NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is a character RP, so send in a strong one, I'd hate to be disappointed by slaughtering everyone...

The creature in this thread is called a Swarmling Guardian, and represents the complete culmination of all swarmling advancement. They are very powerful, such as a general or something. There are only two of them in existence, one here, one guarding The Cerebrate on the world below. Guardians never advance, but each successive generation includes all the new evolutions, so a generation two guardian is more frightening than a generation one. I'll update my factbook later.

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IC:

The Zerus System, home of The Eternal Swarm....

The bright yellow sun looked on impassivly over it's system of seven worlds. By most species standards, they were mostly uninhabitable, save for one or two. But most species weren't The Eternal Swarm. The Eternal Swarm was evolution, it was adaptation. In it's single-minded pursuit of the will of Chaos, it kept on improving all it's various strains of DNA, assimilating those species with strands that could improve the swarm, and cleansing those that could weaken it, least the swarm be tainted.

One such species, an isolationist race of humans called Norns, were wiped out, having reached the peak of their evolutionary perfection, and yet being weaker than most other races throughout the galaxy. Their world was now the swarm's world. It didn't matter that the swarm wiped them out, their own hubris had doomed them to extinction in another ten years anyway by other means. But that was the past.

Few, if any knew of the Norns, or their system, not being important enough to be recorded on any starcharts. The star itself was listed, but only to provide accurate data for certain FTL systems that relied on such knowledge, least it took it's passengers into the heart of the star on accident.

It was because this star was listed though, that a team of colonists had moved into the system, knowing nothing of either the Norns, or of The Eternal Swarm. In fact, it was safe to say no one yet knew of the swarm, not really, and those that had heard of them, would most likely only write them off as the fruits of space madness affecting an overly imaginative person.

The Colonists were largely unnoticed, mainly because they were nonthreatening. Having no weapons or defenses, save for the few necessary for basic space travel helped in this matter. Yes, they were mostly unnoticed, or uncared about by many, except the swarm. The swarm noticed them, and they cared, for it was their world the colonists sought to terraform and colonize.

To their credit, the swarm did not simply attack the ship, and instead tried to contact them and inform them that this system was taken and not for sharing. Unfortunate it was, that all they could communicate in were screeches and clicks. The colonists, unable to translate, simply assumed the swarm was unintelligent, seeing no signs of technology, and so fired a terraforming weapon at the planet.

By fate or by chance, the weapon only partially worked, hindered by the presence of Warp energies from the zealots. The swarm was not one for giving second chances, and simply assumed the colonists wanted war to the end.

So it was that Overlords carried Swarmlings and zealots to the colony ship, and one carried a new swarmling type, The Guardian.

The Guardian was aptly named, for after the swarm took over, it sensed the need for the protection of The Cerebrate, feeling that this galaxy would not be as easily taken as Choria, and so The Guardian was made. It was a bipedal giant, standing at thirteen feet in height when fully erect, but tended to hunch over and drag it's claws at seven feet. It had thick rock hard skin like the Khornate swarmlings, and their thick bulging muscles and incredibly sharp claws too. Having the powers of a Zealot, it could use the spitter's powers to either spit acid or warp energy, and if needed, could fly like a Taros, thanks to the wings on it's back. It was also self-aware and able to communicate telepathically like a Cerebrate.

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Today was the happiest day of her life, for it was her wedding day. Finally, she was going to marry the handsome young space marine she was in love with, and live with him happily ever after. But she didn't understand what all the screaming was about, or why her husband and his buddies all grabbed their guns and ran off.

He left her at the alter, her day was ruined! she ran crying from the wedding hall, heedless of the warnings about "monsters" attacking the ship, and was knocked out when a big scaly thing backhanded her.

Today was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and the young woman's life seemed to be at an end, as she slipped into darkness.
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The Guardian knew humans weren't highly regarded by The Overmind, but this one felt different. He looked at the red haired creature lying on the floor in a white covering. Was she in a cocoon? It was confused, but the thing seemed like it could recover, it's green eyes were simply rolled back in it's head. The Guardian could feel it's mind though, it seemed on the verge of blossoming into a great power, like that of a Cerebrate, if only it could be encouraged a little. This human had potential, and had to be saved for the swarm.

"Take her to Dangaloth." The guardian growled in swarmling to a Zealot.
Of course, to a human, Swarmling sounded like a collection of screeches and hisses, with the occasional click thrown in for good measure.

The Zealot hissed, and wrapped it's coils around her, and dragged her off to an Overlord.

______________________________________________________________

The fight aboard the colonist station lasted three days, the detachment of space marines being exceptionally tough. The Colonists did try to call for help when the attack first started, but an Overlord had inadvertantly knocked the communications array out of alignment when it was bringing it's passangers to the station.

However, the last surviving Space Marine, the very same one set to marry the captured young lady, managed to get a signal out, both video, and audio. Though, his communications seemed more of his last thoughts, than an actual cry for help.

This is Captain Howell Johnson, of the 501st Marine Detachment out of Soluna, guarding colonists to a new world. We were, attacked by.....monsters.

A tear appears to roll down the cheek of a bedraggled man at his wits end.

Monsters are supposed to be in stories you tell to frighten children, not an actual threat. Why!? Why did they have to kill her? My darling Irene, where are you?

Captain Johnson sobs for a few moments, and then regains his senses.

There are three, maybe four different monsters, that I can see. One floats about outside the ship peacefully, it looks like a giant insect, but inflated like a balloon. It knocked communications out at first.

Captain johnson takes a deep breath, and wipes the sweat off his forehead.

There is a snake species, hissing in a strange and frightening tongue, it eats at my sanity, I don't know how much longer I can stand.

At this point, the video feed shows johnson tightening his grip on his blaster. the ammo meter shows he only has six shots left.

Six shots, six little rays of salvation. I want my mother, I want her to hold me in her arms again, and tell me everything's okay. I want to be in my wife's arms, to feel her warm kisses on my cheek.

Johnson breaks down into tears again.

There's a species, like a lizard man, crossed with an insect, powerful arms, and skin like stone. Our initial shots bounced off. One ripped through Mike's faceplate like it was thin air.

I heard stories from dying men, that there's a fourth one, a single monster greater than all three. They say it can eat through walls and rip through armor with ease. One man said it flew across the cargo bay at him. Heh, the delusions of dying men.

Johnson stands up, as the sound of metal ripping off a wall off camera somewhere is heard.

DEAR GODS! WHAT IS THAT THING?

The camera goes out, but audio remains. The sounds of six shots ring out in quick succession and then the screeching roar of an abomination, then, nothing.

Captain Johnson, with his dying breath, manages to hit the send button, and transmits his recorded message, on all frequencies, in all directions. But it doesn't repeat.

The ship drifts dead in space, as the overlords leave, leaving behind the guardian. The swarm detected the message, and left the guardian behind to welcome any potential visitors. Due to lack of maintenance, systems slowly fail, one by one. Life support winks out, computers fail, and the last things to die are the running lights outside the ship. One by one, they cut off, until finally the last light dies, leaving the ship to drift in the darkness.

Yes, the swarm knew something would come, but the question outsiders would be asking, is what could make a space marine break down and cry, even plead for his mother one last time?
-----------------------

OOC: So here's the deal. You send in a character, or two, or even a small team to investigate Captain Johnson's last message some time after the ship's lights completely die. You could work with the other players to take me out, or you could be trying to strike some sort of a deal with me. Maybe someone wants a little assistance dealing with a big bad galaxy spanning empire, maybe that empire wants a little something to keep unexpected threats at bay for awhile until stronger forces come to bear on the situation.

I will be RP'ing the guardian only, unless this expands to the world below, or someone tries to contact the swarm directly. Feel free to make up the ship as you go about. But remember, it's dark, it's chilly (unless you have something to counter the dead cold of space), and there are assorted bodies, blood, guts, gore, and equipment lying around everywhere.

The Guardian, like the Devourers and Overlords, can survive in space so long as it has Warp energy, and since it can channel warp energy on it's own, it can survive.

This thread is rated NC-17, for needlessly creepy times seventeen. At least, that's how I plan my posts to be.

Bump, anyone wanna take on a monster?

OOC: Woohoo! Monster slaying, like DND lol.

Character:

Name: Zakos
Armor: Jihad Mark VI Armor (http://www.mudpromotions.com/jihad/jihadarmor2.jpg)
Equipment: 2 Jenovese Arm Guns, Dual Maulers (http://www.haloknights.co.uk/Mauler.png) , XM8 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/XM8_-_Final_Version.JPG) with Sniper modifications and a grenade launcher. Slicer Grade 10 Module
Abilities: Mechanized Jihad armor allows for flying and 4x normal strength and stamina. Status 10 Slicer (Hacker).

OOC: Woohoo! Monster slaying, like DND lol.

Character:

Name: Zakos
Armor: Jihad Mark VI Armor (http://www.mudpromotions.com/jihad/jihadarmor2.jpg)
Equipment: 2 Jenovese Arm Guns, Dual Maulers (http://www.haloknights.co.uk/Mauler.png) , XM8 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/XM8_-_Final_Version.JPG) with Sniper modifications and a grenade launcher. Slicer Grade 10 Module
Abilities: Mechanized Jihad armor allows for flying and 4x normal strength and stamina. Status 10 Slicer (Hacker).

Now add an actual IC post to that detailing your entry to the station and you'll be good to go.

Cool, joining
Character:
Name: DoomGuy
Armor: Green combat suit and white helmet
Equipment: Shotgun, pistol, brass knuckles, rocket launcher, Plasma gun
Abilities: Doesn't really have any, besides carrying a lot of weapons and never being overcome with fear, ever
Description: Not much is known about DoomGuy, not even his name. He never speaks, has a pet rabbit, has a sense of honor, and may be sadistic when it comes to killing foes. He has orange hair. He is called DoomGuy because he brings doom to foes and doesn't seem to have a name.

OOC:Name: Harrison, Rebbecca
Armor: Legionary Armour
Equipment: Swords, Hacking computers, Grenades
Abilities: Fire Mages can manipulate and conjure fire, good swordsmenship and fight best on their own.
__________________

(The ship is like the Moldy Crow from Starwars)

A small ship enters the system, it has a crew of two on board this was not PEACS but a Order of the Burning Sky ship. The semi-religious order of Knights of the Phenixican Empire sometimes simply called 'Fire Mages'.

"Have we reached our destination?"

"Yes Lord, also have picked up the wreckage on screen. Why have we been sent here?"

"Phenixican policy, every threat to the Empire must be investigated"

"Lord, all systems on the ship are down. Noway can we board without the right equipment"

The Lord was no happy, his name was Harrison Solus and his Sidearm (Apprentices) name was Rebbecca Milus. Harrison was a veteran of 25 years in service to the scared Order and there goal to protect the Monarchy and it's Empire.

Rebbecca was a member of 2 years, she was only 17 but if trained right had much more potential.

"Get your Legion armour on, looks like we are going to have to jumpstart this thing before we hack into it's security systems"

The ship hovers above the wreckage and a tube drops from the bottom and attaches itself to the hull below. The legionary armour protects them as they enter the wreckage only difference is except for guns they have swords in their hilts which can cut through any material. Phoenix Steel was the strongest in the Imperial database.

They shut the entrance back to the ship tight with a long security code. Rebbecca follows Harrison as they walk down the hallways, the blood on the walls did little to help them ease off but they had to make it to the command center.

He comes across a blast-door and tells Rebbecca to stand back, he raises his hands touching the door and slowly red flashes run along the door. No fire because no air to create it but it started to slowly melt under his hands. This was dangerous because he could burn his gloves but the armour was heat resistant for this reason.

He creates a hole and they duck through, the command room shouldnt be far and then they can hack into the system and find out what happens. Then he can decide if the Imperial Fleet needs to wipe this threat out before it grows and stronger.

Cool, joining
Character:
Name: DoomGuy
Armor: Green combat suit and white helmet
Equipment: Shotgun, pistol, brass knuckles, rocket launcher, Plasma gun
Abilities: Doesn't really have any, besides carrying a lot of weapons and never being overcome with fear, ever
Description: Not much is known about DoomGuy, not even his name. He never speaks, has a pet rabbit, has a sense of honor, and may be sadistic when it comes to killing foes. He has orange hair. He is called DoomGuy because he brings doom to foes and doesn't seem to have a name.

I shall kill him slowly, without mercy. I shall make him suffer pain beyond knowing, and beg for the sweet release of death.

Cool, joining
Character:
Name: DoomGuy
Armor: Green combat suit and white helmet
Equipment: Shotgun, pistol, brass knuckles, rocket launcher, Plasma gun
Abilities: Doesn't really have any, besides carrying a lot of weapons and never being overcome with fear, ever
Description: Not much is known about DoomGuy, not even his name. He never speaks, has a pet rabbit, has a sense of honor, and may be sadistic when it comes to killing foes. He has orange hair. He is called DoomGuy because he brings doom to foes and doesn't seem to have a name.

ooc: no John, you are the demons.

ooc: no John, you are the demons.

No Chernobyl, I'm the demon, he's the badass out to kill me.

I shall kill him slowly, without mercy. I shall make him suffer pain beyond knowing, and beg for the sweet release of death.
Dacote
ooc: no John, you are the demons.

