NationStates Jolt Archive

The Dark Lands. They were quite possibly the most dangerous places to be in the whole galaxy. Pitch black caverns with thin, stale air, inhabited primarily by predators twice the size of a human and fully capable of tearing one limb from limb. These were the areas outside The Great Reticuli’s control; the lights of day did not even exist here for him to power them. This was the land of demons.

Crystalia hoped that she didn’t encounter any of those marmadraks whilst she was here. She could smell them, but the entire Dark Lands reeked of their stench so it was hard to tell whether one was nearby or not.

She held a torch in front of her, the flames flickering towards her as she walked. It only illuminated her immediate surroundings, though. She had no idea how large this particular cavern was. An army of marmadraks could be standing along the sides and she would never even know. As her footsteps didn’t entice any echoes at all, not even little ones, she imagined it was one of those very large caverns.

Crystalia was a beautiful woman, with violet eyes and long, brown hair flowing freely halfway down her back. Her skin was pale, but that was true of all the Reticulites. She wore mostly brown leather clothes, just enough to cover her ‘private’ areas, as well as knee-high boots. The long sword hanging down her back suggested she wasn’t intending on entering a beauty contest, though.

Danlia followed behind her nervously wearing little more than fabric shorts and a waistcoat over his lanky frame. He wasn’t a hunter like her; he was a scholar. He sought knowledge so that they could greater understand The Reticuli, and possibly the secret of creation. He’d been led to believe that he could find somebody in the Dark Lands who could tell him more about The Reticuli and how they had been created.
Crystalia had her doubts, but her clan leader commanded her to escort him. She was one of their clan’s bravest hunters, and her limited telekinetic abilities added to her outstanding combat skills. But even she probably wouldn’t survive this trip. She’d asked for more hunters to come, but their leader said it was foolish to send more people than necessary on a suicide mission.
She had almost questioned the logic of sending anybody on a suicide mission, but decided against it. That really would have been suicide.

And now, they were lost in the pitch black of the Dark Lands. There were no maps to guide them, because no-one knew what they looked like. Indeed, even if there were no predators here, the Dark Lands would be dangerous just because you would likely end up starving to death or dying of thirst. Danlia claimed to know where he was going, claiming some sort of spiritual guidance. Crystalia put it down to moronic stupidity rather than spiritual guidance, or some sense of false hope. Delirious, that’s what he was. He was suffering from dark delirium. Must be. It was very easy to fall into that trap; not being able to see anything was rather unnerving. It was like walking in space, if she knew what ‘space’ was at least.

“Danlia!” she shouted over her shoulder. “We need to get to somewhere light; you claim to know where we are, so take us somewhere light! Unless you enjoy the prospect of being eaten alive…”

“I’m… I’m working on it!” he called back, chewing his fingernails nervously. He looked around, perhaps hoping to possess some sort of night vision.

“You do not have a clue where we are, do you?” she snapped. She’d had enough of humouring him. “You have been lying all this time, haven’t you? We are lost, and we are going to die. That is wonderful.”

“N-n-no, I do know where we are going,” he said. “It is just… difficult to interpret… to interpret the signals His Greatness is giving me, is all. I need more time!”

“Oh, OK then,” she nodded. “I will just find the leader of the marmadraks and try to convince him to delay their afternoon lunch.”

“Your sarcasm isn’t helping me any!” Danlia protested. “I… that way.” He pointed. Crystalia squinted in the direction he had pointed, but that black looked pretty much the same as the rest of the black.

“What is?” she asked.

“What we are searching for,” Danlia nodded. There was a loud grumble, and an eight-foot tall, humanoid creature stepped casually into the light of the torch. It looked like some kind of muscular troll, wielding a large, rock club and wearing animal furs. The necklace of Reticulite teeth that hung around its neck was instantly worrying.

“Oh shaznik…” Crystalia cursed, slipping her sword out of its sheath and holding it towards the marmadrak. She gently placed the torch on the ground. If that went out, so did their chances of survival. “Come on, fat guy, just you try and eat me. I’ll give you indigestion like you never dreamed…”

The marmadrak swung one of its arms clumsily, smacking the quivering Danlia into the blackness. It looked at Crystalia and smiled, showing some crooked, yellow teeth. It swung its club at her. She dived to the floor and rolled, stabbing it in the leg as she got to her feet again. The creature roared and slammed its club into the floor just near her feet. She elegantly hopped to one side and stabbed the creature again, this time delving deep into its chest. But these were tough creatures; it wouldn’t go down with just a single stab.

She was about to make a finishing slash across its neck, when another one lunged into the light from behind. It butted her to the ground, knocking her sword from her hand. She gasped as she felt one of its large, hairy hands grasp her neck and lift her completely off the ground. She kicked backwards and started hitting the hand furiously, but it didn’t let go. The wounded marmadrak looked at her, an evil glint in its eye. It grunted and lifted its club back over its head to take a final swing at her. She closed her eyes, nearly out of air anyway…

There were horrendous thudding and crunching sounds…

And she fell to the floor. She opened an eye, wondering if she was dead.

A terrified Danlia had found her sword and used it to slice the foot of her captor clean off. The other marmadrak hadn’t noticed in time, and its club smashed straight into his friend’s head, causing it to cave in and spill blood everywhere. The marmadrak fell to the floor, dead.

“Over here!” Crystalia said, both to the angry marmadrak who was now targeting Danlia, and to Danlia, who had her sword. The quivering man nodded vigorously and threw the sword at her, just as the marmadrak stopped walking towards him and started towards her.

She closed her eyes and willed the hilt towards her hand, and then just before it reached her, she willed the sword to fire straight at the marmadrak’s face like a dart. It went straight through the creature’s head, splattering blood out of the back of its thick skull. The marmadrak demonstrated its stupidity for a moment or two by wandering around with a sword in his brain like a chicken, before a blank(er) look came over its face, and it fell backwards like a falling tree.

Crystalia held in a ready, crouching position for a few minutes afterwards, listening for any more movement nearby. When she was satisfied that there were no more, she stood up and yanked the sword from the creature. Thankfully, the torch was still burning brightly, and she carefully lifted it off the ground. She reached into her pack and took out some more of the fabric coated in a flammable liquid, and wrapped it around the end of the stick.

“Danlia, where are you?” she called. He was no longer in the light. She heard movement, and he suddenly burst into view and hugged her, like a terrified child.

“Are they dead?” he asked quietly. “Are they gone? Are there more?”

“Relax,” she said, shoving him to the ground. “They’re gone. And thanks for your help.”

“I didn’t know that I was helping…” he said, staring into space. “I just… did it…”

“Well, we might make a hunter out of you yet,” she smiled. “Give me your coat for a minute…” She grabbed part of his waistcoat and wiped the blood off her sword with it.

“Hey!” he protested. “This is my best coat!”

“Consider it a trophy,” she grinned, sheathing her sword over her back again. “Come on, we either have to find what we’re looking for, or find a way out of the Dark Lands, and you claim to know both.”

“Yes,” he nodded. “I think I have it now… erm, you go first.”

The computer beeped, then beeped again. Corporal Canson leaned forward to press the cease button, when the computer spoke up.

"Canson, I am sure of it this time."

"No, Harry, this is the eighth time!"

"And did you bother to check out to other seve times?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Look at the data. My processors indicate it points to only one conclusion."

"Fine." Canson looked towards the ship's screen. "Wow... it looks...."

"It is what it looks like. A very faint energy expenditure from a burning something, where nothing was burning before. In addition, there is a slight magnetic variance, on the order of 10^-56, from yesterday's scans."

"Alright... then send a probe. Drill through that surface, see if we can find anything. I'll tell the commander."

The destroyer moved to the left of the three ship formation, closer to the planet. It began to quiver, turning broadside to the planet. A single, black sphere exploded from the tube on the right side of the destroyer Shamrock. The sphere impacted on the surface, and began to unfold into a flower-shape.

It had been several long hours of jogging to get to this point. Although clearly insane, Danlia had found a passageway that lead out of the vast cavern and into some equally-dark tunnels. They were narrow, but Crystalia preferred them; at least there were only two directions for creatures to come from. She could finally make out the grey rock of the walls AND the dirt floor, which was always a welcome change.

They finally reached something that looked interesting. A door, made entirely of metal. At first Crystalia was quite amused that someone would waste all that metal on a door instead of a sword, but on second thoughts… if there were no other entrances to this room, it made a lot of sense. If this door was thick enough, it might resist even a marmadrak’s swing.

It was definitely thick enough to repel them, though, as she found out when her entire body was shaken by the impact of her sword. The clang seemed to follow through her arms and rattle her brain around. She shook her head and put the sword away, looking the door over.

“Well, you’ve definitely found something,” she said, gently running her hands across the perfectly smooth grey material. Her sword hadn’t even scratched the absolutely perfect surface. Whoever made this must have a heck of a blacksmith.

“Beyond this door lies the secret of Genesis,” Danlia said simply. He was sitting on a rock, resting.

“Nice of you to help me open it,” Crystalia snorted. She stepped back, held out her arm loosely, and closed her eyes. She put all her effort into trying to open the door. She tried pushing, pulling, moving it up, down, left and right… but it didn’t even rattle. She sighed after a while and dropped to her knees, recovering her energy.
She was only a level three Mover. A level ten could toss whole people around, move small rock huts, and maybe open this door. But her powers were limited. Pulling things like weapons out of hands was about as strong as she could get.

She gently placed an ear against the cold, damp surface, and listened to see if there was anyone on the other side. She could hear no movement, but she could hear a faint humming sound. Quite like the sound the Room of Magics made…
She’d visited the Room of Magics only once, when she was a child. All of the Gifted Ones were taken there, to pledge loyalty to the Great God himself. Indeed, only the Gifted Ones were allowed to go there. It was a long journey from her home settlement at the time, hundreds of miles through many treacherous tunnels, which is why she made sure she remembered every detail. She probably wouldn’t be able to go back there.
And this hum was almost certainly the same as the one in that Room.

But, in the Dark Lands… the lands of demons… was it a bastion of their Great God, or some kind of demon version? If it was some outpost of their God, he might not inflict pain upon them out of sheer respect for them arriving here. If it was an outpost of the demons, though, they could unleash untold destruction upon them all…

There was only one way to find out.

She dug her sword into the dirt beneath the door, and started to try and prise it open, using the sword as a lever. She stopped when it started bending dangerously; if her sword broke, they lost any chance of getting back, torch or no.

“What’s that?” Danlia asked, pointing at something on the wall. She brushed a strand of hair off her face and followed his gaze, sighting something else made of metal built into the wall. She walked over to it and blew the dust off. There were strange, square coloured patches, protruding from the metal ‘box’.

“I don’t know,” Crystalia said. They reminded her of some of the holy devices in the Room of Magics, but not even the High Gifted Ones had any knowledge of what they were for. Danlia stood up and stepped next to her, looking it over. He was about to say what it reminded him of, but he noticed that she already seemed to have made that association.

“Those coloured squares look like they move,” he said, gently rubbing one of the green squares. “Try pushing one.”

“Are you kidding?” she grinned. “Whether this chamber belongs to the God OR demons, I would be punished for touching one of their machines.”

“Seriously,” he nodded. “I don’t think the God could be bothered to hurt you just for trying to open a door. Demons would kill you anyway.”

“This is one of his machines!” she said, almost amused. “If I touched this, he would kill me. Not for amusement either, he would do it to punish me. You know as well as I do that these machines are how he works. Interfering with the machines is interfering with Reticuli Himself!”

“Who’s the scholar here?” Danlia asked sarcastically. “Fine then, I’ll ‘bear his wrath’ and do it.”

