and died, and all at once the eyes shifted to her. Incomprehensible whispers filled her ears, and she was left alone in the purple glow, screaming in her dead suit.

Except it wasn't dead, because that scream was the reply Harli received when she tried to tell Gabi about something entering the atmosphere.

'cause all of my enemies started out friends. help me hold onto you.

Code by Jenamos

 

[Verran]

The Dreamer​

Velshia was the fifth one to step off the transport and into the forested sunlight. Unfortunately, for her, she couldn't breath deep of the concoction of smells and humidity that undoubtedly filled the air. Being an alien planet, protocol required basic hazmat protection from the environment until such time that detailed enough examination of the planet could be undertaken to ensure that no radically dangerous organisms or hazards existed. Given that the orbital observations had been rudimentary and that the mission was now strictly combat oriented, the four-armed agent felt it to be a shame. No fresh air today.

On the trip down, she had reached out with her mind. Hoping to sense the entity again. However, whatever had caused the initial shout of power was nowhere to be felt. Not yet anyway. As she surveyed the lush, dense landscape about her, Velshia informed her captain of the bad news. It would mean a mundane method of exploring the surrounding landscape. Looking for both the Resistance and the location of the black box.

For the first time since she felt the shout, Velshia mused over what brought the Resistance here in the first place. The woman did not accept any argument that this had been chance or luck. Velshia accepted divine intervention, but the notion of luck was utterly absurd. No, something had led them there…She'd tackle that line of questioning after the mission was complete. Turning her mind back to the task at hand, Velshia began setting up and ensuring that the marine squads, particularly the stealth one, had their vibration detectors operational and up to date with the latest Resistance power armor info. Beyond light and sound sensors, such detectors were one of the most reliable, passive methods of picking up stealthed units in the field. Able to read and discern footfalls, rolling treads, and other things that would have to impact with the ground to move. And given how dense the foliage was, the forces were far more likely to hear or feel each other far before being able to see each other. Another bonus was that the magnetic fields couldn't interfere with it. Even then, there was a lot of ground to cover and, while it was reliable tech, it was far from the most sensitive. Velshia watched the first squad, finished with equipment checks, fall in under Commander Gad's orders, activate their own stealth gear, and fully disappear into the trees. Then she started on the second squads. All the while keeping a part of her mind seeking for that powerful entity.

 

[Verran]

The Good Doctor has a Headache​

He nodded, Gabi went one way and Reginald went the other. The ship was utterly silent outside of his footsteps. Which were soft and cautious as they tiptoed their way throughout the corridor of the ship. The itch of nerves crawled up his back. He wished Gabi hadn't ordered everyone out. The man was no coward, but he knew his capabilities. The man was no fighter. Meandering alone through the ruined halls of ship on a planet that had actively shown to be hostile wasn't particularly appealing to him. Still, it was an order and he would follow through with it. Not knowing he was matching Gabi, he switched his comms over to the emergency channel.

The light on his shoulder illuminated that the wreck itself looked fairly intact. To his amateur eye, he couldn't see any obvious damage beyond the buckling of bulkheads and fractured doors. No burns from explosions, plasma shots, or lasers. Of course, he had no knowledge of how this ship went down the in the first place. Squinting through the gloom, he could just make out a sign dictating 'GaLlEY'. Assuming the letters had been smeared by the crash, the doctor entered the kitchen as another letter silently broke down.

The ship remained without power. Reginald wondered why he expected the place to light up after crossing the threshold. Scanning around, the galley had its basic stock of food stuffs, cooking range, cutlery. Whoever had used the vessel kept it in modest shape. Cozy, some would probably say, Reginald thought as his light ran over a dartboard, pinup, and what seemed to even be a replica of an ancient vinyl turntable. And corpses. Four in total. Reginald suppressed a grimace and moved to examine them. Three sat around the table with the fourth curled up in the middle of the room. Starting with the table, Reginald examined each in turn.

At first, he tried to scan the individuals. The error message pinged across the device and he turned off all equipment with a sigh. Resigned to using only basic examination techniques. Gunshot wound to the head, he surmised, entry point on the right side about ear level. Assuming human, that is. Exit mirrored on the left… Subject has fully decayed but looks to be male judging by the skull. What's left of it that is… No sight of the weapon on the person. Next subject also died of a gunshot wound to the head… This time straight through an eye socket. And the last…has a gunshot wound to the head too. Blew out the back of her head from the mouth. And this one has the gun… what did they do? Pass around the pistol and commit suicide?!