What?
IC:
He found a portal in hell, and was accidently sucked in. Now he ended up on this spacecraft with similar nightmares as the Demons he once fought. Oh Joy. He cocked his shotgun and prepared

The room Harrison and Rebbecca enter, is the same one DoomGuy enters from his portal, that is, they enter at opposing sides of the main docking bay. From each other's vantage point, they can clearly see each other's entry way, Doomguy seeing the red glow of the melted door, Harrison and Rebbecca seeing the glow of his portal. Nothing else can truely be made out, because the engine is in such a state of disrepair, that it cannot even support basic lights.

Doomguy would find at his feet, a flashlight. A basic model, made of rubber. It works, convieniently enough, and is next to an airmask with plenty of oxygen, to provide Doomguy with air, since the ship itself has none, and clearly Doomguy would need some viable system of air, or a pretty good explaination as to why he doesn't need air.

The mask and flashlight had fallen off a nearby corpse, a dead space marine. It's body burned horribly by a large amount of energy.

It's just one of hundreds in the docking bay, each more horrible than the last. Blood splatters cover every available surface, guts and entrails are strewn about like party favors, and the corpses faces are frozen in fear. most have large holes in their body, as though a pair of incredibly sharp claws ripped through them like a hot knife through butter. Some corpses are melted puddles of goo, victims of acid. Some, like the one near DoomGuy, are horribly burned, as though shot with a powerful energy.

One near Harrison and Rebbecca has only a bullet hole in it's head, a suicide. His dead eyes are glazed over with insanity.

A scan for energy signatures would reveal something most disturbing, the presence of Warp energy, a hallmark sign of Chaos worshipers. Though the docking bay did have access to the main computer system, the terminals are thoroughly destroyed, and beyond repair.

Exploration of the bay would reveal the following:

No craft was launched, either due to inability, or complete surprise.

There was only one way further into the ship, a doorway with a missing door.

Finally, there was a complete map of the station on a plaque on the wall. The command center was in the very center of the ship, the engine room was three levels beneath it.

In order to access the command center, the engines would have to be reactivated, this was known only by the mostly intact warning sign beneath it.

"Incase of power failure or enemy attack, all access to the command center is terminated."

Down the hall, they would have three choices to make: Go down the hall to the right, go down the hall to the left, or go through the wall via the portion that was completly dissolved all over the floor. Traces of acid still lingered there. Blood would remain their constant companion, as would the random placement of guts and entrails.

-----

Meanwhile, in the command center, something stirred in it's slumber. It could feel minds aboard the ship. The Guardian hissed softly to itself, and moved out of the command center. It channeled Warp Energy into the environment around it, letting it saturate the places it moved to, which would thus cloak it's presence, should someone try scanning for it.

(OOC:I will just make it so the door I melted was the left one)

DoomGuy turns on the flashlight and begins to head towards the others

(OOC:I will just make it so the door I melted was the left one)

OOC: I don't understand, what? What left door? You came to a blast door, it lead to the Cargo Bay. Doomguy came through a magic portal from hell, he needed no door.

Harrison continues to move forward, they only had 4 hours of air left before they had to head back. Then he sensed something, for a split second but it was there in the darkness.

"Rebbecca, I sense that we are not alone"

Rebbecca looked around and said sarcastically "oh you think!"

He laughed "Just get ready for anything"

They take the swords from there hilts and hold them backwards ready to swing around and hit any threat, Harrison had a Katana while Rebbecca had a European styles longsword.

Harrison was just getting ready for a attack more then finding out something, this threat had obviously gotten to the stage where it needed Imperial intervention before it could spread and possibly threaten the security of the Empire.

That is what this was all about, what was best for the Empire. That is what he swore undying loyalty too.

DoomGuy walks near them and shines the flashlight at them

Harrison turns around, he raises a eyebrow at the light as he points his sword at the source and said.

"What are you doing here, state your intentions"

Tribuo in ut vestri ira , permissum Khorne empower vos.
Tantum per Nurgle can vos reperio levamentum in nex.
Intus Tzeentch lies change of posterus.
Slaanesh can tribuo vos iucunditas ultra vestri torva imagining.

The words could be heard echoing down the corridor in a ghostly whisper, and seemed to almost be coming from the corpses themselves. The words resonated with the body of each person, and spoke to their base natures. Though it was true, not everybody felt fear, it was also true that everyone had needs, wants, desires. It was to these that the words resonated, urging their base natures to come out, to give in to their primal natures. But, as any seasoned space traveler knew, this was the nature of The Warp.

DoomGuy pulled out a PDA and typed a message it read:
"I was killing demons whenever they rose in sufficient numbers in hell, and ended up here thru a portal."
DoomGuy then heard the noise, though unafraid, he unexpectadly had the desire to kill monsters again with a chainsaw.

"You can join us if you wish, we are here under Imperial Defence Policy to investigate and destroy any possible threat to the security of the Phenixican Empire"

Harrison was unaffected mostly by whatever that was, he was troubled but he was a Veteran in the Order of the Burning Sky. A Messiahist Knight, the chosen Knights of the Phoenix. He was not able to break, sadly the same could not be said for Rebbecca. Her eyes went wide and anxiety fell over her and paranoia.

She swings her sword at him, he quickly blocks.

"What do you think you are doing!"

"You brought me here to kill me, I heard the stories. When a Sidearm turns into a disappointment they kill them off"

Harrison slaps her...very very hard on the helmet and she hits the wall with a loud thud, she will be fine she had worse done to her in her first years of training.

"Control yourself, I have killed for less"

She shakes her head, she was still anxious but Harrison handed her some water which she inserted into her helmet for her to drink.

"I starting to wonder if we should just order a Imperial Fleet to bombard the thing before finding anything out"

They come to the last door, it was locked via a security code and since no power was left they couldn't access the terminal to unlock it. They didn't want to burn it because they had to close the door behind them so nothing could sneak up on them.

"dead end mi'Lord?"

"We might be able to cut it, then seal it behind us. But that could be dangerous in itself"

After contemplating he realized he had no choice, he got his Longsword and stabbed it into the top of the door. This was not as fancy as lightsabers and would take some time to cut down. He pulls his whole body weight forcing it down, only doing so a inch at a time. his feet on the door dragging the Sword down with all his strength, it was hard work but it had to be done so they can find out what happened here.

OOC: I forgot to subscribe to this thread lol.

IC:

Zakos was piloting his customized Star-Viper Fighter when he received heat sigs from a derelict station in space. He swung his fighter around to land in a part of the station that was quite open. It turns out a hole had been blasted in the former Medical Bay of this station.

"Now what do we have here..."

The ship latched itsself to the tear in the armor and Zakos stepped out equipped with weapons and no need of oxygen for he was a genetically modified Human.

OOC: It may sorta seem like God-Modding but I'm trying to cook up a good story here however it may look like...

OOC: The whispers I post aren't just fear based, so responding with anger, hatred, the compulsion to murder one another, increasing doses of insanity, ETC is just as valid as fear.

IC:

Beyond the door was a pathway to the engine room, where they could restore power to the station.

However, something, moved in the darkness just beyond the reach of their lights.

It vanished into the depths of the night, and could be heard moving through rooms and sections all around them, it's heavy steps echoing throughout the station.

With an ear splitting screech, it announced it's presence verbally.

The presence of The Warp continued to whisper.

Run...It's scary....An abomination against the natural order!.....Why did I have to die?

The words seemed to be coming from the dead bodies all around them.

The engine itself was a massive cylinder, with a fairly common non-specific form of propulsion and FTL drive. It could be easily fixed with materials at hand, and the team work of three to four people...

OOC: I hope it's not too late to join...

Name:Jockson (http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/123/301_toyuma_08212007/peter_fonda.jpg)
Armor:Patchwork model of his own design (http://digilander.libero.it/gtavassi/xm-01.jpg)
Equipment: Flying Dawn (http://swg.stratics.com/content/gameplay/jtl/images/B-Wing_sch.jpg), A plasma cutter, arc welder, Clarissa (http://lostmyreligion.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fn-shotgun.jpg) (plasma shotgun), Wompum Stick x2 (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/044/933155_20070214_screen004.jpg),
Abilities: A VERY strong will to survive, insanity, a resourcefulness that can only be regarded as ridiculous

IC: RESERVED (pending acceptance into RP)

OOC: I hope it's not too late to join...

Name: Jockson (http://www.chienworks.com/~aramisangel/sw/tech/defiler-armor_eawfoc.jpg)
Armor: Patchwork model of his own design
Equipment: Flying Dawn (http://swg.stratics.com/content/gameplay/jtl/images/B-Wing_sch.jpg), A plasma cutter, arc welder, Clarissa (http://lostmyreligion.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fn-shotgun.jpg) (plasma shotgun), Wompum Stick x2 (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/044/933155_20070214_screen004.jpg),
Abilities: A VERY strong will to survive, insanity, a resourcefulness that can only be regarded as ridiculous

IC: RESERVED (pending acceptance into RP)

OOC: If it is too late to join in or if my character would not fit just let me know and I will delete this post.


Name: D’Irk
Armor: None
Equipment: None
Abilities: See Below

Background:

D’Irk is a Ta’Nar. He is a pure mind evolved out of his body long ago and uses various psionic abilities to manipulate his surroundings much the same way humans do with their bodies. Being a Ta’Nar, he is also skilled in magic but I don’t use them in an RP unless magic I already part of it. Being a pure mind, he is naturally invisible due to having no physical form. Out of habit, he generates a photo-kinetic body which would slightly glow in the dark because he is exciting photons to emit specific light waves producing something like a hologram (actually a psionic version of a hologram). He possesses numerous psionic abilities but I will not get carried away.

Well, don't just sit there looking awesome, someone's got to get there in time to see the thing in the darkness sneaking up on them just as they flip the lights on, and if you don't save them, who will?

D'Irk sounds positivly lethal, not just in general, but especially to the swarm, and it seems like he could have the abilities neccessary to destroy a swarmling permanently, that is by interrupting the Psionic frequencies that connect their minds. Having no psionic attacks though I'm worried how I might hurt him, beyond the Ghostly whisperings of The Warp. But all the same, come on in.

--------
Note to all: It is possible to reach peaceful resolution with the swarm, and even have them signed up as allies to come on down and help you in your next war.

The Flying Dawn phased back out of the null void and back into reality. The vacuum of space removing any noise that would of otherwise been there.

Completely powered down she slowly drifted towards the dead hulk that formally had been a space station.

Then, a sign of life. The ships Fusion turbines began to come online, followed closely by life support. Much like a beast that had slumbered the Flying Dawn slowly began to awake.

Inside Flying Dawn Jockson retracted the screen from his helmet. He quite literally licked his lips at the site of such a prize. To him the dead space station represented all sorts of treasures and supplies. With a cackle that could only be described as maniacle, Jockson slammed the throttle forward.

Flying Dawn shivered slightly before rocketing towards the space station. As he closed Jockson throttled back, and slowed to a meter a minute.

With a resounding thud Flying Dawn latched onto the side of the space station. Plasma torch cutters automatically began cutting a 4meter by 2meter hole into the hull of the lifeless vessel. With a hiss the dock ring latched onto the newly made airlock, then the dock ring opened and a fully armored Jockson stepped forward. He ran a hand over the smooth hull of the vessel.

The hull metal was useless...

"Oopsie poopsie....metal no goodsie" frowned Jockson "Oh tay...weze gonna get in der and seeze whats we can haz. tehhehehehheeh."

With an unexpected quickness Jockson's armored leg shot out and kicked the hull. The hull easily gave under the force of the kick combined with the perforated edges cut by the plasma jets. What had been a rather large chunk of the hull slammed into the next bulkhead with a tremendous bang. Jockson would of been knocked backwards had it not been for the magnets on the bottoms of his boots.

"Haloooooo! Haloooo! Iz anybodies in her?....Of corze not you idjit! We heard du lazt one diez remember?...Ooooz yah..."

Humming to himself Jockson reached back and grabbed his tool carriage, then proceeded into the ship. Walking up to the next bulkhead Jockson began to inspect it.

"Oooo diz nice. Me takey."

Jockson took a plasma cutter from his bag and began to cut away at the inner wall. The prize was not the wall itself, but the wiring inside that Jockson was after.

He quickly removed the small panel he had just cut, and reached into the wall. Feeling around he found what he was looking for.

"Colored Spaghetti! Hurray!" And with a yank Jockson pulled out the "colored spaghetti".

He stuffed the wiring into his pack. On a whim he decided to try and find the control room, he needed some new laser projectors anyway.

With a laugh he spun around on one foot and began walking down the corridor, hoping to find the control room

The Flying Dawn phased back out of the null void and back into reality. The vacuum of space removing any noise that would of otherwise been there.

Completely powered down she slowly drifted towards the dead hulk that formally had been a space station.

Then, a sign of life. The ships Fusion turbines began to come online, followed closely by life support. Much like a beast that had slumbered the Flying Dawn slowly began to awake.

Inside Flying Dawn Jockson retracted the screen from his helmet. He quite literally licked his lips at the site of such a prize. To him the dead space station represented all sorts of treasures and supplies. With a cackle that could only be described as maniacle, Jockson slammed the throttle forward.

Flying Dawn shivered slightly before rocketing towards the space station. As he closed Jockson throttled back, and slowed to a meter a minute.