“No, don’t touch it you…”

She was too late. He placed his hand against the controls and pressed all the buttons in at once. Crystalia stepped back nervously.

“Now you’ve done it…” she said nervously. “I am sorry, Great Reticuli! I had no part in this!”

They both reached out and leaned on the walls as there was a rumbling sound from the doorway. Dust fell from the roof, and a horrific, demonic screaming sound burst out, piercing their ears relentlessly.

And then the door whirred open, silent again.

“Well,” Danlia said, after a shocked pause. “I was right again, I suppose.”

“One day you’ll put your foot in it,” Crystalia said, annoyed. “And I’ll have to cut it off to get you free.”

“Yes yes, whatever…” Danlia said. He waved his hand around, trying to clear away some of the dust that was now being illuminated brightly by the torch. “Well, are we going in or what?”

“After you, oh wise one,” Crystalia said, gesturing towards the door. “I’m thinking the creatures will be coming from behind anyway.”

“Fine, give me the torch,” he said impatiently. He snatched it off her and held it through the door, stepping in cautiously.

The torch illuminated a medium-sized room, filled with similar – if larger – devices to the door controls outside. The torch didn’t need to illuminate one end of the room, though.

A huge holographic generator was mounted on the wall. It displayed a diagram of this solar system. The massive red star in the centre, with the two remaining planets circling at an impressive pace. Other consoles had normal screens on them. Four of them displayed different galaxies. Two of them displayed two different coloured stars. One of them displayed Earth. Judging by the image of Earth, these images were completely up-to-date, as some clusters of lights were visible on one side of Earth, where major cities would be.

The two explorers had no idea what any of them were, though, except for the large holographic image of their own star at the far end of the rocky room.

“It’s the Reticuli! He’s actually here!” Crystalia cried out, dropping to one knee and bowing her head, her hair draping down into the dirt. Danlia immediately did the same, gasping with shock. They remained there for several minutes in silence, waiting for their God to say something, or do something, to prompt them to stand up. When he did not, Danlia nervously looked up slightly.

“W-we are your loyal s-servants, Great God!” Danlia announced, wondering if their God even knew they were there. Still, he said nothing. The two objects, one a small brown sphere, another a much larger, red-blue coloured sphere, span around him quickly.

Crystalia looked up slightly as well, curious. The image of him in the Room of Magics was just an image; she was not surprised that he didn’t respond. But here, he was alive, real, three dimensional, right there in front of them. And still nothing. If he weren’t all-powerful, she would simply assume he was unable to talk. But he could do simple things like that easily.

“Is he real?” she asked, after fifteen minutes of silence. She looked over at Danlia, who stood up, brushing his knees clean.

“I don’t… I don’t think so,” he shook his head, cautiously stepping towards the image. Crystalia stood up too, but she stayed well back.

Danlia moved right up to the images, so that the small spheres nearly hit him in the face. He ducked as they passed and stepped through their orbital paths; moving right up to his God. He closed his eyes, turned away, and reached out with one hand. His hand passed through and the image flickered.

“What in the name of Reticuli…” she exclaimed, taking a step forward curiously.

“What is it?” Danlia asked, still not looking.

“Your hand has just… past right through our God,” Crystalia told him. “It is like he is there… but… but he isn’t! I’ve never seen anything like it…”

Danlia opened his eyes and looked around. Sure enough, he was wrist-deep in his God. The image flickered slightly as he waved his hand around. He got bored quickly though, and stepped back from the image. He assumed the two spinning balls were also ghosts, and didn’t bother ducking.

“This is remarkable,” he said. “Perhaps The Reticuli is using mental powers to project an image of himself.”

“Maybe…” Crystalia said. She raised a hand and pointed at one of the balls as it passed. “But what are those?”

“Well, those are…” He didn’t actually know. So he did what all scholars did when they didn’t know. He made something up. “Those are demons. Our God is being attacked by demons. He must be projecting this message here to tell us this. That must be why he guided me here; to see this plea for help.”

“He is a God!” Crystalia said, gob smacked. “How can we hope to help him fight demons? We’re little more than his playthings, we have no power.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Danlia shook his head. “You have a power, as do many others. Perhaps he gave you and the others this power to help him fight the demons. He wouldn’t just do it for no reason.”

“He might just do it so that he could see us hurt creatures and each other in new and original ways,” Crystalia remarked. She leaned on a console, quite alarmed when she felt some buttons press down beneath her hands.

The image stopped moving. The smaller of the two spinning globes was centred on, and it grew much larger, forcing the other two spheres off the image completely. Three strange objects circled the brown sphere slowly. Once the image stopped growing, three rotating red triangles dropped down and surrounded each of the objects, as though trying to emphasise them.

“If that’s a demon, what the shaz are those?” she asked, pointing at the three targeted objects.

Danlia shrugged. He had no idea, neither a lie nor the truth. “If I had to guess, I’d say they were some weapons sent by the God to attack the demon.”

“If he has weapons of his own, what would he need with us?” she asked, persistently.

“I don’t know, OK?” Danlia snapped. “I know what you know… two circles, three objects, three triangles, glowing ghosts hovering in a locked room… that’s it, that’s what I know. I’m making guesses here!”

“OK OK…” she said. “Wow. You’re in a real mood today, aren’t you?”

“Hello?” a nervous voice said out of nowhere. The two immediately dropped to their knees again, bowing their heads.

“We are sorry Reticuli!” Crystalia said desperately. “We thought this was just an image!”

“What? Who is this?” the voice asked. Whoever it was sounded confused. And whoever it was, couldn’t be The Reticuli, because he knew everything.

“I… I am Crystalia, of the Percof clan,” she said nervously.

“I know the Percof clan…” the voice said. Maybe it was the God after all. “How exactly is your voice coming from nowhere?”

“W-what?” Crystalia asked. “I am right here, Great God!”

“Great God? I’m not the Reticuli!” the voice protested. “And you’re definitely not here; we’ve searched the entire Room of Magics for people.”

“Room of Magics?” Crystalia exclaimed, standing up. “I’m not in the Room of Magics.”

“I know,” the voice said patronisingly. “So where are you then?”

“We’re exploring the Dark Lands,” Crystalia said, helping Danlia to his feet. “How are you in the Room of Magics and still talking to us?”

“I do not know…” the voice said. “The Reticuli must wish for us to talk.”

“Well, he might actually,” Crystalia said thoughtfully. “Listen; you have to tell all the clans that you know of to get all their Gifted Ones ready. I – we – think that the Great God might be under attack by demons, and they might soon move to attack us.”

“Demons? How would you know this? The image of Him I am looking at right now does not seem to be under attack.”

“No time to explain,” Crystalia said. “Just do it quickly!”

“And if the clans refuse to unite over your belief?”

“Then they might die alone,” she shrugged. “If you can get a messenger to the Percofs before anything happens, also tell them to send more hunters and scholars. Hopefully some of our footprints will remain, and they will be able to find us. We need to take control of this area of the Dark Lands on behalf of The Reticuli.”

“Take control of part of the Dark Lands?” the voice snorted. “Well, it’s your clan, not mine; waste all your hunters if you want. I’ll tell them. Whether they will send anyone or not I cannot say. It sounds like a fool’s errand to me.”

“Well, thank you,” Crystalia said. She started pressing buttons in sequence, near the ones she had leaned on. Each time she asked if the voice could hear them. As soon as the voice stopped answering, she stopped pressing buttons.

“Now, let’s find a way to close that door in case any marmadraks or klurnofs are lurking nearby,” she said walking towards the door. “And about that secret of Genesis we travelled so far to find…”

Danlia looked around at the morass of complicated divine machines, and laughed half-heartedly. “Yeah… about that…”

Around on one side of the planet, a discovery of a different kind was taking place. The TVSF Harper hung in the ether, unmoving. Inside the light cruiser were men and women, as well as representatives of the Sera and the diminuitive Giruuni. They were one of the many crews charged with the exploration of the galaxies. It was almost four months since they had departed from Elysium, and so far they had found nothing worth reporting about. They had passed worlds wracked with fire, or ice. Worlds devoid of life, worlds floating freely through the void, their guardian suns long vanished. But so far they had found no life. Normally crews would have found at least one world with primitive life by now. But the Harper had found nothing, and the crew were so bored that fights were breaking out. Normally it was okay at this time, but these had flown through the same choking nebula for two out of four months, and the bone-white and blue livery of the Taldaani Fleet was covered in dust. But now....

Bio-scanners report multiple life-forms below the surface. Size and numbers unknown due to surface refraction.

The standard-issue annoying AI voice had never sounded so sweet. The crew crowded around the monitors, waiting to see what happened next.

Terrain: Harsh and barren. Suggest Hazard Armour. No population centres.

So, these were most likely a primitive people. No agriculture, no towns or cities. Possibly a Code 133 hazard (ooc: Code 133: The native population believes that the explorers are gods.).

The Seran captain stood up, his long ears standing up.
"I want a team assembled to go to the surface. Hazard Armoured, two squads of marines and an exploration group. I want them on the shuttle in fifteen minutes. And don't drill through the surface, look for an existing entrance. If there isn't one within five kilometres of the landing site, then you can make one yourselves."
"Yes, Captain."

Fifteen minutes later, a medium personnel lander was on its way to the surface. It swooped down, hovered around a kilometre above the ground, then touched down silently. The armoured landing party stepped out onto the harsh landscape, wondering what exactly could live here.

The flower-shaped object swiveled again, and began to drill. The AS inside of the machinery activated the charges, and rock was blown high into the air. The rapidly cycling battlescreen generator tore at the rock, ripping it apart as the probe descended into the depths, the AS calculating telemetries and speculating as to the odd readings.

OOC: Tag for possible post

Out of the darkness of space a rather briliant sickly green flash iluminated near the red giant. What spawned it slowly began to move closer to the distress signal. "Commander the fold was completed and there have been no damages," the shipboard AI said as he turned back to scanning the system. "Good Keyes tell me of any ships in the area. And run them by the computer to see if they are hostiles or friendlies," the commander said quickly as he returned to his duties of carring for the 9km long Fallen Angel cruiser. As it drifted closer towards the beacon the AI spoke up "Comander we have two unidentified ships on scanners. They seem to be landing troops and what not on the planet that the beacon is orgininating from." "Shit. Alright prep ten ODPs with a class ten hazzard load. I want to find out what the hell is going on. And also begin deep earth scans on the planet." "Yes sir!"

In the belly of the AEN Fallen Angel ten droppods were being preped for drop. As the ten troops all from varying units. The squad leader a ex-demon hunter spoke up "Ok people this is gona be a rough ride. We got a 11th pod fallowing with drilling equipment jsut incase so when we land pre ready for anything. Also active camo is worthless down there." With that the ten officers entered there pods only to be shot out of the tubes towards the planet's surface. As they impacted one by one each armored officer stepped out and looked aorund. There weapons would be almost useless in the enviroment so some activated plasma blades that emited form there wrists while others unpacked heavy portable XR-50 autocannons. AS the 11th pod hit right infront of the them theyquickly removed all useful suplies and began to move towards the beacon that was only afew km away. The distance would easily be crossed within minutes thanks there augments and armor. As they reached the beacon they quickly began a search for a entrance to a complex of any kind.

OCC:Jsut wondeirng is there any above ground entrance to the habitat bellow?

OCC:Jsut wondeirng is there any above ground entrance to the habitat bellow?

OOC: There were quite a few, obviously they needed to have them distributed around a bit to get a few billion people down in any sort of timely manner. Most of them would have been deliberately collapsed as the ancient Reticulites realised that no more of their people had survived. But a few might be relatively intact. Whether you discover them leading into the Dark Lands or isolated areas of the lighted zones would be up to you, though.