Reginald stomped over to the other body and nearly tripped over it. Turning his light back on, Reginald bent down. With his basic exosuit, he wasn't concerned with contaminating the site as he looked over the corpse. As far as he could tell, there were no fatal injuries. Which didn't rule out some sort of venom or toxin. But without equipment he had no way of telling. The body was in a fetal position. Hands curled and covering its face. Gently, Reginald pulled them back a bit. It wasn't very informative. Almost no hidden trauma. Almost. There were some odd, slight scratches around the eye sockets. As if the spacer were trying to claw their eyes out. Reginald shook his head. The idea had no proof. That wasn't why he tried to clear it from his head. The mad thing was that it didn't sound like a bad idea.

He forced himself to move on and wished that he could shove his hands into some pockets. Out the…where had he just been? Reginald tried to scratch his head with both his hands. A dull buzz seemed to be leaking into his ears. He almost thought to try a scan again but then decided that he was better off unplugging the device completely.

What happened here anyway? Why had the ship crashed? It made no sense, no sense at all. Up some stairs and down a short corridor led Reginald, surprisingly, right into what seemed like the cockpit of the vessel. The corpses of the likely pilot and copilot also sat in their harnesses. One had its head bashed in with bone fragments on the control console in front of it. The other had security straps still wrapped around its neck. Reginald avoided thinking that the blighter had strangled himself. There had to be some answers in the logs. Trying, for the first time, to boot up the vessel made him wonder why none of them had attempted to from the start. Reginald was surprised there seemed to be enough emergency power in the local environment to kick the system online.

The words seemed to flicker as he scrolled through the entries. They seemed to be melting before his eyes with that blasted buzzing filling his head. Giving up on reading, he hit the audio and sat down. The dates and words seemed to slur in and out as if to a badly tuned radio.

"Can't believe we slipped…got this shiny thing."

"Captain's crazy alright but…hey now why'd you plug that in the nav?"

"Oh? Huh, lemme jus…"

…

"You know, I swear I hear some bu…all the time."

"Ya do? Huh, say, where'd ya place the…that datapad."

"Right here! Can't you…"

"…but it's jibber…"

…

"Look at all that green!"

"Why are we here…"

…

"It's in my head!"

"Can't read…"

"Songs…."

…

"… eyes are all…"

…

"It sta…ispers…screams! I … song. I…"

Whether it kept going, Reginald didn't know. He was too busy trying to tear off his ears. Screaming inside his helmet to the screech of discord without.

 

[Teryn180]

Trion Nixarn, Head Scientist​

Trion had been studying a pillar with indistinct images seemingly of different creatures not that far from the one Perseus had been looking at, to look up and find him so far away was a bit of a shock. He had a moment to consider the other man's idea about how it happened, but only a moment before Aiko's outburst derailed his train of thought. He wasn't even sure he recognized the language, and he recognized most languages that got much use in their part of the galaxy. And yet, he still knew what she was saying…It sounded more like a different speaker though. She obviously had some sort of connection to this place and something had obviously done a number on her mental stability. The fact that he could understand was interesting as hell, but he was pretty sure that he wasn't going to get any clear answers out of her. He looked back at the pillars after it and narrowed his eyes. "Not one object, but a connected group…not a machine but an imprint of memory…" He glanced after Aiko for a second "Maybe even an imprint of a personality...Something about it is causing strange spatial shifts though." He said after a minute. His hands almost itched with the urge to take his gloves off and touch the thing, to get some real information and know what they were, or what they meant. Trion's training had hammered caution, safety, and security procedures into him to temper his curiosity though, so his gloves stayed on and his hands stayed away from the pillars. He didn't want to end up like Aiko seemed to have. His mind was bouncing through possibilities, psionic constructs seemed most like the information they had, but Harli's warning that something was entering the atmosphere snapped him out of it. No signs of anyone when they got here, but if someone was trying to be stealthy it was easy to hide in space, especially when you couldn't risk an active scan because it would just tell anyone exactly where they were. He glanced between the others "We have to assume it's someone unfriendly. No one from the Resistance would be coming here without broadcasting. We're going to need a defensible position…" There weren't a lot of options. Garbled screaming across the coms from Gabi somewhere inside the ship cut any thought of preparations off. He thought it sounded like Gabi anyways. "Fuck! And someone needs to get them out of there before company gets here." Something about the ship still set him on edge. Most scientists would say they weren't superstitious, but most scientists weren't standing in a field of psionic nightmare pillars outside of a haunted lost ship after having a slug piloting his body. He wasn't going to ignore his instincts and just run straight in.

