NationStates Jolt Archive

(ooc: First off, a situation update. 'Cause I'm entirely too lazy to finish my threads, even though I know what I want to do with them, I'll just make a big ol' summary of where they'll go if I can ever be arsed to finish 'em. Yay! Right now, this is a continuation of the story laid out in "Four Deaths of Kestrel Amea" and "IPE Discovers a New System." Que the scrolling text.)

The Empress of Indiastan, Kestrel Amea, has now been married to the President-turned-Emperor, Esana Hiren, for three years now. Shortly after their wedding, Kestrel became pregnant with their first son, Anjasa Jana Hiren. This is Kestrel's second child; the first being her estranged daughter, Naomi.

Now, Kestrel isn't like many other Empresses. Firstly, she was briefly the Matriarch of the Navis Nobilte, a telepath school in the north of Indiastan, being an alumni of the school herself. She didn't hold the position for long, being forced to give it up when she became Empress. That said, the Navis leaders all maintain contact and remain friends of hers.

Secondly, during a confrontation with the ex-Navis head, Anika Rast, Kestrel had the misfortune of standing too close to a concussion grenade, the results of which left her deaf. Technology being at the level it was, treatment was available, but she refused and learned sign language instead.

Thirdly, Kestrel has more then a few skeletons in her closet - in fact, she has a Vorlon. During her brief visit to Vorlon Prime, Kes entered into their service, and brought one of their number back to Earth. Alkesh, who is also 'carried' by Kestrel, resides in a small chamber in the Indiastani Palace in Delhi, available only to the Empress herself.

Kestrel also has a sister, whom she adopted when she lived in GMC. Adrianna is current the Indiastani ambassador to the NDA, and she does not enter into this story. But still, her existance is yet more proof that Kestrel leads a rather strange life.

As it stands, Indiastan is not a wholly free land. The Shadows, ancient aliens of darkness and chaos, secretly hold sway over the government, through their agents and collaborators. Kes, however, works for the Vorlons - equally ancient aliens of light and order, and the arch-enemy of the Shadows. But she now holds the reins of power - and plans on setting the cuontry right...

Er, there. Summary done. Stay tuned - the good stuff'll be coming up next... whenever that might be... :p ~Indy

[taggishness of doom]

The tag is a three edged sword...

She woke to the conflicting sounds of complaining and chirping. From outside, she heard a pair of birds making more noise then she'd thought possible for their size, sitting on a branch a few feet away from one of the bedroom windows. And from the foot of her bed, she heard the sounds of Anjasa complaining for his mom to get him some cereal. When she looked over at the clock on the nightstand, she was suprised to see it was nearly ten - the fact accented all the more by the sunslight slanting in through the tall windows. Rubbing her eyes, she crawled out of bed and pulled on her robe, and went to get Anjy somethink to eat.

Once she got her son settled, she picked up the half-full coffee pot and wandered down the hall of the small country house to the study, in which her husband had pretty much barricaded himself since dawn. Being Emperor was hard work, and being on vacation didn't really allow much oppertunity to get away from it. She stood in the doorway, watching him sitting slightly hunched over at his desk, the glare from the computer screen and the bright desk lamp highlighting his features almost comicly. She stood there for a moment, just staring at him. She could feel the strange... influence... that seemed to burden him. He told her was that was. The Shadows and their minions held sway over him. But that would soon change. All the preperations had been made, with the utmost secrecy, of course. She was quite proud of herself, actually. She had coordinated not only with several Army commanders in Indiastan, but also fleet captains on ships at both Mars and Uranus. She even managed to contact the rather legendary Black Omega squadron, and had roped them (ironicly enough) in for her secret mission. Obviously she had withheld most of the information on what the military elements under her control would be doing, but she had moved the pieces into place. Kes smiled. Once they were back in Delhi, she'd tell Esana, and he's tell her to go ahead. Then, there was no going back.

Their vacation had ended a few days ago. Now, they were in the situation room of the palace, reviewing some troop status reports. At present, it was just Esana, Kestrel, and the Minister of Defence, Aaric Clerebold.

"Everything looks more or less in order, Aaric,"said Esana, albeit with a slightly troubled look on his face. "But what are we going to do about he falling recruitment rate?"

"We're still working on that, Esana." No one got to call the Emperor by his first name, unless he was trusted explicitly and a close friend. Aaric, through years of loyal service, was one of those men.

'I don't think it's much of an issue," Kes said off-handedly. "The army hardly sees use as it is. And once we've executed Songbird, there'll be less outside pressure reagarding defence."

