NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: The title translates roughly to "The Chill and Silence of Space")


The star system had a name. It was likely a beautiful name, full of meaning and symbolism. Not that the Mekantans cared to learn it.

They simply called it "thassa'myeh." A battlefield.

It was once home to countless individuals, comprising a near utopian society despite its complete lack of faster-than-light travel. They were a proud, powerful people, blessed with plentiful resources. They had even managed to build a small ring world around their star, their ultimate tribute to their power.

Now the system was in ruins. Its planets had been devastated by bombardment and ravaged by the Zircon. Its fleets had been utterly (and sometimes literally) crushed by the overwhelming power of the Darkships. Even the ring world, designed with shields capable of defending against well over the energy required to destroy a planet, was quickly shattered under the force of the Mekantan assault and offered to the Goddess All-Consuming, who was rapidly spreading across the megastructure.

And yet every measure was taken by the Mekantan invaders to ensure as much of the population survived their assault as possible.

Their nightmare was just beginning.


A pair of Darkships, the source of all this misery, floated menacingly in the void. The Khiinae'ezat and the Khiinae'zatih (Omniscient and Omnipotent) were one of the deadliest forces in the Hegemony armada, two halves of a single lethal whole. Forged from materials culled from the same massive binary star system, their shipminds created and grown side by side, their crews were trained to coordinate their actions with their counterparts, and their leaders just as much of a pair as the massive warships.

Deep within the Omnipotent, a petite young Mekantan woman sat within the gigantic warship's command core, short golden hair framing her face, the faint glow of her ice blue eyes and the white streaks that ran from under her eyes to her jaw barely notacable in the pulsing crimson glow of the chamber. One could almost swear the exact same individual sat on the command throne within the Omniscient, save the other Mekantan's much longer hair. This alone marked the two as an extreme rarity, as the birth of twins was an event Mekantans often went thousands of years without seeing within their own species. Yet it was the fact that these two Mekantans were twins that made them so dangerous. No matter how they were separated, through distance or layers of spacetime, each knew exactly what the other was thinking, what they were doing, how they felt. Yareza math Kaev and Thareza math Kaev were very close to being a single entity.

Thus, no words needed to be exchanged as the two sisters watched massive Zircon ships ferry captives to the massive holding facilities the Swarms were rapidly growing using the ravaged moons and planets of the ruined system for resources. The people of this system, yet another race of humans, had no capability to resist, but the Mekantans and their Zircon allies remained vigilant. Not because their goddess, happily consuming the heavily damaged ring world, was watching, but because they never knew exactly when the wheels of fate would cause the rest of the galaxy to decide to stop in uninvited to a Hegemony operational zone for a chat, ignoring the fact that maybe they wanted to harvest their new slaves and meals in relative peace.

The Hegemony had grown very cynical.


(OOC: Another "Mekantans show up, blow up an NPC star system, stay to chat" (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=547391) thread. Which is really the only way to justify with the Mekantan mindset a large scale interaction thread that doesn't involve weapons already pointed at people. And a subtle lampshade hanging simply because I felt like it.)

The Diabolical rode the energy currents as it drifted through T-Space. The purple energy arcs jumped to and fro, each easily able to disintegrate a planet or large moon. Energy discharged across the Dimensional Shields of the small frigate as it silently moved. The ebon ship scanned “down” into Real Space, looking for anything that might be of interest or a threat.

“Captain R’Lah, I am detecting energy sources ahead. According to the ESUS files, they match Mekantan signatures. The readings seem to be moderately high by their standards.”

“Bring us in closer to take better scans. Remain in T-Space until we are contacted. It is best to not arrive uninvited.”

“Yes Sir.”


The Diabolical (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/TheDiabolical-1.jpg)

The Omniscient and Omnipotent were Darkships. Being named for the motto of the monolithic killing machines ("Omniscience, Omnipotence, Malevolence") the pair prided themselves on living up to that motto.

Nothing escaped a Darkship's notice when it was actively "looking" at its surroundings. T-space was well within the view of the two massive killing machines, and within the briefest of moments, the Darkships had formulated a communication plan, agreed on it, and were about to send it...

... Only to find that Minagoroshi, her cells still happily chewing up the ring world, was faster.

And more blunt.

The two Darkships simply observed as their goddess pulled the ship from T-Space, the Ta'Nar vessel not showing any signs of resisting the tug.

In an instant an avatar of Minagoroshi had formed in front of the ship, a heavy cannon she had taken from the ring world next to her. She grinned as she extended a hand, the gun floating forward a few feet. She recognized this ship, and the railgun it bore. She was the one who presented that trophy to it in the Gilgamesh system. And now she had another for it.

"Another gift." She stated simply, nodding.

“Sir, I am detecting power fluctuations from the ring world. They are piercing the Dimensional Veil. We are noticed.”

Captain R’Lah checked the readings. He instantly recognized the distinctive signatures of the All Consuming Goddess from his last meeting with the Sentient.

“Don’t resist her. Let her pull us through the Barrier.”

“Yes Sir.”

It was common knowledge Captain R’Lah had met Minagoroshi before. It was right before The Diabolical was tapped to command an invasion fleet by Nhur-Galladu himself. The Warlord had given the Captain the temporary position of Grand Admiral in charge of the war against the Federation. When it was discovered the same Federation was behind an incident from long ago the Warlord had taken over control himself and commanded the entire Ta’Nar forces to eliminate them. The Captain requested to assume command of his old ship and crew when asked by the Warlord how he wished to be rewarded for his duty. Nhur-Galladu requested he keep the gift the Goddess had made to him as a show of respect for both R’Lah but also to Minagoroshi herself.

As the frigate Emerged into Real Space near the consumed ring world, the Goddess was easily detected by the presence of power she emitted. Captain R’Lah willed himself to appear floating in front of The Diabolical.

Another gift. She stated simply, nodding.

Sending his thoughts to her as before, he replied as he used histelekinesis to place the new toy on the otherside of the ship where it would balance out the BFG she presented to him long ago..

I appreciate your generosity and I will place it on the other side as a sign of your favor. Is there anything you would request of me in return?

The Greali Battleship (http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k201/catwomanfromthemoon/archer/ships%20and%20logos/akira-cgi.jpg) was on its way back to a base to pick up cargo ships to escort when it detected energy signatures in the area it was moving through. The battleship took no chances because the energy signatures could be Berrax or Calaverian ships that were hit and running on Greal cargo ships. As the battleship moved closer to get a better view of the energy signatures, Captain Dallix found himself looking at...

OOC: Just assume my ship was wandering through the area.

Many systems away a Klikiss Hive ship simply sat, watching, calculating and interpreting the many goings on in the universe. Most interestingly more them they had "watched" an entire star system be exposed to unbelievable amounts of power. Of course, they had not literally watched the event, simply calculated and inferred what was going on from cosmic readings and the actions of quantum particles.

The Klikiss had a lot of time on their hands, well, claws.

Intrigued as to what could possibly be causing such disturbances the Klikiss Breedex alerted the Ciscilian Ascendency as to her intentions to investiagte and abrubptly dissapeared from the system. Only to appear instantaneously in the one she was interested in.

The Breedex was surprised. They were positioned about half way out the system, near to where an asteroid belt would normally form. But she was not interested in the cosmic scenery, what was left of it, but rather the truly monstrous ships that were in the system. I memory rang out to her, something she had picked up from another Breedex some time ago, the Mekantans, then those must be Darkships. She knew what had happened before, they had engaged in a form of battle, rather an immense contest of showy techniques. But times had changed, she no longer had to follow some absurd protocol, she could do what she wished provided the Ascendency was kept safe. The Breedex broadcasted a message to them in the usual calm and soothing artificial female voice all Breedex's used:

"To the Mekantans. I am a Klikiss Breedex originating from the Ciscilian Ascendency but not under it's jurisdiction. We have detected your actions here radiating across the cosmos and are greatly intrigued and in awe of your destructive capabilities. We come not to fight but to simply learn and perhaps increase our understanding of other cultures. We are particuraly intrigued as to what you are trying to accomplish here."

Minagoroshi just smiled as the Kython vessel assimilated its most recent gift. "I need nothing, but an ally to help the Darkships keep operations in this system running smoothly is always welcome." Her avatar turned to what was the homeworld of the people that had inhabited this system. "How have your people fared, Captain?"


The new ship was immediately noticed by the two Darkships (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/MachinaKyrios/Third-Generation%20Renders/NeoMekanta/Darkship1.jpg), the massive ebon hulls pulsing periodically with crimson patterns.

They sweeped the vessel with very obvious, noticeable scans, intent on letting the ship know it had been seen. It was the Omniscient that made contact, its deep booming omnivoice adjusted to speak the most common language the massive warship knew.

Attention lesser beings. This star system is under the control of the Galactic Hegemony, for the purpose of resource collection. Identify yourselves, or we shall end your existence.

It had just finished sending that message when the Klikiss vessel was detected. The two Darkships immediately recognized the ship, having received tactical information from the Violent Gale. Before the Breedex could send her message, the two had formulated an attack strategy.

The Klikiss message did not cause the plans to be abandoned. It simply stopped warning shots from being fired. It was the Omnipotent that spoke this time.

Attention lesser beings. We will answer your questions. This system has been chosen to be conquered, its people enslaved, and its mass consumed by the Goddess All-Consuming and Zircon Swarm. If this system is deemed worthy, its resources shall be used to create a Darkship, like myself.

Several red-brown ships of the Zircon, rock-like in their appearance and covered in spines, also took interest in the Klikiss ship. A Striker, a reletively tiny capital ship in comparison to a Mekantan Darkship, moved to investigate, sweeping the hive ship with its own scans. The single, large Zircon organism quickly lost interest, however, and returned to its task of rounding up captives to be tortured and eaten by the Mekantans.

“It would be an Honor to assist such an ally of the Ta’Nar as yourself. I have sent word back to the Warlord of the situation and I am sure he would be most pleased. We are still roaming the stars. Wherever we are we claim as our own territory. When we tire of an area or deem it unworthy of our presence we leave it for the meatbags to reclaim.”

R’Lah knew his use of the derogatory term “meatbags” would not be taken as an insult for they themselves consider themselves above simple humanity. The ones being transported to their larders was proof of this. As a matter of fact, the Mekantan way of thought placed them above all they met. While this was usually true the sole exception was when they met the Ta’Nar. In order to keep relations between the two stellar giants, the Ta’Nar let them think they were better when the Psions knew the truth. The Mekantans were not even Class B minds. They were for the most part confined to their bodies which placed them as Class C, but damn powerful Class C minds. When they finally decided to finish their evolution and shed their bodies, they would become closer to perfection, closer to Ta’Nar.

Behind R’Lah, The Diabolical was converthing the latest gift into Thur’Tahg so it would be able to reform the weapon in case the ship was needed to shatter into a Kython Swarm in the defense of the system as asked. The metal was converted by the Kython Infection and the schematics was uploaded into the Kython Overmind.

"Attention lesser beings. We will answer your questions. This system has been chosen to be conquered, its people enslaved, and its mass consumed by the Goddess All-Consuming and Zircon Swarm. If this system is deemed worthy, its resources shall be used to create a Darkship, like myself."

The Breedex pondered the message, and noticed the ships running scans across her ship. Conversing with another Breedex, the one responsible for the initial contact between them, she gathered information on their techniques and technology. She raised a stable gravitational field one hundred meters round her ship to ensure that their interdictor technology would not envelop them. Although a Hive ship was slightly over thirteen thousand meters in length the Breedex was learning that they were not to be taken lightly.

The Breedex composed her response, interested to note a particular cultural similarity:

"We feel that "lesser beings" is an inappropriate term for you to apply to us. Although cultural differences might lend you a certain reason with regard to such a view. We do note however one similarity between us, you say that the former of inhabitants of the system are to be tortured and consumed by your people? By torture we assume for entertainment and by consumed we assume for sustinance? If this is so then perhaps we have something in common compared ot other races who disdain such actions without considering simple moral views as "each to their own". It has been many years since a Breedex or any Klikiss has been able to consume a being af adequate intelligence, standard cattle does not provide memories and informaiton we desire. Perhaps we could trade some of our simpler cattle in good faith and understanding in return for some of your captives? Or perhaps another arrangement could be made; it is rare for us to find people with a corresponding value."