With a resounding thud Flying Dawn latched onto the side of the space station. Plasma torch cutters automatically began cutting a 4meter by 2meter hole into the hull of the lifeless vessel. With a hiss the dock ring latched onto the newly made airlock, then the dock ring opened and a fully armored Jockson stepped forward. He ran a hand over the smooth hull of the vessel.

The hull metal was useless...

"Oopsie poopsie....metal no goodsie" frowned Jockson "Oh tay...weze gonna get in der and seeze whats we can haz. tehhehehehheeh."

With an unexpected quickness Jockson's armored leg shot out and kicked the hull. The hull easily gave under the force of the kick combined with the perforated edges cut by the plasma jets. What had been a rather large chunk of the hull slammed into the next bulkhead with a tremendous bang. Jockson would of been knocked backwards had it not been for the magnets on the bottoms of his boots.

"Haloooooo! Haloooo! Iz anybodies in her?....Of corze not you idjit! We heard du lazt one diez remember?...Ooooz yah..."

Humming to himself Jockson reached back and grabbed his tool carriage, then proceeded into the ship. Walking up to the next bulkhead Jockson began to inspect it.

"Oooo diz nice. Me takey."

Jockson took a plasma cutter from his bag and began to cut away at the inner wall. The prize was not the wall itself, but the wiring inside that Jockson was after.

The skeletons in the hallway around him seemed to be looking at him with a note of pity.

Words seemed to be coming from them, whispering voices that filled his mind.

Run....it's not too late....get away....it'll kill you too.

The blood on the wall before him began to dry up, down the hall, in some distant place, the screech of, something, could be heard.

Jockson walked on the hall, stepping on the skeletons of the dead as he went. Mothers, children, husbands, brothers, soldiers daughters...all were the same in death. He had seen more grizzly scenes before, however few had the same ambiance. Then the voices began.

Jockson looked around in terror, not sure of where the voices had come from. It had come from everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. Then the screeching, it was more than Jockson could or would take...

With a squeak Jockson began to recede into the darker corners of "their" mind. Falling back into the safety of darkness.

As Jockson retreated a new personality took hold. Juaquies stepped forward into the forefront of thought and the change was readily apparent. His shoulders squared, and he stood up to his full 6'7 height. What was a sniveling rat was now a puma.

Juaquies slowly unstrapped Clarissa (http://lostmyreligion.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fn-shotgun.jpg) from his back. Then he began to feed her shells. 10 gauge plasma buckshot, 10 gauge frag grenade, 10 gauge plasma buckshot, 10 gauge frag grenade...and so on until Clarissa was full.

With a clear voice Juaquies spoke "I don' wan no truble. Im jus her for parts, aint gunna start no fight with nobody." His voice was clear and resolute.

He sneered at the cowardice of Jockson. Typical little weasel. He hadn't even been heading in the right direction for the control room. With a grunt Jauquies began headed down the corridor. Hopefully he'd be able to get life support back online so that he could take off this ridiculous armor.

OOC: Order Knights have allot of discipline on such matters, they are practically Futuristic mages. Rebbecca will go insane, since she is just a Apprentice.

IC:
Harrison finally managed to cut through the doorway panting and out of breath but he did manage it. When the voices returned he looked at Rebbecca and noticed her eyes were glowing Orange....never a good sign.

She yet again attempts to stab him, she goes bezerk with her sword flying all over the place. She had to get out, she had to escape and she knew the only way out was to kill him....that all made sense to her.

He was able to block, but he was tired. He then disarmed her and ordered her to go back to the ship.

"When you are in the ship you are to seal the hatch and wait for me to return, I have a tracker on you so don't even try"

She was still crazy, but he used all his power to make the point get across. He practically rammed the order into her brain to make sure it was followed. Such mental domination was frowned on by the Order but it had to be done.

"Yes" she said almost zombie like and went off, the sounds of movement made him realize the danger she was in. But he couldn't risk them both dying.

He opened the door to find the engine room, he was annoyed but it was better then nothing. He could activate the power here he supposed, he toke out a small datapad and toke off a panel on the wall. The datapad quickly translates the language which seems to be nothing but English into Phenixica, he understood English writing but it was easier for him this way. He connects a small energy generator to the datapad which thus powers the nearby terminal.

Everything was corrupted and no repair or reboot systems could be found. He was going to have to repair it by hand.

When he heard the voice again he shouts

"Quiet, im busy!"

D’Irk was on his way back to The Fist when his sensors detected errant power readings. Curiosity got the better part of him so he accessed The Link.

This is Ambassador D’Irk. I have detected some interesting energy signatures and I am delaying my arrival to investigate.

I understand, we look forward to your report.

D’Irk then reached out with his mind and contacted the shuttle’s Shipmind.

Alter course to the sensor disturbance.

Yes Sir, right away.

The Ambassador watched the wrecked hulk as the shuttle faded into Real Space from T-Space. The small 15 meter craft quickly approached and settled into one of the empty berths.

Sir, there appears to be no power.

That is OK, remain sealed, I will walk out on my own. If the ship is deserted then it should not matter who sees me.

Yes Sir.

D’Irk stood up from the pilot’s seat and stepped through the wall of the shuttle after dropping his telekinetic form, making him intangible and able to slip through the wall like a ghost. Once aboard, he established his telekinetic for again and walked to the door. He could feel several presences in the ship, each a distant spark of life, living existence in the void. Each tiny spark shone like a brilliant flare in the emptiness of the void around D’Irk, making it much easier for him to reach out to locate them.

He recognized the taste of three human type minds, not even Class D so beneath his notice unless they get in his way. Located in the center of the craft, like a spider in its web was a different life-force. This is what interested him more. He wanted to find it and then evaluate it for its usefulness.

One of the sparks was coming this way but it was subdued or controlled in some way. D’Irk did not want to enter the mind, rather easier to let it pass without it knowing he was there. The Ta’Nar Ambassador disengaged his photonic display and telekinetic shell and simply waited. As the human female walked by him in a daze, he brushed her mind to get secondhand directions from the surface thoughts but found some sort of muddiness obscuring her thoughts. Without a doubt he could push through without any effort but it would be a waste of time. She was heading toward a second ship and entering so he instead moved down the hall she came from. Ahead was the flare he was interested in and surges of Entropy bathed the corners, a place of comfort indeed.

Zakos took out a slicer card and opened up a panel in the wall. He took the card and scanned the innards of the panel before finding a switch labeled "Emergency Use Only".

"Oh wow, how damn convenient!"

He flipped the switch and 2 doors opened up with a hydraulic hiss, one to the left, and one to the right.

Suddenly a noise came from the right, Zakos dove between 2 medical scanners as he scanned the area with infrared, X-ray, and carbon detectors. His Life-Form (Carbon) Detectors came up with a faint signal from the right...

Zakos stood up, activated his Halogen shoulder spot-light and headed towards the carbon signature.

OOC: I am hoping your guardian can make a special guest appearance? Or at least some other thing like another character...

Juaquies was lost. On his way to the bridge he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Juaquies came to a 4-way intersection.

Flipping a mental 4-sided coin he took a left, walking slowly he stumbled upon a sealed blast door with "Engine Room" painted on it.

"Hmmmmmm" Mused Juaquies "This gonna be jussss fine"
"Jockson! Get your pathetic lil hiny out her so weze can get inside"

"Nozie...we aints gonna comsie outtie. We is scardie"

"Jockson...you wanna let HIM outta here? He gonna cause all sorts ov prolems. And iffin u don come out, and i leaves that meens heze gonna be all sorta pissed off, and heze gonna git control. We dont wan that tu happen. So's I needz you to come outta here and open dis door fo me"

"okazie, we doos it...."

Juaquies fazed out and Jockson fazed in. With a nervous glance over his shoulder he pulled out the plasma cutter and cut holes in the blastdoor. Once that was complete he kicked the door open and quickley fazed out.

"Tanks for nothin you rat" Grumbled Juaquies "I coulda done that. I wanned you tuh hack it and opens it"

"Wellzie you should askie next time...besidzie I no wanna be out there no mo. Is scurry."

"If i iz asking you to do somethin its becuz i cants do it miself."

The two personalities continued to banter for some time, unaware that some one else was already in the engine room

DoomGuy covered him as he went into the room, always alert.

Harrison was busying making a few minor repairs, what seem to be the case was several systems had to be activated then he should be able to activate security from here.

When he heard the talking he crept to take a peak, by there speech they were obviously not the threat he had come to investigate so he continued his work. He could kill them easily if they caused trouble.

Rebbecca was back in the ship, she turned on sensors to find that several signatures could be found in the hull. Most of them just human or humanoid, but a signature did get her attention. Because she was on her ship she could avoid the madness that place seems to try and put on the people inside.

It was weird, not on the Imperial database. She opened communications with Harrison.

"Lord, I am picking up a unknown biological lifeform. I cannot get a track on it but it is near your section"

Harrison ears sprang at this news, his job now had to be done so much quicker. He starts playing with wires trying to practically jump-start the engines so he could just get enough power to activate Security systems and then take the news to the Imperial Court where they decide if the threat was severe enough to bring in a fleet to 'clean up' the system.

"Keep the hatch close tightly, don't let anything aboard"

"Yes mi'Lord"

The doors clink behind her as they lockup, hopefully it would be enough to keep her safe.

OOC:I honestly don't care what happens to either, just let one survive to spread the news.

OOC: Eh check page 2 where I describe my latching on to the Command Center that had a blast hole in it.
TES never said anything that might have indicated to me that I cannot say that I latched on to it.

Just in case though I apologize for any trouble caused by this, though I'm still waiting on TES...

Meanwhile, in the command center, something stirred in it's slumber. It could feel minds aboard the ship. The Guardian hissed softly to itself, and moved out of the command center. It channeled Warp Energy into the environment around it, letting it saturate the places it moved to, which would thus cloak it's presence, should someone try scanning for it.

OOC: There's something to look at.
And since I didn't see that it was at the center, let's say I land in Med Bay.
Sorry, I'll edit immediately...

OOC: Ahem. For reference, I work nights, and sleep days, though I am on American central standard time. I'll be able to post alot tonight, being off, but, some of you might have school and jobs to sleep for tomorrow. Anyways. I think Phenixica has repaired the engines well enough to restore minimal power.

IC:

As Harrison continued making his repairs, the engine began a quiet hum. Outside the ship, the running lights slowly blinked back on, one by one. The central computer system managed to kick in, and did a complete self scan. It recognized it's orbit was off, and kicked in a thruster to right itself, presently oblivious to any docked ships, but surely ships in a far better condition than the station could compensate for the ship's own correction.

Inside, emergency lights flared into being, revealing walls that seemed to be breathing, saturated with The Warp as they were. There were tracks in the blood. One was long, as though a snake slithered through the blood, The Warp was concentrated greatest in these tracks. Still, other tracks were vaguely lizard like, and plainly came from sharp claws, for here and there the floor was gouged in slightly, as though something sharp had pierced it.

There was a third set of tracks, something with spider like legs for stability, yet with a tail that dragged slightly. Some of these tracks had the floor eaten through with acid, and finally, great dents were the hallmarks of the fourth and final set, made by something BIG.

It was unfortunate for Zakos, that he was where he was located, for as the lights flickered on, he caught sight of something from a nightmare, having sharp claws, and dorsal ridge plates. It had jaws like a dinosaur, or maybe a mythical dragon, and wings like a bat. With a screech it spat a shot of acid at Zakos, and fled, knowing that a full on confrontation would not be satisfactory, at least at the moment.

The Guardian was not fleeing in fear, but in interest, for even though it was not something nearly so advanced as D'Irk, it too, could feel minds, and it felt him. Of course, D'irk would probably sense that the monster knew of him, but he would feel curiosity from The Guardian, like discovering a long lost relative.

The Guardian moved through the Engine room, flying accross the upper level, completly oblivious to Harrison's, Doomguy's, and Jauquies presence, distracted as he was by the new presence of D'Irk.

So, as The Guardian moved closer to D'irk, the trio in the Engine room was treated to a blaring of Warning Sirens.

"Warning, Engine breech in 30 seconds, please engage the Auxillary repair systems, or close the containment barrier." A friendly female computer voice would repeat in multiple languages.

Meanwhile, a button would pop up on the touch screen that read "REPAIR!"


While the Trio dealt with that situation, The Guardian would approach where it sensed D'irk to be, It's black Chitinous plating glittering in the darkness.

"I know your here, somewhere. I feel your mind. What, what are you?" It screeched in it's native tongue, which was nothing more than a series of screeches, clicks, and howls.

OOC: Volunteers to be hunted down like dogs and slaughtered? I'm going to try and strike an alliance with Bal's character, and my next post will offically start the hunt, and even the effects of The Warp will be increased. The Engine can only repair itself to 30%, but it at least self-stabilizes, so the ship won't go boom. This means dim lights, and access to the still-functioning areas of the ship, and the computer systems, to learn what happened.

Now, I'm going to go to bed, and I'll be up at about fiveish, my time.

Edit: Ziolis, you could've entered anywhere, except the command center. We'll say you entered into the lounge near the docking bay. I read something about you being in the med-bay, which is one floor up, and three rooms over to the right of the engine room.

For time reference, it's been a week since the attack ended, and the ship went dark, and now, when you folks entered. Why a week? Well, a man can't spoil ALL his surprises, can he?

Harrison was not happy with the noise and he struck the panel with his fist, almost breaking it.

"Give me a dam break!" he saw a button on the screen, it' was English he did not have time to get it translated.

