Klonor
27-05-2005, 03:30
Contact at 3 o'clock, seventy-five meters distant. Seventeen thermal signatures and five positronic sources.
As if a single organism, the four man Dealer team froze in place and slowly shifted into a new formation to face the newly detected threat. As three men reached to their belts and brought out oddly flared attachments for their KSMAR-1000's the fourth crept forward and stopped just short of the wall that their sensors told them shielded almost twenty hostile infantry and five automated sentry guns. The enemy infantry posed no problem, even a standard Marine squad would have no problems with seventeen gun-wielding punks, but the positronic brain controlled sentry guns had enough firepower, armor, and speed to cut a Shuttle Assault Force to ribbons before they even got within range to shoot back.
Placing Charges.
The fourth team member dropped a few small spheres right next to the wall and quickly retreated, re-joining his companions and bringing out his own attachment for his Assault Rifle. A few heart beats after he'd readied his weapon the explosives blew and obliterated the entire wall, leaving only a small smoking pile of ash where there had once been a two-foot slab of concrete and titanium.
Fire.
As one, the four Dealers aimed and fired, small balls of glowing light emerging from the covers that they'd placed on their weponry. Once beyond the edge of the weaponry the small balls of light began to expand and grow, merging together and enlarging until they illuminated the whole valley. Within seconds there was a single ball several hundred meters in diameter, and then it burst and flowed over every surface in the valley.
Sentry guns eliminated. Take the infantry.
The four Dealers deftly removed the attachments on their rifles and stowed them out of the way, then they raised the guns to their shoulders and unleashed a torrent of bullets at the group of men who were still reeling from the explosion that destroyed the wall. Three seconds later it was all over and the Dealer squad began moving again.
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"Sir, I have a status report from Dealer Unit 08. They have penetrated General Lions compound and eliminated all resistance. The General is in custody and they are heading back to their Elysium as we speak."
"Good, very good. Any casualties?"
"No, sir. The new Electron Charges made short work of the sentry guns, and to say the Generals supporters are undertrained is a grave understatement."
"True. How many soldiers did the General have, anyway?"
"Dealers place the estimate at just over two hundred, sir."
"Estimates if it had been a standard Marine force instead of a Dealer squad?"
"We place Klonor casualties at around ten individuals, possibly one death."
"20 to 1 in our favor, but I'm still glad we didn't even need to lose that many. Have the Dealer squad debriefed once they arrive back in Gamma Draconis and ready General Lions for trial."
"Yes, sir."
The young paige slowly backed out of the room and left the Duke to his own musings.
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"Please, just let me go! I'll pay whatever it is you want, just don't bring me back to him! I've got a small fortune hidden in the base, it can all be yours! Just release me!"
The four Dealers didn't even respond, they just kept walking as General Lions sputtered and begged in the small cage they had him in.
"Okay, forget the money! I can get you anything you want! Power for the taking! You want a seat on the Assembly? I can swing that. How 'bout your own moon in Regulus? Anything!"
Not even a small grunt came back to him and his pleas slowly turned to sobs.
Motion, 10 o'clock. Twelve meters.
Lions gasped as his cage fell to the ground.
Eliminate.
The air was suddenly filled with thousands of rounds of ammunition darting into the wilderness on the side of the trail, making sure that anything in the forest wouldn't be leaving it anytime soon. Satisfied, the four Dealers picked up Lions cage again and continued back towards their transport. In the cage, Lions continued to beg and sob.
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"Your Highness! Over here!"
"Yes, John?"
With a small grin on his face John Veril, reporter for the Journal, stood while the rest of the reporters around him took their seats.
"Sir, any news on when General Lions will face trial?"
"There's no set date yet, right now we're more concerned with making sure none of the supporters we've missed make an ill-fated resuce attempt. He'll be brought to SR-2091 for sentencing once Ihm and I are satisfied that he'll actually make it there."
Another reporter, this one for the Tribune, lept to his feat and called out his question before he'd even been acknowledged.
"Is there any punishment planned for the Epsilon Pegasi system for their role in the uprising?"
