NationStates Jolt Archive

“A Darkness now comes to this world, where the Eldest One dwells. Deep now it is as it corrupts the hearts of mortals and binds it with temptations of long life, power, and wealth. Yet, to a far more terrible end do the Eternals fall to this Darkness for they freely chose and follow it with the ability to repent at any time, but through their pride do they continue with no remorse and their fall is far more terrible. For that now the end of this Darkness must come it their been any hope left for the remains of the Elder races and for the future of those yet to come to their own.”

The days of old are now over when the golden age of the Eternals had lasted for billions of years and they had achieved peace and balance in the early universe. During those years of peace the Eternals flourished in art, science, and their bliss ever increased until the sundering of the Eternals and the emergence of the Dark Eternals in the civil war of the Eternals.

For in that civil war did the Dark Eternals were exiled from the Eternal Empire and forced out of the bounds of all good sentient populated space. Yet, when they were forced out they were brought into a galaxy of warring creatures that were strong, but feel quickly into the slavery of the Dark Eternals where they became their warriors and were forced into other galaxies to wage war and add even more man power into the Dark Eternal Empire.

So after half a billion years of conquest and mutating their slaves they launched a bloody invasion of the Eternal Empire in which they tested its strength and that of their own slaves. In the end they were driven back from all worlds, but the Dark Eternals gained far more then the Eternals could have fought from the invasion information wise. After, that they resumed their conquest of more galaxies to add more power to their dark empire.

Then half a billion years they were contested by the Gaians in a far away galaxy on one of the Dark Eternals wars of conquest. In that conflict the Dark Eternals drove back the Gaians to their home world where they had thought victory was theirs when a combined fleet of Eternals-Gaians-and a number of other peoples had come and had severely damaged the Dark Eternals fleet which caused them to have to go into a route. Yet, within a short while the Dark Eternals had rebuilt their fleet to be far stronger and began to prepare for a new war, but where?

______________________________________________________________________

Then a few centuries after the Gaian invasion the Dark Eternals now launched a new refreshed invasion of the Eternal Empire with a force of unheard might. Bringing in their fleet was a force of untold trillions of slave soldiers who were mutated beings and genetically altered species, of which many were nearly demonic in nature and only nature, was to serve the Dark Eternals.

With their immense force the Dark Eternals drove into Eternal space and encountered scattered resistance to their invasion. Then the Order of the Eternal Watch was deployed in coordinatation with their division of the Eternal fleet. So being lead by their Eternal masters their forces managed to hold off the Dark Eternals until nearly half of their Order was destroyed by the Dark Eternals which resulted in the Eternals themselves involving themselves to counter the Dark Eternals.

During that time the war lasted for a long while until the lord of the Dark Eternals himself arrived which resulted in them being driven back and which resulted in the Dark Eternals driving towards their ancient home world in an attempt to face down the Eternals. As well, they had the hope of achieveing an ancient belief that they had.

OOC: This thread is fairly open and TG me to join if you want more info on this or help understanding this. As well, if you want just leave a descent opening rp with you showing up at a battle for example. Also, anything further post on the OOC thread. By the way this is based on a thread from a year ago and some of the older rpers might remember it.

OOC Thread: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=505245

The ninety plus year period of silence the Ascendancy was about to reemerge from, had direct implications from the original DE invasion that nearly gutted the Sphere. Between it, and the Eternal War, the fifty year period of constant strain that culminated with the Treaty of Tranella-Rei, which ended up beginning the Prolonged Silence Age, hindsight as historians point out, the Ascendancy had ample reason to prepare all this time.

The Fourth Great Expansion was in fact a different way to proceed with the counterinvasion in a unique way. Diplomacy was as quiet an invasive force, as could overt force could be. All the distractions of recent make were in fact done to distract the Dark Eternals, and keep the eyes of the Dark Ascendancy averted as much as possible from what was going on under the veil of peaceful Sphere life.

The time was closing on on a ripe peeling of the falsehoods and change history. From a Sphere point of view at least.

However the Sphere was too wide eyed not to miss the new moved the Dark Eternals made against their more enlightened foes.

And from what, despite cloaked queries between the two nations for the offer of Ascendancy assistance, the Eternals seemed (again) not wanting help again. ever as stoic as history suggested.

All the Excellency was informed however, was that when the time was right, the signal from the Eternals would signal when the assistance would be warranted.

What that signal was to be however, was making even the two hundred year monarch sweat in his robes.

---

Aleaic was in fact looking at Comm-Orb strategic signals data from a recent query of the present battlelines, and from what he could tell, a near replay of their own dire straights some one hundred and seven years earlier during the DE invasion of the Sphere.

He hated being on the sidelines like this...

"I know, I hate the waiting too."

Aleaic looked over at Azusa, as he and Ryoko watched the fresh expressions of worry crest the King's face. Aleaic only sighed like a horse. "No, not this much.

Damn the stubborness of the Eternals."

"Yeah.." ..was only the utter from Ryoko.

The only reason he didnt violate Eternal space to assist them in the end, was because Aleaic knew far too well that the near full weight of the DE assault meant almost the full bulk of the DE military was being used. That, and the positioning of the preparation for the Expansion all but fell into the Gaian's plans near perfectly.

Sending help and causing a DE premptive assault now would screw up too many things. At least, not until this signal was shown at least.

If done right, everything would change.

....if done wrong, everything could end.

"Just...." ..Al says, flinging the Padd onto the Council table in disgust behind him, the loud clack of syntha-ploymer rippling in the chamber.. "....just keep an eye on it all. And inform me when the last peices are in place."

Azusa nodded. "Don't worry, the Angelics share your angst."

The two military commanders left, leaving an emperor to lonely ponder.

On the city of world of Ferioa the forces of the Eternal Empire were fighting under the command of Master Erio leading a contingent of the Eternal Watch in the defense of the world which was important because it held an important route to the Eternal home galaxy and therefore it must be held at all costs so as to prevent the direct invasion of the Eternal home galaxy.

Down on the planet’s surface the battle was raging in the ruins of the city as hordes of slave warriors and demonic like mutants roamed the streets in a horror film like scenario. With the planet swarming with these mutants the most experienced soldiers in the Eternal Empire were fighting them to little avail as their ranks were being thinned out, despite killing a number of enemies by a far large number, Yet, the deaths of so many caused a force of the Eternal Watch to field, having been trained directly by the Eternals, were able to push by the Dark Eternal forces for a time.

Then in space the Eternal fleet had pushed by the Dark Eternal forces from the system and would be able to prevent this world from falling after losing many billions in it defense.

Within the Dark Eternal Empire a still very powerful force compromising about 2/5ths of the Dark Eternal fleet remained inside of it in order to defend it and act as reinforcements. As well, a large army had remained behind for basically the same reasons as the fleet.

From within their invasion space the Dark Eternals began to push towards the Eternal home galaxy in the hopes of conquering the heart galaxies of the Eternal Empire while they were at it so to compromise the Eternals war effort.


A message came form the Eternal home world reading,” The final stroke of the hammer comes; the anvil now has been set in place for the strike. Yet, the air needs respite in order to prevent the hammer from striking.”

"You see this?" A Gaian angelic comm-tech called over an advisor, with the latest of the incoming data from the Eternal war zone. Cloaked Comm-Orb unit clusters kept relaying anything coming in from the vast area, with a taxed comm staff feeding the data to the Stragetic Centers on many of the Core Worlds.

A staff commander walked over, an Avian of seven hundred thousand years of age and wisdom, and looked at the indicated data packet...

:: ~ ”The final stroke of the hammer comes; the anvil now has been set in place for the strike. Yet, the air needs respite in order to prevent the hammer from striking.” ~ ::

"~ Classify it and send it to the Homeworld, we'll see if.... ~"

---

*Palace War Room Center*

"....this is what we're waiting for?" Utsutsumi asked with a quizzical tone.

Aleaic looked at the same text of the communicae, but wasn't fully convinced yet. "Keep listening, but also put parts of the plan into action.

I'll inform Intracel."

He left the room, wondering if this could finally be it. It was hard to tell.

On the Eternal front a new fleet of Eternal ships engaged the Dark Eternal slave fleets and was able to hold them hold them off from advancing into the heart galaxies of the Eternal Empire. As well, they held off they brought in infantry reinforcements trained to fight the terror of the mutant hordes now being deployed against them on the front lines of this bloody conflict.

Yet, for that victory the Dark Eternals had taken another galaxy in their conquest killing many trillions of civilians and soldiers that were on the worlds they had conquered and had not fled the worlds before they fell.

Another message was sent,” The fire spreads throughout all and needs to be defeated to save all. Though water fights it; rain is needed to destroy it.”

:: ~ The fire spreads throughout all and needs to be defeated to save all. Though water fights it; rain is needed to destroy it.” ~ ::

---

Belldandy happened to be the more insightful one this time, as the message was recieved a few weeks later. "I think this may qualify, it sounds strained enough."

Tsunami adds in, the Council in session. The tactical data from the war front now a focus of the Sphere effort. "Well, it sure looks like they need serious help, they'll lose another three galaxies in a week at this rate, and threaten out security along the Virgo Vector axis."

In attendance was representatives of the Angelic Host Wrathcost Legions. "((~ Only the word is needed, if we are to act. ~))"

Still however, Aleaic was not convinced, for only one reason. One alone. "It was three of the Holy Words that uttered when we unleashed an event once. I want a third before we fully act.

Anvil's and rain cannot forge fully, we need the solid material that is forged."

Misaki from afar blurbs.. "Um, can we do without the phrases and such? If they need help, shouldn't we aid those that saved us once?"

Aleaic nodded. "This is more than just about saving a friend.

If we do this right, the Dark Eternals are gone forever. Hence, why I drafted this...." ...he tossed a single ivory colored Padd across the table, which Washu caught first and looked at it. She read and then echoed Misaki's sentiment.

"Dear light man, just ask a stright question instead." ..which got a few half chuckles. Aleaic nodded. "Just send it...

...if the return is what I suspect the message may be, then the plan will finally fully begin. And I'm dead serious about this folks."

there was no objections this time.

---

*Sent into open space, (generally into the Eternal Empire's direction.) *

:: ~ If there is an anvil that needs the rain, what is the last element the forge requires? ~ ::

---

Secretly, a vast legion of the pent up military might of an empire long dormant begins to stir with vast anticipation. Every last resource was readied as if one great body was waking up.

The war in the Eternal Empire became more dire as the Eternals were becoming to be spread to thin to fight such a vast force. As well, more and more soldiers were being lost to the sheer numbers of the hordes of the servants of the Dark Eternal Empire. Further, the Dark Eternals deployed some of their most horrific slaves to the battle now, yet they had created a number of true monsters that would soon be deployed.

The Eternals replied with this message,” The fire now burns to meld the steel, the water is there to temper the steel, and now a skilled hand is needed to shape the steel to its desired outcome.”

It was late at night, a sleepless one for some reason for him, as Aleiac paced the currently lonely hallways of the Palace Tree, the normally bustling Palace and city below it at a state of calm.

It was a cool but not cold night, near the overlook where he paced.

Aleaic knew something was up.

He had been like this for a bit, when a quiet cough caught his attention, as a female aide came up and bowed. "Something?" ..he asked bleary eyed.

"Lady Yurika is asking for you in the Fleet Office."

After a perfunctory bow, Aleaic made calm haste to the upper levels, where Yurika and a near dead half asleep Akito waited, his head bobbing like a (well..) head bobbing toy.

Yurika saw him enter after he knocked, and a handed over Padd decoded a few moments ago by Command Center was perused just as stoically as most others. It had been another few weeks since the Council meeting, and all the preparation only could go so far.

The trigger was now being read. Aleaic, after a moment, knew that the Long Silence was now over.

"At 0900, wake everyone and have 'everyone' meet me for a special Council session.

Get some sleep, you'll need it." Aleaic ordered Yurika, and she silently nodded her head. Akito was somewhat awake enough to note this moment.

One where the Third Age ended, and the Fourth began.

No one suddenly slept well that night. the first in a hundred years, mutually.

The Eternals now began to be pushed back by the Dark Eternals on the fronts closer to the Eternal holy home galaxy. Then they Dark Eternals encountered the older races of the Eternals Empire who were far mightier then mortals and were also far more skilled in combat then the other soldiers of the Eternal Empire, save the Order of the Eternal Watch, the Dark Eternals had fought before.

So in these galaxies the older races fought the Dark Eternals forces with great ferocity and nearly drove them back before the Lord of the Dark Eternals arrived and they were forced to flee before him in all of his terror. The older races now fled to their home worlds which would be to costly to take before the campaign ended so the Dark Eternal forces just passed them up for the time.

In the Eternal home galaxy the Eternals were preparing the dimensional energy device so not to allow the sheer trauma of the battle to come to affect this dimension which could cause untold destruction. As well, they began to assemble the defenses of their galaxy and gather all soldiers and ships that could be rallied or spared. Also, in the Eternal home system the device of ancient times was activated which would kill all mortals who enter it to be vaporized.

*Tokrisia Prime, Itro Galaxy - Outer Galactic Band Zones*

A single world amongst tens of millions within Sphere space and dominion, one that still exists despite an age old scar and trauma still present, one with a marker as a grave reminder of what was lost here.

The world was just now becoming ariable once more, just gaining full atmosphere again, whence the results of the Dark Eternal invasion over a hundred years ago. The whole world was a reminder of more than just air that was lost here..

...a tenth of a meager fraction of the citizen souls that were stolen from the ancient invasion zone, never found, and now expectantly lost to whatever twisted forms of warped thinking the DE could concoct.

The marker was singular, the world that lost the most percentage of all the abjected planets assaulted in such a manner. 100%, no single soul escaped the horror here. A pillar of triangular crystal and opal marble, pointed towards the stars, where somewhere they all ended up.

Inside that effidece, a single teddy bear, amusing as it is wretching to note, of a child that suffered the same as all the rest of the millions here. The child most likely wasn't human, but rather a Soluus, a fur covered being of exceptional ingenuity. The child could have easily been a physician, tech, or a hundred million other options in the Confederacy.

Could have.............................

At the mark where history began the Fourth Age of the Ascendancy, the Third was remembered by present of Lady Belldandy's careful placement of a gray rose, another genetic marvel, for a sad moment, as well as a marker for a turning point.

Arashi and Keiichi kept watch, all three in environmental suits, as the rose was placed, starting to shrivel in the alien atmosphere, not yet able to hold back toxic elements properly.

It was a portent for another's long held anger.

Sadness and anger were finally welling up again after being forced down for decades. The tools were ready to serve measure for that pent up wrath.

Even though they were as peaceful as any of their citizen souls, the three were knowing too well why they were here.

"One of you, will come back here and remove this rose. I promise you that. Somehow...." ...came from a rare steel in Bell's voice.

She wished she could be the one that could hold that truth in her heart to complete. Instead, it would fall to others, far more angry in heart.

---

He stood afore the Six Arch-Angel's of the Host, a mere day after the announcement was made. A Lord Excellency at the command of these Six, and their limitless numbers. Added to their original own, enhanced by one hundred years of preparation, was of a long help promise finally being called upon.

He kept it simple... "The conclusion of all this is our mutual freedom from this Contract. For that to pass, the Dark Eternals as a functioning empire, must die.

Are we in agreement."

The Patriarch of them all present spoke for.... "~ By our numbers a thousand fold, will we aid this last struggle. By your command Master. ~"

Aleaic had his last piece laid, now he needed to ensure the plan was finalized.

Over fifty Superclusters were about to be liberated, and he would not have any faliures at all. Tolerance was no longer in definition here.

Only Vengance................

A large Dark Eternal fleet had been mobilized due to an expected counter invasion of their territory by one of any other of the other forces. As well, they began to awaken a number of their most foul creations if they were invaded.

In the Eternal Empire the ancient warrior people of the De’dri who had long served as the defenders of the Eternal Empire now went to war to defend the Eternal home galaxy and to prevent an invasion of it. So now they grabbed their ancient axes and went to war.

Then on their very home world was invaded by the Dark Eternals where they had come as soon as they heard they were entering the war. Then the De’dri fought to their death for their war and they managed to hold off the Dark Eternals for a very long battle. Due to this the Dark Eternals deployed some of their most powerful servants who managed to equal their enemy in combat and thus using superior numbers they began to decimate the De’dri.. Then as they approached the tower of their king their was heard the sound of flute and lutes as the guard of the king and tower combined in singing to fight the invaders. Near the Tower these De’dri went to war against the invade and destroyed thirty times as many of their foes before they were all destroyed after this their resistance was crushed and they began to flee. Yet, in the end only a twentieth of their whole of their people fled the destruction of their home world. With that now they fled to the corners of the Eternal Empire in the hope to gain help…

That defeat caused the Eternal forces to be dismayed and the abandoned their posts before the Dark Eternals. Further, the Dark Eternals now began to launch attacks on the Eternal home galaxy itself and were begging to pierce the outer defenses of the galaxy.

The War Room Center was packed, not only here, but in every major FACAF Command and Republic StarFleet center across the entire Confederacy and Core Republic realms.

The eye of trillions were waiting for the Breifing. Lord Azusa was finally back in his element. But it wasn't only the lay Dimensional realm that had his eye, but those in Intracel as well. The numbers then listening and watching, lost all count to be sane to attempt.

The knowledge of the fall of the De`dri was fresh in his mind as he was about to begin the presentation of Operation Paladin. His voice began with a sharp mithril blade. One with a sharp call of attention that ceased all murmur across a billion worlds. The Hikari Secure Network was being incredibly efficient, traversing his voice over terminus distances with immediacy.

"His Majesty says it is time. I will tell you all what will be done for it."

Azusa gave a nod to Ryoko, who input a few commands into a comptroller unit, the display shown across the vast distances just as quicky.

"What you see here, is the plan to end this war once and for all, in less than eight weeks.

Despite the sheer size of our force, I expect absolute strict detail adherence to this plan of operation. All time tables as you are about to see at your respective unit levels of command, are flexible enough for small commands, but absolute at the high echelons, so no complaints."

Azusa laid out the largest liberation campaign plan that could ever be concieved.

"The Eternals are losing their war with out mutual enemy. And it's obvious what will occur next if the DE win. We have the call for help.

And we will send all we have. Over ten billion Corps of combined Sphere, Confederacy and Angelic-Ancient troop forces are slated for this, and you will not see this thing happen ever again, so we're making this count.

The objective is the eradication of the Dark Eternal Empire, no short changing. Either they cease as an entity, or we all will. And I have no intention of seeing my daughters die from this, so we WILL win this, and win this with precise and calculated strikes.

Each galaxy across the entire Lamba through Zeta object Supercluster zones of invasion, will have each galaxy be comprised of at least 20,000 full force Fleet Group Legions and Corps. All CAG and FACAF Universes are heading each major through of each Supercluster campaign.

Don't bother doing the math. If we do this right, the DE will be overwhelmed on every front, and not be capable of a counter, even on our Core Galaxies."

Azusa let the moment sink in. Then continued. "The prime objective of Operation Paladin is to take the pressure off the DE by sending core units to attack the DE command base at it's tip, and disrupt communications with the rest of their Alpha Universe commands. We'll also give the Eternals time to counterattack and take the fight to the DE core, at the same time that a simultaneous main thrust strikes each of their held Superclusters.

In one week, the command will be either destroyed or severely crippled. If they try to reform their forces in anyway, anywhere, they will find Phases Two through Ten to ruin those plans.

It 'is' why we have over ninety percent Angelic compliment after all. We're using it all, and make sure we do this all right the first time. We're not doing a second run at this. Whatever end up left of the Dark Eternals, will be dust to work with, as their mountains will be turn to sand under foot.

All of them...."

Funaho nearby only rolled her eyes at the silly analogy. Azusa however continued.

"When the jump signals are given, everyone has to be ready, because everyone will go at once. Projections are, within the first forty-eight hours alone, fourty-five percent of the DE will be destroyed. Twenty percent more within another week.

We're not giving any room on this. This is nigh genocide for an enemy that seeks the same. Do not hold our usual tenants of compassion to heart. The Excellenecy reminds that twenty billion of our citizens were stolen from us at the end of the last war.

We're going to find them, and burn the criminals responsible into entropy. We can repent sins later, after we have ensured the safety of our citizens everywhere for once and for all.

Now... all respective commands have thier specific operations orders. Please thumb and eye screen your security codes to open your dossiers and objective lists.

You have one week to be ready. You've had a year to train up as it is. Training is over."

At that, the Sphere read their mutual orders of war. They just hoped the Eternals could hold out for one measily week.

-----------

*Excellency Offices...*

"I trust you will be able to do this. We need to warn them in some manner."

Tenchi looked at Aleiac with a tic of worry. But he knew Aleaic was serious about this. He wasn't alone, as Tenchi had a good sized group with him.

"So, just get to the Eternal Homeworld and send a message in person?"

Ayeka asked bluntly. "And if were captured?" Ryoko laughed at this... "Then we deserve to lose this war. We can do this."

Aleaic tossed a white-crystal data rodd to Tenchi. Yosho looked it over in his hand. Al explained.. "No matter what, don't let that fall into DE hands. It has our entire plan and time table. The Eternals must be informed of this so as to know what to expect.

Just get it to them, then get out. I'm sending my best team in there, so screw the DE under their very noses, will ya."

Tenchi nodded, and pocketed the rod into a storage cap. "You got it."

----

So many knew what to do, and the Gaian's best were doign their part as they Folded out on a plain looking GXP cruiser, for the Eternal Home Galaxy.

Aleaic waited as only a leader could now, and wonder if everything would fall as expected. Tsunami came up and held him from behind at the Palace Outlook, as the world around them prepared for war.

The fighting in the Eternal home galaxy had now turned into the most horrific conflict that the universe had known for untold centuries. On the outer defenses of the galaxy untold billions were dining every hour as they fought for their respective sides. As well, the fleets of both Empires now were fully arrayed and giving ever ounce of their strength to the battle as all knew that this part of the war would determine the course of the universe’s history for billions of years to come.

Yet further with their Dark Eternal master’s now bearing their will directly on their servants nothing, save the Highest One, could force them to falter in their assaults, save death of all of them. As well, they now brought up their demonic mutants who instilled fear in except the bravest and more disciplined of the soldiers of hr Eternal Empire. Added they now were joined by small units of the Dark Eternals who destroyed any lesser being in their path as easily as a human crushed an ant.

When the news of the Gaian messenger was brought to the Eternals they decided to defend the ship as they had brought strategically important information. As well, they provided a large fleet to escort the ship to the Eternal home world, but where warned that if any people outside the grace of the Eldest One and not born immortal would be vaporized by the shield that now encircle the Eternal home system.

The tiny vessel, splayed amid the large number of remaining Eternal vessels, seemed all too tiny of imprtance to bother with.

"We that popular?" Kiyone asked, as Ryoko piloted the XGP corvette. "Hey, I say party when we get there."

"Let's save that after we survive." Tenchi commented, as they had to contend with the Eternal 'shield'. He flicked a switch for comms.. "Well, if we can't land on the Homeworld, got a place we 'can' go to? We don't have the luxury of time."

"Maybe they'll have us send it in the mail?" Mihoshi quieried kind aout of place. Kiyone groaned. "What century are you still living in girl?"

Tenchi ignored it all and waited for a response.

The fleet of Eternals opened a warp portal which brought them outside the shimmering blue shield which now encircled the entirety of the Eternal home system. As well, they now brought they began to pass through the great shield as if it did not affect them in the least of manners. Further, the shield seemed to envelop the ships as they passed through it and the shield seemed to shoot off the ships as if doing a scan on them as they passed through the massive shield.

A message was sent by the Eternals to the small ship,” You may pass through as the shield will not harm you in any way and be warned if there are any stowaways they shall be destroyed by the shield.”

Tenchi commed back bluntly... "All hands accounted for are present on this bridge deck. We need to make this quick by the way, so pardon our need of haste."

The Gaian corvette shot through, waiting for a final terminus to deliver the rod to.

As the small Gaian ship approached the Eternal world the world seemed to gleam as if it was made of a combination of precious stones and metals. As well, the world was surrounded by a fleet which seemed to be stars in the sky and the small ships around them tiny planets which circled the greater ships of the Eternals further the actually sun of the planet was emitting the shield that surrounded the system and the shield seemed to be supplemented more so by extra-dimensional generators of untold power.

Then a message was sent to the small Gaian ship by the Eternals which said,” You may land on the world and please follow the coordinates that we give you which shall bring you the palace of the Eldest One of the Eternal peoples.”

After that message was sent the ships began to perform which seemed to be maneuvers that led to the outer areas of the solar as if they were preparing to fight against a great coming host of his foes. Further, a dark presence seemed to flow through the system, though the Eternal home world provided a strong relief to this, and this dark feeling could signal none save the coming of the great dark lord of the Dark Eternals who might could not be matched by any being of lesser age.

Just after the transmission, Ayeka suddenly turned behind her, as on similar instinct. She drawls out... "I think we.... better hurry....."

Tenchi loks back and then turns and throttles toward the destination in as short order as engine physics allows. They arrive in said short order, and quite fully rush out of the vessel just as fast.

The crew of Tenchi, Ayeka, Ryoko, Mihoshi, Kiyone and Yosho arrive, expecting to find an immediate escort.

----

*White Diamond/Sapphire*

At that same moment, a simple signal, hidden in trillions of electromanetic boosted signals through the Hikari Net, reaches Command Central, the last peice in another long laid out puzzle.

The Techs get it to Lady Funaho, decrypted and on a Class One red colored Padd. She recieves, and delivers on foot from her Intellegence Center, to the Council Chamber. Aleaic with his wives are handed it, and a short read gives exactly what Al has been waiting for.

He looks up from reading it, (while his wives continue to do so..) and commands to those in hearing.

"Operation Harvest will preceed Operation Paladin by ten hours. Activate 'all' assets in both superclusters on time."

Funaho nods and heads off at the head of several aides to the Command Central outside the Chamber.

Amara stared at the view from outside the craft. For the last couple years she had gotten used to the sights through her window on Ejiot. Her training had been intense, as she had shown the most promise of the original 280 trainees and of the any of the numbers that had followed them over the first year.

She became the highest trained non-Eternal member of her chapter, and had trained under the direct teaching of one of few Eternals on the monestary world.

So when the fighting began and the chapters of the Eternal Order had been called from across the empire, she was placed in command of the Edan Chapter under its Eternal leaders. Then a ship came to collect the chapter and take it to where them to where they were needed.

Their destination she did not know. What she did know was that her masters' fate was not certain and soon all they had taught her would be put to the test.

Just after the transmission, Ayeka suddenly turned behind her, as on similar instinct. She drawls out... "I think we.... better hurry....."

Tenchi loks back and then turns and throttles toward the destination in as short order as engine physics allows. They arrive in said short order, and quite fully rush out of the vessel just as fast.

The crew of Tenchi, Ayeka, Ryoko, Mihoshi, Kiyone and Yosho arrive, expecting to find an immediate escort.On the world a small group of Eternals wearing solid diamond thread clothing came up to them and bowed. The tallest of the group, who was also the leader, came up and said,” Greetings Gaians it has been a number of decades, in the reckoning of the mortals, since we last meet. Yet, we cannot do for the formalities as the will of the Eldest One is at work.”

Going on the Eternal frowned and said,” Follow me now as we go to the palace of the Eldest One of the Eternal race and if you have any questions they shall be answered at the palace.”

As they walked the glittering cities of the Eternal could be seen and the glowing green gardens of the planet could be felt almost even thought they were quite a distance away. Further, there seemed to be no specifically built defensive structure on the planet despite the inteminet invasion of the Dark Eternals.

Then they arrived at the throne of the Eldest One which was the signal most powerful and ancient room in the Eternal Empire. There the Eldest One stood up and said to them,” Greetings my comrades and may I greet you to our home world. As well, my I inquire why do you bring that crystal to this world? When it is quite possible that with the Dark Lord of the Dark Eternals is so close and is driving his slaves with his mind alone.”

Amara stared at the view from outside the craft. For the last couple years she had gotten used to the sights through her window on Ejiot. Her training had been intense, as she had shown the most promise of the original 280 trainees and of the any of the numbers that had followed them over the first year.

She became the highest trained non-Eternal member of her chapter, and had trained under the direct teaching of one of few Eternals on the monestary world.

So when the fighting began and the chapters of the Eternal Order had been called from across the empire, she was placed in command of the Edan Chapter under its Eternal leaders. Then a ship came to collect the chapter and take it to where them to where they were needed.

Their destination she did not know. What she did know was that her masters' fate was not certain and soon all they had taught her would be put to the test.On the ship only knights were summoned to go to the war as the trainees would basically be just cannon fodder and the apprentices were left to be trained by the few remaining knights and the other Eternals left on the training world. As well, the ship was full of a number of other chapters who had been forced to relocate them to the training world due to the Dark Eternal invasion. Also, the Eternals now on the ship had taken a large area for themselves to use as a council chamber and a place to mediate.

As the ship then progressed Ejiot was summoned by the Eternals to the council chamber and all they would tell her about it was that it was relevant to where they were going and to what their objective was.

Amara reverently entered the chamber. When she approached the council she fell to one knee, and with her wings spread over her head in respect, bowed to her masters.

"What do you wish of your humble servant?"

Word of events in the empire had circulated wildly. Rumors abounded amongst the knights as to what their purpose and mission would be. For the Edan Chapter at least, a gathering of knights and masters like this was unheard of. Knights were called upon to respond to a wide variety of problems and were usually capable of dealing with them alone or in small groups. In some rare cases larger groups were needed to settle larger matters like war or interplanetary conflict. It was unimaginable to them what need could be so great that the Eternals would summon the whole chapter together.

Amara heard these rumors and whispers as well, but she set them aside. She trusted their reasoning, whatever it was. Beside that she knew it was only a matter of time before the horrible truth would be revealed to her. She only hoped she and her knights were strong enough to prevail.

The Eternal in the center looked down upon her from his glowing silver seat and said,” Ejiot since you have proven to be a great member of our order and that you have proven your loyalty countless time we have decided to bequeath to you the title of a Master of the Order.”

The Eternal on the right then continued,” Yet, this does come at a certain price which is that during a war against our dark brethren many of the mortal masters and leaders of our Order have been killed in great numbers and thus we must fill in the void.”

Then the Eternal on the left replied,” The war itself is our current mission as now the Eternal home world itself is being threatened by the Dark Eternals who have launched a war against us which has driven us back many by billions of light years. So now all the Order is being summoned to make a last ditch effort to prevent the Dark Eternals from reaching our holy home world.”

The Eternal in the center then finished,” Yet, we believe that if we fail you must gather what you can of the Order and flee so as you may be a relic and symbol of the Eternals and what we stood for millions of years to come.

Yet, I must tell you if the home world of the Eternals fall the universe shall change most likely for the worse and the Eternal Empire will eventually fall due to this and all the works, history, teachings, and accomplishments of the Eternals shall one day fade.

Do you have any questions?”

The shock of hearing that the homeworld of the beings that had trained her for so long in arts seemingly beyond all mortal knowledge was devestating. She'd heard things were going badly but never thought it could come to this.

The revelation shook Amara's faith to its core. This cannot be. She thought, the burden weighing heavy on her.

But doubt fades quickly in the presence of love, and from within a strength beyond any she knew she possessed forged peace. From peace grew resolve and courage. Power burned within her as the strength took control.

There was a reason she had surpassed all her peers, a cause behind her rise above mortal warriors. Perhaps known to the Eternals who chose and trained her, perhaps not, when they gifted her the Eternal genes they also awoke in her those of her own kind. Burried deep in tidani code, a leftover from an ancient time of myth and legend sat dormant for over a millenia. Rare and precious it was carried in only a small fraction of tidani and granted them supernatural control of the wind and storms, but these Stormcallers had been silent for countless generations.

Amara just so happened to be one of the rare tidani who carried the gene and the Eternals had awoken it. As parts of her fell to fear, it rose from those ashes building on its own strength where her's fled.

This tranformation had been slow. The nurturing Eternals had tended that strength inside her like a plant. Its roots were deep but the leaves shy and small. Now as she collapsed to the floor, it stood tall and proud. It was this reason she did not faulter but instead rose to her feet.

"Darkness only exists in the absence of light. As long as one Eternal draws breath darkness cannot prevail. I ask only what you would have me do, that I might lead your people."

The Eternal in the central seat then responded,” Know this then that we are currently heading for a world only seven light years away from the Eternal home world and there the light of the Eternals home world shall give you strength beyond all former due to the fact of it being the signal largest concentrations of the Eternals in the universe. As well, that there you will not be harmed by the final push of the Dark Eternals to the home world of the Eternals and that if our home world falls to the darkness you will bear witness to the fall as if you were there.”

Then the Eternal on the left said,” Yet, let it be known to you that the Eternal home world shall be consumed by the conformation of the two leaders of the Eternal factions and thus shall bring about a great event. But, the Eternals shall survive and shall continue, yet the Order must be gathered as it is likely the Eternals will go into an other dimension for a time.”

The Eternal on the right then continued,” This time in an other dimension may possibly lead us back to our ancient home with our creator, the Highest One, where we may possibly never return from.”

Then the Eternal in the center finished,” That is why we are sending you to this world where you might collect about 2400 Eternal children, as they have not gained there full powers and wisdom, and then raise them for a number of years until they are full grown so that they might lead the Eternal Empire if anything happens. Yet, we three shall remain for certain to aide you in this. As well, it is quite probable that the eldest of our race shall remain with many of the other elders, most powerful, and wisest of our race shall also remain.”

Tenchi and Co. bowed upon arrival at the grand chamber, and with few mussed words, Tenchi held out the code cylinder extended. "Becuase I follow the orders of an old friend, and rarely am led astray by them."