OOC: Lol, tag.

OOC: I'd like to play, but it's pretty obvious my characters wouldn't survive very long in this environment. Actually, my whole planet wouldn't, cause it's far less impressive than what is being consumed here. ... Here are two throwaway characters, just stay away from my planet okay?

IC

Two tiny ships, cloaked and unarmed, each containing a single human, entered the system. These were two diplomats on a first contact making mission.


Ron: Shit Sam, what's happening here?
Samuel: I don't know, but I do think we should get out of here.
Ron: Too late, they look advanced enough to have already noticed us. We can't flee cause we'd be leading them straight to Fir!n.
Samuel: Can't flee to Fir!n. But it's a big universe. Do what you want, but I'm legging it.


One of the two ships sent full power to its space compressor, fired its thrusters, and moved away with an effective speed a few times that of light. The other continued moving in, its pilot getting more and more enraged by all the destruction he saw happening. Ron started praying.

-OOC-
Don't worry, I have no intention of having the Mekantans instigate a fight in this thread. Well... other than the curb stomp that started it. ^_^

Minagoroshi is in system, and despite being a galaxy-chewing weapon of mass destruction, she's actually a lot more peaceful than the Mekantans. And she's in charge.


-IC-

The two Darkships and the Zircon quickly pinpointed the new ship, its mass and the thoughts of its pilot betraying its location to the all-seeing eyes of the Hegemony.

It didn't take long for three Zircon Strikers to arrive and begin circling the ship, keeping an eye on it as the Omniscient sent it a message.

Attention lesser being. This system, by virtue of conquest, belongs to the Galactic Hegemony. Identify yourself.


The Klikiss required some thought, but yet again, Minagoroshi moved first.

A cloud of her cells blinked into the space around the Klikiss vessel, the Goddess All-Consuming quickly sending a message to the vessel.

[quote]A meal seems like a wonderful opportunity to discuss things. I shall go to your ship with an avatar, my guards, several Mekantan chefs, and prisoners culled from this system. How does that sound?

She knew the Klikiss could see her cells rapidly consuming the ring world, and trusted that the message was clear: The Hegemony would be happy to break bread with the Klikiss, but if they screwed up, Minagoroshi would eat them.


The other avatar of the Goddess just smiled to R'Lah, nodding. "A fine way of handling territorial matters. Have you encountered any hostile forces?

Attention lesser beings. This star system is under the control of the Galactic Hegemony, for the purpose of resource collection. Identify yourselves, or we shall end your existence.

Captain Dallix looked at the message slowly. He had to act quickly or they would be wiped out. He send the current coordinates of his location to the Naval Command then he quickly sent a message to the Dark Ships in the Common Language.

Greetings. This is the battleship, Lekos. We've come from the Galactic Empire of Greal, and we did not mean to intrude in your star system. I have been authorized to open diplomatic relation with your Hegemony and possibly sign a few trade agreements.

As all the ships of various nations entered around the planet which had been shattered by the power and might of the Mekantans, near the edge of the system, a small scout ship (http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs20/f/2007/228/b/9/NGM_Scout_by_Sapien.jpg) from the Unified Colonies warped in, a wormhole ripping open the space-time continuum before disgorging the small ship. The three-man crew manning the stations shook their heads to get rid of the disorientation of wormhole travel and begin to take stock of their surroundings. They had come here on orders from Command on strange energy readings and what looked to be Mekantan identification signals and chatter. As little as they knew about the Mekantans, due to their recent entry into the ESUS alliance, they knew they were dangerous, prone to tempers and insanely powerful.

All in all, something that a struggling nation as theirs did not fuck with.

The commander of the ship ordered a small burn towards the inner system, while he manned the console. He inputed the code for drone deployment and all four of their drones deployed, skitting about the system, gathering data. It was almost immediately they detected the massive power signatures of the Mekanta Darkships and the terrifying Zircon ships, the Balroggan ship which was also giving off large powerful levels, as well as two newcomers they did not recognize. The commander, Eliza MacIntyre, sighed and knew what he had to do. He was not looking to have his crew killed by pissing off these guys and from the looks of it, they were just finishing conquering some alien race. Something they didn't agree with, but they had the bigger guns, so he wasn't going to cause his people to be next. He opened a channel, utilizing the drones as jumping points to bounce the message to them, to the Mekantans.

"Greetings to Mekantan forces in the area, I am Commander MacIntyre of the Colonial Navy. I am here representing the Unified Colonies of Telros. We found some strange signals coming from this system and some of them seemed to be of Mekantan origin, and we came to investigate what our allies were doing. We do not wish to intrude on your operations, so we ask what the procedure is concerning the situation here."

As he did this, he noticed a large lady-like figure hovering over by the Balroggan ship, and his eye's, followed by his crews, snapped out of their heads and their jaws dropped. What they saw broke so many laws of science, it hurt to imagine. This was going to be a very....interesting encounter.

Captain R'Lah immediately noticed the presence of three more minds entering the system. His head turned toward the distant ship and he made a comment to the Lady before him as he stood in the vaccume before his ship.

"It seems there are more people arriving each second."

"Yes, Nhur-Galladu allowed me to retain my Admiral Abilities so they were easily detectable even from this distance. I chose to return to The Diabolical because I like her. She likes me. We work well together especially with the gifts you gave her to use.”

“Hostile forces? None exist after we pass through. We do not allow any such to remain at our back when we travel. We strip what we need from them and leave broken worlds in our wake, our standard procedure. As you remember in the Federation Invasion we destroyed a thousand worlds with only our Grav Torps alone. A single Battlegroup removed the Klingon Throneworld from existence, converting it to pure energy for us to devour. At the same time we brought the Romulans under our whip and yoke to use as tools against the Fedies. They were glorious times indeed. Too bad we had to act with kid gloves on so we would not hurt any of our ESUS allies. We could have really let lose.”

“But since that little bit of fun, we have not encountered anything remotely challenging that did not require a single Frigate or two to quell. Our reputation seems to precede us.”

It was a commonly held standard to never, ever send anything too expensive through the Shadow for exploration purposes, for the economic costs of producing anything larger than a frigate were stupendous. Equally, it always have been a fact how standards which had no negative impacts to a population were ignored in a place with no government to enforce them. The Quasidan's Arm was one of them, and justifiable since the responsible ones for its creation have sought to commercially explore solar systems considered entirely useless, developing much of the technologies to extract the mineral wealth of many hostile worlds, and sharing among each other the benefits.

A humongous carrier, result of a shared memory. Many who belonged to the Vitriol INC cooperative have been longing for a silly, blathering idea, for they have witnessed the death of loved ones in the hands of the enemies of the human race: the filth, dreg of the universe that are the Xenos, beings which evolved without any emotional capability, cold and ruthless, for which only the solution was extermination. The Silicoids have been extinct of reality for ages, but never were forgotten.

The successful planetary exploits of the Vitriol INC ensure to it a significant industrial base outside of what supposedly stood as the official Solarian Defense Fleet, and uninterested in shaking hands with some of the more morally questionable members of their civilization, still slobbering into a mediocrity of MMOVWGs, second and third lives they refused to join, for such were provoking an intellectual decadence never before witnessed in mankind's history. Instead, they would join the path crossed by the World Eaters, Thousand Sons, Word Bearers and many other infamous forces which existed in the faster-than-light realm of Chaos, in search of a foolish revenge: to exterminate every Xenos that should cross their path in their "exploration" group.

At the edge of oblivion, a single, ice-covered toroidal mass which seemed to have no arms, the Quasidan's Arm (http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs14/f/2007/032/6/b/Homecoming_by_OmeN2501.jpg), leaving a nearly kilometer long trail of propellants behind like if it was a comet, struggled as unknown forces attempted to tear apart the very fabric of its existence. Individuals were no longer, as a strange form of consciousness took responsibility for their bodies and existences, capable of struggling against the demons and shadows outside. To ensure a safe travel, a sacrifice to the dark "gods" looming in such realm had to be done, like long discovered by the few who managed to come back, and thus human skulls and blood were dumped into an ejection port, vanishing into the unknown.

There was no way to tell how much time it has taken, for such realm of chaos was timeless, and if it had any time, it would be unbound by any logic or rule. It just seemed like a beacon of light, not real, but a thought guiding to a way out. It simply guided, as the confused sensors attempted to find its way, for strangely, as the thrust was directed to the left, it went up, but no matter how logic and physical laws were broken and shifted for the benefit of malignant beings, they were even quicker to adapt to such distortions. The battleship would soon find its way to real space, temporarily breaking the very fabric of the universe as a burst of chaos unleashed into insane readings at such new location.

There was only one word to describe what they would witness in reality as the singular mind broke apart into their individual selves: Inhumane. A new species of Xenos, seemingly having evolved for eons and exploiting an universe where the thankful protection of Einstein, Newton and many others to the survival of mankind did not exist. Seeing the readings from optical and thermal data into his mind, the captain would rather face a bloodthirster of Khorne with his bare hands than the brutal, harsh universe they have arrived at. Interpreting the strangely reconstruction of what the ruins and ravaged planets hinted, he had only one thought in his mind, putting a sense of despair beyond what could be contained.

A ring, it's too similar! Could this be a doomed parallel existence of our own people?

Sighing as he realized how powerless they were to stop such tragedy, the captain of the Quasidan's Arm looked around at the bridge, a curved room with steps resembling part of a semi-circle, with comfortable red seats layered like if it was a senate rather than the control room of a capital ship, and no visible interfaces. Taking notice of the data, he became frightened from the amount of activity that seemed to come from the planet, like if, there was an worse fate than death for those who could be the very mirror of their own people. Then, he finally realized the irony of it. As their civilization achieved utopia, most became mediocre, weak and fools. Then, he finally reminded of an old argument he has seen before, and observing the outside view coming straight to his mind, he said to such strangely senate-like bridge a single word loaded with meaning:

"Morlocks..."

Much of Vitriol INC board of elected representatives was in the spacecraft, and as the captain stood in the middle of the large room, the others, still shocked from what they have witnessed, told him:

"Si... Morlocks, usted hablo bien sobre este tragedi, camarad Luch. Devems evit el risc de tornarmes Eloi, y portant el verdad deve ser dich a tods, o tamben seremes masacrads por el escoria Xenu. Seds cauteloz o podems ter este menaz como enemig imediat" (Yes... Morlocks, you said it well about this tragedy, comrade Luch. We must avoid the risk of becoming Eloi, and thus, the truth much be said to everyone, or we shall also be massacred by the Xenu scum. Be cautious or we may have this threat as an immediate enemy.)

It seemed to be a lose-lose situation. There was nothing they could truly hope to match those enemies, and even if they did, there were other issues to be taken account of. They could return to the realm of Chaos, which seemed to be a safer place after all compared to this, considering the dimensions of the potential threat. However, Luch seemed unaware of a second possibility, that one would be quick to suggest in their strange mish-mash of old Earth languages:

"We have stroked a deal with a demon "god" before. I believe that we could at least, save that lost mankind, through diplomacy. Maybe there is some way for us to take them back. Or at least those who are still alive"

Furiously, the captain was loud to answer to such heinous thought, thinking on what sort of man was that to suggest such bad idea:

"Even Khorne existence is more tolerable than the existence of the Xenos. Never negotiate with Xenos, for that will only encourage more acts of inhumanity. We have nothing to do here. We should only annihilate as many aliens as we can in the universe to prevent them from becoming like the monstrousity we have witnessed. At least this records will cut once for all every questions of the fact that the only mean to ensure our survival is through ensuring our exclusivity as a sentient species in our own place."