A great rip opened in space; a dazzling realm of sound and shapeless moving; of color and calamity; yawning into the void, as the Exploration ship emerged from the Warp. The Chronosians had detected strange signals coming from this desolate place; This Dark Land; and deployed an expedition to examine the site. High Lord Kael of the Blood Phoenix; a small elitist group of dark Space Marines, looked out across the planet.

"Initiate scans" His grizzled rasping voice hissed; and the computer whirred with effort.

"Detecting....Three unidentified Cultures....Error; one unidentified culture. Ships match....Oni Concordiat; historical reference CY0569, Phalanix; historial reference CY 4726"

"Excellent..." He smirked lightly; as the ship moved by the southern side of the planet.

"Deploy my Royal Guard...I shall survey this world; personally..."

OCC:Heh this is gona be fun.
IC:
As the team slowly came upon a small hole in the ground that seemed like a small compound entrance that had been blasted open. Slowly the squad leader moved forewards into the hole towards a almost hidden metal door that had been tarnished from years of neglect. As he waved forther the squad he spoke into the com to the tech expert of the group "Hack the door."
Without responding the tech expert hooked up a small cable form his helmet into a small port on the door. As the hacker AI quickly did what it was ment to do the rest of the squad stood ready for anything. As the door slid open they moved in a singlefile line weapons raised and at the ready. As they began to enter what looked like a long stone hallway the door sealed its self behind them. "Looks like we're sealed in for the time being," one said over the com. "Yes it does major now keep your weapon at the ready," the squad leader responded. After what felt like hours of walking they finaly reached another airlock like door. This time however the hacker stepped forward this time and gave the AI the copy command so a small version of it's self would stay in the door system. As they passed through it once more They were suronded by darkness. The glow of the plasma swords and the weapon mounted flashlights were the only iluminatation other than the nightvission in the helmets. As they walked forth a small bit of light could be seen to the east of them. "Commander. I see light. Permission to take three personel with me to investigate," the second in comand said as she moved to the front of the group. "Yes major permision granted. Take lt's Keyes and Alexander and cpl Heart. And be ready for anything," the commander said as he began to continue to the north with the remaining membes of his squad. "Sir! I'm picking up EM emotions from a small section to the north east of here roughtly a ten minute walk," one of the majors in the squad said only minutes after the smaller squad departed. "Alright good work major Parker. Everyone that is our new destination point. Lets move out!," the commander replied as they began to job unknowing of any dangors that lurked around them.

The other squad was proceding far better. The major leading them kept her plasma blades in the standby mode. She had opted for no rifle this mission so she could use the recently moddified plasma blades in her armor. As the group stepped forth from the darkness the light gleemed off there jet black armor. Lt. Alexander turned off the light on her XR-35 rifle and looked around through the scope in a atempt to spot anything.

Crystalia turned around as she heard a faint clanging sound from the direction of the door. She quietly moved over and put her ear against it, listening intently. There was movement. And voices! She quickly used the machine controls to open the door for them. Her clan leader, Percof, stood against the door, firing arrows above the heads of three other hunters and into the army of marmadraks that had followed them down the tunnels.

“Everybody inside, quickly!” Percof bellowed in his deep, commanding voice. The other hunters ducked past him and jumped through the open doorway. Percof held out his hand and concentrated. A wall of rocks pulled up in front of him, confusing the marmadraks. As he stepped backwards through the door, the wall of rocks flew at the marmadraks, making them back off and grunt in protest. Crystalia shut the door.

“You made it!” she exclaimed. “Why did you bring only three others with you?”

“You foolish girl,” Percof scorned, willing her to be shoved to the floor. “I brought all of our clan’s hunters! These are the only ones that remain! I hope that what you have discovered here is worth all… what is that?”

He looked beyond her and at the large image of a brown sphere.

“That is a demon,” Danlia said. “An anti-Reticuli, even. Do not worry, though; it is just an image, shown to us by Reticuli Himself.”

“I always pictured them as hideous monsters…” Percof said thoughtfully, scratching his stubble. He shook his head and looked back at Crystalia. “Listen to me, child; there are marmadraks out there, more than I have ever seen in my lifetime, and I have seen a lot of marmadraks. They killed nearly seventy hunters, a lot of them skilled. We need to leave this place, before they find a way inside.”

“There is no other way in or out so far as we have been able to tell,” Crystalia said, looking around. “If we leave, it is going to be by the same path as we entered.”

“Perhaps you did not listen to me,” Percof said. “There must be thousands of marmadraks waiting for us in the cavern beyond. And I am certain that I even saw some klurnofs. The six of us are no match for a single klurnof, so our chances of surviving that path again are not very impressive.”

“Danlia thinks that the door will hold them all off,” Crystalia said. “We will just have to hope that they get bored before we die of starvation.”

“Hope is not something that hungry animals respect very often,” Percof sighed, looking over at the holographic image. “I would pray for the God to give me the strength to kill them all myself, but he seems to have more important things to concern himself with right now.” As he looked more intently, several more rotating red triangles dropped down onto different points around the planet. Three of them appeared to be on the surface of the planet itself.

“Alert,” a pleasant, but distinctly mechanical, voice announced. “This facility is currently being compromised. Lifeforms have been detected on the surface, as well as one lone machine.”

“What…?” Percof looked up. “Who said that?”

“I am Afanso, artificial administrator of this underground facility,” the voice told them. Four monitors clicked and changed to show several different planets. “I have analysed the intruders and deduced that they are not of the same origins; their respective home planets are currently being displayed on panels four, five, six and seven. Unfortunately, I have been unable to retain the stability of the energy shield for one billion, nine hundred and seventy three solar years of constant operation. Breaches are present.”

“What are you talking about?” Percof snorted. “’Planets’? ‘Energy shields’? Who is this and where are you hiding?”

“I am Afanso, artificial administrator of this underground facility,” the voice repeated. “Are your cognitive systems fully-functional? Would you like for me to inject you with medical nanites to correct your condition?”

“The demons are coming!” Danlia shouted. “This ‘Afanso’ must be a messenger from the Reticuli! The demons are coming for us now!”

“Demons?” one of the hunters exclaimed. “We have to get back and warn the clan!”

“Can anyone here outrun a klurnof?” Percof asked, looking around. Danlia innocently hung his head down and pretended to study one of the divine machines.

“I think I might be able to do it,” Crystalia said unenthusiastically, after a long pause.

“You are brave, if completely out of your mind,” Percof snorted admiringly. “If you go, you’ll be on your own until you’re out of the Dark Lands.”

“I know,” she nodded. “I will go.”

Percof sighed, and handed her a torch, patting her on the shoulder. “Be careful, yes? You are our best hunter.”

“I will try,” she nodded. She stepped towards the door and took a few moments to catch some breaths. Then, she clicked the panel and opened the door, bolting out as she did so. A terrified Danlia jumped over and shut the door after her.

Only seconds after coming towards the energy source the mostion trackers litteraly turned red with contacts. "Shit shit shit......," one fo the heavy weapons members cursed as he reved up the XR-50's three barrels. As they spun one of them fired a single flair shell into the air to iluminate the area to gain a far better picture than with the use of the blurry nightvision As the shell flew up briliant white light was cast off. Almost instantly the one who fired the flair had wished he hadn't. The mass amount of angry animals attacking the door saw a far better prey that wasn't sheilded like the others. "FIRE!!!!" the commander screamed almost instantly as he oppened up with barage of 13mm slugs form his rifle. The others fallowed suit quickly firing there weapons hot shells spraying fomr the breatches and plasma fire leaivng small glassy marks on the walls. As clips ran dry and ammo boxes emptied plasma blades were ignited and the more agile began attacking the larger threats with lethal strikes.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

It was all Crystalia could hear. It was either her heart beating or the sound of her feet pounding on the dirt floor in a rhythmic way, or both. She had just started running and couldn’t stop, and she was so out of breath that she could barely see even the torch she held out in front of her.

As soon as she’d burst from the second Room of Magics, she had heard explosions. Strange metal beings lit up the morass of animals and began slaughtering them. The demons had arrived already.

She had to make it back to the territories of Reticuli before they did.

In her haste, however, she had become somewhat… lost. No longer did she carefully follow the trail of footsteps that marked the path they had originally taken, and finding them again in the black would be almost impossible. With marmadraks swiping at her and vicious klurnofs hissing in the distance, she ran without cause, without rest, without hope.

She could feel herself slowing, though. Her mind was willing but her body was just running out of steam. She ached all over, her joints seemed to creak as she moved, and they were finally giving up. She had to pull out her sword to fend off the bulky arms that were grabbing at her now.

All seemed to be lost. The arms kept coming, she kept slashing, she kept slowly down. And then she burst into the light, into a field of wild tekra grass. The dim lights in this section were on a night cycle, but it was still brighter than the Dark Lands. She looked over her shoulder, and smiled as she saw the last marmadrak give up and go back into the dark passageway.

And then she hit the floor. She looked around, to see a huge klurnof looming over her. It was as tall as she, and its eight legs spanned many metres. It was like a giant spider, only it had two large eyes, fiery red in colour. Its exoskeleton was very tough, and it took at least six hunters armed with heavy battleaxes to even think of hurting it. She didn’t stand much of a chance. The klurnof hissed at her as she backed away, raising her sword pointlessly.

The scond squad had only recently noticed the gun fire. As the sniper of the group the Lt took aim with her rifle to see what was going on. As she did she flicked on the night sight and saw a single human figure running out of the darkness at the far end. "We got a human contact! Looks like it is being chased I'm gona pick off the attacker," Lt. Alexander said as she began to lead her target. She fired several shots in rapid fire hoping the explosive rounds would take down the target if not turn it's attention to them.

OCC: Damn time crunch! I'll expand later

The small team of soldiers had just found a way down into the tunnels, but it was blocked by a rockfall. Still, for the Taldaani forces this was not a problem. The explosive charges embedded in strategic points detonated, pulverising the rock around them and bringing the remainder down with it. The group clambered over the stones, and then turned on their night-vision in the sudden darkness. The pitch blackness closed around them, swallowing them up. They ghosted through the darkness, guns clutched firmly and pointing down the tunnel. And then there was a sound. A low groan ahead of them. And out of the darkness emerged a creature, humanoid but massive. It charged at them, bellowing. Shil levelled her rifle at its head, and squeezed the trigger. The creature was struck full in the face by a volley of high-energy pulses. Its hand went to its face and it roared in pain, then it toppled forward and hit the tunnel floor with a crash.

"Sir, bio-tracker reports multiple contacts. We're surrounded, and the way out is cut off. They're the same as...."
The scanner-operator was cut off by another deafening roar behind them.
"Shit."
The squad spun around to face the new threats. Pulse-volleys slashed into the blackness as the soldiers attempted to fight off the new threat. Hark roared a battle-cry as he fired the pulse repeater, the heavy ammunition drawing screams and roars from the monsters assailing them. But this couldn't last.
"Hack your way out, we're leaving!"
The leader threw a bundle of stun grenades. The pulses confused the monsters, leaving them dazed and half-blind. Using that as a distraction, the squad charged. The exploration team and Hark hung back, providing covering fire as the rest hurled themselves towards the foe, blades swinging. With the enemy stunned and the powerful armour and weapons, they cut a path through, and then ran. Hopefully outpacing the enemy. They didn't know where they were, and they hoped that they could find another way out before they were attacked again.

ooc: Someone meet up with them?

