NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: OOC thread can be found here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=481147 Please post there or contact me before getting involved. While I understand that this is Free Form Roleplay, there is some sort of plot to this.

It was cold in the throne room, but that wasn’t unusual. There was little light, with only the fain illumination of the stars shining through the windows. Two silhouettes were pressed up against one of the windows, a metallic gleam shining from what appeared to be the throat of the smaller of the two silhouettes. A whimper escaped from this smaller figure which resulted in a soothing “Shhh….” coming from the larger.

“It’ll all be okay soon Timaeus,” added the tenor voice.

Within the man’s clasp was Timaeus Ikatori, son of Peter Ikatori, Imperator of the Khristian Confederacy. He was still young, only 14 and some of the faint starlight reflected off of his silver hair. His mind wrestled between crying out in fear and acting out in anger. For all his conflicting thoughts and emotions, he managed to get out: “Why are you doing this Daniel?” fear and anger evident in his voice.

The man who now held the knife to his throat was none other than Daniel Byblos, his father’s second in command. Daniel was wearing his usual military dress uniform complete with various medals and fringe. His typically slicked back black hair was now falling into his eyes and around his face, doused with sweat from his recent struggle.

Byblos leaned close to the boy’s ear and whispered sinisterly, “Well, you see my boy, your father was standing in the way of Khristendom’s destiny. That’s why I had to kill him, just like I’ll have to kill you, because you’re a threat to me, boy. I’m tired of being your father’s bitch and seeing our great people being demeaned and held back. So now, with the blood of the traitor, I will sow a revolution of Izumism throughout the Confederacy and reap a new age of prosperity and domination.”

“Yeah, we all know how well that worked out the first couple of times,” was Timaeus’ sarcastic reply.

“Quiet boy, do you forget that I hold this blade to your jugular?”

Timaeus gulped he had forgotten his current predicament and let his youthful brashness show through. But maybe he could use this to his advantage… He wasn’t stupid after all…

“Couldn’t I be of some use to you though? I mean, haven’t you though about the resistance my father’s followers ill put up? Won’t you need someone to make the regime change easier?”

Daniel spat onto the boy. “There will be no ‘regime change’” he responded mockingly. “There can only be extermination, elimination of those inferior and resistant. Yes, they shall not escape the wrath of the Izumi…” Byblos grinned sadistically, sinister thought slithering their way through his mind. “But then again… I suppose I could use you…” he threw Timaeus onto the floor. “Yes, of course… This would make the extermination more ironic and glorious.” Daniel lifted up the boy’s chin and smiled at him.

Timaeus took this opportunity to bite down on Daniel’s hand, hard. As the boy’s teeth pierced the man’s skin and sank into his flesh releasing a squirt of blood, Daniel cried out and dropped his knife. Timaeus spat towards the wounded Izumist and ultimately missing, grabbed the knife and ran towards the door.

Daniel Byblos had never been a man for pain, and having experienced little of it in his life, he wasn’t in much of a position to halt the boy’s escape. Timaeus tried hard not to look at his father’s slain body which laid near the entrance where he had greeted Byblos maybe a half hour before. Timaeus placed the knife as best he could in one of his belt loops and opened the door into one of the Dramon Station’s main corridors which assaulted his eyes with it’s bright fluorescent light.

Making his way towards part of the massive station occupied by the general public, he nodded and smiled genially to the various guards he passed by, it not being uncommon for boys to carry knives. It was ‘night time’ in the public part of the Dramon station, but there were plenty of people still making their way through the check-in/out point that demarcated the public and private areas of the station. As Timaeus entered the queue, he pulled out his ID. Once he had scanned his, one of the guards asked him how his father was. Choking back tears he replied, “He’s fine, just taking care of the normal political business.” He left the check-in in a hurry and after a few blocks, burst into tears.