At that, the datarod is floated in midair for the Eldest One to obtain at his behest. Ayeka added... "We have kept mindful of our mutual objective all this time. You will find our plans in that rod there."

----

There was one place where all that is gleaming outshines any and all works of mortal hand, and it was where the Excellency was presently, within the Chamber of the Council, Intracel's Core.

Reppentance was being seeked before hand.

"~ The mutual time of ends is at hand Almighty. More of my conscious than of reality here. ~"

"(( :: ~ Far understood, but not the price you seek here. ~ :: ))"

Aleaic looked up from his bowed position, still understood that in the current schemes of all things, he was still minor in echelon to this presence. Even near-gods are not gods compared. Never to trully be either.

The words strike him worried. "~ Forgive, but..... what would.... ~"

Another of the Council of Intracel boomed out... "(( ~ It will not be those you safeguard most that will pay, but those closest to your heart that will have debt. ~ ))"

The look on the king's face was obvious, as it was terror filled. He shook his head to make an objection, knowing better...

"(( :: ~ You cannot know of whom, and cannot know of when. Only that to ask of our power to convert matters of a realm beyond our normal ken, measures payment for so many to be spared their long fates of agony.

One... will die.... from your flock. ~ :: ))"

A laiden set of eyes darken. Aleaic knows something was to come from this.

" ]] :: It will not be us to choose, it will be one of your own. Know that the price will come, but we don't need to make it less of a sacrifice than you expect of salvation for so many.

...the hand will be dealt for you to choose the time of knowing, but never of acting against. Try you may, but not of any good it will become. :: [[ "

Aleaic speaks aloud next of... "~ Why am I here then to know what I would better be not knowing full well of?

Such a torture is not.... ~"

"(( :: ~ Because sin needs repentance. You know why you came, as we did not ask of you to be here for it.

Prepare as best you can, for you must learn the lesson of suffering as only you can be taught. Never before, and never whence after will be there a time such as this. At the proper time, you will understand.

At the proper time then, will you take the next step.

But it will not be alone, in all things. ~ :: ))"

Between confusion and clarity, a tear fell, one that could never be uttered, ev en to his most beloved. Not a one could be told this, for it could ruin all things.

His suffering laiden a fresh burden. On the eve of changing, it was the least to suffer.

There were no words after this......

The Eldest One inspected the case for a second and then opened the bird. Further, he opened the case and then looked at the crystal for a few seconds. As well, he then scanned it with his eyes carefully at witch he then came up to the conclusion of that he set for a second.

Then the Eldest One said,” This may prove useful after the initial attack on their home world. Yet, I must say as long at the Dark Lord of the Dark Eternals is in this galaxy his slaves shall not be able to resist his will as he is now directly linked to his mind. Added the sheer command the Dark Eternals are now exerting over their servants makes the genetic bond only needed for them to have the connection and this crystal only works to disrupt long distance command that cannot work when an Dark Eternals is within a few light years of their servants which is not a common case in the Dark Eternal Empire as the Dark Eternals usually cannot populate their space to that extent.”

Ryoko just chuckles (just low key from a cackle..) at this a bit. "Then keeping the big guy in this galaxy means his control over the others is diminished. It would be a shame then if he learned what was on that rod there.

And we are so close too." ..Ryoko says with a somewhat mock worry to her tone. Ayeka just eyes Ryoko dryly. "You make it sound like we should lose this data to the enemy. It'd be just like you to think that."

Ryoko smirks back. "Afraid of a little slip up miss perfect?"

Before they can get into a common name calling, shouting match, Tenchi snaps a tic. "Common, we need to act proper." He then turns to the Eldest One. "We also need to get going. We have little time before the first strike in four days time."

The Eldest One replied,” That is good then as currently events are unfolding that must be put to a halt before they have a chance for them to take root and be able to affect the outcome of this war before the end. As well, I hope unto you great speed to return to your own people and aid them in their endeavor. Also, I bless your people with the hope that the threat of the Dark Eternals might be ended for at least a long period of time so as to end the might of the Dark Eternals and their evil empire.”

With that he bowed and took back to his seat and remained their as he transmitted mental orders to his forces so as to prepare to the maximum extent the defenses of the home system and in the hopes of preventing the Dark Eternals from landing on the Eternal home world.

At that, the Gaians cut short the visit, and make good on their expedient preparations for departure. As the XGP's drive engines are activated, Yosho ask's of Tenchi simply.. "How are the Dark Eternals supposed to get wind of that rod anyway?"

Tenchi just comments.. "I imagine the enemy will get wind of it somehow.

I just hope they grab the bite hard, if they do, the war will be over in less than the six weeks predicted. Personally eight would be fine.."

Ryoko cackles. "The longer the better. We've been at peace for so long I feel actual rust on my gems."

Ayeka snides back. "Only you would want a longer war."

"I fear wars may not be as fleeting after this one for some time." Yosho warns calmly. Mihoshi whines under her breath a bit at this.

Soon the XGP is leaving the protective barrier of the Eternal planetary shield.

As the ship leaves the Eternals’ shield it lets them out with not spectacular affects save that now a part of the shield now surrounds the small ship protecting it from any enemies by deflecting their touch without doing any real harm to anyone. As well, on the outside of the Eternal system two Eternal cruisers now follow the ship as a portal opens which sucks them all in and within a few seconds they are in a safe zone on the edge of the Eternal home galaxy.

Then the ships sends the Gaians a message which reads,” We offer you our escort until we reach your own space so as to protect you from Dark Eternal attacks. As well, if you wish we will join your fleet in the attack on the Dark Eternals so as to act as guides through the maze of defenses of the Eternal Empire, though long silent, are now activated in a hope to impend the advance of the Dark Eternal forces.”

Kiyone relays this message text to the others and Tenchi offers quickly. "So he was right after all about this. Let them know we agree. Just don't tell them why yet."

Kiyone nods and sends back a message indicating the same. Either way, the XGP makes it's Fold jump as soon as it clears the lunar orbits around the ancient planet.

---

Aleaic returned to his Homeworld via a Gateway in the Palace Gateway Chambers, and from there, into the sight of his first love.

"Welcome home."

Aleaic hides his knowledge from her, even poker faced and all. "How's happenings?"

Tsunami ingnores that question, and instead takes him, and kisses him fully, rather passionately, catching him off guard as usual. After a few moments the two finish and she informs.. "We have time, shall we?"

Aleaic blinks and then smiles. "Better get the noise absorbers out then."

..the last thing anyone sees is Al being pulled through an instant portal, at least for a few hours.

((OC- Sorry for a double post, this I wanted to detail out before I forgot. ))

---

Lord Azusa and Lord Ackronus arrive at a secure location on Planet Opal, in the same Homeworld System, where the commands of the deepest layers of the Sphere military lay.

Ackronus informs on the tail end of a long report... "~ The last ones will be fully activated in seventeen local system hours. All that is needed is the Dimensional Stabilization fields and they will be ready for the Operation. ~"

Azusa nodded. "I have no doubt. What about the Foundry."

Ackronus detailed again from memory alone. "~ They have the last needed 'units' ready for the Expansion trigger, and another seven thousand small scale lunar bodies are ready for the Gate Folds.

All troops are standing by under the planetary crusts as we speak. ~"

Azusa nods again. They arrive at the vast complex that commands the resources for the hundreds of Dimensional Fortresses that are nearing final readiness, as well as the last pieces of the Fourth Great Expansion.

Nothing less than the Folding of hundreds of lunar sized worlds at set locations in the initial target Superclusters. The Comm-Orbs already in place are actually gravity anchors, set to allow the Folds to be extremely precise.

The two commanders arrive and are met by Fleet Commander Gaul`trei. The Angelic Overlord of Operations. The three bow to each other. The Angelic then offers. "~ We only need the official command codes, and about everything is set. ~" ..all about them, Gaian, Angelic, Ascendant, and scores more from it's myriad of worlds hear this and take note of their commander's words.

Ackronus nods and then informs. "~ Then let the enemy know we mean to finish them off in one blow. ~"

The Angelic Lord bows and spins around and commands.. "~ First Phase begins in three days. ~"

Azusa nodded to this, a day ahead of operational time table, but neccessary to move the Fortresses in inital positions.

But not where the datarod would indicate that was given.

Only few knew that the rod was a total sham.

The Eternal in the central seat then responded,” Know this then that we are currently heading for a world only seven light years away from the Eternal home world and there the light of the Eternals home world shall give you strength beyond all former due to the fact of it being the signal largest concentrations of the Eternals in the universe. As well, that there you will not be harmed by the final push of the Dark Eternals to the home world of the Eternals and that if our home world falls to the darkness you will bear witness to the fall as if you were there.”

Then the Eternal on the left said,” Yet, let it be known to you that the Eternal home world shall be consumed by the conformation of the two leaders of the Eternal factions and thus shall bring about a great event. But, the Eternals shall survive and shall continue, yet the Order must be gathered as it is likely the Eternals will go into an other dimension for a time.”

The Eternal on the right then continued,” This time in an other dimension may possibly lead us back to our ancient home with our creator, the Highest One, where we may possibly never return from.”

Then the Eternal in the center finished,” That is why we are sending you to this world where you might collect about 240 Eternal children, as they have not gained there full powers and wisdom, and then raise them for a number of years until they are full grown so that they might lead the Eternal Empire if anything happens. Yet, we three shall remain for certain to aide you in this. As well, it is quite probable that the eldest of our race shall remain with many of the other elders, most powerful, and wisest of our race shall also remain.”

"I pray for the strength to face such a future. I am also honored by the duty you have chosen for me. If it were possible I would gladly stand beside you in this dire fight and give my life that the light might not fade. However, I am not as wise as you are and if you deam it more worthy for me to protect your innocents from harm I will pledge my life to do so. I will safeguard the embers that should the light go out, in time they will spread wildfire through the cosmos and once again bring light to all shadows."

Amara's arms crossed her chest and she bowed again.

Kiyone relays this message text to the others and Tenchi offers quickly. "So he was right after all about this. Let them know we agree. Just don't tell them why yet."

Kiyone nods and sends back a message indicating the same. Either way, the XGP makes it's Fold jump as soon as it clears the lunar orbits around the ancient planet.With their consent to their offer the two Eternal vessels followed the Gaian ship to their home world where upon arriving they entered orbit of the world and did not move. As well, they waited patiently in orbit as they analyzed what the Gaians’ strategy would be in the campaign and also that they may help so as to not to arose the Eternals’ own defenses which could easily cause a good deal of trouble on their own accord.

As that occurred the Dark Eternals now began the final attack on the last defenses of the Eternal home world, before it itself would be attack by this darkness. As well, now the remains of the Order now began to wage a heroic last stand killing billions of Dark Eternal slave soldiers and further they helped to stave off a part of the assault for a while.

The Eternals didnt have to wait long, since from looks of things in orbit around the Homeworld, it looked like peacetime from all looks. The start traffic barely looked anything obvious was going on, other than the mass transit of normal traffic.

After Tenchi and Co. arrive and inform of the completion of the mission, Aleaic calls on the Eternals in orbit to meet him at Aragon StarPort, in rather short order.

---

"The first fleets are in position." An aide told Lady Yurika. She replied. "Then all that's missing is the hair trigger orders."

A fuzzy view of her behind a clear glass digital chonometer above her, shows the seconds count down to zero, how many days and hours left is not seen as the seconds tic to 00.

Each and every race on the planet had their own form and variations of deity or deities. From the dark spider queen of the dark elves to the pagan gods of the last remaining wild orc tribes north of the Karock Mountains, everyone had their own ultimate spirit to look up to. Magnificant halls and shrines were dedicated everywhere in Mythrandir, Helm Hall, Caer'lfar, and the Underdark to the respected gods and godesses of the local people. Priests spent their whole lives preparing for the esteemed position of upkeeping the temples and conducting religious ceremonies. They learned the doctrines, crees, and traditions of religions that had been around for thousands of years. In all the parchment scrolls kept in the vaults and temple rooms, had something of this nature ever happened.

North of the Karock Mountains:

Spindling goblins and a few larger bulkier orcs cowered down before the gnarled log that represented their god Uglok. A small fire burned between them and their idol as they cowered down and muttered praises to it in their own slurred growled tongue. This was the only "intelligent" species on Mythrandir that had not been allowed to become a part of the governing body and represent their clans with an Elder. From war to thieving and murder in the night, a war had sparked between the goblin hordes and the multiple clans of dwarves, elves, and men. Ultimatly the creatures were devastatingly defeated and driven beyond the northern mountain ranges where they were allowed to remain in existance under the careful scrutiny of the dwarf clans and barbarian tribes.

Now they begged and pleaded to survive another year of hardship in the winters so far north. Prayers gurggled out for food, warmth and eventually revenge. The Shamanness of the tribe walked out in a simple loin cloth and head-dress while leaving the rest of her body bare. She waved her staff around with a knotted wooden head and began to dance slowly around the fire. Dust flew from her clawed hands into the fire causing it to burst up towards the sky in quiet anger. Spins and twists accompanied each lap around the fire until she stopped before the idol and bowed deeply.

The earth rumbled underneath them, the fire billowed up impossibly high, and the gnarled log started groaning and creaking until a face emerged. It was unmistakenbly the face of an orc with the elongated tusks and lower jaw. Wooden eyes opened revealing crimson red irises. It looked from the Shamanness then to the gathered throngs of goblins and orcs. "Go now as your God commands. Strike down those that would seek to oppress you and prepare for a dark emperor that shall rise to power and lead you all to a glorious feast of man flesh. Roars sounded throughout the north as every tribe experienced much the same and prepared to march on the dwarven city.

Thor Temple:
Ingaldor prayed over the golden stiens as he mixed the proper ingredients for the sacred ale. A few leaves here, a pinch of golden powder, and smoothest ale from hops grown specially high in the mountains. Together, the mixture was a golden ale divinly sweet but highly intoxicating. With one swift gulp, the dwarf clad in golden robes was already beginning to feel its affects.

"Ah now that's good stuff."

He could hear a commotion outside the great iron doors. Two alcolytes of his pushed open the massive doors with relative ease and come rushing up. "Brudder Ingaldor, come quick."

"Wad this be about?"

"One of de sentries reported orcs headin' this way."

News of this type was not uncommon. Bands of orcs and goblins would head south so often to raid a dwarven caravan heading out to the barbarian tribes. "Send a hunnerd of our boys out and alert Elder Thrandur."

"Right away brudder."

The Underdark:
War Mistress Shizra rarely visited the Underdark when she didn't have to. But new recruits had come into the Institution this semester and she had to overlook the students. Hopefully some finer warriors would be produced this year. With the lack of fighting during these times of stability, the harvest had been lessening of late.

Plus there was one other thing that called the dark elf back to her home every so often. Her family. A Matron mother of the spider queen, Shizra's mother held considerable power in the dark onyx city. Houses of fascinating and frightening design were built in the cavern walls and out of adamantine spires. A city of chaos and constant clan wars. It was the one stabilizing factor in the acursed city. Now she stood at the threshold of her patron household and there on the steps stood her mother wearing only a robe that barely covered the front of her chest and heading down the middle while the back was descently covered. "Welcome home daughter."

Shizra bowed her head politly. "Hello again Matron mother. I cannot stay long since I have to return to the surface-"

"Always you walk among the bright sun rarely return to the comforts of your own home. I really do miss you sweet dear. Only four days ago there was an assasination attempt on my life while I was in bed with a lover. Could you believe it? I had the useless male tortured and then quartered. His remains are mounted on pikes near the gate if you want to-"

"I already saw them mother."

Beatriz purred on. "You should really stay at least a month. There are a few young households acting up and we could use your abilities to deal with them. Our replacement guard captain is alright but we need the guidance of a woman in our midst. Not the ignorance of a male."

Shizra sighed while shaking her head, not really wanting to go through all this again. "Mother, I came from the Institute because you said you wanted to speak with me about something important."

Beatriz's lips pulled back in a devil's smile with white teeth showing through like fangs. "The Spider Queen has graced me with her pressence in a dream. A dark power rises and looks to rage war on the light. She told me powers on both sides are unfathomable and if any one power could be gained for our people, then the Spider Queen's glory would be impossible to stop. You must help our house in this."

The dark elf was really all that concerned about aquiring any great power for her mother. Her family had plenty of warriors and kolbods to take on any house effectively in the Underdark. Most likely, Beatriz wanted to use this power against the elves and start the old wars all over again. Shizra was more worried what this might mean for the people of Mythrandir as a whole. Sebastian must be informed. "I have to go mother. Thank you for your words."

Shizra turned to leave but Beatriz grabbed her arm. "Already you run to him because he sets afire a desire either in your heart or elsewhere. Which matters not to me but you are dark elf and he is a human male that has already chosen a mate. Remember your place and your people."

She jerked free of the icy grip and stormed off through the enchanted gates. Sebastian was most likely in the cathedral. He must be warned.

(sorry this is short and incomplete but I ran out of time. Only had a few minutes to right this. I'll finish the rest soon.)

OOC: Good work, as soon as it is done/or when you have advanced enough into it I shall reply in some way.;)

"I pray for the strength to face such a future. I am also honored by the duty you have chosen for me. If it were possible I would gladly stand beside you in this dire fight and give my life that the light might not fade. However, I am not as wise as you are and if you deam it more worthy for me to protect your innocents from harm I will pledge my life to do so. I will safeguard the embers that should the light go out, in time they will spread wildfire through the cosmos and once again bring light to all shadows."

Amara's arms crossed her chest and she bowed again.The Eternal in the center then said unto Amara,” Amara, you have proven yourself many times in the past to be mighty enough for this mission, but also the truest of all to the teachings on us and the Order. So you have truly gained our trust in this mission of the greatest importance. So, for that we gave you this important mission as you also have the sheer resolve and loyalty to us to achieve this mission no matter what this tales.

So, I now give you my blessings and that of all my people for the success of this mission so that we the light may not die. I also pray that the Highest One might be with so as to assure the completion of the purpose of this mission. Now you may depart and for now gather those that you deem worthy and able for this mission to come with you on it and tell those that you need about so as to better your and your company’s mission.”

(Thanks. Hopefully this will be enough for you to find some way to respond. If not, then I'll keep going.)

Christio Cathedral, Mythrandir:

A gothic cathedral towered over the marbled city of Mythrandir, dwarfing everything in its sight except for the White Tower itself. Four massive steeples spiralled ever upwards towards the heaven. Rose stain glass windows tinted the sunlight as it poured in on two figures kneeling in the center of the sanctuary.

Light covered Sebastian and his wife Sarah as they prayed beneath a figure raised high with his arms pulled out to the sides. A crown wrapped around the man's head with painfully sharp barbs jutting out in all directions. He was completely bare while hanging from two boards of dogwood nailed together. Their prayers were silent while holding one another's hand in deep contemplations. For reasons that would be forever unknow to him, Sebastian opened his eyes and looked up at the shrine. Blood began running from the crucified figures eyes, ears, wrists, ankles, and head.

Drip. . . . . . . . Drip. . . . . . . . .

Rivetted, Sebastian just knelt there in horror at the gruesome scene. What in all the universe could have caused this? The blood would not stop running from unseen wounds. Now a new one opened in the man's side as it dripped out onto the once white marble floor. Then he heard the scream from the woman next to him. Sarah was just as horrified as he was. He quickly moved to cover her eyes and ushered her outside. House guards were waiting outside the church doors while the Elder and his wife were inside. Confused and somewhat startled, they had no inclination of what was going on. "Take her and watch her."

Dumbly but obediently the guards nodded their understanding. With his wife secure, Sebastian spun on his toes causing his white cape to billow up behind him. He threw the doors open once again and headed back into the church.

Caer'lfar:

Perhaps the only race that did not have a set religion filled with gods. The elves were animists in most cases choosing to worship spirits of nature and the like but they still held a belief in one single creator. Often enough, an elf's strength and weakness came from the spirits of nature and so with the instability of the lifestream, great pain was felt throughout the land. Wails and moans floated on the gentle breezes and carried haunting tunes to far off villages and towns.

Lady Alurial stood out above the rest as she was not so afflicted with pain. Many looked to her for guidance and explainations. As the Elder of the elf clans, it was her duty soothe the ailments and bring balance back to the woodland realms for not only were the elves effected but so to was every living creature within their enchanted realm. Alurials personal chariot had been called upon to ferry her to the capitol. Great firey stallions materialized and lifted her golden chariot off the ground. She streaked through the sky like a shooting star aiming for the White Tower piercing the horizon. Her bow, quiver, and armor were at her side. Something nagged at her warning her that it may be needed before long.

Christio Cathedral:

The sound of hard high heel shoes echoed off the cathedral walls as Shizra walked up to Sebastian. His back was turned to her, still staring up at the bloody figure. Jeweled pommels on both her scimitars flared to life in the crimson light from the rose window before she stopped at his side. Shizra bowed to the figure more out of respect than any particular belief. News had travelled fast about the routed dwarven expedition that was sent to put down an orc raiding party. They had departed from Helm Hall in the belief that we would be encountering at the most a hundred and a hundred dwarves was more than capable of handling two or three times their numbers. Their disbelief was astounding when they encountered not hundreds but thousands. Hills swarming with the vermon methodically move toward the great dwarven stronghold bypassing any and all villages leaving them cut off. "Forgive me Elder for disturbing you during this time with your god but I'm afraid I have some news that requires your attention."

Sebastian kept looking up at the man as his eyes moved from each wound and bloody streak. A pool of blood had formed below the figure and the bottom half of the cross was caked in drying blood. "Would I be correct in venturing a guess that all is not well with the world?"

"Yes Elder that would be accurate. Twenty dwarves were slaughtered today while investigating a report on orc movements. The survivors are fleeing back to the mountains to rally the rest of their kin and prepare for what looks like to be a long battle. Outlying villages have been cut off at the moment and it will only be a matter of time before bands of orcs turned their attention on easier prey." The dark elf paused momentarily, not relishing the memory of the encounter with her mother. "There is something else I must tell you. The Matron mother of the Spider Queen had a vision of great powers doing battle with one another. A battle between light and darkness. I fear that it is possible that a war could engulf our neck of the universe.

Without acknowledging her reports, Sebastian turned around and left the Cathedral. Shizra quickly hurried after him. To the guards, he was already barking out orders. "Take my wife back to the palace. Put the household guards on high alert and double the sentries around the diplomatic palace."

A quick thump to their hearts and the men were moving. Sarah looked concerned, mostly with what had Sebastian so worked up. "It's nothing dear. Just go home and stay there until I return." She nodds, slightly satisfied with the answer and is gone down the streets. Together Shizra and Sebastian walk in a different direction, towards the White Tower.
------

A rare scene greets the two as they arrive. Alurial's firey chariot touches down just outside the tower's entrance. "Sebastian, I have dire news from the woodland realm in the west. Pain grips the spirits and chokes my people. Something with a malice intent stirs in the winds." Ignoring Shizra's pressence she opens the door to the tower and walks in followed by Sebastian and Shizra.

"I'm afraid our troubles go deeper than the pains of your people, Lady Alurial. Right now the dwarf clans are under siege by a horde of orcs and goblins. The land is stained black with their taint so right now they are our top priority."

Alurial spit in disgust at the thought of goblins running amuck. "I'll send a legion of our finest warriors to deal with the scum once and for all."

Sebastian shook his head. "I want you there as well with a hundred swordsman. Contact the barbarian tribes and coordinate a tactical incursion to link up with the dwarven flanks." He reached down into his pocket and produced an orb. The slightest sensation of his pressence triggered the access code and a screen flashed to life. A few moments later the dwarven Elder, Thrandur appeared on the holographic screen. "Hello Thrandur, glad to see you're still alive."

"Bah, ye crazy fool. It'd take more than a few smelly orcs to do me in." His mythril armor was bloody and cracked on one should plate but at least the blood was black, the color of orc blood. "So what are ye bodderin' me fer now anyways?"

"I'm sending Alurial over along with elven and barbarian warriors. They'll help you repel the invaders then I want all of you to exterminate as many as possible so this does not become a problem again."

Thrandur was already picking his nose before the Sebastian finished his sentence. "We've already pushed 'em past de fords. I take it they don't like our new catapults. They squeeled like litt'le pigs."

"No matter, Alurial will still be arriving with reinforcements. You'll coordinate your efforts once she arrives." The screen retracted leaving the three along together. "Go Alurial. We need to retalliate while the dwarves still have the orcs on the run. The sooner this is put down, the sooner you and your elves will feel about the imbalance in the world."

Somewhat surprised by his commanding tone and forwardness, Alurial bowed and walked out the tower and headed for her chariot. Her firey steads spurred to life and shot off like a rocket back towards the west. Sebastian and Shizra were now alone to handle the larger issue at hand. "I want a fleet assembled and ready to depart in a couple hours. Load as many ground units as possible into transport ships."

"How many ships would you like?"

"Two Avenger battleships, five Horde battlecruisers, fifteen Angellic cruisers, and a goblin-X fighters. I want you armed and ready for a pitched battle."

The size of the fleet was enormous to their standard. It was almost half of the entire Naval Star Forge branch and there was no telling how much of the military he wanted. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but how many ground units do you want?"

"Ten thousand Uruks fully armed and armored, fifty trolls and their respective armor attachments and upgrades, and twenty light Necromancer tanks."

"Is that it? Do you want all of the new recruits from the Institution?"

Sebastian didn't catch the sarcasm or just didn't care. "No. How much support can the Bog give me?"

This, brougth a smile to Shizra's lips. The Bog was her own personal project and it was probably one of the few things that Beatriz was proud of in her daughter. "As many as you need."

"I want three fourths."

"Done."
------

A few hours later the fleet had been assembled along with its respective transports for the ground units. With the recent attacks on the dwarven kingdom, the media was already occupied with covering that part of Mythrandir. Ironically, the horde attack allowed Sebastian the perfect oppurtunity to slip out. However Shizra was not pleased at all. In a rare emmergence from the planet, Sebastian had informed her that he was coming along and would be commanding the fleet. Instructions had already been left to Murasaki informing her about the short departure as well as how to handle administrative matters. The most difficult conversation was with his wife. Sarah was not happy one bit that he was leaving and she knew he would be gone for quite some time.

"It seems all you do is leave me here. Why don't you let me come with you? I can fight to."

He smiled lovingly at his wife. Pure respect welling up in his expressions, he could not fault the woman for being displeased. "I know and I am sorry my dear but I don't want to risk losing you."

"You think I want to lose you too, you idiot?!"

Sebastian sighed, unable to circumvent that logic. "I know, I know. I promise I will take you with me wherever I go from now on."

"Your darn right you are."

Their conversation had no hope of ending well and Sebastian had to leave her disappointed and a little heartbroken. Only his pleads and promises kept her from weeping openly but probably Shizra's promise to protect him helped the most to eleviate her worries.

So now the Myth fleet floated through deep space on patrol and in search of what had stirred the unrest of gods. Ground units stood by in the warp along with half the fleet. It wouldn't do to get caught out in open space with all the cards already on the table. Shizra had no real clue to start looking and she personally thought this was all one giant goose chase, but Sebastian was different. He seemed to be methodically guiding them to a determined destination like he himself was being guided. She could stand by his side and hope he didn't get them all killed.

(sorry if this seems rushed but I wanted to give you something to go on incase you were waiting.)

OOC: Man, I found more book races then there are on parodies.

IC: In the depths of space a small satellite of untold origin, but of great technology was giving out a message that was played in an angelic tongue yet was marred with great sadness in it. When heard it seemed to stir all the hearts of truly good people to seek to ri the universe of evil and to protect all that is good in the universe from anything that might it harm. While, those that were evil, even if it was hidden deep inside of a person, that heard it would be turned to madness and cry out in pain upon hearing as if it was trying to make them see the error of their ways be making them feel the pain of all what they have sowed.

The message then began to translate into their tongue upon getting a radio transmission from one of the ships it translated its message into their language and remained in as different voice and said,” The gods of old now fight, darkness spreads, the elder race fades. Yet, a light of the fire now springs, the one which of all soon shall again walk. Soon it shall come to pass. But, before all the blood of all must flow, man shall be humbled, all the younger races shall weep, the labors of old shall shake, of old new shall be made, and the younger gods of darkness shall be thrown down at last, and in the end all shall be mended after a entire age.”

Then a the voice of earlier returned,” Fire now ruins the gardens, withered now are the roots of an ancient empire, and dead is the light which had long be a lit. Yet, the light shall never fade and the evil will be damned and all darkness shall fade before the Eldest One of all! So hear this all ye children of light follow the voice and prepare thyselves for war as though light awaits you at the end of this much fighting much first be done and the darkness vanquish. So head this call and follow the voice unto the Eternal Empire.”

((OC- Wow, very nice. Very nice indeed. =^^= ))

---

Along their route from Minas Jurai`alheim to Aragon StarPort, from the Diamond to Angel Continents, well over halfway when he and his accompanyment Tsunami are greeted with an instant subspace teleport, Angelic wise.

He recognizes during the teleport.. "Lady Yasuna, report."

The Arch-Angel informs in short order as a messenger... "~ Core Command wanted to inform that our assets are in place, we note in the same as your own, you would prefer to know. ~"

Aleaic notes... "....and...?"

Not losing on cue, she replies. "~ We are detecting noticable amounts of attention from other dimensional sources, as well as nonstandard and unorthadox ones, of what is occuring.

I would warrant a speed up of the timetable, les... ~"

Tsunami echoes for Aleaic.. "Then expedient we shall be, and must."

Aleaic informs.. "The Elder One has been contacted. We're on our way to discuss last preparations. The hammer blow wont be where anyone thinks, all too soon then.

We can't allow them all to miss our cue when it finally comes."

Yasuna takes note and flashes away immediately to report this. Aleaic sighs and rubs his brow.

"I feel that old migraine welling up I fear. I hope I can justify the wiping out of an entire civilization and replace it with our own. Dark or otherwise."

Tsunami just looks down for a second, then replies back... "I believe our course is just. Everyone will do their jobs so we need not reflect as much as you feel need of worry.

As long as liberation remains our final goal."

A king nods sidelong to his queen off his right. As the StarPort starts to come into view, he remarks of an old mind...

"We're the good guys here. Not the bad."

Their shuttle arrives in quick snap too order.

OOC: Sorry, for not replying to your rp, but I was busy with the people coming onboard, and I prefer to reply to people when they are online.

IC: The two Eternal cruisers in orbit around the planet saw the gathering forces and moved into a position relatively close to the fleet, but not close enough to be in the way of the moving around of supplies or ships of any kind. They also began to transmit a song in the High Eternal tongue so as to rose the spirits of the people in the fleet.

Then in the star port a group of seven Eternals arrived near the king and his company. Near the transport the lead Eternal said,” You desired to see us, your eminence?”

Aleaic and Tsunami had just departed their shuttle when the Eternals arrived. His return greeting for them... "For those that most shine of what we evolve to, welcome back to the Homeworld.

Forgive expediancy, but time is direly short now." ..he then connects comms with SDLF-RCT Command at the center of Diamond Continent, and a shield bubble forms around the whole group right in the middle of the StarPort, many onlookers a bit suprised as they pass by.

Inside a mini holographic center emerges, projecting them all essentially within the said vast command center, even though they are hundred of kilometers away from the nearest entry sector.

"As I said, expediency. Show me what you have, and i'll show you ours.

...while Pre-Phase One takes place." ..he says and nods to something in the air, as Lord Kushrenada unseen in the command center barks orders for the first spread to depart.

He then offers.. "Hope the trip was comfortable." ..which makes Tsui roll her eyes a tic.

((OC- Wow, very nice. Very nice indeed. =^^= ))
I agree ^_^, beautiful


Amara stood at the doors of the assault craft that she and a large portion of her forces were presently riding through the atmosphere of the planet they had codenamed 'Nest' for the mission.

The ship that had carried them from their monestary had made much haste to Nest where it joined in the battle raging in orbit. Nest was one of core planets of the Eternal Empire that was currently under siege, making their mission all the more urgent.

When they arrived in orbit Amara learned that the children were spread around the planet in groups, so as to prevent their complete loss should one of their bunkers come under attack or bombardment. This meant that both her forces and those of the invading Dark Eternals had to divide their forces on the ground. She would have one thing going for her though, surprise, this would be the first time her Tidani Knights have fought the forces of the Dark Eternals.

Amara stood at the head of the largest column going into battle, a full thousand Tidani, the other four were divided around the planet to where the other children were hidden. She was headed for the largest grouping of the children, where fighting was most intense. This called for her to rely on the unique tactics fielded by Tidani insertion.

The five assault craft approached their target at full burn making a brief fly-by to gain an eye for the situation below. Fighting was hellish around the bunker. The forces of the Eternals fought gallantly defending the fortress, making the Slaves pay for each footstep closer. Gaining a feel for the battle quickly as the ships came around for another pass, Amara quickly chose an LZ. She signalled the crew to her intentions and then turned around to face her Knights. Taking her helmet from her side, she slid it down over her eyes preparing for battle. She waited until each of the knights followed her directions, then raising one fist in the air she let out a piercing screech. Immediately the two hundred knights mirrored her actions. Then the sound of an alarm buzzer was added to their chorus and Amara turned her back to her troops. The massive blast door infront of her creaked open and she dove out of the craft into free-fall.

The five craft were coming up on the compound again when they opened fire on the largest slave formation. They drew fire from the ground as they roared overhead, a flight of Tidani following in their wake. As they pulled out of range and ear again, the roar of engines was replaced by the shrill screech of the avian warriors. Now they dove toward the ground where the enemy had taken cover from the ships just moments before. Wings pulled back they fell, and as each wing pulled out of the dive they released satchels full of grenades. Just over the heads of the enemy they soared at terminal velocity as explosives rained down upon.