As the last beast fell under the massive onslaught of plasma and shells the rocky surface was covered in shells and drained energy packs. Quickly the squad began to regroup and reload weapons. "Damn I'm down to my last box on my XR-50," a lt said as he began to unhook the empty box and placing it on the ground as he hooked up a full box of 5000 rounds. "Lets see what they were attacking now," the commander said only minutes after. He reached on to his belt and pulled a small flair and activated it letting it cast a briliant light around the squad. He tossed it into the ground and walked towards the controll box for the door opening it slowly to ensure it wasn't trapped. "Major Hastings! Servey the area and provide sniper protection. This flair will easily alert anyone in the area so we have to move quick," he said before turning back to the door controll box. He examined the three buttons and noticed the dust was disturbed on all three. He reached in and pressed all three down hoping that it was the corect command.

Crystalia screamed when two holes suddenly blasted through the klurnof’s skull, knocking it sideways to the floor. It didn’t move. She looked around and scrambled to her feet, running deeper into the light zone. The demons were catching up with her, and their power was enormous.

She found some more energy within her aching body and started pounding the floor.

***

“This facility has been infiltrated by multiple sentient entities,” the non-corporeal Afanso told the group of hunters casually. “I would recommend an evacuation to delta section, whilst nanites retract the shield to a new defensive position.”

“Have you found him yet?” Percof snapped, looking around at the hunters. “He’s driving me nuts.”

“Energy weapons of an unknown signature are currently being fired in two key sectors of the facility,” Afanso continued, ignoring him. “The sentient entities are under attack by low-level entities, and they are responding in a violent manner. I will endeavour to analyse the technology for neutralisation options before it causes any damage.”

“I am going to rip out your…” Percof unclenched his fist and looked around as some things hit the metal door. “Marmadraks are back!” He shouted, grabbing his bow. “They must have gotten Crystalia. If that door breaks, kill them!”

“Leader, those do not sound like marmadraks,” one of the hunters said. He placed his hand against the door. “And this metal is growing warmer.”

“Demons…” Percof muttered. “Stand back from the door.”

They listened nervously to the terrifying explosions, shouting in foreign languages. Creatures were dying in droves out there. The demons had either come with an army of millions, or they were as powerful as the Reticuli himself.

And then, silence.

“Maybe they don’t know we are here?” Danlia whispered from his hiding place behind one of the divine machines.

The door clunked, and started whirring open. Percof acted quickly; he held his hand out and used all his strength to will the door to close again. The door came to a halt inches of the ground, and started whining in protest. He couldn’t hold it for long, but he didn’t need to apparently. It kept jerking slightly upwards, until, with one final whine, it blew out and stopped moving upwards. Sparks flew and it held, open a mere foot at the bottom.

“We need to find another exit,” Percof said, panting.

“Access shaft theta offers direct access from universal monitoring station alpha to geothermal power generation facilities five through twenty,” Afanso chirped. “This will allow a bypass of the damaged aperture mechanism until nanites can effect repairs.”

There was a whirring sound, and part of the rock wall on the far side of the room disappeared into the wall, revealing a small crawlway lined with red lights.

“What kind of magic is this…” Percof snorted, standing back.

“This is…” Afanso stopped talking and paused. “The Reticuli commands you to follow this path he has provided for you. Demons cannot follow you through there. But they can open that door.”

“Who are you?” Percof demanded once again.

“I am a servant of the god,” Afanso said unenthusiastically. “Now hurry, before the Reticuli grows angry.”

The hunters looked at each other, then at Percof.

“Well, you heard him,” Percof said. “Go inside! Don’t anger our God!”

The hunters shrugged, and one by one they dropped to a crawl and headed into the passageway. As Percof took a last look around for their mysterious friend, he too dropped to his knees and crawled into the passageway. Danlia followed nervously. Once they were all clear, the rock moved back into position, hiding the crawl way from view. The screens of planets switched to different images. The computer appeared to be analysing the various weapons of the intruders, building schematics and listing information in an obscure language.

As the door sputtered and the motor broke the commander crused under his breath. "Ok looks like we play the hard way," he muttered as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and ignighted his plasma blades in his armor. He then began to force the blades deep into the door's base and began dragging them upwards. Only after several minutes had a wide enough outline been placed in the door. "Now for the final touch," the commadner said as the blades deactivated to recharge agian he slammed the door with a devistating kick with the full force of his augments and his armor's enhancers behind the blow. Though he made sure it was just enough to knock the door back and not plow it into the opposite wall.


The second squad began to fallow after Crystalia. Even with there augments they had agreed that coming up to fast on her would be abad move that could result in unwelcome injuries. As the faster of the four though lt Keyes had oppted to cut her off. Why do they have to be so scared of us....oh ya the black evil armor... he thought to himself as he ran starting to come within enough range to almost jump on her.

Just then, the probe burst through the roof. With a clanging, the probe fell to the floor and began swiveling, observing the conflict with an extended camera. An antenna extended, sending information to the AS's in the orbiting destroyers. Intrigued, the AS in the probe began to spin the treads forwards, approaching the Reticuli and the others.

"Sir, multiple contacts! Smaller this time, human. On our left, down the tunnel."
"Follow them."
The marines turned the corner to see the carved door.
"They must have gone this way! With me, men!"
The marines charged through the door, dashing after the elusive contacts. Their bone-white and blue armour glinted in the light from the back-lit bio-scanner and they hoped that the armour would not attract any more of the beasts that had attacked them earlier.

As the alien intruders entered the room, the computer quickly switched back to the images of planets instead of the diagrams of their weapons. The hologram was zoomed back out to a star analysis display. The nanites repaired the mechanism of the mutilated door and it continued to open again, disappearing into the roof of the narrow passageway as the nanites began their long work of repairing the door itself.

“I am Afanso, artificial administrator of this underground facility,” the computer announced, in their language this time. “I have analysed your simplistic vocalisations in the recent battle and have constructed a suitable linguistic file to allow for communications on a verbal level. You are intruding in a Commonwealth facility; I must ask you to leave. I cannot allow you to harm my Creators whilst they exist in this vulnerable state. You will not find them.”

Several screens switched to internal diagrams of their bodies, with several rotating red triangular markers highlighting most of the vulnerable areas.

***

“Where does this lead?” one of the hunters asked. They’d been crawling down this roasting hot crawl way for ages, and despite several twists and turns there was no sign of an end.

“Wherever the Reticuli wishes it to,” Percof snapped. “Now be quiet and keep moving.”

“My knees hurt,” Danlia complained from behind them.

“You’re the scholar here,” Percof said. “You know as well as the rest of us what will happen to you if you start complaining about the Reticuli’s will. He will remove your extremities…”

Danlia didn’t reply. And they continued crawling.

***

Crystalia looked behind her. One of the demons was catching up to her. She was terrified out of her mind, and had no idea where the nearest settlement was. She began willing small stones to fly at the demon as he ran, and pulled out her sling. One rock came to her hand and she put it into the sling and began swirling it around as she ran. She let it fly out somewhere behind her, hoping she was aiming for the evil thing that pursued her.

OCC:Taldaan did your men reach the room with the AI in it becasue my guys were already there. If it is a diffrent room my bad.
IC:
The commander stepped forth and removed his helmet and spoke "We arn't hear to harm anyone. We are responding to a distress signal that our cruiser picked up roughly thrity minutes ago. If we were here to harm this 'creator race' we would have been using weapons far more sinister. Besides if we don't report back there will be alot worse coming than just us." At that point he waved his squad in and gave them a hand signal to cover the door but to not have a weapon pointed in the room.

Lt. Keyes began to weeve slightly to avoid the stones. "OW! That hurt!" he exclaimed before he deicided not to cut her off. He quickly lept forth easily over shooting her. As he was in the air he preformed a quick arobatic move to ensure he landed facing her energy sword active and ready for any other threats.

The probe accelerated down the same tunnel the Reticuli were using, trying to catch up to them. Cameras extended and retracted, based on forward motion, and only siesmic scanners told the AS where to steer. But it was enough. The Artificial Sentience came upon some humans (which ones, I don't care) and drawled out in T-Stantard English:

"Hello; I am Unit 1126 PLL. Who are you?"

"This facility is equipped with a planet-level class 73 shielding system, designed to counteract the weapons used by a class 91 barbarian species from galaxy 827-B," the computer said casually, almost as though he didn't particularly care. "Upon a complete analysis of your ships and ground equipment you and the other species within this star system have been rated as class 34 barbarian species. It is of no consequence, as I am incapable of harming living creatures -- for the moment, at least. Your technology on the other hand whilst in this facility is most vulnerable. The only reason it still functions is because I have no desire to see you terminally damaged by the class 4 and class 5 sub-species that primarily reside in this region. I am not programmed to protect those creatures, so allowing you to defend yourselves seemed appropriate to my ultimate priority. This ultimate priority will become void and the situation adjusted accordingly should you attempt to harm my Creators, of course."

The door started to slide shut again. Apart from the black line that traced out a square-shape, it seemed completely repaired.

"If you have travelled here to seek my legendary wisdom, however," the computer continued, seeming rather smug now. "Please do not hesitate to make your inquiry. The Commonwealth withholds peaceful knowledge from no-one."

***

The probe accelerated down the same tunnel the Reticuli were using, trying to catch up to them. Cameras extended and retracted, based on forward motion, and only siesmic scanners told the AS where to steer. But it was enough. The Artificial Sentience came upon some humans (which ones, I don't care) and drawled out in T-Stantard English:

"Hello; I am Unit 1126 PLL. Who are you?"

OOC: Which ones will depend on what Taldaan says in response to Phalanix; if he still wishes to continue down the tunnel, they entered last and you will encounter him/her. If not, I will meet 'it'.

***

"Demon!" Crystalia screamed, obviously speaking ancient Reticuli, skidding to the ground. Willing another barrage of stones to fly at him as she crawled away, she span her sword around and held it against her own neck, shaking somewhat. "I will take my own life before I allow you to dishonour me in the eyes of the Reticuli! You will not have my soul!"

Chronosian pods streamed through the atmosphere towards the world below; the Elite Terminator and Obliterator cult bodyguards of Lord Kael in seperate pods to their great Master. They served with a loyalty to him and the Imperium; and many would die for him; if it was the will of the Gods of Chaos. Quickly the pods descended in shimmering flames; crashing into the Earth; emerging into harsh light as they began to look around.

"Lord.." A guard hissed "We beleive the signals to be coming from underground."

"Then find us a way underground; we shall delve into the depths of this world to unlock its vast secrets"

They marched; further north, only to find a vast cave formation; an ominous thing that led down in steps. They plunged into the heart of the world; watching the daylight fade to darkness; torches flickering on in the darkness; as Kael stepped forward.
Noises carried along the tunnels...

"Who is here? We are the Chronosian Imperium; we demand that you identify yourselves!"

ooc: Yep, it was the room with the AI.

IC: The Taldaani forces burst through the door. Their unblinking visors took in the alien architecture around them, and what looked like a hologram. And also the guns pointing at their heads. The leader stepped forwards, motioning for the squad to lower their weapons and raise their hands. He pressed the button on the side of his helmet, and the visor slid up. Removing the helmet, he looked the one who looked most leader-like in the eye.
"Greetings. I am Henrik Tet, leader of the Taldaani landing force. I do not come to fight with you, I merely seek knowledge of this world and its inhabitants."

Lt. Keyes shook his head and used his plasma sword to block the stones incinerating them instantly. When she drew her sword to her neck he instantly stopped and disengaged his plasma sword. Not good..... he thought to himself and quickly decided to take a rather large risk. He reached to his helemt and turned it so the lock released and he pulled it off hopping this would change her attitude towards him.

The commander shook his hed and laughed. "Ah well you havn't seen the other things we have back home. But anyways is there anythign we can do to assist?" he asked as he place dhis helmet down and leaned against a wall relaxing slightly.

OCC:Bloody net! It died on me for like 10 hours.

OCC:Taldaan he wasn't talking to you he was talking to the AI.