The man simply ignored his rants, and replied back:

"Wait comrade, think about it: if that scum is taking humans alive for whatever sordid purposes they have, perhaps we could, get such humans with us in exchange of other sentient lifeforms. If we make them kill each other, even if unilaterally, we are already doing our part to ensure mankind's survival. We should negotiate the liberation of the entire human population of this system in exchange of giving other filth to that powerful filth there. A win-lose situation would be better, although I doubt that anything short of a Type III would be able take something like that down. Still, our benefit will be greater than theirs."

Finally realizing the idea, Luch then questioned further one of its most basic flaws, striking in a assured voice:

"It would be perfect, but when dealing with aliens, we take no prisoners. Where would we find scum for the scum? In the netherworld?"

"I believe that we should make a sweep through this universe for them. We can break special relativity here, and thus time won't be an issue. I know that our forces aren't truly large enough, but we have facilities that allow us the necessary flexibility to capture the necessary amount of resources and scum to achieve such ambitious goal." he then explained, pointing again through the mental displays at the devastation, and at what seemed to be a sort of fast consumption cell destroying the infrastructure of the system."

Nodding, captain Luch then acknowledged the fact:

"Lets then wait for whatever this menacing filth has to say. I expect such type of Xenos to be as arrogant as they are deserving of being killed, burned and extinct. Stay alert people, and prepare for an immediate Shadow jump if necessary."

And thus, astronomical units away from the horrors of such event, the toroidal carrier stood, accelerating and decelerating towards random vectors, awaiting for a response from such unknown force. At least, the acknowledgment of their existence could serve to avoid what many feared to be an evolutionary path towards becoming Eloi. And a new reason to motivate the decadent Solarians to get their asses out of the armchair and face reality rather than virtual worlds.

(OOC: I just couldn't resist to push this twist because that description of a civilization is frighteningly close to Solar Communes'. If it's too wrong to assume such, I'll retcon it, although nothing forbid them from ICly thinking that it's an alternate existence of their own civilization that is being massacred.)

The Darkships regarded the Greali ship a moment before the Omnipotent sent another message.

Attention lesser beings from Greal. Your presence in this system is tolerated and acknowledged. Negotiations within this system will take place on the Hegemony warship Omnipotent. For identification purposes, the Omnipotent will now fire in your direction three times. Approach the vessel that fires and drop all defensive measures. Gather your diplomatic team at the forward-most section of your feeble, poorly engineered vessel.

True to the Darkship's word, it flung three massive high energy blasts in the direction of the Lekos, each carrying enough thermal and kinetic energy to render a planet uninhabitable. Each aimed precisely to pass half a kilometer by the Greali ship.


It was the Omniscient the dealt with the Telrosians, quickly sending a reply.

Greetings, feeble Telrosian allies. Do not interfere with the Zircon that are transporting captives to holding facilities, and you will be fine. Please approach the Omnipotent and drop all defensive measures. It is the Darkship that has fired three shots at a Lesser vessel. We wish to speak with you.


The arrival of the new ship was interesting to the Darkships, as was their behavior. The Omnipotent waited a few minutes before sending it a message.

Greetings, feeble ones. This system has been conquered by the Galactic Hegemony. Its resources and people are now property of the Mekantans. Identify yourselves, you who trespass in Mekantan space...


Near the Ta'Nar vessel, Minagoroshi nodded. "It is difficult to find opponents near one's strength as one becomes more powerful. Such is a problem the Mekantans face. It is little wonder they persist in their civil war."

Lekos

Seemed like diplomatic relations would be frosty if the Hegemony kept up this talk of "lesser beings" and "poorly engineered vessel". Captain Dallix walked over to the bridge and gave the orders. The shields were lowered. Alert Status was reduced. Dallix looked nervous at the shots and also at the ship which fired them. The diplomatic party waited patiently at the forward hangers. Nearby, two corvettes were parked as other crewmen were repairing them, had no idea what was going on. The diplomatic party consisted of three humans, and one Sauron. Behind the party were four Black Guards.

(OOC: Mekantans are assholes. ^_^)

The Omnipotent was quick to collect the diplomatic party, and a few crew members working on the corvettes. One moment they were on the Lekos, the next in a chamber within the Omnipotent. In a pile. On the floor.

The Omnipotent had a cruel sense of humor.

The chamber was, like the rest of the ship, uncomfortably warm by Human standards, easily over a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit. Not as hot as the rest of the vessel, but every bit as humid, with mist visible in the air.

The temperature was where the similarities ended. The room was brightly lit by light very similar to that emitted by Sol, if a bit more blue. The floor was covered in a soft, damp carpet-like covering that, did not grow, writhe, or otherwise show any form of life, unlike many Mekantan flooring options. The walls were, for the most part, the same rough black metal walls as the rest of the vessel, but held large tapestries, none of which appearing to be from the same place, and thus likely taken from many different systems like this one.

A large conference table dominated the room, ringed with comfortable-looking chairs, and at the head were two thrones, and a black mechanical entity, with long writhing tentacles at its side and a single crimson "eye" regarding the Greali representitives.

It spoke with a deep grinding voice, a slight echo and tone of malice in its manner of speaking. "Greetings from the Galactic Hegemony, feeble ones. The commanders of this vessel and the other shall arrive shortly. While you wait, I am authorized to answer questions about our mighty Hegemony..."

"A meal seems like a wonderful opportunity to discuss things. I shall go to your ship with an avatar, my guards, several Mekantan chefs, and prisoners culled from this system. How does that sound?"

The Breedex watched through the thousands of set's of eyes that her Drones had, each Drone was essentially an extension of herself, a single Klikiss Hive consisted of the Breedex's mind, millions of bodies and millions of brains. As such the Klikiss were excellent at figuring things out but prone to distraction. And right now she was focused on the creature which was floating in front of her ship. At all odds it was highly improbable. What was more probable was that the Mekantans were using a holoprojector of some sort to display this image. Still, the Breedex would wait before deciding which out come was more probable. She composed a message, pleased that such progress was being made:

"That does indeed sound most delightful, if you would care to enter via one of our hangers my Domates willmeet you and escort you to my chamber, i would meet you in person but you will soon see that is impossible. We will look forward to your presence gracing our hive."

With that the Breedexs Domates, great lumbering insects two and a half meters in height, with great crested heads, spikes adorning their large chromium coloured chitinous skin and large fore limbs like a preying mantis along with other appendages gathered in the hanger bay. Aside from the continuing scuttling presence of Klikiss workers, drones, producers and warriors on patrol a great line of Klikiss Warrior insects had gathered in the hanger, they were two meters tall, covered with protusions and crests on their black shells with red markings, they held spears and occasionally a form of weapon. They all stood in a fixed position, ready to receive their esteemed visitor.

(OOC: Mekantans are assholes. ^_^)

The Omnipotent was quick to collect the diplomatic party, and a few crew members working on the corvettes. One moment they were on the Lekos, the next in a chamber within the Omnipotent. In a pile. On the floor.

The Omnipotent had a cruel sense of humor.

The chamber was, like the rest of the ship, uncomfortably warm by Human standards, easily over a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit. Not as hot as the rest of the vessel, but every bit as humid, with mist visible in the air.

The temperature was where the similarities ended. The room was brightly lit by light very similar to that emitted by Sol, if a bit more blue. The floor was covered in a soft, damp carpet-like covering that, did not grow, writhe, or otherwise show any form of life, unlike many Mekantan flooring options. The walls were, for the most part, the same rough black metal walls as the rest of the vessel, but held large tapestries, none of which appearing to be from the same place, and thus likely taken from many different systems like this one.

A large conference table dominated the room, ringed with comfortable-looking chairs, and at the head were two thrones, and a black mechanical entity, with long writhing tentacles at its side and a single crimson "eye" regarding the Greali representitives.

It spoke with a deep grinding voice, a slight echo and tone of malice in its manner of speaking. "Greetings from the Galactic Hegemony, feeble ones. The commanders of this vessel and the other shall arrive shortly. While you wait, I am authorized to answer questions about our mighty Hegemony..."

(OOC: That makes this fun :D)

If the Hegemony kept this up, the battleship was liable to turn the Dark Ships into dust.....

The few crew members were ordered back away, while the Black Guards kept an eye on the diplomatic party. They didn't seemed bothered by the temperature, and even the Sauron delegate was delighted. They took their seats and looked uneasily at the two thrones.

finally a female voice started speaking,"Well, first, the Galactic Empire of Greal wishes to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Galactic Hegemony."

His prayer was interrupted by the ship AI: "I received a message. Putting it on screen B."

Attention lesser being. This system, by virtue of conquest, belongs to the Galactic Hegemony. Identify yourself.

"Like dinosaurs talk to ants..." Ron said to himself, and started typing.

This is the Free Priesthood ship Kallisti, seeking new allies and cultures to learn about. Would you be so kind to explain what is happening here?

A voice seeming to come from no direction at all spoke to him: "Isn't it obvious? Destructive order and destructive disorder, nothing but destruction."

ooc: I guess I could write a bit more...

The voice became more defined, female. "Why don't you uncloak the ship? Show them you're not intimidated. Which one did go extinct?"

"What?" thought Ron. He knew that just thinking was enough to be heard.

"The dinosaurs or the ants?"

"Right." He switched off cloaking, revealing gold paint and the name "Kallisti" in huge Greek characters.

The goddess giggled. It was a good thing most beings didn't know ancient Earth mythology. On the other hand, the ship didn't look much like an apple, with some good will maybe a pear, so even those who knew might not get it immediately.

"I love what you did to the ship. Very amusing, although maybe it sends the wrong message considering you want to start peaceful talks with strangers."

Greetings, feeble Telrosian allies. Do not interfere with the Zircon that are transporting captives to holding facilities, and you will be fine. Please approach the Omnipotent and drop all defensive measures. It is the Darkship that has fired three shots at a Lesser vessel. We wish to speak with you.


MacIntyre nodded nervously. He couldn't do anything to possible oppose the Mekantans in their gathering of slaves and refusing their offer would be taken very badly. "Understood. We are coming close to the Omnipotent and disabling our defensive measures." As he said, the little ship, a fly compared to a giant, moved close to the Omnipotent and waited for whatever was going to happen next.

"Commander! We've detected large energy signals coming from over in system 4.7568.23.1868! What should we do?" Commander Lucius shook his head. "What we were ordered to do. Explore, investigate, catalog. Send the three Ravens, just in case." As the three ships, each one distinct, but equally massive, started towards the newly opened Wormhole.

A few hours later:

The three Moralite ships passed through the other side of the Wormhole, only to find themselves near the Mekantans. "Captain, ready the weapons, but don't fire. I'm not risking anything."

"This is the Moralite Raven fleet, consisting of 'The Raven', 'The Murder', and 'The Feather'. We picked up a massive energy signal from these co-ordinates, may we inquire as to the reason?"

(OOC: The Free Priesthood, that statement about extinction made me laugh. Neo-Mekanta is allied with an empire of spacefaring dinosaurs.)


The Omnipotent was more than happy to send the Greali crew members who weren't supposed to be there back to the Lekos, and in an instant, they were back on the Greali battleship. In a pile. On the floor. Naked.

As their now-empty uniforms collapsed into piles on the damp carpet, the machine at the head of the table gestured with two tentacles at the thrones. "My apologies. Such in-depth negotiations cannot proceed until the representatives of the Galactic Hegemony arrive..."

There was another instant arrival as the Omnipotent plucked the Telrosians from their ship and deposited them in the meeting chamber. In a pile. Four feet off the ground.

The machine gestured to the Telrosians as they landed, a tinge of amusement in the grinding, insidious voice. "These individuals are from Telros, an ally of the Galactic Hegemony." The eye turned to the Telrosians, the tentacles gesturing to the others. "These are from the Galactic Empire of Greal. They smell funny."