Shields and body armor absorbed hits as they flew past and quickly made it past the lines to Eternal ground. Some fell but the time to hit them came and passed like a gale. Aiming for a large courtyard near the front of the bunker complex Amara lead her forces in, wings braking wildly to slow her as she touched down already at a full run. She ran the short distance from the courtyard to the doors and was inside the complex. Two hundred came with her, two for each child they should find inside, and the rest remained outside to aid the Eternal forces in holding their ground against the endless foe.

OOC: The number of Eternal children is actually 2400 in total, but it is now down to the 240 most important of them as the rest have already been recovered by the Eternals already as it is tradition for the strongest to remain behind so more could manage to escape. By the way very good and detailed post,

IC: Throughout the planet the forces of the Dark Eternals were pushing the forces of the Eternals back to their last strongholds. Yet as the fighting was occurring many members of other chapters of the Order were fighting to their deaths for the preservations of these few Eternal children. Now their numbers had been severely lowered in the battle from 210,000 at the start down to only 10,400 knights. Yet, now these forces were given the order to cover the recovery mission and to go with the other knights as they fled the planet. Further, the other soldiers helped to defend the bunkers to last the soldiers knowing that this children might be the salvation of the universe in the future.

At the gate of the bunker stood a shining warrior dressed in golden armor that saw the knights coming and said to them,” The children of my kin are safe in the bunker with a few hundred other knights of the Order. Yet, you must hurry for a true Dark Eternal is coming to claim them for the darkness, but do not worry for the heart of the Eternal can never be corrupted as long as the Eldest One breathes.”

Hitting the ground with his great glaive the doors of the bunker opened as a new Eternal craft had landed to bring the children to safety and with them the knights. As well, a number of other ships landed across the planet as all the other missions had reached their targets and successfully withdrawn from the battle near the planet and entered safety with a great Eternal lord and his ship as no Dark Eternal nor their slaves would dare go against as their were no Dark Eternals strong enough in the system to challenge him or his will.

Operation Paladin's first active phase begins...

...it was classic Gaian deception at it's most gaudy. Nothing less than tens of billions of specially redesigned dummy Comm-Orbs depart from secret points in Voidspace outside of the Archonis Supercluster.

The departure points were near impossible to detect, compared to the destination points, as equal numbers of billions of target destinations all inside vast, vast areas of Dark Eternal space are suddenly plopped with single and double units, near systems, away from, along known supply routes, and even deep inside core DE defense zones.

The orbs arrive, and then send out comm traffic, scrambled signals of thousands of fake warships, and even wierd music totally alien to the DE mentality. This while sending out amplified gravity waves, representing tens of thousands of Fold jump signatures, as if ships were arriving enmass, and then reFolding elsewhere.

The orbs do this from the extended points of the DE invasion zone inside Eternal empire space, all the way across the Nadir to Anti-spirals of the Universal Current and Void bubbles, along ten different filament axises where clusters of galaxies join together to form Superclusters.

It all points to the prechosen zone of focus for a full force Gaian invasion thrust.

With two options available to the DE forces in the face of this, the Gaians waited for the DE to react.

---

Lord Azusa looked up at the status indicators of representations of data from listening posts all around the DE borders, as data from the Hikari Network spilled in.

"Did we just play our hand?" ..comes from behind as Utsutsumi rushes in from landing nearby at the palace Starport.

"Yes. Put on a poker face old friend." Azusa commented.

IC: In the depths of space a small satellite of untold origin, but of great technology was giving out a message that was played in an angelic tongue yet was marred with great sadness in it. When heard it seemed to stir all the hearts of truly good people to seek to ri the universe of evil and to protect all that is good in the universe from anything that might it harm. While, those that were evil, even if it was hidden deep inside of a person, that heard it would be turned to madness and cry out in pain upon hearing as if it was trying to make them see the error of their ways be making them feel the pain of all what they have sowed.

(-_- <sleepy> I'm glad everyone likes it all so far. ^_^ -o-)

A haunting tune that not even the finest of bards could not mimic on Mythrandir. To Sebastian, it seemed a mix of elvish poetry and song along with hymns from the Cathedral but of course this was only way of explaining how it sound when in reality there was nothing that could accuratly describe it. Normal status screens warped and changed as the communication took over. The Myth runic language began flashing on screen as the transmission was translated into their language and displayed for all. Reflexes kicked in and Shizra was already on high alert. "Power up the shields and load weapons tubes. This might be a trap to lull us into a sense of false security."

Sebastian slowly raises a hand up to stop her. His expression emotionless. "No wait. This is not the same voice that has been guiding me thus far but it is close to it. Lock in the source of the signal and enter back into the warp to speed up our travel time."

Fearing that his mind might have fallen under some sort of controlling spell, Shizra eases him back into the throne chair. "Are you sure about this, Elder? We could be walking into a war that might not even require our assistance."

Deep contemplation passed and smile spread over his face. "Well I never thought I would see the day when the War Mistress was frightened of a battle. What has you so frightened?"

A look of indignation took hold and scowl appeared on her lips. "I am not afraid but it is my job to make sure that the Elder of the human races does not do anything stupid and get himself killed. Like walking into a fight that does not concern us. Besides, I promised Lady Sarah that I would look after you, as she so eloquently put it, you idiot."

Sebastian could help but laugh since these two women were alike in so many ways. Sighing and returning to his feet, Sebastian straightened his travelling clothes. "And you do a great job Shizra but you should know better than anyone else that I can take care of myself. I have no delusions of granduer and no desire to get killed on this mission. I would much rather spend the rest of my life growing old with Sarah but something tells me this is important. If it's just a wild goose chase, then there is no harm done and we can all go home."

Balevolently he gave the order to enter back into the warp once the source of the signal had been locked down. A small ray of light appeared in front of the ships then suddenly severed into several angry energized tentacles lashing around in the ocean of space. Finally controlling themselves, they reached out for the ships and sucked them into the mouth of the beast and plunged every ship back into the chaotic realm of the Warp.

"And what if it isn't a wild goose chase?"

Sebastian smirked, wondering how long it was going to take her to ask that simple question. "Then you know why I've brought so many of our ships and military units with us and why I came along with you. I can't have my favorite dark elf get killed."

Shizra crossed her arms underneath her chest and looked out through the windows at the darkness interrupted every so often with intense white flashes in the Warp. The Myth combined fleet now moved towards the source of the signal. The good news for them was now it wouldn't take long at all to track those who had sent out a signal asking for assistance in a war they knew nothing about. The bad news was....it wouldn't take long until they possibly were through in the deep end and asked to fight.

As the war to end all wars was fought and the light of good waned under the power of the darkness, a ray of hope appeared for the Eternals and the other races of good, and was a harbringer of death for the Dark Eternals. For the soft call that came from the realm of the Eternals did not go unheeded, especially by the power Confederacy of Telros. This massive nation was in control of a vast military, billions upon billions of troops, vast fleets of ships and in control of millions of star systems. Bound by their religion to their omnipotent god, Telros, and ruled by the High Priestess Selucia, the Confederacy was a force to be reckoned with, and they had just recieved the message.....





Telros V, Confederacy Homeworld. Location: High Charity.

In this ancient city, the normally quiet populace was in an uproar as the voice had been heard all over the Confederacy, disrupting all trade, business and the daily lives of the populace. Mobs of people were arguing, rioting and fighting as they began to be consumed by the confusion of the voice, and what it meant. Many believed it was the coming of the end, that evil had come to destroy them and Telros would not be able to save them, while others believed it to be a trick by greedy nations, to try and conquer them as they went on a goose-hunt. And a small few determined it was a genuine call for help. However, this all would be put to rest by the High Council. The Telrosian Militia was called in and quickly restored order.

The military, having been put in a state of full scale war due to the Chaos Second Black Crusade and the rumor of a strange threat arising in one of their systems, was at it's most powerful it had been in centuries and was building up more. The Confederacy was in a state of war, and was preparing for one. So, their ability to aid another nation was not hindered by lack of resources or ships, or troops. As the riots dispersed and the Militia began to secure the planets of the Confederacy, the High Council, led by Selucia, gathered into the meeting chamber within the High Temple of Telros, to discuss their next move. With them came the Supreme Commander of the Confederate Military, Zar'kesh, fresh from the Chaos Campaign, and his staff. The High Priestess herself, dressed in and silvery gown with her crown and robes of her station, her pale blue skin and silver hair standing out in the dark room. She gestured for them to take a seat and then looked around the table.

"Now, you all know why we are here." They all nodded. She continued. "A strange message, soft yet commanding, was blasted across all channels in the Confederacy. For our sake, I will play it again." Reaching over, she tapped a section of a holographic panel and it shifted, starting the recording and showing the words in the air above it:

"The gods of old now fight, darkness spreads, the elder race fades. Yet, a light of the fire now springs, the one which of all soon shall again walk. Soon it shall come to pass. But, before all the blood of all must flow, man shall be humbled, all the younger races shall weep, the labors of old shall shake, of old new shall be made, and the younger gods of darkness shall be thrown down at last, and in the end all shall be mended after a entire age. Fire now ruins the gardens, withered now are the roots of an ancient empire, and dead is the light which had long be a lit. Yet, the light shall never fade and the evil will be damned and all darkness shall fade before the Eldest One of all! So hear this all ye children of light follow the voice and prepare thyselves for war as though light awaits you at the end of this much fighting much first be done and the darkness vanquish. So head this call and follow the voice unto the Eternal Empire.”

Once it was finished, she turned and gazed at the assembly before her. "Now, we shall go about this in a two step process. One, we shall determine what it is, and two, what we will do about it. Now, begin." Ryoul, one of the High Council members stood up and glared at Selucia.

"I beg your pardon, my lady, but this is preposterous! This message is simply a ruse by other, lesser nations that seek to destroy us and take our wealth, our power, our-" The woman to Selucia's left interrupted him smoothly.

"Now, now, Ryoul, does anyone really believe that bull****? This is simply a message for help and that is what it always will be. And-"

"You have no such proof, and it is well known the Sevari Dominion-" The arguing escalated back and forth, with the two getting louder and louder, until a cough resonated around the chamber. All eyes turned to Vark'en, the last member of the High Council.

"I would like to speak, if I may, High Priestess?" Selucia nodded.

"Proceed." Shaking his clothes, he began to speak.

"I believe this message is authentic, it is worded as such that only ancient beings could say this kind of...well, poetic verses in their message for help. Plus, also, with the message's arrival, the military, under our good Supreme Commander here, decided to try and locate the origin of the signal. We did find it, but we also found out much more, a audio clip of what seems to be a battle on the surface of the planet it came from." Vark'en gazed at the High Priestess, who nodded. Moving over to the projector, he tapped a different key and a different clip played. The sound blasted out of it, and immediately the sounds of war and death played out, explosions and battle cries echoed throughout the chamber. The sounds of weapon coming together in a melee and of ranged fire being exchanged, the death cries of men and beasts, and the roars of evil beings that could only be imagined. Then it stopped, abruptly. The Councilman continued talking, to the stunned Council.

"We were cut off from some unknown force, which we believe to be the enemies of these 'Eternals'. However, I request that we move to aid these people." Turning to gaze at Zar' kesh, who had recovered from the shock and looked thoughtful, clicking his mandibles together.

"I don't mean to disrespect you, or your soldiers in the Chaos campaign, but this sounds like a true battle of good against evil, Commander." The Elite nodded, his crimson cloaking twitching at the movement.

<"I could not agree more. I am willing to lead whatever forces the Council is willing to assign to this mission."> The other Council members were speechless and turned to Selucia, who gazed at Vark'en and Zark' esh.

"You two are sure about this threat, and believe we should act?" Upon seeing their nods, she sighed and closed her eyes. "Very well, I declare a full crusade against these beings who threaten these people." Vark'en coughed, startled.

"The Wrath of Telros?" She nodded.

"Indeed. You are not the only one moved by these people." Turning to Zar'kesh, she spoke once more. "Supreme Commander, I have previously ordered five battle groups to rendevous with the fleet you have brought at the jump point from which you will launch from. I want you to secure the planet against all hostile forces and ensure the sector is safe. Once this is completed, send a message back here, and I will then come to that world. I wish to meet the people who have been able to meet the Ancient's poetry and beauty. If you need reinforcements, supplies, ships, whatever, it will be provided. We hav e been preparing for war, no need to hold back now." Zar' kesh nodded and went to one knee.

<"It shall be done."> Selucia stood up from her chair, walked over and kissed his head.

"And may Telros watch over you and grant you his strength. Now go, and aid these beleagered people." The Elite stood up swiftly and exited the room. Once he had left, all the energy seemed to exit her body and she looked very old. Her voice, which had been so strong a second ago, came out in a whisper.

"It's all in his and Telros's hands now."






Rilvarian Sector, Eastern part of the Confederacy, Fleet of Fiery Vengeance. Flagship, Selucia's Fury. Three hours later.

The Phantom had been quick to bring him aboard his new flagship, seeing as his other one was still being used in the Chaos Campaign. Quickly settling down into his command chair, he glanced over at the Sensor officer.

<"Fleet status?"> The officer glanced at his screen.

"The fleet is ready and assembled, awaiting your order to begin the launch." Zar' kesh let out a breath and glanced down at this chair. He saw a holopicture of his young daughter back at Zerthrax V, who was just starting her training as a Priestess. <"I will come back for you, Thirsha, I promise."> Picking up his head, he nodded to the Communications station.

<"Send the order, let us begin this war."> Simultaneous explosions of blue and white light signalled the opening of many Slipspace holes, with which they would travel to the dimension of the Eternals. Closing his eyes as the Selucia's Fury entered, his last thought before Slipspace took him was:

<"I will do my best to fufill your will, oh mighty Telros.">





In the space outside the Eternal home system, four hours later.

As the battle over the Eternal home system intensified, and the Eternals, along with their allies, began to be overmatched and wiped out, hope arrived with the Fleet of Fiery Vengeance. The many explosions of the vast, 5,000 ship strong fleet revealed their exit from Slipspace. On board Selucia's Fury, Zar' kesh watched as his crew gasped at the enemy numbers. Waving a hand, they stopped. He took a breath, here was the speech before the battle.

<"We have faced situations like this before. The Dark Wars of ancient times, the various rebellions, civil wars, and pirate faction, we have endured all. Evil is something that is part of the universe, we know this. But, we also know that our Lord and God, Telros the Almighty, is working to defeat them, and has given us the gift of his now deceased race to combat this evil. Believe in his holy light and no matter the situation, the beast you face, or the evil that seeks to corrupt you, remember: He shall love those who always stay with the light."> The crew was inspired by this, as Zar' kesh hoped they would and he then began barking out orders.

<"Launch the fighter squadrons, keep Squadrons 1-500 around the fleet for missile defense and anti-fighter/boarding craft action. Have the fleet divided into two separate battle groups, and initiate a flanking action the enemy. 3,000 ships here and the other 2,000 here. Also, on my signal, I want reinforcements to be sent via dropships, and Phantoms to the surface of that planet, and send Seraph Squadrons 500-700 to guard them."> He waited as his fleet moved forward and began to engage the enemy.

<"NOW!>" The dropships and Phantoms fired off towards the homeworld, under the wings of the right Confederate battlegroup, moving towards the planet, hoping to relieve the suffering beings. The Supreme Commander glanced at the Communications officer.

<"Open a channel to the planet."> A few moments passed before he got the go-ahead.

<"Forces of the Eternals, we have recieved your call for help and know that the might of the Confederacy of Telros and of the almighty God Telros himself, is with you in this dark hour. In his name, you shalt not fall!"> Then he cut off the channel and roared out to the bridge, his blood afire with anger and surpressed rage.

<"ALL SHIPS, COMMENCE ATTACK!"> The Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers, Assault Carriers, Destroyers and the Super-classes of the ships moved forward to engage the Dark Eternal fleet around the planet. As the battle commenced, he tapped a key, which sent a message back to Telros V, requesting reinforcements. But those wouldn't be able to arrive for another four hours, maybe six if they had to be gathered.
***
OOC: And there is my entry, I hope I did well.

Operation Paladin's first active phase begins...

...it was classic Gaian deception at it's most gaudy. Nothing less than tens of billions of specially redesigned dummy Comm-Orbs depart from secret points in Voidspace outside of the Archonis Supercluster.

The departure points were near impossible to detect, compared to the destination points, as equal numbers of billions of target destinations all inside vast, vast areas of Dark Eternal space are suddenly plopped with single and double units, near systems, away from, along known supply routes, and even deep inside core DE defense zones.

The orbs arrive, and then send out comm traffic, scrambled signals of thousands of fake warships, and even wierd music totally alien to the DE mentality. This while sending out amplified gravity waves, representing tens of thousands of Fold jump signatures, as if ships were arriving enmass, and then reFolding elsewhere.

The orbs do this from the extended points of the DE invasion zone inside Eternal empire space, all the way across the Nadir to Anti-spirals of the Universal Current and Void bubbles, along ten different filament axises where clusters of galaxies join together to form Superclusters.

It all points to the prechosen zone of focus for a full force Gaian invasion thrust.

With two options available to the DE forces in the face of this, the Gaians waited for the DE to react.

---

Lord Azusa looked up at the status indicators of representations of data from listening posts all around the DE borders, as data from the Hikari Network spilled in.

"Did we just play our hand?" ..comes from behind as Utsutsumi rushes in from landing nearby at the palace Starport.

"Yes. Put on a poker face old friend." Azusa commented.The Dark Eternals for the time were to preoccupied with the war in the Eternal Empire to send a large fleet out of reserves to scan the point, but still sent a force to destroy the small objects so as to prevent the arrival of more foes for a period of time, which at last was there hope. Yet, now the Dark Eternals were being unlike themselves as they were only destroying the dummy comm.-orbs, despite a few real ones being among as they left those ones singularly amongst the countless others in a bid to confuse their thoughts in the eyes of whoever sent these.

Yet, in secret a fair sized force of fresh Dark Eternal battleships that had been built by using their most advanced technologies in their possession and also had been prepared specifically for a counter attack by any force. As well, a new Dark Eternals now had devised a strategy in case of a counter attack.

(-_- <sleepy> I'm glad everyone likes it all so far. ^_^ -o-)

A haunting tune that not even the finest of bards could not mimic on Mythrandir. To Sebastian, it seemed a mix of elvish poetry and song along with hymns from the Cathedral but of course this was only way of explaining how it sound when in reality there was nothing that could accuratly describe it. Normal status screens warped and changed as the communication took over. The Myth runic language began flashing on screen as the transmission was translated into their language and displayed for all. Reflexes kicked in and Shizra was already on high alert. "Power up the shields and load weapons tubes. This might be a trap to lull us into a sense of false security."

Sebastian slowly raises a hand up to stop her. His expression emotionless. "No wait. This is not the same voice that has been guiding me thus far but it is close to it. Lock in the source of the signal and enter back into the warp to speed up our travel time."

Fearing that his mind might have fallen under some sort of controlling spell, Shizra eases him back into the throne chair. "Are you sure about this, Elder? We could be walking into a war that might not even require our assistance."

Deep contemplation passed and smile spread over his face. "Well I never thought I would see the day when the War Mistress was frightened of a battle. What has you so frightened?"

A look of indignation took hold and scowl appeared on her lips. "I am not afraid but it is my job to make sure that the Elder of the human races does not do anything stupid and get himself killed. Like walking into a fight that does not concern us. Besides, I promised Lady Sarah that I would look after you, as she so eloquently put it, you idiot."

Sebastian could help but laugh since these two women were alike in so many ways. Sighing and returning to his feet, Sebastian straightened his travelling clothes. "And you do a great job Shizra but you should know better than anyone else that I can take care of myself. I have no delusions of granduer and no desire to get killed on this mission. I would much rather spend the rest of my life growing old with Sarah but something tells me this is important. If it's just a wild goose chase, then there is no harm done and we can all go home."

Balevolently he gave the order to enter back into the warp once the source of the signal had been locked down. A small ray of light appeared in front of the ships then suddenly severed into several angry energized tentacles lashing around in the ocean of space. Finally controlling themselves, they reached out for the ships and sucked them into the mouth of the beast and plunged every ship back into the chaotic realm of the Warp.

"And what if it isn't a wild goose chase?"

Sebastian smirked, wondering how long it was going to take her to ask that simple question. "Then you know why I've brought so many of our ships and military units with us and why I came along with you. I can't have my favorite dark elf get killed."

Shizra crossed her arms underneath her chest and looked out through the windows at the darkness interrupted every so often with intense white flashes in the Warp. The Myth combined fleet now moved towards the source of the signal. The good news for them was now it wouldn't take long at all to track those who had sent out a signal asking for assistance in a war they knew nothing about. The bad news was....it wouldn't take long until they possibly were through in the deep end and asked to fight.As they came closer the small transmitter glowed like a small star, but it was surely giving off the signal as now when it came closer the transmitter’s signal became stronger as their ships came closer to the transmitter. As well, know the same voice played a pre-recorded signal began to change into a more happy song as if it knew the ships here would possibly respond to its signal for help.

Then it sent a new signal out which said,” Come now and heed the call of the Eternals from a time of billions of years ago. Here this words and surmount to the task and answer the call as to return the light to its former glory. As well, a time is coming where the fate of many will be decided and a new history written in the universe.”

"Indeed. You are not the only one moved by these people." Turning to Zar'kesh, she spoke once more. "Supreme Commander, I have previously ordered five battle groups to rendevous with the fleet you have brought at the jump point from which you will launch from. I want you to secure the planet against all hostile forces and ensure the sector is safe. Once this is completed, send a message back here, and I will then come to that world. I wish to meet the people who have been able to meet the Ancient's poetry and beauty. If you need reinforcements, supplies, ships, whatever, it will be provided. We hav e been preparing for war, no need to hold back now." Zar' kesh nodded and went to one knee.

<"It shall be done."> Selucia stood up from her chair, walked over and kissed his head.

"And may Telros watch over you and grant you his strength. Now go, and aid these beleagered people." The Elite stood up swiftly and exited the room. Once he had left, all the energy seemed to exit her body and she looked very old. Her voice, which had been so strong a second ago, came out in a whisper.

"It's all in his and Telros's hands now."

Rilvarian Sector, Eastern part of the Confederacy, Fleet of Fiery Vengeance. Flagship, Selucia's Fury. Three hours later.

The Phantom had been quick to bring him aboard his new flagship, seeing as his other one was still being used in the Chaos Campaign. Quickly settling down into his command chair, he glanced over at the Sensor officer.

<"Fleet status?"> The officer glanced at his screen.

"The fleet is ready and assembled, awaiting your order to begin the launch." Zar' kesh let out a breath and glanced down at this chair. He saw a holopicture of his young daughter back at Zerthrax V, who was just starting her training as a Priestess. <"I will come back for you, Thirsha, I promise."> Picking up his head, he nodded to the Communications station.

<"Send the order, let us begin this war."> Simultaneous explosions of blue and white light signalled the opening of many Slipspace holes, with which they would travel to the dimension of the Eternals. Closing his eyes as the Selucia's Fury entered, his last thought before Slipspace took him was:

<"I will do my best to fufill your will, oh mighty Telros.">





In the space outside the Eternal home system, four hours later.

As the battle over the Eternal home system intensified, and the Eternals, along with their allies, began to be overmatched and wiped out, hope arrived with the Fleet of Fiery Vengeance. The many explosions of the vast, 5,000 ship strong fleet revealed their exit from Slipspace. On board Selucia's Fury, Zar' kesh watched as his crew gasped at the enemy numbers. Waving a hand, they stopped. He took a breath, here was the speech before the battle.

<"We have faced situations like this before. The Dark Wars of ancient times, the various rebellions, civil wars, and pirate faction, we have endured all. Evil is something that is part of the universe, we know this. But, we also know that our Lord and God, Telros the Almighty, is working to defeat them, and has given us the gift of his now deceased race to combat this evil. Believe in his holy light and no matter the situation, the beast you face, or the evil that seeks to corrupt you, remember: He shall love those who always stay with the light."> The crew was inspired by this, as Zar' kesh hoped they would and he then began barking out orders.

<"Launch the fighter squadrons, keep Squadrons 1-500 around the fleet for missile defense and anti-fighter/boarding craft action. Have the fleet divided into two separate battle groups, and initiate a flanking action the enemy. 3,000 ships here and the other 2,000 here. Also, on my signal, I want reinforcements to be sent via dropships, and Phantoms to the surface of that planet, and send Seraph Squadrons 500-700 to guard them."> He waited as his fleet moved forward and began to engage the enemy.

<"NOW!>" The dropships and Phantoms fired off towards the homeworld, under the wings of the right Confederate battlegroup, moving towards the planet, hoping to relieve the suffering beings. The Supreme Commander glanced at the Communications officer.

<"Open a channel to the planet."> A few moments passed before he got the go-ahead.

<"Forces of the Eternals, we have recieved your call for help and know that the might of the Confederacy of Telros and of the almighty God Telros himself, is with you in this dark hour. In his name, you shalt not fall!"> Then he cut off the channel and roared out to the bridge, his blood afire with anger and surpressed rage.

<"ALL SHIPS, COMMENCE ATTACK!"> The Frigates, Carriers, Cruisers, Assault Carriers, Destroyers and the Super-classes of the ships moved forward to engage the Dark Eternal fleet around the planet. As the battle commenced, he tapped a key, which sent a message back to Telros V, requesting reinforcements. But those wouldn't be able to arrive for another four hours, maybe six if they had to be gathered.
***
OOC: And there is my entry, I hope I did well.The forces of the Dark Eternal assaulting this world were truly massive as tens of thousands of capital ships and tens of billions of soldiers fought on the large world below. As well, their was a dark presence in the fleet due their being a Dark Eternal lord who directly commanded all of the forces of the Dark Eternals in the system and also he affected all of his vast forces which would follow his orders the very ends of their universe through which they would face even death.

Seeing the arrival of the forces from Telros half of the vast Dark Eternal fleet began a large scale attack on the Telros fleet as they advanced on the Dark Eternal lines. As well, their mortal slave forces began to fly their fighters and bombers in a suicidal fervor upon the enemy lines in an attempt to dismay the forces of their newly come enemy. As well, the Dark Eternal began to transmit his dark presence to the Telros fleets so as to make them feel dismayed.

From the planet came a message from the Eternal commander of the world which read,” Thank you for answering our call and coming to the aide of the Eternal Empire in its hour of need. Yet, we must tell that currently we are severely outnumbered and we are likely to lose so we recommend for the time you join the mustering of the last stand forces outside the energy field that protects the Eternal home world as we cannot enter, but we hope to be able to make the Dark Eternals wait long enough for the Eldest One to finally go to war for the first time since the universe was young.”

The crew of Selucia's Fury gasped as a dark presence washed over the entire fleet and their resolve faltered, fear clenched their hearts and they quailed in the face of the Dark One's presence. But then, one of the crewmembers, a young Telrosian woman, began to stutter a battle hymn to Telros. As she sang one, her voice got stronger, and her will returned to her. More and more of the crew began to gain their will and courage back. Even Zar 'kesh, who had been almost struck senseless by the attack, was awake once more and demanded that it be played over the fleet comm. The entire fleet was soon singing the entire hymn together as they launched into the fray. Telros was with them, in the very ships they piloted against the enemy, and though they would die, they would not lose, for their souls belonged to Telros, for now and forever.

The Communications officer yelled over the singing. "Sir, message from the planet!" He replied.

<"Send it to my personal holopad!"> He nodded and soon, the message appeared on the screen:

” Thank you for answering our call and coming to the aid of the Eternal Empire in its hour of need. Yet, we must tell that currently we are severely outnumbered and we are likely to lose so we recommend for the time you join the mustering of the last stand forces outside the energy field that protects the Eternal home world as we cannot enter, but we hope to be able to make the Dark Eternals wait long enough for the Eldest One to finally go to war for the first time since the universe was young.” The Supreme Commander nodded.

<" We will do so, though I am not sure how long we may hold out against these numbers. I am sending troops down to the surface, to aid you in your evacuations. Tell the dropships to start picking your refugees and survivors, and you will be brought to your ships or our own, whichever you need. Send me the coordinates of the mustering point and we shall try to meet you there. May Telros guide your way."> He then sent it to the planet and turned to his officer.

<"Signal the fleet. Redeploy into the Sigma formation and prepare for a Slipspace jump towards coordinates which are forthcoming. Tell them that new orders are as follows: Hold the point we jump to for as long possible until reinforcements arrive and aid the Eternals as best as we can. If we survive this, I will issue new orders. Until then, follow your hearts and Telros will show you the way."> The message was sent and the fleet began to shift positions.



On the Destroyer, Blind Faith

Captain X'hal nodded, her mandibles clicking. <"It will be done."> Turning her gaze to the battle, she watched the swarm of ships battling their forces. The plasma turrets were going rapidfire almost, blasting away at enemy lines, seeking to destroy as many as possible while the fleet shifted. The plasma point defense systems did their best to destroy the incoming fighters, bombers, missiles and bombs, but the vats numbers of their enemy were just too much for them to handle. Confederate technology was heavily advanced, with powerful plasma shields, energy-painted hulls as a last defense, and fast engines. But, the overwhelming energy and power being poured into them was just getting to be too much. She watched as the Seraph fighters were mixing it up with the enemy, punctuating the deadly show with explosions, every blue white one was a loss for the Confederacy. Still they were holding off the fighters so the fleet could handle the capital ships.

Even that was coming with a price. Off to the left of the Blind Faith, a struggling Cruiser was struggling to turn away from the enemy force, to follow the commands given by Zar' kesh. But the blast from an enemy battlecruiser(I dont know what types you have, just giving a class estimate), had hurt it's engines and with plasma jets, it was too slow. The hail of fire finally broke it's shields and the ships around it lashed fire into it gleefully, and with mighty flash, it broke into two before being consumed by the plasma reactor overloading. Hopefully, the enemy ships were damaged by that. However, that situation was going on all over and it was expected in war. This was not to say they weren't fighting back. In addition to the many plasma turrets, guided plasma torpedoes were being shot out of the tubes on the Seraphs and the fleet, causing heavy damage to the enemy. And the large Plasma Gravitonic Cannons on the Assault Carriers, Selucia's Fury, and Destroyers such as the one she commanded, were blasting holes in enemy ships.

But time was counting down and they could only hold so long without support.......




Above the planet
The dropships and Phantoms, escorted by the Seraphs, headed to the planet. The fleet was doing a good job of distracting the enemy and keeping enemy fighters off of them. But due to the massive numbers, half of their escort pulled off, to help the fleet as it struggled to simply survive. The comm clicked on.

"Alright, boys and girls, sit tight. The enemy has almost full control of this planet. Now, I don't doubt our forces could kick their asses from here to the scummy, slime-ridden ooze of a planet they came from, but that is not our job! We are here to help evacuate the survivors. Pilots, maps are being sent to you, showing the various landing points and the place the fleet has scanned to be designated HQ. It is a bombed out marketplace, currently in the middle of a firefight, so it's going to be hot. Seraph squadrons, all you need to do is run interference for us and blast the hell out of these maggots."

A triumphiant roar sounded over the channels. "Now, let's go get you some!" The chorus of roars sounded loudly over the intercom. They quickly shot through the atmosphere and came into view of the planet...and even the commander had to bite back a curse. The ground swarmed with the enemy. And he could see the Eternal positions coming close to being overrun.

The Seraph pilots, once they reached the point where they would split to the different landing points, shot in all directions, taking fire away from the landing ships and blasting enemy aircraft and ground forces with their twin plasma cannons and guided plasma torpedo tubes, but mostly hit the areas around the entry points. The first group, consisting of thirty dropships and eighty Phantoms, shot over the first landing spot, a road leading into the last stronghold, and their drop point was the gate in front of it and the guard stations behind it. The plasma cannons of the ships blasted the entire area with plasma, while the Phantoms quickly deployed the first wave of troops. Wave after wave after wave of Grunts charged at the enemy, firing plasma pistols, needlers, and Fuel Rod cannons. Then the Jackals deployed, moving quickly with their energy shields in front to block enemy fire, and the Elites moved in as lesser commanders and providing cover fire.

And the Hunters came in last, prviding heavy weapons fire and being living tanks. This occurred at the other two dropoff points, a reapir facility and a guard tower. They quickly secured locations, and began holding off the enemy as they searched for any survivors. The last group, with the commander, stormed the marketplace, a place that was one of the few bastions the Eternal forces had left and, with Seraph air support, and dropships of troops, managed to secure it, though how long they could was up in the air. The commander walked over to a few Eternal troops and put a hand across his chest.

"I have come to aid, as promised. What help do you need?"

As they came closer the small transmitter glowed like a small star, but it was surely giving off the signal as now when it came closer the transmitter’s signal became stronger as their ships came closer to the transmitter. As well, know the same voice played a pre-recorded signal began to change into a more happy song as if it knew the ships here would possibly respond to its signal for help.

Then it sent a new signal out which said,” Come now and heed the call of the Eternals from a time of billions of years ago. Here this words and surmount to the task and answer the call as to return the light to its former glory. As well, a time is coming where the fate of many will be decided and a new history written in the universe.”

The source of the signal became so powerful that those monitoring its source, felt like they were sitting right on top of it. Energy pulsating throughout every ship as the transmission was funneled into glass screens. Sebastian rested a hand on the back of one young man's chair while he read over it. "Alert the fleet, prepare to exit the Warp. I believe we have just arrived."