"re...mur, no that cannot be it that's a...P that's right Repair" he hit it as fast as possible and to his relief all was good. The ship seemed to move so it was in orbit which was a relief, he now had to quickly activate the Engine Room but he knew it would not last.

He went back to his datapad, the ship was still in a bad state but that was not his problem. Let whoever owned it repair it, he was just interested in the security systems.

He activates the security Camera records for the Engine Room since that was the easiest to access at this point, he could no believe what he saw on the screen....

Rebbecca meanwhile was waiting for contact, she was keeping a eye on all signatures but the unknown entity had disappeared from the map. She was preparing to open a link with Devenis to send the report, this was most likely going to be a Code-Red on the threat scale and would need Imperial intervention.

OOC: Final OOC post in this thread, all pure ooc posts are to be directed here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14273192#post14273192

If you have alot of OOC to say, take it to the other thread. One, maybe two lines here, okay, otherwise, let's cut it out.

D’Irk detected movement of the subject. It was a Class D mind with a slight probability of it being a Class C. This might prove to be advantageous indeed. The rest of the life forms crawling around were barely sentient, nearly animals by Ta’Nar standards. It was good the dominant mind was approaching. D’Irk grew bored dealing with meatbags day in and day out. Sometimes he wished they would all just go back under the rocks they oozed out of but the way they replicated, you would run out of rocks.

“Hmmm… Interesting,” D’Irk thought to himself, “It seems to be homing in on my location. Perhaps it can detect my presence over the distance of the ship.”

Moving towards the approaching visitor, D’Irk closed the distance choosing someplace other than the narrow hallway or the docking bay behind him. The docking bay was too large, allowing too many hiding places and the narrow hallway would put the approaching one in too much a defensive situation where it would not relax due to the closeness of the walls. He was looking for a room where it was open enough for the visitor to relax but still confining them in a single location. One never meets a possible enemy on terrain that is not to your own advantage if you can help it.

Wondering what was rushing headlong to meet him; D’Irk considered the abundance of raw Entropy that seems to fill the corners of the structure. Perhaps they are Chronosian or even one of their servants or their minions. No, it did not have Remiel’s distinct feel or flavor. This was something else.

Taking position and dropping all his projections, D’Irk waited for the imminent arrival of that questing mind. He could feel alien emotions of curiosity with underlying hints of uneasiness and a desire to protect something. What it was D’Irk could not tell but from the speed it was closing on to the small break room set aside for the docking bay staff, it was going to arrive in moments.




While the Trio dealt with that situation, The Guardian would approach where it sensed D'irk to be, It's black Chitinous plating glittering in the darkness.

"I know your here, somewhere. I feel your mind. What, what are you?" It screeched in it's native tongue, which was nothing more than a series of screeches, clicks, and howls.



The thing which entered the dim break room which was lit by power feeding the few intact vending machines and two flickering ceiling lights was truly monstrous indeed. A black fluid seemed to stain the gore covered floor as it walked into the room trying to locate D’Irk.

The creature was a bad marriage of Godzilla and Insector and it was hard to tell which won out. The creature seemed to be both insect and reptile. Wherever the black hard chitin did not cover the hide, a plethora of black scales with slightly lighter dark grey on its abdomen where it would bend and flex. The Chitin covered major areas like armor while joints were protected in the flexible scales. Its head was predominately a mouth filled with gleaming teeth. D’Irk could tell they were very sharp and gore from its last victim was still lodged between them. The claws extending from the massive arms were bone white and seemed to gleam in the flickering light of the vending machines.

Its entropic aura seemed to fill the room, causing the already high levels to flare much more. The discord affected the contents of the room as one of the vending machines came alive and began to vomit candy and other contents of its innards. One of the microwave ovens grew feet and began to try to gather up the spilled foodstuffs and shove them inside its own mouth until it went too far and pulled the cord from the wall. The microwave died with a wailing shriek and fell silent. Chairs scuttled sideways in the clotted gore on the floor using their four legs in fear to get out of the way of the Beast as it entered the room. The walls began to ripple as if they were made of water and a tentacle briefly poked out of the wall, grabbed a torn leg of one of the crew lying on the floor, and retreated with it’s lunch.

While the call of the Beast was nothing more than a series of grunts, growls, clicks, and shrieks D’Irk did not need to know what it was saying. The Beast was broadcasting it’s thoughts as if it was yelling them. There was no problem figure out what the beast was saying for pure thought does not carry a language.

D’Irk hesitated a moment, studying the Beast further. Before deciding what to do, he would have to speak to it.

I am Ta’Nar. What are you?

D’Irk answered truthfully and straight to the point. He could feel the Entropy Aura of the Beast and frankly, it reminded the Ta’Nar of home a little.

DoomGuy glanced at the secruity feed, it reminded him of the Mars incident. Then he looked around with flashlight on, and cocked his shotgun. Only then did he realise he had no duct tape.

D’Irk detected movement of the subject. It was a Class D mind with a slight probability of it being a Class C. This might prove to be advantageous indeed. The rest of the life forms crawling around were barely sentient, nearly animals by Ta’Nar standards. It was good the dominant mind was approaching. D’Irk grew bored dealing with meatbags day in and day out. Sometimes he wished they would all just go back under the rocks they oozed out of but the way they replicated, you would run out of rocks.

“Hmmm… Interesting,” D’Irk thought to himself, “It seems to be homing in on my location. Perhaps it can detect my presence over the distance of the ship.”

Moving towards the approaching visitor, D’Irk closed the distance choosing someplace other than the narrow hallway or the docking bay behind him. The docking bay was too large, allowing too many hiding places and the narrow hallway would put the approaching one in too much a defensive situation where it would not relax due to the closeness of the walls. He was looking for a room where it was open enough for the visitor to relax but still confining them in a single location. One never meets a possible enemy on terrain that is not to your own advantage if you can help it.

Wondering what was rushing headlong to meet him; D’Irk considered the abundance of raw Entropy that seems to fill the corners of the structure. Perhaps they are Chronosian or even one of their servants or their minions. No, it did not have Remiel’s distinct feel or flavor. This was something else.

Taking position and dropping all his projections, D’Irk waited for the imminent arrival of that questing mind. He could feel alien emotions of curiosity with underlying hints of uneasiness and a desire to protect something. What it was D’Irk could not tell but from the speed it was closing on to the small break room set aside for the docking bay staff, it was going to arrive in moments.



The thing which entered the dim break room which was lit by power feeding the few intact vending machines and two flickering ceiling lights was truly monstrous indeed. A black fluid seemed to stain the gore covered floor as it walked into the room trying to locate D’Irk.

The creature was a bad marriage of Godzilla and Insector and it was hard to tell which won out. The creature seemed to be both insect and reptile. Wherever the black hard chitin did not cover the hide, a plethora of black scales with slightly lighter dark grey on its abdomen where it would bend and flex. The Chitin covered major areas like armor while joints were protected in the flexible scales. Its head was predominately a mouth filled with gleaming teeth. D’Irk could tell they were very sharp and gore from its last victim was still lodged between them. The claws extending from the massive arms were bone white and seemed to gleam in the flickering light of the vending machines.

Its entropic aura seemed to fill the room, causing the already high levels to flare much more. The discord affected the contents of the room as one of the vending machines came alive and began to vomit candy and other contents of its innards. One of the microwave ovens grew feet and began to try to gather up the spilled foodstuffs and shove them inside its own mouth until it went too far and pulled the cord from the wall. The microwave died with a wailing shriek and fell silent. Chairs scuttled sideways in the clotted gore on the floor using their four legs in fear to get out of the way of the Beast as it entered the room. The walls began to ripple as if they were made of water and a tentacle briefly poked out of the wall, grabbed a torn leg of one of the crew lying on the floor, and retreated with it’s lunch.

While the call of the Beast was nothing more than a series of grunts, growls, clicks, and shrieks D’Irk did not need to know what it was saying. The Beast was broadcasting it’s thoughts as if it was yelling them. There was no problem figure out what the beast was saying for pure thought does not carry a language.

D’Irk hesitated a moment, studying the Beast further. Before deciding what to do, he would have to speak to it.

I am Ta’Nar. What are you?

D’Irk answered truthfully and straight to the point. He could feel the Entropy Aura of the Beast and frankly, it reminded the Ta’Nar of home a little.

OOC: Ok, so the hunt doesn't begin quite yet.

Once we learn what happens to Zakos, I'll do more with the station.

IC:

"I am The Guardian of The Eternal Swarm. I am the peak of it's current evolutionary status. Are you and these others here to attack us too? These others did, despite protests that we were infact very much attached to this planet. They launched a bomb that was most hateful to us, changing the world around us, and us with it. Thank the gods the energy of Zealots makes it stop." The Guardian said.

D'Irk and The Guardian would feel the call of something powerful emanating from the world below, if the Guardian was almost class C by D'Irk's scale, then this would be square in the middle of class C.

------

She remembered dancing, and people. A face hovered before her, a man. But something told her that was the past now, and that before her lay a new future.

Her mind reached out to the station, calling to those onboard, seeking someone, anyone to help her understand what she was becoming. A powerful mind blanketed her own, or maybe it was her mind, newly awakened to a degree it had never been before. She was scared, and yet excited. She began to feel, confined, in the amber fluid filled thing she was confined to. She knew she was no longer what she was, for with her minds eye, she could see what her body had become. As a young girl, she dreamed of becoming an alien, and going on adventures, and now it seemed, her dreams were coming true.

-------

"The sleeper awakens." The Guardian said simply.

"Rebbecca, transmit this video of the attack to Devenis. The Imperial Court now has to decide how many ships to send" when the feeling struck him he felt sick, horrified and emotions were not his. He tries to locate where the message came from but that was not a Knights specialty, his eyes glow orange as he puts more of his magic into this simple task.

I sense you, where are you....who are you?

He looks around, he stands and walks over to a nearby panel which he then vomits all over. he looks down and noticed his oxygen was starting to run out so he better head back to the ship before it did.

He puts his sword back in his hilt, he was not finished here because now there seemed much more to the story. Whatever sent that message was in a bad state...almost unnatural to give him such a feeling of sickness, something here had done a great sin to the natural order of all things.

He whispered

"Burning Four give your Knight strength"

OOC: Ok, so the hunt doesn't begin quite yet.

Once we learn what happens to Zakos, I'll do more with the station.

IC:

"I am The Guardian of The Eternal Swarm. I am the peak of it's current evolutionary status. Are you and these others here to attack us too? These others did, despite protests that we were infact very much attached to this planet. They launched a bomb that was most hateful to us, changing the world around us, and us with it. Thank the gods the energy of Zealots makes it stop." The Guardian said.

D'Irk and The Guardian would feel the call of something powerful emanating from the world below, if the Guardian was almost class C by D'Irk's scale, then this would be square in the middle of class C.

------

She remembered dancing, and people. A face hovered before her, a man. But something told her that was the past now, and that before her lay a new future.

Her mind reached out to the station, calling to those onboard, seeking someone, anyone to help her understand what she was becoming. A powerful mind blanketed her own, or maybe it was her mind, newly awakened to a degree it had never been before. She was scared, and yet excited. She began to feel, confined, in the amber fluid filled thing she was confined to. She knew she was no longer what she was, for with her minds eye, she could see what her body had become. As a young girl, she dreamed of becoming an alien, and going on adventures, and now it seemed, her dreams were coming true.

-------

"The sleeper awakens." The Guardian said simply.


I know not of these people, having just arrived myself. I detected errant energy signatures and decided to stop by to see what is going on.

D’Irk looked around the room. A plastic knife and spoon had grown appendages and were trying to make a fast getaway before fork found out what was going on, taking its spork child along with them. They were making their way toward the open doorway.

I know nothing about the people from this ship or the minds of the ones moving about the ship.

D’Irk listened to The Guardian talking about the bombing and the Zealots while he watched the trio sneaking for the door. Just before the cutlery made it, Entropy took possession of the door. It grew teeth and slammed down on them and chewed the doomed utensils. The door swallowed them and belched. Moments later the wave of Entropy washed away from the door and it became featureless again, a normal mundane part of the vessel.

In the distant surface of the world below, D’Irk felt a Class C mind awaken, becoming aware as a surge of confusion washed over him. He looked curiously in the direction of the planet when the Guardian spoke again about a sleeper.

Sleeper? Can you please explain?

D’Irk wondered if he would have to take care of any eliminations today or if things will work themselves out without his intervention.

I know not of these people, having just arrived myself. I detected errant energy signatures and decided to stop by to see what is going on.

D’Irk looked around the room. A plastic knife and spoon had grown appendages and were trying to make a fast getaway before fork found out what was going on, taking its spork child along with them. They were making their way toward the open doorway.

I know nothing about the people from this ship or the minds of the ones moving about the ship.

D’Irk listened to The Guardian talking about the bombing and the Zealots while he watched the trio sneaking for the door. Just before the cutlery made it, Entropy took possession of the door. It grew teeth and slammed down on them and chewed the doomed utensils. The door swallowed them and belched. Moments later the wave of Entropy washed away from the door and it became featureless again, a normal mundane part of the vessel.

In the distant surface of the world below, D’Irk felt a Class C mind awaken, becoming aware as a surge of confusion washed over him. He looked curiously in the direction of the planet when the Guardian spoke again about a sleeper.

Sleeper? Can you please explain?

