NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.angelfire.com/psy/kaenei0/images/transport.JPG




Slowly the icy orb of Europa receeded. Her chilling winds, and murderous snow becoming nothing but a petri dish sized speck of white against the overwhelming backdrop of space. Stars twinkled all around, providing only sufficient light to illuminate its neighbour. The one constant of the void, silence, reigned.

And through this deafness, the Vi^anna made her weary, weary way homewards.

Her hulking form, mottled green and marbled metal cut through the vacuum with no fuss nor bother. Within her bulbous, massive holds, nothing of importance lurked. Indeed, where previously massive containers housing advanced scientific sensor equipment, weather relay stations, hydroponical supplies and independent fusion generators once lay, now only the tingling draft of nothing.

And onboard this non-descript, unremarkable starship, her crew continued likewise.


Kariana managed to sigh for the fourth time in as many minutes. Another brief sensor sweep set for full range and power had detected nothing of importance or interest. She took comfort in the fact that despite her relative inactivity, the shipboard computer systems were recieving the hardest workload of their artificial lives.

The Lateral array chimed once more as it completed its fifteenth scan of Europa, Jupiter and her many moons. Radiation graphs, stellar dust density and a dozen other fascinating, if rudimentary results flashed across swirling colour displays. Overhead, the clear, crisp dome of the bridge allowed light through the hull from cold outside itself. Karianna took a moment to stare out, at the solitary, unmoving stars that burned in isolation.

Raising a hand, she punched in the scan parameters for a further sweep, before duly engaging.

Her eyes fluttered breifly, though tiredness was not a mitigating factor. She took solace in the arrival of the various performance reports from engineering. Though they could easily have been filed inside the relevent datanode without ever meeting Kaeneian eyes, the young lady had little else to do.

She sighed again, as the energy efficiency of the Plasma relays did their best to entertain.



Elsewhere, others busied themselves as best a lacking schedule would allow. Conduits were cleared out with powerful fluids, panelling buffed and sheened. All menial jobs that could provide the barest of distractions were utilised.

From the Vi^anna, dutifully crawling back to Terra, whose distant blue and refreshing browns made for curious feelings of homesickness amongst a crew of average, and uninteresting civillians, the travel could not be more slowly.

Bright blue orbs flickered as the massive and lumbering engines of the transport burned brightly. Summoning all the knowledge and expertise of a space faring civillisation to propel its bulky, cumbersome frame forward. Almost without a purpose was this workhorse, its cargo delivered and hence no longer of the minimal importance it was assigned a day ago. No, instead its fate was consigned to boredom and fleeting entertainment until such time as she returned, and gifted with more precious supplies and goods, could claw back the feeling of self importance so desperatley currently missing.

Within cavernous meeting halls, a few hardy souls braved the early hour to consume, or simply refresh themselves in the companies of others. Despite the dimming of the shipboard lighting, the perpetual darkness only ever a few short steps from their location, and suffocating in its deadliness, outside the hull bore heavily on the minds of the crew. Night was forever whilst walking the decks of a starship.

[OOC: I just posted this as I'm pretty bored, and no posting make Kaenei go crazy :/]

It was time...

Long ago had Angelic Skies stopped loving his "bretheren" the Kaenians. Long ago had that tender affection for Mother's most precious children turned to dust, a dry taste in a mouth filled with bile.

And now, a simlistic opportunity to get back at them. A chance to crack that smooth veneer of altruistic loyalty and happiness. They would pay for surplanting his position as Mother's favorite... They would pay dearly.

---

In the silence between planets, a sudden ripple chases away the tedium. A moment later, and all of the sensors on the Kaenian transport vessel started going haywire as a massive craft slides into view. Easily identifiable, the Raptor (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/raptor.html) closed in on the unsuspecting Kaenian vessel.

Angelic Skies laughed with bitterness, his own essense held for a time within the hulking body of a Guardian battledrone. He shifted his shoulders slightly, granting him an extended view of the highly trained killing squad surrounding him. Two of the Fallen Razorbacks growled menacingly at his feet, while one of the towering Whiplashes also paid servitude to his own massive form. These twisted creatures serving as his central core during this operation, were attended by a full squad of Groundforce Elite, their spiked armor gleeming dully in the dim red glow of the ready lights. 25 deadly killing machines, each one enfused with a bit of his own essence.