Aaric shifted uneasily. He was the only other one, besides the two monarchs, who knew all of what Operation Songbird entailed. Simultanious nuclear barrages against the base inside the UI Mars Colony, and Uranus's moon Ophelia, which was mostly hollwed out for their use. And on land the network of tunnels and warrens beneith Delhi itslef, home to the abomidable Drakh emmissaries, would be stormed by no less then five DCE-Kasrkin kill teams, all lead by a pair of P6 or higher ex-Ghosts who would be running telepathic interference. To insure operational security, no extra alertness on the part of the Fleet or Army was ordered. Most of the Fleet was out on their normal daily routine, oblivious to what was about to happen.

"Yes Kestrel, once Songbird has been completed, and their influence is gone, we can begin to scale back the armed services to match the recruitment rate." Clerebold stated his agreement. "Everything has been arranged. Songbird commences tonight at midnight. We don't expect anything in the way of retaliation here, but for your saftey I've arranged to have you moved to the Bunker at 11:30. That way you'll also be in the C&C to monitor the battle."

"Good work, Aaric," said Esana warmly. "Yes, the precaution is probably a wise decision. Good thinking."

---

It was five minutes to midnight. In Delhi, manhole coveres were pried open at several locations as the heavy power armoured Kasrkin got into position in the tunnels, setting up tube charges to blast their way intot eh secret tunnels. Over Mars, the twenty-warship mixed taskforce in geosync orbit over the UIMC, including seven Warlock-class, turned to face the colony. As their targeting scanners aligned, their missile tubes opened and armed with MkV 'Earth Piercing' fifteen megaton fusion bombs. And near Uranus, twelve rather sinister looking ships black ships, the somewhat infamous Black Omega squadron, drifted towards a small outer moon with weapons at the ready, preparing to unleash a lethal barrage at the lonely looking rock. It was time.

"Sync up, One, Two, Three. Songbird One, Two, Three, this is Command. The word is Anvil, repeat, the word is Anvil. Good luck, and godspeed."

Alkesh continued to be well pleased with the progress of his pupil, and at this exact moment, extended his senses outward. He'd rather have had her carrying a piece of him at this exact moment, but she ((probably)) wasn't. Instead he would have to get a general idea of the goings on from them and what they felt.

He was hoping for terror.

They all recieved the coded message. Below the streets of Delhi, a few low thumps could be heard from various points around the city as breaching charges of the DCE-Kasrkin blew entrances into the Drakh labryinthe. Before the dust could settle, the hundred hefty power-armoured troops, tower shields and assault rifles in hand, charged into the various breaches and fanned out in squads, with orders to kill anything and everything they came accross.

The space ops were far more simple. Within moments of receving the orders, the assembled hosts had trained their warheads on the intended targets and loosed their vollies. Nuclear fusion-tipped missiles, ranging in the lower to mid megatons and equipped with earth-penetrator warheads. Similar waves both screamed through the thin skies of Mars and passed silently though the void in the space high above Uranus, but the targets were more or less the same.

And at about a dozen houses throughout the capital, teams of police officers began their raids, arresting various ministers and generals. This appeard to be the easiest part of Operation Songbird, but the officers were wary regardless.

It promised to be a long night.

They hadn't foreseen it.

They had been careless. Arrogant.

Nonetheless, their defences weren't all that harmless.

Nonetheless...

A few defensive platforms standing in the way were quickly taken out by the Indiastani vessels. Burning out, melting, they turned into pieces of... Well, nothing.

A few moments later, the warheads hit the ground.

And with a scream that travelled through the night, all over Mars and Uranus, the darkness perished...

With a light, brighter than a thousand suns, with a thunder travelling through the thin atmosphere of Mars, the purification begun.

The problem was, of course, that the ships down there hadn't been all ships. Twentyfour of forty- eight vessels had been destroyed... The few remains laying there, helpless... Unable to do anything.

The twenty- four vessels which hadn't been destroyed, however...

With a shriek, they were there, twelve at Mars, twelve at Neptune... With with shieks, feeling their superiority, their perfection, red beams of destruction left their orifices, packs, spheres turning into fighters left their bodies, and so, they took their revenge...

Delhi

The Drakh are like their masters, acting in the dark, never open, always careful...

The Indiastani troops, though well- equipped, had certain troubles finding them. Hidden in the shadows, they waited.

Of course, not from the beginning. The first ones were merely surprised, and quickly fell to the weapons of their allies.

However, they weren't completely unprepared. Always lurking in the shadows, always being hidden, they could strike back... Their telekinetic abilities being fairly useful, there.

And the slaughter begun.

Something else was there, hidden in the dark. It watched the Drakh struggling. And it wasn't too impressive. Despite their telekinetic abilities, despite being one mind, they weren't soldiers. Assassins, yes. But in this...