Multiple pure white light energy tentacles were pulled inward at one tiny spect that look like a brilliant grain of salt until it errupted. The once confined energized arms now flailed wildly about with a ship wrapped up in each. Shiny brilliantly one last time, the tentacles popped and fizzled out leaving the entire Myth fleet floating at the source of the transmission.

Holographic sensors on the interior of the bridge came to life giving the crew a view of the outside ocean. Shizra walked up next to Sebastian and crossed her arms. "Well we're here. What do you want to say?"

A smile spread on his lips. "Communications, bring me online."

A yellow circle ignited on the reflected hard iron floor of the bridge. Now his voice could be projected in all directions on all frequencies. "Seek and ye shall find. We stand at the door and knock for whoever opens and let's the Knights of the Light in shall receive our aid. The battle of Armageddon draws near and both sides gather their allies for one final battle. In an age of darkness and chaos, allies are never in short supply or demand.

OOC: The number of Eternal children is actually 2400 in total, but it is now down to the 240 most important of them as the rest have already been recovered by the Eternals already as it is tradition for the strongest to remain behind so more could manage to escape. By the way very good and detailed post,

IC: Throughout the planet the forces of the Dark Eternals were pushing the forces of the Eternals back to their last strongholds. Yet as the fighting was occurring many members of other chapters of the Order were fighting to their deaths for the preservations of these few Eternal children. Now their numbers had been severely lowered in the battle from 210,000 at the start down to only 10,400 knights. Yet, now these forces were given the order to cover the recovery mission and to go with the other knights as they fled the planet. Further, the other soldiers helped to defend the bunkers to last the soldiers knowing that this children might be the salvation of the universe in the future.

At the gate of the bunker stood a shining warrior dressed in golden armor that saw the knights coming and said to them,” The children of my kin are safe in the bunker with a few hundred other knights of the Order. Yet, you must hurry for a true Dark Eternal is coming to claim them for the darkness, but do not worry for the heart of the Eternal can never be corrupted as long as the Eldest One breathes.”

Hitting the ground with his great glaive the doors of the bunker opened as a new Eternal craft had landed to bring the children to safety and with them the knights. As well, a number of other ships landed across the planet as all the other missions had reached their targets and successfully withdrawn from the battle near the planet and entered safety with a great Eternal lord and his ship as no Dark Eternal nor their slaves would dare go against as their were no Dark Eternals strong enough in the system to challenge him or his will.

Amara slid to a stop waving the rest of her forces to continue deep into the bunker to rescue the children. She saluted the Eternal warrior. "How long do you need to evacuate?"

Outside the bunker the rest of the Tidani fought along with the remaining Knights, trying to buy them some time. Things were getting more desperate, the Knights were forced to enter into hand-to-hand combat. Limbs blurred in defensive motions, most of the Tidani drew their Starblades hacking and slicing at the slaves with pure energy burning white and blue. This was usually a last resort in a large battle like this, as the battle lines now disappeared in a scene of chaos.

Amara slid to a stop waving the rest of her forces to continue deep into the bunker to rescue the children. She saluted the Eternal warrior. "How long do you need to evacuate?"

Outside the bunker the rest of the Tidani fought along with the remaining Knights, trying to buy them some time. Things were getting more desperate, the Knights were forced to enter into hand-to-hand combat. Limbs blurred in defensive motions, most of the Tidani drew their Starblades hacking and slicing at the slaves with pure energy burning white and blue. This was usually a last resort in a large battle like this, as the battle lines now disappeared in a scene of chaos.The Eternal replied,” We probably need a time frame of between fifteen and twenty five minutes to evacuate all the books of knowledge in their for now as it would be for the best as they contain a great deal of ancient Eternal knowledge, maps, and plans for the future. As well, we must first get the young ones aboard as the Dark Eternals themselves are now coming.”

In the battle lines the great deal of the Order’s knights stood their ground against the slave forces of the Dark Eternals. To that all around the regular soldiers stood beside their comrades to the last man. Further, the Eternal now stood on the front line destroying any slave soldiers with a blinding beam of light. As well, he blew the horn of the Eternals to rally all those that would to him and for the knights to bring Eternal children to the ships in order for the evacuation to begin.

It took about twelve hours for the initial relay reports from the first phase to reach back into command centrals across the Sphere. Retroactive reports funneled to Fleet Command indicated at least part of what the Sphere wanted from such a mass waste of resources.

"Looks like they are looking where we want them too. Thay haven't pulled any from the main invasion zone at all." Yurika assessed amid many Universe and Fleet Commanders waiting with anticipation.

"You know they aren't stupid. They would think if there is a counter attack, the enemy will have a counter to our counter. And all it goes convultedly therein."

Azusa replied less than civilized in manner. "Screw that. That's why we prepared such a large series of strikes. All we need them to know is that there is something. Make them itch in worry."

"The shock will take care of itself." Lord Aleaic's image popped up on a holo projector. "Activate Pre-Phase two. I 'want' to know what format their counter 'is'.

And I want attention taken off the Eternals 'now'."

Azusa asked first.. "What of that data the Eternals that arrived promissed?"

Aleaic smirked in the haolic image projected. "Let me worry about that."

---

Planet Foundry's most terrifying weapon. It came down to the knowledge that massive bodies of planetary material, formed into a rubble pile, essentially a massive planet planetoid body, could then be sent via a standard Gravity Anchor node, in an unstable manner, could then cause via the Fold Jump gravity envelope, an oversized debri field of despicable proportions.

As the preformed mass of a near Sol-Mars sized body was prepared in such a messy manner, and then sent through the same gravity node, to a point just outside the DE capital system, with momentum to throw it afterward towards the enemy capital system, assisted by three deep emplaced Foundation Weapons, causing the intended mass debri and prismatic white display along side....

This was Pre-Phase Two, as the Ascendancy sent exactly this via a barely cloaked gravity node Orb, hidden in some of the same fake Comm-Orbs, as whatever DE forces are present are shredded in a massive gravity pulse wave, and then the huge rubble planet destroyed mere moments after the Fold.

The result is a huge several hundred thousand kilometer size debri field screaming at DE home space, with a massive gravity and Foundation weapon pulse diverting attention from entire nearby galaxies. If this didn't garner the DE attention, nothing could before the First Wave attacked.

And all it all was, was attention garnering. If it did it right, the DE would be forced to devote their counter forces, whatever they were, to destroying this mass of debri, or risk it all slamming into the DE Home System Oort cloud field, and ruin their system completely in a few short days. There was enough planetary mass to ensure this if the DE didn't appropriately respond.

It was amazing how much natural space junk there was to use in the universe, for such a simple tactic. Appropriate amounts of energy and flashy gaudiness repleted the rest.

The Gaians only needed to wait and see what the result was.

---

As soon as Pre-Phase Two was ordered off and obeyed, Aleaic in the holo-bubble with the Eternals looked steely at his guests.

"Operation Paladin will commence in ten hours. Warn whoever you need to. The entire Dark Eternal Empire is our primary objective.

We leave your dark mirrors to you, as we will garner the task of their former territories for our final liberation campaign. We'll also conduct cleanup and resolution of the Confederacy and future of this universe, as per responsibility.

This universe is 'going' to change now."

The crew of Selucia's Fury gasped as a dark presence washed over the entire fleet and their resolve faltered, fear clenched their hearts and they quailed in the face of the Dark One's presence. But then, one of the crewmembers, a young Telrosian woman, began to stutter a battle hymn to Telros. As she sang one, her voice got stronger, and her will returned to her. More and more of the crew began to gain their will and courage back. Even Zar 'kesh, who had been almost struck senseless by the attack, was awake once more and demanded that it be played over the fleet comm. The entire fleet was soon singing the entire hymn together as they launched into the fray. Telros was with them, in the very ships they piloted against the enemy, and though they would die, they would not lose, for their souls belonged to Telros, for now and forever.

The Communications officer yelled over the singing. "Sir, message from the planet!" He replied.

<"Send it to my personal holopad!"> He nodded and soon, the message appeared on the screen:

” Thank you for answering our call and coming to the aid of the Eternal Empire in its hour of need. Yet, we must tell that currently we are severely outnumbered and we are likely to lose so we recommend for the time you join the mustering of the last stand forces outside the energy field that protects the Eternal home world as we cannot enter, but we hope to be able to make the Dark Eternals wait long enough for the Eldest One to finally go to war for the first time since the universe was young.” The Supreme Commander nodded.

<" We will do so, though I am not sure how long we may hold out against these numbers. I am sending troops down to the surface, to aid you in your evacuations. Tell the dropships to start picking your refugees and survivors, and you will be brought to your ships or our own, whichever you need. Send me the coordinates of the mustering point and we shall try to meet you there. May Telros guide your way."> He then sent it to the planet and turned to his officer.

<"Signal the fleet. Redeploy into the Sigma formation and prepare for a Slipspace jump towards coordinates which are forthcoming. Tell them that new orders are as follows: Hold the point we jump to for as long possible until reinforcements arrive and aid the Eternals as best as we can. If we survive this, I will issue new orders. Until then, follow your hearts and Telros will show you the way."> The message was sent and the fleet began to shift positions.



On the Destroyer, Blind Faith

Captain X'hal nodded, her mandibles clicking. <"It will be done."> Turning her gaze to the battle, she watched the swarm of ships battling their forces. The plasma turrets were going rapidfire almost, blasting away at enemy lines, seeking to destroy as many as possible while the fleet shifted. The plasma point defense systems did their best to destroy the incoming fighters, bombers, missiles and bombs, but the vats numbers of their enemy were just too much for them to handle. Confederate technology was heavily advanced, with powerful plasma shields, energy-painted hulls as a last defense, and fast engines. But, the overwhelming energy and power being poured into them was just getting to be too much. She watched as the Seraph fighters were mixing it up with the enemy, punctuating the deadly show with explosions, every blue white one was a loss for the Confederacy. Still they were holding off the fighters so the fleet could handle the capital ships.

Even that was coming with a price. Off to the left of the Blind Faith, a struggling Cruiser was struggling to turn away from the enemy force, to follow the commands given by Zar' kesh. But the blast from an enemy battlecruiser(I dont know what types you have, just giving a class estimate), had hurt it's engines and with plasma jets, it was too slow. The hail of fire finally broke it's shields and the ships around it lashed fire into it gleefully, and with mighty flash, it broke into two before being consumed by the plasma reactor overloading. Hopefully, the enemy ships were damaged by that. However, that situation was going on all over and it was expected in war. This was not to say they weren't fighting back. In addition to the many plasma turrets, guided plasma torpedoes were being shot out of the tubes on the Seraphs and the fleet, causing heavy damage to the enemy. And the large Plasma Gravitonic Cannons on the Assault Carriers, Selucia's Fury, and Destroyers such as the one she commanded, were blasting holes in enemy ships.

But time was counting down and they could only hold so long without support.......




Above the planet
The dropships and Phantoms, escorted by the Seraphs, headed to the planet. The fleet was doing a good job of distracting the enemy and keeping enemy fighters off of them. But due to the massive numbers, half of their escort pulled off, to help the fleet as it struggled to simply survive. The comm clicked on.

"Alright, boys and girls, sit tight. The enemy has almost full control of this planet. Now, I don't doubt our forces could kick their asses from here to the scummy, slime-ridden ooze of a planet they came from, but that is not our job! We are here to help evacuate the survivors. Pilots, maps are being sent to you, showing the various landing points and the place the fleet has scanned to be designated HQ. It is a bombed out marketplace, currently in the middle of a firefight, so it's going to be hot. Seraph squadrons, all you need to do is run interference for us and blast the hell out of these maggots."

A triumphiant roar sounded over the channels. "Now, let's go get you some!" The chorus of roars sounded loudly over the intercom. They quickly shot through the atmosphere and came into view of the planet...and even the commander had to bite back a curse. The ground swarmed with the enemy. And he could see the Eternal positions coming close to being overrun.

The Seraph pilots, once they reached the point where they would split to the different landing points, shot in all directions, taking fire away from the landing ships and blasting enemy aircraft and ground forces with their twin plasma cannons and guided plasma torpedo tubes, but mostly hit the areas around the entry points. The first group, consisting of thirty dropships and eighty Phantoms, shot over the first landing spot, a road leading into the last stronghold, and their drop point was the gate in front of it and the guard stations behind it. The plasma cannons of the ships blasted the entire area with plasma, while the Phantoms quickly deployed the first wave of troops. Wave after wave after wave of Grunts charged at the enemy, firing plasma pistols, needlers, and Fuel Rod cannons. Then the Jackals deployed, moving quickly with their energy shields in front to block enemy fire, and the Elites moved in as lesser commanders and providing cover fire.

And the Hunters came in last, prviding heavy weapons fire and being living tanks. This occurred at the other two dropoff points, a reapir facility and a guard tower. They quickly secured locations, and began holding off the enemy as they searched for any survivors. The last group, with the commander, stormed the marketplace, a place that was one of the few bastions the Eternal forces had left and, with Seraph air support, and dropships of troops, managed to secure it, though how long they could was up in the air. The commander walked over to a few Eternal troops and put a hand across his chest.

"I have come to aid, as promised. What help do you need?"The soldiers loyal to the Eternals greeted the forces quite well with what they could as they offered access to the very few open areas which remained under the control of them. As well, they began to prepare for the few survivors to flee the world with all of their forces. Further, they now sent the most they could spare to cover the retreat of all the forces on the planet below.

Yet, on the planet moved the monstrously strong slave soldiers of the Dark Eternals and their horrific mutants comrades who had already killed any being that had survived the initial take over. Now noticing more forces had come down unto the planet they let our a horrific shriek and began to swarm down unto the Telros(ian?) positions with great force without caring who they fought as long as they found their enemy and consumed them with their demonic fury.

In orbit the numerically superior Dark Eternals forces launched a massive strike on the fleet of Telros where they began to attempt to destroy the enemy fleet in their hope they could prevent their forces from aiding the Eternal forces further.

The Eternals sent a message to the fleet of Telros and it read,” We thank you for the aide and we request for you to maintain a safe path of retread, but for the time send only enough forces to the surface to help us hold out for a couple more hours.”

The Eternal replied,” We probably need a time frame of between fifteen and twenty five minutes to evacuate all the books of knowledge in their for now as it would be for the best as they contain a great deal of ancient Eternal knowledge, maps, and plans for the future. As well, we must first get the young ones aboard as the Dark Eternals themselves are now coming.”

In the battle lines the great deal of the Order’s knights stood their ground against the slave forces of the Dark Eternals. To that all around the regular soldiers stood beside their comrades to the last man. Further, the Eternal now stood on the front line destroying any slave soldiers with a blinding beam of light. As well, he blew the horn of the Eternals to rally all those that would to him and for the knights to bring Eternal children to the ships in order for the evacuation to begin.

Amara emerged from the bunker, Knights and children with her. Viewing the carnage outside she stepped aside and waved the others toward the ship.

One of her lieutenants ran up to her. "Thats all of them. The Eternals have finished collecting all of their data and relics also. As soon as the last child is on the ship we can leave."

"Excellent. Let's get everyone offworld before to many souls are lost." Just then she noticed a small group of slaves that had broken through the battle and were heading for the children and knights boarding the ship. It seemed like no one had noticed them yet, or perhaps no one was free to stop them. She sprinted off toward them drawing her Starblade. She yelled back to her lieutenant, "Get them all on the ship! Signal when you are safe, and then wait for us as long as you can!"

Then she raced to meet the attackers. There were five coming to face her. Just before she collided with the first a jump and light beat of her wings sent her into the air. Her left foot clenched over the slaves face, talons digging deep into his flesh. She pushed off, crushing his skull. As she sailed over the second her tail reached out and wrapped around his neck yanking him to the ground as her right foot connected with the neck of the third enemy. Again her talon bore into his flesh and this time the kick severed the main artery to the brain. Blood pulsed from the wound and the third slave collapsed in pain.

Amara landed in a crouch, Starblade held high in a defensive posture. The last two slaves continued advancing toward her, and behind her the second slave she had knocked to the ground began to pull himself up as well. Glancing back to the children boarding the ship she prepared herself to handle the remaining three attackers. She would buy the time the others needed, even if it meant holding off the whole dark eternal army herself. She had to, failure was not an option.

OOC: Yes, it is indeed Telrosian, Scandinavians.

IC: The commander quickly established a forward base, having recieved several supply drops of Wraiths, Ghosts, Shades, Plasma turrets, mines, Banshees, all the equipment that could be put down to the planet as fast as possible. He could see that some of the Phantoms and dropships had scoring on their hulls, showing the fierce fighting in space was intensifying. Sending a prayer to Telros, he opened his battlecomm.

<"Satellite Alpha. Beta and Delta, do you copy"> The three other points the Telrosian forces had dropped into and captured had been quickly fortified into massive bunkers, with most of the vehicles being put on the frontlines of these three bunkers. The sensors, which had been hastily installed and were only short range, had warned them barely in time of the mad rush of the Dark Eternal's forces. Grim warriors prepared for combat as the dark wave came crashing down at their positions. An Elite in red armor, showing his Major status, gazed out over the charge at Alpha, his plasma sight-enhance showing the distance. Once it reached a certain point, he lowered the device and roared. The Wraiths, mighty behemoths of tanks that fired a large, arcing plasma blast at the enemy, were set up behind the trenches, fortifications and walls constructed. about twenty-five inall were set up and, at the signal, unloaded on the approaching enemy forces. The screams of Banshees sounded as they bombed the enemy with their fuel rod cannons and strafed the ground with their twin plasma cannons. Elites of all shapes and colors, along with Hunters and Telrosian Militiamen blasted at the enemy with their plasma rifles, pulse rifles and fuel rod guns. The Grunts were sent in, a smaller wave of bodies that would hold back the tide and help buy the time needed to save the remaining forces, blasting their plasma pistols, needlers and fuel rod guns into the enemy. Jackals were set up with their shields in front of the trenches, as a first line of defense and to block any ranged fire, while others were set up in clever spots, with energy rifles to snipe enemies. The Major Elite watched as the hail of plasma and energy smashed into the enemy and the tide of orange, red, green and black grunts collided with that of the demonic mutants, and servants. Limbs flew and blue, glue-like blood splattered the ground as the Grunts died. Hearts were torn out, skulls crushed, throats slashed and organs spilled over the ground.

It was war and it was a scene repeating itself at the other two bunkers. All three minor commanders knew they could hold off the enemy, but the length of time they would be able to was unsure. Ghosts did support action as well a patrolling the base for sneak attacks. The Shades, and various plasma turrets waited for the enemy to get close enough to blast them into oblivion.

The dropship pilots, once having unloaded their cargo, began to take on any wounded soldiers, to take back to the ships since the medical field base established in the HQ was already full of Eternal soldiers.
***
Zar' kesh gripped his seat as his ship rocked again, as an enemy fighter exploded near the hull of Selucia's Fury. The fleet was holding, barely. Casualties were increasing but they still had more than enough ships to hold out. The Communications officer, bleeding from when she smashed her forehead into a console, yelled out.

"Another message from the Eternal's, sir!" He roared his reply.

<"Patch it through!"> He watched a Destroyer engage three other capital ships as the message played. He sighed as he covered his eyes.

<"Two hours, eh. Alright, tell them we will try and hold for two hours. But they need to hurry, I only have so many ships and troops. And reinforcements won't be forthcoming for a while."> She nodded.

"Message sent." The Supreme Commander nodded. A message was sent over the fleet comm and the Telrosian ships shifted again, extending their battle lines a bit to help cover the planet, thin out the massive fleet, give more angles to fire at and reduce damage angles, and provide time for the Eternal's forces.
***

OOC: How are we going to rp time here? Cause, I have more forces arriving in, when I arrived and sent the message, four hours?

Amara emerged from the bunker, Knights and children with her. Viewing the carnage outside she stepped aside and waved the others toward the ship.

One of her lieutenants ran up to her. "Thats all of them. The Eternals have finished collecting all of their data and relics also. As soon as the last child is on the ship we can leave."

"Excellent. Let's get everyone offworld before to many souls are lost." Just then she noticed a small group of slaves that had broken through the battle and were heading for the children and knights boarding the ship. It seemed like no one had noticed them yet, or perhaps no one was free to stop them. She sprinted off toward them drawing her Starblade. She yelled back to her lieutenant, "Get them all on the ship! Signal when you are safe, and then wait for us as long as you can!"

Then she raced to meet the attackers. There were five coming to face her. Just before she collided with the first as jump and light beat of her wings sent her into the air. Her left foot clenched over the slaves face, talons digging deep into his flesh. She pushed off, crushing his skull. As she sailed over the second her tail reached out and wrapped around his neck yanking him to the ground as her right foot connected with the neck of the third enemy. Again her talon bore into his flesh and this time the kick severed the main artery to the brain. Blood pulsed from the wound and the third slave collapsed in pain.

Amara landed in a crouch, Starblade held high in a defensive posture. The last two slaves continued advancing toward her, and behind her the second slave she had knocked to the ground began to pull himself up as well. Glancing back to the children boarding the ship she prepared herself to handle the remaining three attackers. She would buy the time the others needed, even if it meant holding off the whole dark eternal army herself. She had to, failure was not an option.The Eternal seeing that the enemy was about to assault the children ran with the speed of the fastest wind swept in and killed all three slaves in less then two seconds with his glaive. Then the Eternal looked unto the fledgling lines and realized that some one must be leading the slaves for them to be working like this. Running to the front line he saw a Dark Eternal smashing through the ranks of some of the strongest of the Order with ease and realized with horror it was not just Dark Eternal, but was one of the greatest lords of that dark and might people.

Going forward knowing that he would probably be defeated yelled one last order,” All of you flee for this foe is beyond any of you in this current strength and you must flee while I do my best to hold it off for the time enough for you to flee. As well, bring news to the other Eternals that the lords of the Dark Eternals are now marching against us and that we must soon act in the defense of our home world or all will be lost in the battle that shall surely ensue on that world which is our most ancient home.”

Going forward the Eternal yelled out in the High Eternal tongue, which very few mortals even could understand a world from and only a millionth of those could actually speak a good deal of the language, in which he said,’ I am a servant of the fire of the Highest One, wielder of the holy light, and guardian of this world! I will not let darkness consume this world! Ye servant of the Darkness!”

Using his glaive he began to fight this far superior opponent…

The Eternal seeing that the enemy was about to assault the children ran with the speed of the fastest wind swept in and killed all three slaves in less then two seconds with his glaive. Then the Eternal looked unto the fledgling lines and realized that some one must be leading the slaves for them to be working like this. Running to the front line he saw a Dark Eternal smashing through the ranks of some of the strongest of the Order with ease and realized with horror it was not just Dark Eternal, but was one of the greatest lords of that dark and might people.

Going forward knowing that he would probably be defeated yelled one last order,” All of you flee for this foe is beyond any of you in this current strength and you must flee while I do my best to hold it off for the time enough for you to flee. As well, bring news to the other Eternals that the lords of the Dark Eternals are now marching against us and that we must soon act in the defense of our home world or all will be lost in the battle that shall surely ensue on that world which is our most ancient home.”

Going forward the Eternal yelled out in the High Eternal tongue, which very few mortals even could understand a world from and only a millionth of those could actually speak a good deal of the language, in which he said,’ I am a servant of the fire of the Highest One, wielder of the holy light, and guardian of this world! I will not let darkness consume this world! Ye servant of the Darkness!”

Using his glaive he began to fight this far superior opponent…

Amara braced herself for the assault to come, but to her surprise all three suddenly fell to a flash of light. There before her was the Golden Armored Eternal who had greeted her when she first entered the bunker. She saluted and thanked him. He sensed something and looked off toward the lines. She followed his gaze and saw the Dark Eternal casting away Knights with the ease of a scythe cutting wheat. The Eternal raced off to face his foe, yelling back one last order.

"All of you flee for this foe is beyond any of you in this current strength and you must flee while I do my best to hold it off for the time enough for you to flee. As well, bring news to the other Eternals that the lords of the Dark Eternals are now marching against us and that we must soon act in the defense of our home world or all will be lost in the battle that shall surely ensue on that world which is our most ancient home."

She cried out an immediate withdrawl in Tidani, which echoed through the battle. The Tidani Knights fought themselves free from engagement and helped the other Knights and Eternal forces around them. They began to make their way back to the ship and as they did the lines collapsed.

Amara stood her ground though. She was their commander, and so she would be the last one on to leave. The grunts fell back first leaving the higher ranking Knights to cover their retreat. Standing together they held back the wave of enemy soldiers.

They were less organized now, Amara assumed that because the Dark Eternal leading them was being engaged directly his control over them was slipping slightly. Whatever the reason, it made the fighting a little easier, though with the overwealming numbers it was making very little difference.

The number of Knights kept falling as the wounded were evacuated and the lower ranking Knights were ordered to retreat. Soon it was only Amara and her sub-commanders, the most powerful Knights in her order. Their blades were a blur of white fire, their powers taking all of their focus and draining their energy.

Still it became too much for even these most skilled and powerful mortal warriors. One of her sub-commanders came up to her. "It is time we leave Amara! We can hold no longer!"

Amara glanced over at the brave Eternal facing off against the dark lord. If only there was something she could do to help him. She knew that the dark lord was well beyond her skills but perhaps she could do something about the mob of slaves surrounding him. She slammed an enemy slave back into another with her power, then turned to her sub-commander. "Take the others and go now. They will swarm the ship if we turn now, I will give you enough time. Do not wait for me to take off, I will meet you in the air."

"Amara, we will not leave you to these savages! We must leave now!"

"GO! That is an order!" She yelled back.

He fought her command silently for a second. Then accepting her will he turned to the others. "Let's go! Back to the ship!"

Amara turned her attention back to the soldiers. Pushing a whole column of them off their feet and to the ground she looked back to the Eternal. Finally it sunk in, there was nothing she could do for him. His fate was in his own hands now, but should he win she could at least leave less slaves for him to deal with.

To that end she fought like never before. Even as the enemy closed in around her she did not fall. Her speed and reflexes began increasing beyond anything she thought possible as she struggled to hold off the enemy so that the ship could take off. A cold blue flame ignited in her eyes, and the sky above grew dark as heavy clouds began to form out of thin air. She noticed that a group of soldiers was making their way toward the ship but was unable to get to them. Suddenly a bolt of lightning crashed to the ground directly in front of them, the concussive force knocked them back to the ground.

The storm above was getting worse now, yet the lightning seemed to only strike the enemy. Most often it seemed to strike exactly where she wished it would most.

She was becoming overwealmed now, there were just too many of them. Then from all sides they charged as one to her. She prepared to escape into the air but something kept her grounded. Unable to leave she braced herself for what seemed a certain death. Death didn't come though, instead she was slammed by wind strong enough to knock her off her feet. When she pulled herself off the ground she looked around her to see her enemy ravaged by the tornado that had fallen right on top of her. It was almost like a dream, she rose to her feet and realized she was almost unaffected by the devestating wind. Something from her unconscious had taken over, and she watched herself fight almost as an observer. Three more tornados touched down in the heart of other slave columns and lightning continued to ravage their ranks. It was as though nature itself had come to her aid in all its savage power.

A scene from armageddon played before her. Then suddenly her mind cleared as if she had awoken from a dream, yet nothing had changed. The storm haulted all advancement the slaves made toward the ship which was finally taking off. She turned to the Eternal and he was still locked in combat. She leaped into the air and took off toward the ship. An incredible tail wind pushed her faster than she had flown before and she reached the ship in no time. An airlock opened and she flew in as it pushed against the wind to reach orbit. When she got on board the storm parted infront of the ship and it rose through clear skys.

She was created by the sub-commander who she had ordered to leave. "Amara, thank the wind you are safe. We were worried you had fallen, and then this storm out of no where. What happened?"

Amara caught her breath. "I don't know. Did everyone get on board?"

"We lost many Knights in battle, but we left no one behind alive and all of the children are safe."

"Good." Amara sighed and tried to figure out what had happened.

((OC- Four hours sounds good, considerate of my own timetable. ))

---

"Still waiting for reaction to our asset." Azusa imparted as Utsutsumi left and returned between the War Center and Command Central. Despite excellent communications, the Military Strategic Advisor was too nervous to stay in one place.

Utsutsumi grumbled as word was not incoming yet.

"We go in four hours no matter what. If they don't deal with the weapon, they'll really regret it in an hour after the fighting starts."

Azusa nods. "It's ingeneous to have supplies delivered before the fighting even starts."

Yurika looked over and didn't react.

The source of the signal became so powerful that those monitoring its source, felt like they were sitting right on top of it. Energy pulsating throughout every ship as the transmission was funneled into glass screens. Sebastian rested a hand on the back of one young man's chair while he read over it. "Alert the fleet, prepare to exit the Warp. I believe we have just arrived."

Multiple pure white light energy tentacles were pulled inward at one tiny spect that look like a brilliant grain of salt until it errupted. The once confined energized arms now flailed wildly about with a ship wrapped up in each. Shiny brilliantly one last time, the tentacles popped and fizzled out leaving the entire Myth fleet floating at the source of the transmission.

Holographic sensors on the interior of the bridge came to life giving the crew a view of the outside ocean. Shizra walked up next to Sebastian and crossed her arms. "Well we're here. What do you want to say?"

A smile spread on his lips. "Communications, bring me online."

A yellow circle ignited on the reflected hard iron floor of the bridge. Now his voice could be projected in all directions on all frequencies. "Seek and ye shall find. We stand at the door and knock for whoever opens and let's the Knights of the Light in shall receive our aid. The battle of Armageddon draws near and both sides gather their allies for one final battle. In an age of darkness and chaos, allies are never in short supply or demand.As the enemy fleet emerged from the warp portal the Dark Eternals had already made a presence in the area they were entering and they quickly sent a massive fleet to fight along this new front of war. As well, they launched a display in the hopes of confusing and making their enemy fear their sheer might even before the battle began by performing large displays of all their fighters and capital ships as to show them how skilled and organized their forces were.

Then they sent this message reading," This fight is not yours so withdraw before it it to late for you. If you withdraw now we will now strike your world within your life times and if you do not we conquer your world and make your people into abominations for what they once stood into the last of your people is transformed into a slave of our will. This will be your only warning."

OOC: Yes, it is indeed Telrosian, Scandinavians.

IC: The commander quickly established a forward base, having recieved several supply drops of Wraiths, Ghosts, Shades, Plasma turrets, mines, Banshees, all the equipment that could be put down to the planet as fast as possible. He could see that some of the Phantoms and dropships had scoring on their hulls, showing the fierce fighting in space was intensifying. Sending a prayer to Telros, he opened his battlecomm.

<"Satellite Alpha. Beta and Delta, do you copy"> The three other points the Telrosian forces had dropped into and captured had been quickly fortified into massive bunkers, with most of the vehicles being put on the frontlines of these three bunkers. The sensors, which had been hastily installed and were only short range, had warned them barely in time of the mad rush of the Dark Eternal's forces. Grim warriors prepared for combat as the dark wave came crashing down at their positions. An Elite in red armor, showing his Major status, gazed out over the charge at Alpha, his plasma sight-enhance showing the distance. Once it reached a certain point, he lowered the device and roared. The Wraiths, mighty behemoths of tanks that fired a large, arcing plasma blast at the enemy, were set up behind the trenches, fortifications and walls constructed. about twenty-five inall were set up and, at the signal, unloaded on the approaching enemy forces. The screams of Banshees sounded as they bombed the enemy with their fuel rod cannons and strafed the ground with their twin plasma cannons. Elites of all shapes and colors, along with Hunters and Telrosian Militiamen blasted at the enemy with their plasma rifles, pulse rifles and fuel rod guns. The Grunts were sent in, a smaller wave of bodies that would hold back the tide and help buy the time needed to save the remaining forces, blasting their plasma pistols, needlers and fuel rod guns into the enemy. Jackals were set up with their shields in front of the trenches, as a first line of defense and to block any ranged fire, while others were set up in clever spots, with energy rifles to snipe enemies. The Major Elite watched as the hail of plasma and energy smashed into the enemy and the tide of orange, red, green and black grunts collided with that of the demonic mutants, and servants. Limbs flew and blue, glue-like blood splattered the ground as the Grunts died. Hearts were torn out, skulls crushed, throats slashed and organs spilled over the ground.

It was war and it was a scene repeating itself at the other two bunkers. All three minor commanders knew they could hold off the enemy, but the length of time they would be able to was unsure. Ghosts did support action as well a patrolling the base for sneak attacks. The Shades, and various plasma turrets waited for the enemy to get close enough to blast them into oblivion.

The dropship pilots, once having unloaded their cargo, began to take on any wounded soldiers, to take back to the ships since the medical field base established in the HQ was already full of Eternal soldiers.
***
Zar' kesh gripped his seat as his ship rocked again, as an enemy fighter exploded near the hull of Selucia's Fury. The fleet was holding, barely. Casualties were increasing but they still had more than enough ships to hold out. The Communications officer, bleeding from when she smashed her forehead into a console, yelled out.

"Another message from the Eternal's, sir!" He roared his reply.

<"Patch it through!"> He watched a Destroyer engage three other capital ships as the message played. He sighed as he covered his eyes.

<"Two hours, eh. Alright, tell them we will try and hold for two hours. But they need to hurry, I only have so many ships and troops. And reinforcements won't be forthcoming for a while."> She nodded.

"Message sent." The Supreme Commander nodded. A message was sent over the fleet comm and the Telrosian ships shifted again, extending their battle lines a bit to help cover the planet, thin out the massive fleet, give more angles to fire at and reduce damage angles, and provide time for the Eternal's forces.
***

OOC: How are we going to rp time here? Cause, I have more forces arriving in, when I arrived and sent the message, four hours?On the surface of the planet the hordes of the Dark Eternals’ slave warriors continued to advance, despite losing large numbers they did not seem to thin due to the sheer size of the horde that would just walk over the corpses of the dead enemy and the bodies of their own allies. Further, they just kept throwing themselves into the enemy ranks in an attempt to either overwhelm them or exhaust the enemy’s supply of soldiers completely.