The machine then turned to the wall behind it, bowing as part of it flowed open, revealing a pitch black corridor. It was through this corridor that a petite young woman, appearing perfectly human, stepped into the chamber. No eye streaks. Her eyes did not glow. The combination of her suppression of her psionics and the lighting of the chamber neutralized the obvious visual cues of a Mekantan, something the twins had planned. The only thing to identify her as a representative of the Galactic Hegemony was her uniform, that of a Hegemony grand captain.

As she sat down on one of the thrones, the machine turned back to the delegates. "This is Thareza math Kaev, commander of this Darkship and one of two heads of this battle group."

The young woman nodded, smiling. "It very nice meet you," she said, her English broken and accent strong. "Talking is begin now, but no promises make until... sister?" She tilted her head, searching for the right word. "Yes. No promises make until sister arrive."



Outside the mighty warship, the Omniscient had taken note of the Moralites' and the golden vessel's messages. A single message was sent to both.

Attention insignificant lessers. This system has been conquered by the Galactic Hegemony for the purpose of resource gathering. The people of this star system resisted and were utterly crushed. If you seek more information, approach the warship around which other lessers have gathered and drop your defenses.

The strange presence around the golden ship did not go unnoticed. But it was tolerated. If it caused trouble, the Mekantans knew they could handle it. They had, after all, killed gods before...

(OOC: The Free Priesthood, that statement about extinction made me laugh. Neo-Mekanta is allied with an empire of spacefaring dinosaurs.)


The Omnipotent was more than happy to send the Greali crew members who weren't supposed to be there back to the Lekos, and in an instant, they were back on the Greali battleship. In a pile. On the floor. Naked.

As their now-empty uniforms collapsed into piles on the damp carpet, the machine at the head of the table gestured with two tentacles at the thrones. "My apologies. Such in-depth negotiations cannot proceed until the representatives of the Galactic Hegemony arrive..."

There was another instant arrival as the Omnipotent plucked the Telrosians from their ship and deposited them in the meeting chamber. In a pile. Four feet off the ground.

The machine gestured to the Telrosians as they landed, a tinge of amusement in the grinding, insidious voice. "These individuals are from Telros, an ally of the Galactic Hegemony." The eye turned to the Telrosians, the tentacles gesturing to the others. "These are from the Galactic Empire of Greal. They smell funny."

The machine then turned to the wall behind it, bowing as part of it flowed open, revealing a pitch black corridor. It was through this corridor that a petite young woman, appearing perfectly human, stepped into the chamber. No eye streaks. Her eyes did not glow. The combination of her suppression of her psionics and the lighting of the chamber neutralized the obvious visual cues of a Mekantan, something the twins had planned. The only thing to identify her as a representative of the Galactic Hegemony was her uniform, that of a Hegemony

As she sat down on one of the thrones, the machine turned back to the delegates. "This is Thareza math Kaev, commander of this Darkship and one of two heads of this battle group."

The young woman nodded, smiling. "It very nice meet you," she said, her English broken and accent strong. "Talking is begin now, but no promises make until... sister?" She tilted her head, searching for the right word. "Yes. No promises make until sister arrive."



Outside the mighty warship, the Omniscient had taken note of the Moralites' and the golden vessel's messages. A single message was sent to both.



The strange presence around the golden ship did not go unnoticed. But it was tolerated. If it caused trouble, the Mekantans knew they could handle it. They had, after all, killed gods before...

"Captain! They want us to lower our defenses and approach them if we want more information! What should we do?" Captain Sextus took a deep breath, sighed, and motioned to the guns on the outside of the vessel. "Cut off the power supply, and order "The Murder" and "The Feather" to do the same. That's all we can really do." Moving forward closer to the Mekantans warship, a ghastly silence came over the bridge. None of the idle chatter normal in a Moralite vessel, no pacing, just a thousand breathing souls. They could only hope it would stay that way...

(OOC: The Free Priesthood, that statement about extinction made me laugh. Neo-Mekanta is allied with an empire of spacefaring dinosaurs.)

OOC And I'm sure that according to many players ants are extinct (with the earth being destroyed again and again and all).

IC

The new message was displayed below the previous one.


Attention insignificant lessers. This system has been conquered by the Galactic Hegemony for the purpose of resource gathering. The people of this star system resisted and were utterly crushed. If you seek more information, approach the warship around which other lessers have gathered and drop your defenses.


"Now what? I don't have anything to drop, not dropping anything is going to make them suspicious, and reminding them I have nothing might not be a good idea."

"Can I borrow your hands for a moment?"

The goddess typed the following message:


Drop my defenses? I thought you scanned this ship? Do you want me to step into space naked or something?


"Did you just send them THAT? You can't be serious!"

"Naturally. Stop worrying, I don't know if I can help you survive this, but I'll take care of you either way. Now help me improve this place a bit."

The Kallisti followed the given instructions.

---


The strange presence around the golden ship did not go unnoticed. But it was tolerated. If it caused trouble, the Mekantans knew they could handle it. They had, after all, killed gods before...

OOC She's immaterial (so cannot do material damage directly) and immortal. That doesn't mean she can't be a pain in the rear.

The transmission came as the Quasidan's Arm randomly shifted its direction. No questions asked. It simply came as bluntly and arrogant as expected, in a tone filled with the disgusting ways of the Xenos, and with it, the frightening revelation of what exactly they were. Their spacecraft however, never sought to approach the location of the massed construct, for such distance would be appropriate for the coldness that dealing with such dregs would promote.

Greetings, feeble ones. This system has been conquered by the Galactic Hegemony. Its resources and people are now property of the Mekantans. Identify yourselves, you who trespass in Mekantan space...

Luch then could only rant ravenously, enraged by the arrogance and might makes right of such scum, and perhaps, in secret, by the sheer cynicism of opposing it. Perhaps it was ironic that it would be more or less what all the aliens they have exterminated thought of them, except for the fact the Solarians almost never asked a Xenos before shooting. Looking around the control deck, he then spoke:

"I wished we were next to a black hole. As such wish cannot be conceded, I can only hope that the time of our own universe advances faster. The plan is everything we got, thus we must prepare a diplomatic avatar. What do you suggest?"

"Cthulhu!" someone then shouted from the farther behind seats of the room.

"This is not a joke comrade Tito." Luch reminded, but it seemed like the spark was ignited, for not even in moments like these things could be taken seriously.

"Desu! Desu! Desu! Desu!" a lone, teen lady began to shout at the back of the deck room in a lunatic way, raising herself to reveal one of the more unique and arguably silly things to ever be found in Planet Glacius.

There were every sort of excuses, some claimed that red represented the revolution and green the military, but only an hermit or Xenos would not know that it was nothing but a weird memetic fad. Dressed in a black space suit as usual, the pale woman contrasted with the majority of black-skinned men, and the brunette teenager called a lot of attention from having her right eye red and her left eye green.

"Don't tell me you have changed your name to Desu as well, comrade Carrillas." he then said loudly to the woman standing next to one of the further back row of seats, and everyone seemed to look at her attentiously.

"Then don't tell me what "Arm" is an euphemism of in the title of this spacecraft, comrade Luch, or why our organization is named Vitriol INC. But looking at that thing size, I suppose that Quasidan needs to take some blue pills urgently. Although I preferred if it was called Longcat" the woman then sarcastically pointed about how nothing was ever taken that seriously among them, except that unlike the gross of Solarians, they actually worked instead of slobbering in Virtual Worlds.

"All right, lets see what everyone thinks. Seems like most agree, so we just need to ask for a connection with that... thing, then we can project an your sentience there, comrade Carrillas."

"Sure, but how to reply? I would rather no NIDs." Carrillas asked, for no matter how they always used some silly sense of humor to raise their mood, those Xenos were likely not going to react well with a transmission embedded with sarcasm or a joke.

"You handle that, comrade. You have been assigned as the diplomat." he then said, smiling as he realized how he putted the meme-junkie teen into a tricky situation. To address the self-entitled galactic hegemony, nothing but a "fish we must buy a bigger fridge to fry and pull as Bis in the next n thousand years". They have likely forgotten of the slavery, of the massacre of an entire, likely human civilization, and perhaps it was ridden in twists the way they sought to save as many humans as they could.

Sweat dripping from her forehead, Desu Carrillas pondered on what to say. No switch was turned on, interface accessed, she just had to think it and agree with her own thoughts. Suddenly, a transmission would arrive to the uneasy... commercial partner. With no sample to translate from other than the original transmission, it actually went well, although Carrillas doubt such was their real language, from the information they already had in their files:

"This is Desu, Sales Representative from the Vitriol INC's Mobile Alien Vending Machine named Quasidan's Arm to the Galactic Hegemony of Neo-Mekanta. We sell and trade sentient lifeforms and are looking to exchange alive non-human sentients for alive human sentients. Perhaps we could make a deal? If you agree for my mind to project an avatar into your domain, we can talk further, although nothing impedes us to negotiate through communications alone."

Hopefully they could solve the issue of supply in time, should negotiations work. Some looked at her and wondered on the sort of sordid idea she had. Perhaps it was for better, and they might have to fake some very disturbing things on those miserable humans they were supposed to rescue, yet they simply preferred to not think about it for now. After all, it was better to let certain dormant aspects of human nature dormant.

Captain Rojo Luch however, had more worrisome thoughts. If all was truly between Morlocks and Eloi, should they not become the latter, perhaps they could become the first. Some long silenced oppositor claimed that there was a very thin line between what they did to aliens and the past atrocities men did to men were perhaps right. However, the fact they were no longer killing each other could be seen as a progress, should one ignore the macabre myths of the Virtual Worlds where people kill and torture each other for pleasure, with the exact simulation of the pain and suffering provoked by the unreal deaths.

They were just that, urban legends. For Luch knew Mankind was far above such ruthless filth beyond, and would never lower to their level, or perhaps he wanted to think that.

(ooc: I'm waiting for a reply to my last post Neo-Mekanta)

(OOC: The Free Priesthood, that statement about extinction made me laugh. Neo-Mekanta is allied with an empire of spacefaring dinosaurs.)


The Omnipotent was more than happy to send the Greali crew members who weren't supposed to be there back to the Lekos, and in an instant, they were back on the Greali battleship. In a pile. On the floor. Naked.

As their now-empty uniforms collapsed into piles on the damp carpet, the machine at the head of the table gestured with two tentacles at the thrones. "My apologies. Such in-depth negotiations cannot proceed until the representatives of the Galactic Hegemony arrive..."

There was another instant arrival as the Omnipotent plucked the Telrosians from their ship and deposited them in the meeting chamber. In a pile. Four feet off the ground.

The machine gestured to the Telrosians as they landed, a tinge of amusement in the grinding, insidious voice. "These individuals are from Telros, an ally of the Galactic Hegemony." The eye turned to the Telrosians, the tentacles gesturing to the others. "These are from the Galactic Empire of Greal. They smell funny."

The machine then turned to the wall behind it, bowing as part of it flowed open, revealing a pitch black corridor. It was through this corridor that a petite young woman, appearing perfectly human, stepped into the chamber. No eye streaks. Her eyes did not glow. The combination of her suppression of her psionics and the lighting of the chamber neutralized the obvious visual cues of a Mekantan, something the twins had planned. The only thing to identify her as a representative of the Galactic Hegemony was her uniform, that of a Hegemony

As she sat down on one of the thrones, the machine turned back to the delegates. "This is Thareza math Kaev, commander of this Darkship and one of two heads of this battle group."

The young woman nodded, smiling. "It very nice meet you," she said, her English broken and accent strong. "Talking is begin now, but no promises make until... sister?" She tilted her head, searching for the right word. "Yes. No promises make until sister arrive."
.

"We can wait for her to arrive." said the attractive blond who spoke for Greal. One of the black Guards looked in dismay at the crew's clothes at the ship.

Captain Dallix was now considering bringing a superfortress to accompany the Greal ships. He relented and instead, two cruisers jumped into the area. They did not join the battleship but stayed a distance away.