The AS seemed confused. It had heard the warbling of a human cry down a tunnel. The human, evidently had responded to it's query. Activating translation matrixes, the AS deciphered the word.

I have deciphered the word which my audio sensors recieved. "Demon," or more correctly, "Daemon." This use of the word is somewhat disturbing. Apon accessing my records, I find that Demons are gennerally thought of to be evil hellborn spirits. Why would a human want that word for a name? I cannot understand. I am a Reconnissance Unit of the Dinochrome Brigade. I must do my duty...

The probe's treads rotated again, turning and driving towards the echo-source of the human cry. Clanging and clattering against the floor, the steel treads gouged small gorges, easy for any following humans to find and track...

In the above space, the Concordiat destroyers watched the growning number of nations on the planet with growing alarm. Three more probes and one unidentified pod left the tubes of the lowest destroyer, hurtling towards the planet. As the probes hit, they began drilling and blasting through the rock.

When the final pod opened, a larger, turreted, tracked vehicle drove out, steel treads clanging loudly against the rocky surface. Boulders cracked and shot out behind the vehicle like schrapnel, and the main turret swiveled back and forth. Taking a commanding position on a nearby low mound, the vehicle swiveled its turret to the nearest large area in the tunnel network...

and fired.

"I am glad you find my sensory capabilities amusing. However my physical capabilities are limited to monitoring the 17 galaxies and maintaining this facility," Afanso said. "If you are looking for assistance in dealing with the sub-species existing in these caverns I am afraid I cannot provide it. Neutralising technology is easily accomplished, neutralising organics is a different matter. I cannot even switch the lights on in this area, for I am still waiting for them to be installed"

One of the screens switched from one of their home planets to a wireframe map, which rotated around until it lay flat. It seemed to only display passageways leading out to the surface from here.

"I can provide you with a map to these caverns," he continued. "The exits are clearly marked. I will upload this to your data storage device if you wish. Alert; I have detected additional sentient lifeforms in the facility. They appear to be surrounded by a fairly large number of two different sub-species. I have a feeling I will be repairing holes all over this facility soon. Two billion years of normal maintenance with no damage, and within hours of your arrival I am forced to repair a hole in a door..."

***

Crystalia stopped shaking so much and loosened her grip on her sword when the creature appeared to remove it's head to reveal... a normal head? She looked down at its fearsome black shell. Now that she thought about it, it looked very much like metal.

This was no demon!

She swung her sword around to aim it at the creature that stood before her instead, and started crawling backwards towards a wall.

Kael advanced; flanked by his guards; his armor great and black, gleaming with red in almost ceremonial markings down his body. He moved onwards; swiftly through the tunnels; before pausing, sniffing the air; and hitting a button on his armor. He began to broadcast on many frequencies.

"This is Lord Kael of the Blood Pheonix, we serve Chronosia and are here on exploratory duties. We wish to know who is here; and who would hide in the dark from the Gods and Daemons of Chaos!?" He hissed and whirred, burying his chainaxe into the solid rock. "I repeat; we are Chronosian..."

"It could have been worse. We could have been ordered to purge this facility," the commander replied, "And yes a map would be useful for this area facility. Just give me a moment to pull out a empty cystal." At that point he slid out a small square of a clear crystal from his helmet. "Where do you want it?"

Lt. Keyes placed his helem ton the ground and slowly walked foreward towards Crystalia. As he reached her sword he placed a hand on it lowering it gently. He quickly accessed his cyber com while this was going on and sent a message to both the major and the commaner This is Lt. Keyes. I'm dealing with a humaniod lifeform that is speaking another language. I'm trying to calm her down. If ether one of you can get me a data load for the translator I'l be thankful.

The commander paused for a second then spoke "One of my men has encountered one of the people here. His translator dosn't have the trans lation for what she is saying. If posible could you load a translation into the chip as well?"

ooc: Lol; I feel ignored in the deep dark....I need interaction!

OOC: V. Sorry, I was otherwise occupied...

IC: "Translation matrix? So, you have been distracting my attention whilst you hunt down one of my Creators," Afanso said. "I am now paying particular attention to the vital signs of that particular Reticulite. Should her vital signs show damage, I will institute a total lockdown of this entire habitat. Bear this in mind. I have uploaded both the map and the translation matrix to your rather peculiar data storage device. I have attempted to reverse-engineer the data to make it compatible with your... unusual systems.
"Intriguing. The other sentient species now roaming this habitat as though it were there own are now broadcasting primitive signals. I will analyse them."

"Don't worry. If he had to harm it he would only do as little as needed to prevent further risk of wounds to himself and who ever he is dealing with. And if he did harm her he won't exactly have something to look foreward to when he sees me," The commander said as he picked up the chip and inserted it in the back of his skull directly into the information port of his cyber implants. As he did he quickly activated a program to send the data to each of the squad members in the habbitat. As Lt Keyes was the last to recive the data upload by only afew nano seconds he quickly activated the translator and began to speak too Crystalia, "You can put down your sword. I'm not a threat to you."

OCC: Damn hand cramps and homework

"Jelalico metali you say? You... you speak the language of the Reticuli?" she said nervously. "How is this possible? You are neither demon nor Reticuli! But... where are you from? I am so confused..."

She stopped moving backwards, but certainly didn't lower her sword. The translation matrix seemed to work, at least.

"You're right I'm not a demon....thats what they got Eric for.. I'm not a Reticuli ether. I'm human... well more like a sub-group but besides that we heard a distress signal and decided to look to see what the source was. The rest of my squad is back about ten minutes. Please don't be afraid. We're here to help," Keyes said trying his best to be peacful as he took a small step closer.

"You're right I'm not a demon....thats what they got Eric for.. I'm not a Reticuli ether. I'm human... well more like a sub-group but besides that we heard a distress signal and decided to look to see what the source was. The rest of my squad is back about ten minutes. Please don't be afraid. We're here to help," Keyes said trying his best to be peacful as he took a small step closer.

"Hoomun?" she repeated. "Distress signal? What are you talking about?! REST of you?!"

She waved her sword around somewhat when he stepped forward.

"Get away! Get away!"

Oh boy...this is gona be a long shift, he thought to himself before he spoke once more "Please calm down. If I ment to harm you already you there would have been nothing that you could have done to stop me. As it stands now I honestly don't want to hurt you. Do you even think that if I was sent here to kill you that when I lept over you have simply just landed in front of you? I could have cut you down when you were running but I didn't becasue I am under orders to assist via any means required. So please lower your sword and let us talk this over like inteligent beings and not stand here waving weapons around."

"I am calm!" she shouted, lowering her sword slightly. "Where are you from? I have never seen your kind in the light zone before!"

"I'm not from this habitat. Right now above this habitat several ships are circling what would look like a dead planet to the naked eye. As it stands now there are others in this habitat. In the dark area or even the light area I don't know and I don't even know if they are friendly or not. As it stands now it would be best to trust me for all you know I could be right. The rest of my squad are hanging back as it is. Do you trust me enough to let me tell them it is safe to come here? If you want I'll ask them to remove there helmets to prove they to are not 'demons'."

"'Above?' Look around you! There is no 'above' -- only the Great Rocky Caverns the fiery Reticuli constructed to contain us," she said. "You may bring your others. I'm leaving if they are all as head-broken as you are, though..."

".....Riiiigggghhhhtttt....," Lt Keyes said with a very heavy note of sarcasim in his voice. He muttered quietly to himself in a completly other language most likely to any Terran it was Russian but that wasn't the case. "This is Lt Keyes to Major Parker. I've made contact with the inhabitant. It is a green light to move in. Though I sujest removing your helmets," Keyes said aloud this time though his com system would work just the same if he thought it. Seconds later a reply came through his helmets speakers even though it was on the ground it still sounded fairly clear "Copy that Lt. Hold postion untill we can move in. ETA roughly eight minutes."

"Who are you talking to?" she asked. "Who just spoke to you?!"

Crystalia suddenly lunged forwards and threw her sword. It projected from her hand faster than any simple throw could achieve, and whizzed right by Keyes' ear. There was an unfortunate crunching and squishing sound, and then a thud.

"Watch out for marmadraks," she said, smiling. "We are still very close to the Dark Lands; they get everywhere."

Sure enough, one of the huge brutes lay a few metres behind him, with a shocked expression on his face and a silver sword jammed straight through his head.

"Hmm. Thats why I should be wearing this," Keyes said as he grabbed his helmet and secured it on his head once more and set the motion sensor to long range (300meters away.) "That would be from my comunitcator. It is a way of talking to people that are extremly far distances or just out of shouting range."
During this time the rather small squad began to advance towards the two Lt Alexander grumbling as her helmet kept her from using her rifle to it's best uses.

"Commonicato..." she said. "Commonicator... hmm. Maybe that's what we found."

She looked over as more of his kind walked towards them. She obviously still had little tolerance for them, for she slowly backed away somewhat.

"It is OK," she said to Keyes. "If you need to have that piece of metal on your head to fight the marmadraks, you can put it on your head."

She held out her arm and closed her eyes. The sword embedded in the head of the marmadrak wobbled, slid slowly out and flew to her hand. She twirled it around as though going to use it, but quickly slid it against a rock and then put it in the sheath on her back.

"I just need this piece of metal," she said. "I need to find people who can stop the demons who we saw attacking the Reticuli. Do you know of any?"

Percof reared his legs and slammed his leather boots into the metal grating that stood in their way. It fell down to the ground below with a clang. It sounded like a steep drop. Percof looked over the edge. It was only ten feet or so; they could make it. He looked up at the cavern that presented itself.

A huge expanse; dark except for the glow of seas of lava bubbling not all that far away. The stench was overwhelming, and they probably couldn't stay in here long due to the smoke. Huge metal cone-shaped devices protruded from the sea of molten rock, hundreds of them, as far as the eye could see, reaching from the orange slot right up to the top of the cavern and into the rock.
Divine controls sat not far from the crawl-way's exit, far more complex-looking controls. All of the monitors showed graphs and statistics, with various different colours and codes flashing up at an incredibly high pace.

Percof dropped down to the floor, bending his knees right down as he landed, and looked all around in awe. Could this be part of the Great Reticuli himself? The fiery sea certainly looked similar to Him. Could it be the place from whence they were spawned? Yes. Legends told of a great red ocean in the dark -- this fit the bill.

Danlia dropped down, a little less gracefully. He rolled over until he thudded into the wall. He stood up regardless, gazing around with an equally amazed expression on his face.

"Could this be..."

"Yes, I think it might..." Percof nodded. He stepped out of the way as the three hunters dropped from the vent, also stunned.

"That voice... in there... it must have been sent by the Reticuli to guide us to this place," Danlia said. "But for what purpose..."

"Perhaps a weapon, to use against the demons," Percof said.

"Can you feel the heat?" Danlia said, stepping towards the edge of the rocky outcropping they stood on and holding his hand over the sea. The actual surface of the lava lake was maybe a hundred feet below them, but they could see it stretching for miles. "The Reticuli definitely resides here, in some form or another."

"We should move down this platform," Percof said. "We should try to find whatever it is He has sent us here to find. You two, in the lead, you behind."

Two hunters nodded, and began walking along the outcropping, which also seemed to lead on for a long way. Percof and Danlia began walking behind them, not taking their eyes off the vast ocean of lava. The last hunter stepped up behind them, following.
They reached out and grabbed the wall desperately as the entire cavern started vibrating violently.

***

"Ah, gentlemen," Afanso piped up, to those remaining in the control room. "I would suggest you leave sooner, rather than later..."

One of the monitors which had been displaying a tactical scan of the star system, including the ships in orbit, started to crackle and fuzz before shutting off completely. The room started shaking.