Yet, with the are secure the few survivors of the original defense force on the planet fled safely out of the solar system and withdrew to the temporary safety of the Oort like cloud of comets that was in fact a massive series of defenses with breathable atmospheres where they would prepare to make a last desperate bid to defend the Eternal home world from the Dark Eternal invasion. As well, a great Eternal fleet now assembled at the belt preparing to respond to any attack made by the great Dark Eternal invasion armada that would certainly invade soon.

Then a message was sent to the Telorsian forces that told them to withdraw now with the remains of the Eternal fleet to the last defenses before the Eternal home world so as to prevent further casualties from the Dark Eternal fleet orbiting the world it told them that now would probably be their last chance to withdraw before the Dark Eternals launched the final strike on their fleets.

The commander on the ground blasted at the enemy with dual plasma rifles as an Elite limped by, supporting by a Telrosian Militamen. Several more Militiamen held the line as the wave of beasts and demons clashed with Brutes and whatever Grunts had managed to survive the horror that used to be the Alpha and Beta bunkers.

It happened so fast, they were there one moment, bastions of Telrosian power, then gone the next, a corpse-ridden place, with blood everywhere. The numbers were too great. An Elite cried out as a claw pierced his chest, splashing blood over a Militamen. The Elite hit it repeatedly with it's Plasma Rifle but could do nothing as the beast ripped it in two. The Telrosian dropped a plasma grenade and run. It exploded, and caused a chain reaction with all the other dropped grenades. The commander noticed his weapons were out of ammo and tossed them aside, and looked around. The right flank was overwhelmed, the Elites falling back and the 3rd Militia Company would not last much longer, already the lines were beginning to thin as they fell. Angrily attacking his comm, he roared.

<"All surviving units, fall back, fall back to the HQ! All surviving Confederate forces fall back!"> He was only answered by the screams and yells of his forces but he could hear, faintly, orders for retreat and turned it off. He could only hope that they would be able to hold. A whining noise sounded overhead and he glanced up to see the largest amounts of Seraphs he had ever encountered. They were followed by wave after wave of Banshee's as they began to carpet bomb the sections of their lines that were being overrun by the enemy. As he stood, awestruck, by the sight, a hand pressed down upon his shoulder and he turned to see the Militiamen who had been fighting with him, pointing at a dropship.

"New orders came in, sir. The Eternal's forces have retreated and Zar'kesh is calling for a tactical retreat. All forces are to leave the planet. We're pulling out." The commander was stunned, Glancing over his battle lines, he saw many other dropships and Phantoms picking up troops.

<"The headquarters?">

"Already evacuated. The frontlines are the last of our forces." Nodding, he walked with the soldier into the dropship. Lifting up, it shot out towards space, as the surface burned with plasma fire as the Seraphs continued their bombardment for a minute or so, before following
***
Zar'kesh stood, watching the battle. He had lost half of his force already, down to around 2750 ships. And they were either weakened or heavily damaged. Only around 2250 would be able to make it out without help. "Sir!" Turning, he saw the Communications officer waving. "Another message from our allies!"

<"Send it to my personal holopad."> Taking out the device, he read the message and breathed a sigh of relief. <"Have all of our forces been recalled?">

"Yes sir."

<"Then signal the fleet to retreat. All ships that cannot escape under their own power are to hold off the enemy's advance for as long as they can. May Telros have mercy on their souls."> The message was sent and the fleet pulled off, and after powering up their drives, entered Slipspace. The remaining 500 ships continued to battle valiantly. If they could fight anymore or were in danger of being overrun, they destroyed their own ships. Within a few minutes it was all over. But it cost the Confederacy dearly...


At the cluster where the Eternals had retreated to, the battered and badly damaged Telrosian fleet appeared and Zar'kesh sighed.

<"Send a message to our allies, asking for a place to land, make repairs, get hospitals...and places for our dead.">

*.....03.00

...02.00

...01.00

T- 00:02:00:00 ----- mark*

"They arent reacting. Either that or they don't want too." Yurika tried to surmise.

Aleaic on the other end of the holobubble sighs.. "It was a long shot. They may know full well who's doing all this behind their backs."

Tsunami off-bubble screen adds.. "Or our minds are meddled with and we aren't seeing enough."

Azusa angrily retorts. "Enough games. The last report before we lost effective comms with the Eternal Galaxy indicated that the nation of Mythrandir with a hard threat. We can presume..."

"It's two hours. We 'will' wait that long. And I will depart in a few anyway for the First Wave. We won't be doing any good worrying about emotions here.

Save it for the vitcory instead." ..Aleaic essentially commanded over the holo-bubble. Yurika nodded. "I will depart in fifteen for Three."

Azusa gritted his teeth. "So be it. I'll keep my opinions for the enemy then." ....and turned to give inital orders to his Wave One Assault Fleet.

---

Somewhere in several dimensional layers of subspace and various realities, entire Hosts and Armadas uncountable were finished waiting. Fortresses and Gates were brimming with row after row, column after column, fidgeting soldier and wandering mind angelic and mecha alike.

War machines, hyper-advanced vessels, and vast military data networks were silent, all equally waiting in anticipation.

It was time for vengance.

Then they sent this message reading," This fight is not yours so withdraw before it it to late for you. If you withdraw now we will now strike your world within your life times and if you do not we conquer your world and make your people into abominations for what they once stood into the last of your people is transformed into a slave of our will. This will be your only warning."

The force arrayed against the Myth fleet was impressive to say the least but to say nothing of the stubborness of humans, Sebastian didn't budge. However, this gave the War Mistress a cause for alarm. She had been suspicious of the whole deal from the moment they passed the last defensive station of the Mythrandir home system. "It was a trap afterall. I figured someone threw this probe out into the universe and let it lure in any nations that might prove hostile to their plans with the intent of destroying them. We should retreat immediatly."

Sebastian was a home built on a solid foundation, standing strong against the tempest. "No, I don't think that's right."

"Then what do you plan to do Elder?"

He spun around on his heels and plopped down in the throne chair. "Battlestations. All ships load weapon systems and raise shields. Bring the orc fighters and download appropriate flight plans and tactics for being outnumbered. I recommend they stay close to the fleet for added protection."

Shizra sighed while shaking her head. Why do I even bother?. Outwardly she was a force to be reckon with as she barked out orders to the crew and commanded the rest of the fleet to follow suit. "What do you want our response to be?"

"If your line of reasoning is correct, then you have just made this our fight by threatening to invade our homes regardless of our actions. Whether you desired an extra enemy or not, you have unwittingly created one. Your ships and numbers are quite impressive but if you are in such a grand war, can you really afford to spend all this time with my fleet? Most likely we would not be able to defeat you, but we can stall you for quite a fair amount of time while your adversaries regroup and prepare to strike against you. Are you so concerned with the ripples of the water while the stone is the source?

The advantage of space was, it was huge. It took a good deal of time to prepare many things, and it took as much time to communicate across it all. Even the vaunted Hikari Network was not immune to this simple fact of physics.

After planning and preping for so long, the Sphere Republic started taking advantage of this at the outer galactic borders of the DE invasion zone, by making a rearguard test strike. Less than thirty minutes before the full brunt was brought to bear, the first official entry of the Ascendancy into the war began with the 2771st/A-798th Fleet Legion and Combat Support Forces. The adhoc name for the leading Sphere StarFleet and assisting Angelic and Ascendant forces.

Some thirty thousand standard capital vessels, thrice in support and terrestrial targeting craft, and guard forces of the Angelic Host.

They targeted a communications and supply relay system the DE was noted as using to funnel their troops through. No matter how massed it all was, it still came down to a format of logistics and supply, and the Ascendancy began the Counterattack by testing the vulnerable flanks of the invasion axis.

Outside target System GJ-117823, the Fleet Legion suddenly Folds at the edge of the Oort cloud, as well as supporting Folds at seven seperate points in the System in various areas, including the Zenith and Nadir system LaGaraunge nodes. Each one had hordes of starship and warships, surrounded by hornet clouds of starfighters, mecha and angelics.

Star Colonel Grash Kerensky had the honor of opening the campaign.

His XO Hana Jade waited anxiously, as the trigger was pulled.... finally.

":: ~ This Fleet, in our holy name, begins the Purge long held benign.

RUIN THE DARKNESS BEFORE US! ~ ::"

One cue, the first filament of Operation Paladin began, as the Host spread out through the entire system to hunt the Dark Eternals down to the last. Only the physics of light admist open space prevented the physical forms of the liberators from blotting out whole swaths of stars from view. This as they allied forces seeked out their first active targets.

The Sphere knew by the time this was relayed, and even reacted too, it would be folly. Again the physics of space inherit.

Amara braced herself for the assault to come, but to her surprise all three suddenly fell to a flash of light. There before her was the Golden Armored Eternal who had greeted her when she first entered the bunker. She saluted and thanked him. He sensed something and looked off toward the lines. She followed his gaze and saw the Dark Eternal casting away Knights with the ease of a scythe cutting wheat. The Eternal raced off to face his foe, yelling back one last order.

"All of you flee for this foe is beyond any of you in this current strength and you must flee while I do my best to hold it off for the time enough for you to flee. As well, bring news to the other Eternals that the lords of the Dark Eternals are now marching against us and that we must soon act in the defense of our home world or all will be lost in the battle that shall surely ensue on that world which is our most ancient home."

She cried out an immediate withdrawl in Tidani, which echoed through the battle. The Tidani Knights fought themselves free from engagement and helped the other Knights and Eternal forces around them. They began to make their way back to the ship and as they did the lines collapsed.

Amara stood her ground though. She was their commander, and so she would be the last one on to leave. The grunts fell back first leaving the higher ranking Knights to cover their retreat. Standing together they held back the wave of enemy soldiers.

They were less organized now, Amara assumed that because the Dark Eternal leading them was being engaged directly his control over them was slipping slightly. Whatever the reason, it made the fighting a little easier, though with the overwealming numbers it was making very little difference.

The number of Knights kept falling as the wounded were evacuated and the lower ranking Knights were ordered to retreat. Soon it was only Amara and her sub-commanders, the most powerful Knights in her order. Their blades were a blur of white fire, their powers taking all of their focus and draining their energy.

Still it became too much for even these most skilled and powerful mortal warriors. One of her sub-commanders came up to her. "It is time we leave Amara! We can hold no longer!"

Amara glanced over at the brave Eternal facing off against the dark lord. If only there was something she could do to help him. She knew that the dark lord was well beyond her skills but perhaps she could do something about the mob of slaves surrounding him. She slammed an enemy slave back into another with her power, then turned to her sub-commander. "Take the others and go now. They will swarm the ship if we turn now, I will give you enough time. Do not wait for me to take off, I will meet you in the air."

"Amara, we will not leave you to these savages! We must leave now!"

"GO! That is an order!" She yelled back.

He fought her command silently for a second. Then accepting her will he turned to the others. "Let's go! Back to the ship!"

Amara turned her attention back to the soldiers. Pushing a whole column of them off their feet and to the ground she looked back to the Eternal. Finally it sunk in, there was nothing she could do for him. His fate was in his own hands now, but should he win she could at least leave less slaves for him to deal with.

To that end she fought like never before. Even as the enemy closed in around her she did not fall. Her speed and reflexes began increasing beyond anything she thought possible as she struggled to hold off the enemy so that the ship could take off. A cold blue flame ignited in her eyes, and the sky above grew dark as heavy clouds began to form out of thin air. She noticed that a group of soldiers was making their way toward the ship but was unable to get to them. Suddenly a bolt of lightning crashed to the ground directly in front of them, the concussive force knocked them back to the ground.

The storm above was getting worse now, yet the lightning seemed to only strike the enemy. Most often it seemed to strike exactly where she wished it would most.

She was becoming overwealmed now, there were just too many of them. Then from all sides they charged as one to her. She prepared to escape into the air but something kept her grounded. Unable to leave she braced herself for what seemed a certain death. Death didn't come though, instead she was slammed by wind strong enough to knock her off her feet. When she pulled herself off the ground she looked around her to see her enemy ravaged by the tornado that had fallen right on top of her. It was almost like a dream, she rose to her feet and realized she was almost unaffected by the devestating wind. Something from her unconscious had taken over, and she watched herself fight almost as an observer. Three more tornados touched down in the heart of other slave columns and lightning continued to ravage their ranks. It was as though nature itself had come to her aid in all its savage power.

A scene from armageddon played before her. Then suddenly her mind cleared as if she had awoken from a dream, yet nothing had changed. The storm haulted all advancement the slaves made toward the ship which was finally taking off. She turned to the Eternal and he was still locked in combat. She leaped into the air and took off toward the ship. An incredible tail wind pushed her faster than she had flown before and she reached the ship in no time. An airlock opened and she flew in as it pushed against the wind to reach orbit. When she got on board the storm parted infront of the ship and it rose through clear skys.

She was created by the sub-commander who she had ordered to leave. "Amara, thank the wind you are safe. We were worried you had fallen, and then this storm out of no where. What happened?"

Amara caught her breath. "I don't know. Did everyone get on board?"

"We lost many Knights in battle, but we left no one behind alive and all of the children are safe."

"Good." Amara sighed and tried to figure out what had happened.OOC: Everyone I am sorry for my term of absentness of late I needed to take a break for the weekend.

IC: In orbit of the world the Eternal fleet had now assembled above the world as they prepared to retreat with the Eternal children and the survivors of the battle below. Further, a growing number of ships now had begun to leave the solar system which were specifically the ones holding the Eternal children along with a large escort so as to be able to flee without any Dark Eternal ships could pressure them as if they did the mission and the secrecy of the mission might be destroyed and the Dark Eternals manage to seize the Eternal children.

A message was then sent to the ship carrying Amara that ordered them to leave the world and go to the coordinates that had been attached to the message. Also, their were orders not to aide any other ship as the Eternal children had to be protected and that the remnants of the Order that were not protecting the Eternal home world must be gathered so that the Order’s role in the future might be secure and that they may better protect the Eternal children that were be gathered on an extremely well protected world on the fringes of the Eternal Empire.

"Operation Paladin Phase One commenced. System GJ-117823 on the board."

...the echo from a senior Comm-Tech informed, going by mostly guesstimation data based on the stict timetable. Since Gaian Fold jumps were very rarely interfered or interdicted for the most part, less against this kind of initial scale, the Strategic-HoloGlobe depicted with relative accuracy.

"Acknowledged." Lady Yurika responded.

"Excellency One departing for Flag-EX1.." ..a Comm-Tech on the otherside of the chamber informed.

"Time to go." Utsutsumi noted and turned...

OOC: Everyone I am sorry for my term of absentness of late I needed to take a break for the weekend.

IC: In orbit of the world the Eternal fleet had now assembled above the world as they prepared to retreat with the Eternal children and the survivors of the battle below. Further, a growing number of ships now had begun to leave the solar system which were specifically the ones holding the Eternal children along with a large escort so as to be able to flee without any Dark Eternal ships could pressure them as if they did the mission and the secrecy of the mission might be destroyed and the Dark Eternals manage to seize the Eternal children.

A message was then sent to the ship carrying Amara that ordered them to leave the world and go to the coordinates that had been attached to the message. Also, their were orders not to aide any other ship as the Eternal children had to be protected and that the remnants of the Order that were not protecting the Eternal home world must be gathered so that the Order’s role in the future might be secure and that they may better protect the Eternal children that were be gathered on an extremely well protected world on the fringes of the Eternal Empire.

Amara received her orders and quickly sent an acknowledging reply.

<Understood. Before I left the planet I was asked by one of the Eternal warriors to spread a message to you. He said the Dark Eternal Lords are now in action against you, including on the planet below. You must warn those defending your homeworld. May the Highest One be with you.>

Once her ship had reached its exit point it launched itself into the stars for the small world where she and her Knights would safeguard their treasure and wait.

The commander on the ground blasted at the enemy with dual plasma rifles as an Elite limped by, supporting by a Telrosian Militamen. Several more Militiamen held the line as the wave of beasts and demons clashed with Brutes and whatever Grunts had managed to survive the horror that used to be the Alpha and Beta bunkers.

It happened so fast, they were there one moment, bastions of Telrosian power, then gone the next, a corpse-ridden place, with blood everywhere. The numbers were too great. An Elite cried out as a claw pierced his chest, splashing blood over a Militamen. The Elite hit it repeatedly with it's Plasma Rifle but could do nothing as the beast ripped it in two. The Telrosian dropped a plasma grenade and run. It exploded, and caused a chain reaction with all the other dropped grenades. The commander noticed his weapons were out of ammo and tossed them aside, and looked around. The right flank was overwhelmed, the Elites falling back and the 3rd Militia Company would not last much longer, already the lines were beginning to thin as they fell. Angrily attacking his comm, he roared.

<"All surviving units, fall back, fall back to the HQ! All surviving Confederate forces fall back!"> He was only answered by the screams and yells of his forces but he could hear, faintly, orders for retreat and turned it off. He could only hope that they would be able to hold. A whining noise sounded overhead and he glanced up to see the largest amounts of Seraphs he had ever encountered. They were followed by wave after wave of Banshee's as they began to carpet bomb the sections of their lines that were being overrun by the enemy. As he stood, awestruck, by the sight, a hand pressed down upon his shoulder and he turned to see the Militiamen who had been fighting with him, pointing at a dropship.

"New orders came in, sir. The Eternal's forces have retreated and Zar'kesh is calling for a tactical retreat. All forces are to leave the planet. We're pulling out." The commander was stunned, Glancing over his battle lines, he saw many other dropships and Phantoms picking up troops.

<"The headquarters?">

"Already evacuated. The frontlines are the last of our forces." Nodding, he walked with the soldier into the dropship. Lifting up, it shot out towards space, as the surface burned with plasma fire as the Seraphs continued their bombardment for a minute or so, before following
***
Zar'kesh stood, watching the battle. He had lost half of his force already, down to around 2750 ships. And they were either weakened or heavily damaged. Only around 2250 would be able to make it out without help. "Sir!" Turning, he saw the Communications officer waving. "Another message from our allies!"

<"Send it to my personal holopad."> Taking out the device, he read the message and breathed a sigh of relief. <"Have all of our forces been recalled?">

"Yes sir."

<"Then signal the fleet to retreat. All ships that cannot escape under their own power are to hold off the enemy's advance for as long as they can. May Telros have mercy on their souls."> The message was sent and the fleet pulled off, and after powering up their drives, entered Slipspace. The remaining 500 ships continued to battle valiantly. If they could fight anymore or were in danger of being overrun, they destroyed their own ships. Within a few minutes it was all over. But it cost the Confederacy dearly...


At the cluster where the Eternals had retreated to, the battered and badly damaged Telrosian fleet appeared and Zar'kesh sighed.

<"Send a message to our allies, asking for a place to land, make repairs, get hospitals...and places for our dead.">In the Eternal defenses on the outskirts of the massive field that the orbited around the Eternal star at about of one light year away from the Eternal home start. As well, around there were nearly a million capital ships and trillions of soldiers preparing for the last stand of the Eternal Empire against this great darkness and they now began to stand their ground against this thread. Further, all those of the Order who were not on missions, which were about three quarters of the surviving Order, took up ranks in preparation for the final defense…

Then a message was sent to the Telorisan fleet which read,” We deeply thank you for your aide and sacrifice in the defense of the world where all was about to be lost before you helped the retreat. We also thank you for coming here where you have the choice of staying here to fight or return to your own worlds and not worry for we will destroy all connections of you being the one to help us. For now thought follow the coordinates we have with this message where one of the shipyard comets has been readied for your entire fleet to be repaired in.”

The force arrayed against the Myth fleet was impressive to say the least but to say nothing of the stubborness of humans, Sebastian didn't budge. However, this gave the War Mistress a cause for alarm. She had been suspicious of the whole deal from the moment they passed the last defensive station of the Mythrandir home system. "It was a trap afterall. I figured someone threw this probe out into the universe and let it lure in any nations that might prove hostile to their plans with the intent of destroying them. We should retreat immediatly."

Sebastian was a home built on a solid foundation, standing strong against the tempest. "No, I don't think that's right."

"Then what do you plan to do Elder?"

He spun around on his heels and plopped down in the throne chair. "Battlestations. All ships load weapon systems and raise shields. Bring the orc fighters and download appropriate flight plans and tactics for being outnumbered. I recommend they stay close to the fleet for added protection."

Shizra sighed while shaking her head. Why do I even bother?. Outwardly she was a force to be reckon with as she barked out orders to the crew and commanded the rest of the fleet to follow suit. "What do you want our response to be?"

"If your line of reasoning is correct, then you have just made this our fight by threatening to invade our homes regardless of our actions. Whether you desired an extra enemy or not, you have unwittingly created one. Your ships and numbers are quite impressive but if you are in such a grand war, can you really afford to spend all this time with my fleet? Most likely we would not be able to defeat you, but we can stall you for quite a fair amount of time while your adversaries regroup and prepare to strike against you. Are you so concerned with the ripples of the water while the stone is the source?The forces of the Dark Eternals did not make any message in response to the reply that their new enemy had made to their very ‘generous’ offer to leave them alone for a good deal of time which they knew that the Dark Eternals would honor. So now a large armada of ships now moved forward in battle formations and began to deploy all their smaller ships around them to act as a shield to prevent the enemy from hitting their capital ships in the initial barrage.

Then all in a great unified wave of power their ships opened fired on the enemy fleet that was now just on the border of their main weapons range. With that their very powerful main cannons opened fire at the center of the of their foes’ fleet in an attempt to cut them into two separate parts. Further, they now dispatched all of their fighters and bombers in a bid to gain the upper hand in the battle for control of the smaller combat craft battle.

The advantage of space was, it was huge. It took a good deal of time to prepare many things, and it took as much time to communicate across it all. Even the vaunted Hikari Network was not immune to this simple fact of physics.

After planning and preping for so long, the Sphere Republic started taking advantage of this at the outer galactic borders of the DE invasion zone, by making a rearguard test strike. Less than thirty minutes before the full brunt was brought to bear, the first official entry of the Ascendancy into the war began with the 2771st/A-798th Fleet Legion and Combat Support Forces. The adhoc name for the leading Sphere StarFleet and assisting Angelic and Ascendant forces.

Some thirty thousand standard capital vessels, thrice in support and terrestrial targeting craft, and guard forces of the Angelic Host.

They targeted a communications and supply relay system the DE was noted as using to funnel their troops through. No matter how massed it all was, it still came down to a format of logistics and supply, and the Ascendancy began the Counterattack by testing the vulnerable flanks of the invasion axis.

Outside target System GJ-117823, the Fleet Legion suddenly Folds at the edge of the Oort cloud, as well as supporting Folds at seven seperate points in the System in various areas, including the Zenith and Nadir system LaGaraunge nodes. Each one had hordes of starship and warships, surrounded by hornet clouds of starfighters, mecha and angelics.

Star Colonel Grash Kerensky had the honor of opening the campaign.

His XO Hana Jade waited anxiously, as the trigger was pulled.... finally.

":: ~ This Fleet, in our holy name, begins the Purge long held benign.

RUIN THE DARKNESS BEFORE US! ~ ::"

One cue, the first filament of Operation Paladin began, as the Host spread out through the entire system to hunt the Dark Eternals down to the last. Only the physics of light admist open space prevented the physical forms of the liberators from blotting out whole swaths of stars from view. This as they allied forces seeked out their first active targets.

The Sphere knew by the time this was relayed, and even reacted too, it would be folly. Again the physics of space inherit.The being of the system now revealed itself to be a living embodiment of the terrors of that the Dark Eternals had done in this system alone and the Dark Eternals had created and it bound it to their will. With that it began to attacks the Angelic and Gaian host by creating an army of the dead bodies of the slave warriors fed to it by the Dark Eternals. As well, from it came a mass of dark blobs that were in fact ships that began to attack the enemy fleet in the system.

Around the system rallied an army of Dark Eternal ships that dared not enter knowing of the creature that dwelled there. As well, they began to set up a blockade to prevent any Gaian ship from fleeing from the creature and then they would sacrifice them to the creature to ‘appease’ its infinite hunger for the blood and flesh of all those that opposed the dark will of its masters.

As for the Eternal home system the defense had now all been raised and a fleet of great size now defended the outer defenses on the Oort cloud comets where many troops had now gathered on the fortress comets to fight the slave warriors when they came into the comets in an attempt to find a way to weaken the shield enough for their Dark Eternal lords to enter through as it currently prevented any save a true Eternal from entering the system. Further, they now began to set up a mine field around the system of which each mines was designed to target the signals the Dark Eternal ships gave off.

Colonel Grash watched as things entered a apocolyptic surreal state. Suddenly thirty-thousand ships and massed celestial support looked outnumbered by five times their number.

Calls came across of the apparent trap inprogress by the DE Fleet. "It's almost like they knew we were coming.

Like a chance in light they'll see this coming."

":: Fifteen minutes till the First Wave moves. ::" ..a comm overhead announced. XO Jade offered as the strange enemy was bearing on top of them. "We are getting the expected wavelength signal. 'Dark matter' energy for a anointed term.

How shall we counter sir?"

Colonel Grash walked calmly to a console. "I think my original words are appropo.

'Ruin the Darkness before us,' I said? Words into His Majesty's reality. Now deploy them in a sphere pattern, and order the other three support waves to target these areas." ..bringing up a holo-panel, Grash points out three points at the Oort cloud boundry, and a larger one at the third planetary orbit.

He also ordered the Shield Trees to deploy Wings offensively.

----

":: EXCELLENCY ON THE DECK!!! ::" ...a central officer on the Eternal Destiny Command Core announced.

"Fold this bad boy fleet on schedule. I don't need to give more orders than that, do I?" ..Aleaic announced as he strode to his Command Platform.

"~ Not in the slightest Master. ~" Lord Ackronus replied, in essence, for an entire empire. The Sphere wide Hikari Network was active and fully enctypted now. Few ears were not listening, the physics of the Hikari Network was as advanced and near instantaneous as designed.

"Good. Operation Paladin is Commenced. Activate the expansion as well."

Behind him, Tsunami in following turned and ordered. "Tell the Assets in place to assert Confederacy empowered controls. Fold the locks in to place and send the recorded announcement." ...in hardly a hard voice. No need for such here.

Aleaic reached his station, and looked across at the white filled space of Intracel Dimension, at the uncountable numbers mentioned too many times before. All those ships of two seperate Dimensions at his one and only time of full control.

Around them all, Gates were forming for one way Gate Folds for entire Fleet Legions of the massed Host.

Just then Lady yurika pops up on a holoscreen. "The System GJ-117823 TF-FL is brining in it's second wave. We got word of a strange 'thing' of darkmatter and risen undead from fallen soldiers and such.

If I may suggest that it is time."

Aleaic nods. "Well celestial weaponry has it's place here. Like the DE isn't as bad now as the Infernals, save their smaller numbers.

It's a go, Holia Weapons all hot, keep the Ionic and standard weapons where needed. It's obvious the DE are going down the deep end. Let's give them a taste of their end."

Yurika ordered the same....

---

Grash got the word just as the second wave-phase signaled ready. The whole thing, over Hikari Net, took less than two minutes. Less than a minute before active combat contact commenced, the Colonel ordered. "We got the release lock.

Let's finally dance."

---

The main first assault wave was joined by the second wave-phase of another sixty thousand, mostly angelic led warships and exo-troops. Just then the first angelic and ascendant exo and mecha troops contact the enemy 'blobs', and see the first 'undead' enemy appear.

The ordered positionings of new Sphere forces arrive dead on top of local DE entrapment forces and at the extra location, ending up almost admist the blob main mass.

A few seconds into it all, the angelics seem overwhelmed as some are absorbed into the 'things' attacking. At least until the first few that are, detonate into bright balls of Holia energy. Just then the Shield Trees, seventeen in all admist the entire two waves, extend their gargantuan Angelhawk Wings, and reverberate Holia erengy signals, in a strange celestial frequency pattern, finding the dark version subspace frequency, like some fequency locator device.

One on a star system scale, and power to match the type used by the enemy. As the Wings do this, the Angel-Exo Convictors and Devastators suddenly find the same, using the Tree freqency shift, and as soon as a near lock is found, Holia weapons belch white beams of searing white, 'all' across the invasion zone in the System.

The strange blobs start decreasing in number at a frightening rate, far more than the Angels take in steady casualties. The three Sphere fleets attacking the DE trap, come in at several angles all along a flat plane axis, Zenith and Nadir wise. Hosts upon Hosts of fighters, mecha and Exos swarm around a five hundred kilometer bubble around all three attack zones.

To top all of this off, the Shield Trees a few moments later, find the exact spectrum of the dark matter present, and flat out send Holia pulse wave after pulse wave, insead of their usual Hikari Shields.

And then finally to start off the inital opening act of the drama, Foundation Weapon torpedoes are fired in three waves, dead into the center of the monstrosity. tiny compact suns for a short time burn deep inside the bloby beast, while the Angel's swarm and obliterate in tight combat formations and patterns.

----

Activation signals to the entire Coseria and Columbia Superclusters, as the edges of DE territory, along the old invasion axis from the DE invasion a hundred and thirty years prior, have starbases and even moon bodies Folded from the Planet Foundry, to hundreds of thousands of select points, while worlds the DE never paied attention to, with secret Gaian assets emplaced, revolt enmass in a vast wave of whole Galactic Arms and Eleptical Galaxies outright answering the call of the Fourth Great Expansion. Exactly 2,437 new galaxies the Ascendancy eyed for the Guardianship, are flooded with Angelic forces, slated as defense troops and fleets. Whole systems and star clusters are secured for the Confederacy Alliance of Free Relams.

This as the full force of Wave One is about to depart, all these activities occuring within minutes after the Operation signal is sent across the Hikari Net. Literally, Phase One and the Third Great Expansion, over such vast distances, occur with sick precision, anticipated to force the DE to react to the Gaians.

---

Onboard the Eternal Destiny, as the countdown ticked below ten seconds, without hearing a single communication from any operational theater yet, knew that his citizens would not let him down, and the shock of such a huge scope of activity all at once, knew that decades of planning under the veil of peace, was bearing exacting fruit.

...then the chronometer counted it's last.

---

((OC- Sorry for a long post, been waiting two weeks for this. =^^= ))

The forces of the Dark Eternals did not make any message in response to the reply that their new enemy had made to their very ‘generous’ offer to leave them alone for a good deal of time which they knew that the Dark Eternals would honor. So now a large armada of ships now moved forward in battle formations and began to deploy all their smaller ships around them to act as a shield to prevent the enemy from hitting their capital ships in the initial barrage.

Then all in a great unified wave of power their ships opened fired on the enemy fleet that was now just on the border of their main weapons range. With that their very powerful main cannons opened fire at the center of the of their foes’ fleet in an attempt to cut them into two separate parts. Further, they now dispatched all of their fighters and bombers in a bid to gain the upper hand in the battle for control of the smaller combat craft battle.

One unfortunate Angelic Cruiser was destroyed outright while several others were damaged. Shields were overwhelmed and the thick molecular iso armor melted away from constant exposure of the high energy. The attack did not come unexpected to the two leaders as they began formulating their fleet into a workable defensive formation. The Avengers were separated and protected by a layer of Horde Battlecruisers which in turn were completely covered by a layer of the Angelic Cruisers.

Sebastian had returned to his seat while Shizra remained standing by his side. His tone was soft but commanding and maintained a steady calm. "First thing's first. Bring the defense systems online and target enemy fighters. Second, download defense formation alpha to the orc fighters. Make sure the information is clear that their primary target is the enemy fighters themselves. Leave the bombers to the defense grids. What's the distance to enemy frontline?"

A young woman with blond hair pulled up a holographic screen and began working through rune symbols and a battlemap until she had come up with sufficient data. "They are just outside optimal firing range for main energy based weapons."

Sebastian stroked his chin while contemplating their possible options. "That means they are out of range of our EMP's. Activate particle beam cannons, MAC's, and the Warp torpedoes but do not fire the torpedoes until I give the order. Load standardized torpedoes in the regular ports and prepare them for launch. Open me a hole through their shield and pump everything we have at their capital ships. Now, let loose the hounds of war."

Heavy capital class particle beam turrets opened fire on the frontline of the Dark Eternals, pouring forth gouts of yellow energy laced particles. Giant slugs encasing tons of a volatile substance the Myths had discovered in an asteroid. Most races had called it anti-matter so they had taken to doing the same. The slugs were aimed at the hole in the smaller craft shield that they were hoping to create. A symphony of brilliantly lit projectiles soon followed as waves of little torpedoes swarmed outward like bees. Darting and weaving, they were incredibly versatile and struck for a hole to reach out for the larger vessels of the Dark Eternal fleet.

As fighters began streaming into the mix, goblin fighters engaged at death defying speeds. Bred for this purpose alone, they were capable of extraordinary arial feats and had no problem of using this to their advantage. Laser fire and torpedoes took flight as the fighters locked on to their prey and fired away. Assistance then came from the rest of the fleet as defense systems came online. Lasers, pulse interceptors, and flak cannons soon formed an umbrella of protective fire.

Colonel Grash watched as things entered a apocolyptic surreal state. Suddenly thirty-thousand ships and massed celestial support looked outnumbered by five times their number.

Calls came across of the apparent trap inprogress by the DE Fleet. "It's almost like they knew we were coming.

Like a chance in light they'll see this coming."