He sat down and wiped the snot and tears onto his long-sleeved BSK jacket (a paramilitary equivalent of the Boy Scouts of America) and stood up. It was only a few more blocks to the spaceport and he rushed there. Even if he had not been in a hurry, he probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to his surroundings. Many times had he looked up at the massive dome that separated the station from space. He had also passed by these typical oblisek-esque buildings of Khristian architecture. He didn’t even pause to gaze at one of his favorite spots in the city, a massive tower of latticework covered in plants and waterfalls. Once he had reached the spaceport, he purchased himself a ticket for Neo Zionitikiri (aka ADK Earth). The flight would be leaving in half an hour and Timaeus made his way to the terminal.

Meanwhile, Daniel Byblos debriefed his closest advisors on the situation.

“The first blow has been struck. Peter Ikatori is dead, but his son has escaped. Now, this is not entirely a bad thing, for it gives us a scapegoat. This unique situation allows us to blame the death of the father on the son, but we must capture him alive at all costs. I will prepare an address to the nation her shortly.”

While Timaeus slept in his seat onboard the hyperspace shuttle to Earth, Daniel Byblos took the podium in Dramon’s conference room 2B. Clearing his throat, he began to speak:

“Fellow Khristians and citizens of the multiverse, today, tragedy has struck our Confederacy. The Imperator, Peter Ikatori, was founded assassinated early this morning in his throne room by maintenance staff. During this state of Emergency I will be assuming control of the state through my role as Prime Minister.

“Furthermore, I would like to disclose that we currently suspect Timaeus Ikatori of murdering his own father. We ask that any nations who might intercept this fugitive to take him into custody alive and extradite him to the Confederacy for trial. Thank you and may God bless our nation in this state of crisis.”

Allanean Central Intelligence Agency

“The big question is, who benefits? Who reaps the spoils? Who is thus, the main suspect? This is the question. You must understand, people – “ spoke the Chief of the Khristian Bureau, Mohammad Abed-nah – “National leaders don’t have accidents. Well, they do, sometimes – but with these kind of people, it helps to visualize every unnatural death of one of them as a result of a murder, a poisoning, a conspiracy. With most of them, that is how it is – especially if they are in office.”

“In this case, the man had been murdered – that is a known fact – but does anybody believe the story of his fourteen-year-old son freaking out and murdering his own father? Did he think he would inherit the throne of an elected official? That is absurd, ladies and gentlemen. Equally, does anybody here believe that the son of a rich, socially-advanced individual ‘just freaked out’ and shot Daddy Ikatori several dozen times?”

“He didn’t shoot him, Sir.” – pointed out a junior clerk.

“Immaterial. The point is he was violently killed. Do you think it was just an incident of his son freaking out?”

“Ummm…”

“Thanks. I agree with you, Norris. Not a chance in the whole damn world this could have happened. So there’s only two really good options: Either they have the kid as part of a criminal conspiracy to assassinate Ikatori and bring a new party to power – probably Biblos, but possibly other people who could or could not be using Biblos as a figurehead – or someone framed Ikatori, Junior, with the assassination of his own father – and then the odds that Biblos is part of the conspiracy begin to stack up.”

“Therefore, we must act, and we must act as soon as possible. Activate the Network.”

Several days later, in ADK Earth

The network of spies that were implanted in ADK by the Allanean Central Intelligence Agency came alive, and breathed in deep. It was a monster - a variety of Khristian-Allaneans injected to work as a variety of jobs throughout the Confederacy, some with small-yield nuclear hand-grenades implanted instead of their appendices to avoid capture, others with simple poison pills, and some with just their bare hands, there were a hundred or so altogether.

They began to work, recruiting, paying, bribing, blackmailing as many as they could to look for the wayward child. In the meanwhile, officers on Allanea’s borders doubled the guard for Timaeus.

Allanea, 1000 meters underwater

In a hidden-away medical lab under the waters of the Haven straits, work began. A single body was grown, human and fully adult, in a quick-grow man-size vat. It was similar, to the inch, to the greatest Khristian rebel known.

Rudolph Corbelli.

OOC: Overdo and crappy as hell. Enjoy.

Timaeus had slept through most of the flight from Dramon to Earth, but he was awoken by the myriad of beeps and other electronic noises that represented the vessel’s exit from hyperspace and it’s deceleration process as it neared the Neo Zionitikiri airport. Timaeus raised his arms and yawned, trying not to think about last nights events, but they refused to be hidden too deep in his subconscious. Timaeus turned to look out the window as the ship began to sweep over the vast farming fields of the Confederacy’s Terran province. He wasn’t that impressed by the city of Neo Zionitikiri, being used to the metallic labyrinth that was the Dramon station.