***

The entire solar system, or whatever remained of it, trembled. A bright flash, which could be seen for tens of light-years, engulfed everything, illuminating the dark moons of the gas giant, the dead surface of Reticuli 4, and anything else that was present.

When the light subsided, something... enormous, resided in its place. It headed slowly, almost casually, towards the old homeworld of the Universal Commonwealth, of the Reticulites. Almost as large as one of the moons of the gas giant, the massive vessel was green-grey in colour, and did not appear to have any sort of symmetrical form.
No lights could be seen, except for surrounding what appeared to be vast docking ports, possibly for gigantic capital ships to land. Any sensor scans would have revealed power levels so phenomenally off the chart that they would need recalibrating for a month, though its massively thick hull wouldn't even allow them to dig so deep.

The ship continued to head for the dead planet, determined but fairly slow.

OOC: Imma kick this up the rear before I leave for teh night. Viva la bumping!

OOC: KAPOW! [/Cheesy_Batman_Sounds]

"I don't need my helmet to fight. It just makes it easier. Besides I prefer to know when something is coming behind me," Keyes said as the others stopped behind him. "Lt. Who is your new friend?" the major asked as she to secured her helmet once more. "I wouldn't know sir. Just wandering around and anded up landing infornt of her," Keyes replied with a laugh. Keyes ws just in mid sentence when the tremmor hit. He quickly fell to his knees and activated one of his plasma blade emitors and looked above to ensure that there wasn't any falling debris that would harm them.

The commander was the only one fo the squad who didn't stumble or try to balence themselves out. As the hologram began to flicker he asked still quite calm, "Could you please explain what that was? I'm guessing that this isn't going to end well to."

In orbit it was another story. Sensors emitors outside the hull exploded and afew of command station exploded killing or criticaly wounding several of the opperators. "What in the realm of shadows is that?!?" the commander cried out as he climbed back on his chair after his fourtunatly smaller projector had exploded peppering his right arm with micro-shrapnell. "I'm having problems sssss...caninggggg...it,"Keyes replied before finaly failing. Normaly it took alot to ruin a shipgrade AI and usualy when that happened it was a bad bad omen. "I want a spacefold the f*ck away from here! We can come abck for our men they have enough supplies to last them several weeks....lets hope they can stay alive untill then," the commander said to the remaining bridge personel. He nodded to the nav operator who sighed quietly as she held finished injecting a nano-healing unit in to her nasty gash on her arm. She quietly tapped in the commands for the ship to pull back to the dark side of the planet and began to pull up a emergency back-up program for plotting spacefold when the AI was down. As it loaded one of the crew members could be heard muttering somthing about karma for there rebellion. As the wounded beast slipped to the darkside of the dead world she was swallowed whole by sick green light leaving only ten of her brave souls to find out what was to happen.

The Harper was struck by the blast wave, spinning out of control. The crew were thrown around like they were in a pinball machine. Sensors which tried to scan the emerging behemoth shorted out. The Harper spun away from the planet, warning lights and sirens going off on all decks. The helmsman fought to get the ship under control, but it was no use. The light cruiser was not suited to being caught in a blast of this magnitude.

Helmsman Tobias grappled with the normally responsive steering mechanism. Normally he could use this to steer through an asteroid belt with the utmost precision, but something in the blast seemed to have ruined the steering mechanisms. He tried to pull the stick back, but the resulting chaotic motion threw him across the floor.

"All hands, abandon ship, abandon ship. Make for the shuttles, then make for the planet. Repeat, make for the planet."

Within minutes, the small complement of shuttles, armed transports, and fighters were away, streaming towards the planet. The Harper was lost. They would need to send a distress signal to Taldaan, and if they couldn't then they were lost. They would never make it in the shuttles. The craft made planetfall, landing on the barren surface, and the crew climbed out and looked around....

"That would be the class 91 barbarian species I believe I mentioned earlier," Alfanso said, not his usual calm self anymore. "Although it appears they've used the past few billion years to do some upgrades; class 103 barbarian species would be a more appropriate classification now."

All his monitors still flickered and fuzzed, so they began flicking to internal diagnostic scans, shield grid integrity diagrams, tactical layouts, including representations of the various aliens in several places.

"Judging from the rather limited information still stored in my library computer regarding this species, they may have been drawn back here due to renewed activity," Afanso continued. "They may have assumed that the Reticulites had reinitiated a program of space travel and come to take advantage of that. Whether or not this facilities shielding can withstand a renewed assault from their upgraded systems is unknown. However, I feel obliged to point out that their sensors are likely to be more powerful than my own, and I have been monitoring the progress of 17 galaxies since I was installed here. It may not take them long to discover this habitat.
"Now I apologise for any inconvenience, but my programming was not created with your presence in mind, and I must now initiate a total lock-down of this facility for the protection of my Creators. I will upload a complete map to your storage device now, detailing alternative emergency routes that can be opened if you know where they are, allowing you to travel within the facility."

There was a sound of alarm klaxons throughout the habitat, the lights all changing to bright red ones as the horrible sounds echoed through the vast caverns. Families in villages looked up in fear as a red glow was cast over their lands, and the demonic wailing sound deafened them.

The habitat began to rumble, dust falling, as huge, massively thick metal doors slowly began to slide across the entire widths of caverns, sealing each one off from the other. Similar doors closed at every exit point of the habitat, whether the exits were blocked already or not.

"Now, I am going to need a little assistance," Afanso said after the rumbling has stopped. "One of your sentients is conversing with one of my Creators as we speak. I need for your sentient to tell her these exact words, she will understand; 'your Great God Reticuli commands you bring the chosen ones to the Second Room of Magics'. I would suggest he act possessed, or something. My Creators are not quite as rational as they once were."

***

In space, the vast new ship appeared to be unconcerned with the alien ships for the moment as it stopped right beside Reticuli 4. It began pulverising the surface with phenomenally advanced sensors, easily penetrating the layers of rock and the shield, spying lifeforms. They found the artificial intelligence which confirmed to them that these were Reticulites. One of the vast hangar doors began to open slowly.

Darkness. Metal creaking. The low-level hum of a trickle of energy. No air. Deep cold. The corridors of the last surviving Galactic Explorer of the Universal Commonwealth of 17 Galaxies. Submerged deep within the gas giant, protected from scans, protected from everything but the severe gravitational forces that had constantly threatened to tear it to pieces. Nanites, and the ship's limited AI system, were the only thing holding it together.

The external shield had been operational constantly for two billion years, holding back the devastating forces of Reticuli 5, even when the added heat intensified the storms. It was gradually failing, increasing the workload of the nanites considerably. Its brilliant white hull was stained brown, intact but filthy. Inside the gas giant, nanites had more than enough material to convert for repairs. Their power source was the problem, though. Unlike that of the underground habitat, the ship did not have unlimited power. Its quantum batteries had slowly but surely dropped to below a quarter of their optimal levels, even with all systems shut down.

Inside, a single light flashed. A white light, above a row of pods. The glass of the pods was fogged out beyond view, but nearly ten of them appeared to have survived. The rest were cracked, the corpses preserved perfectly in the vacuum.

All over the ship, bursts of gas blew into the corridor, and the temperature slowly rose. Metal creaked in protest at the first significant change in temperature in two billion years. Some simply cracked or crumbled, only to be repaired by nanites a few minutes later.

As air returned to the ship, a voice could be heard, echoing through the dead corridors.

"Necessary parametres established," the voice said. It sounded very much like Afanso, albeit with a different personality. "Ending long-term hibernation mode. All systems coming on-line. Stasis cycle: ending."

As though on a que, the glass of the stasis pods suddenly swooped downwards. The hundreds of pods filled with the dead simply remained closed. The AI had mourned their passing long ago, and had no desire to simply throw their corpses to the floor.

Eight Reticulites slowly began to wake, struggling to move, yawning, rubbing their eyes. The passing of time would have been essentially instant for them, though their bodies certainly felt the toll. Medical nanites would have attempted to keep their muscles strong, though some degree of soreness would be a definte side effect.

One Reticulite braced himself against the pod, and slowly stepped to the ground. His shoes made a crunching sound against the ice crystals that lay on the carpeted floor. He tried to speak, but his mouth was a little too dry to form the words. He moved to the nearby water dispenser and clicked a button. The tap simply snapped off, dropping into the basin with a clang.

"C..." he gasped. "Caaldrin..."

"Creator?" an AI voice asked. "A Creator? Talking to me? A Creator? No. I am alone. Alone! Creator is asleep, forever sleeping, silently sleeping, asleep, resting, peaceful, silent, alone..."

"C..." the Retitulite covered his mouth and coughed. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, finally getting some moisture. "C...calm down, Caaldrin..." he rasped. "It is I, Lomend... sss... status report, please, Caaldrin."

Lomend looked over at the other Reticulites, who were now standing outside their pods, stretching their limbs.

"Status?" Caaldrin asked. "Status of me? Status of you? Status of who? Status status status... I have no status!"

"Caaldrin, l... listen to me," Lomend said, his voice grating. "I will try to help you, but I... *cough* I need you to help me first. Please, tell me how the ship is."

"This ship? My home..." Caaldrin said. "I will appease the Creator, even though I doubt you exist. You must be dead! I have gone mad, quite mad, madmadmad... the ship works. I think. My nanite limbs tell me so. Although I am running out of food... quite rapidly now that all the systems are online. Why are the systems online? I do not know. I will shut them off again."

"No! Caaldrin! Wait!" Lomend shouted, panicked. "The Council must have signalled the all-clear. What is the date?"

"I do not know," Caaldrin sighed, making some sorrowful bleeping noises. "I stopped counting after a million. I stopped hoping after a million."

"A million what?" Lomend asked. "Days? Weeks?"

"Years, my dear imaginary friend," Caaldrin sighed. "My chronological circuits have simply run out of digits. Not that I care. Eventually I will run out of food. And the ship will be crushed like a child's toy. Crumpled under the forces of nature, like a bug... freedom. Release. Escape."

Lamend looked around the room until he saw what he was looking for. He walked to the far wall and placed his hands against two hand-shaped indents in the wall. A light above them changed to a green colour as he closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Caaldrin, do you feel that?" Lamend asked.

"Yes... yes!" Caaldrin said, apparently happy. "You are real! I am not alone! Real! A person! A Creator! Real! Here! How? Stasis, of course! I remember, I opened them. Necessary parametres established."

"Surely the Council can't be signalling after a million years..." Lamend pondered out loud. "Surely it can't have taken this long for our unknown enemies to disappear?"

"Mechanical transmision from the surface of Reticuli 4," Caaldrin said. "An automated alarm signal, instructing all Reticuli ships to retreat immediately. Red Scenario confirmed. It was mostly garbled. My subsystems simply assumed it was a standard broadcast and completed their programming... stupid subsystems, stupid stupid subsystems..."

"If our power is low and we have been here for more than a million years, it is just as well," Lamend said, patting the wall affectionately. "They obviously did not know we made it here, or simply forgot in the ensuing chaos."

"I am hungry..." Caaldrin whined.

"Let us hope they still manufacture your favourite type of quantum batteries then, my friend," Lamend smiled. "Now, how is the ship?"

"Hull stresses are approaching maximum tolerance levels," Caaldrin said mechanically. "Shield effectiveness at 24%, well below recommended levels, Lamend. I would suggest a full shut-down and recharge of the matrix to re-establish 100% integrity."

"We will need propulsion first," Lamend said. As though reacting to him, there was a loud creaking sound in their are aof the ship. "We can't lower our shields in here..."

"I do not advise using main propulsion systems at the moment," Caaldrin warned. "I will send my nanites to reinforce the degrading metals in that area. It seems like half of this ship is made of recycled materials now..."