":: Fifteen minutes till the First Wave moves. ::" ..a comm overhead announced. XO Jade offered as the strange enemy was bearing on top of them. "We are getting the expected wavelength signal. 'Dark matter' energy for a anointed term.

How shall we counter sir?"

Colonel Grash walked calmly to a console. "I think my original words are appropo.

'Ruin the Darkness before us,' I said? Words into His Majesty's reality. Now deploy them in a sphere pattern, and order the other three support waves to target these areas." ..bringing up a holo-panel, Grash points out three points at the Oort cloud boundry, and a larger one at the third planetary orbit.

He also ordered the Shield Trees to deploy Wings offensively.

----

":: EXCELLENCY ON THE DECK!!! ::" ...a central officer on the Eternal Destiny Command Core announced.

"Fold this bad boy fleet on schedule. I don't need to give more orders than that, do I?" ..Aleaic announced as he strode to his Command Platform.

"~ Not in the slightest Master. ~" Lord Ackronus replied, in essence, for an entire empire. The Sphere wide Hikari Network was active and fully enctypted now. Few ears were not listening, the physics of the Hikari Network was as advanced and near instantaneous as designed.

"Good. Operation Paladin is Commenced. Activate the expansion as well."

Behind him, Tsunami in following turned and ordered. "Tell the Assets in place to assert Confederacy empowered controls. Fold the locks in to place and send the recorded announcement." ...in hardly a hard voice. No need for such here.

Aleaic reached his station, and looked across at the white filled space of Intracel Dimension, at the uncountable numbers mentioned too many times before. All those ships of two seperate Dimensions at his one and only time of full control.

Around them all, Gates were forming for one way Gate Folds for entire Fleet Legions of the massed Host.

Just then Lady yurika pops up on a holoscreen. "The System GJ-117823 TF-FL is brining in it's second wave. We got word of a strange 'thing' of darkmatter and risen undead from fallen soldiers and such.

If I may suggest that it is time."

Aleaic nods. "Well celestial weaponry has it's place here. Like the DE isn't as bad now as the Infernals, save their smaller numbers.

It's a go, Holia Weapons all hot, keep the Ionic and standard weapons where needed. It's obvious the DE are going down the deep end. Let's give them a taste of their end."

Yurika ordered the same....

---

Grash got the word just as the second wave-phase signaled ready. The whole thing, over Hikari Net, took less than two minutes. Less than a minute before active combat contact commenced, the Colonel ordered. "We got the release lock.

Let's finally dance."

---

The main first assault wave was joined by the second wave-phase of another sixty thousand, mostly angelic led warships and exo-troops. Just then the first angelic and ascendant exo and mecha troops contact the enemy 'blobs', and see the first 'undead' enemy appear.

The ordered positionings of new Sphere forces arrive dead on top of local DE entrapment forces and at the extra location, ending up almost admist the blob main mass.

A few seconds into it all, the angelics seem overwhelmed as some are absorbed into the 'things' attacking. At least until the first few that are, detonate into bright balls of Holia energy. Just then the Shield Trees, seventeen in all admist the entire two waves, extend their gargantuan Angelhawk Wings, and reverberate Holia erengy signals, in a strange celestial frequency pattern, finding the dark version subspace frequency, like some fequency locator device.

One on a star system scale, and power to match the type used by the enemy. As the Wings do this, the Angel-Exo Convictors and Devastators suddenly find the same, using the Tree freqency shift, and as soon as a near lock is found, Holia weapons belch white beams of searing white, 'all' across the invasion zone in the System.

The strange blobs start decreasing in number at a frightening rate, far more than the Angels take in steady casualties. The three Sphere fleets attacking the DE trap, come in at several angles all along a flat plane axis, Zenith and Nadir wise. Hosts upon Hosts of fighters, mecha and Exos swarm around a five hundred kilometer bubble around all three attack zones.

To top all of this off, the Shield Trees a few moments later, find the exact spectrum of the dark matter present, and flat out send Holia pulse wave after pulse wave, insead of their usual Hikari Shields.

And then finally to start off the inital opening act of the drama, Foundation Weapon torpedoes are fired in three waves, dead into the center of the monstrosity. tiny compact suns for a short time burn deep inside the bloby beast, while the Angel's swarm and obliterate in tight combat formations and patterns.

----

Activation signals to the entire Coseria and Columbia Superclusters, as the edges of DE territory, along the old invasion axis from the DE invasion a hundred and thirty years prior, have starbases and even moon bodies Folded from the Planet Foundry, to hundreds of thousands of select points, while worlds the DE never paied attention to, with secret Gaian assets emplaced, revolt enmass in a vast wave of whole Galactic Arms and Eleptical Galaxies outright answering the call of the Fourth Great Expansion. Exactly 2,437 new galaxies the Ascendancy eyed for the Guardianship, are flooded with Angelic forces, slated as defense troops and fleets. Whole systems and star clusters are secured for the Confederacy Alliance of Free Relams.

This as the full force of Wave One is about to depart, all these activities occuring within minutes after the Operation signal is sent across the Hikari Net. Literally, Phase One and the Third Great Expansion, over such vast distances, occur with sick precision, anticipated to force the DE to react to the Gaians.

---

Onboard the Eternal Destiny, as the countdown ticked below ten seconds, without hearing a single communication from any operational theater yet, knew that his citizens would not let him down, and the shock of such a huge scope of activity all at once, knew that decades of planning under the veil of peace, was bearing exacting fruit.

...then the chronometer counted it's last.

---

((OC- Sorry for a long post, been waiting two weeks for this. =^^= ))The Dark Eternal galaxies, which had sent a large majority of their fleets to participate in the invasion of the Eternal galaxy, still were strong enough to put up a good and prolonged fight against the large fleet of the Angelics and Gains. Further, on many worlds remained great garrison entrenched on a very large numbers of worlds which the worlds would have to vaporized or taken by force to secure them from the forces of the Dark Eternals.

In the system where the dark being had reanimated bodies that were embedded in it continued its attack. Further, the darkness inside the bodies prevented them from being altered in any way as their was no soul or mind to reattach. As well, it began to launch more waves of more soldiers and ships to go on the attack of the enemies and sought for them to destroy the enemy fleet which threatened their masters.

Throughout, the Dark Eternal Empire where the Gaians where invading the fleets in those galaxies retreated to the more defensible and fortified worlds in the hopes of being able to slow them down for the Dark Eternal in the Eternal Empire to take the Eternal home world and return to fight the Gaians with the massive fleet which could well be able to fight back the Gaians.

__________________________________________________________________

Now the Dark Eternals had begun the final push to the Eternal home world and the defenses of the Eternal Empire now began to be activated in a bid to stave off the Dark Eternal threat…

"That is a mistake."

Azusa, commanding elements of Wave Two, was given an appraisal report from his Flagship, aptly named Azusa Omain`car Flag Treeship, a huge vessel only half the size of a standard SSD, but well matching the firepower of two of the same. Enough for the campaign at hand.

He was getting relay data from Universe Commander Ryoko Balta, as she got reports from the initial strikes from Wave One. Already Aleaic's Flag Force was obliterating a strong DE task force that held another supply funnel to the Eternal Galaxy invasion zone.

":: They already are falling back to strengthen interior sections of their intergalactic filaments. We've already exausted Wave One fully, We should have the Dark Eternal invasion axis fully cut off from it's empire in 48 hours, if the DE fall back like this. ::"

"Then Wave Two will advance by an hour. We'll send Wave Three early to capture as much (relatively) abandoned DE territory and break their hold on all supply lines we come across." Azusa ordered. Even on an operation of this vast scale, speed was vital. The advantage of having superior angelic support was critical here, as entire systems were expected to be 'captured' (where a System is removed of 75% of DE activity) and then attack forces moved to adjacent systems over the next few days of the inital Operation Phase.

Ryoko nodded. "Good hunting then old man."

Azusa turned to send orders to move up his Wave assault.

---

Beyond his view in the Intracel Dimension, thousands of active Gates were seen with vast numbers of angelic forces moving through, the Gates 'changing' destination location, based on the surviving Comm-Orbs sent in Pre-Phase One, in the same manner as the Folded Planets and StarBase supports for both Operation Paladin Wave One and Pre-Phase, as well as Operation Harvest, for the Fourth Great Expansion.

This sends scores of individual waves, thirty-thousand vessels and a hundred thousand angelics and ascendants, at a time through, many supporting each other's Wave assignments as part of individual Wave parts of each main Wave.

The numbers lost count, as the Sphere went full all out to force the DE to retreat in the old classic 'stall' ploy. The whole invasion was designed to play the DE into an old tactic, and then suprise them as unanticipated numbers would arrive all around them, and then isolate whole areas to the other trap prepared, using the Dimensional Fortresses.

---

*Case Point: System GHL-376.A2 - Frapas-Cor Galaxy, Dragona Supercluster.*

This single star system became the model for the whole invasion. Knowing that the vast majority of the Ascendancy led invasion was, essentially, borrowed angelic forces, the Sphere planned to waste none of their time in Third Dimensional Space.

From the 'start' Waves went in 'boxes', or Angelic Legions of 130,000 to 150,000 vessels and 1,500,000 angelic troops per individual sector, for a region of ten thousand star systems. Knowing the DE relied on dark 'tech' far too much, the aim was to employ Holia weapons, and literally burn the enemy apart.

The attack on System GJ-117823 to start it all was magnified ten fold here, as fifteen Legion Groups attack in the same manner as System GJ-117823, and flat out rape the DE of their basic command control, and drove them to react fast to the Gaian timetable. System wide battles were expected to be completed in six hours, Local System Time. After that, if the DE retrated, used 'dark' weapons to stall, or just were wiped out as an effective combat force in place, the Angelics would move to adjacent systems, and clear them out.

The Eternal link to their undead slaves was given the base treatment, Holia weapons, and large numbers of Foundation weapons were employed in concert with Ionic stun weapons and Gaian unorthadox weaponry. (Subspace frequencies and flat out white noise channel freqs were flooded with music of all kinds. To make the DE confused just enough, for the assaults to break up defenses and mow down the undead troops on the planets as Allied forces landed in large numbers and brought entire worlds under battle in less than thirty minutes 'each'.

Gaian Fleets spearheading main assaults on specific targets, such as System GHL-376.A2 by Admiral Kana Mizuhara in a Concordia A-SSD, went to cut off communication links between entire galactic arms. She ordered her fleets to move in, break up the DE defense as it came, and ordered Shield Trees to burn off DE unorthadox weapons, such as the 'blob' weapons, by just pummeling it over and over and over.

Landing troops would then land (or in case of Gas Giant planets, orbit) and push at frightening speed across whole continents, to shove the DE defenders aside.

The Sphere Allies didn't concentrate on holding any single planet, as mentioned, outside the Corseria and Columbia Superclusters, and instead pushed to flat out simply destroy DE forces as much as they could. DE ships and undead troops alike.

They 'expected' then that the DE would retreat and concentrate forces. This is where the Gaians used the other factor that System GHL-376.A2 was modeled after. The Gaians sent in A-SSDs and Foundry Ships to quickly mine and construct additional mass numbers of droid fleets and troops, in some places as little a time as a few hours. The Droids would hold and mop up DE forces as they were constructed, built with basic (if advanced as all heaven) celestial combat routines. This would allow assault forces in each system to leave behind a strong rear guard, using each system's own inplace natural resources to construct with.

The Kushan tatcic as it were. Celestial forces would then move to act as support waves with remaining forces, to clear out the remainder of the target sector, before 'that' sector moved to assist other Wave One sectors. This all meant however that time was needed to clear them all out, but it also allowed the liberators to exponetially leave a steady rearguard in each System they attacked.

In twenty-four hours, the Sphere reaguard would match the invasion forces in numbers. The Sphere didn't concern with numbers yet. They simply moved to clear out Wave One assignments within the six hour time table. And the Sphere had sufficient forces to move on over thirty thousand galaxies at once. Wave Two and Three meanwhile then would follow the System GHL-376.A2 model, and move on Systems the DE abandoned (essentially) while beginning to isolate the DE for Wave Four and Five. Waves Six through Ten were the breaking straw on the DE's back, by utilizing fresh forces to cut off the DE from any outside help.

After that, the Gaians would slowly choke the DE to oblivion in a protracted ten year time table war of brutal attrition. The DE being allowed to concentrate forces, would then either be forced to be whittled away to nothing in a few short years, 'well' away from both Sphere and Eternal holdings, as well as the Virgo Supercluster, or they would try to rebuild somehow, strike out, and then encoutner equally strenghtening Celestial forces on continuous Gaian terms of battle order.

No matter what the DE did, they were forced with the fact that concentrating forces would limit them to a specific area of resources, and that meant the DE undead slaves would be limited in numbers. No matter how vast in number they were.

The catch was to trap the DE forces in the Eternal Empire, and completely cut them off from the remainder of the DE empire's territories. The Sphere 'knew' where the DE emperor was, and they intended to send Wave Three to crack the DE assault momentum.

The System GHL-376.A2 model worked even here too. The DE 'had' to rely on a supply chain, and a communications chain over such a vast distance. Here was the Anvil the Gaians were sending for the Eternals to strike upon.

---

Six hours into the start of Wave One, Wave Three was led by an assault Legion of the 29th Gaian Republic Facet Fleet Command, 505th Celestial Host, Fre`thar`eth Fleet Legion (Ascendant), and sixty Angelic Fleet Legion Commands.

Advisor Akito Tenkawa led this specific one, as this, and fifty more Wave Legions began to assault into the Eternal Home Galaxies at the Outer Supercluster Rims, Axis away from Virgo-SC map grid.

A million troops were slated for this one area alone.

":: Win this hon, then come home. ::"

Akito smirked blandly at Yurika's holo-image over Hikari Net. "You know it. I don't care much for leading a force this big. It feels too unrealistic."

Yurika smiled. ":: We all feel that way. We just want the main phase of the war over as soon as possible. We need lives to live again. ::"

Akito laughs back. "Yeah, war kills life, even just the time living it, huh?"

Yurika holds her own, and responds. ":: Just be safe. My sweer Akito. ::"

Akito just jokes back. "I have to. Otherwise you'll rezz me, and kill me in person after."

Yurika Tenkawa, rather than the Advisor of Tactical Operations responds back.... ":: I can do worse if you die you know. ::"

Akito bites his cheeks and gulps. (Wouldn't doubt that...) ...he thought.

At that, the Comm-Techs announce Fold envelopes are in progress. The countdown timers are pointless here and now. The two just bid goodbye, as the Wave Fold jumps off to finally relieve the Eternals at last.

---

Oh, and those wondering about System GJ-117823 battle, the blob thing trying to recover is subjected to simply more Foundation torpedoes, before the Sphere commands the Shield Trees to change freqency, into a shear pulsewave.

One that breaches Intracelic subspace dead in the center of the beast. Additional support Waves already are attacking most of the surrounding Star Systems around this inital assault point, and the DE are seeing the true scope of the invasion at last.

And then not even the full brunt of it all. The scope continues to advance over the next twenty-four hours. Casualties are in the millions, but still managable at this stage with the Med-Ships operating at full capacity in every theater.

And then, rementioning, when the DE retreat enough into certain defensive holdings, the Fortresses are moved into place within subspace, and wait for the word from the Eternal galaxy for the Eternals to make their move.

One unfortunate Angelic Cruiser was destroyed outright while several others were damaged. Shields were overwhelmed and the thick molecular iso armor melted away from constant exposure of the high energy. The attack did not come unexpected to the two leaders as they began formulating their fleet into a workable defensive formation. The Avengers were separated and protected by a layer of Horde Battlecruisers which in turn were completely covered by a layer of the Angelic Cruisers.

Sebastian had returned to his seat while Shizra remained standing by his side. His tone was soft but commanding and maintained a steady calm. "First thing's first. Bring the defense systems online and target enemy fighters. Second, download defense formation alpha to the orc fighters. Make sure the information is clear that their primary target is the enemy fighters themselves. Leave the bombers to the defense grids. What's the distance to enemy frontline?"

A young woman with blond hair pulled up a holographic screen and began working through rune symbols and a battlemap until she had come up with sufficient data. "They are just outside optimal firing range for main energy based weapons."

Sebastian stroked his chin while contemplating their possible options. "That means they are out of range of our EMP's. Activate particle beam cannons, MAC's, and the Warp torpedoes but do not fire the torpedoes until I give the order. Load standardized torpedoes in the regular ports and prepare them for launch. Open me a hole through their shield and pump everything we have at their capital ships. Now, let loose the hounds of war."

Heavy capital class particle beam turrets opened fire on the frontline of the Dark Eternals, pouring forth gouts of yellow energy laced particles. Giant slugs encasing tons of a volatile substance the Myths had discovered in an asteroid. Most races had called it anti-matter so they had taken to doing the same. The slugs were aimed at the hole in the smaller craft shield that they were hoping to create. A symphony of brilliantly lit projectiles soon followed as waves of little torpedoes swarmed outward like bees. Darting and weaving, they were incredibly versatile and struck for a hole to reach out for the larger vessels of the Dark Eternal fleet.

As fighters began streaming into the mix, goblin fighters engaged at death defying speeds. Bred for this purpose alone, they were capable of extraordinary arial feats and had no problem of using this to their advantage. Laser fire and torpedoes took flight as the fighters locked on to their prey and fired away. Assistance then came from the rest of the fleet as defense systems came online. Lasers, pulse interceptors, and flak cannons soon formed an umbrella of protective fire.OOC: Note, the Eternals and Dark Eternals do not use electricity on their ships and they rely on propulsion is manipulating different types of energy around them to create bursts near the end of their ships.

IC: The Dark Eternals continued their attack with all of their strength and they continued their same tactics while they advanced closer to their enemies positions. They also now sent another wave of fighters and bombers to engage the enemy as they had lost most of the first wave due to small craft fighting and from the defenses of the main ships. As well, they began to deploy shield ships which deflected energies coming from one direction while letting those coming from the Dark Eternal fleet go through their strong shields.

In the meantime the main ships of the Dark Eternal fleet began to fire their most powerful weapons as they had not reached a suitable range to use them in full force. Now they also began to halt their advance and set up a stable position behind their shield ships which protected the capital ships of the fleet. As well, they now deployed some smaller capital along the flanks which began to advance in a bid to divide the attention of their enemy into a number of smaller areas.

(That's fine, really doesn't matter since I didn't use my EMP's. They would have found out either way. Are they manipulating energy as well to form their shields?)

Fighter bay doors opened along the bottom of the larger ships and a refreshment of fighters was added to the forray outside. Still outnumbered, the goblins were programmed with the same defense formation as before. Red laser fire and volleys of torpedoes accompanied by the continued support of the Myth fleet's defense fire echoed throughout the system.

On they fought with continued fire from torpedoe salvoes, cannon turrets, and MAC rails. The encounter of shield ships was a new challenge to the young fleet. Some of the younger officers were shocked and had no answers for this new riddle. Sebastain however was not perturbed with the situation and had a plan already in motion when the first shots rang out. "Well it seems I was right in warming up the Warp torpedoes. We'll use ours but have the rest of the fleet attack the ships on our flanks. If they want to divide our forces, let them think we've taken the bait."

Capital class particle beams were redirected at the smaller Dark Eternal capital class ships that were swinging around to the flanks. Massive slugs filled with anti-matter were instantly accelerated to near speeds of light and a smaller volley of missles were launched as well. In the mean time, Sebastian's ship launched five missles that were swallowed by dark energies much like how their fleet would enter the warp only less flashy and performed within the blink of an eye.

8th Legion arrived at the apointed sectors, as well as several deep strikes into the Eternal galaxy invasion zone. All across tens of thousands of Star Systems, the Sphere Alliance unleased high yields of foundation Torpedoes and offensive Holia weaponry.

Lord Tenkawa kept repeating the same order over Sector wide Hikari Comm.

"Hammer them to their origins. Liberate them ALL!! And I MEAN ALL!!"

The Gaians concentrated forces at the entire invasion border between the Eternal Galaxies and the DE ones, as well as hitting major concentrations of DE forces, the same command control and supply chain for entire sectors.

Akito led the 29th Fleet and lead parts of the 505th Host to the two Systems adjacent to the Eternal Capital System itself, intending to fully disrupt the main funnel the DE were using to attack the main Eternal System. It was risky for the Gaians to strike so deep, so soon, but they hoped the Eternal defenses would recover enough if pressure was taken off them.

A lot of hoping in the end...

(That's fine, really doesn't matter since I didn't use my EMP's. They would have found out either way. Are they manipulating energy as well to form their shields?)

Fighter bay doors opened along the bottom of the larger ships and a refreshment of fighters was added to the forray outside. Still outnumbered, the goblins were programmed with the same defense formation as before. Red laser fire and volleys of torpedoes accompanied by the continued support of the Myth fleet's defense fire echoed throughout the system.

On they fought with continued fire from torpedoe salvoes, cannon turrets, and MAC rails. The encounter of shield ships was a new challenge to the young fleet. Some of the younger officers were shocked and had no answers for this new riddle. Sebastain however was not perturbed with the situation and had a plan already in motion when the first shots rang out. "Well it seems I was right in warming up the Warp torpedoes. We'll use ours but have the rest of the fleet attack the ships on our flanks. If they want to divide our forces, let them think we've taken the bait."

Capital class particle beams were redirected at the smaller Dark Eternal capital class ships that were swinging around to the flanks. Massive slugs filled with anti-matter were instantly accelerated to near speeds of light and a smaller volley of missles were launched as well. In the mean time, Sebastian's ship launched five missles that were swallowed by dark energies much like how their fleet would enter the warp only less flashy and performed within the blink of an eye.The Dark Eternals great strategists responded to the attacks and advances upon their flank positions which had been their plan. Using their attention now on their flanks the center of the Dark Eternal battle line now moved forward as the slave warriors now launched another large small craft and fighter attack upon the enemy positions. Their morale was also raised by the overall presence of a number of true Dark Eternals who directed their fleet as one singular force of great destruction and discipline.

With that they now stroke their move as they now ordered for the energy cannons of their ships to bombard the now opposing fleets of the enemy as they were not once in range on the flanks were now. Yet, their strongest ships now also concentrated their fire on the largest ships of the enemy fleet no matter where they were. With that their flanks larger capital ships now moved forward and began to attack the enemy center with them moving under the cover of the shield ships which went always in front and on the sides of them.

8th Legion arrived at the apointed sectors, as well as several deep strikes into the Eternal galaxy invasion zone. All across tens of thousands of Star Systems, the Sphere Alliance unleased high yields of foundation Torpedoes and offensive Holia weaponry.

Lord Tenkawa kept repeating the same order over Sector wide Hikari Comm.

"Hammer them to their origins. Liberate them ALL!! And I MEAN ALL!!"

The Gaians concentrated forces at the entire invasion border between the Eternal Galaxies and the DE ones, as well as hitting major concentrations of DE forces, the same command control and supply chain for entire sectors.

Akito led the 29th Fleet and lead parts of the 505th Host to the two Systems adjacent to the Eternal Capital System itself, intending to fully disrupt the main funnel the DE were using to attack the main Eternal System. It was risky for the Gaians to strike so deep, so soon, but they hoped the Eternal defenses would recover enough if pressure was taken off them.

A lot of hoping in the end...The Dark Eternals knowing that they could not divide their forces evenly amongst their large Empire decided to make the Gaian fleets suffer for every fortified galaxy they attacked as that was were they gathered their strongest amount of resources and weaponry they could as they stripped some planet bear and banished all their inhabitants souls to the dimension of the dammed from which only an Eternal of Darkness could open. With that they chose the most strategic of worlds and pre-fortified over the worlds that were important for economic reasons.

As for the Eternal home world the Dark Eternals now began to overwhelm the defenses of the Eternal home world as the Eternals now gathered on their home world for one last time in order to give the universe the hope of the Eternals not fading. As well, the Eldest One and the dark lord of the Dark Eternals now prepared for one final confrontation before the return of the highest one to this dimension which would unsure in a new ear for the Eternals.

((OC- It's 'usher in', not unsure in, so ya'll know. =^^= ))

---

The Gaians concentrated more instead on the same isolation strategy, and even stripped worlds held atoms, the one resource the DE couldn't completely obliterate. It took a bit more time, but the Gaians kept Folding into systems and leaving behind rear guards all the same.

A good number of the fortified galaxies were attacked, and forced quite a few Gaian retreats, which laid ground work for the isolation of them. limiting the DE's available space and preventing them from getting new resources after they stripped worlds would haunt the DE for a long time to come.

The Gaians could wait out the effects of decay in the utter end.

--

The 29th/505th meanwhile pressed the DE assault from behind. Since there was nearly little actual defense, flanking them in several spot was no where near as hard as attacking a fortified system.

The Sphere kept pressing as hard as the DE were doing, cutting deep swaths in each system as they advanced, quickly bringing Reserves in when units fall below 60% effectiveness, using the passing hours to 'rezz' strength from fall units. At a steady pace, the Gaians fought just as brutally, making the DE pay to hold even a meter of space or ground.

The Dark Eternals kept on the fight in their galaxies to the very end as they continued to resist ahead till the end in the hopes of fending them off long enough in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy of what they though might at last give them the complete control of all that the Dark Eternals all sought. As well, they deployed some of the experimental creatures against their foes in the hopes that they might inspire great terror in the enemy ranks and stave off their attacks for a long enough time.

In the isolated galaxies the Dark Eternals began to forge a strong rule under the wiser rule of the more patient Dark Eternals who managed to establish a rule so that they were able to maintain an effective rule by conserving their resources well and dispatching their forces to where needed and not sacrificing their isolated forces needlessly.

_______________________________________________________________

In the Eternals home galaxy the Dark Eternals had not launched the final attack using a massive with a fleet that possibly was truly infinite. Further, they had managed to begin to create holes in the defenses towards the inner system and they would soon come to the Eternal home world.

The Sphere wasn't concerned with ancient prophecies, only continuing the campaign to close the noose, and to break the Eternals out of their enforced cage.

Lord Akito began sending forces to interrupt the interceeding Systems between the Eternal Empire border, and the Eternal Core Systems, continuously pushing DE forces out, and scattering them while finding Eternal Empire surviors.

Doing this, the Sphere began to consolidate Eternal surviving units into base effective forces. They also concentrated on breaking blockades, and regrouping assault fleets that were damaged in battle, and pushing further on the spiral axis spread pattern.

---

Akito paced his A-SSD's command core deck, having ordered Comm-Orbs sent out to try and contact the Eternals directly. He knew they had to coordinate a near simultaneous strike if they intended to break the DE assault, before the DE went too deeply.

Not hearing anything from them, the Eternals, was becoming too common an ailment from them, one that could fell even the mightiest of pillars.

"Dammit, they better come to their senses soon."

Akito huffed in another direction, two Techs scooting around him just in time.

In the Eternal defenses on the outskirts of the massive field that the orbited around the Eternal star at about of one light year away from the Eternal home start. As well, around there were nearly a million capital ships and trillions of soldiers preparing for the last stand of the Eternal Empire against this great darkness and they now began to stand their ground against this thread. Further, all those of the Order who were not on missions, which were about three quarters of the surviving Order, took up ranks in preparation for the final defense…

Then a message was sent to the Telorisan fleet which read,” We deeply thank you for your aide and sacrifice in the defense of the world where all was about to be lost before you helped the retreat. We also thank you for coming here where you have the choice of staying here to fight or return to your own worlds and not worry for we will destroy all connections of you being the one to help us. For now thought follow the coordinates we have with this message where one of the shipyard comets has been readied for your entire fleet to be repaired in.”

Zar'kesh read the message and nodded. "<Very well, confirmed. We are on our way.>" The battered fleet made its way to the comet and then landed their forces. The many ships, with holes, tears and scars all across them, landed and disgorged their crewmembers. The first ones off were the critically wounded, sent to whatever hospitals the Eternals had to offer and were quickly followed by the wounded. The dead were being organized into pods were, once a location was found, they could be laid to rest. Engineers worked with Eternal workers as they began repairs. The commander of the ground forces and Zar'kesh watched it all.

"<Sir, we did warn the reinforcements to come here, right?>"

"<Yes, it's been taken care of. Go rest, I am going to head to the headquarters of this place and start some planning. Then get some sleep."> Waving wearily, Zar'kesh walked up to the nearest Eternal worker and asked where the headquarters were.

The Dark Eternals great strategists responded to the attacks and advances upon their flank positions which had been their plan. Using their attention now on their flanks the center of the Dark Eternal battle line now moved forward as the slave warriors now launched another large small craft and fighter attack upon the enemy positions. Their morale was also raised by the overall presence of a number of true Dark Eternals who directed their fleet as one singular force of great destruction and discipline.

With that they now stroke their move as they now ordered for the energy cannons of their ships to bombard the now opposing fleets of the enemy as they were not once in range on the flanks were now. Yet, their strongest ships now also concentrated their fire on the largest ships of the enemy fleet no matter where they were. With that their flanks larger capital ships now moved forward and began to attack the enemy center with them moving under the cover of the shield ships which went always in front and on the sides of them.

With the surge of attack on the flanks, Myth forces pushed forward like water through a crack as their formation began to constrict allowing the Eternals to fall in behind. Now that fighter craft seemed to be more or less under control, goblin fighters broke away from the main fleet and began swarming over the smaller ships in the Dark Eternal fleet that were encircling the Myth. Laser fire and torpedoes let loose as they sped over the hulls of ships and targeted weapon ports and anything that looked important. Star Forge intelligence had collected information on many models of ships in the universe but none of these craft matched the silhouettes so they were basically shooting at anything and everything cutting back and surgical hits.

Just as the bulk of the fleet pushed forward, the five Warp torpedoes that Sebastian launched found their marks. One shield ship had a warhead phase beyond the shielding and within the hull. It detonated upon full materialization followed by one other torpedoe doing the exact same to a second shield ship blocking the Myth fleet. Three separate torpedoes themselves found the largest ships they could find lying behind the shield ships, and detonated within the hulls when they materialized.

Larger waves of missles and torpedoes were now launched along the flanks and front of the fleet. Heavy burst lasers powered by massive explosions, streaked out at ships creeping in closer along with heavy particle beams. MAC's were accelerated towards the front of the fleet along with the larger ships' main energy weapons. Streams of brilliant green energy raced towards the front and lashed out at the larger ships.

Dark Eternal fire was taking its toll on the fleet with the smaller Angelic Cruisers beginning to diminish along with Horde Battlecruisers beginning to take severe damage. One shot even managed to strike Sebastian's Avenger Battleship. The energy crackled against the thick shielding and hissed out but not before bringing shields down dangerously low.

Shizra walked over and whalloped Sebastian on the head. This fight was getting well out of hand and the fool was taking them in further to the enemy fleet. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"You fool. I promised Sarah I would bring you back in one piece. What is it you think you are doing now?"

"Well, we're already outnumbered here. Bringing them in closer would allow us to deal more damage and not to mention let loose some of our boarding pods."

Shizra put her fists on her waist. "We don't have enough orcs to deal sufficient damage."

"Perhaps not, but we can cause some chaos and allow our ships to manuever more freely and possibly get out of here."

It wasn't a great idea, but it was all they had really and Shizra had to let Sebastian go his own way or risk loosing everything that was special about him. Still, there was one thing that could be done. Someone must have sent this probe out. Hopefully they would be listening. Power was rerouted from nonessential systems to the communication beacons and a message was streamed out in all directions.

Would the owner of a probe in this sector of space please return to claim it? Also, reinforcements would be preferable as we have found ourselves in the midst your enemy and are fighting on to the best of our abilities.

Akito was stunned, this information was not told to the Sphere StarFleet Command by the Eternals, thought the reasons were as much replete, if not obvious...

:: ~ Would the owner of a probe in this sector of space please return to claim it? Also, reinforcements would be preferable as we have found ourselves in the midst your enemy and are fighting on to the best of our abilities. ~ ::

"Did this come from the Eternal home System?" Akito asked an Ascendant Commander. "~ We are presuming as such, and I can read thought proper as well. ~"

Akito all but stormed from the Alpha Node sector behind the A-SSD Command Core Platform. "That means someone else already had the DE attention, besides the Eternals.

I want all available free forces to join me at Point Trastra, just outside the Eternal home system. I don't care if the Eternals are expecting us or not now. Someone 'else' needs our help now too."

He yells back hard with end... "...and I wanted that YESTERDAY."

Fleet Commanders suddenly turned to finding free Sphere forces to make a direct strike at the Eternal home system itself. Akito was dead tired of waiting, even if it killed him.

Within a half hour, the Gaians found seven Fleet Groups, and could pull eight full Fleet Legions two hours after the inital assault.

Akito also sent out the following message, but not where in any detail. The signal was actually circumvented around the Comm-Orb network to appear the signal was coming from an entirely seperate direction, in an attempt to fool the DE if they heard the signal.

:: ~ To the unknown forces that sent the signal for help, we of the light hear and are near ready to counter the very existence of the Dark Eternals from civilized space.

Please hold out for fourty minutes, no more, not falter to less. ~ ::

Meanwhile the Gaians began moving an accompanying Dimensional Fortress in position where the assault thrust would finally arrive, and seemed to give a subspace 'bump' signal to indicate just this, at the upper spiral galactic direction area of the System Oort cloud boundry.

To Everyone:

The Dark Eternals now had mustered a large enough fleet that they now assembled themselves for a large battle against the enemy Gaians as they now wanted to slow them down enough so as to let their forces in the Eternal home galaxy. This large fleet of ships now went to the borders of the Eternal home galaxy to hold off the enemy.

The forces engaging the Myth forces now withdrew as the time had come for them to hold the rearguard at the edge of the Dark Eternal assault. With them they just withdrew in a second due to their ships ability to enter jump mode without even opening a hole. As well, they did leave a few field dampeners behind so as to cover their trajectory from the enemy.