One after one fell. And eventually, the enemy came closer.

The person watching closed her eyes. She smiled a little, softly, then she begun casting the spells.

It wasn't until flames erupted that the Indiastani noticed the greater threat. And while the majority of the Drakh had been eliminated, this one was... different.

She did, of course, know that she couldn't held her place. Their revenge would be different.

It would be there, though.

And with a smile, her shield absorbing the Indiastani fire (Though she could feel this shield losing more and more of its capabilities), she vanished... Leaving stains of blood, corpses and limbs behind her.

There had been another presence... Two of them, dark, ancient.

They left as well, the last of the Drakh covering their retreat... Invisible to the eye, they vanished... Soon to return.

The message they send to their world was clear enough.

Revenge.

One thing they missed, though. And Alkesh could feel it. The terror of the drakh. The mild amusement of the technomage. The anger of the ancients.

The promise of a new future.

Mars, high orbit

Death. The crews of the valient fleet had little time to react, as from the inky blackness around them red slicing beams of energized death swept threw their ranks. They had been prepared, but that hadn't helped them. Three beams struck the Emi amidship, and she died instantly. The Tamiko and the Hama fared little better; even their bioenhanced hulls were no match for those weapons. After several agonizing seconds, the ships returned fire; fusion pulse blasts fired almost at random, shooting at half-glimsed targets and senor ghosts. Most missed, but some hit, though what damage they did couldn't be known. One by one, the twenty ships of the taskforce were cut down. First the Warlock Izumo, follwed shortly by the Murai and the Masae, then finally the last Warlock, the Sué. The other thirteen ships, Primus' and Deimos' all, scattered here and there, all hope of standing gone, firingblindly as they fled. Seven Warlocks, the best ships of the fleet, reduced to blazing hulks in mere seconds. They tried to signal other Fleet assets, but couldn't be sure they weren't being jammed. There was no fighting back.

Still the missiles blazed in towards their targets, the sleeping Shadows on the surface. As they hit, the force of their impact drove them deep into the ground, which heaved and buckled as the missiles' deadly cargo detonated under the red surface, scouring the taint clean.

Ophelia, moon of Uranus.

The fight didn't last much longer. The hollow surface of the moon offered little resistance to the streaking warheads, and they buried themselves deep in the moon before blasting large chunks out into space. As the missiles fired, the Shadow fighters that had been gifted to the Black Omega squadron and slaved to each ships slipped out of the launch bays, eager to do their Captain's bidding. They saw the Shadow vessels first, and alerted their masters; here the humans at least managed the first shots, though again their weapons seemed to do little harm. But like the Martian taskforce, they died just as easily...

Delhi underground

Seeing proved difficult at first, but that was to be expected. The suit lights strapped to the shoulders of each Kasrkin didn't appear to provide much light, but they ddn't need too; they provided the minimum amount for the suit's light enhancement systems to see the tunnel outline, while thermal imaging marked out anything that wasn't rock. The Drakh didn't prove too difficult to kill, since they were unarmoured and could be seen plainly, but still they inflicted losses. And the strange human they met in the main chamber proved... more difficult. After he killed or disabled half a squad, the stout marines wisely fell back. After more teams reported wings of the underground swept clean, however, the whole platoon mustered for one last push, only to find the chamber deserted of living foes. Despite being curious, none of the troops decided to think too much about this; since the man was flinging lightning about, it stood to reason he could vanish like that. Their task complete, the soldiers idly doubled checked to make sure everyone shot had been killed, before radioing in for medivac to stand by to recieve wounded.

It was over, within minutes, seconds, even.

Yet, they cried for blood, their screams filling space. Revenge, revenge for this deed...

And on Z'Ha'Dum, their masters were conferring.

Unfortunately, half their forces in sol had been eradicated. And even though the attacking groups had been destroyed... They had received a few annoying casualities.

With a sigh, their ships vanished, finding themselves in the red currents of hyperspace... Waiting, moving.

Preparing.

Outside sol, others were moving. Long ago, Indiastan had sent out sleeper ships, to add beacons to various solar systems relatively close to sol...

None of them were supposed to survive this day.

On Z'Ha'Dum, ships prepared... Ships left, heading for sol... Their screams filling hyperspace, expanding like waves, announcing an orgy of destruction.

They had choosen to betray them, now, nothing they had created would remain.

Whatever contained a part of their ancient secrets had to be destroyed... And the one who was responsible for this orders, too.

In New Delhi, shadows were moving... Preparing.

He chuckled, fooling the tight security... Sometimes creating an illusion, at other times simply floating on top of the threat, moving closer and closer to his target...