 

[Pigiron]

Long and frayed // Static surrounds us // Break the free fall // Safely land
​

Perseus heard Gabi scream.
-That's wrong-
-She never screams-
Perseus' teeth gritted, and a rattling breath slipped through his teeth as, without thinking, his grav-grapple had sprung into his grip and he was raising it above his head, pointing at the peak of one of the tall pillars between him and the wrecked ship.
As Trion bellowed out warnings about incoming unfriendlies, Perseus' grav grapple whined and hissed, sending a white-blue crackling line, an energy tether, that started at the end of the industrial tool and terminated at the peak of the odd pillar.
The device was a result of Lustre's early attempts at zero-mass space elevator cabling. It hadn't held up at long ranges, but miniaturised emitters of the energy tethers had ended up becoming an indispensable part of the standard Lustrian industrial kit.
That being said, as the tether contracted, Perseus straining to hold on to the tool as he was flung across the field to the far-off ship, the device complained and threw errors into the corner of Perseus' vision. It was almost being taken to the redline being used in a grav-well, and being in atmo wasn't exactly helping. The grav grapple was designed for hard-vac shipyards and zero-G, not to be used to imitate old-earth superheroes flinging themselves through the air like a suicidal acrobat.

But Perseus wasn't particularly interested in the operating parameters of the tool right now. Gabi was screaming.
Gabi was screaming.
It was a howl, unthinking, unfettered. Hot with agony and surprise.
A roar, a single word, tore from Perseus' throat as he rocketed towards the wreck. "GABI!"
In a matter of moments, Perseus threw himself into the tear the search party had used as an entrance to the ship, passing Dmitri as he climbed into the tear.
Wrecks like these were Perseus' home turf, and he didn't even glance at the signs and consoles as he ran, grappled and skid through the wreck, vaulting twisted metal and sliding under wreckage. His tunnel vision left Perseus temporarily inoculated and ignorant of the danger the others had experienced, ironically due to their careful, slow exploration.
Perseus began to hear the sounds of Gabi's screams in stereo; over the radio, and through his helmet- "GABI, I'M HERE!" Perseus roared, tearing through the ship, perspiration spattering the inside of his faceplate.

A buckled section of internal wall blocked the way. Perseus barely slowed, tugging his plasma cutter from his side and slicing the hull sections to ribbons with the practised precision of a man who had been working on the ships all his life. He thundered towards the collapsed section, and with a madman's belligerence shoulder barged the semi-molten metal, counting on his heat-resistant suit to protect him from the momentary contact.
Ahead of the collapse; a door. Locked and depowered. Simple.
Splitting the plasma beam, Persesues blasted it with two thick cuts, a jagged glowing X, and barged through it with another roar, almost eager to find out what horrid fauna was assaulting the captain beyond, so he could tear it apart.