In the Eternal defense system of the Oort cloud the alarms went off as the main Dark Eternals fleet rang which caused all the people to go to arms as the armada totally surrounded all the system and they outnumbered the defending forces 20 to 1. With that the follower of the Eternals said to the Telorsian,” Sir, we advise you to gather your forces and return to your nation as you have suffered to much for our people. We shall make a path for your nation to be flee.”

One half of the Tenkawa clan didn't know about this sudden development, as the Gaians kept preparing to move on the DE at the Eternal home system, so Akito wouldn't know of this in time to reprepare unless they got a different signal.

---

The other half however was 'well' warned of the DE advance on the edge of the Eternal home galaxy, and Yurika for once was as joyous as one could get away with in a war time situation.

"They fell for it. They're trying to break our isolation screen."

Universe Commander Ula Kurita of the same FACAF force contigent was present this time, and was 'well' versed in the tactics of the Eternal War, as was all the other major commanders that had passed through the War Center hatchway.

"So? They could punch through and relieve the DE main advance with that kind of numbers. Can we get enough forces in place in time to annihalate the DE approaching?"

Yurika actually chuckled, her head tilted downwards. "The idea is to make the DE break like a wave on a rocky shore. Why else did we bother with the Kushan tactic at all, if we didn't want this effect.

Hotel and Sestiaa Fortresses will take care of the rest. We just need to keep them thinking the invasion plan is to simple attack, and trap them in our way of battle."

Yurik stabbed a look hard at Sector Comms for the Eternal empire theater. "Tell Ifurita she has a go for the 1,901st assault. And HURRY!"

Ifurita then crossed her arms, trying to keep worry away.

If this worked, the DE would attack the Gaian attack line, and find a battle hundreds of thousands of Star Systems wide, where the Gaians would flat out grind the DE apart, the two fortresses would pincer in four places and split the line, while Kushan droid fleets would fall in behind the DE original advance.

If the DE could be beaten here, the Eternals would be relieved at the border of their empire. The rest was up to Akito and the rest inside the Eternal galaxies to finish it off.

--

((OC- going to wait on Myth and others now... ))

The sudden disappearance came as a relief to the Myth fleet but this left Sebastian and Shizra wondering about their next move. A message had been received from some unknown force that professed to be on their side. Perhaps they were the reason why the Dark Eternal fleet fled or maybe something else with the larger war abroad had called their attention. In any case, Sebastian was not sorry to see them go.

He felt a slight chill and took the brown cloak resting on the arm of his throne chair and wrapped it around his arms. Shizra leaned a hip against the side of his chair and her chest rose and fell with a sigh. "What's your next move Sebastian?"

Sebastian's fingers glided over a small lump in the right arm rest. The hull around them shimmered as holographic projectors turned on showing them the remainder of their fleet. "Recall the fighters that we launched along with any lifepods we can find. How are the repairs going?"

The dark elf walked down a couple stairs to where the communications officer was seated. The young officer pushed a few buttons which pulled up pictures of each class of ship in the Myth fleet. Runes flowed behind them informing the War Mistress of how many they started with, how many ships were left, which were undergoing repairs, and which were listed as severly damaged. "Most of our ships should be ready to go in a few minutes time with the automated repair system. We have a couple others that are going to take longer since were heavily damaged. I would say a thirty minutes at the most."

Sebastian's shoulders drooped and he leaned back in his chair. "That message said to wait for fourty minutes so I suppose that's what we'll do. Have all ships to hold their position and see to repairs. I want fighters to circle around the fleet on patrol and bring the more damaged ships in closer to our ship. Communications, can you get me a transmission back out to whoever sent the message?"

Runes flew across the screen again this time banishing the screen Shizra was viewing. Letters finally stopped flowing up and the screen flashed blue. "Yes Elder. Communication networks are up and functional."

"Good prepare this message. . ."

To unknown forces of the Light. We have received and acknowledged your message. The enemy fleet in this sector has fled for now and we are taking time to see to some repairs and cleanup. We will hold our position for now.

It wasn't till ten minutes to go, as the Gaians were actually using a thirty minute schedule instead of the inferred forty, to catch the DE offguard, when the Myth signal reached Akito.

"They retreated? What the light?"

Ascendant Commander Oew`rath surmised. "~ I fear they are heading off our own attack. ~

A Star Captain suddenly rushed up. "Milord, a signal from Lady Yurika."

Akito took the Padd from the Captain, and looked startled. "A DE assault force had been spotted approaching the Eternal Galaxy boundry line we set up.

Ifurtia's force is about to pounce on it?" ..he SLAPS the Padd to his right hip. "What's with the DE suddenly trying to out mobile us? We need to find the DE position again fast."

"~ What of the attack? ~"

Akito replies sharply. "You got ten minutes to ascertain that. We're going in otherwise, and I want to outsmart these DE bastards. Find me where they went, and I 'mean' exactly."

The Gaians in less than two minutes, sent out three successive waves od Comm-Orbs, layered off the original DE position, the Oort Cloud boundy, and a half-light year beyond the Eternal home System. Over a thousand were sent on a one way trip.

By the time the Gaians were approaching the event the Dark Eternals had hoped to trigger now occurred as their ships arrived. As their assault had pierced a hole in the final defenses of the Eternal home system and they had broken through the shield as the Eternals had lowered it and the blood of Eternals now had spilt on the Eternal home world thus fulfilling the sacrifice needed for the second coming.

With that now a light now engulfed the system as something seemed to from it and emerge from a great portal that was once the sun of the system. So now it came out taking the whole of the great Dark Eternal fleet that had formed at the edge of the system, as well as the whole of the Dark Eternal fleet and armies in the Eternal Empire, and restored the lives of all those who had been lost fighting for or with the Eternals during the course, it even had returned the souls of the Eternals to this universe of which it had been impossible save for the Highest One.

As for all the Dark Eternals in the fleet they had vanished and taken by the being that had emerged from the portal back to its unknown home dimension to which none could follow. Yet, in its wake it left the Eternal home system restored to it as if it had been destroyed and also had restored the two most ancient stars, along with the star it had emerged, which had been lost during the first forming of the Eternal race.

As well, every planet that had been destroyed by war was entirely restored and all the beings, both alive and dead, to their world with all else restored to them in the instant before it had left the system. In the Dark Eternal Empire it also freed all the beings that were not directly linked now to the Dark Eternals. Thus, freeing literally hundreds of thousands of galaxies from their rule.

The Eternals then sent a message summoning the leaders of all those that led the fleets against the Dark Eternals to come to the edge of the Eternal home system as to discuss the campaigns to destory the rest of the Dark Eternal thread.

OOC: Sorry, it took me so long to respond.

((OC- Sent a TG Scand.. ))

---

Akito's Fleet intial push met the intial boundry of that strange light. As it progressed, scores of Sphere Allied Fleet Legions suddenly lost targets, as a huge majority of enemy forces flat out stopped fighting the Sphere onslaught.

No one was sure how far this all extended, and for seventy-two hours the Operation progressed, taking advantage of a 'great' deal of space left essentially undefended, expanding the Kushan perimeters by hundreds of thousands of droid controlled fleets in frightening, short order.

--

Aleaic's Diamnond Fleet, finishing an operation to close off another supply System, lose contact with the enemy.

"The heavens?" Tsunami yelps, as DE forces scatter in all directions. Some die at Gaian guns before realization sets in, and Aleaic orders cease-fire.

"No idea, though................"

He stands still for a moment, as he feels the waves the Hikari Power senses. Anticlamatic as it sounds, Aleiac smiles a moment after. "About time they showed up, melodramatic ancients."

The fact was now the Dark Eternal slave fleet had reappeared now in Dark Eternal space, but without the Dark Eternals that had participated in the of the Eternal home system ye t about half of the invading Dark Eternals did come back with the fleet. So now they were regathering their forces for a battle with a combined Gaian and Eternal fleet that were bound to come now that the Dark Eternals were weakened greatly.

With that the Eternals now gathered the remnants of their fleet for a strike on the Dark Eternal Empire and began to send messages to the worlds of the Dark Eternals that were free of their influence to join the fleet so that they might earn their freedom from millions of years of enslavement and oppression. To which many peoples now launched an armed rebellion on many of the factory and supply worlds of the Dark Eternals to try to cripple the slave armies.

The sudden, and strikingly dramatic shift in combat power of the DE, as well as the influx of reports of former DE planets overthrowing into revolutions across a third of the comprised Alpha Universe.

All of this actually threw the Sphere military into slight confusion, mainly because so much military power, planning, logistics and phases were so detailed out for so many billions of Star Systems in specific areas. By now the Kushan Droid Fleets were four times the size of the less than pristine Gaian military Touman and Fleet Commands.

Over forty billion mortal, angelic, ascended and droid troops were being recovered across six major Supercluster theaters. With the sudden DE shift in forces and power, the Sphere almost literally overnight, doubled in combat power against the DE forces remaining, giving excess forces to assist in the rather accelerated liberation campaigns. The only problem at the moment was the cold fact the original Gaian plans never, and still weren't, going to hold any Systems outside the two Superclusters they deliberately expanded in. That meant they could help overthrow, but humanitarian assistance other than basic replicators in small numbers, was impossible.

Space over this kind of scale 'still' overtaxed even the vast military and commerce might of the Sphere. It did no good if the Sphere gutted itself dry to help everyone. As such, the Excellency was forced to rely on pure hope for the self liberated survivors to fend for themselves.

For the Gaian part, Yurika ordered a fundamental scan review of areas of DE held space that still were in solid DE control. Such a review would take a month. By then, the Sphere recovery machine would rezz up to 85% at worst, of all units and fleets originally available at the start of the War. In essence, the following month and a half after the DE lost their invasion forces, was a near total reorganization of combat forces. A nearly new plan was also concocted to take advantage of the now nonexistent need for Kuhan droid forces in certain areas of intergalactic-supercluster space.

A proper shift of such a massive size of forces could give near complete control of where to isolate the remaining forces.

---

*Three weeks into the Reorganization-Phase One*

"I'm heading in person this time to see what the final conduct the Eternals will take to proceed against the DE."

Walking along a huge hallway within the super A-SSD Diamond Fleet Docks. Almost every A-SSD was present being refurbished, many having battle scars repaired even three weeks in. The price for having hundreds of vessels over twenty kilometers in size plus.

Lady Yurika and Tsunami was going with, Lord Tenchi and Lady Ifurita following. The conduct of the home front was already satisfactory, and great merits of rewards already bestowed, mostly words and well wishes. He also took personal time to see how Ruri and Hori were faring, and made a personal promise to finish this war for them.

"How will meeting this Elder One face to face solve much? It's probable the conduct will echo how the end of the last war went." Yurika asked as they proceeded down the edges of hallways, as large football field sized conveyor sections moved supplies and mecha stores along to droid and computer processing zones near appropriate A-SSDs.

"I'm more worried about all the areas that are liberated. How muvh of it is empty space, and how much is still populated, and by what kind of civilization, and how much they'll need help to get basic footing again going.

Leaving any single world in need without, in our mutual wake, would be poor form on 'all' of our parts. I also want to see with my own eyes what the Eternals intend to do in the long run. I can't fully, and honestly trust a peoples that have twice lent to melodrama and prophecy to act upon, at the cost of 'far' too many lives. I never cared for ascended types that took too much of a off hand approach, before acting."

Aleaic almost stomped along the blue carpet walkway at this point. "If anything, I'm giving a peice of my mind."

Tsunami just pats Al's head from behind. "Now now, calm beloved."

Aleaic just softly fires back.. "I 'am' calm. remind me that after we start talking to them."

Yurika gulps a bit. "Better bring the censor ear plugs again."

Al gives a dour look. "Okay okay, I'll control myself this time." ...lending to the two ladies giving humor at Al's expense once more.

---

A few hours later and one terse converse with the repair dock master about the Plane Three deck plate buckling problem, the Eternal Destiny departed with one small fleet escort for Eternal Home Space.

Aleaic wanted answers once and for all from the Elder One.

(sorry this has come in so long for a response but I've been without power for a week. Hoping to catch up on everything here.)

During their lapse of action, the Myth fleet had taken time to lick its wounds. The automated repair systems worked wonderously as tiny nanobots fused hulls back together, repaired any damages to external ports, and began making repairs to asthetic features in the ships. Most ships were returned to the full capacity in very little time. Sebastian was somewhat surprised when the "Army of Light" never appeared but perhaps something they had said leaked information that drew their attention elsewhere.

Now they stood in the middle of darkness looking for a direction to follow. The probe they had been tracking was gone as well as the angellic voices singing in the minds of many crew members. Only Sebastian now had a slight inkling as to where they should head. Something still in the depths of his mind pushing him on.

Shizra turned to face him while he sat in the throne chair. "Well Sebastian, what shuold we do now?"

He scratched at the one day old stubble that had formed under his chin while trying to put his finger on the appropriate direction. "I can't exactly tell you where, I can only give a direction. You must trust me on this one War Mistress."

A long white strand of hair flew up from her face as she sighed. "Well you got us out of the last situation in one piece, I guess we'll trust you with this."

"Alright then. All ships prepare to jump and all Goblin Fighters form up behind the fleet."

The Myth fleet began mobilizing for a warp jump. They had just about taken the proper formation and drives from within were powering up and slicing through dimensions when a transmsission came through beckoning all those that were fighting the darkness to report on some distant world. Sebastian looked over at the dark elf with a smile. "See? Set course."

Shizra only rolled her eys and shook her head. Suddenly the Myth fleet was pulled into the chaos of the warp and travelling for whatever surprised awaited them next.

Three months later, Lord Azusa recieved word of recovery percentages of above eighty-sevent percent across most of the board, ninety-two percent of forces at least seven-tenths strength.

It was enough to move to Phase Three of the war, with such lower concentrations of DE forces, the same plan was altered for the smaller scale of operations needed.

"Give them heaven."

Lady Ryoko looked at Azusa. "That sounds lame you know."

Azusa just bristled.. "It's my operation, I'll say what I want girl."

Utsutsumi shook his head.. "At least make it sound harser than 'that' sounded."

As Ryoko laughed, Azusa just waved a missive hand towards Universe Commanders in attendance, giving the go ahead.

---

Over ten million troops waiting in thousands of adjacent Systems, others in Dimensional Fortresses situated within certain hard to crack DE held sector galaxies, made the first jumps of the new phase of the War, as the 5,829th Host led by the 5071st Republic Hussars Army, with Ascendant Command Base 89,337th Fleet, Fortresses Formatha, Destra, Januss, and Iitr`ra in support, slammed harshly into over ten thousand Star Systems in galaxies GNCL-632 to 8911, intending to crush the DE and split the DE in their still held galaxies, in two along the Capricornus Intergalactic Wall.

The word the old Gaian captives hadn't positively identified as yet, was burning as the warcry for this phase of the War. The Sphere forces didn't lose any of their brutal, cold inferrence for the campaign as a result. They also meant to raze the DE from the Alpha Universe, as was originally intended.

Meanwhile, Lady Misaki moved then bulk of 25th Fleet Legion/709th - 12,895th Angelic Hosts with Gamma CAG Galaxy leading, to cut off the Cap-Wall from Ophiuchus Supercluster, where DE forces were known to be holeing up. 81st Fleet Legion/308th - 691st Angelic Hosts, Kappa CAG Galaxy was moved under Universe Commander Davion's direction to support both operations, and watch the remainder of the Nitrana Supercluster on the other side of the massive main advance.

The Eternals had given Gaian strategists a dream field to work with when so much DE enemy troops became nulled. They almost had too many troops now for the enemy arrayed against them. A two year time table for Paladin-P3 was given to complete the dismemberment of the DE in Capricornus.

In this case, Azusa imparting 'give them heaven', was about as harsh as the normal term would be. The Angelics were a brtual lot in active combat.

*December 3391*

In the midst of so much universal war, far too real than the mind could shrug off due to the scale of such things, was something far more benevolent than a simple liberation campiagn.

The Trade Conference had wrought an oppritunity to fix an unknown error. It may not have seen so to the Mythrandir Lord of Kings of their missing fleet, but moreso of the Gaians part for having nearly made contact with them as the Gaians were about to assault the DE forces attacking the Eternal Home System.

After the unknown effect the Eternals used after the DE breach of Eternal home surface, that stripped somehow, half the DE forces from their TOE, in a blanket of white light that was still being studied, the Gaians assault fleets led by Lord Akito, were withdrawn as the Sphere entered the three month Reorganization before the current Phase Three campaign. So easy was it to forget so many that were fighting and dying unseen, as thousands of more Systems were exchanging hands.

Now it fell to the determined hand of Lord Ackronus and the 16th Fleet/3,572nd Kushan Droid-Mothership Fleet attached, to find their quarry. first came the location of their guide.

---

The Gaians arrive in the Myth Home System, at the edge of their System space, with a single huge Fold signature, as Lord Ackronus arrives on the Emperor Ascendancy, of the same A-SSD class warship series, the one hundred kilometer behemoth arriving to form the core of the SAR operation.

The large Avian Lord on the vast vessel's Command Core deck sends in greeting.

:: ~ To those that call Lord Thrandur their king and master. We of the Ascendancy and Sphere Alliance come to aid in the search of a missing Mythrandir fleet, apparently operating in the Eternal Home System during the high point of the Dark Eternal invasion there.

We come seeking Lady Murasaki as our guide in finding your lost shepards. As we should have met in the high point of that battle, we find ourselves remiss in responsibility of meeting those that aided our long time ally.

Rectify this will become. Bring what assets you desire, and we'll provide the compensense within the land of the Eternals. I, Lord Ackronus, await your word of permissions, waiting patiently. ~ ::

...until then, they wait.

Zark'esh shook his head at the Eternal. <" We do not flee from battle. We promised aid and it shall be given."> He sent an order for the fleet to get prepared for battle. Half the fleet was fully battle-ready, while the others were held back by some damage sustained during the previous fight. However, they prepare for battle all the same. Grimly, the Telrosians saw to end this fight....with their deaths or with victory. The 2250 ships moved out with the defense fleet, led by Zar'kesh in his flagship, to fight one last time and fulfill their promise of aid.

A place originally isolated by all other universal civilizations had now shown more life than it had in years past. People forgotten by all others, left to their own devices and way of life. Few knew of the Myths and fewer still had befriended them. Due to past dealings with outsiders, foreigners were typically looked on with suspicion. None were to defile their paradise, their heaven.

The blue planet below rested peacefully with a massive land-mass being the center for civilization. Two moons orbitted the blue earth with the smaller having been converted entirly into a naval space station and construction yard.

One massive communications station based planetside was their network into the wider universe and allowed the Myths to receive any incoming transmissions as well as sending wide ban frequencies. Aptly named Sirens. Rerouted through dubious channels as the message was odd. It named Elder Thrandur as Lord and King. So, the message was sent to the dwarven clans where it would be appropriate. Bruehnor Battlehammer was the appointed dwarf for receiving the message but then was passed over to the diplomatic relations sector where it belonged for first contact situations. In this way it found its way into Lady Murasaki's hands, head of diplomacy. Her dark green eyes scanned over the parchment that the message had been translated to. Now it was in the flowing rune cursive of the Myth language. "My my. Elder Thrandur sure has made a name for himself in the universe abroad."

A few female attendants nearby snickered at the remark. Murasaki went on to write down a response for the Gaians in orbit. "Deliver this message to the Siren outpost and I shall prepare for a voyage. Inform Elder Alurial of what is happening and that I shall return shortly."

"Right away m'Lady."

With the message sent off to the station, Murasaki went to pack a few personal items in a pouch. She contacted a shuttle pilot and had it ready for her arrival in the mountain port.

You must speak of the Good Shepard who loves his sheep. We know that he will return to his sheep once he has beaten back the wolves and gathered any stragglers back to the herd.

However, if Elder Thrandur is worried then I shall accompany you to put his mind at ease. My shuttle will arrive shortly.

As if summoned from the water, the lady's shuttle rose from the blue earth. It approached the foreign ship and stopped, waiting to be allowed in.

Ackronus was patiently, evenif it didn't seem so, pacing between the Command Core Platform and Alpha Station along the gleaming walkway of whitesteel and polished pearlaescent surfaces that glowed of the heavens, between the two stations.

Thousands of Sphere allies of Confederacy, Droid, Angelic and more performed functionaries the automated systems mostly handled primarily, those and of kinds not handled by the systems anyway. The deck laden with millions literally, of holoscreens, vidscreens, and hologlobes of all kinds displayed in techological replete. The sounds of operations echoed in every direction through the immense open lattice decks.

Most were just waiting for the show to get started. Ackronus and two other Avian Lord commanders were at Alpha Station, when they got word from Comms, and then Sensors....

:: ~ You must speak of the Good Shepard who loves his sheep. We know that he will return to his sheep once he has beaten back the wolves and gathered any stragglers back to the herd.

However, if Elder Thrandur is worried then I shall accompany you to put his mind at ease. My shuttle will arrive shortly. ~ ::

Ackronus made a bird 'cough', commenting.. "~ I may have laid it too thick, as mortal say. ~" ..his comrades chuckling in griffon fashion.

"~ Allow them safe harbor upon arrival. Escort to this location please. ~"

Through comms, the Mythrandir shuttle was allowed landing permission. It only had to pass under the mammoth docking bay underneath, a literall upsive down canyon pit of docking bays where entire warships lain docked within, the entire 16th Gamma Section of the High-Mobile Fleet, a good fifty at least. Not included was waves of docked starfighters, Omni-LAMs, and space MS-S models. No sight either of the rest of the support craft held within such a monster.

One platform awaited the guest shuttle's arrival, held off within a large atmospheric force field.

Permission acknolwedgement flashed up on the screen in front of the pilot in a series of blue runes. Murasaki nodded her readiness and the pilot navigated the shuttle into a flight path for the shuttle bay. Two engine ports rested out wide on the wings until the reach the space set aside for their landing.

The wings retracted and pulled behind the shuttle just as three mechanical prongs reached out for the floor. From the side of the shuttle, a pressurized door slid open and a retractable ramp slid out. A woman with long straight black hair began her descent. The simple dark green dress that hung to her curves, swayed at the bottom with every step until she finally reached the floor.

Another Ascendant met her, towering as all Avian Lords did in naturally built measure. "~ Welcome to the Emperor Ascendancy, I am Lady Thesra, please follow me. ~" ..said in an obvious female inflection.

The large Avian began escort of Lady Murasaki through the large throngs of working crewmembers from thousands of worlds, towards the local teleporter chamber.

"~ I hope your trip with us will be fruitful. ~" ..the Lady Avian commented over her shoulder.

The young woman kept pace with the tall Avian and stepped next to her inside the teleporter chamber. A slight smile was on her face. "Elder Thrandur seems to be worrying more than he should. Even for a dwarf. I believe that Elder Sebastian is perfectly fine not to mention he has the War Mistress at his side to get him out of any trouble he should find."

Murasaki looked around at her surroundings before she continued. "But I really should find him since I have something from his wife that she asked me to give him."

"~ Then delay is unacceptable in such a stead. ~"

Lady Thesra nodded to a Teleport-Tech, and a silvery mass form transport beam phases them in one piece from the Docking Bay, past the fifty approximate kilometers to the Command Core Sector Decks.

The silver veil of technological curtain wipes away as Lady Murasaki is subjected to the sights mentioned in Post #105. A few Steel Angel and Angelic personnel move out of the way as an overcomm announces their presence to the nearby area. (More for paying attention than much else really...)

From there, The Lady Avian Lord brings her guest before Lord Ackronus. The blue-white/green feathered, silver beaked Prime Lord of Representia to the Ascendancy Sphere Mortalic, as they called the Sphere Alliance, acknowledge their arrival as Thresa bowed her head low. "~ Our honored guest Milord. ~"

"~ Most excellent.. ~" ...he said in a deep voice bowing his head to Lady Murasaki.

The sights and brilliance of the massive ship were something extraordinary to the typical land dwelling woman. It all left her in a state of aw and subtle joy to see something of this nature.

Lady Murasaki bowed to the great Avian Lord once in his pressence. "An honor to meet you your Excellency. I trust you will help me find this lost shepherd so we may put an old dwarf's worries to rest."

Lord Ackronus nodded.. "~ I spoke to him directly not too long past, so I assure his worries are my own. Before we depart, is there any other personel or craft you wish to bring before departing? We can accomidate in short order, to ensure we are not remiss before departure. ~"

She smiled politly and sweetly. "No, I will suffice to identify which ships are ours. I thought Elder Sebastian's wife might want to come along as well but she is rather upset at the moment. A woman such as her when on a furry of anger is not someone you want to be around. It's best that I give her 'gift' to him in anycase less she were to kill him out right."

Lord Ackronus chuckles in a bird-chipper way. "~ Sounds like Lady Seto on a Heyday tantrum. But only when something truly ill occurs. ~"

..the Avian turned to the Alpha Station, waving a hand over an Avian configured holo-console display. With it, a large holoscreen appears of to the open pit to their left. Walkways between platform Sector Stations rounded around the open air pit zone with a large area of space taken up.

"~ Note ye must, that this is the last data Fleet Command had of the battle in the Eternal Home System. Our ally was being overwhelmed at the time by immense Dark Eternal forces, and we were about to conduct an assault to liberate them, when we detected apparently of note, your forces in the modst of the massive battle.

We lost contact after an inital attempt to link up with them, after the Eternals 'counterattacked', driving the Dark Eternal forces away in a manner only the Eternals themselves could fully explain. As we were literally consumed at the time with reengaging, and soon after, relocating the remainder of our enemy, we lost contact with your local forces in the confusion. ~"

The screen was huge, the data of large numbers of red dots where heavy DE concentrations were at the time, quickly faded after the Eternal wave of light occured, after which the screen went disturbingly quiet of DE active signals. The Gaian ones were shown as only 'projected' invasion points where they would have come in and assaulted the DE forces in several places in the System, most at the Oort Cloud boundry.

In one corner of the screen, near the Eternal Homeworld orbit, a number of green dots of unascertained origin at the time of data recording, done through the Comm-Orbs sent in prior to the assault, and Eternal counterattack, pointed out where the Myth fleet was apparently last seen.

Data stopped at 1732 LST, the last contact the Gaians had with the Eternal Home System, just at the time they withdrew to find the enemy. The rest was common history. The DE lost half their forces, contracted to six Superclusters that were being isolated and assaulted in areas, well well away from the Eternal Empire holdings, after a three month reorganization and redeployment phase of the huge Droid Fleet commands that had been originally placed to isolate a larger DE enemy territory than what was now present.

Lord Ackronus detailed in a second holoscreen for Lady Murasaki. "~ Based on your warp tunnel data we ascertained from Lord Thrandur, we decided to conduct the search fleet in all three coordinates indicated, their operations linked through Hikari Net, with sensor readouts displayed here on the Core-SAR Warship, with a twenty-second delay depending on stellar comm conditions, and subspace lag, at maximum.

Such data should, with your help, ascertain where the lost sheep have becometh. With luck, it will not take long. ~"

OOC: Sorry, for the long delay in my response, but I have work, school, projects, etc to do lately so please excuse me. As for me rping in MT most of my post where a few sentences long and for the longer post starts I had long ago made them and just found them on my hard drive.

IC: The Eternal home world reformed after the beam of light had subsided to all of its glory. With that the Eternal fleet reformed on the borders of the Eternal home system as they prepared for the next assault on their enemy. As well, they began to launched many attacks on the Dark Eternal remnants that still were strong enough to threaten many peoples.

Yet, the Dark Eternals now made their strongholds powerful enough so as to prevent their enemies from freeing the slaves of their Empire. As well, these Dark Eternals now began to revive the ancient teleportation systems that allowed them now to travel their empire in safety and maintain a rule with their few remaining soldiers and quadrillions o slaves.

(I'm assuming this is three months after the original attack. Hope you don't mind me sneaking into the Eternal system then.)

Murasaki looked over the data readouts. By no means was she a tactician or a statitician but with the options back home, she was the best individual qualified to find Sebastian. The amount of information was impressive but it was still not quite clear to her how this was all going to help them locate a small fleet in the vastness of space.

"I doubt he has stayed in one place for three months but he won't need to stop anywhere for food supplies or water. The ships are capable of supplying their own. Fuel wouldn't be a problem so it looks like he has a head start. I wonder what drew him so far out in the first place."
-----------------------------------

Three months onboard a war vessel would give almost anyone cabin fever. It was even more stressful for those that were not accustom to it. Shizra and Sebastian had allowed crew members to rotate duties on board while others had taken to enjoying theatre recordings on holographic screens. Anything to break up the monotony.

Travel was slow going as it was with Sebastian "feeling" his way from whatever divine force called to him. Slowly they traversed their way through old battlegrounds, ship graveyards, and blasted planets before coming near anything remotly resembling civilized. Even the dark elf was beginning to lose faith in the one she cared for. The bridge around them was completely empty with them taking on the entire funtion of the bridge while the crew was off watching a play reenacting the early days of the Mythrandir kingdom.

A gentle warm hand squeezed Sebastian's shoulder. Shizra leaned over close to his ear. Her breath warm against his cheek. "Sebastian. We have been out here for far too long and we haven't had much in the way of clues. You must think about the crew and how wrong it is to keep them trudging through space in the dark. Granted you know you are doing what you believe to be right and granted we have mapped a vast number of star systems in this time but enough is enough. Send everyone back home to their families. For Christio's sake go apologize and make love to your wife if she doesn't kill you first."

A slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips causing Shizra to also smile in turn. "I know you're right and it is only our good fortune to have such excellent soldiers among us that we have carried on this long. Many times I thought we would have succumbed to mutiny."

"They are tired. Can you blame them?"

His gentle brown locks shook with his head.

"Then we will return to Mythrandir?"

Gently sighing, Sebastian leaned back in the chair. "Let's just jump into this next system first. If there is nothing there, then we'll go home."

Smiling widly that there might actually be a chance to return to familiar space, the order went out through every ship on every deck that all crews were to return to their original posts. They were preparing to strike out one last time before returning home. With everyone in place, the fleet made its entrance. White energy streaming around them and pulling out every ship, dumping them all out.

Once subsided, scanners began working at maximum to detail the area. What returned was stonishing to all. They had most certainly found something, but what was unknown. Images were brought up on holoscreens for all to see. Shizra stood straight near Sebastian's side. "What do you think that is?"

Staring straight ahead, he only shook his head. "I have no idea."

Identifying themselves seemed to be the best move in such a new environment and it would hopefully allow the Myths to learn where they were as well.

Pardon our intrusion but we are searching for those gathering for Armageddon. While this may not be Mageddo, we are curious as to where we are. For manners sake, we are Myths from the Kingdom of Mythrandir searching for those that have called us to fight. We have scoured the darkness of space for the light. Please tell us we have finally found our destination.

Lord Ackronus only commented.. "~ Unknown... ~" ..and he nodded over to the far right, where the Navigational Sector platforms were. Connected to the Fold Drive operational Sector, it didn't take long for the Fold Drive to leap back into gear.

With a short departure message, the Emperor Excellency folded it's massive form, to the next coordinates....

---

...and appeared in the center of a large 'cloud' of warships, as the 16th Fleet/3,572nd Kushan Droid-Mothership Fleet formally linked up. Thousands of droid vessels and starcraft were arrayed in sharp wall-box formations around eighty-two Kushan Class Mothership Fleet carriers.

As soon as the A-SSD arrived and Lady Murasaki caught sight of all of this, heavy comm chatter began to echo through the various station platforms as droid controllers began asking for updates and orders. There were also a number of Star Admirals over comms in various biological based voices asking for the same.

It was obvious the fleet was anxious. Droid, celestial and mortal alike.

However before any of this can even sink in, Lord Ackronus orders in a thunderous tone. "~ Operational Jumps are released to coordinate vectors. All operations are on secure Hikari Comm until further notice. Condition Red, repeat Red. ~"

The Avian looked down at Lady Murasaki and explained quickly. "~ We've entered a holding station outside the Capital System... ~" ..waving a feathered arm towards a blue-white star glow faint across to starboard. The remainder of the core Archonis Galaxy for which the entire Supercluster is named, shines rather brightly here, many young blue-white, green, blue, and yellow stars sparkle all about, a stream of young stars extends in a long filament towards a large blue-white nebulae a few light-years off the right where even the Capital System is.

"~ From here we'll split the fleet into three formations and spread them through the three warp tunnels your Lord Thrandur gave us. From there, all sensors from the fleets will display here as mentioned.

As soon as you see anything familiar, we will focus efforts on them, but we're also focusing on the original coordinates the Comm-orbs recieved and will cross reference that with all other data.

Something 'will' turn up, I promise. ~"

However he did also imaprt quickly. "~ Be aware Dark Eternal, Eternal or even unknown activity will possibly crop up. Allow us to handle such if anything occurs. This is uncontrolled territory for us, and we are uncertain of the Eternal capability at present after the Dark Eternal assaults in the area.

We are still at war with the Dark Eternals in full force, they take priority over even this search, if they are spotted. Hopefully we will not encounter them in the Eternal Empire's territories. ~"

At that, the Fold drive begins recharging very quickly once more. Within a few moments, the search would fully begin.

Murasaki nodded that she understood. "War weighs much on all of us so I will not interfere with your duties. I suppose if an opportunity presents itself to strike at the enemy and harm them, then it cannot be passed up. I will simply monitor whatever feedback we receive and try to stay out of everyone's way."

If a battle ever came to pass, it would be her first time ever experiencing one. This left her a little unnerved even though she had every confidence in this massive ship that it could withstand any attack. She was more afraid that she might accidently bumped into someone or touch something that would bring about their doom.