After completing the landing process, the ship began to pull into the terminal and Timaeus cursed under his breath. There seemed to be a least a dozen paramilitaries wearing the five blue stars on a white background, emblem of the Izumist movement. Staying in his seat for a few moments to consider his position, he decided that he would have to fight them. Composing himself, he walked down the pseudo-hallway that connected the vessel with the terminal and right towards the Izumists.

Sometime later, Timaeus awoke in a pile of hay ontop a cold stone floor. He looked across the small prison cell and saw another boy about his age laying on some hay. Timaeus sat up and winced in pain, his body bruised from trying to resist the Izumists.

"Name's Calogero Itori," stated the dirty blonde-headed boy. "I'm in here for possession of a controlled substance, 3 counts of theft of property 1st degree, and burglary, 2nd degree. You?"

"Timeaus Ikatori. I'm accused of killing my own father, even though I didn't..." responded Timaeus weakly.

A few moments of dull silence pass.

"How can you be so nonchalont about all of this?"

"Well, when you see crime all the time and are surrounded by it, it just becomes the normal thing to do. I mean you just really become so accustomed to it you say 'Hey, it's a beautiful day, let's glo burglarize a gas station.'"

"But I mean, you aren't worried about spending the next 20 years of your life in here?"

"Nah, not really, I got good friends through the drug business."

Timeaus continued to stare up at the ceiling as he had been doing. "So what's it like doing drugs?"

"Doing drugs is like breathing. Once you start, you can't stop. You can try to hold you're breath but eventually you always come back to it. And just like how breathing in oxegyn corrodes your lungs, drugs wear you out and kill you. Don't do them. Once you start, everything changes and you can't get back to the way you were before."

"So you said something about getting out of here?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Can I come with you?" Timaeus looked over at Calogero and gave him a pleading look.

"Sure, I don't care." Calogero yawned and returned to trying to take a nap.

As morning broke in Timaeus and Calogero's prison cell, thunderous noises sounded off in the distance. Timaeus rubbed his eyes sleepily as the outer stone wall came flying across the room.

"Dammit Iatoni, you're gonna kill him!" yelled a female voice.

"Well hell Danya, how else are we supposed to get him out?" retorted Iatoni.

"Oh shut the fuck up fatman and get on in here before the gaurds shoot our asses."

Timaeus blinked at the surreality of the situation. I thought it would be harder to break out of a prison? Klaxons went off as Calogero waved to his two comrades.

"This is Timaeus," said Calogero. "He's coming with us."

"Oh, alright, whatever." grumbled Iatoni.

The four of them jumped into the medium-sized hovercraft that had carried Iatoni and Danya over to the jail. Timaeus looked up to see an old Omicron III class destroyer.

"I thought all those things were destroyed in the war with Sentient Peoples?" he asked.

"Nope some of them escaped to Mars and to various... shady factions." replied Danya.

The hovercraft docked on board the destroyer just as an Ikatori class battlecruiser appeared on the horizon. "Welcome aboard the Ruschenko," greeted Danya. Timeaus exited the hovercraft and looked around his surrondings. He really wasn't moved much by what was going on around him. He didn't really feel much at all and just kind of moved along with everything as the warning sirens on the ship began to wail.

"Oh, motherfucking hell." moaned Danya. "It's always something." Danya and Iatoni rushed to the bridge. Calogero stood for a few seconds, yawned lazily, and began walking off in the opposite direction. Timaeus stood and blinked as everyone left and as his indescison began to fade, he walked in the direction Danya and Iatoni had went.

After following the signs he made it onto the bridge where Iatoni was busy having a heated conversation with the commander of the Ikatori class vessel over the vidscreen. The commander saw him enter.

"Is that Timeaus Ikatori?" the commander asked.

"Commander Itaryu?"

"It is you Timaeus! You know I never believed that you killed your father for a second..."