As broken metal and components crashed from the hole Perseus made, Perseus squared up, eyes flashing, molten slag tumbling from his shoulders, like a diver fresh from the surface of a volcano's peak, molten fury, oozing from the man in molten beads.
Salvager's floodlights shone beams of pure white through the dusty air, to find... Nothing. Nothing but darkness, and a weird glowing box, covered in squiggles.
Perseus saw her.
Gabi was shaking, off to one side, throat ragged with screams. Curled up in the fetal position. It was... She was so small. Perseus hadn't noticed before.
Her gaze was fixed on the cube. His heart still pounding from the ludrenaline spike, Perseus grabbed a length of oily tarp from the corner of the room, throwing it over the odd artefact and carefully moving toward Gabi where she was huddled.
"Gabi we've got to get you out of here, alright? You're going to be alright." Perseus grimaced. He felt sick, seeing Gabi like this.
A noise came from the shattered door, and Perseus whipped around. Just Dmitri. "How is she?" the Dina asked, barely out of breath. There was a coldness about him. A sharpness.
"She's in a bad way. There's an... artefact, under the tarp. I think it's Phoenix tech. Might be important. Don't touch it directly, keep it wrapped up. I think it might have been the thing that did... This." Perseus gently took Gabi, under the back of her knees and around her shoulders. "This place, it's not right. Something in the air, maybe. We should get out of here. Did you see the XO on your way in?"
"Not yet, but I'm most certain I picked up some activity in the direction of the cockpit." "Alright, Gabi'll kill me if we leave the old man behind. Keep on the move. Don't let whatever caught them catch us." Dmitri looked like he was going to say something for a second, but decided against it, stalking along beside Perseus, clasping the tarp-covered cube.
The band rushed through the internals of the ship. "This ship type has a cockpit at the front of the ship, to make in-atmo flying simpler for the pilots. When we get there, I'll just cut us out. Faster than... Faster than... Faster than trekking back through this spook-faulted hulk." Perseus grimaced. There was something fucky with the signage. He didn't have time spare to check it out, but it felt like every emergency sign was watching him, every room pictogram was reaching out to grab his eyes and tug them from his skull.
Reaching the cockpit doors, Perseus gently set Gabi down, standing and preparing to crack open the cockpit doors, nodding to Dmitri as he took one side of the double door. there were sounds coming from the cockpit beyond the door- there came a... fizzing, at the edge of thought. A forgotten memory, a flash of something, in the back of his mind. As he shook his head and began using the portable rending tool and gravity tethers to force open the doors, as the Dina grasped the other in a snow-white grip. Perseus was beset by a sickening fuzz so dense and poisonous it was all he could do not to vomit, but- The door screeched open, and-
NoisegivenshapetonesandchordsandwordsandspeechandMEANINGandDATAamixtureoflightanddarkevercollapsingintothefractalstack-
There was a sparking hiss. Dmitri had thrown a knife, severing a power cable to the main console Reginald was in front of, cutting off the Phoenix song that had been flaying their minds. The Dina Amor stood, hunched against the door frame, shuddering.
"Something is very wrong here. Perseus. Exit. NOW."
Perseus stumbled, slightly drunkenly. He pointed his cutter, pulled the trigger, and... clack
"Shit... Shit. Crash. Why is the..." Perseus fumbled with the tool. The energy readout was showing &$% chrrge, whcch shoull be enoooh frr thh cutttng thht thhh nnnned-
Perseus tore his eyes away from the readout, desperately yanked cables from the tool, hot-wired the plasma cutter to take the corrupted microcontroller out of the equation, and-
PHVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
Plasma blasted in a single slicing blade, wider and longer than was anywhere near safe, the kickback jumping the tool around in Perseus' grip, the tool getting hotter and hotter as he wrestled it, cutting a jagged oval out of the front of the ship, before eventually the screeching beam ended with a hail of sparks and a hiss as the capacitors finally gave out. With no time for regrets, Perseus threw the tool to one side as blessed sunlight shone through the gaping hole in the side of the ship.
Turning to gather up Gabi- Oh. She was standing, shakily, but steadily.
"Thank the forge you're alright. Let's get the crash outta this ghost ship, Gabs."

When man can climb to see // His rejection // Spirit'll burn // Evaporate​

 

[DarkHuntress]

Day 1 of belonging to a society of people who are in search of righteousness, Xalazo feeling the rush of excitement run down his body, finds himself laying in his bunk with his belongings from Cornelia. His belongings include: a bracelet made from his lifelong friend, a book that his father gave to him when he was little, and a pillow that instantly gives him the best rest of his life. As he lays in his bunk, he closes his eyes and thinks of the various possibilities he could bring to the resistance. As he lays there, he quickly realized that he must "throw caution to the wind". All his life, Xalazio has been very safe and taken forethought in everything and everywhere he goes. However, as he sits up, he realizes that there are times in life where you must take chances, make mistakes, and get messy. Xalazo quickly and carefully cleans his robotic parts, he knows that he will overcome his fearfulness and be the best member of the crew that he can be.

As Xalazo steps out of his bunker, all the other shipmates in the ship stare at him like he is an unknown, but like before Xalazio knows how to communicate with others that aren't directly like him. He knows that he is there for one mission and one mission only. For others it might be connecting with others, but for him, it's finding himself belonging to the fight for all galaxies and the mission to protect his homeland.

Walking down the hall, Xalazio glances at all the various rooms that behold the mysteries behind the plans for the mission. Does he dare to enter the rooms? Or does he walk away? Overthinking these options, he is quickly and urgently interrupted by the rumble of hunger in his stomach. As he wanders down the halls of the ship, he suddenly realizes that he packed his world famous Lambrus bread. This bread can fill someone's stomach up for weeks. As he rushes back to his dorm, he can only feel his stomach roaring in hunger. He shuffles through his backpack and finds the bread. As he eats, he remembers packing hundreds of these breads, knowing that he is nutritiously prepared for battle.


While resting in his chamber, Xalazio is spooked by the Hussle of busy feet that he can see underneath his doorway. Curious by all means, he slowly opens the door to find people rushing towards the meeting room. While following the others, he hears commands over the speakers telling the crew mates to deploy to the shuttles. Curious to what he is hearing, Xalazio quickly follows the other mates to the ship. While boarding the ship, he catches a glimpse of a mysterious purpled haired figure in the background.