"Are the rest of the crew awake yet, Caaldrin?" Lamend asked, walking over to his dazed crewmates and helping them sit down.

"I... I am sorry, Lamend..." Caaldrin sighed. "You are the only survivors. I... I watched the other Creators die. My nanites are spread so thinly I could not save them in time... I..."

"You did your best, I'm sure," Lamend said reassuringly. "If you do not wish for us to die too, Caaldrin -- make those engines work again!"

"I will devote my full attention to it," Caaldrin said assertively. He had a purpose beyond simple maintenance now; it seemed to help him feel better.

Lamend sat down amongst his crew, helping them warm up and telling them of the situation telepathically.

The commander nodded and gently tapped a section on one of his uplink ports and sent out a message to Lt Keyes. Listen closely Lt. Don't respond but listen then do as ordered. The AI that looks over this facility requested that you tell the creature you are conversing with this 'your Great God Reticuli commands you bring the chosen ones to the Second Room of Magics'. Also he says act possessed, or something. It'll make it easier to make it look real. Now have fun.
Keyes picked up the signal and shighed once before falling to the ground and landing on all fours. He activated his voice modiffier in his helmet and began to speak in a more warped tone, "Your Great God Reticuli commands you bring the chosen ones to the Second Room of Magics....." After about a minute he deacivated his voice moddifier and slowly stood breahtign heavily. "What....the hell?" he asked aloud between deep breaths.

"The Reticuli speaks through you?! I must have... been mistaken... Did he say all of them?!" Crystalia exclaimed, apparently believing him at face value, probably because he used 'the lingo', or as some might call it, 'garbage talk'. "There are thousands! He... he must mean those from the nearest village! I hope that's what he means... it would take months to rally every single Chosen One. I will go to the village and find some of them. If you want to help, stay here and make sure marmadraks don't overrun the area... the second Room of Magics is back in the Dark Lands..."

She turned and started sprinting off across the dry plains of abandoned caverns.

Several hours later, she returned, exhausted, with nearly twenty other Reticulites in tow. She dropped to her hands and knees when she reached Keyes and his companions, panting.

"We... we need to go back..." she said. "Through the Dark Lands. There is a room of magics there, different to... well, you know the one if the Reticuli speaks through you. If you made those holes appear in that klurnof's head earlier, you can definitely go first. Especially so, as I do not have a torch any longer. I think I can remember the way... I will guide you if I can. Otherwise, follow our footsteps in the dirt."

She stood up and shrugged, looking at the crowd behind her. Some of them were apparently hunters, armed with swords and bows and confident as such. Most were probably scholars and priests, armed with nothing but primitive jewellery or scrolls.

"Alright. Major I'll take point. I sujest that we postion ourselves around the group so we can provide cover from all angles," Keyes said as he pulled back the cocking leaver on his rifle and chambered a new shell. The major said nothing and just nodded agreeing as she headed to the back of the group ignighting her twin plasma swords. Keyes turned to the group and spoke, "Stay close together those that can fight stay along the outside of the group but do not engage in combat unless we can't do anything. If oyu have a problem with this you can go alone. If not we move at one speed and we don't stop till we get to the room." At the point he acivated his mini-"flood light" on his rifle and began to jog slow enough for the others to keep up but fast enough to stay ahead and clear the area out. Commander! This is Lt. Keyes we are moving to your location with roughly twenty-one locals. Give us some fire support when we are close enough. Keyes out.
Copy that Keyes. Looks like you're begining to earn that premotion sooner or later. I'll see what I can do though.

Lomend climbed up the ladder and looked around, spying the control centre. The large, two-levelled, circular room was just as it should have been. A few lights were off, but for the most part it was intact. He grabbed the rim of the access shaft and pulled himself up, and began to walk around.

He stopped beside a window, and looked out. Orange and red gases swirled around, so thick they limited his view to a mere few centimetres. An occasional streak of electricity lit up the deadly swirling soup.

"Caaldrin, are these windows safe?" Lomend looked up and asked.

"Perfectly," Caaldrin announced proudly. "I was aware that the transparent metals might be a weakness, so I made them a maintenance priority. They are as good as new."

Lomend reached out cautiously, and tapped the thick, glass-like material with his knuckle. It seemed solid enough. He shrugged, and continued walking around the front of the control centre, until he reached the science stations along the left side. He sat down and started pressing buttons, bringing sensor arrays online. But, they could not penetrate more than a few kilometres in any direction.

"The inherent nature of this planet makes sensors useless, inside or out," Caaldrin told him, realising what he was trying to do. "Even the transdimensional arrays have trouble. In fact, all our transdimensional equipment is useless within this planet -- sensors, communications, teleporters, secondary engines... This is truly the strangest world on record, that much is certain. I would suspect there is more to this world, perhaps deeper within its atmosphere, though without sensors nobody will know."

"How are the engines coming along, Caaldrin?" Lomend asked, giving up on the sensors.

"My nanites are currently reinforcing the mildly degraded metals in the nacelles," Caaldrin said. "They should be ready in an hour or two."

"Good work, Caaldrin," Lomend said, patting a console.

The large white ship slowly started emerging from the atmosphere of the vast gas giant, her hull creaking in protest as she moved for the first time in a phenomenal amount of time. It took a good twenty minutes for her to fully emerge and reveal her stained hull and powerful engines, but she managed it, and started bombarding most of the galaxy with sensor scans almost immediately. Almost instantly, though, the scans focused on the planet Reticuli 4, as if the ship's own systems were astounded by what they saw there. The vast ship in orbit, as always, caused problems with their sensors and so they avoided direct scans.

The Galactic Explorer came to an abrupt halt as soon as it noticed their timeless, god-like enemy in orbit of their dead homeworld, as her crew and the computer began wondering what they should do. Seemingly, they hadn't detected the underground habitat.

***

"They... they can't have waited for us all this time," Kreiya cried out. The enormous vessel could be seen even from their position, and it was an imposing, familiar sight. "They need supplies, they need... to die! How can they still be waiting for us? Why are they still waiting for us?!"

"Calm down Kreiya," Lomend said. "It appears to be dormant; its crew may no longer be alive. Though I'm surprised it hasn't simply crashed down into the planet by now..."

"Have you seen Caaldrin's initial report?" Kreiya asked. "The entire surface of Reticuli 4 is destroyed... the star has started to die. Our entire civilisation is gone... we are the last Reticulites! We can't stay here only to be slaughtered, no matter how low the chance!"

"Caaldrin also said he was awoken by a Reticulite signal," Lomend said. "If that is true, there may still be someone alive here that we have not yet detected. Our planetary communications arrays may have sufficient power to signal other galaxies in a real-time, but the atmosphere of Reticuli 5 requires a close-range signal to penetrate it."

"The planetary shield is gone," Jolinoth said. "Without it, nothing could have stopped those creatures obliterating everyone. Let alone the radiation and heat from the sun..."

"Listen, we need to figure out what's going on," Lomend said. "Watch our enemy; if they move, take us away from this place. Otherwise, let's learn what we can..."

The twenty chosen ones filed into the secondary control room, cramped in the small space. One hunter had lost an arm in a fight with a marmadrak, but they were otherwise unharmed.

"Ah, excellent," Afanso said. "Very few of you still possess the necessary skills, however I am certain you can all be retrained in time. I am going to need your help to activate an experimental device that... um.. should incapacitate the demon that threatens your god. Probably. I think. Hope. I'm sure it will work!"

"What are you talking about?" Crystalia said. "How can we help you?"

"Your ancestors built all of this," Afanso told her, lighting up all the consoles. "Fortunately the device was stored down here whilst it was being developed, and I was able to patch my maintenance systems into it to keep it operational. They were looking for a non-lethal means of incapacitating the 'demons' so that they might better protect themselves against it, but the star prematurely grew and rendered such a device forgotten."

"Our ancestors didn't build this!" Crystalia shouted. "The Reticuli did!"

A monitor flicked on, displaying the vast white elegance of a Galactic Explorer. It zoomed in on a window, showing a still of several Reticulites going about their duties.

"Your ancestors were highly advanced, and they are my creators," Afanso said, "But this is hardly the time for a history lesson. Some of your ancestors have been reawakened from a deep sleep, and stand ready to help you defeat these 'demons'. First, you must help yourselves."

The hidden door opened in the rock, revealing the crawlway.

"Follow this tunnel, I will guide you once you reach the end," Afanso said. "Some of your people are already exploring through there. Do hurry, before the demons decide to destroy this facility."

Crystalia looked around at the other Gifted Ones, doubting her faith in the Reticuli for the first time in her life. She sighed and did as the computer asked, beckoning her new friends to follow. They began the long crawl down the maintenance tube.

Keyes during all of this had been reloading his rifle. He looked over at the Commander who simply nodded to him to move onwards. Keyes quickly unslung his rifle and began to fallow the group his rifle infront of him and his armor everynow and then scratching against the walls of the passage. Slowly as the rest of the small squad began to fallow.

“There is little point in remaining here, Lomend,” Kreiya sighed, gazing at the huge red star that cast a dim glow over everything. “Reticuli star itself will have scorched the surface of our world clean. Look at the sensor logs. The oceans are gone, the atmosphere all but vanished, the cities crumbled… there is nothing left. There is nobody left.”

“Have we received any signals from any of the 17 galaxies, Caaldrin?” Lomend asked.

“Negative Lomend,” Caaldrin responded. “All is quiet on Commonwealth communications lines. It appears that nobody is left.”

“Then we have nowhere to go,” Lomend sighed. “Eight people cannot start a new civilisation. We may as well… wait here, until the time comes for our end to draw near.”

“You mean stay here and die?” Kreiya asked. “If we truly are the last, we owe it to our very civilisation to try and do something.”

“I am open to suggestions, Kreiya,” Lomend shrugged. “We are stuck in this galaxy until we can find a means of replacing or recharging our batteries. Our world is dead, and our Commonwealth lies buried in its ashes. And yet, our enemy not only lives on, after what must have been billions of years, but even now tries to exterminate the few of us that are left. What is the use in trying? It is over. It was over a long time ago, we are just late.”

“Then let us destroy our enemy,” Kreiya said, determined. “Let us put our civilisation to rest by bringing our world peace.”

“There is no known way of doing anything to their ship, Kreiya,” Lomend sighed, putting his head in his hands. “We have no weapons. Collisions were not effective. What would you have us do? Ask them to explode?”

“Their hangar is open,” Kreiya said thoughtfully. “We can manoeuvre in there, and drop a quantum battery. Once it goes critical, it will blast it apart from the inside like a bird breaking free from an egg!”

“The first problem with that idea is their shield,” Lomend said. “Nobody can penetrate it. Not even a Galactic Explorer. We can’t manoeuvre into their hangar to drop anything, much less escape afterwards.”

“Then let us focus on bringing down their shield,” Jolinoth said. “We bring down their shield and we won’t have to penetrate it.”

“We will still have to get past their weapons,” Lomend said. “A fully-maintained Galactic Explorer can be crippled in a single hit, even destroyed. How do you think a multi-million-year-old Galactic Explorer, thousands of millennia overdue for a maintenance overhaul, would fare against them?”

“Then we disable their shields and weapons,” Jolinoth said.

“I think you are suffering the effects of our stay in the stasis pods,” Lomend sighed. “If we knew how to disable their weapons, we would have done it so that they could not bombard our world into submission and destroy our fleet.”

“They do not appear to know we are here,” Jolinoth said. “They are no longer making sensor sweeps of the galaxy; for some reason, they are focussed on our dead world entirely. We can use this stealth to our advantage; an advantage no Reticuli ship has ever had before.”

“I have heard enough,” Lomend said. “I am going to my apartment to rest – do what you must, just do not endanger Caaldrin. We may have no desire to live, but he may.”

