jdawgg
05-22-2012, 06:17 AM
Subspace Border to Inner Core (home of the ancients)
Herald Nebula
The Excalibur and Titantank came from slipspace near the border to the Inner Core. What was before them was a debris field surrounding a massive battle between the Subspace Empire and several massive vessels. An unusual black Drannik vessel, a Tatherian Galaxy Destroyer, and a Dark Smugglers' Flagship were focusing their attacks on the Subspace leadership. Several vessels were already gone, but there were still three in the fight. Most of the smaller Subspace vessels were still in retreat. The civilian ships were being guarded by the Subspace veterans. The might of Subspace was busy fighting off the three attackers.
Blakespon looked in horror at the scene. Tankface opened a comm, "If we don't do something their as good as dead."
The Titantank rushed into the warzone. The Excalibur followed. The Null Rays went online and fired at the Tatherian Galaxy Destroyer, the insignia on the ship simply read 'Hell'. The ship turned it's attention to The Excalibur and opened fire with its thetacrons. The Excalibur veered away from the beams just narrowly. The TitanTank fired a multitude of special weapons at it, including a krionite torpedo, which took down the shields. The Excalibur opened fire at the thetacrons, destroying two. However the remaining thetacrons got a lock on The Excalibur and opened fire. The beams tore apart the shields and began damaging the hull. The Excalibur went into a dive beneath the vessel and launched a swarm af repair nanodrones and nanites to repair and strengthed the hull. The shields flickered to life again as a restorer was used on it.
Off in the distance Blakespon spotted another of the Subspace leadership vessels get sheared in half. The Drannik vessel turned its attention to the remaining two vessels. The Dark Smuggler's flagship opened fire on The Excalibur.
Tankface commed in, "Dammit! My ship can't take anymore hits! We need to get out of here."
The Excalibur's shipboard AI flickered to life on the terminal, "I'm picking up a massive Kongul vessel approaching the area, and a massive amount of unknown signitures heading directly at the rest of the Subspace fleet."
Blakespon looked at the fleet and noticed the nebula getting increasingly green. Then he spotted white spheres coming out of the nebula and pepper the Subspace fleet. Hundreds of ships were turned to dust instantly. The Kongul vessel from the other side of the nebula went right over The Excalibur, past the Dark Smugglers' flagship, straight towards the Tatherian vessel, Hell.
Hades, in a fit of rage, yelled out the name of his nemesis, "Bluecifer!" As if Bluecifer heard it, the ship turned and focused its attention on Firestarter. Thetacron beams crossed eachother as they hit the shields of Firestarter. The Firestarter responded with it's Inferno Null Rays. They set the ship aflame and several sections of Hell exploded. The ship's shields were restored and the ship turned away from the battle and began heading towards the Inner Core.
"You will not escape me Bluecifer!" yelled Hades, and Firestarter followed.
With the Tatherian and Kongul vessels gone, The Excalibur and Titantank focused on the Dark Smuggler's flagship. The vessel turned towards Surfer Territory and went into slipspace. That left the Drannik vessel, which had just destroyed another Subspace leadership vessel, leaving only one left. It began it's bombardment on the vessel, tearing it apart. Multiple escape pods could be seen leaving the vessel, and Titantank and The Excalibur went in with the message, "All pods, get to our ships now!"
They picked up as many escape pods as they could, then the Subspace vessel exploded, taking three-quarters of the remaining pods with it. The Excalibur collected the rest of the pods. The Drannik vessel, began firing at Titancore.
"Tank, follow the rest of the Subspace fleet to the Inner Core, we have to make sure they don't lose anyone else!"
"Agreed, you first."
The Excalibur rushed through first, then Titantank. They witnessed a hailstorm of white spheres completely dust the ships. The two ships dodged and weaved through the bombardment, and the other vessels began following their lead and rush full speed to the border. Soon the entire fleet was going at full speed to the border. Blakespon looked at the rear camera and saw the ships sending the white spheres. They were of many different classes, but they all had one thing in common, they had the same look as the Drannik ship.
Unknown area
Commonwealth's vessel - Shield of the Surfer
The only signs of life Xzien found on this ship were a bunch of mutilated dead bodies and stuff that looked like cocoons. With the map that Tali gave him he was having an easier time through the ship. His first priority was finding Commonwealth before whoever else was onboard found him first. Xzien checked the map again, he was close to the bridge.
There was a noise behind him, Xzien turned around and aimed his rifle. His night vision revealed nothing, so he switched to thermal. There were several heat signitures hiding in the intersecting hallway. This is the fourth time this has happened. He knows he's being followed, thats why he constantly has his rifle up and his shields at maximum. He found the corridor to the bridge. There was scarring on the wall from an explosion and blood spatter. Xzien examined the blood. Strange, it was silver, and appeared to his some sort of... sediment in it.