D’Irk wondered if he would have to take care of any eliminations today or if things will work themselves out without his intervention.

"She was, one of them. What is their name? Cattle? no, not quite right. Pigs? No, but fitting, ahh yes, humans. She was human. She had great potential, the Swarm spared her from her fate, for even though they struck the first blow, we can be merciful, and so spared the only one among them that could become more. To her went a Chrysalis, made from ten drones, and in there, we mutated and evolved her, into one of us, awakening her sleeping mind in the process. So on many levels, The Sleeper awakens. She is bound to The Overmind as securely as any of us are."

The lights on the ceiling hissed at one another, vying for dominance in the room.

Meanwhile, the blood began to write obscene messages in itself, trailed by strings of the letters L and O, strung next to one another for reasons only the wall understood.

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

The sleeper wanted to go back to where she was, to see what happened with her own eyes. She wanted it so forcefully, that her hands, now tipped with claws, raked their way free of the fluid filled thing she was in. She collapsed on the floor, weakened, her wing like tentacles that sprang out of her back spread out across the floor. Her hair was similar in nature, but much smaller, almost worm-like in look.

She wore thin white Chitinous plates over green skin, thus, she was covered, and descent, but left nothing to the imagination, as though she wore a body suit. She saw a giant floating insect hover over her, and pick her up.

D’Irk was not sure yet of his evaluation of the alien creature. They were hive-minded in some manner but not really anything like the Kythons which ere modeled after their own creators minds. In the several millennia they have searched, the Ta’Nar were still unique among the stars. Now that he spilled his guts, the question was what would the beast do now?

Soon would be the time in a first contact where either the host would propose a deal or they would attack. Just in case, D’Irk quietly began to set up multiple defenses within his mind, all ready to snap into place in case the Creature of the Warp tried something foolish.

After all, uninvited guests are not usually tolerated at a birthday party.

So, what now?

D’Irk was not sure yet of his evaluation of the alien creature. They were hive-minded in some manner but not really anything like the Kythons which ere modeled after their own creators minds. In the several millennia they have searched, the Ta’Nar were still unique among the stars. Now that he spilled his guts, the question was what would the beast do now?

Soon would be the time in a first contact where either the host would propose a deal or they would attack. Just in case, D’Irk quietly began to set up multiple defenses within his mind, all ready to snap into place in case the Creature of the Warp tried something foolish.

After all, uninvited guests are not usually tolerated at a birthday party.

So, what now?

"I think, if you were going to attack, you would've done so by now. These others, What say you help me to, 'convince', them to leave peacefully?" The Guardian asked.

There is one back there in the ship. She walked by me without even noticing my presence, her mind clouded by some ability used on her. Was that your doing?

D’Irk checked the locations of the other minds. He could feel two near the engine room and one at the landing bay.

Four are here? I can only feel three…

"I knew nothing of the one in the docking bay, and saw three with my own eyes in the engine room. Take care of the one in the docking bay, by the time she has been made to see the light of our clearly peaceful intent, the others will be scattered throughout the station, running from me, unless they foolishly choose to face me down in the engine room.

If you had the power to adopt my form, we could really confuse them, by being in two places at once. That, or leave quietly, none the wiser, really it's your choice, but I know the Cerebrate would be keen on meeting you, as would The Overmind, but before such a thing could happen, we would have to know our world was safe from these others." the Guardian said.

It cracked it's claws, and then turned, and with a screech, went off into the dim light of the hallway.

---------

The Imperial Court of Phenixica would of course get the video of Captain Howell Johnson's last moments, but the video was packaged with files, the offical ship logs of it's last few days. It would start the day before the attack, when they arrived at the world....
********************
Start of Files
********************
Stardate ..., the Genesis, captain's log.

We arrived at an uncharted system, filled with potential worlds. There are seven in total, and most are devoid of life, or atmosphere. These can be changed in time. There is one within the center of The Habitable zone of the star, that is a prime candidate for Terra forming. It already has life on it, but tests have shown it to be unintelligent insect life, incapable of even understanding a common tongue. We can find no traces of civilization whatsoever, and because we can find nothing of them that deserves to be kept, we shall destroy them with the Terraform bomb that will transform their world, and keep their loss of existence our dirty little secret from the rest of galaxy.

Stardate..., Captain's log.
We arrived at the world only to find that the swarms of insects are capable of long range communications some how, as they sent a collection of unenjoyable screeches at our ship. We tried to understand it, using all our linguists, translators, and decoders, but to no avail. We cannot prove their intelligence, so we have dropped the Terraform Bomb.
Edit, 2 hours later: Dear Gods, they can fly in space! They seem so angry, and who can blame them? Help is too far away, and we are just defenseless colonists, save for the 501st space marine detachment, but even they have limited supplies, and the swarms are massive, and angry! I cannot face them after having attacked them. I have wronged them, and sentenced my people to death. I will carry out the just punishment myself.

Captain Howell Johnson's log, stardate..., new captain of the Genesis:
I don't have time for logs, but having assumed Military command of the ship after it was discovered captain Rodgeter Snowl committed suicide in his quarters, I knew I had to at least tidy up the coward's mess. We arrived at a world to find it filled with life. the captain, in his infinite wisdom, decided that since they have no visible means of organization or technology, they must be stupid and uncivilized. There was contention about this already among the colonists. Few wanted to attack an innocent life form. The screeches we had received convinced them even further, but captain snowl overrode the contention, claiming that supplies were low, and fired off the bomb himself.

Something stopped that bomb, they have some kind of energy we don't, and they stopped that bomb. Then they retaliated, and probably rightfully so. They don't seem to understand concepts such as peace, surrender, or negotiations, so we're reduced to negotiating with our guns. They haven't broken past the docking bay yet.

Stardate..., Captain Howell Johnson:
My Gods, what monsters these things are! They brought up something that could spit acid! A couple of snakes would their way through the newcomers, and instead of firing more acid, they began to shoot energy! I think these things are intelligent, and civilized in their own manner. If only Captain Snowl had been a man of science instead of greed!

But I repeat, what monsters these things are! After the retreat was called, they ran through the ship, tearing through walls, and wearing down force fields. They have no concept of innocence or non-combatants. They killed the civilians, even the children! What has Snowl brought upon us in his infinite greed? He kicked a sleeping dragon, and left us to deal with it's rage.

I can't find Irene among the dead. Where's Irene?

***************************
End of Files.
***************************

Rebbecca would see, should she look out a view port or at her scanners at the right time, a giant floating insect. It would dock with the ship, but briefly, and then retreat back to the world below.

------------------------------------
The woman stood inside the docking bay, she was home. She could feel others aboard this station. Were her people still alive?

_______________________________
OOC: The hunt is on. If you seek a peaceful end, or to survive, find the woman, whom I'm sure you've guessed by now is Captain Johnson's Irene. Otherwise, wait until The Guardian finds you, or D'Irk...

"What are my orders?" Harrison was talking to the Imperial Commissioner, the greatest military authority in the Empire and head of the Imperial Court.

"We currently have no men to spare, your going to have to blowup the station"

"This is not some minor nuisance Fred, they wiped a entire station with no survivors. They not only won they overran the place in a matter of minutes"

Rebbecca stares out the window in fright, her mind was still weak from the forced manipulation.

"your orders are there, sorry but the Fleet has other matters then a threat that might have a slight chance of threatening the Empire anytime soon"

Life Support had come back online and had filled the ship with enough air, he didn't need his armour but decided to put it on save the helmet when he returned back out.

Harrison looks out to see a women...or at least it looked like a women, sickness came over him again as this crime against nature was so close. Phenixicans draw magic from the natural order of things, his magic was diluted enough on this artificial station but this made him even weaker.

The somewhat scaly body and pointed hair made him nervous, but something about her made him know he would not be harmed or at least he thought.

He powers were running wild, he was no longer strong enough to talk through his mind blasted technology. He walks slowly,feeling more sick as he came closer. He had to find out what had happened, he had no choice thanks to orders.

"What are you and What nation do you hail from?" He was trying to hide the weakness in his voice, those wings and features was nothing ever seen before in the Citerian Galaxy.

This women made the Qwelva look like beautiful butterflies.

(OOC:The knights run on what I call the 'Arcanum Principle' being near Technology makes them weaker. I decided to make this also something your more human like creatures will do because they are unnatural, they add to the problem with Technology. A Phenixican is strong in a natural environment and this is anything but. I am guessing this women is to be some sort of Kerrigan?)

"What are my orders?" Harrison was talking to the Imperial Commissioner, the greatest military authority in the Empire and head of the Imperial Court.

"We currently have no men to spare, your going to have to blowup the station"

"This is not some minor nuisance Fred, they wiped a entire station with no survivors. They not only won they overran the place in a matter of minutes"

Rebbecca stares out the window in fright, her mind was still weak from the forced manipulation.

"your orders are there, sorry but the Fleet has other matters then a threat that might have a slight chance of threatening the Empire anytime soon"

Life Support had come back online and had filled the ship with enough air, he didn't need his armour but decided to put it on save the helmet when he returned back out.

Harrison looks out to see a women...or at least it looked like a women, sickness came over him again as this crime against nature was so close. Phenixicans draw magic from the natural order of things, his magic was diluted enough on this artificial station but this made him even weaker.

The somewhat scaly body and pointed hair made him nervous, but something about her made him know he would not be harmed or at least he thought.

He powers were running wild, he was no longer strong enough to talk through his mind blasted technology. He walks slowly,feeling more sick as he came closer. He had to find out what had happened, he had no choice thanks to orders.

"What are you and What nation do you hail from?" He was trying to hide the weakness in his voice, those wings and features was nothing ever seen before in the Citerian Galaxy.

This women made the Qwelva look like beautiful butterflies.

(OOC:The knights run on what I call the 'Arcanum Principle' being near Technology makes them weaker. I decided to make this also something your more human like creatures will do because they are unnatural, they add to the problem with Technology. A Phenixican is strong in a natural environment and this is anything but. I am guessing this women is to be some sort of Kerrigan?)

"I was Irene, and I came from here. Now I am more. I feel so awake now, aware of things I wasn't before. It's thanks to the swarm. They want to understand, so they made me one of them. I don't know who I am anymore, but Irene is still serviceable enough as an identity, so it shall be mine still. It was our fault they attacked, all our fault. Rather, it was Captain Snowl's fault. They tried to tell us, but we didn't listen. I can feel minds on this ship, but something about you is blocking my mind. It's so weird, being able to feel minds. I'm glad my home is still here, I think it'll help me adjust. But it's so messy, I think I'll have to get Drones up here to clean it for me." Irene said, her thoughts all over the place.

(OOC:Eventually, yes, she will become Queen of the swarms after a certain event, but for now, she is simply an ambassador to the outside, knowing and understanding things the swarm doesn't.)

"From the security records it seemed like the crew was attacked. Tell me what happened Irene because by what information we have seen everything is pointing to a Code-Red which means I am able to use whatever force is needed to assure this threat does not spread and become a future threat to the Empire"

If he had been wrong he had to know, this women was not going to be the best witness. She had obviously been brainwashed because anyone in there right mind would not be able to stand being what she is. Did they not realized what had happened? He could feel it from her, the sickness, the confusion and the plain fact she was no longer natural but nothing more then a mutant.

He doubt he could help her, Phenixican medicine is not that advance so he would not try. She obviously was a sweet person when Terran but he could already sense her mind was not her own anymore.

"What did the Terrans do to cause this, Did they actually attack first?"

Terran is the word use for non-Devenis humans.

OOC: Sorry guys computer trouble...

IC:

Zakos was busy writhing on the floor as the monster left. A few minutes passed and his nanites and armor-injections had reduced the burn on his hand to little more than a pink-ish circle.

"God! why didn't I put my glove on!?"

He pulled on his power-gauntlet and took out his Maulers and proceeded to follow where he thought the monster had went.

At that moment he heard whispering in his head.
Something about dying and blood. Zakos shook off the thought and continued until he burst out into a room which was lit with a dim glow from overhead lights.
His Halogen spotlight sliced through the half-darkness like a hot knife through butter and the light hit a terminal, as well as remains if people.
Zakos decided to skip the terminal and he searched the remains of people first, including an intresting body that seemed to talk to him. But as his rehabilitaters in the mental institute at Ziolis Military Academy had told him, it was all in his head.
The body's armor held a few valuable pieces of equipment, a small lighter, electrical tape, and most important of all, a data module.
Zakos assumed that he had just raided a techie. He walked over to the terminal that he had noticed at first.
The module fitted perfectly into a small orb like slot in the side of the terminal.
<<Welcome Level A engineer, proceed to maintenance log? Y/N>>
<<N>>
<<Proceed to database? Y/N>>
<<Y>>
<<Send information to located wireless device (BTH125-67)? Y/N>>
<<Y>>
<<Sending...Would you like to access other files? Y/N>>
<<Y>>
<<Sent...Accessing camera log...Y/N>>
<<Y>>

The screen displayed a scene of extreme gore as the camera zoomed into what seemed to be the docking bay, it showed men being ripped apart by snake like creatures. Most important of all it showed the man that he had taken the module from walking to the room he was in now. Zakos zoomed in and he noticed something odd... the man was already dead when he had started walking, he also had a charred mark over his heart which was presumably the pile of ash behind him...

"So they can fire energy too..."

Zakos turned off his spotlight and ventured forward right into the docking bay. His carbon scanners picked up a group of humanoids.