Timeaus looked down at the floor for a short time and then raised his head "I know who killed him.... it was Daniel Byblos."

Itaryu flinched back in disgust. "That bastard! We need to get to Dramon and have him arrested now."

"But who's going to believe us Itaryu, who?"

"Uhmm... Sorry to interrupt all of this, but we aren't going to Dramon." stated the gruff voice of Iatoni.

"Well, you're either coming with us or you're going to be captured."

"Hmmm... Good point. Alright then, to Dramon it is!"

****************************************

"This is Mary Itori with the Nine o'clock news here on KNN. We bring you a special and startling report tonight about the recent death of Imperator Peter Ikatori."

The scene fades to black, replaced by a distorted image, both visibly and audibly. The distorted voice began to speak.

"I first learned of Daniel Byblos' involvement with the death of Mr. Ikatori a day or so ago. I had no idea I was helping support an orginization that was overthrowing the government. Once I discovered this disgusting fact, I rushed to tell someone. It's terrible. Mr. Byblos wants to reinstate an Izumist state and wipe out all opposition, we should all be afraid... very afraid...."

The image grows fuzzy then blank leaving colored bars and one very high, sustained tone.

****************************

The Church of the Conqueror, Dramon

It was at a large and beautiful cathedral in the center of the bustling megapolis of Dramon that Daniel Byblos decided to give his speech. Ironically, this was the Church of the Conqueror and within it's stone and wooden halls, thousands of loyal Izumists gathered to begin thier slaughter. It began even before Daniel Byblos gave his sermon, with the destruction beginning as a massive 150 person choir began to sing "Am I a Soldier of the Cross".

'Am I a soldier of the cross,
a follower of the Lamb,
and shall I fear to own his cause,
or blush to speak his name?'

"The Lord has made it appearent to us that our nation is unwhole. It is decadent, vile, and sinful. The Lord has given us a charge, a charge that we must keep. The Lord has charged us with the cleansing of his people. Jesus came to make men whole and pure. Jesus came to cleanse and nuture. So we must nuture ourselves! For if we are not whole, then we shall be thrown into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We have a story to tell the nations, we have an obligation to ourselves, our friends, our family, and an obligation TO GOD! The Lord said to cut off that which does the work of Satan. That idle hands are the devil's work. And I tell you, Peter Ikatori has corrupted our great, godly nation with the foul stentch of Satan! When the Lord sent us Quin Izumi to save us from the darkness, we became a people of great power, a testament to the power of God himself. Now all that we have become is a nation of peons, a nation of usurs, a nation of liers, murderers, rapists, fornicators, thieves, and BLASPHEMERS! God has charged us with a crusade. God has charged us to shed the blood of his lambs so that we may be white as snow. Just as Jesus died for our sins, so now must those who do not repent and join our crusade must be cast down as sacrifices. Now, some of those who resist the power of the Holy Spirit might be people whom you love, but you must know that your reward waits in Heaven and that God heals all things. You must take up your cross and walk, you must walk throughout all of Khristendom spreading the word of our cause and destroying those who would pervert the will of God. Now, may the grace of God, the redeeming power of Jesus Christ, the consoling power of the Holy Spirit go forth with you, now and forever. Amen."

'Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease,
while others fought to win the prize,
and sailed through bloody seas?'

The Izumists rushed forth into the streets of Dramon, armed with thier guns, prepared for thier crusade. They hunted them down, cornered them, all of them. Women, children, alien, it didn't matter to them, those who followed Ikatori and nor Izumi must die. Thier blood would cover the streets of the megapolis just as it would all of Khristendom. Bodies were dismembered and defiled even by thier own families. The foulness must be removed....

Izumists and Ikatorists alike rushed to space vehicles and open civil war broke out on the military vessels as they wrestled for control of the Khristian Confederacy's space forces. Some of the ships managed to be taken by one faction or the other, most of them simply self-destructed in their docking bays, killing thousands and damaging the structual integrity of the megapolis. Those who had not been possessed by the bloodlust tried to evacuate and leave the station via transport. Sometime this worked, sometime they were blown apart by Izumist space craft.