The crew felt a strange tingle and was suddenly on the ship. It took a couple seconds for the nausea to go away and realize they were lying on top of each other and in the air. One of them almost swore but was cut off when they landed on the deck. They got up and brushed themselves off. Linton assumed it was some form of Mekantan humor.

Captain Linton gazed at the Greali delegation as some of their number were sent back to their ship. He raised an eyebrow at the fact that their clothes remained behind for some reason, but he decided not to think on it. It was their ship, their rules. And when a ship can annihilate entire systems, it's wise to abide by those rules. He moved forward and watched as the captain of this vessel walked out. It was a petite young woman, beautiful by Colonial standards, but he could see in her eyes the rumored Mekantan taste for violence and bloodshed. This was going to be an interesting meeting.

He bowed, an action followed by his two other crew mates and spoke. "Greetings, Thareza math Kaev, I am Captain Linton of the Colonial Navy. Seeing as we are allies but have not yet had an official contact, I am hoping to use this opportunity to open relations and dialogue between us. That is, if you are interested."

-OOC-
My reply is going to be a bit delayed. Sorry. I'll try to get it posted this evening.

Oh, and The Free Priesthood? The statement that Mekantans have killed gods? That's literal. There are ways for someone to keep a Mekantan from killing them. Superior firepower is on the list. Not having a physical body and immortality (paradoxically) are not.

(OOC: No probs, no need to get stressed out lol)

OOC

Not intending to start an "I'm more immortal than you" fight, but...
There are quite a few different things referred to as "gods", from very powerful physical beings to intelligent clouds of nanobots to nonphysical beings to the universe itself.
I don't know what method you have in mind, but I doubt it's a good idea to destroy this one. The entire universe would change into an inert mass. And no, I'm not making this up on the spot, I've made delicious mix of the ideas of the philosopher Heraclitus, the Greek goddess Eris (Strife) and Discordianism (EDIT: and also the ideas TFP religion is based on, of course).

That said, if the Mekantans have a sense of humor, they will probably get along with her just fine.

OOC: Isn't that close to god modding? Saying that if you blow something up the universe will go "kaput"?

On the other hand this presents me with a wonderful oppertunity to build the universal electronic disruption bomb.... ohhhhh, then everything will go "kaput" :D

OOC: All Mekanta is saying that, since he has had experience with people throwing gods at him, both fairly and unfairly, he has the ability to kill gods. Basically, if your deity, whatever it may be, is able to manifest itself in this realm, physically, or mentally, it can be attacked. This is a truism of anything really. I have a god for another nation whom regularly can manifest a form but it can die and if it does, he is weakened for a bit and can't bring it back for some time.

Now, we can't kill this goddess without your permission of course, but if you did decide to kill her on the spot, I'm afraid we could all come up with BS reasons for why her death isn't the special key to Oblivion. So, lets just go with the Mekantans being the big bad people with ships that eat fleets like a ham sandwich and go on with our diplomatic mojo. I don't mind people having gods, but I have things set in place in case people abuse them. You have been doing well with your god, and it is interesting, so let's keep it in moderation and we'll have a good time, 'kay? ^^

On to you Mekanta, whenever you're ready.

OOC

Of course it's godmodding, it's a goddess! But seriously, this is an interesting question.

Can this goddess be killed? I don't see how, and it wouldn't be a good idea.

Can the projections created by her be removed? Yes, that's just as easy (or not!) as getting rid of an annoying song that's stuck in your head. I don't consider that "killing", though. Closest to killing would be to force everyone present to block her out using some form of telepathy. That would, in my opinion, be godmodding.

Can she perform any miracles? Not without some other gods agreeing to what she wants to do, which would take way too much time for me to write.

Oh, and I'd like to point out that the gods were considered when I posted this:

I'd like to play, but it's pretty obvious my characters wouldn't survive very long in this environment. Actually, my whole planet wouldn't, cause it's far less impressive than what is being consumed here.

Next question to be considered: Isn't saying you have the ability to kill anything godmodding? Or don't consider it and just continue the story :) .

OOC:


Attention


This OOC chatter is hijacking the Thread. Please take it to my Arguments Thread linked in my sig so we can get back on track.

It is disrupting the story.

-OOC-
The whole goddess snuff thing is all speculative and based on one thing: the interference of that goddess in Mekantan operations in the system. Goddess doesn't mess with the Mekantans, Mekantans don't curbstomp her.

... And adding this now since I saw Bal's addition before I hit post: Add the question to the FT Arguements thread and I'll answer it there.


-IC-

As a Zircon striker changed course toward the Klikiss vessel, carrying hundreds of human prisoners, the cloud of Minagoroshi's cells around the ship backed away slightly, save a tiny packet. The cells would appear to all scanners to be a shell of carbon, just over two nanometers thick, devoid of anything inside. Such was the trouble with Mekantan constructs, scanners were nearly useless. The cells quickly showed they, however, were not as they condensed into a human-sized woman with ankle-length crimson hair and flowing black robes. The avatar of Minagoroshi simply looked at the hive ship, then over her shoulder at the approaching Zircon vessel. She sent a short message to the Breedex, looking back at the ship.

Please specify where to have the Zircon drop off the prisoners and my escorts.



The Omnipotent was less polite dealing with the Moralites. The telekinetic capabilities of a Darkship were something even the Mekantans themselves tended to respect. With the same precision it used to crush planetoids into powder in a single fluid motion or gently stitch together the wounds a crewmember, it began shaking the Moralite vessels, precisely enough to vibrate the air inside.

A perfect replica of the massive warship's omnivoice boomed inside the ships, demanding in their own language that the relevant diplomatic parties gather at the foremost sections of the ship, where they would be abducted for the meeting.

It did so, consistently calling the Moralites insects and stating that the captains of the various ships were hiding thirteen year old slaveboys in their quarters, however. The Omnipotent had a sick sense of humor.



The monolithic warship's sense of humor took a back seat to its duty, however, and its response to the sales representative known as Desu was the latter.

The Galactic Hegemony tends to deal with face to face measures... Your insistence on the exchange of non-humans for humans indicates a sentimental desire to protect those of the species Homo Sapiens, which puts you in an inferior bargaining position. We have nothing to gain or lose by dealing with you. You wish to save these humans. Consent to a proper meeting, and we shall speak further.

The Omnipotent was pleased with itself. Already it had calculated possible reactions to further prods, such as the launching of a captive to the Quasidan's Arm. Through hard vacuum. Without a protective suit.



The little golden vessel's message earned it a light telekinetic tap, of about the same force as a ship its size and mass running into it at a gentle seventy miles per hour. Then, like the Moralite ships, it vibrated the vessel to create the sound of its omnivoice within the tiny ship. "Yes. Yes we do," the Darkship began, humor noticeable in its voice, "for those whose communication systems cannot tell that a message was delivered to multiple recipients deserve death. But stupidity, even as grand as that of the designer of this primitive vessel and its idiotic pilot, is a pardonable offense. Hold there a moment... In an instant, the pilot of the Kallisti was yanked from his ship and deposited, face first, into the meeting room aboard the Omnipotent. The warship's omnivoice boomed, seemingly directed at the man. "Welcome to my body, insignificant one...


The goddess, however, got an entirely different message. Beings such as her were nothing strange to the Mekantans, particularly how to communicate with them. Contact from the Darkship was short and to the point. "Do not presume to believe your presence here is unnoticed. As pain tends to be an alien concept to beings such as you prior to encountering beings such as we, perhaps this will motivate you better. Interfere with our operations, and they will suffer. If you wish to speak, it can be arranged. If you wish to meddle, know that your followers will burn along with you..."



Within the meeting room, Thareza was vaguely aware of what the Omnipotent was up to. She was, however, aware of the additional Greali ships, looking a moment at the representitive. "Why of being of bring additional ship?" She asked, blinking a moment before shaking her head. "To never being of mind."

She was about to address the Telrosians when an identical young woman with longer hair suddenly appeared in the other throne, looking about at the delegates, then to her sister. A wordless moment passed between them before the longer-haired individual turned back to the delegates. "To apologizing for lateness. To be Yareza math Kaev, commander of Darkship Omniscient."

Thareza glanced at her sister, then addressed the Telrosians. "To being of good meeting. To agree, to forging of relations vital. Of ESUS to be strong." She looked back at the Greali representitives, smiling. "To have wanted speaking of treaties? Of sister to be here now."

The Breedex watched as one of the Mekantan ships approached her vessel, intrigued when a figure resolved in front of it. Her scans revealed noting but carbon molecules held together by... nothing. Odd. At least the message was far more understandable, and polite too, that was an added bonus; indeed slightly honourable considering how they were treating everyone else:

"Please specify where to have the Zircon drop off the prisoners and my escorts."

The Breedex pondered on how to show them, and decided to do it as simply as possible:

"In here, we'll show you."

The Hive ship rotated so that a flat, smooth trapezoid that adorned part of one side of the ships hull was visible. It shimmered slightly, before an image formed, through the trapezoid a large hange could be seen, with a shimmering force field to keep the air in. The trapezoid was a Klikiss transportal, the hanger was located deep withen the ship, and the transportal connected it to the ships external hull.

A dozen or so small box like craft, only around ten cubic meters in length, came flying out of the transportal, they began forming up around it to help get their idea across.

Ron did not get a chance to respond to the message. The goddess did:

"I bloody well expect to be noticed! And you can't be serious."

She did not expect the thing that was talking to her to get the double meaning of the second sentence, since it didn't know who she was, but the choice of words pleased her.

Ron got up, and gave his sudden new environment a confused look. He had no idea what to say. The goddess projected an image of herself*, or rather an image that she liked, next to him. He immediately kneeled. "Goddess."

"Oh get up, you know I'm above that nonsense. Unlike some other beings I have no need to prove something about myself to myself. Now what's this? A party? Was I invited?"

Meanwhile, the AI of the Kallisti was talking to itself. "A primitive design. Me! Gods. Who do they think they are? ... What in space just happened? This isn't right."
It loaded the list of safety instructions, and created a list of opposite instructions, to all be executed at once. "If they try to do anything to me, they're going to regret it."

*) This time, she looked like a young humanoid woman, with black clothing, very light skin, wild dark reddish hair, eyes that reminded of black holes, and an expression that somehow showed at the same time aggressive insanity, kindness, and a silly mood.

Sighing, the lady refused to give a reply. It seemed like it would have to be done in the hard, erratic way of their naturally ambiguous morality. It could be just a disguise, or reality, for there was no way to ensure how far the nihilistic "morals" of them could go. The Quasidan's Arm remained distant and away from the humongous beasts at the stars, refusing to approach, and ever ready to depart should the negotiations prove useless. They were no fools.

Carrillas simply looked at the others into the large room, thinking on how to demote the mistaken assumption from those aliens that it was a sentimental matter. There would be no further sacrifices, and she felt uneasy to ask for someone to do what had to be done. The Mekantans would know what Vitriol meant. That they have abolished right and wrong, good and evil. It was only a matter of finding a reason to not make the last choice, one which she seemed ready for:

"Set the systems to prepare everything that was left from the Khorne offering, seems like it is time to make some show business with the Xenu. We shall load the blood into missiles, and the skulls into our larger cannons. And one more thing: I want to die because this life is so pointless that I am, like Luch said, a Meme-junkie. I am going to the missile chamber. Hopefully my body will at least put a dent in that thing once its mess is flying near the speed of light inside a hollow missile."

Looking at her with widened eyes, captain Luch quickly said in a both surprised and denying tone of voice:

"Is it not enough that you changed your first name to Desu? Are you now going to become an hero? Screw it. Lets no longer waste time with what is pointless. I say we just leave this hell hole and find a place where we can put more Xenos to extinction before they become just like these Mekantans!"

Sighing, the woman looked at him and said, with a completely emotionless stance, like if nothing was relevant, no life was sacred, and no taboo unbreakable:

"Kill all the idiots. We cannot taint our gene pool, and offer to purchase all the smart ones for ten Xenos each. That will make this business be neutral rather than against our favor."