"Who's there?!"

OOC: Tag for later participation. Don't have internet acces during weekends, so it's useless to introduce my character now on Friday....

"Yes, we dropped a Terraform Bomb. Rather, I didn't, I was a civilian getting ready to be married. Captain Snowl did. It should be in the system, did you not look? We dropped a bomb on them, and they retaliated. The Terraform Bomb changes the environment of the planet in one simple massive blast. We had it calibrated to one suited for us. The civilians, upon finding out about the swarm, protested harming an innocent, but snowl overrode our objections.

So the bomb was dropped, and the swarm, who happens to worship the same Chaos gods other larger, more powerful, and far more threatening nations do, rightfully retaliated. Would you not fight back if unduly attacked? The swarm tried to communicate, we all heard it, a collection of clicks and screeches, of course I understand it now, but at the time, I didn't. Neither did all the so called Experts in the field. The communications welcomed us to the system, but pointed out that this world was already taken by them." Irene said.

She pointed at a fallen section of railing, and then pointed upward.

"You know I couldn't have done that two weeks ago, let alone I had the potential to do such a thing?" Irene asked as the railing slammed into the ceiling with force enough to dent it.

"The swarm sensed the great potential within me, and took me, because through my powerful yet undeveloped mind, they could better understand the galaxy. Already I've passed along Galactic Common to them. Their not really all that violent if dealt with peacefully." Irene said. With a clatter of noise the railing fell from the ceiling and hit the floor, bouncing over the side and to the lower level.

"If anyone should be blamed, it should be snowl, but the coward took his own life seconds before the attack. May whatever awaits in death deal with him properly for his actions." Irene said scowling, looking at her own sharp pointed hair and strange wings in the process. Confusion seemed to clearing up.

"I mean, look at me, I'm a freak. I don't mind the awakened mind, but do I have to look like a mutant freak too? I'm naked, they turned my wedding dress into insect shells. Sure, I'm covered, but I'm abhorrent, even to myself. The thought of kissing something like me makes me want to hurl. The only thing keeping me alive is the overriding will of The Overmind, the eternal will and leader of the entire eternal swarm, above even the Cerebrates. Thank the gods I don't have to obey it like some Borg drone. It only mutated me, and bound me to it's will only enough to keep me from killing myself or turning against the swarm. Other than that, I'm on my own. oh goody, let's mutate the woman and then turn her loose and she what she does!" She complained, bemoaning her current situation, and revealing the fact that she was not brainwashed. She went to take a seat, and fallen pieces of scrap metal rushed over to form a chair for her. She rested her head on her left hand, and her eyes strayed to her claws.

"Oh yes, lets not forget these damn claws. Weren't finger nails enough? Those I could paint and make pretty, these would look stupid painted. I can't even do toe nails." she complained waggling the claws on her feet at Harrison."

"My skin wasn't green either, it was white, and very fair. Sure I burned easily, but I was pretty." Irene said, tears welling up in her now slitted and thoroughly inhuman eyes.

OOC: Tag for later participation. Don't have internet acces during weekends, so it's useless to introduce my character now on Friday....

OOC: Looking forward to it.

OOC: Ahem...My dramatic entrance

"The will of this overmind is not natural, they have twisted your very body into what is obviously a weapon. I feel it, in the air I smell the disturbance you create in the natural order of things. If your very will to live is simply a implantation by the overmind then you are truly lost in your mind, your will to live is what makes you sentient and if the Overmind can control your mind to that extent Irene you have lost all independence"

Was there much point to the ranting? he knew there wasn't since she had already mentioned her loyalty to the Swarm being practically forced on her. Her reactions are very diluted for somebody like her, then when she mentioned Chaos he had another worry. The last nation the Phenixican Empire came across that held a similar belief was Chronosia which was thus a member of the Galactic Empire who was not exactly a friend of Phenixica.

The colour in his eyes shined Orange, he had spent the time adjusting to the situation and he had manage to pull some sort of balance in his magic allowing him to focus and calm down.

"I have been ordered to eliminate this potential threat to Phenixica, the only way to not obey these orders is pretty much some evidence stating they would never attack. Which pretty much means you have to tell me something very very simple"

He takes a deep breath, he was ready to scan her mind. If she was connected to a Overmind then she should be able to find the answer.

"Has the Swarm ever attacked citizens without provocation? I cant bet this was not the first battle it has been in"

For Ziolis

_________________________

Run, it's coming for you!

The words came from the dead around him, and then they too stood up.

Flee, it's on the hunt now!

And with that last sentence, the dead ran screaming from the room, followed by the tables, the chairs, and anything else that wasn't nailed to the ground, wall, or ceiling.

In the distance a gutteral roar could be heard. It's business with D'Irk finished, it was coming back for round two, and this time wouldn't be satisfied with a shoot and run. It was time for the main course.

OOC: I'm coming for you Ziolis, you better run, or I will kill Zakos, and eat him. Why you first? It was an arbitrary decision understood only by a cloister of enlightened people in a pyramid in Utah, not even I know why.

"OH JESUS!"

Zakos immediately ran towards the engine room. He burst through and barely noticing anything else ran till he felt like he was going to drop dead. Zakos took a deep breath and looked at his surroundings, a few beds, a terminal again, books, bathroom. It occurred to him that he had ran to the crew quarters of the ship! The roaring noise was gone but he couldn't be sure. He stood up and inserted his module into the terminal.

<<Welcome Level A Engineer, command?>>
<<Lock doors>>
<<Not a command>>
<<Shut doors>>
<<Not a command>>
<<Lockdown>>
<<Command processed>>

A metal door slid down and the room was secured by 3-inches of steel.

"Ahh, finally..."

Zakos shot out the space window to make sure he had a quick escape route.

And just so he couldn't have any acid getting at him again he sealed the bottom of the door with electrical tape.

OOC: Where are all the others in this?

OOC:Im in the hanger, my bad arse fire mage/minor psychic should be able to handle anything thrown at him....for now :P

"The will of this overmind is not natural, they have twisted your very body into what is obviously a weapon. I feel it, in the air I smell the disturbance you create in the natural order of things. If your very will to live is simply a implantation by the overmind then you are truly lost in your mind, your will to live is what makes you sentient and if the Overmind can control your mind to that extent Irene you have lost all independence"

Was there much point to the ranting? he knew there wasn't since she had already mentioned her loyalty to the Swarm being practically forced on her. Her reactions are very diluted for somebody like her, then when she mentioned Chaos he had another worry. The last nation the Phenixican Empire came across that held a similar belief was Chronosia which was thus a member of the Galactic Empire who was not exactly a friend of Phenixica.

The colour in his eyes shined Orange, he had spent the time adjusting to the situation and he had manage to pull some sort of balance in his magic allowing him to focus and calm down.

"I have been ordered to eliminate this potential threat to Phenixica, the only way to not obey these orders is pretty much some evidence stating they would never attack. Which pretty much means you have to tell me something very very simple"

He takes a deep breath, he was ready to scan her mind. If she was connected to a Overmind then she should be able to find the answer.

"Has the Swarm ever attacked citizens without provocation? I cant bet this was not the first battle it has been in"

Irene's eyes grew sad.

"The memories of the swarm indicate that Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh once spoke with a single voice to The Overmind, to sack a galaxy called Choria. Chorians had long ignored the gods of Chaos, and even made fun of them. It is said that the gods sent their own normal minions after the Chorians, but these were held back by Chorian might, and as a jest, the Chorians boasted that the Chaos demons were as worms, unfit to do any real damage.

Chaos twists, chaos changes. The gods, united by their anger, poured their wrath upon worms in a cavern beneath a city, changing them forever. The worms became the swarm that exists now.

Their last directive was to come here, and so we have." Irene said.
She shook her head.
"WE? since when do I consider myself one of them? What the hell?" she asked. She shook her head and continued on.
The swarm, left to it's own designs, established a hive on this world below. They tried peace first, and peace failed. Perhaps if someone were to work with them, they might become more proficient at diplomacy, and peaceful solutions. I am as a Cerebrate, that is, I am a ruler among the swarms, so my word is law, and I may direct the swarms and alter them as I please. I had training in diplomacy, and understand such things as Non-agression pacts, and peace treaties. Though the swarm is blindly devoted to Chaos first and foremost, the gods seem busy with matters of a larger nature involving their more powerful followers here, leaving us to our own ends.

So I am sure, if I could get one or two created such objects created, and have time to thoroughly ingrain it in the swarm, I could make a better, more peaceful swarm. After all, dogs can be trained, why not hordes mindless blood thirsty creatures hellbent on universal destruction?" Irene asked, revealing just how much pull she had with the swarm.

"Or, if trying to teach peace seems out of reach, I could always leave and let the Guardian hunt you down and kill you all." She said, staring at Harrison, trying to decide if he would help her with a difficult task.

"OH JESUS!"

Zakos immediately ran towards the engine room. He burst through and barely noticing anything else ran till he felt like he was going to drop dead. Zakos took a deep breath and looked at his surroundings, a few beds, a terminal again, books, bathroom. It occurred to him that he had ran to the crew quarters of the ship! The roaring noise was gone but he couldn't be sure. He stood up and inserted his module into the terminal.

<<Welcome Level A Engineer, command?>>
<<Lock doors>>
<<Not a command>>
<<Shut doors>>
<<Not a command>>
<<Lockdown>>
<<Command processed>>

A metal door slid down and the room was secured by 3-inches of steel.

"Ahh, finally..."

Zakos shot out the space window to make sure he had a quick escape route.

And just so he couldn't have any acid getting at him again he sealed the bottom of the door with electrical tape.

OOC: Where are all the others in this?

Heavy steps pounded up to the door, and dented it. It's steps retreated, and then it rammed the door again, denting it even further.

In a barely understandable dialect of Galactic Common, the Guardian could be heard shouting on the other side.
"Don't run away you little worm, you looked tasty and delicious!" It's voice was deep.

Of course, aside from the space window, there was the back door to other corridors that wrapped maze-like throughout the station. The door was already off it's hinges, time for a quick escape?

Meanwhile, the door got rammed again. It couldn't keep this up for very long.

"I have to kill whatever caused the destruction, if this Guardian caused it then by law I have to kill it. In fact that is my intention at the moment"

He raised his right hand in a open palm and a golfball sized fireball appears just hovering, he moves his hand around letting it dance.

"The Phoenix is our 'god', I suppose if that is the case the swarm and the Phenixicans are more alike then they appear. I will spare your life, if you can make the swarm more peaceful, then extermination of it is not called for. I will help you, within reason"

He was now more interested in learning about the Swarm, he closes him hand and the fire simply burns out. The Phenixicans are the children of the Phoenix, who gave them power in it's few final breaths before it separates into 5 different Deities. So in a way the Swarm and the Phenixicans are alike because they are both simply offspring of beings far more powerful then themselves.

"It was captain snowl who started it all, and the coward took his own life." Irene said.

She thought for a moment.
"If snowl had never dropped the bomb, the swarm never would've attacked, and we wouldn't be in this situation. It's safe to say it all leads back to snowl. Greedy bastard. The swarm knows Dr. Yamato Nasagori of the Inter-Galactic Science Consortium would be most interested in these latest developments. The swarm enjoys being studied peacefully, without poking and prodding like Dr. Yamato's ancestor did, also known as Dr. Yamato Nasagori. Me and a Guardian are going to go visit him later, so he can test us and run us through his fun range of tests." Irene said.

"So, would you really like to kill the Guardian? It lead the attack, even though it was Snowl's fault. The Swarm has different views than a normal creature, and welcomes the chance to let it's first Guardian die to see where it's weaknesses are, and how to improve the next generation. I can take you right to him, he's antagonizing some poor bastard who ran into the crew quarters." Irene said, standing up.

"Yes maybe so but I have to do something to appease the Court, otherwise they will tell the Empress who will telll the Temple who will argue with me"

With his sword in hilt he gestures his hand as to say 'ladies first' he was a Phenixican after all and was quite civilized.

Zakos was in a pissed off mood. He really didn't want to run into a bunch of corridors or go into space so he unslung his XM8 and shot the grenade just as the Guardian was ramming through. He ran again, but this time with the assistance of thrusters in his back he jumped nearly 10 meters forwards into a corridor, he launched a few more grenades for good measure.

He ran for a while then said to himself, "This is damn stupid! This thing can't go everywhere!". As he said the he burst out into a different room, it was infact the mess hall where all the crew ate. Now it was nothing more than a huge playground for the Guardian as Zakos chose a good spot to defend and he barricaded everything with the metal benches that the crew would have sat on. He took the lighter that he had found earlier and lit the stoves that he had piled near him in the hope that fire would surprise the Guardian enough to give him the few seconds needed to fire off his Maulers which were known to rip through metal and average energy shielding.

OOC: Agh!

Juaquis had been arguing with the other personalities when the ships engines had come back online. Almost instantly the turmoil in his mind had quieted and all the other minds had floated into the outer awareness. Leaving Juaquis alone, and in charge. With unnatural quickness Juaquis jumped into the corners and away from the lights.

"There bese somebody else in here" Juaquis said in a singsong voice. Using the mag-boots on his armor Juaquis walked up one of the bulkheads to have a look see.

What he saw slightly frightened him. People.

They obviously weren't Dynamic Revolutionaries either. One was obviously a women...or was a women. However now....he wasn't sure what it was.