 

[Pigiron]

Captain Bernadette Angstrom
Ship time 1212 hrs, 12/01/5032
Location: Farsin system, unclaimed space

​

The shuttles hurtled through the atmosphere on wings of orange fire. The Navy personnel riding down to the planet's surface felt the slam of deceleration as the shuttle retrothrusters kicked in, bringing the shuttles cruising in for a landing. The landing gear of the shuttles extended, but the shuttles hovered above the silty water. The pilot's voice crackled out over the intercom; "If we land in this muck we're never getting out. Deploy, and we'll circle around for pickup." The shuttles hovered a couple meters above the churning, glittering siltwater, and with military efficiency the Navy soldiers deployed.

First came squad 3: The mobile infantry.
Leaping from the shuttles, they each splashed down and immediately began racing through the silt in a jetpack-assisted sprint. As soon as they left the turbulence produced by the shuttles, the soldiers fired their jetpacks much more assertively, catapulting off into the treeline, onto the great floating stones, and into the trees, securing the landing zone. Amongst them was commander Gad, constantly in contact with the squad leaders, ensuring there were no gaps in the movement of the Naval troops. Also amongst the mobile infantry was Jlita Wilsks, the field specialist currently field-testing the "Lightwing" light exosuit, moving with lithe, practised movements to take up her position on the perimeter.

Next came Squads 1 and 2: The two squads of five heavy exosuit-clad technicals with their five attendant field engineers.
Sporting mortar systems and autoloaded double-barrelled heavy railguns, sporting heavy generator packs on their backs, the heavies were the main battle asset on the ground.
The feet of the heavies unfolded into giant snowshoe-like configurations as they dropped off the shuttle's ramp, to minimize the quicksand-like effect of the sucking mud under the water. As each exosuit disembarked, the weight leaving the shuttle caused it to gently buck and sway from the sudden decrease in weight. The engineers of squads 1 and 2, clad in standard imperial battle armour, wielding standard issue rail guns, leapt down, spreading out to cover the heavies as they marched towards the treeline. Giant bow waves formed around the heavies as the implacable stride of the augmented humans overcame the sucking resistance of the marsh through pure might.

Next came squad 4, the stealth squad.
They slunk into the water, shimmered, and were gone. Invisible to the naked eye and most sensors. Even tremorsensory scanners would have a hard time picking them up, with the giant heavies leading the way to the treeline, by design. They spread out, per orders, and set to work, passing the other squads to begin the search efforts. Among them was Xalazo, moving with the slick grace of the augmented

The Command squad was the last to disembark. Angstrom, Velshia, I-6 and Elazar dropped into the silt.
Commander Gad's voice rang out across the encrypted naval common comms; "Squads one and two are breaking the treeline. Squad 4 is scouting the jungle, with squad three giving oversight from above. We have a thermal up ahead, it's old, and the sensors are being deleteriously affected by electromagnetic interference, but there's definitely something there. Possible evidence of the use of explosives, I'm being told."

"I read you, Commander. Have your units on the lookout for explosive booby traps or ambushes. We don't know how long the oppos have been planetside." Angstrom began walking toward the treeline, looking up at the Manta and Variable circling above. "Variable. Do have a read on the location of the thermal signature? Any smoke trails, any movement?" Angstrom shut off the radio and spoke to Elazar and I-6 "I want you two following the directions to this thermal signature. See if you can find anything. Stay in contact with squads three and four. Reminder that we have stealthed friendlies in the zone, check fire. Move out."
Immediately after giving the command, Angstrom paced up to a thick-trunked jungle tree, taking cover as she checked and racked the standard issue railgun she had decided to take for herself ahead of the drop. in the corner of her vision an AR window showed the movement of her troops, unfurling out into the jungle in three loose semicircles. First mobile infantry, then stealth, then the heavies.
She looked at Velshia, her features set in a grim game-face. "Any psionic signals?"

 

[Presea_cousin]

At Gabi's scream coming through the comm, Harli bolted to the shuttle entrance, following quickly after Perseus. She didn't have the grapple he did, but the other troops who were instructed to wait outside were still meandering underneath the opening. "Get me up! Get me up!" She yelled at them, the troops soon helping boost Harli into the shuttle. She took off after Perseus, her pistol drawn, but soon swapping back to pen and journal as she began to sketch and map the innards of the shuttle. Perseus seemed to be just drawn to Gabi's position and Harli wanted to jot down an excerpt to record that.

It wasn't long before the salvager soon found a blocked passage and began to cut through it with his plasma cutter. Though Harli enjoyed the pulsating action, she soon found herself intrigued with some nearby symbols. They looked like normal language for detailing warnings about various ship electronics, but they seemed twisted and warped. Harli began to sketch these patterns into her notes, filling and flipping to new pages as needed. The navigator/writer turned away as she heard metal clashing down and Perseus had barreled into the next room. She soon made her way in herself and took in the scene. There was the captain, huddled in a corner, looking like she had just seen a war's worth of terrors in mere seconds. And a weird cube on the ground. "Intriguing.." She murmured, hushed as Perseus went to recover the captain. Harli felt she would be fine. A captain fated to head the fabled sacred ship would not be kept down by some…box.