"What is this absurd! Kill the stupid humans? For whatever sake, this is a idea that would make Adolf Hitler proud! And look around, our world is ridden with stupidity no matter how that normatively our people has a much higher IQ than that of Earth!" shouted a man amidst the audience, in protest of the absurd ideas of Carrillas.

"Yes, and now you'll say that we kill aliens because they don't belong to the 'master race'! Look at me: if we let dorks and idiots into our gene pool, we'll never catch up with this scum out there! It is a necessary mean, so if you don't agree, take a look at what happened here, to those who stand for peace and who stagnated. Is this what you want to us?" she counter-argued, as she prepared to leave the room for her last trip.

The tension was raising inside such room, and considering the fact all of them were armed, something bad could happen at any moment. Luch attempted to calm down the commotion, futilely, as it finally got into its extreme, as in total erratic behavior, Carrillas simply raised her pistol and shot straight against someone in the audience, shouting agressively:

"To the Mekanta Hell, pedo scumbag!"

Instead of a slaughter, people simply looked at her in surprise as the bullet hit precisely against the eye of the victim. One of the most heinous crimes, deserving of death, was blamed upon that man she has downed. The levels of insanity were alarming, and likely Khorne would be delighted from witnessing such madness. She would soon speak:

"I knew that man was a pedo, I was just waiting for the right moment to put him into his place. And now, it seems like I would not need to get inside a missile, but I will anyway. They wanted a face to face contact, and they shall have it. Also, I will prepare an HCR with the replica of my body, so we can get into businesses."

Luch wondered why they did not bring marijuana to such trip, for it was getting crazier as ever. Perhaps it was just a way to express what they truly wanted with Mekanta. For it would be fortunate to see them killing themselves into extinction, and ironic. After all, by the time nothing could compete with an human being, such was exactly the time humans nearly killed each other into extinction. In fact, if they were certain that they could destroy them, but that by doing so trillions of human lives would be gone, it would be likely for them to go for it. "Desu" simply left the room, and soon as, perhaps for the "LULZ", most approved such insane and bloody response, machines smoothly filled empty missiles with blood and the loading chambers of retracted guns with human skulls. At last, the body of the "pedo" was cramped into the inside of a missile, with the noise of bones breaking easily heard. Carrillas also was bended to the bone breaking point inside a missile, but did not scream of pain or suffer in any way.

Soon all would be ready for launch. Thousands of small ports opened , and dozens of turrets emerged seamlessly from the ice cover. It was an instant action, with no delays, as human skulls began to fly at relativistic speeds towards the Juggernaut and a mass of missiles flew against it for a while, until they simply unfolded, letting their contents into free flight as a hail to insanity. Bullets of liquid human blood traveled through the space in the same shape they had when inside the missiles, and would likely be well appreciated by the ruthless Xenos. And amidst untold thousands of liters of blood, two mangled corpses flew faster, with limbs tearing apart from the sheer force. One of them, curiously, had nothing but empty sockets where the eyes would be, revealing an intact skull and head, with no brain inside, and no visible signs of surgery. Analysis would be quick to point that although organic and completely indifferent from average humans to the naked eye, except for the strange choice of eye colors of hers such corpses were hybrids of machines and flesh at the cellular level.

It was then that something would break the silence and surprise of all as they realized the lunacy they had approved. The voice of the same who was floating into the nothingness, Carrillas, announced to everyone:

"I said I was going to launch my body. It is irrelevant. I am uplinking to the HCR now. It'll have to do until I can get a new body."

"What the hell Carrillas? They asked to have a meeting face to face and you give them your brainless body amidst a rain of blood and skulls?" Luch asked.

"Yes, screw sentimental desire! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! This is it, am I right?"

"You are the most fucked up psych I have ever seen. Perhaps this explain much. You are just like them. Only more of a loonie than of a psychopath." Luch said.

"Don't dare to compare me with the dregs of the universe or I'll kill you!"

"What the fuck Carrillas?" the captain asked as she threatened him from whenever she could be.

"I said that for the LULZ. Perhaps those idiots refused to give credibility to Einstein, and this is what they got. I have several evidences that the Physical Laws only work in our own verse because we believe they work."

"Oh, that would be ironic. But if we want to make these people better than wasted as fodder for this scum, we better have some good showmanship for later. And prepare to get out if they interpret this message of ours as an hostile action. But I seriously doubt they would."

"Of course not, comrade Luch." a new arrival said. It was her again, with no visible difference to the physical body she just dumped, but they knew she was not there.

"Now if they really want to meet me face to face, guess that this will have to do it. It'd take some time for me to get a new semi-organic body, so. Now I wonder what the other fools will think of our diplomatic gift to the Mekantans. I just hope that the consumption won't go on. Wait, guess I forgot to disable it."

Both corpses, the one-eyed and the brainless, began to dissolve into pure carbon and countless microscopic machines, fading into an uniform goo. And soon, the very machines would self-annihilate. There was no visible point for such thing, used only for extreme cases, to have happened at the moment, but perhaps it would be amusing for those bizarre and homicidal beings.

"I see your point Carrillas, there is nothing more Nihilistic than that. Now, lets just continue our alertness and wait for how they shall react to our mad reply."

The Omnipotent was less polite dealing with the Moralites. The telekinetic capabilities of a Darkship were something even the Mekantans themselves tended to respect. With the same precision it used to crush planetoids into powder in a single fluid motion or gently stitch together the wounds a crewmember, it began shaking the Moralite vessels, precisely enough to vibrate the air inside.

A perfect replica of the massive warship's omnivoice boomed inside the ships, demanding in their own language that the relevant diplomatic parties gather at the foremost sections of the ship, where they would be abducted for the meeting.

It did so, consistently calling the Moralites insects and stating that the captains of the various ships were hiding thirteen year old slaveboys in their quarters, however. The Omnipotent had a sick sense of humor.

"Sir!" One of the operators yelled over the sound of rattling machinary. "I thought you had went to rehab!" At this point the Captain of "The Feather" began to break down. "I know, I know, it's a curse, a disease! But I can't help myself!" At this, several of the marines began to drag the captain of the Feather into the inner-most portions of the ship. At this, several well-dressed moralites began to assemble near the front of their respective ships, waiting impatiently.

Within the meeting room, Thareza was vaguely aware of what the Omnipotent was up to. She was, however, aware of the additional Greali ships, looking a moment at the representitive. "Why of being of bring additional ship?" She asked, blinking a moment before shaking her head. "To never being of mind."

She was about to address the Telrosians when an identical young woman with longer hair suddenly appeared in the other throne, looking about at the delegates, then to her sister. A wordless moment passed between them before the longer-haired individual turned back to the delegates. "To apologizing for lateness. To be Yareza math Kaev, commander of Darkship Omniscient."

Thareza glanced at her sister, then addressed the Telrosians. "To being of good meeting. To agree, to forging of relations vital. Of ESUS to be strong." She looked back at the Greali representitives, smiling. "To have wanted speaking of treaties? Of sister to be here now."

"Well," the Greal representative was slightly confused over who was who, but she continued,"On the behalf of the Greal Galactic Empire, we wish to establish formal diplomatic relations with the Galactic Hegemony, and also wish to discuss the possibility of a trade agreement."

The cruisers kept an eye on the Darkships, watching their every move sensors were on, scanning the ship every ten seconds for additional information.

Near the Ta'Nar vessel, Minagoroshi nodded. "It is difficult to find opponents near one's strength as one becomes more powerful. Such is a problem the Mekantans face. It is little wonder they persist in their civil war."

We agree. Just for sport we have limited our engagements for years to minimum involvement. We were hoping by reducing the number of ships in an engagement we would find sport. Instead we continue to find ineptness and barbarians who do not understand the Art of War. They think bigger is better instead of the other way around.

I will be glad when this stage of evolution will finally send these humans into extinction, with a little push from us of course. The inferior are destined for failure, which is evolution at work. It is also quite entertaining.

R’Lah could tell Minagoroshi felt the same way. He also knew the Goddess considered themselves superior to the Ta’Nar when the Ta’Nar knew it was the other way around. She was still confined to existence in a body while the Ta’Nar had advanced past that state long before her father created her. The Ta’Nar knew to push the point would only cause problems so it was carefully shielded away from outsiders. Letting others think they were better proved to be an advantage at times.

His thoughts was interrupted by the Shipmind

Captain, we are picking up some pretty interesting activity on the long distance sensors.

Show me

The ship sent the sensor view straight into R’Lah’s mind. He witnessed the distant ship and it’s launching of several projectiles. The bizarre ammunition did not lose it’s significance on the Ta’Nar. The Fallen Empire has had extensive contact with Chronosia and he understood the Khorne reference. He was not sure if Minagoroshi would.

Your Goddess, my ship has detected one of the Suplicants making an offering to you. Do you wish to handle it?

She was about to address the Telrosians when an identical young woman with longer hair suddenly appeared in the other throne, looking about at the delegates, then to her sister. A wordless moment passed between them before the longer-haired individual turned back to the delegates. "To apologizing for lateness. To be Yareza math Kaev, commander of Darkship Omniscient."

Thareza glanced at her sister, then addressed the Telrosians. "To being of good meeting. To agree, to forging of relations vital. Of ESUS to be strong." She looked back at the Greali representitives, smiling. "To have wanted speaking of treaties? Of sister to be here now."

Linton gazed at the new arrival and saw the startling sameness emanating from the Mekantan that came from her twin sister. It was almost as if they were cloned. He cocked his head slightly to one side as he noted this. Twin Mekantans...mot unusual. Stepping forward, he bowed to her and repeated his greeting. It was prudent to be nice to guests and one's whom were part host to this little event that was going on. He introduced himself and then waited as she replied. He nodded at her words and spoke again.

"Indeed, ma'am. The ESUS will be better off if we strengthen ties, no matter how our ideals and culture coexist." A subtle hint that the Colonies were willing to overlook the many "flaws" of Mekantan culture. Desperate technological and economic need, combined with the raw power of the Hegemony, made an action the required course. "As per article three of the Contact Protocol, I am offering to stay on this ship or any facility you choose for up to four months to better exchange information and culture between our nations. I am also able to answer any questions, up to a point, about my nation. If you have any ideas for treaties, I am able to discuss them, but anything beyond a simple trade and diplomatic treaty is up to your discretion."

He also nodded at the Greali representative. "If any other nations present want to discuss treaties, they may do so after the host has finished their opportunities."

revealing gold paint and the name "Kallisti" in huge Greek characters.

"Kallisti" in huge Greek characters.

Greek characters.



OOC: D: More Greeks in space?!

OOC: D: More Greeks in space?!

No.

OOC: ..Damnation.

-OOC-
Not dead yet. I've just been dealing with a sudden pandemic of shit hitting the fan.

Post comming.

-OOC-
Finally managing to post. Sorry for the long wait. The Mekantan dialog isn't going to be translated to reflect universal translators not working with Mekantans. That, and because I like the mystery of it. There might be enough reoccurring patterns to get a vague idea of some of it.



-IC-

The Omnipotent did not appreciate being stared at by the Greali ships. Despite the fact that, like Minagoroshi's cells, it appeared to be a hollow shell of carbon when it wasn't masking its composition and interior, a Darkship's privacy was a matter of pride.

It was for that purpose that every ten seconds, the Omnipotent provided yet another ridiculous and blatantly false interior for the Greali ships to find. One moment it appeared to have twenty five million metric tons of chocolate chip cookies floating inside it, the next it was full of human blood, or it had a mirror image of the Greali ship glaring out of it. At one time, there was a gigantic orgy consisting entirely of schoolgirls and tentacles, and ten seconds later a twelve mile long white cat was sleeping peacefully on a wooden floor that stretched the entire length of the Darkship.

The Darkship didn't quite get the last one, but it was something it had heard referenced by Terrans, and it seemed fittingly absurd.