The other person was male. Completely ordinary save the fact that he was holding a small sun in his hand.

'A Fire-Player!' Thought Juaquis.

'A what!' 'Let me see!' 'Juaquis did you say fireplayer!'...All the personalities wanted a look, they scrambled for position like small children trying to get a look through a window. Juaquis shooed them away, forcing them back to their places of storage.

He continued to observe the pair. Unmoving from his perch.

The Guardian retreated with the first Grenade blast, and sounded like it was running away. It was, but not out of cowardice or fear, it was actually circling, to come up on Ziolis from behind, and above, via the large hole in the ceiling.

-----------

Meanwhile, Irene lead the way through the station, and felt Juaquis looking at her. She stopped, dead in her tracks, her head slowly turning towards him, staring him dead in the eyes.

With the tip of her right wing, she motioned for him to come over to her.
"Come here, unless you want the monster to get you." She said, motioning with her hand too. She waited just long enough to be reasonable for him to join her, then continued on. She knew the station best of all, and realized what The Guardian was up too, and so took a third route, coming up on Ziolis from the front, but by a different door.

She stepped aside to let Harrison and Juaquis, if he came, in.

"Who are you damnit!"

Zakos really didn't want to talk cause at that moment he heard what seemed to be a very large object above him.

"Ah crap!"

He rolled out of the way as the Guardian landed where he used to be, which was exactly where he had lit the stoves from the mess hall.
Not waiting to see it's reaction with the fire he shot off his Maulers and hoped that they had ripped through it's flesh.

Harrison could fell the fire, the raw element gave him more strength. Phoenix's love fire as it heals and protects them, Phenixicans take this trait by surviving harsh hot weather and like now feeling stronger when fire was nearby.

He walks through the door, he takes out his sword as he knows a easy fight is not what he is walking into. He was a Knight and not a Templar, he was the middle-man in rank.

He had to kill the guardian to avoid killing anything else, he will take a sample of it's DNA and some over samples in order for the Empire to find out more. It's weaknesses and it's strengths.

He was getting stronger which meant the creature was near fire....this would make killing it very, very easy. This meant this creature was a natural occurrence, it had been born in it's current form so it should not weaken it's powers. Like the Qwelva said when they first met Phenixicans during the War for Dominance.

Never in any circumstance leave a Phenixican alone with fire, even so much as a spark can be manipulated into a explosion.

Juaquis was wondering if they had seen the Armored individual enter the room...then bolt out when the thing directly addressed him.

"Come here, unless you want the monster to get you."

Juaquis made no move to join them, in fact he made no sign that he had heard her at all.

Then...He cackled wickedly, madly, insanely even. The hysterical laughter grew into intensity and in the confined space of the engine room it seemed to be magnified

Using his magnetic assists on his hands he hung from the ceiling, hooting and laughing like a monkey. Then suddenly his hand went through the ceiling above him. He did it with such speed that it appeared as if the hand just appeared in it's current position.

Then like a can opener he began to cut through the metal. Making a hole large enough for him to fit through. Still cackling he disappeared into the dark hole.

With the parting words "Da Rabbit goes into da hole, looken for da 'shrooms that makes him sane"


He crawled through the space in between the ceiling of the floor below and the floor of the room above. His goal was the weapons deck. The whole purpose for being here was there, and he would pursue the weapon with the fury of a rabid weasel.


(OOC: Specifically my character is after a Terra forming bomb...I'm going to assume that there is at least one left)

OOC: your not going to blow us all to hell are you?

IC:

The weapons deck was in complete disarray, with a wide variety of weapons. But there were no Terraforming bombs there. Due to their unstable nature, those were kept in a very large, very secure safe in the Security Chief's Office, which happened to be Captain Howell Johnson's original office, on the far side of the station.

******
OOC: I can't just let you have it for free.
******

IC:

Meanwhile, though the guardian did come down close to the fire, it did not leap into the fire, instead aiming for the most likely place for Ziolis to run to, and missing.

"Rawwrr?" the guardian asked confusedly in swarmling upon seeing Irene.

"Hisss, Clack, SCREECH!" Irene replied in swarmling, though exactly what they said in an understandable non-swarm language would be never known.

the guardian nodded it's head, and turned to Harrison, it's eyes glowing with warp energy.

With a sharp intake of breath, it shot a blast of Warp energy at Harrison, choosing to engage the newcomer directly.

You could feel it in the air, temperature was rising. As the energy came towards Harrison raised his hand in a 'stop' position and a solid wall of fire appeared in front.

When he had managed to block it the wall goes away in a flash and Harrison stares at this disgusting creature.

"I have a few tricks of my own" is eye again shine orange at the beast, the fire in the room was a great help. "Doge this!" he manipulates the fire so all of it shoots like a hose and water at the guardian. He knew fire alone would not kill it, but he had to make the Swarm understand...Phenixica was no pushover so they would think twice before attacking.

He whispers a small pray "I will not fear, death is below a child of the Phoenix"

Juaquis slithered his way through the crawl space between walls until he reached his destination, the weapons deck. He braced his back against the other wall and used his hand like a knife, cutting open the wall in front of him to gain access to the treasure he was after.


He literally fell forward onto the weapons deck, hitting the ground with a metallic thud. Upon standing a gruesome sight greeted him. Bodies mangled almost beyond recognition were thrown about like sick party decorations. Bodies, entrails hanging out, were hanging from the rafters above.

Juaquis took the sight in with a deep breath of the death laden air.

"Ahhhh iz like pope-ery. bahahahahah ahhhhh. Obie kabie where be that turra ferming bomb....me wantz teh turra ferming bomb"

And with that He began searching the deck. Turning weapons lockers over, strewing weapons and ammunition around and generally ransacking the place until he reached the other side of the room. Nothing. He had found, nothing.


"they be hiding dem from meze"

Juaquis walked over to a computer terminal and booted it up. He hoped it had voice command, clearing his voice Juaquis spoke to the computer

"Computer locate position of one 'Terra forming bomb' please"

(ooc: he's not gonna blow everything to hell....well he might on accident, but he wont do it on purpose. I think he wants the terra forming bomb simply for eclectic purposes, though I can't be sure yet)

OOC: What happened to my shots?

IC:

Zakos was glad to be out of the line of fire, but all the same he still had to help. He snuck around the beast and emptied his lighter fluid on the things head, with a flick of the lighter the "thing"s head was on fire.

OOC: Sorry, I completly missed seeing those shots. :(

IC:

The Guradian, already torn wings from the shots from Ziolis's Maulers, was feeling annoyed, but he would not fail the swarm in it's test.

As Ziolis empties the lighter fluid on his head and helped Harrison light him on fire, the Guardian let out a roar, Warp energy pouring off his skin. It reacted with the fire, making the fire appear as claws ripping at the air, and as teeth biting at it's flesh.

It's skin was as tough, if not tougher than Granite, it's plating tough as steel, if not tougher, and both burned just as well as granite or steel.

"Come child of Fire, your life is forfeit this day." It said in a voice that would've made most demons proud to call their own.

With that, it charged up close to Harrison, still burning in fire, to kill him, first with swipes from it's deadly claws, then with a bite from it's diseased mouth.
***************************************************************
The computer, not having the energy to tell Juaquis that the bomb was located in security, wrote it on screen instead, with one X marked on a mini-map.

It also didn't tell him about the security systems that ran on a separate, as of yet untouched power system, which meant there was going to be a hell of a challenge waiting for him to even get to the bombs, let alone take one of the four remaining prizes.

OOC: DR, the puzzle starts at the security offices themselves, and begins with a level ten force-field surrounding the entire office complex. No one's inside, but it is going to be a tad difficult to get to. I'll let you have one, and should no one else want a Terra forming bomb, then you may have the remaining three as well, provided you can carry them. The bomb is similar to the Genesis Device from Star Trek, but perfected.

DoomGuy, who all this time was in the bathroom or something, sees the Guardian attacking Harrison, so he cocks his shotgun and opens fire on it

Harrison was scared for a split second before he raised his sword at the creatures chest, his sword was strong enough to pierce whatever the hell that plating was...he needed a sample of it for later.

As it lunged at him it fell right on the sword.

"Even if you do kill me it will raise your threat level so high that the Phenixican Empire has to send a fleet to destroy the station. I dont fear death Creature, I will be resurrected as a being much more powerful"

The claws scratch at him but he starts moving the sword, scrambling the insides of the creature

Naturally the Imperial Court would have to know his death from communication but naturally he wouldn't tell the creature that. If they went missing for 3 days after making such a high threat known they should send a fleet anyway.

If it were a simple matter of ganging up on a Guardian, then things would be pretty bleak for the monstrosity, but Guardians were constructed to hold off large numbers.

It was easy to see the gifts of Khorne and Tzeentch, with the impressive build and Warp power, but not so easy to see were the more subtile gifts of Slaanesh and Nurgle that the swarm had built into the Guardians.

First it's body continued to function, despite the wounds. A guardian had to be all but hacked into tiny pieces before it would stop functioning. This was one thing a Guardian held in common with many of Nurgle's regular followers. Secondly, all manner of Disease, sickness, and contagion began to arise in virus form from the thing's wounds, spreading quickly through the air to infect and kill the others.

Finally, any wound caused by the creature would bring about five times the normal amount of pain, a surefire distraction in any fight, thanks to a tiny serum in it's claws, and this of course was the blessing of Slaanesh that the swarm had incorporated into the Guardian.

Irene felt sorry for Harrison, for she knew from the memories and knowledge of the swarm that once a Guardian saw it was going to be defeated, it self-destructed as a Warp Bomb, completely eradicating all traces of it's existence in a last ditch effort to protect the hive.

The Guardian turned it's head and returned fire at Doomguy, even as it pushed itself further up Harrison's blade to grab his sword arm and physically seperate the entire arm from his body.
OOC: And there are two major attacks left before it self-destructs. If your going to get something from it for investigations, better do it now. Otherwise...

As for the diseases, sickness, and Contagion stemming from The Guardian's wounds, you have two weeks from infection to seek treatment from a qualified medical professional. Symptoms vary by disease, but all end with death. You are also highly contagious to others.

Cures can take as little as two to three regular treatments, up to as many as you want.

Harrison screams in pain and lets go of his sword in the creatures stomach, he had to control himself. He cowered back, the colour of his eyes going from orange to just plain fire erupting from his eyes.

He was at maximum potential, he had to use it properly to destroy this creature. The blood stopped pouring from the wound where his arm was, in fact it had stopped bleeding completely.

Phoenix fire heals and Phenixican technology could replace the arm, he vomits blood. Then stares at the creature with his burning eyes.

"I am not dying today"

He raises his remaining hand and a firestorm erupts aiming for the Guardian, 1700 Degrees C which is above the melting point of steel. He would literally burn the creature alive and with it's wound the fire would also melt it's insides, he could always forge another sword.

He always sent a message with his mind for Rebbecca to send a Emergency Call to Phenixica and power up the ships engines, this creature made him realize he had to send a message to the swarm and that meant more then just killing a single guardian.

Rebbecca would be having her own problems and the feelings he would be getting from her would have him worried more than he knew.



Five minutes ago:


D'Irk approached the nearby ship where the muddled mind of the human The Guardian asked him to target was resting. Honestly, it would be quite easy and he could simply eliminate her like a match in a typhoon but where was the sport in that? Actually, the better word to use would be hunt.

D'Irk moved to where the ship was and reached inside it with his mind, looking for his target. She was there and alone.

Perfect.

The Ta'Nar formulated a plan and checked a few things about the ship. The way things were set up was mostly common with the multitude of other vessels and it would suffice. Again reaching out with his mind, D'Irk found the electronics of the ship spreading throughout the craft like a primitive neurological system. He chuckled to himself and triggered his CyberPsi ability and merged his mind with that of the ship, turning it into his own body the same way a ghost or spirit could possess their chosen victim. The first thing he did with his newfound permissions was to lock out all manual controls. Passwords were randomly scrambled and new ones inserted at the base command levels using the ancient Ta'Nar language to make it nearly impossible to simply guess. To test his puppetmastery over the ship, he sealed the compartment his prey was currently occupying. Once the door was locked, he accessed Life Support controls and disengaged the safety overrides. He then reduced the oxygen levels while increasing the carbon dioxide levels past harmful levels.

The first hint of true danger would be the burning in her lungs. The respiratory system uses the presence of carbon dioxide as a breathing trigger. Her lungs would at first start to burn and she would begin gasping for clean air which would never come. Her mind would then try to choose between fight or flight in order to survive. Since there was nothing to fight, she would logically attempt to get through the door.

D'Irk diverted current into the door, nothing that would kill but it would really hurt a lot and probably shock her out of her mind control stupor. The panic that followed would further be intensified by the ship's computer refusing to recognize her authority. Perhaps her last thoughts would be wondering why her companion set her up to die this way.

As she expired, the predator waited and finally pounced, feeding off her life energies allowing nothing to remain. Her essence was seized and devoured until nothing but her basic lifeforce was all that was left, her personality destroyed, rended and chewed to bits. Then for desert her lifeforce was drawn into the Ta'Nar, the sweetest part saved for last.



OOC:


I tried to leave you ways out but still kept him thourough in his hunting. I know you said I could kill her in your TG but I wanted to give you at least a chance or if you wanted you can post her death yourself.