It would be slow, this killing... Slow and tortureous.

With a laugh, he sent his Raptor forward, its communications array responding to the Kaenian's friendly attempts at hailing them with cold and complete silence.

And then, when they were well within weapon's range, they opened fire.

[tag]

[OOC: :shock: A reply will be er, forthcoming...]

(tag-o-rific!)

Kariana bolted upright as the proximity sensors triggered. They were scarely able to deliver their shrill warning before a scream befitting more of a mythical Banshee than a starship. A tearing, wrenching sound that seemed to only increase in volume until the entire bridge shook with the forced impact.

The young women threw herself forwards, latching on to the helm console. Her hands flew across the interface, desperately recalling her training, and mental discipline.

Before she could even tap another icon, the console flickered and died, assorted yellows and greens fading to cold, lifeless black as the lighting that bathed her comfortably flickered, before joining the console in electronic oblivion.

The Vi^anna reeled as another bolt of hate, fury and power drove into her hull. Molecular bonds were broken at their respective levels, atoms pulled apart and materials rendered nothing. Great clouds of precious, precious oxygen lost to the void without mercy. And amongst the distant stars, not a single friendly face would show for those who were now surely doomed.

Through narrow corridors, great plates dropped from the walls and ceilings. Shaken and blown loose, energy conduits blew their internal 'organs' over the floor like so much detrius. And between the chaos of destruction, the basic panic running rife, did the shadows of the crew reflect. Waving arms, screams and voices that were unable to rise above the din of impact, and tortured, screeching metal.

A young man, his forehead pockmarked with a laceration that wept crimson over his features. Red and slick, he blindly wiped the blood from his eyes, stumbling over tubing and supports, falling hard to the deck with a pained gasp. Once more did he push a reddened, soaked rag to his face, pushing to his feet, unsteady and unsure. He through his hands out, almost grateful as the serrated, grimy surface of the corridor wall pushed back. Slowly placing his forehead against the cool metal, he gritted his teeth.


The Raptor circled now, her prey mortally wounded. From the engines, great plumes of coolant bled off into the cold, much needed for a thirsty, parched reactor system that now found itself under a glaring sun, with no hope of relief. The massive Angelic starship closed in, her point energy cannons took only a second, a barest flash, and a hellacious bolt of power. The stinging, vicious drive flew across space and the immaterium. She met no resistance, no molecular reinforcement fields, no shielding privvy to military or private starships. Instead the first material encountered and laughably overcome, the Vi^anna's hull was rent open.

The young man who only a second earlier had found arguable respite, held his hands up in start shock. The wall before him lost its cold, sterile feel. Heat seemed to permeate, suffusing a wam, pleasent glow. Unfortunatley, his reactions were not capable of faster-than-light process. As the entire section turned to burning, painful white light, he tried to scream.

The energies unleashed boiled off his exposed skin. Sloughing off the semi-liquified flesh to such a degree it had vapourised by the time it came to hit the non-existant deck flooring. His hands raised, though he was already burned and crippled beyond recognition, though only the barest second had passed since the detonation. He was dimly aware of total blindness, his retina scalded beyond feasible use. As his dermis now began to burn, he felt the agony deep within his bones.

His hand clawed at the remains of his chest. A seeping, runny liquid dripping down his trembling hands. A shuddering, stolen breath, and he slumped back, his soul extinguished, and his presence on this mortal coil cut tragically short.

On the remains of the bridge, Kariana tembled. A thick smoke permeated the air, burning her lungs with every choked breath. She climbed to her feet, but found it impossible to stand fully. Great roofing supports were laying diagnoally across the room as if picked up by some almighty support and tossed aside for amusement. Shattered consoles lay dead across the floor. Their lost functions no longer remembered by the panicked Kaeneian.

A glance towards the starboard wall confirmed her worst fear. The exitway was no longer clear. Instead the roof mounted panelling hiding conduits and enviromental controls had given way, piling mountains of metal and organic plastic in front. From inside the shaft, the original platform had fallen from its stationary perch, and impacted with another, destroying both middeck and wiping out any who strayed close by.