"As I've said before, no Klonor system will ever be harmed by another while I rule here. Both the Humans and the Elves in EP didn't have a choice, Lions strung them along when he could and forced them along at gunpoint when he had to, the didn't do a single thing voluntarily. With Lions in jail and his voluntary supporters captured or dead, I expect everything to return to normal."
A third reporter, unaffiliated as yet, called out a query of his own.
"Sir, are there any reports on casualties for the Klonor forces that managed to penetrate the Generals compund?"
"Thankfully, our reports have not one single death or injury in the Klonor forces sent to capture the General."
"Not one? Sir, was it wise to transfer so many troops away from other combat areas in order to insure this success rate?"
"I didn't have to transfer anybody, only four soldiers went in."
"Four...but.....how?"
"They were Dealers."
Those three words said enough, and as soon as they were out of the Dukes mouth the room became deathly ill and the many journalists took their seats. Even mentioning the famed, and feared, personal guards of the Duke had a strong effect.
"If there are no more questions, I'll be on my way. I do have a nation to run."
With a small wave and a dazzling smile the Duke exited the room at the rear, accepting a packet of papers from one of his many aides as he began to make his way towards the buildings exit.
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"Okay, forget the money. Forget the power. I can still make it worth your while. I know the Messenger of the Spirit personally. He's a good friend. I can get you all individual blessings, blessing froms the Spirit Himself! Eh?"
With a jerk the Dealers stumbled to a halt and dropped the cage, turning to face the captive who had made the bad decision to start talking again.
"The Galactic Spirit is a heathens religions, a mere diversion from Jove and the Pantheon. Mention it again and you won't even reach the Transport."
Lions merely gulped and nodded as the Dealers lifted him again, this time making the effort to jostle him at every step.
Motion, 7 o'cl---
Before the message was even finished the foremost Dealer tumbled to the ground in two seperate pieces. There had been no audible sound, no visible strike, but a supposedly Invincible Warrior was dead.
Alert!
The other three Dealers dropped Lions (again) and brought up their Assault Rifles and immediately scanned the surrounding forest. Their eyes, ears, and several dozen advanced sensing devices detected nothing. Suddenly, a second Dealer collapsed, this time accompanied by the clatter of metal on metal as the two rifles held by the surviving Dealers collapsed and fell to the ground in pieces.
Sanitize the area.
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This is a Dealer:
A Dealer is fast, strong, and deadly. They have been trained nearly from birth to be the perfect killing machines. A single Dealer is equal to dozens of normal soldiers in direct combat. They are better than the average Human in almost every way. However, their physical strength, which is exponentially greater than the average Human, their mental faculties, well beyond that of a normal person, and their unparalleled skill with nearly every form of weaponry, which alone makes them one of the deadliest of all Klonor weapons, is only a small fraction of what makes them the Elite of Klonor and the Scourge of the Associations Enemies.
Every single Dealer, each member of the Elite, is equipped with an Emitter Set the very second that they are selected to serve. The Emitter, the most secret of Klonor technology, is what makes the Dealers equal to none. Telekinetic powers, control of sub-atomic energy, and a plethora of other powers make the Dealers nearly Super-Human, and it makes any Dealer its own artillery support.
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The very air around the two surviving Dealers began to glow, shining with its own inner light. The two soldiers seemed encased within the corona of a star, almost emanating power. They raised their hands, the glow flowing to the very tips of their fingers, and then flung out their arms. Without a noise the energy surged from their bodies and soared outwards, blasting into the forest all around them. The trees lining the path were incinerated nearly instantly, the grass at the roots gone in a puff of smoke. The bushes farther into the forest lasted a microsecond longer before they too were gone. Now there was noise, now there was the roar of a fire as the entire forest burned and was gone.
Area sanitized. Continu---
A third Dealer fell to the ground, this one managing to let a groan escape before his eyes glazed over and his mind stopped rolling.
The last Dealer froze in place, his eyes searching what was left of the forest for the threat, for whatever it was that had killed more Dealers in five minutes than had been slain in combat since the Corps had been founded. For the first time in his life, for the first time in the life of any Dealer, he felt the tiniest stirrings of fear. But, even experiencing something so very alien to him, he was still a Dealer of the Association. Another energy charge began to build up within his body and he slowly sent it out, mentally feeling the air around him for the unseen attacker. He sowly extended his reach, searching for whoever had slain his three companions. He sensed the blow a split second before it hit.