He smiled, as he watched him sleeping, almost innocently, sweet.... Like a baby.

I wonder where the empress is... Doesn't matter.

Another smile, and he conjured the spike to impale the emperor... Then, he heard the noise.

A warning. They know.

He cursed, knowing that he would be incapable of retrieving the emperor's brain to gain more knowledge about the things that had happened... Just to be sure, he conjured another spell, watching the emperor being engulfed with flames.

With that, he begun his not entirely safe retreat, actually being wounded... Nothing too serious, though.

And the sun rose over the horizon, slowly... Reddened from the blood spilled this night.

The heavy tread of the KHCA boots rang throughout the hall as the guard troop scoured the palace, desperate to find the assassin. Emperor Hiren had been found lying in bed, the bed ablaze around him. After the fire was suppressed, he was found to have been killed, and the arson a mere cover. And now, cursing themselves for not having been alert enough to stop the attack, the guards desperatly hoped the madman was still to be found.

Kes had been down the hall, keeping up on the situational reports as Songbird wrapped up. She was horrified to watch as the Martian taskforce was cut to ribbons, but she hadn't the heart to tell her husband, who'd gone to bed. 'It could wait till morning,' she thought. Now she sat, slumped on the floor against the doorframe, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared up at the charred and smoking bed where he lay. The feeling of helplessness was terrible. And yet, something inside her said that this was supposed to happen. It had to happen. This of all things gave her the least comfort.

---

At Gammak, the news of the loss of the Martian taskforce and the mysterious skirmish at Uranus was greeted with alarm. The Fleet was ordered on full alert, and all ships were recalled. Wary of another such devistating attack, the smaller Primus and Deimos crusiers were drawn up "close" to their respective stations, while the larger Warlocks former the outer defensive cordon. It was standard practice, and they executed it flawlessly...

A few Hours later

He was somewhat amused by the whole situation... Of course, he should have been annoyed, no, infuriated that his masters had been betrayed... Yet, he was an independent being. Even though their tech had merged with him... He was more, far more than those poor scents of life in their ships, far, far more...

He was free, and he was amused.

He had just returned from the 'trip'. They had contacted him, arcane mysteries, spells... And he had answered. It wasn't the safest kind of communication, sure... Not that others were able to notice it, that was (almost) impossible... But it was kinda annoying, risking one's life by way of communicating with one's masters...

He shrugged.

Destroy all that we gave to them. The theory in their laboratories... The materials in their shipyards, in their factories... The people working with either the information or the materials... Or both. Burn them, to keep the secret.

And he begun. Of course, it would take some time... A few weeks, most likely. But well... He was able to disguise himself.

A few Days later

Finally, they arrived. There were clouds in hyperspace, flocking together... Screaming. Waiting for the oratorio of bloodshed they would soon begin... Dancing the dance of curse.

Their targets were clear. Those ships of the Indiastani space navy they had helped to build. Of course, the areas they would attack weren't exactly safe... Not even for them.

And then, they faded away, battlecrabs, scouts, fighters... Just to turn up in normal spacce... Shades of black, a darkness sucking up the light around them...

And then, urged by the eye, their orifices begun to scream, to release purple screams of destruction...

The last chapter was going to end.

ooc: Timewarp o' doom. Well, and a 'lil bit of puppeteering.

Jupiter

Of course, they had been warned by the Indiastani. Of course, they had basic data from the events at Mars, from the Indiastani, from random encounters...

Yet, they hadn't expected this.

Wow... Ok, there they are, lets r-

The Tanzwut wasn't able to finsih its sentence, the very moment it had turned to help the Indiastani, no, the very moment communications between the DA ships and the UI ships indicated that they were going to help, fire had been opened upon them, too.

And Tanzwut turned out to end up as two pieces of composite structures, rotting in space.

Of course, she wasn't the only one... More followed, together with the Indiastani, burning, dying... Yet, they fired.

A shriek in their minds, almost crushing them, as a shadow scout lost two of its tendrils, covering, wounded...

And then, abusing Jupiters escape velocity to its limits, they came closer... Realising, knowing.

So far, the psionic capabilities of Angstian ships had rarely been of use... However, this was changing, now.

Blast after blast came in, one, two Battlecrabs ended up being paralysed...

Yet, they were too many, and ship after ship of the Jovian fleet was destroyed... Ten, twelve...

Screams filled space, as the numbers of both, the Indiastani and the Angstian fleet were dwindling, yet, as superior as the shadows were, even they had to take the occasional loss... Crumbling, a battlecrab ended up being drawn into Jupiters atmosphere, its systems failing, dying... A last scream, horrifying...