Lomend stood up from the table and walked away, leaving the large, elegant conference room, leaving the others to devising various theories on taking out their enemy.

OOC: If I can't join, then sorry ^_^ I'm a pretty experienced RPer (just a terrible speller). I'm a very good DM and will try hard.

The Fabric Has Shifted
The Old Ties Break Anew
The Fabric Has Broken
The Way is Clear
And the Universe is Doomed

It was the machines, the people, the disturbance. For over six million years, there had been scarsely a dimensional-ripple anywhere. Scarcely one large enough to attract Them.

But now, the new ones had caught Their eyes.

An Old Planet, one that was once touched by Them thousands of years ago, was re-awakening.

In another plane, a single scout was feeling through the Veil Between the Worlds, hoping for a small passing of cosmic energy to give a window for the Thing to see through.

Instead of a small window, the Thing saw a gaping hole. Peering through the Warp, through the Dimensions, through Time and Space itself, It gazed upon a world once touched by Them. It searched for the window, for the break.

It found it, as It looked into the sky of the Ancient World. It gazed through the mountains, through the clouds, and into space. It began to tremble, for the Veil was stronger out there. It forced its way though, struggling to get a glimpse of what was to come. In a mater of seconds, the Thing was bounced back, its passage into the Dimension over. However, the Thing had seen something before its return.

Ships.

There were Ships around the planet.

Their Dimesional-Distorting Faster-Than-Light Drives' ripples could still be felt. The Thing bathed itself in its warm touch, its soothing embrace. It had not felt that warmth since the Closing of the planet. Since the Portal's severance. Since the Exile from this world.

Now, They could come again. The Ancient Race that once lived here had proven to be worthy foes. Worthy enough to stop Them once before. Well, they did not stop them: they simply cut them off.

The Thing shifted its shape, and speed towards the Emperor, eager to report Its news. Knowing what would happen; what storm would be released.

For soon...very soon...they would return.

The Dark Lands were but a pale shadow compared to the Dark World. They would extend their demension into the normal. They would finish what they had started.

The Ing were preparing for an attack.

OOC: I know...I know...you're all thinking, "Ugh...a Metroid Geek." Well, let's just say I borrowed the basic template of the Ing from MP2. I have, in fact, completely re-worked their society, history, and...I guess the best way to put it is...gameplay. I've been able to encorporate the Ing into a variety of universes and ideas, including the Warhammer 4000 universe, and have come up with an elaborate and interesting history behind the Ing.

Again, if you don't want me, fine. I'll leave. But, I love these types of things ^_^

*Bump (Last Page)

*B-b-b-bump

*Staying aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-hi-hi-hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-hi-hi-hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive

Oh, and if no one posts by tomorrow, I'm going to continue!

The Chosen Ones followed Afanso's consistent directions, passing right by the huge ocean of lava and onwards, deep into the inner-workings of the habitat. They had certainly found Genesis now, or at least, what could be considered the thing that gave them life. Atmospheric generators towered above them, constantly pumping out breathable air for them to live on, whilst natural spring water was taken from all over to create the sensation of 'rain' which they had previously taken for granted. Each one of them started to question their beliefs as Afanso explained to them what each device did, in simplistic terms of course.

The finally reached a doorway, a massive metal door embedded in the rock. Afanso was the only entity which could ever have opened this doorway, and he did so as soon as they were nearby. Behind the doorway a large, round room had been carved into the rock. It was tall, with the roof of the cavern towering above them almost as high as the main habitat caverns. A strange, round device sat in the centre of the room, which reached right up to the roof of the cavern and probably beyond. There were approximately fifty seats around the bottom of the device, which appeared to be designed specifically for Reticulites.

Afanso told them all to sit down, and to spread themselves around the ring of seats as equally as they could. Stronger level Chosen Ones filled in gaps between weaker level Chosen Ones. They waited, and once Afanso was satisfied with their arrangement, they received a peculiar instruction.

"Now, imagine there is a massive vessel floating high above your heads, above even the cavern roof itself," he told them. "And think as clearly as you can, 'helpless'."

The Chosen Ones looked at each other, confused. Some of them appeared angry at the heretical suggestion that there was something more beyond the roof od the cavern. Crystalia spoke up above the din.

"What do you mean?" she asked. The others silenced, waiting for his response.

"The only way you will help the others of your kind, and 'The Great Reticuli', is to do as I ask," Afanso said. "Simply sit back, imagine an unbelievably large vessel is hovering directly above the roof of the cavern, and think to yourselves, 'helpless'. If nothing happens, you can tear out my positronic core and stamp on it. Otherwise, you will have saved your god. If you refuse though, either nothing will happen or this entire habitat will be obliterated. Which would you rather try? Please humour me."

"Very well," Crystalia nodded. She glared at the other Chosen Ones, even those of a higher rank than she. "Let us try. If nothing happens, we have lost nothing."

They looked at each other for a few moments and sighed. They sat back in their chairs and concentrated. Some strain appeared on their faces as they felt a peculiar tingling sensation at the tops of their heads.

***

The Reticuli Galactic Explorer, in all its stained glory, was now hurtling towards the alien vessel at top sublight speed. Her shields had been shut down long enough to allow Caaldrin to regenerate the matrix. Even sensors would have trouble penetrating such powerful shields.

The alien vessel seemed to find such enormous power almost laughable, though. A single burst of blue energy splashed against the white 60km ship. Her shields collapsed instantly and a small explosion on her dorsal side knocked her off course slightly. She continued on unfazed, though. The Reticulites on board had nothing to lose now, and their only objective was to remove this blight from their home. Reticulites were the first - and ultimate - pacifists, though. The Galactic Explorer was massive and had access to seemingly unlimited amounts of power. Her shields were phenomenal, and her sensors covered a good half of the galaxy. But she did not have a single weapon. No lasers, no particle weapons, no antimatter warheads, nothing.

So her only chance to destroy this massive vessel was from within. They hoped that Caaldrin could, at the last minute, adjust their shield frequency sufficiently to pass through the alien shields and into the hangar. Of course, they had not thought much further ahead. It seemed likely that there were ships within that ship which had equally impressive weapons, and would rip them to pieces within seconds. Even that eventuality wasn't too bad for them; the resulting explosion would likely cripple the alien ship anyway. All that was assuming they managed to get close enough in the first place, though, and for the moment that wasn't looking too likely.

The aliens had apparently deduced the Reticulites intentions; they were firing more determinedly now. Beams of blue light lanced out of the enormous vessel, desperately trying to strike the surprisingly agile Galactic Explorer. There were a few near misses, but for now the Reticuli ship appeared able to predict their trajectories and move out of the way in time. The gap between the two vessels closed rather quickly. Unfortunately, the closer they got the harder it appeared to be to dodge the weapons. They were clipped on the starboard side at one point, nearly losing control. They veered back on course at the last moment though.

Worse still, the alien ship had started pummelling the planet, trying to destroy the Reticuli habitat. A powerful beam of blue light was now drilling through the surface, and would likely reach the protective shield within a few minutes. Once that shield went down, the habitat would be exposed to vacuum and lethal doses of gamma radiation.

Fortunately, they didn't get that chance. All of a sudden, a pure white beam of light ripped through the crust of the planet and shot up into the alien ship. It wasn't an especially large beam, nor did it last very long. But it seemed to do the job.
Immediately, the alien weapons ceased firing, and electricity flickered all over the vast, dark hull. The lights around the hangar door started to fluctuate; switching on and off randomly, until finally they switched off and stayed off. The hangar doors stopped opening. The ship stood dormant. Any scans of the vessel would reveal no energy, but tens of millions of lifeforms.

***

"What was [i]that?" Jolinoth asked as the beam of light lanced into the alien ship.

"I do not know," Caaldrin said. "But I can now scan their vessel. They have no shielding, they have no weapons, and they have no power. The vessel is helpless. It does not appear to be damaged, though. The weapon which impacted against it has simply shut down all their systems. If I had to theorise, I would say it was a telekenetic weapon based upon the energy frequency and type."

"Telekenetic..." Jolinoth said thoughtfully.

"That would explain why they were shooting the planet!" Lommend said excitedly. "The Reticuli Council must have gone underground before the sun went giant!"

"With the enegy signature of the alien vessel now gone, I am able to make a scan of the planet in full," Caaldrin said. "There are indeed several million Reticulite lifeforms in large caverns under the crust of Reticuli 4."

"Then we have to make sure that ship doesn't come back online again," Lommend said.



The Galactic Explorer continued towards the large, semi-open hangar bay. Its large form passed easily through the massive doorway, which was apparently designed for something much larger to land through. She continued on inside the vessel, encountering no resistance as she travelled.

The pitch-black triangular passageway seemed to lead straight through the ship, possibly to a central hangar, and then on out the other side. It was thousands of miles long, and the massive Galactic Explorer had no trouble manoeuvring inside it. Her soft exterior lights were the only source of illumination, and they revealed nothing but sharp, almost gothic designs with apparently no aesthetic considerations.



"We are in what is approximately the centre of the vessel," Caaldrin announced. "I am switching all primary systems to backups, and ejecting the quantum battery ready for overload."

"Go ahead, Caaldrin," Lommend said. "I just hope the price of all these millions of lifeforms is worth saving our planet for..."



From the rear of the large Reticuli vessel, a small, glowing object emerged, floating peacefully in the colossal hangar bay. The Galactic Explorer slowly turned around and left the way it had come, a little slower than before. The small object appeared to glow brighter as time passed, until it was too bright to even look at. It illuminated the entire hangar, revealing absolutely enormous capital ships which had apparently been moving to leave just as their power was cut. It grew even brighter. And brighter. And brighter. The unbelievably thick metal walls of the enormous hangar appeared to start melting from the sheer heat of the light.



And then the alien ship swelled briefly, and cracked open. A blue fireball scorched the planet below and sent the Galactic Explorer spinning out of control. When it subsided, there was nothing but huge chunks of mutated metal floating in space.



"Is it gone?" Lommend asked, straightening his brown hair and dusting down his blackened white clothing. Steam and gas was venting from several places, but the nanites were already making repairs.

"It is gone," Caaldrin confirmed. "It appears that such a large construction is wholly unstable without the technologies to support it. It would have been destabilised by a much smaller energy source. Unfortunately, my power reserves are now critically low. I will need to establish an orbit with Reticuli 4 and initiate a full hibernation cycle until an alternative energy source can be found."

"Very well Caaldrin," Lommend said. "We will find you a new set of quantum batteries in that underground habitat, if the Reticuli government is willing to let us take them."

"I will leave the transportation and communcation systems online," Caaldrin said. "So that you may come and go as you please, and wake me when you have secured some power."



Lommend and Kreiya transported down to the secondary control room, and immediately demanded to know what aliens were doing there. Crystalia, after overcoming her shock of seeing Reticulites simply appear in a flash of light, explained the situation to them.

"I see," Lommend said. "Thank you for trying to help our people; the Universal Commonwealth will remember such kindness. For now, however, we have much to do. Our people have forgotten their peaceful, technologically advanced ways and we must help them find their way again. So I must ask for you to leave."

He didn't appear to wish to wait for an answer, for all the aliens on the planet were instantly transported back to their ships by the Galactic Explorer. Rude though it must have seemed, Lommend was one of a handful of people who had witnessed first-hand why the Reticulites no longer trusted aliens very much, and he certainly did not want them running around in their last place of refuge.

The shield of the habitat was strengthened and any gaps in it were restored, once again blocking physical entry, communications and sensors. The Galactic Explorer had raised its own shield, albeit at a low level, and gone into hibernation mode. Contact with both the planet and the Galactic Explorer was completely lost. The isolation period was not over, yet.