The Raptor closed to a distance that would surely have damaged it itself had shields of considerable power not protected so. So close her perched, outswept wings were almost able to snatch the Vi^anna, and twist her near broken neck, finishing the craft off.

Of help, none could say. For it was certain no organic member of the transport could have reacted with time to transmit a distress signal. Indeed, only the shipboard Electronic Intelligence may have had the durability, but of that, now smashed and burned offline, none could say.


And from his perch, Angelic Skies would undoubedtly approve.

tag

ooc: posting as ANGELIC SKIES, 'cause I cannot log in as AngelSky on my dumbass computer.

IC:

He does approve, and decides that now would be perfect. With a silent command, the group moves foward as the doors slide open into empty space. Five disks shoot out from the side of the doorway, magnetically sealing themselves to the Vi'anna's hull, each connected to the Raptor by iron cables.

Another silent command, and Angelic Skies clamps his hand around the cable and shoves, the force sending hin hurtling at the hull, his horde following closely afterwards. He clamps down next to the thick glass viewplate leading into the bridge, and he would have grinned into it, if the ability had been given.

Regardless, he clomps across the hull to the external airlock, his internal communications array already overriding the weakening integral AI, causing the doors to slide open as he approaches. He steps inside, his machina following closely behind as the door shuts and internal pressure changes to match that of the rest of the ship.

A few commands are given, and the Groundforce Elite spread out through the ship, searching for survivors. Angelic Skies and the three Fallen move out towards the Bridge, the twin Razorbacks growling in annoyance at not being allowed to play.

He smiles to himself as the Whiplash rips apart the blocking debris, and he strides into the ruined bridge of the Vi'anna as a conquering master. He looks around, revelling in the carnage he had wrought, the terrible price this ship has had to pay for his own pathetic revenge.

His sensors alight on Kariana, and if his avatar had a mouth, he would have smiled victoriously down upon her. Hello, Captain...

Kariana opened her mouth. To shout, to insult, to utter a final whispered prayer to whatever gods still looked upon her, but no sound was forthcoming. Her vocal cords were frozen by the utterly horrifiying creature that presented itself to her. Standing taller than a man, with cruel plates of buffed, shining metal, and cruel, barbed hooks keen to rip the organics that befouled it apart with practised ease.

Around her, the Vi^anna shook violently. The deck flooring reverating with the collapse of another section, another deck lost to the cold and harsh vacuum of space. Deep below her, alone and unwatched the Reaction assembly choked and gasped desperately for the coolant needed to fend off a breach. Within the dark and uninhabitable Engineering bays, temperature monitors warbled urgently, but there was no one left to heed their warnings.

Across monitoring stations, and check points drive plasma rocketed in temperature, the violent clouds contained within the power transfer conduits thrashing their displeasure, all the time unwatched and uncontrollable. From corridors ending in darkness, and spluttering transport shafts, most unnatural sounds echoed. Certainly not human in their barely registered shrills, and best not guessed at for the horror they would bring.

for Kariana, her options were as sadly limited as her remaining time alive. No doubt she was one of the few surviving Kaeneians aboard, the remainder lurching from the darkness, stumbling only to be savagely cut down as they sought the false hope of an escape raft, or other salvation. She could already feel the deep rumblingas the matter/anti-matter injectors began to overrun their mixture ratios. A core breach was imminent, providing she remained alive to experience the terminal event.

She managed to push herself back a few pathetic feet, a small space opening between this abomination of a creation and her own fragile self. Her hand slipped against shredded console and support, cutting her skin open across the palm. The cut was deep, and significant, yet compared to the psychological terror being unleashed against her sanity, it was the barest pinprick.


Lein stumbled, falling to the floor as his own eagerness overcame his actual ability. Forcing himself back upright, he leant against the hatchway ahead, his breaths coming in short, ragged throes. He raised his head slightly, his vision blocked by the thickened blast door that barred his progress further and hindered him. Sighing, he tugged at the manual override covering, wrenching it off with a short, one sided struggle. His slickened, bloodied hands worked the circutry quickly, with a desperation only a few living creatures could understand. Seconds passed, before the great door finally receeded a few short feet, allowing the short male to squeeze through and onwards.