Inside the meeting room, the twins glared at the goddess, Yareza glancing at Ron a moment before her gaze returned to the diety. "Nlya'kalax. Doe'reh'ta koral'tih'kya'sah thassa'tih'kya. Tih'kya'tih."

"Ta'tza'to. Doe'jushuka'thraak'ze'kaetha'ta uess'zlyo'ta tihzyika'jhii'tih." The booming omnivoice of the Omnipotent answered her, amusement in its voice as it spoke the native tongue of the Mekantans.

"Khii'kaeihzi'tih'za Nlya'kalax. Teizkii'za. Khiinae'ezat'ta unza'ryah'ta koryash'ryah'tih'kiyo."

"Tza'to."

Yareza smiled, looking at her sister a moment before her gaze returned to the goddess, sure her message would be clear despite her mangled English. "Your powers of being to blocked by Omnipotent. To struggle against bonds to be of death sentence for his kind," she gestured to Ron, "and yourself..."

The room rumbled. "While I personally have only killed thirteen so-called gods of your metaphysical class, I assure you I'm quite capable of enforcing that threat. Perhaps you would like a demonstration? Behave like a good little girl and I won't have to end your existance."

The Moralite delegation suddenly appeared in the room as the Omnipotent pulled them, in a twisted tangle of bodies. A small pile of rocks also appeared, four feet above the Moralite delegation and quite content to allow gravity to work upon them to fling them downward onto the delegates.

Thareza just smirked, shaking her head. She didn't even bother introducing herself or her sister to the newcomers. "To be continuing... To have spoken much of trade agreement, yes?" She closed her eyes, the Omnipotent taking that as its cue to project a holographic map of Hegemony space. "To holding of ownership all space to be show. To holding of much resource and holdings of peoples like old owners of system. To have anything to wanting for trade." She opened her eyes again, an eerie glow visible this time. "Ship making producers to have for use, to having available as well... To asking what to have to offer?"



As it approached the Klikiss vessel, the Zircon vessel suddenly splintered, parts of the vessel dissolving into protons and neutrons, while large pieces reformed into Zircon workers (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/MachinaKyrios/Third-Generation%20Renders/Zircon%20Evolution/Worker1.jpg). Approaching the portal. At twice the speed of sound.

As the workers slammed into the deck, it became apparent that they were dragging large blue crystalline spheres, each holding several live humans haphazardly crammed inside. The rock-like creatures were unharmed from their rough landing, and the spheres protected their cargo quite well. As the Zircon rose, each standing on four limbs at between twelve and fifteen feet, they turned to the portal and began to be very, very noisy.

They roared, a sound like scraping rocks together amplified a hundred times. They balled thier claws into fists and began slamming them into their shoulders in unison. They stomped on the deck, making a note to apologize to their host later if the meeting went well. They were loud but a moment before growing silent, then continuing the rowdy call. All save one Zircon, from whom a steady chant, indistinguishable from the roaring, rose.

All this for what came next, the Goddess All-Consuming's avatar, floating gently through the portal. The noise generated by the Zircon stopped the moment her feet touched the deck, all save the chanter. The human-sized female figure was dwarfed by the massive Zircon, but the rock-like creatures all drew back at she approached and bowed to the deity that gave them life.

Minagoroshi just smiled, looking around the hangar, waiting to be directed to the meeting place.



Both Minagoroshi and the two Darkships took note of the offering of blood, skulls, and the two corpses.

Minagoroshi just looked to the captain and laughed, looking at the ship that shot them. "... Amusing creatures... The Mekantans will no doubt enjoy playing with them..."


The Omnipotent's response was one of similar amusement.

[quote]Such audacity is almost Mekantan. Such is to be given a tiny sliver of respect. Very well, state the details of your offer from a distance, if you so wish...

The goddess couldn't help laughing out loud. "You clearly do not understand what I am. None of my kind has ever been destroyed. But don't worry, I have no intention of doing any harm. Without the help of the others of my kind, I'm not even capable to. As for my pet, I would appreciate it if you left him alone.
...
I take it I wasn't invited. I hate when that happens, usually I end up being blamed for the silly things lower beings choose to do to themselves. Like that one time when a lower goddess that I was quite fond of... oh hey, I sense something slightly more enlightened is coming this way."

The Omnipotent was not amused.

It had, however, no desire to interrupt the trade meeting with another booming interjection.

Instead, a nine foot tall suit of ornate Mekantan power armor materialized behind the goddess. Within was nothing but more machinery, and a node that connected the suit to the warship itself.

The Omnipotent's avatar didn't bother waiting for the goddess to acknowledge the new presence before speaking. Its omnivoice issued from behind the armor's visor, but in a much softer hiss.

"Your ignorance is not uncommon amongst those like you who fancy themselves deities. Those same words in another language were spoken by the last goddess I slew... and ravaged... Though not in that order..." The Omnipotent's voice held a sharp malicious tone, with a hint of amusement. "Have you even felt pain before, little godling? It's a very interesting experience. If you're curious, I can enlighten you..."

The goddess rolled her eyes. "I know very well what pain is, I feel the pain of every being. Your misunderstanding of my nature is amusing, but doesn't help either of us. We existed before everything else, and will still exist after everything else ceases. If you're looking for a fight, maybe you should try a being with which this is actually possible ... and again, leave my pet alone."

"I don't appreciate being talked down to by a lesser... But I'll make an exception from my usual standard of putting entities like you in their place immediately. Arrogance from a godling is not something that often lasts long in the face of a Darkship, and I rather enjoy the change of atmosphere..."

The avatar turned to Ron, but the Darkship Consciousness gave the Goddess a light metaphysical "jab" to push his point that she wasn't outside his reach, amusement becoming more apparent in his voice.

"No, I think my response to your misplaced arrogance shall be different... You've been quiet, lesser. Let us change that."

In an instant, a pistol materialized in the avatar's hand, and the Omnipotent fired at Ron's left knee.

"Stupid machine, what will it take for you to understand I'm not your lesser?"

She did notice the Darkship tried to do something to her, but paid no attention to it since it didn't have any effect beyond being noticed.
Ron dropped to the floor yet another time (this seemed to be the only thing he had been capable of for the past few minutes), and grabbed his knee. It hurt like hell, but (as he had been taught to do) he minimized his response, to not draw any more attention to himself.
The projection of the goddess disappeared, and something seemed to change about Ron. He got up, apparently without any pain even though not much was left of his knee. When he addressed the twins, his changed voice made it obvious the goddess had taken over control of his body:

"It seems your machine either is very stupid, or intends to harm you. I am one of those who will decide who will be left behind when everything ends. Don't encourage me to put you on that list. I came here with peaceful intentions. Don't make me change my mind."

She sent them a friendly smile, which looked rather weird on someone who was losing lots of blood.

(OOC: A Klikiss Drone, http://www.sfsite.com/gra/0507/sslg.jpg so you get the general idea of their body layout. I've described differences between "sub-castes" as it were.)

--------------------

The Breedex watched through the eyes of her various sub-castes in the portals vicinity as the Mekantan "representatives", if they could be called that, made their entrance. The creatures which looked like they had a rock like skinned seemed to engage in some form of ritual, putting several dents in the hangers floor as they did so, to greet something all to obviously not of this universe.

The Breedex knew of such creatures, "gods" as certain beings called them. The Klikiss had no gods, indeed did not know of them untill encountering other races, unable to deal with principels such as infinity and dealing with the unknown. It had taken her kind several hundred years to wade their way through the various stories that various races pddled around about these creatures before they finally figrued out they were and where they came from; still, that knowledge didn't deter from the fact they exceeded the bounds of "reality".

The portal the Mekantan representatives, and their god, had arrived through was an immense trapezoid stone wall six hundred meters wide at it's greatest point and five hundred meters tall. It was situated in the center of an immense room, the hanger, which was itself placed in the center of the ship. The room was seven hundred meters wide, two thousand meters in length and six hundred meters in height. That however would be difficult to discern from the ground. It was, in every sense, a hive of activity. Angular termite mound like structures were scattered through the room like sky scrapers, pyramid and obilisk like structures loomed in the room of varying heights an sizes, large pieces of equiptment were ferried across the room, components dismantled rapidly and reassmebled in different ways, hundreds of craft were docked to the ceiling, ramps, elevators and supports hanging from the ceiling to accomodate more. Klikiss in unimaginable numbers swarmed over and through the entire area. Although seemingly chaotic the Klikiss worked in perfect format with each other; controlled by the Breedex they were effective and accurate.

A group of Klikiss were awaiting the Mekantans. The portal shimmered and dimmed, returning to a sand stone like composition. A force of a hundred Klikiss wariors, seven foot in height and nine foot in length covered in obsidian ridges and spikes, clutching devices ranging from spears to cannon and trumpet like devices; but they stood more like honour guards than anything else. One Klikiss form stood out from the rest however, it towered above the warriors and greatly exceeded them in size, it's exoskeleton was a shiny chrome colour, it's head topped by a great crest and possessing two reat razor sharp fore limbs which it held tucked close to it's body; a Domate. It stepped forwards, noting that the rock like creatures were larger than it was, something which rarely happened, and approached what it had decided was a "god"; throughout the hanger speakers began speaking on behalf of the vocally restricted Klikiss, they produced the same calm clear artificial female voice the Mekantans would already know, easily passing through the other noises in the hanger but not uncomfortably loud, just clear:

"Greetings being. I am to assume that you are what many races would consider a god yes? Normally in such situations i would provided an offer in return for your good charity."

The Domate used one of it's forelimbs to gsture towards the humans locked in the spheres:

"But you seem to be beyond such things, as i myself in my physical form am. As such, perhaps something closer to what i would offer other Breedex's would be closer to something you would appreciate."

The Domate's forelimbs parted to allow other arms to hold out a small delicate looking box towards the "god". It had the look which implied it was many millenia old, although scrathced in places it was well looked after, it was obviously of a non-Klikiss origination. It was a creamy colour with inlaid gold, scratchd but otherwise retaining the patterns some long lost maker and set down millenia ago, a small brass key protuded out the side, using an arm the Domate delicatly turned the key, allowing the box to unwind as it tinkled out a small tune. Any Klikiss near it seemed to loose focus and turn their heads to listen to it, some stopping what they were doing completely; eventually the box stopped however and they returned to their task. The Domate held out the box:

"For you."

There has been some moments of worry, as the defensive systems and warp drive of the Quasidan's Arm continued on standby, inactive but ready to be activated at any moment, should it prove necessary to retreat. In wait for the reply of the Mekantans for their daring and lunatic message, the dozens inside the spacecraft simply were ecstatic, like the soldier waiting for an enemy to appear on his field of view or for the order to attack. The senate-like room that was the bridge suddenly fell into silence, mainly due to concentration and alertness rather than fear, as their offering continued to fly.

Carrillas, which primary could not be spotted anywhere, continued to talk from the uplinked humanoid robot built after her former disposed body. They still had to locate where in the hells her disembodied semi-organic brain was, although some already made some mental guesses about it. The physical avatar suddenly fell to silence in wait, likewise because the primary was busy with something else.

Everybody was seeing the outside at massive levels of magnification, something possible as there was not a sun directly blocking their view from the center of action, with one the Darkships seemingly presenting itself with all possible pride to several different spacecrafts of which most were foolishly closer to it. One of them was just something that they laughed at as they saw it, and a man was quick to comment amidst the crew, a comment broadcasted to everyone as such man wanted to:

"Doesn't it look like a flying dish launcher? And like a flying duck for the sake of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Who the hell got such a ridiculous idea of design? Looks something that came straight from cheap 20th century science fiction. Just two shots and that "dish" will be flying helplessly in space without its engines."