Shit!
He surged the energy within his body and collected into a single block, holding it directly in front of him where it absorbed the blow aimed for his neck. The glowing wall in front of him flared and grew brighter than ever, absorbing the energy of the enemy, but it held and staved off the assault.
Time to die.
The Dealer felt back along the line of energy that had struck at him, feeling for its source and readying his own attack. He aimed his right hand, index finger and thumb extended, towards the attacker and concentrated the energy into a single point at the tip of his finger, pumping a lethal charge into a ball the size of a pea. He finally breathed deeply and released the energy, he might have even smiled if he hadn't been a Dealer, and readied himself to go and finish off the attacker. Unfortunately, the unseen enemy swatted aside the strike like a man swatting aside a fly. The Dealer could sense the shifting energy even without being able to see it.
"You see the energy, you use the energy, but you do not feel the energy."
The voice seemed to come from everywhere around the Dealer, giving the soldier no clue as to his attackers location.
"You use natures bounty, but what do you give back?"
The Dealer began to send out small energy tendrils once more, attempting to use his energies to target his adversary. Once again, he sensed the attack a moment before it came. Again he deflected it, once more staving off death by the tiniest of hairs.
"How can you hope to use what the Universe creates if you do not embrace it?"
Not even bothering to try and locate his enemy any more, the Dealer concentrated solely on defending himself from the unseen onslaughts.
"You hold nature in contempt, manipulating it for your own gain. We cherish nature, we embrace its light."
A figure finally appeared, seemingly materialising from the very air. A single, solitary figure that had wiped out a Dealer squad alone. The survivor, with a target before him and finally a recipient for his anger, readied another assault and sent it straight between his assailants eyes. This time the newcomer didn't even bother to block it, the attacker simply took the blow and absorbed the energies within itself.
"And in return, nature cherishes us."
Without even so much as a gesture from the attacker the last Dealer gasped and tumbled to the ground, exhaling one last time and lying still.
"Nature cherishes the Jai."
As if a single organism, the four man Dealer team froze in place and slowly shifted into a new formation to face the newly detected threat. As three men reached to their belts and brought out oddly flared attachments for their KSMAR-1000's the fourth crept forward and stopped just short of the wall that their sensors told them shielded almost twenty hostile infantry and five automated sentry guns. The enemy infantry posed no problem, even a standard Marine squad would have no problems with seventeen gun-wielding punks, but the positronic brain controlled sentry guns had enough firepower, armor, and speed to cut a Shuttle Assault Force to ribbons before they even got within range to shoot back.
Placing Charges.
The fourth team member dropped a few small spheres right next to the wall and quickly retreated, re-joining his companions and bringing out his own attachment for his Assault Rifle. A few heart beats after he'd readied his weapon the explosives blew and obliterated the entire wall, leaving only a small smoking pile of ash where there had once been a two-foot slab of concrete and titanium.
Fire.
As one, the four Dealers aimed and fired, small balls of glowing light emerging from the covers that they'd placed on their weponry. Once beyond the edge of the weaponry the small balls of light began to expand and grow, merging together and enlarging until they illuminated the whole valley. Within seconds there was a single ball several hundred meters in diameter, and then it burst and flowed over every surface in the valley.
Sentry guns eliminated. Take the infantry.
The four Dealers deftly removed the attachments on their rifles and stowed them out of the way, then they raised the guns to their shoulders and unleashed a torrent of bullets at the group of men who were still reeling from the explosion that destroyed the wall. Three seconds later it was all over and the Dealer squad began moving again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir, I have a status report from Dealer Unit 08. They have penetrated General Lions compound and eliminated all resistance. The General is in custody and they are heading back to their Elysium as we speak."
"Good, very good. Any casualties?"
"No, sir. The new Electron Charges made short work of the sentry guns, and to say the Generals supporters are undertrained is a grave understatement."
"True. How many soldiers did the General have, anyway?"
"Dealers place the estimate at just over two hundred, sir."