She had just finished sketching out the room when Dmitri entered from behind them and grabbed the box. "I agree with getting the captain out. Perhaps she has a had a vision of what we must do next. Alright, back out the way we came-" It was then the other two remembered the doctor was also aboard and resolved to go fetch him. "Ah, yes yes. Need the doctor." Harli laughed. At the very least she needed to record if something bad had happened to him. Perhaps this holy shuttle required a sacrifice? Nay, that shouldn't be the way of this holy pilgrimage. Harli followed the two men through the rest of the shuttle to the cockpit, continuing to sketch more and more of a map in her journal. And more and more weird symbols and signs were being passed by the group. Harli stopped for a bit to sketch one particularly twisted symbol, letting the other guys go ahead to the cockpit. Just as she was about to finish it, she heard the screeching of the door and some noise start, then quickly silenced. She trotted around the corner to where the men had opened the cockpit, seeing them hunched over, shaking like they had just ran a marathon. "Ohhhhhkay? Maybe they're out of shape?" She murmured as she the group then entered the cockpit. The doctor was hunched over a console, Harli starting to look around the stations. Well Dmitiri had cut the power for some reason, so the consoles seemed to be dark. Oh right, didn't she need to borrow the scanners of the shuttle?

Harli jumped as Perseus's plasma cutter went out of control, presumably from handling it wrong and inputting the wrong amount of power, sparks almost showering the rest of them. "By the stars, will you be careful with that!" She snapped at him, dusting her journal. "Better hope it didn't burn anything important-" Harli began to flip through her old notes, but soon stopped as she looked at them. They weren't right. Her carefully curated words of valor and beauty, of both troops and fauna, had twisted into unrecognizable gibberish that was starting to finally prey on Harli's mind. Now if Harli was the calm, sensible person of science, she probably would have said something along the lines of 'we must indeed vacate the shuttle immediately. Some sort of psionic attack is affecting us through written and pictogram language inside the wreck and spreading through recorded language. And that is what is affecting us and making us so harried.'