Almost as if that had been considered, Lady Thesra step up next to Lady Murasaki and waved a large feathered hand over around her. Suddenly a comfortable hover capable seat appears below her, and a large number of holoscreens circling around her in a wide tube, with a holographic console before her, that took the form of her own mental habitual use of her own homeworld interfaces, allowing for intuitive use with little instruction.

"~ This will allow you to access our systems, in your own language and prefered console layout. The seat can hover anywhere in the Command Core deck you wish. ~" ...Thresa added with a wave of her arm all across the literal kilometers of open space between walkways and platform decks where all the holoscreens floated in all manner of sizes. This included the immense unbroken transparasteel panes that displayed space beyond. The pane ran in all directions seemingly into forever. The nature of the open air network of walksways, platforms, with the teleport stations and turboshaft tubes more to the rear of the Command Core, made for large areas above and below included in view of space, nearly all the way down to about a seventy-five degree view, where the bulk of the vessel superstructure blocked all view of beyond anyway.

"~ You didn't think you'd just stand around feeling inferior amongst us? We endeavor to include others in our operations where needed. You have more knowledge of your own ships than we after all. ~"

Just after this, comms all around the Core signaled both docking of smaller craft, and the full Fold envelop being formed.

After the last major Fleet Admiral announced this in the fleet, Lord Ackronus orders... "~ Fold now! ~"

It was simple a thing, the sight of a ship contracting into a two dimensional, horizontal line of brilliant light. Seeing it done amidst a fleet this large made for a sight unparralled by any other empire. So much subspace energy is engaged in that moment, that space around the folding fleet hazes with Hikari Energy for the short time the fleet folds.

The fleet however does not Fold as one, three seperate Folds occur, and would be noted by the sharpest eye as one section of the fleet vanishes faster than the other two, the last a moment after the second. All three leap in said manner...

---

One of them Folds directly to the edge of the Eternal Home System. The other two towards the end of the warp tunnels indicated. Now would come the hard work at hand....

Murasaki practically jumped into the hover seat with a childlike glee. She gripped the arm rests and tried out the chair slightly by moving from one end of the walkway towards the next. A smile was on her face when she looked back at Lady Thesra. "Now I know how the Elders feel in their hovering chairs. They can ascend all the way to the pinnacle of the White Tower through the center floor."

Getting back to herself, she hovered closer to the screens. A black orb similar to that Elder Thrandur had produced at the conference, came from Murasaki's pouch. Images of different classes of ships began alternating on a holographic screen. "I received the count of number and class of ships that were taken at the time. Elder Sebastian basically took a large chunk of Forge forces with him. Goblin fighters, Angellic cruisers, Horde battlecruisers, and Avenger battleships are all missing. Luckily the Wraiths are all present on patrol or we would have missed the warp section they had used. If you can feed any images to my screen here, I'll be able to identify them rapidly for you. Also, every ship of ours has the emblem of the Phoenix rising out of flames painted on their sides. That should give you some help."

Turning back to her station, Murasaki began going to work as runes flowed up over holoscreens. Reports were being downloaded as to help her track down possible directions that they should look. She was basically going on a hunch that he was searching for anything advanced but they would have a lot of work ahead of them if Sebastian had jumped through the warp more than once.

Even with three large fleets, not only for them, but for the missing fleet's own sight and sensors too, was the sight of the majority of the aftereffects of the First Phase of the war, the wreckage of many vessels and assets of the Eternals, as well as parts of space the Sphere hadn't reached to recover destroyed material.

The Eternals wave of light had done a great job of recovering much material outright, but there was still the effects of war that simply no magic could outright cleanse away.

The amounts of space and debri still present made sensors cluttered. Lord Ackronus focused the inital sensor sweeps at the last noted postion of the Myth fleet. They also looked for signatures of warp tunnels from particle dispersions and decaying particles of the warp tunnels given. Everything was fed to Tactical Stations and Lady Murasaki's terminal. Lord Ackronus meanwhile strode to, and undocked the Command Platform from it's holding station across Alpha Station, floating it to a postition near Lady Murasaki. Occasionally, similar seats like Murasaki's would teleport over near Lord Ackronus, as personnel from various Sectors all around the Command Core Decks would appear to deliver a report, betraying another function of the seats.

Lord Ackronus for his part, remained silent and almost stoic looking as he patiently waited for the fleet to complete it's tasks. A massive amount of space had to be scanned in detail. Patience was tatamount....

-------

Near the missing fleet meanwhile, they had stumbled upon at least one of the untouched graveyards of the Gaian Warfleets, a massive A-SSD sixty-five point five kilometer long Star Shield class warship lain upended in space, twisted and broken in two at the midsection. All around it was a gargantuan amount of space debri, where allied vessels had lain victim to an enourmous explosion at one point.

Scanners had more debri, mostly not of the same make as the cluster of Gaian debris, as it all floated in open space, well away from the nearest planets in the system.

It was unknown what else was in the system, other than war's tragic effects.

(I should really get out of the stone age and throw this dial-up modem away. Way too many problems for lack-luster performances.)

Murasaki sat idly in her chair with very little to do other than keeping an eye for any clues that might lead them all to their lost fleet. The amount of carnage in the vacinity was staggering. She could only hope that her people and home system would never see the day that such destruction cursed their little piece of heaven in the universe.

After they finally reached the last known location of Sebastian's ship, Murasaki wasn't really surprised to find that they weren't there. She was beginning to get the feeling that if anything could go wrong in their search, it would. "It's as I feared, they've been jumping in an out of the warp. This is going to take a little time, but the good news is that we've knocked down three tunnels to one. That is, as long as they haven't gone off the tunnel system. Then we just might be out here forever."
------------------------------

While Sebastian and his crew waited for a response from the message they sent, one of the Angelic Cruisers was reporting a ship in the area. The problem was that it looked like a dead one.

"Any life signs?" Sebastian moved down next to the young officer working at a glass panel. An image of the ship had been magnified to a more suitable size on the screen allowing them to look in more detail. Seeing the picture now, Sebastian answered his own question. The carcass looked like it had seen some good fights but was left for dead.

Shizra stepped down to the other side of the officer. "It's not like any ship I've ever seen."

"And how many ships have you seen War-Mistress?" Sebastian kept looking at the screen with a smirk on his face.

Ignoring the remark, Shizra scanned over the carcass with her eyes. "Have one of our ships scan it in more detail. We can at least do some research into other technology that may be useful to us some day. Not to mention the ship's structure would find a good place in our archives should we ever have to fight against such a vessel."

The advice was sound and with a nod of approval, a cruiser was instructed to scan the floating ship and bring back any and all data it could obtain.

Ackronus nodded and ordered... "~ All vessels assume a new jump vector to triangulate off the chosen jump tunnel. Presume trilateral scans until further notice. ~" ...the griffonade looked over at Lady Murasaki. "~ If they do diviate, between particle and gravitational vectors from the chosen tunnel, we should still be able to trace a path with relative accuracy.

Please keep appraised of the incoming datastream please. Hawkish detail will be vital. ~"

After this, the three split fleets recoordinate and Fold to the end of the chosen tunnel. This time they had 'no' idea what was still out there. The Gaians could only hope the Eternals did their job too well, and the DE were nowhere to be found in this Supercluster, this galaxy no less.

---

The lost fleet's scans while complete, found only dead bodies, nothing technically alive. At least from the vessel wreckage anyway.

That said nothing from a completely different vector, as an intermittent, very very intermittent echo of a signal could be detected, though it would take clear investigation to locate even a basic, general vector in this morass of foreign stars.

Murasaki nodded her understanding and kept a focused on eye on her station so as to not miss anything. Afterall, she didn't want to be the one that sluffed on her part of this quest.
------------------

"While educational, it has turned up nothing of value or useful to tell us where we are."

Sebastian sighed with disappointment from Shizra's report on the down ships. "Alright. Have all ships report back in and prepare for another sweep of this area. There isn't much activity in this sector so its possible we've just stumbled onto a dead civilization. Though some of this stuff does look useful."

Shizra looked over in disgust. "You want to scavenge off the deceased? Sebastian that is a barbaric act, and far below our standards no matter the circumstance."

"I wasn't neccessarily thinking about scavenging but simply learning from those that are long gone. No need letting them pass without rememberance. It could be a way for the dead to live on in others." He waves his hand about quickly to dismiss the conversation.

"Let's move out and circular around a few other vectors to see if there is anything of importance around here. Or anyone to talk to."

As one, the Myth fleet wheeled around and began scanning off into other sectors of the territory. Searching for anything that might be of importance.

The 16th Fleet/3,572nd Droid Fleet arrives at the three designated spots, not knowing if their next scans would merit much. Ackronus could only hope as everything proceeded.

OOC: Sorry, about this I have been planning what happens to every race of the Eternals. As well, I have been to lazy and bogged down to reply here.

IC: A prophecy was sent to all in the war that said,” The time of the Dark Eternals is entering its first fall, their fall shall be a terrible one, all their evil shall be shattered, their armies shall disperse, those who never have even thought of freedom shall be freed, those who were tainted by the Darkness shall be cleansed, the Dark Lord has fallen and has been brought away to beyond the pillars of all planes known. Yet, the Dark Eternals yet remain, they will never be brought to an end until balance has been made, they cling not to the remnants of an Empire, many times shall they rise and fall over the coming years, never though shall they destroyed. Every return a war shall be waged and victory had for a long while, but at last the one whose power may not be challenged by any collation of any place accessible to those here can overcome them, then there final lord shall emerge as the greatest power ever known, but a hope shall remain when the Highest One shall return fully and all the evils of those shall be undone for the last time.”

With that the forces of the Eternals now concentrated on reorganizing their peoples and focused on rebuilding the worlds that remained ravaged by the wars. As well, they sent the forces they could organize and sent them to worlds near their border to bring them into the Eternal Empire after the fall of the Dark Eternals. Also, they joined in clearing up forces loyal to the Dark Eternals.

Yet, the Dark Eternals still remained strong in many shadowy places where they hid themselves with their powers and managed to gather large armies and the remains of their fleet to them in an effort of building power bases for a future war to reclaim their Empire. Though they fought on many worlds a vast majority of the border worlds now had been cleansed free fro their dark influence.

The Sphere meanwhile kept to a more conventional forum, as the Third Phase was proceeding, still attempting to split the DE at the Capricornus Intergalactic Wall in two. Fresh troops were cycled in about every fifty systems along the millions of light-years fought over, keeping to the original battle plan of Phase One.

However even halfway into Phase Three of the war, Phase Four was beginning to be planned, as a recent troop placement from Mandalore Prime for one hundred System Armies, would begin to form the 707th Assault Dimension, a new FACAF based Clan style force. With the recent influx of Lyran Commonwealth forces due to a suprise alliance pact with the Sphere, seperate from the rest of the Inner Sphere powers that had joined over a hundred and fifty years prior, would begin forming within the next year.

Diplomatic ventures would shift to see if any foreign forces would take part as the Hercules Supercluster was the intended target, over thirty four percent contained, it's tentative communications like with the Nitrana Supercluster had to be broken.

This would go a long way to isolating, and reducing additional forces needed in the War. Eventually the aim was to reduce the DE enough where cross intergalactic actions was nearly nill.

The War eventually wouldn't need a conventional ending, just a whimper version.

The 16th Fleet/3,572nd Droid Fleet arrives at the three designated spots, not knowing if their next scans would merit much. Ackronus could only hope as everything proceeded.

Murasaki started searching her screen as they entered the next location. It was different than the last time and there seemed to be debris getting in the way of the scanning. It was taking he slightly longer to process the information given to her. However, something caught her eye that almost made her leap up out of the hovering chair and hit the floor. An emission trail known only to their warp drives left a small trail and it was fresh.

"Hang on a second. I found their exit point and the fleet must have navigated this area. There are no signs of a re-entry point so they are still here in the system. If you could please instruct the fleet to follow this trail," she indicates by pointing at her own screen. "Then I believe we'll find them."

Lady Murasaki didn't need to worry about falling out of her seat and tumble kilometers to the Core base level, stabilization fields kept personel in such seats even in the apex of major battles, aside from major damage and all.

Lord Ackronus meanwhile looked at the data sent to the main monitors, acting off what Lady Murasaki was seeing. Ackronus took her suggestion as an order. "~ Act on her input, and follow that trail. Fleet Secton two will fold at twice the distance of the indicated sensor trail and attempt to cross reference from the other end of this System. ~"

A fleet section of the 3,572nd led by two 16th WarShips Fold jump to the inner edge of the Oort Cloud boundry ahead of a straight line path of the sensor trail, attempting to find more data.

"I'm picking up energy spikes all around the system. There's activity going on that's not us."

Sebastian and Shizra moved swiftly to the man's screen to see the readouts his own eyes were viewing. The screen looked full of various ships. "Can you get a read on the ships?"

"Their identities don't match anything within our databanks. But, there is some likeness between the carcass we just inspected and these designs."

Shizra looked over at Sebastian. "This is why we don't scavenge. It's unethical."

"Relax, we didn't do anything to their ship. We merely scanned it. Have they spotted us yet?"

It was silent for a moment until the young man shook his head. "Circle the fleet up and move the fighters to the edges. If they want a fight, then we'll be prepared for it. Our best bet will be to punch a hole through one of the sides and dive into the warp."

Shizra nodded her accord. "I'll send the message to the fleet myself."

With the dark elf walking on, Sebastian turned back to his ensign. "While we take the time to prepare. Send a hail and find out what they want."

"Yes Elder."

":: Fleet Two in place. scans beginning. ::"

Ackronus waited as before, they had to scan through a great deal of debri. Time would still be needed for Lady Murasaki to do her work.

For the longest time, the woman just sat there in her hovering chair searching the debris. Nothing seemed to fit and the emission trail was beginning to disperse. Sluthing was growing more difficult by the moment. She sat there shaking her head. "I don't know. I thin-"

She paused in mid sentence when something came through comwaves in the area. It wasn't the voice of the Elder but it was someone claiming to be a Myth. Twirling around, Murasaki went to work in a fury until she could accuratly trace the location of the signal.

"There in this sector." She indicated on the screen with her finger.

"The Elder has the fleet circled up and is using the debris as a shield from attacks and scanners."

Until the moment of discovery, the nearby crew of the Command Core Deck Zones were rather quiet, not betraying too many distracting sounds. The crew was very disciplined in what was needed for concentration.

Ackronus had heard the first part, expecting such a comment, but not what came after it. The huge avian turned his head over at Murasaki, as she described what she saw. Ackronus ordered a full display of the data on forward holoscreens.

He surmised. "~ They saw the Fleet Two section jump. If I were them, in this strange area of space, that would be a defensive formation intended to prepare for an enemy assault.

Tread this water carefully we must.

All vessels redirect sensor arrays to increase communications gain capacity on all subspace and standard frequencies. Prepare a screen of repeater Comm-Orbs between our coordinate and the indicated position. ~"

The avian then asked of Lady Murasaki. "~ As soon as sensors indicate all assets are recomposed to the communication effect, please send a message with our regards in your name and words.

Indicate they are in proper company. ~" ...the Avian Lord looked to the affairs of the fleet, things would be getting busy soon.

The light woman slowly nodded her head. She would have to be quick on the button less her tardiness accidently start a shooting war. "I will be vigilent. As well as pray that there aren't any itchy trigger fingers out there."
----------------

"Elder, War Mistress! Unknown fleet has discovered our location and is moving in slowly."

Sebastian returned to his throne chair on the dias of the command deck. "Show me." The outter hull seemingly peeled away revealling the darkness of space to him. Out in front of their fleet was near two thousand goblin fighters that would act as a buffer between them and any barrage. The loss would be hard to replace in terms of fighter craft, but more goblins could be easily bred. Off in the distance, the encroaching fleets could be seen though it looked as if they were almost standing still.

"Load heavy ordinances and turn fleet towards their smallest detachment but keep all gun ports closed. We still don't know who they are or what they want. No need to gain any unnecessary enemies. Shizra, get the fleet moving."

With a quick nod of her head, the dark elf was already barking out orders. "I want this done in unison so don't give me any lip about stragglers. Turn the main formation towards sector 5-6. Heavy guns are to target their biggest ships and push them out of the way. Ion cannons are for the smaller weaker vessels that aren't worth time stopping for. Just neutralize and get them out of the way. Angelic Cruisers will stand back with the Avengers while the Hordes make a break for it. Remember, they shoot first. Let them make the next move in this one. They can see we don't want a fight but will defend ourselves. Let them chew on that for a while."

":: Sensor resolution indicates fighters forming in front of the designated fleet. They seem to be focusing on Fleet Two. ::"

Ackronus ordered quickly.. "~ Withdraw them another fifty thousand kilometers, just enough to show were not going to attack. Launch the Orbs now as well. ~"

Fleet Section Two falls back and forms their 'own' sphere formation, the Droid Fleet vessels taking up around the two 16th Fleet Warships. At the same time, thirty Comm-Orbs with distinct IFF signal bursts spread out from several vessels in the Main Fleet, Fleet Three now joined up on the Core Fleet left flank.

The Sphere fighters were kept in minimal patrol formation around the vessels, looking for other vectors other than the focused one, still more concerned with Dark Eternal interference than anything else.

However the Comm-Orbs would find a different shock in store.

Murasaki didn't waste a single moment and began putting in a communication through the sphere network. She wasn't exactly sure how it worked but deemed it unnecessary knowledge. Her message transpired as follows:

Elder Sebastian and War Mistress Shizra, this is Lady Murasaki. I was sent to find you by the people of Mythrandir. You have been away far too long and all are worried about you. I don't know what you are doing out here but please come home.
-----------------------------

"Elder, target fleet is retreating."

Sebastian looked surprised as did Shizra. She was the first by the young officer. "What? We haven't even fired a shot yet and they are falling back. They're practically letting us go. Prepare to jump as soon-"

"Just a moment War Mistress. There is a communication comeing through addressed to you and the Elder."

Sebastian took a step up to the young man's left side. "Put it through."

Shizra looked skeptical as the message was relayed through the bridge. It sounded like Murasaki but that meant little to the dark elf. "It's a trick. They've retreated to lull us into a sense of security and this transmission is the bait. I say we get away while we can. The fighters can follow us through the warp though we might not get them all back on the other end. It's a risk I'm willing to take."

Sebastian studied her momentarily. He on the other was not so suspicious and often thought of as naive. "Let's not be so hasty. Send this message."

I am only one man that can easily be replaced. Who on Mythrandir would surely miss me?
--------------------------

It was a test, pure and simple. Murasaki realized that Sebastian had some reserves about the message and such a large fleet finding him out in the middle of nowhere. From reports, the Myth fleet had seen some action and therefore suspicious of anyone following them. She smiled though, knowing how to play the game with him. It was an old contest.

A woman there was, fabled to be the most beautiful woman on all Mythrandir that some say married to a man that was. . . less than standard. There was a dwarf also.
-------------------------------

Sebastian laughed when he read the message. He knew it was talking about Sarah and possibly Elder Thrandur. Just one more go round though Shizra was getting agitated by the small play.

The woman I have heard of but a dwarf worries about nothing.
--------------------------------

While true, there were exceptions to ever rule and race.

Oh come now. That dwarf fretts like an old hen and takes to rumors more than a wash woman.
---------------------------------

The response was more than enough to satisfy Sebastian and even Shizra was pleased with the response.

So the Lady Murasaki has more credentials than just diplomacy. Perhaps I should put you in charge of the investigation force or some other bureaucratic office. It is good to hear your voice and to hear that there are those that care about us. Who are your friends and what do they want?
---------------------------------

Murasaki let the message play for the Lord Ackronus and looked at him as if waiting for a response.

Ackronus's deep voice comes across after a flick of a simple holobutton for comms is activated. He is 'very' direct in explanation, mincing little words.

:: ~ This is Lord Ackronus of the Sphere Alliance 16th Fleet/3,572nd Droid Fleet attached. It was by word of your Lord Thrandur, regardless of official capacity of his station, that requested our assistance to locate your wayward fleet from the battlegrounds of the Dark Eternal War, which we discovered you were a part of, allied to our century old allies, the Eternal Empire.

We had fleets in the area of the Eternal Home system originally when your fleet was detected, but the event that led to the Dark Eternal defeat there also forced our hand to depart before formal contact could be established. The fog of war what have you.

Know that the fleet that just retreated was present 'only' to ascertain your coordinates. We are not here to attack you, but rather to defend you in case of our mutual enemy of the same Dark Eternals were to find you.

We are also here to rectify our own remiss, and to bring you home. I imagine such would be very welcome to your long tired fleet crews. ~ ::

Meanwhile however, the spread of Comm-Orbs discovered the wreckage, but hadn't just yet told the Avian Lord himself. It was going to be a severe shock when they found out who was commanding that fleet section, derelict in space.

And where that person was now.....

"It looks like someone went through a lot of trouble to roll out the red carptet for us. That old dwarf is the most paranoid dwarf I've ever seen in all my years."

Sebastian looked up at Shizra with a slight smirk on his lips. It was rare for an elf to compliment a dwarf and even rarer for a dark elf to compliment anyone. "My dear Shizra, are you glad Thrandur had a fleet searching for us? Do I detect a slight agitation at being in space for so long?"

The dark elf stood tall and straight and crossed her arms underneath her chest. "Three months is long enough out here in this god forsaken space. I'm going to have space legs when we finally hit real earth and gravity not to mention I've lost some muscle during our odyssey."

"Too true. It has been a long time and it will be good to go home once again. Communications, tell the rest of our ships to stand down and get me a link with Lord Ackronus and Lady Murasaki's ship."

"Yes Elder."

Indeed it has been a long time out here in space and my crew and I are tired of the aimless wondering for this Eternal Empire that you call friend. If so many are worried about our status out here, then I believe we should return home. We will keep monitoring the universe in case something like this ever arises again and our help is needed. Thank you for coming all this way to find us Lord Ackronus. If there is nothing else, then I will collect Lady Murasaki from your hands and take her home with us.

Ackronus listened to the transmission, then began with an open comm back... ":: ~ Acknowledged Elder Sebastian and War Mistress Shizra. If you wish, you can dock within our larger warship for a quick journey and save fuel at the same time. We........... ~ ::"

The open comm transmission is interrupted, for all to hear as Sensors suddenly bellows out.. ":: We've located the Elestra`naii A-SSD!! It and several of it's escorts in the debri field the Myth fleet is loacted near!! ::"

Ackronus shoots his enourmous head around so fast it's like a vicious hawk doing it. "~ WHAT!??! Where did the 58th Fleet come from!?!? ~"

A moment later, the Sensors reports back in a seperate voice.. ":: No lifesigns, and no energy reaction on any of the particle waveform sensors. It looks like they were destroyed. ::"

All over the bridge deck, the crew activity stops to a shocking halt. A good number of saddened voices echo out all over and around Lady Murasaki, and over the comm link with the Myth fleet.

Ackronus then echoes out, leaning heavy onto the hovering command platform with his enormous wing-arms... "~ That was the fleet Lady Asashi was commanding with Lord Gohgei with Lord Akito's main fleet.

Oh dear light, the Council family will hate this just as bad as before. ~"

The sudden ceasation of Lord Ackronus' transmission left Shizra and Sebastian wondering what had happened or if there was a problem on the other end with equipment malfunctions. Wailing on the other side of a speaker was somewhat disturbing for the crew on the bridge as it sounded otherworldly.

Sebastian dropped his hand down on a rune to open up the com channels. "Lord Ackronus, what's wrong? We're coming over."

He whirled around and marched back up to the dias where his stone throne chair was perched. "All hands make ready. Move the fleet into position and head for their ships. Recall the fighters at once. Communications, did you get a lock on which ship sent the message?"

"Working on it now Elder."

"Good. Once you have its location, feed the rest of the fleet its coordinance. That's the one we're aiming for."

Shizra joined him on the dias a minute later. "What do you think happened?"

Sebastian sat there looking straight ahead through the holographic window. "Hopefully nothing terribly serious. I wouldn't want to force a boarding operation on our first mission out if it's not necessary. With luck, they are only experiencing sadness of some sort for any reason and not death."

:: ~ "Lord Ackronus, what's wrong? We're coming over." ~ ::

Ackronus looked up as the transmission played across. With a heavy thick sigh the avian looked over at Lady Murasaki slowly, and played over in a simple voice. "~ Worry not young one, we do not hold your fleet ill of the discovered destruction just now. A cold expectation of the war with the Dark Eternals. ~" ..he then raises his body fully again. "~ However it strikes me as odd we are remiss in another occurance. Normally we do not miscount core fleet commands where Council family members are concerned.

Please inform the wayard fleet to join this fleet's coming position, while we send fleet group Two to investigate the wreckage. Our fleet will meet the Myth fleet halfway in distance, in the meanwhile. ~"

He then turned to Lady Thresa hard... "~ I want to know what 'exactly' happened, and if we are not seeing something else here. Also perform full scans for Dark Eternals in the area. ~"

"~ At once Milord. ~" ..the other avian turning and rushing off for Tacitca Sector.

Meanwhile the main fleet section of the 16th began heading towards the Myth fleet at a slow pace as Fleet Section Two prepared to fold to the wreckage.

Murasaki went to her task at hand, deciding to remain relativly quiet as the Gaians went about their own task. She could sympathize with how they felt. Her own people were caught up in the chaos of war and some how managed to lose one of their Elders, the War Mistress, and a large portion of their military.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sebastian had his fleet move into meeting the oncoming friendly fleet. They stopped at the disclosed meeting area and waited for what the others had in mind.

The vast bulk of the Emperor Ascendancy was well within sight, making for as good optical sensor plots as did electronic ones, from over several thousand kilometers away, the gleaming white hull of the vast one hundred kilometer superstructure taking in whatever nearby light and amplifying it through the enourmous networks of light sensitive-emission hull plating, a side effect of White Diamond ore processing into hull sheets.

It made the dull look of the destroyed sister A-SSD vessel look even more morbid, as Fleet Section Two reached the area. The scanning particle emisions in the area could have cooked into an irradiated cinder any bare lifeforms in the immediate area, the intensity of the scans for all intellegence of the wreckage site that important to the Sphere personel.

As the Myth fleet reached the Main 16th Fleet at station keeping, the Sphere personel were incredibly busy at the sudden task at hand. Comm-Orbs in the thousands kept flying out of projection pods to a range of six light-years, to scan the entire Parsec Sector in as shot an order as possible.

Ackronus had a wretched feeling in his feathered gut at that moment. He managed to push it aside as he turned to comm channels for all Myth representatives to hear. He needed a favor...

"~ Pardon Milady Murasaki, Elder Sebastian and War Mistress Shizra. I request permission to access your sensor logs for your readouts of the situationyou encountered when on arrival. Your sensors may have picked up something we have missed in not being in this location earlier.

Your assistance would be forever in your debt for us. ~"

--

Meanwhile the first echoes were being spoken of in the darkness. An act not forseen by any........

The crew members on the Myth fleet were moving about to prepare for docking procedures. Volatile substances were being put into a stable mode while weapon systems were powering down and munitions put into storage. Even the very light shields that the ships were equipped with were peeled back so as to not interfere with anything.

Shizra was already rounding up several warriors and placing them inline to deal with the goblins that were piloting fighters. Dwarves, elves and men were being armed for peculiar guard duties of all the orc holdings onboard.

Sebastian was one of the few left on the bridge to oversee any matters that would call for his attention. There was still the matter of coordinating a fairly large fleet for a docking procedure. Blue runes started flashing on a nearby counsle at the post of the communications officer. Calmly walking over, Sebastian waved his hand over the screen.

Transferring technical data from the ship's logs to another's was a fairly simple matter. Sebastian personally did not like computers himself but he managed to trudge his way through secure screens, passwords, and lines of code to begin downloading the sensor readouts from their previous scan.

"Information is being downloaded to your ship now, Lord Ackronus."

"~ Thank you. ~" ..was all that was simply returned. He didn't expect to find anything as his personnel began recieving and dessiminating the data. Still one never could tell what would pop up with a bit of time lag involved.

When Tactica and Science Stations however did run the data through their own scanners, some fitted to retroactively scan despite the age of the data, for known scan qualitiy particles the Gaians had on archive, they discovered a signal that had been overlooked.

Lady Thresa had just returned and reporting to Ackronus on the last data report from Fleet Section Two, with another Avian Commander overseeing the Myth fleet docking proceedure, Tactica informed over comm... ":: Milord. A signal decay interruption was detected by the Myth scanners about two hours prior to our arrival in the area of present.

Sending data relevant now. ::"

Ackronus looked up at the holoscreen as the data came across. With a bit of observing.. "~ Mark 771.32 by 119.71. ~" ..was all that was mentioned.

What he saw was a simple holo-cartography of a nearby apparent star system with three planets...

....one barely M-class. The ominuos thing of it all, was the signal was abruptly cut off, not faded away. Ackronus realized the implication and turned to Alpha Station behind the immediate area. "~ Prepare the full fleet to Fold to the indicated star system. And prepare for possible combat action. ~"

...activity in the area picked back up all afresh.

"Look alive everyone. I want about fifteen warriors from every ship encircling any fighters that couldn't fit into a docking bay. Then I want ten on each ship patrolling the halls and I want checks on power supply to the cages every five minutes. We don't need any slip ups and have a horde of orcs roaming around their ships. They've all been programmed for sleep mode but it never hurts to be on guard."

The fleet from Mythrandir had just entered one of the massive ships and Shizra was giving her orders to all warriors stationed on various ships. Security would need to be tight around their own ships since it wouldn't look good having little green goblins running all over the place.

Shizra had returned to the bridge were Sebastian was going over a few minor protocols as well as testing the atmosphere within the massive ship. "All signs look normal and the air is breatheable."

"Well that's good to know. It would be embarassing to die choking on air we can't breathe because we forgot to check it."

As sarcastically as he could muster, "You're not funny."

"What do you think these people will look like."

Finished with his scans, computers and systems on the bridge were all powered down. "I have no idea but not that it really matters. Everyone deserves an equally amount of respect no matter what they look like."

Hoping that he would have played along, Shizra followed behind the Elder out the hall. Unsatisfied that her fun was shortlived, she walked along with him in silence.

Pressurized doors were beginning to open throughout the Myth fleet along retractable ramps reaching down to the docking bay floor.

((OC- I'm presuming you finished docking your vessels within my larger ones. Just making sure. ))

---

"~ The Myth fleet is nearly finished docking procedures. ~"

Lord Ackronus nodded.. "~ Thank you Lady Thresa. As soon as they are complete, please bring their commanders here so we can speak in person. Familiarity would be best at this stage. ~" ..he said, giving a knowing look to Lady Murasaki.

":: All vessels ready to jump to the indicated coordinate vector. At your command Milord. ::"

Ackronus only said back over comms... "~ Acknowledged.. ~" ..uncertain he wanted learn anything new of this situation.

(Yep. I figured there was no need to take up anymore time with the docking procedures.)

The warriors aboard the ships were the first ones out of the gate and down the ramps to encircle a few of the fighters. Each one armed with a blade, energy weapon, or an assortment of rifles. Sebastian and Shizra were the last ones to head down the ramp.

Sebastian still wearing his travel gear with simple brown pants, leather boots, and an open sleeveless vest reached the hard floor and looked around for an officer or some aid of the ship's captain.

Shizra was close behind him, still in her short black mini-skirt with a provocative top and two scimitars tied just below her breasts. "Well? Where is everyone?"

"My you are jumpy. Just be patient, whoever is to greet us will be along shortly I'm sure."

Just in case the new arrivals had any ideas, the sight of the vast reverse lattice step network of docking platforms that runs all around in very, very large rectangles about the utterly huge docking bay, empty of it's normal onboard warship compliment for space for the Myth fleet. (The 16th Fleet outside wise that be..)

All about the arrivals were thousands of Sphere Techs, Angel God Infantry patrols floating 'above' the Myth personnel, and even Battlemechs and Mobile Suits walking in different directions for normal maintenance functions, and a few on their own sectored patrols through the nearby gargantuan hallway tubes that ran for kilometers along entire runs of the large A-SSD. Added to even this, unseen internal defenses designed for boarding action repelling were everywhere within the vessel.

Trying anything wouldn't be wise from the lay eye.

But it wasn't the main note of focus as was instead the literal myriad of civilized races present from across the Guardianship. Accenting this was whom met the two Myth leaders, as Lady Thresa returned to meet them, as she did for Lady Murasaki originally.

The eleven meter tall lady Avian Lord met them in the same manner as before. "~ Greetings, I am Lady Thresa, welcome to the Emperor Excellency A-SSD. Time is short for we are about to Fold on Lord Ackronus's orders. Please follow me to the teleporter chamber nearby. ~"

Sebastian let out a slow whistle as he finally looked upward to take in the enormity of the ship. He finally gave up trying to count all the various droids, drones, and soldiers floating above his head. Shizra quickly elbowed Sebastian in the ribcage when he absently waved up at a few of the patrols.

"Do not act like a fool. You represent the ruling body of Mythrandir. Try not to give them that we are all as inferior as you."

"What? As we merely being diplomatic and showing my friendliness."

Rolling her eyes, "Yes we all know your friendliness that which exemplifies a mere five year old child. Now behave yourself. We're in public."

The two stopped their bantering when the Avian Lady made her appearance. Both greeted her with a curteous bow and a small smile. Both appeared perfectly at ease in the area, perhaps from confidence gained through life's experience or in their own accomplishments but Shizra was the only one that appeared armed other than the Myth warriors encircling the goblin fighters.

When Shizra finally rose back to her full height, she spoke for Sebastian so as to take up the Avian Lady's time. "Then please, lead the way."