"Estimates if it had been a standard Marine force instead of a Dealer squad?"
"We place Klonor casualties at around ten individuals, possibly one death."
"20 to 1 in our favor, but I'm still glad we didn't even need to lose that many. Have the Dealer squad debriefed once they arrive back in Gamma Draconis and ready General Lions for trial."
"Yes, sir."
The young paige slowly backed out of the room and left the Duke to his own musings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Please, just let me go! I'll pay whatever it is you want, just don't bring me back to him! I've got a small fortune hidden in the base, it can all be yours! Just release me!"
The four Dealers didn't even respond, they just kept walking as General Lions sputtered and begged in the small cage they had him in.
"Okay, forget the money! I can get you anything you want! Power for the taking! You want a seat on the Assembly? I can swing that. How 'bout your own moon in Regulus? Anything!"
Not even a small grunt came back to him and his pleas slowly turned to sobs.
Motion, 10 o'clock. Twelve meters.
Lions gasped as his cage fell to the ground.
Eliminate.
The air was suddenly filled with thousands of rounds of ammunition darting into the wilderness on the side of the trail, making sure that anything in the forest wouldn't be leaving it anytime soon. Satisfied, the four Dealers picked up Lions cage again and continued back towards their transport. In the cage, Lions continued to beg and sob.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Your Highness! Over here!"
"Yes, John?"
With a small grin on his face John Veril, reporter for the Journal, stood while the rest of the reporters around him took their seats.
"Sir, any news on when General Lions will face trial?"
"There's no set date yet, right now we're more concerned with making sure none of the supporters we've missed make an ill-fated resuce attempt. He'll be brought to SR-2091 for sentencing once Ihm and I are satisfied that he'll actually make it there."
Another reporter, this one for the Tribune, lept to his feat and called out his question before he'd even been acknowledged.
"Is there any punishment planned for the Epsilon Pegasi system for their role in the uprising?"
"As I've said before, no Klonor system will ever be harmed by another while I rule here. Both the Humans and the Elves in EP didn't have a choice, Lions strung them along when he could and forced them along at gunpoint when he had to, the didn't do a single thing voluntarily. With Lions in jail and his voluntary supporters captured or dead, I expect everything to return to normal."
A third reporter, unaffiliated as yet, called out a query of his own.
"Sir, are there any reports on casualties for the Klonor forces that managed to penetrate the Generals compund?"
"Thankfully, our reports have not one single death or injury in the Klonor forces sent to capture the General."
"Not one? Sir, was it wise to transfer so many troops away from other combat areas in order to insure this success rate?"
"I didn't have to transfer anybody, only four soldiers went in."
"Four...but.....how?"
"They were Dealers."
Those three words said enough, and as soon as they were out of the Dukes mouth the room became deathly ill and the many journalists took their seats. Even mentioning the famed, and feared, personal guards of the Duke had a strong effect.
"If there are no more questions, I'll be on my way. I do have a nation to run."
With a small wave and a dazzling smile the Duke exited the room at the rear, accepting a packet of papers from one of his many aides as he began to make his way towards the buildings exit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Okay, forget the money. Forget the power. I can still make it worth your while. I know the Messenger of the Spirit personally. He's a good friend. I can get you all individual blessings, blessing froms the Spirit Himself! Eh?"
With a jerk the Dealers stumbled to a halt and dropped the cage, turning to face the captive who had made the bad decision to start talking again.
"The Galactic Spirit is a heathens religions, a mere diversion from Jove and the Pantheon. Mention it again and you won't even reach the Transport."
Lions merely gulped and nodded as the Dealers lifted him again, this time making the effort to jostle him at every step.
Motion, 7 o'cl---
Before the message was even finished the foremost Dealer tumbled to the ground in two seperate pieces. There had been no audible sound, no visible strike, but a supposedly Invincible Warrior was dead.
Alert!
The other three Dealers dropped Lions (again) and brought up their Assault Rifles and immediately scanned the surrounding forest. Their eyes, ears, and several dozen advanced sensing devices detected nothing. Suddenly, a second Dealer collapsed, this time accompanied by the clatter of metal on metal as the two rifles held by the surviving Dealers collapsed and fell to the ground in pieces.