But Harli is not a calm, sensible person of science, so instead she said: "DEMON TONGUES! DEMONS TONGUES ARE INFESTING MY HOLY SCRIPTURE!!" The cultist shrieked, probably spooking Gabi and Perseus if they weren't already. "The demonic forces are rising up against us! They seek to corrupt and extinguish our sacred journey!" She continued to yell, eyes wide, mouth agape as she ripped the corrupted pages out of her journal, threw them against the cockpit wall, and began to blast them to smoldering smithereens with her pistol. "OUT! OUT! I cast these fork-tongued words out of the blessed texts!! CAST THESE DOWN TO THE BURNT OUT STARS OF MUSTAL!!!" She screamed as she kept ripping pages out of her journal as her writings were slowly being infected. She turned to Gabi to see the captain had managed to get on her feet, but not wanting the benevolent leader to be tangled up by these demons (more so anyway), Harli just shoved Gabi into Perseus, nearly just pushing them completely out the cut out hole. "OUT OUT OUT!! Flee!! Fly from this satanic vessel of DOOOOOOOOM!!!!"

~~~

Jlita sighed as she rode along in the shuttle down to the planet. Looks like she avoided being caught as late by the captain, especially helped that they were taking different shuttles and other hangar personnel had already loaded her exosuit. She made some small talk with the other troops, asking names, positions, whether anyone here had any actual clue what they were getting into. Jlita was laughing as one of the other soldiers likened their situation to jumping blindly into a gator swamp when she spotted another trooper in the back. It was a little hard to miss, even with his body covered in a cloak, his face was half robot and half human. She made her way over to him, smiling her usual big sister smile. "Howdy there mate. Don't think I've seen you out here before. Is this your first deployment?" She said to Xalazo.

"Recon group! Deploy!" The shuttle pilot announced.

"Oop, that's me! Just chat with me on the comms, I have them mostly private." Jlita shot Xalazo a quick salute and headed to a deployment ramp on the side of the shuttle. Her Lightwing exo suit was hanging by tethers, the back open to let her slide in. Jlita climbed in, her arms and legs sliding into the suit before the back closed on her and inner mechanisms attached and tightened the suit's limbs to hers, allowing a near perfect 1 to 1 movement. Jlita flexed her fingers and feet to make sure she got the feel before grabbing a large, augmented hoverboard and hopped onto it, the suit's feet magnetizing to the board and feeding it power. The suited up Jlita then glided away from the shuttle, the tethers breaking away as she hovered across the swampy muck before gradually gaining altitude, hovering around halfway up the height of the trees as she began her recon.


Up above, Sorrin began to fly away from the rest of the Imperial forces after seeing they had deployed safely. "No signs of the enemy yet, Captain. This planet's unique magnetic fields are interfering with most of our scans. We may have to be reliant on visual confirmation while scouting. Upside is that if we're having trouble scanning for them, the inverse must also be true." Sorrin's variable fighter began to graze the tops of trees as he sped above the marsh. He was keeping his eyes peeled for signs of unnatural disturbance. Maybe smoke? Fire? So far nothing, but there was a lot of forest to cover with just eyesight.

 

[Quake]

[01000101 01010010 01000001 01000100 00100000 01001001 00101101 00110110]

Following the Captain's orders, I-6 split off from the Command squad and soared into the sky, climbing at a rapid rate further and further before finally stopping to hover just below the stratosphere. The planet's magnetic disruption did little to assist the AI in confirmation of the heat signature, but it didn't matter. I-6 was a supercomputer installed into a top-of-the-line hunting machine. Little remained out of its reach or capability. Commander Gad had just mentioned the possibility of an explosion, which now gave the AI a proper direction for its course of action. If an explosive had gone off, then trace chemicals would surely have lingered in the air, even if most had settled back to the earth by now. Fortunately, I-6 had tracked the planet's air quality from the moment the Navy had entered the atmosphere, along with a host of other superfluous data. It's primary directive was still to protect the members of the Ophelia, and thus every possible factor had to be accounted for. Now the plan was clear. If I-6 headed in the general direction of the heat source and cross referenced the present air particles with the ones closer to the target location, I-6 could easily filter and trackdown trace chemicals to pinpoint the exact location the explosion took place. That information alone would prove more valuable and accurate than whatever jumbled mess the planet's electromagnetic waves had continued to spit out at them since their arrival.

The following minutes saw I-6 cutting back and forth through the sky, falling and rising as it scanned the air in search of irregularities. Minimal success. The JUDAS shell's sensors might have been top notch, but they were still experimental prototypes. Following one too many bizarre readings, the ERAD introduced a gap error buffer to compensate for possible sensory falses positives in its calculations. This was a small benefit of keeping the AI and shell as two separate entities; the mind could compensate for the body. The AI made a note to inform Lucre Base post-mission, if they didn't already know. Central was not without its secrets, and even I-6 didn't know everything about itself or its shell. These abounding difficulties paired with the Navy's own emissions mixing into the air delayed I-6 for a time, but the hunt was inevitable, and not long after the "scent" was caught. Scant traces of trinitrotoluene, picric, and… something else. I-6's sensors struggled to get a proper reading on whatever else was in the air, but it was clear that something had been detonated. Commander Gad was right.

Auxiliary boosters engaged, sending the ERAD down the path of the airflow back to where the particles were most dense. Upon reaching the target location, I-6 stopped, confirming by the juxtaposition of squads three and four that it was directly over the heat signature. Hiding amongst the clouds, the ERAD opened it com channels, it's digitized voice traveling across the airwaves.

"Explosion at heat source confirmed; irregular. Traces dissimilar to recorded explosives found in Naval databank. Possible black market, scrap tech or other. System is unable to determine without physical source. Lingering effects minimal; Appear to pose little threat to biological life, however caution is advised. Descending on target now."

 