He looked at the ripped apart bridge doors, they were riddiled with bullet holes and blood. Xzien leaped into the bridge, rolled, and did a quick sweep of the room. All he found were a bunch of bodies, except these were more... reptilian. He examined one of them. It was green, scaly, and looked roughly like a sillixx. Xzien was baffled. He examined another. This one had fur on it, upon examination of the face, Xzien determined that it was originally human. There was blue scarring on the wall. Xzien collected some and analyzed it on his portable scanner. It was definately inergon blood. There was no body because upon death, inergon dissipate into the air. He examined one more, this one was red, so XXzien extrapolated that it was a Kongul.
So the whole crew became these monsters? How did it happen? Xzien heard a groan from the far side of the bridge. He turned and readied his rifle, but upon seeing the source of the noise, he lowered his rifle.
"Commonwealth!"
Xzien rushed over, "Common, it's Xzien. Thank God your alive."
Commonwealth slowly lifted his head, his eyes looked like they were degenerating and turning red, "I told you... not to come here..."
"I didn't abandon you when you were exiled, I'm not about to abandon you now. Let's get you out of here."
"NO! It's to late for me." He motioned to his arm, which had been viciously biten, "It's only a matter of... time until I become one... of them."
Xzien looked down, trying to wrap his head around this, "Why did you want me here in the first place? You said I was the only one who could handle it, yet there are plenty of other people in Delta Surfers who are better."
"None of them... can withstand... the radiation... of an exposed... supernova generator."
"What do you mean?"
Commonwealth gave out a pained laugh, "You're an inergon, inergon can... absorb energy, and you're the only inergon I... trust to handle this."
Xzien became frustrated, "Dammit Common, just spit it out already! Why am I here?"
"I want you... to destroy... this ship. But first..." he pulled out a fusion drive, "Bring this to the lab... two decks below, on the terminal... nearest the cage... the password is... solution. Download everything on it... then go to the core. Overload the terminal... the core will do the rest."
"I'm not leaving you here."
"You don't have a choice..."
A voice came from behind, "You're right, and he won't leave either."
Xzien looked at the person behind him. He wore a hulking armor and had two freakish looking machetes. The blue glow that could only belong to an inergon could be seen through the visor plate.
Commonwealth raised his bloodied shotgun, "Hello Legionaire..."
Xzien raised his rifle, "Why are you here. Shouldn't you be out hunting Joshkava."
Legionaire chuckled, "Joshkava's dead, I was given a new target."
"And who would that be?"
"You."
Legionaire charged at Xzien and raised his machetes. Commonwealth fired his shotgun, knocking down Legionaire. He then kicked him in the face, knocking him out. He looked at Xzien, "Go! I'll keep him here as long as I can."
Xzien nodded, "Good luck."
Then he ran towards the door. Two decks below. Where were the stairs? Xzien brought up the map and followed a route to the nearest stairwell. A thought just occured to him. If Legionaire is here, where is his ship. He opened a comm to The Defiant, "Go to full alert, Legionaire's ship-"
"Legionaire's ship is already on us!"
Xzien heard a growl from behind, this time he didn't wait, he turned around and fired. He heard the pained scream as he hit something. The muzzle flash showed one of the creatures get pushed back and fall over dead. Xzien reloaded and continued to the lab. He ran down two flights of stairs and entered the corridor. Along the way he spotted an armory. Xzien made the detour and found one of the shotguns missing. He grabbed two of them and placed them on the table. He brought out his sword and chopped off the ends. He returned the sword to his back, grabbed his newly made pistols and kept running. Several of the creatures came from behind the bulkhead of a hallway and pounced on Xzien. He fired one of the pistols at a creature, taking off it's head. His other pistol fired at the torso of another. He projected his shields towards the creature pinning him, sending it at the ceiling. He got up and kept running to the lab.
Finally, he made it. There was still some power to the lab, so Xzien smashed the door controls, sealing the door. Xzien went to the terminal closest to the cell and inserted the fusion drive. The terminal hummed to lfe and Xzien entered the password. Information flooded the screen of the terminal. After several seconds the terminal went blank. Xzien removed the fusion drive and brought up the map to locate the cores. What he really wanted to do is go back and help Commonwealth.
Commonwealth kept his shotgun pointed at Legionaire's head, waiting for him to regain consciousness. When Legionaire did, he reacted faster and grabbed the shotgun, tore it from Commonwealth's hands, and smashed his face with the butt of it. With Commonwealth out of the way, Legionaire was now hunting Xzien. He knew where he would go. He would get there last, and trap Xzien inside.