**************************************

Halfway into the Hyperspace trip to Dramon a text message arrived on Commander Itaryu's bridge that encouraged all good Izumists to rise up and slaughter the infidels. Soon, many distress signals began to follow.
Commander Itaryu decied to contact some friends of his in the military and garner thier support...

*************************************

'Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
to help me on to God?'

They were only children, they didn't know what was going on. Were they really corrupt? It didn't matter, They were in the Peter Ikatori Orphanage and were being raised as Ikatorists. The thirty or so children were being escorted to the airlock, none of the children knew that of course, they just continued to blissfully sing.

'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so...'

They were young, obedient children and gladly agreed to enter the airlock. They continued to sing thier song just as they were blown out of the station and into the numbness of space.

*******************************

Daniel Byblos and his closest men departed the now chaotic megapolis of Dramon prepared to carry thier cause elsewhere. To eliminate the Ikatorist stentch. It was noble cause... A very noble cause...

*******************************

'Sure I must fight, if I would reign;
increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
supported by thy word.'

The Combined Ikatorist Forces Fleet exited hyperspace to find a field of debris surrounding the Dramon station. They weren't sure how many had been killed yet, but they were sure as hell going to restore order. Thousands of loyal marines departed their motherships on transports and docked where possible at the station. They poured into the megapolis slaughtering the Five-starred men.

Outside the station, Izumists ships began arriving, as did thier missiles. Ikatorist ships dodged and evaded with some success and some failure. Clouds of missiles and storms of laserfire filled the space around Dramon. Fighter against Fighter, Cruiser against Cruiser, Brother against Brother, Husband against Wife, Father against Son.

Timeaus looked out at the destruction aboard the Ruschenko, he was unmoved. It meant nothing... So what if the world was ending? Isn't this what everyone wanted? Why was thier resistence? Why was he betrayed? Why was he hated? His father was the only person that had truly cared for him, these petty pirates didn't care. He was alone... maybe... he thought?

***********************************

'Thy saints in all this glorious war
shall conquer though they die;
they see the triumph from afar,
by faith they bring it nigh.'

Meanwhile, the scene was the same at Dramon. Nuclear weapons were used indiscriminately by both fleets, wiping out squardons of vessels. The Ruschenko was nearly destroyed, but the pirates were too smart to be obliterated, and they decided to leave the field of battle, finding that this really wasn't thier cup of tea.

With half of both forces destroyed, and genocidal mania riding high, the Izumists began to blow away pieces of the massive Dramon station, co-ordinating thier strikes with the ground forces on the station. This left the station in a tattered, very perilous state. Reactors went haywire, the station began to fall apart, it's support systems failing and destroyed.

*********************************

Commander Itaryu had been a good man. He had always taken good care of his wife and four children. He had been kind to his crew and shown them great respect, especially his son Isaac. This hadn't mattered to Isaac, an Izumist. This is why he had now shot his father in the chest five times. This was now why he was being shot multiple times, his bloodied body falling uselessly to the floor.

*******************************

'When that illustrious day shall rise,
and all thy armies shine
in robes of victory through the skies,
the glory shall be thine.'

...And so the battle ended. A massive explosion of gigaton proportions wiping out the lives of hundreds of millions. Silencing the laser cannons and the missile batteries. Cleansing the Khristian people till they shined whiter than snow.

And Timaeus was safely aboard the Ruschenko and the Khristian people of Mars and Earth awaited the crusade. And a generation of peace was ended with the deaths of a billion Khristians.

OOC: You attacked Zara-Khrishta? Holy mother of God. I was living all this time under the persuasion ZK joined Allanea as a state (since you told me I could have the Khristians all to myself). Either way, the Allaneans would be... not really happy about you engaging in mass genocide on their bloody doorstep if it is not part of Allanea. So, umm, TG me to clarify this issue, but the Allanean reaction would probably be the same either way.

A dark, stormy November night, the Kazansky mansion

It is a hard mission. Even for someone with the power Kazansky wields. You need to first make a body – custom grown in a vat from DNA fragments gathered from an incinerated dead body. Then, when satisfied, you must transport this body carefully to where you want to have the last work done – no matter how far away. A single jolt, a cease of electric current – and you start all over again.