Sanitize the area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a Dealer:
A Dealer is fast, strong, and deadly. They have been trained nearly from birth to be the perfect killing machines. A single Dealer is equal to dozens of normal soldiers in direct combat. They are better than the average Human in almost every way. However, their physical strength, which is exponentially greater than the average Human, their mental faculties, well beyond that of a normal person, and their unparalleled skill with nearly every form of weaponry, which alone makes them one of the deadliest of all Klonor weapons, is only a small fraction of what makes them the Elite of Klonor and the Scourge of the Associations Enemies.
Every single Dealer, each member of the Elite, is equipped with an Emitter Set the very second that they are selected to serve. The Emitter, the most secret of Klonor technology, is what makes the Dealers equal to none. Telekinetic powers, control of sub-atomic energy, and a plethora of other powers make the Dealers nearly Super-Human, and it makes any Dealer its own artillery support.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The very air around the two surviving Dealers began to glow, shining with its own inner light. The two soldiers seemed encased within the corona of a star, almost emanating power. They raised their hands, the glow flowing to the very tips of their fingers, and then flung out their arms. Without a noise the energy surged from their bodies and soared outwards, blasting into the forest all around them. The trees lining the path were incinerated nearly instantly, the grass at the roots gone in a puff of smoke. The bushes farther into the forest lasted a microsecond longer before they too were gone. Now there was noise, now there was the roar of a fire as the entire forest burned and was gone.
Area sanitized. Continu---
A third Dealer fell to the ground, this one managing to let a groan escape before his eyes glazed over and his mind stopped rolling.
The last Dealer froze in place, his eyes searching what was left of the forest for the threat, for whatever it was that had killed more Dealers in five minutes than had been slain in combat since the Corps had been founded. For the first time in his life, for the first time in the life of any Dealer, he felt the tiniest stirrings of fear. But, even experiencing something so very alien to him, he was still a Dealer of the Association. Another energy charge began to build up within his body and he slowly sent it out, mentally feeling the air around him for the unseen attacker. He sowly extended his reach, searching for whoever had slain his three companions. He sensed the blow a split second before it hit.
Shit!
He surged the energy within his body and collected into a single block, holding it directly in front of him where it absorbed the blow aimed for his neck. The glowing wall in front of him flared and grew brighter than ever, absorbing the energy of the enemy, but it held and staved off the assault.
Time to die.
The Dealer felt back along the line of energy that had struck at him, feeling for its source and readying his own attack. He aimed his right hand, index finger and thumb extended, towards the attacker and concentrated the energy into a single point at the tip of his finger, pumping a lethal charge into a ball the size of a pea. He finally breathed deeply and released the energy, he might have even smiled if he hadn't been a Dealer, and readied himself to go and finish off the attacker. Unfortunately, the unseen enemy swatted aside the strike like a man swatting aside a fly. The Dealer could sense the shifting energy even without being able to see it.
"You see the energy, you use the energy, but you do not feel the energy."
The voice seemed to come from everywhere around the Dealer, giving the soldier no clue as to his attackers location.
"You use natures bounty, but what do you give back?"
The Dealer began to send out small energy tendrils once more, attempting to use his energies to target his adversary. Once again, he sensed the attack a moment before it came. Again he deflected it, once more staving off death by the tiniest of hairs.
"How can you hope to use what the Universe creates if you do not embrace it?"
Not even bothering to try and locate his enemy any more, the Dealer concentrated solely on defending himself from the unseen onslaughts.
"You hold nature in contempt, manipulating it for your own gain. We cherish nature, we embrace its light."
A figure finally appeared, seemingly materialising from the very air. A single, solitary figure that had wiped out a Dealer squad alone. The survivor, with a target before him and finally a recipient for his anger, readied another assault and sent it straight between his assailants eyes. This time the newcomer didn't even bother to block it, the attacker simply took the blow and absorbed the energies within itself.
"And in return, nature cherishes us."
Without even so much as a gesture from the attacker the last Dealer gasped and tumbled to the ground, exhaling one last time and lying still.
"Nature cherishes the Jai."