Corath - Surfer Territory
Capital City - Gorum
The capital city was a mess. Most of the buildings had severe structural damage. Some of the highest skyscrapers had collapsed onto other buildings. Battle could be heard off in the distance, but this area was quiet.
The speeders were abandoned a few blocks back because they were drawing the attention of Flamehawks. So now they were on foot heading to the temple.
Twiri couldn't help but wonder why the Crimson Blades found this planet so damn interesting to invade it. They certainly weren't here to colonize, otherwise there wouldn't be this much destruction. He wondered if it was too late to ask the Delta Surfers leadership for help.
"Look out, snipers." said Howesy as he took cover. The others took cover as well. Thunderbolta took out his sniper rifle and poked it through a hole in a wrecked car. "Two of them, I won't be able to take them both out fast enough without one of them sounding the alarm."
Twiri took out his rifle, "I'll take the one on the left."
They both lined up their targets.
"In 3... 2... 1... fire!"
They both fired and hit their targets. They collapsed.
"Clear." said Thunderbolta. The four continued towards the temple, sticking to the shadows. As they approached an intersection a tank went by in reverse, firing at something. Another tank followed in full speed. Some soldiers appeared too, running away from something.
Strmavenger yelled to one, "Hey! What's goin' on back there?"
A tank suddenly flew past them in flames and exploded against a building.
The soldier yelled back, "What's going on back there is we're getting our asses kicked! I suggest you do what we're doing!"
Howesy risked a peek at the source of this chaos. What he saw was a massive machine with four legs. It looked like some sort of tank walker, except ten times as big. It had a massive graviton shearer on its' front. It fired a blast at one of the tanks, the blast imploded the tank and sent it flying away. In it's place was a large crater.
Twiri, upon seeing this, said, "And I thought the potholes before were a problem."
The machine turned it's attention to the four and it's weapon began charging.
Strmavenger started backing away, "Run or shoot?"
Twiri and Thunderbolta began backing away too, "Run or shoot?!"
Finally Howesy yelled, "Run!"
The blast narrowly missed the four and shattered the corner of the building. It turned the corner, smashing through what was left of the building and fired again. The blast sent Thunderbolta flying. Luckily, he was able to grab hold of a window still.
The other three continued running. Another blast threw Howesy and Strmavenger against some nearby cars. Twiri looked back and saw Howesy pinned under a steel beam.
"Strm! Help me get this off him!"
Strmavenger shook off the hit and rushed over to Howesy and Twiri. The machine was going to step on them if they didn't hurry. He and Twiri grabbed the beam and lifted it off. Strm let off a powerful roar as he lifted the heavy beam. Howesy quickly rolled out of the way and started running, "Thanks, now let's go!"
They kept running, dodging blast after blast. Finally, Twiri spotted a subway tunnel, "There! Head for there!"
They ran for the tunnel. Strmavenger got there first and dived in, followed by Howesy, who stumbled in, then Twiri, who flew in after a shockwave from a nearby blast hurled him in. The tunnel collapsed, sealing them in.
Strmavenger looked around, he noticed Thunderbolta was missing, "Well, fu-" Another blast cut him off.
Thunderbolta watched from the window still he was hanging on as the machine chased off the others. His grip was slipping. He kept trying to will himself to stay on, "Nonononononono." He slipped and fell three stories onto a random railing. He quickly grabbed on. He pulled himself up and looked for a way out of this situation. He looked behind him, the glass looked pretty unstable. He carefully grabbed his pistol and fired a round at the glass, shattering it. He then began swinging the railing. When he felt he had covered enough distance, he lept from the railing and barely grabbed hold of the building. He climbed through the shattered window with a few cuts from the glass.
Now it was just a matter of finding his way to the temple. He hoped that the others would continue that way.
Corath orbit
Krog's vessel exited slipspace. Krog was sweating buckets. He shook his head and reopened the comm, "So I assume this plan of yours involves saving my ass from the guys I just abandoned back there?"
Gorgos responded, "Yeah, I've called in some favors... guess the rumors were true about the whole 'shrubbery' obsession."
"Ni? You involved The Knights Who Say Ni?? You've got to be joking..."
"Not all of them! Just a few. Enough for the plan to work. If it does, that artifact the Crimson Blades discovered will grant us trillions!"
"As long as the rest of the Dark Smugglers' Guild doesn't catch on..."
"Even if they do, I've pulled some strings with The Stryll Order."
"Gorgos, have you been drinking Kongul Ale?? The bloody Stryll Order? You have heard of The Graxis II have you?"
"Yeah of course I have. Why do you think they will send it if the Guild starts getting curious?"
Krog sighed, "You're gonna start a friggin war at this rate..."
Gorgos laughed, "Haven't you heard? The galaxy has already gone to hell!"