[Verran]

The Dreamer​

Velshia reached out with her mind into the fabric of space and time. Seeking to feel some hint of the power that had screamed across the void. To the naked eye, nothing changed. But Velshia's mindscape told a different tale. A realm of hazy color shed off the landscape in waves. Each softly murmuring the unintelligible language of life. Each second a fleeting breath of the present that was subtly different from the last. Never to return again. Her breathing slowed and relaxed as it washed over her. Breathing in the sensations that no suit could dream to keep out. Creatures crawled in all directions, bugs it seemed. Slowly, she felt the delightful pulse of all the plants. Making a heady wash that felt thicker than a steam-bath. So much to feel that amounted to an incredible amount of interference. The father her mind stretched, the more it became and indistiguishable smear of colors. Whatever the entity was, it was now blended back into that distant environment. Regrettably, Velshia withdrew herself from the aroma of energy.

"No captain. Not a whisper. It isn't being noisy at the moment," Velshia replied with a sigh. The bland formation of natural reality flooded back in with a dull plop. In stark contrast to the serious Captain, the agent, without the stimulation of the psionic breath, became utterly bored. Certainly, she kept a finger on the pulse of psionic fluctuations. Ready to respond to anything that should suddenly make a splash. While Velshia would love nothing more than to spend more time meandering across the psionic presence of this lively planet, it wasn't wise. At best, she'd gradually become addicted to the sensation and just never experience reality the same way again. At worst, the ceaseless whispers would overwhelm her mind. Leading to her becoming some gibbering mouther who might just spew the mad sounds of life, imagine a false reality, or infest the brains of others with demented songs that drive them insane. That was just the basics. Oh, and die. She'd die and it might take her mind twenty years to realize it. Can't forget that. Unfortunate stuff, really. Flinging her four arms behind her head, Velshia gazed about and sought something interesting to do. She couldn't tease Elazar, for one thing. I-6 was bounding around, looking for clues. So she couldn't knacker at it either. Jlita was off hovering at high speeds and Sorrin was hurtling at high speeds. Not that she could really play with anyone while the Captain kept a close watch. Idly, Velshia looked over the operations network.

The ground network, for however well it would handle in this magnetic field, was up and running. Local hubs were within each unit and in all 'aircraft.' Naturally, the stealth unit wasn't broadcasting. Topographic information was being streamed in via all units. Gradually building a detailed map that sat in one corner of her HUD. Showing the position of all but the stealth troops in the field. In other words, everything was automated and functioning perfectly and all of it was boring.

 

[muffinphobia]

elAzAr : weApons mAster

Elazar was silent on the shuttle ride down, his gloved fists clenching and unclenching slowly. A few of the crew who had been present on the pub night tried to make small talk with him but quickly abandoned their efforts upon seeing his glare. He was trying very hard not to take out his anxiety on anyone in the form of venomous words, after all. The Resistance means nothing to me, he repeated in his head like a sacred mantra. Nothing would distract him from the mission at hand. Nothing.

Before long they were standing ankle-deep in the muck that seemed to cover every square inch of this damned backwater of a planet. He tried conducting a scan with the short-range sensor built into his suit to no avail. Visual scan it would be, then. Angstrom, who had been giving orders to the other squads, turned her attention to I-6 and himself then and gave the order to find the thermal signature that had been detected. He said, "Yes, captain" and typed a quick command into his suit. Two small hidden compartments on the bottom of his pack opened, revealing thrusters. A third compartment on the wrist of his suit opened as well, revealing the power dial. He allowed himself one quick glance at Velshia before taking to the sky behind I-6. He didn't go quite as high as the machine - no, instead he followed a parallel path that was more suited to his far weaker eyesight. Together, the pair headed in the general direction of the heat source in silence. Gods, why couldn't everyone he worked with be this efficient and this silent?

As they flew closer to the source, Elazar gave up trying to scan for particles in the air after the third attempt. It was positively pointless. He flew lower in a lazy, looping circle, taking his time to scan the ground below visually. No sign of life anywhere, but as he flew towards a patch of marshland he spotted it: boot prints in the muck. Nobody from the Ophelia had made it this far on foot yet, and based on the frequency and irregularity of the prints it appeared a scuffle had taken place. His eyes landed on a heap of…something…and he got just close enough to confirm that they appeared to be animal bodies of some kind. He activated his comm and gave his precise location along with what he'd discovered. "Can't say how many there are. Maybe a dozen. They ran into trouble with local wildlife."

He flew lower and spotted it at the same time I-6 called it out via the comms: evidence of the explosion. The ground had been scorched black by the heat and was still smoking slightly. A quick glance around confirmed that the immediate area was entirely abandoned, and he landed, leaving his thrusters exposed in the event he needed to make a quick escape. He approached the blackened earth slowly and knelt to the ground. Laying in front of him were the errant segments of material left by an IED. Industrial pipe, a fragment of an old laser tag vest... the traces of the explosive were painting a picture of someone who approached bomb making with a scrapheap-zeal that was nothing short of insane. He picked up a fragment of the pipe and turned it over in his hands. The Resistance insignia stared back up at him, and someone had added a crude illustration of a fox flipping the bird underneath. It felt as if someone had dropped a stone into his heart at the sight. Blaster. Elazar sighed and relayed his discovery to the team. He'd nearly turned his comm off when he noticed a gaping hole in the ground not ten feet away. He stood and walked forward on unsteady legs. He activated his flashlight, shining it down into the abyss, half-expecting a Resistance squadron to be lying in wait for him. Instead, a yawning tunnel stretched out before him. He stepped back. "They found a tunnel. Can't have been long ago."