Lein stopped as he entered the primary Engineering cradle. Dominating his view, the engine core itself stood. Running near the entire height of the ship, from the Deuterium tanks, straight down to the reaction chamber he stood aside, and downards still to the murky depths of the Antimatter containment pods. Sorrounding, banks and banks of consoles and access controls. A myriad of diagnostic tools and injector controls, whose brilliant, flashing illuminations should present a far brighter picture.

But those consoles were all but dead, their pitted and cracked surfaces as black as the space the stars occupied outside, and useless to him.

The entire chamber, as massive as it was, physically vibrated. The magnetic constriction segments of the core, normally a steady, downward column of red, now moved so quickly as to almost blur into a crimson mess. Lein felt the cold, shivering sheen of sweat break across his forehead and back, as he gazed on the imminent signs of a total containment failure.

A loud crack resonated through the section as an arc of white lightning arched from the reaction chamber. Two, three four joined, a dance of pyrotechnical light indicating the cascading powers corruscating within. Lein crossed to the sole functioning status panel. Its normally green tones replaced by an angry, flickering red. His blood encrusted fingers flew over the icons with practised ease, but his fortune was not nearby, as the full situation dawned on him.

Lein look up at the core in time to be the sole inviation to another display of the massive powers being put to work. A great pall of White energy threw itself barely two metres to his right, burrowing and searing a display monitor a black, earthy pallour. It fell from the wall, electrified beyond use. The slender Kaeneian eased away from the unit, his eyes never leaving the reaction chamber. He turned only to confirm his exit when he felt an excruciating wave stab his shoulder. He threw his arms back, crying out more in suprise than pain. He stumbled forwards, his left arm reaching round to the top of his back. Bringing it back round, his eyes widened at the thick, red river that ran from his fingertips.

Lein fell to his knees, the realisation of what had impacted him apparent. His vision began to shimmer, unable to focus, he looked upwards, into the shaft the travelled the very height of the starship, into darkness.

A darkness that welcomed him from the murderous creatures that stalked the very corridors.

Angelic Skies reveled in the killings. Brutal and efficient, the GF Battledrone Elite moved through the ship with deadly force, not simply murdering the hapless crew, but cutting and destroying with ruthless abandon. Many were left to simply die of their wounds, massive trauma that no mere mortal could ever withstand.

Angelic Skies walked among the damned, his anger revealing itself in the blades of his battledrones. Each kill was more satisfying than anything he had ever known, and as his bodies dripped in gore, he exalted.

He focused once more upon his main avatar, as the Guardian Unit grasped a poor technician by the skull. He almost grinned in satisfaction as his great iron hand slowly began to squeeze, and the crewman's shrill screams began to reverberate through the darkness. Slowly, his vicelike grip tightened, and the man's head crushed with a sickening pop, bone fragments and oozing brain matter spilling across his hand like a cleansing salve.

This is what he was meant for... and he loved every minute of it...

Within the hour, everyone on board the Vi'anna was dead or dying, and Angelic Skies rallied himself at the airlock. He fairly glowed in exaltation as he punched through the airlock doors, piercing the protective shell of the transport once more. Precious air escaped with a hiss into the deadly vacuum of space, the final death peal for the ruined ship.

He checked his memories with a satisfied nod, the work in the AM/M reaction chamber completed to his specifications... Like the Reploid Busu, this ship would never be repaired. With inhuman laughter, he gathered his drones to him, and returned to the Raptor.

The ship vanished as it made the Jump towards Discordia, and the Vi'anna exploded in an inferno of antimatter/matter rage.

The four Khandriayata class warships flew together tightly, in a formation more befitting a bunch of pretty terran flowers than a viable military formation. Tightly packed, yet with a safe margin of error between hulls, these Kaeneian vessels were on a course of action that would bring about both great sadness, and a deserved retribution long deserved and coming.