But, hard as it is, this is science. And that means, with enough effort and money, you can get it done. And so he did. But the next part... it is not science. It is magic. And even for a being like Kazansky, this is not necessarily easy, especially if you're doing for your first time. As he was.

Lighting, then thunder. As it is supposed to be. Kazansky reaches out slowly. He is still wearing his powered armor, albeit a light version that lets him do what he is doing now. From his fingers, pure energy streaks into the dead body in the vat – but is it really dead?

You need to bring a soul back to its body – where-ever it resides. To then breathe that magical – truly magical, much more then fireballs or magic missiles or any such baloney – spark of life into that body. Some people call it divine. Kazansky knows better. It's just... hard work.

His fingers are slightly pricked, then stung with bitter pain and cold as more and more energy is pumped into the body – but he doesn't give up. Not even when the pain spasm spread to his entire arm. And then... the pain stops. And the man in the vat opens his eyes.

It is hard work. But it does pay off.

”Get up, Rudolph Corbelli. Your work is not done yet.”

Kazansky pauses.

”Go underground. In my basement, there are guns. You can take any you like. Then go to the pier. There's a gravitic bike. It's made in Aelosia, and it's an excellent model. Go fast. Your people need you. And don't worry. I am Alexander Kazansky, and I will help you more when you need it.

* * * * *

USSN headquarters

“This Timaeus... something has to be done.”

“Do you have any ideas?'

“Yes. I do. Send in FEMA.”

“What?”

“Well, it is and emergency... so send her in.”

And soon, a long, black vessel, a full 3500 meters long, began making way for the location of Ruschenko – alone. But the Allaneans, as usually, had a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan nonetheless.

It was cold, or at least, Timeaus thought it was cold. Maybe the enviromental controls were damaged, maybe the ship was about to explode, but he didn't really care. So much death... so much pain... The killing was so insensitive, just as he was becoming.

Danya and Iatoni were arguing about something now and giving him bad looks. It didn't really matter to him. They were dragging him somewhere now and Calogero, Calogero just stood and watched. Danya shoved him into an escape pod.

The scenery didn't change much in the escape pod, stars continued to rush by and it was still cold.

"Hey Paul, seems we got a live one out here."

"Really?" blurted a half-surprised Paul. "Well bring it in then Antony, the Izumi sure will be proud of us."

"Yep, I'm engaging docking clamps now and bringing it back to Sigma Station."

Paul Atreks and Antony Trilikov were just two lowly salvagersworking for the Izumist Order. They didn't really know who Timaues Ikatori was and they didn't really care. They did care about the big bonus they'd recieve. It's too bad that the Izumists would have put bullets through thier heads before they had a chance to share the money with thier families.

The Sigma Station was upscale for a Khristian facility, run-down by any normal standards, but it worked most people didn't know where the hell it was. A long-forgotten outpost from the days of the Second Quin Izumi near Alpha Centauri, it had evaded destruction over the past two centuries through various fronts and covers. It always remained a poessession of the Izumi family though and now it was the headquarters of thier crusade.

Byblos smiled deviously as the platnium-haired boy was brought before him. "Ahhh, Timeaus. How's the family doing, I hope that you enoyed your little stint in jail. I'm afraid the Khristians on Earth aren't very good at building efficent prisons or you'd still be there. Anyway, let me show you some good hospitality." Byblos punched the boy in the stomach. Timaeus slumped over onto the floor and didn't move.

"Damn you boy." Byblos kicked Timaeus in the side and he finally let out a yelp of pain.

"Hmm... Now that I have a response out of you I can tell you something very important." Byblos lifted up Timaeus' chin."You see, your 'father' was actually to old to have children anymore so we impregnated your mother with a genetically engineered fetus, or you. Now it's true that your mother died in childbirth, a freak accident, but they happen. But what's not true is that either of your parents are your parents. You see Timaeus.... You are a clone, a clone of a great man... You are the Third Quin Izumi."

Timeaus's mouth grasped for words, he hadn't spoken in at least two days. "Quin.... Izumi?"