Perhaps it was a chance to lighten their moods as they saw the strategic ineptness of many when dealing with such disgusting and powerful beings. The Darkship has basically made almost everything in its vicinity irrelevant for now, which was the reason why even if aware of it, they ignored all others. Two other spacecrafts were definitively Xenu, and they hoped that they would piss off the Mekantans so at least they would not have to take them down later, while two others were immediately recognized by their available information, and presumed to not be hostile or alien and the last one was clearly another set of foolish humans. There was something very interesting however on one of the Xenu spacecrafts, other than one that reminded them of the very Silicoids they have brought to extinction eons ago. They could not see it, but Carrillas was soon to bring to perspective what loomed inside a minuscle, presumedly non-human spacecraft which seemed to be about to meet the Mekantans. Soon she would announce from the depths of her disembodied mind:

"I have bad news. Remember when Bakunin said that if a god exists, it can only serve human freedom by ceasing to exist? I can feel one right there. Probably not a real god, just something pretending to be one because a real god would be untouchable and unrecognizable, if one exists. Still, if that spacecraft is indeed Xenu, and it has a Xenu god, if not Xenu himself. Later we'll deal with it, if the Mekantans don't find a pretext to finish them off. But I feel they are about to answer us."

And with everybody looking at her avatar, Luch then sighed. The very idea of a god was abhorrent for anarchists like them, now the idea of an alien god was just, the sort of thing that was enough to make them shoot at the minimal movement, to research a way to put it to nonexistence, for if a god exists, it must be abolished. Like she expected, soon a transmission would arrive, an ironic message:

"Such audacity is almost Mekantan. Such is to be given a tiny sliver of respect. Very well, state the details of your offer from a distance, if you so wish..."

Luch then threw a finger at the robot controlled by the mind of the psych and said in a accusing manner, in the very, old and infamous trademark that made the fame of Vitriol Inc:

"Just as I told you! You are just like them, and they have confirmed it! Maybe you are no longer human, should I kill you, Xenu spy? Of course! Maybe you are a construct from Tzeentch that was planted here as a spy, how could I not imagined it?"

"How could you not have imagined that now I have full control over the Quasidan's Arm, that I am the Quasidan's Arm and you are at my mercy fools! You have been always an idiot of higher grade. Now I run the show, because unlike some of you who were crapping in your pants when you saw the Mekantans asking for a face to face meeting, I gave them a face to face meeting!" Carillas said, laughing maniacally from the confines of the spacecraft, as the people simply looked around, adrift and surprised, raising their gauss guns into nothingness. The sinister, dark voice was laughing in a strange way, it was difficult to understand whether it was a laughter of seeing something really funny or of the cliché evil overlord.

"I'll sell your livers with fava beans and chianti to the Mekantans you idiots! Because you are stupid, coward and genetically inferior! And because I can and now your base are belong to us!"

Looking with a wry smile, Luch then shrugged and pointed his gun at the robot she controlled, finally realizing that it was nothing but another of her ploys to scare the crap out of the easily fooled, which seemed to have worked in part as some were clearly cowering in fear:

"Partyvan got you goon! Now it's time to become an hero. But I didn't know we got fava beans and chianti in our stockpile. Now don't tell me you surgically removed your liver from your body before throwing it out and intend to offer to the Mekantans as a business dinner."

"Nice guess Luch. I will meet them face to face, and offer that useless piece of body to them. This way we can get in businesses. It's like the nihilist who consented to be eaten alive, remember that urban legend?" the voice replied, as the robot attempted to pretend a minor smile, almost cynical in nature.

"Oh... that's a really old one, but you are insane, aren't you? This is the most bizarre idea I have ever heard about a business dinner. And what if they like it?" Luch asked, with everybody looking at the avatar with eyes wide open as they heard of her insane idea.

"A semi-organic liver is somewhat tasteless on its own right, even with fava beans and chianti. Considering we are all semi-organic, I doubt they'll like it much. And anyway, considering the suicide switch, I doubt they would want to waste time. I believe there might be something like a sentient ox somewhere... for an epic barbecue. We can trade them for humans, because cattle has evolved as prey, but we have not, unless the Eloi trend continues" she answered then, with a glint of madness clearly visible.

Rojo and the others were clearly sulking at such level of insanity that suddenly became the rule among them. Carillas was truly a "special" person in her own right, and there was nothing they could do to change her mind. Perhaps it was the very extremism of her nihilistic philosophies, or perhaps curiousity to meet their potential enemy face to face. Looking at the robot that was her body, Luch then had one last question to make:

"All right, and how do you intend to meet them? I really don't want to risk flying too close to that thing?"

"In the same way my former body came through. I will arrange for the dinner to be sealed so vacuum won't spoil it." she answered again, as a minor drone began to transport a plate closed by a metallic dome with something inside, so sealed that no smell could be felt from it. Taking the plate, Carillas, or the robot that was her, began to walk again to the elevator, to take her way down to the loading bay of one of the largest coil cannons, big enough for her new body to fit perfectly inside. There, both the body and the plate were tucked, with the hands firmly holding the same, as the cannon began to raise from its hideout, breaking another recently formed layer of ice, and aiming to what seemed to be the core of the darkship as the pressure changed and soon she was seeing the vacuum of space around her new body. It was then that a new transmission would arrive to the Mekantans:

"This is Carillas. I believe that my former face was not very satisfactory for a face-to-face meeting, so I just disposed of it as a freebie from Vitriol Inc together with the excess of jackasses we dealt with. Now I am ready for a real face-to-face meeting, coming in... for an exclusive business dinner of Vitriol Inc, with the dish already prepared with fava beans and chianti. Because we can herd cattle, and cattle tastes better because it has evolved to be cattle. We'll discuss this further personally. And one more thing. I believe we might be interested in some services, asides from only purchasing the smartest and strongest humans you got. Like I said, this is better dealt with face to face. I am ready for business."

Then with a strong pull, at the upper limits of what her new body could stand, she began to flew at a high velocity to towards the destination, holding a closed plate in her hands. Superficially her body was a perfect imitation of an human body, although that was only appearance.

Probably they would teleport her inside before the weeks of flight it would take for her body to arrive at the massive construct. The bizarre scene seemed to prove what Luch has always said about the woman. And soon he would mention to the crew:

"She is just like them"

"Hey! I can hear you! As there is no sound in vacuum I have switched my ears to here you fool, and even if I didn't I could! You think about means rather than ends. The ends justify the means period, and my ends are totally different from theirs. It doesn't matter if I don't give a crap on worthless morals and ethics or on any sense of sanity derived from 20th century Neanderthals!" a voice announced from the Quasidan's Arm communications. On one thing she was not joking, that she has assumed total control of the spacecraft. However, it was not for any dark agenda, but only as a sort of random act to prove a point they could not find any sense about.

It was perhaps a matter of time before their freak show business would attract the attention of others in that space.

The Moralite delegation suddenly appeared in the room as the Omnipotent pulled them, in a twisted tangle of bodies. A small pile of rocks also appeared, four feet above the Moralite delegation and quite content to allow gravity to work upon them to fling them downward onto the delegates.

Thareza just smirked, shaking her head. She didn't even bother introducing herself or her sister to the newcomers. "To be continuing... To have spoken much of trade agreement, yes?" She closed her eyes, the Omnipotent taking that as its cue to project a holographic map of Hegemony space. "To holding of ownership all space to be show. To holding of much resource and holdings of peoples like old owners of system. To have anything to wanting for trade." She opened her eyes again, an eerie glow visible this time. "Ship making producers to have for use, to having available as well... To asking what to have to offer?"



As the rocks fell onto the armored diplomats, swores rang out in both English and Latin. Scuffling amongst themselves they formed themselves into a small box formation. One of them pushed himself forward, meeting some resistance among his countrymen, and responded in a heavy, Raven City accent "Please, tell me where we spoke of ah... Trade? I seem to have forgotten that incident. And we only came to meet, nothing more. You seem to be wanting something, but, I believe you don't want to give anything in return. Is that really so? Or has my brain been fooled by such a..." He cocked his head for a moment, as if looking for the correct word "...Strange mind?"

-OOC-
Finally managing to post. Sorry for the long wait. The Mekantan dialog isn't going to be translated to reflect universal translators not working with Mekantans. That, and because I like the mystery of it. There might be enough reoccurring patterns to get a vague idea of some of it.



-IC-

The Omnipotent did not appreciate being stared at by the Greali ships. Despite the fact that, like Minagoroshi's cells, it appeared to be a hollow shell of carbon when it wasn't masking its composition and interior, a Darkship's privacy was a matter of pride.

It was for that purpose that every ten seconds, the Omnipotent provided yet another ridiculous and blatantly false interior for the Greali ships to find. One moment it appeared to have twenty five million metric tons of chocolate chip cookies floating inside it, the next it was full of human blood, or it had a mirror image of the Greali ship glaring out of it. At one time, there was a gigantic orgy consisting entirely of schoolgirls and tentacles, and ten seconds later a twelve mile long white cat was sleeping peacefully on a wooden floor that stretched the entire length of the Darkship.

The Darkship didn't quite get the last one, but it was something it had heard referenced by Terrans, and it seemed fittingly absurd.



Inside the meeting room, the twins glared at the goddess, Yareza glancing at Ron a moment before her gaze returned to the diety. "Nlya'kalax. Doe'reh'ta koral'tih'kya'sah thassa'tih'kya. Tih'kya'tih."

"Ta'tza'to. Doe'jushuka'thraak'ze'kaetha'ta uess'zlyo'ta tihzyika'jhii'tih." The booming omnivoice of the Omnipotent answered her, amusement in its voice as it spoke the native tongue of the Mekantans.

"Khii'kaeihzi'tih'za Nlya'kalax. Teizkii'za. Khiinae'ezat'ta unza'ryah'ta koryash'ryah'tih'kiyo."

"Tza'to."

Yareza smiled, looking at her sister a moment before her gaze returned to the goddess, sure her message would be clear despite her mangled English. "Your powers of being to blocked by Omnipotent. To struggle against bonds to be of death sentence for his kind," she gestured to Ron, "and yourself..."

The room rumbled. "While I personally have only killed thirteen so-called gods of your metaphysical class, I assure you I'm quite capable of enforcing that threat. Perhaps you would like a demonstration? Behave like a good little girl and I won't have to end your existance."

The Moralite delegation suddenly appeared in the room as the Omnipotent pulled them, in a twisted tangle of bodies. A small pile of rocks also appeared, four feet above the Moralite delegation and quite content to allow gravity to work upon them to fling them downward onto the delegates.

Thareza just smirked, shaking her head. She didn't even bother introducing herself or her sister to the newcomers. "To be continuing... To have spoken much of trade agreement, yes?" She closed her eyes, the Omnipotent taking that as its cue to project a holographic map of Hegemony space. "To holding of ownership all space to be show. To holding of much resource and holdings of peoples like old owners of system. To have anything to wanting for trade." She opened her eyes again, an eerie glow visible this time. "Ship making producers to have for use, to having available as well... To asking what to have to offer?"


The cruiser captains annoyed, continued their scanning, this time with increased computer power. The Battleship kept any eye on the area, making sure no-one would attack.

Another Greali representative decided to speak. "The Greali Empire has plenty of things to trade, though, what would you offer in return?"

OOC:" Sorry about the short post.

OOC:



@TFP

Nothing on NS is invulnerable. The way you are playing your "goddess" is against the accepted guidelines of NS.

If you wish to discuss this further, I am creating an OOC Thread for this RP so these comments will not clutter the story.

Here is the Link:

OOC Thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14039822#post14039822)

OOC: Shall we continue?

-OOC-

Sorry, my writing ability has been shot for the past couple of days. Working on a post now. ^_^

OOC: "YAY" I feared the worst! Am enjoying this immensly!

Minagoroshi just looked to the captain and laughed, looking at the ship that shot them. "... Amusing creatures... The Mekantans will no doubt enjoy playing with them..."



Captain R'Lah sighed and shook his head.


I agree, they do seem rather pecular...


Is there anything you would wish of me and my crew? The GIFT has been completely mounted and attached and should be functional by now.

-OOC-
Yeah, that "working on a post" thing?

No, I haven't forgotten about this thread. It'll just take me a while. New job. ^_^

OOC: Congratulaitons. Don't keep us waiting any longer though lol