Within the command centre of the Ir^shimiar, a lone figure rose from the command throne. Gaunt and tall, his skin was a pale, unpleasent hue of gray. Such was the reward for spending near two thirds of his life within the cold depths of the void, far from the cooling breeze and warming sun of Earth, and indeed any planet. His body regulated not by Circadian rhythm, but by the onboard electronic intelligence and his duty shifts as they came, and passed.

A shrill beeping, droning and thought-breaking, shrieked.

"We are detecting a large concentration of residual anti-protons, and deuterium residue, twenty one kilometres to starboard, and a considerable amount of titanium elements, charged with what appears to be weapons fire."

Dhurias nodded, acknowledging the helm controller, and sinking down into the throne. His fingers steepled, his voice rising from its gruff harshness.

"statistic analysis."


Several seconds passed, with only the thrum of the mighty warp reactor many decks below reverating through the silence that engulfed consequently.

"The metallic remains, taking into account the residual radiation and the amount of antimatter remaining, is consistant with the structual dimensions and engine systems of the Vi^anna."

And now the time for deep seated thinking was over, of carefully thought out consequence and neutrality cast aside. For all their calmness, and hesitation to use force, for all their gentle feeling, and loyalty, Kaeneians could be pushed only so far, only so much. For in front of them, confirmed through the medium of technology, a great attrocity had been committed, and allowed to endure.

"Energise phase cannons. Load all forward and aft plasma torpedoes, and prepare all stations for battle engagement."

The bridge, previously bathed in green, almost luminious swirls of tube contained liquid, dulled. atop the centre a great dome began to slowly flash, a crimson red indicating her readiness to carry out her designed function. Throghout the ship, great blast doors many times thick slammed downards, each section isolating itself from its neighbours, a fortress each and ever one amongst a storming ocean. An audible thrum resonated loudly as the devestating nature of antimatter was harnessed further, the warp reaction increasing exponentially to supply even more raw energy to feed the Kaeneian war machine.

Dhurias exhaled slowly, his training and mental discipline allowed him to bypass what little hesitation remained in the recesses of his mind. Leaning back, allowing his body to relax, yet not to lose its rigidity, he spoke-

"sweep the immediate vicinity. Locate the Raptor, and lay in a pursuit course, make all speed."



The Khandriayata fleet pulled apart, all four starships putting some distance between themselves and their companions, before accelerating sharply, their mass being negated by the sophisticated gravimetric technology only Kaenei could quite master and evolve.

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/terrorfex/images/fleet.JPG


Silence reigned in a place that could not even supply that most basic fundemental of life- oxygen. Amongst these stars that burned and twinkled, the occasional orb of blue and green that might very well be home to one race amongst billions, little developed or occured. The timescale of change millions of years, and not a few sparse seconds. However, now did an occurence without such massive expenditure of time take place, and few were around or watching to take note.

The four ships came to an abrupt stop barely a thousand metres from the Raptor. No doubt remained that by now they had been detected, and a reply would be formulated in almost instantaneous fashion. But the Kaeneian starships did not pause or wait for this, simply they sprang into action.

Great flashes of deep purple pockmarked the hulls of the starships as they unleashed photofluerescent death. Launchers spat dozens of torpedoes, their bright trails twisting against the inky blackness of space, with only one target in mind. Distances closed as the four vessels dispersed, each moving in sharply on an opposing angle, seeking to deliver crippling damage within a blink of an eye.

The Raptor disappeared momentarily as a bright flash blinded sensors and all. The shield bubble faded for only a few more seconds before it visibly burned once more, thrashing as it soaked the enormous destructive energy of the plasma warheads.

They did not rest. Massive arcs of fire-like orange followed in an unforgiving arc. Phase cannons extended their golden reach, impacting once more against the shield bubble ahead with cruel and heady power. Twisting through the airless vacuum, the Ir^shimiar lead the line. Her marbled exterior would shortly be forced to endure considerable agony, as the Raptor would unleash its fury in counterance.

But for now, the Kaeneians forced their play. Massive expenditures being ignored, and technological strains not a concern, as they sought to revenge the fallings.


Deep within the safety of the hull, Overseer Dhurias grimly observed.

"Target all offensive weaponry on the dorsal shield quadrant. Once we have broken through their deflector shield, target all fire on their warp engines."