The computer, not having the energy to tell Juaquis that the bomb was located in security, wrote it on screen instead, with one X marked on a mini-map.

It also didn't tell him about the security systems that ran on a separate, as of yet untouched power system, which meant there was going to be a hell of a challenge waiting for him to even get to the bombs, let alone take one of the four remaining prizes.


Juaquis looked at the screen blankly.

*sigh* 'Where is Rattus? RATTUS! Get your annoying ass over here.'

From the depths of the troubled mind welled up a being. He displaced amounts of energy in the air around them and to any one nearby it was obvious this personality was different.

At the time of their creation all of the personalities had been one entity name Rorbin Norcheck. However the trial and tribulations suffered by this individual caused an uncontrollable splintering of his personality into polarized individuals. Crafty, Warrior, Intelligent, Evil....all were represented by a new completely separate entity within the single body.

Rattus represented the calculating entity. Cold and uncaring this entity lived it's life separated by a wall that it had created within the confines of the mind. He only came forth when forced by Juaquis.

'Rattus read thiz shitte and memorize it....Imma need it laterz'

Juaquis temporarily gave control to Rattus who quickly scanned the information.

'Done' was all that Rattus said before Juaquis forcibly took back control.

'Alright youz sonovabitchez lead teh wayz'

With that Juaquis walked off heading for the Security deck using Rattus as a personnel gps tracking system

Zakos' warning alarms in his suit were beginning to go off.

<<Bio-hazard detected, entering Juggernaut mode>>

Quite suddenly a shell of Duraplast Tritanium enveloped the normally thin armor of Zakos and he was suddenly turned into something that resembled a huge walking porcupine. Zakos extended his customized energy sword (http://www.geekologie.com/2008/01/25/energy-sword-1.jpg) and began slicing at the Guardian.

It as too late the message had been sent, Rebbecca felt her life going out of her but she was not going to die that easily. She pulls her rapier and stabs at the attacked, her eyes shined orange as blood comes out her mouth she whispers.

"My soul is that of a Phoenix you fool, it cannot be destroyed!"

Fire erupts from the sword right into the insides of D'irk, she was badly wounded and was having trouble breathing but she could live. She did not care for anything, her duty as to the empress and she would not die like some wild hunted animal.

Rend warpgate, control station
"Sir Emergency call, what are our orders from the Commissioner?"

"Activate the gate and send in the IPN: Victoria and IPN: Result. Tell them to destroy the station if they dont get a reply otherwise they are to send backup"

Communications open as te warpgate starts gathering energy and forming a rip in space.

"This is Warpgate Control, you have clearance by Exploration Policy to proceed"

Two Hercules Battlecruisers pass throught the gate

Outside in Space
A huge ruptures appears, blue and circular with electricity all around as the ships arrive they hail the station. It goes over the loud speaker.

"This is the IPN:Victoria, does anybody hear me?"

Harrison was still recovering and fighting at the same time, he could not reply to the message...he had to hope they scanned and found them or Rebbecca was still in some shape to make contact.

HUH?

Check TGs

DoomGuy ducked behind cover to avoid the shots and pulled out his rocket launcher, and fired at the guardian

OOC:I wont let her die that easily

OOC: Gasp! Intergalactic Space Fleet, should mine come too? Just to have a little parteh!

OOC: Possible Un-tag... was going to have a character destroy the Guardian, but haven't figured out exactly what's going on yet...

OOC: Possible Un-tag... was going to have a character destroy the Guardian, but haven't figured out exactly what's going on yet...

OOC: Everything's coming to a head, I blame all the posting done over the weekend. You might be able to help me with something else though, provided you have the technology, and interest in doing it. Also, for everyone else, this thing's had too much punishment, time for this thing to rip an Oh-my-various-gods sized hole in the station.

Also, Dangaloth isn't cracking a joke, it's purely a misunderstanding of the question.
IC:

Out in space...

To think a swarm that traveled entire Galaxies would have nothing in space to greet visitors would be foolish. Though only twice the size of an X-wing, Devourers were still quite dangerous, as they carried Zealots inside them and shot a far more powerful variant of Warp energy than Guardians. A Swarmling Satellite came up, as 120 Devourers blockaded a path from the station to the world below.

"Greetings, I am Dangaloth, Cerabrate of The Eternal Swarm. We do not read anything, possessing no written material of any kind, but we can hear you quite clearly." The voice sounded very creepy, and completely unnatural. It spoke with a harsh accent, as though it didn't completely grasp or understand Galactic Common.

Meanwhile, the will of the swarm directed Irene to flee, and that she did, taking twists and turns she would know well from living on the station, and jumped into an unfired escape pod, using it to escape behind the blockade of Devourers. Any shots fired would get the devourers, and not the escape pod. Once on the world, Irene would escape deep into the nearest Hive cluster for her own protection.

The reason the swarm had Irene flee, was not because of a message she couldn't of known about, rather it was because The Guardian knew it was defeated.

After Irene got out in the escape pod, and as it descended to the world below, the Guardian began to glow very brightly, for a full thirty seconds before exploding with a station shaking explosion that signaled quite clearly this monster was defeated. The explosion itself ripped a great hole in the station's side closest to the battle cruisers that diverted all available resources, including those from the Security Chief's systems, to the gaping hole, more specifically, to throw up a level ten force field to prevent it from destroying the station.

*******
Regardless of where Juaquis was, the explosion would shake his section of the station. All lights would go out, and he could see a Force field fizzle out of being just ahead of him. The Security Chief's lair was wide open. The area in which the bombs were held were covered in sixteen inch thick Tritanium, but did have an old fashioned combination lock on the door.

Beyond the door, the floor was littered with cloaked mines that would explode if one didn't either deactivate them, or take the right path to the bombs, a path that looked like a drunk man trying to walk a straight line, and failing miserably.

OOC: Sorry, a Guardian, Generation 1, can only take so much before it dies. I am assuming thirty seconds is enough time for you to run out of a five hundred foot blast radius, especially since Irene's fleeing should've been your first clue to beat a hasty retreat icly.

Now, things left to accomplish:
The Terraforming bombs, will DR make it to them without tripping a cloaked mine? Can he even lift one single Terra forming bomb?

Meanwhile, two menacing battlecruisers have just entered the system. Will we see a Devourer/Battlecrusier battle? Will someone chase Irene down to the hive cluster?

What of the survivors of the first Guardian? Will they make it out alive? Are the battle cruisers going to respond to Dangaloth with words? Is anyone going to try to strike peace with the hive? Stay tuned faithful readers for our next posts.

DoomGuy tries to flee the explosion, and is suddenly sucked into another hell portal, seems the Demons are itching for another fight.
OCC: I think I should make a more serious attempt at this
The energy given off by the warp energy attracks a mysterious being

Harrison ran fast, he sensed Rebbecca had died...he shouted over him comlink in his hand.

"Dropship is already in the bay get to it we are picking up a unknown energy reading"

"I know! just prep the engines to get me out of here!"

He had to escape, otherwise none of what happened would be known and Phenixica would not know of this potential threat to them.

He sees the hatch and jumps inside the ship as it escapes just in time, Medic's attent to is arm as the dropship goes back to the battlecruisers.

IPN: Victoria
The creatures literal take on the question puzzled the Captain, but after awhile he was able to bring himself together. That kind of voice was very different.

"The Phenixican Empire was called to this system, the transmission was aimed at our own men. I have not heard of the Swarm before, please explain?"

He clicked is fingers at his communications officer to record everything that was said.

D'Irk watched the strange man as he entered the arriving dropship. He unlocked the controls and left the ship he possessed, returning to his own after the explosion of the Guardian rocked the station.

OOC:He entered a Legionary Dropship that scanned there presence and was going to send a team in to investigate.

OOC: Everybody is jumping ship...only a crazy person would stay

Juaquis followed Rattus' direction and was greeted with the sight of a mammoth blast door at the end of a corridor. With a giggle and a little hand rubbing Juaquis literally skipped towards the door.

Suddenly he was violently thrown against the wall, leaving a large dent in it.
"Dem peeplz muzt be havin fun" he said with a tone that one could only described as "Fuck you".

He straightened him self, stood up, brushed his shoulders off, and began scanning the suit for any malfunctions.

As he began his damage report the lights started to flicker, and power died. This caused two things to occur. First a field of some sort in front of him flickered briefly, then died. Second Juaquis began to float.

Juaquis wasn't sure, but the need for the power else where must have caused the grav generators to fail, that or the explosion had thrown off the stations rotation.

In either case Juaquis' suit was green. With the bill of good health from the suit Juaquis turned on his mag-boots and walked up to the blast door. He wrapped the metal with is metal knuckles and was greeted with a solid thud.

"Haz to beez at leazt 12 inchez....mabiez more"

Then he noticed the manual combination lock to the left of the door.

"Oooooo....an antique! Letz see...9 digit password, thatz one hundred million different comboz...this is gonna takez a long timez."

Juaquiz began giving commands to the suit through a neural interface that was as complex as the brain that commanded it.

>>>>regop proz override<<<<
<<authorization validated>>
<<commprop?>>
>>>>exe.finemuscletunning_via nueralbots<<<<
<<execute?>>
>>execute<<

4 cc's of nanobots coursed directly into Juaquis' blood stream. Their target were the fine motor control muscles in his arms as well as the neurons leading to those muscles. They would use the protein molecules present to reinforce the muscles, in essence giving him speed beyond that which he already had.

Juaquis looked into their mind, 'Rattus! I got another job for you! Come ere. You see this pad? Punch in every possible code.'

'ok' was all that Rattus said in reply

Rattus cracked his fingers and looked at the pad momentarily.

"This Take 4 Minutes"

Then his hands became a whir of motion. With surgical precision Rattus began typing away at the pad. Starting at 000000000 and going until he reached the combination. He essentially was manually brute force hacking the password...only he was doing it at a speed that no computer could match.


(OOC: sorry but I had to make some assumptions. I figured that the grav would fail with no power and if gravity was caused by centrifugal motion the explosion would of thrown that off. This will obviously make my job easier, however im already working against the clock)

The explosion had shaken Zakos, but he was fine since he was in Juggernaut mode. But he was ejected into space by the blast, there he floated unconscious from the shock wave until his automated systems brought his ship to pick him up and the armor injected it's nanites.

When he woke up in the ship, the swarm ships were already there.
Zakos took the fire control program and inserted it into his memory slot on his gauntlet. The program appeared on his HUD and he targeted the ship's 2 Mercava Type 101 Gatling Pulse Gun at the swarm ships, his automated Mercava Mark IV missile pods also locked on.

Then he waited to see the outcome of the ships communications, but little did the other ships know, he had sent a virus via comm link to the Phenixican ships.

**********
Dynamic Revolution
**********

The battery operated combination lock finally stopped at the code 957218346, and the door swung open as the insides depressurized to reveal four large cases magnetized to the floor.

It seemed like such a simple task now to get to the end of the hallway, demagnetize one case, and take it away. However, cloaked mines floated about the hallway, and they were very sensitive about their personal space, in fact, they tended to blow up if someone touched them. It would be interesting to see just what would happen to Jauquis and his other personalities.

*************************
Phenixica
*************************

"We are what you see before you, and more. We have the perfection of Essence, Masters of Evolution, Mutation, and Adaptation. With time, we can take to any environment, or defend against any weapon. The call from your Swarmling was in regards to a Swarmling of ours, a new breed called The Guardian. The station attacked us without provocation using a bomb that changed our world around us, killing us in the process and we responded in kind. Thank Chaos The Warp Energies emanating from our temples stopped it. We hadn't anticipated Guests, and The Guardian is built for Offense and Defense, so as one might expect, it attacked. Your Swarmlings are strong indeed though, for they defeated the mighty Guardian in battle. One of your Swarmlings was killed, I felt her life end, but that was not by our power."

OOC: By Swarmling of course, Dangaloth means citizen.

**********
Balrogga
**********

D'Irk, while watching the strange man, would feel a class B+ or greater mind coalesce into being near him. This mind felt like it had the power of Millions others behind it, and it in turn, was watching D'Irk, a single giant Eye just watching him. It was neither Hostile, nor friendly, it was simply there.

D'Irk was the first non-Swarmling to be in the presence of The Overmind, The Eternal Will of The Swarm.

OOC: By B+ or greater I mean that The Overmind is exceptionally powerful, being the combined will of The Swarm, but I'm not sure how you'd classify it.

D’Irk watched the strange man’s ship retreat into the distance. He was unsure if he should have let him leave but The Guardian only asked him to eliminate the one target. This is something that no longer concerned him so he turned to Shipmind and was about to issue some orders when he felt the Childer level mind materialize in his peripheral. He automatically snapped in several layers of defense, splintering his awareness into multiple virtual minds, each able to take on a single task such as defensive or offensive actions.

He reached out an inquisitive probe to examine the new arrival hoping to determine its mindset. It felt young by Ta’Nar standards. He turned his mind’s eye to the guest aboard his ship and addressed it.

“What do I owe for the pleasure of your visit?”

The mysterious object draws nearer, it appears to be glowing

D’Irk watched the strange man’s ship retreat into the distance. He was unsure if he should have let him leave but The Guardian only asked him to eliminate the one target. This is something that no longer concerned him so he turned to Shipmind and was about to issue some orders when he felt the Childer level mind materialize in his peripheral. He automatically snapped in several layers of defense, splintering his awareness into multiple virtual minds, each able to take on a single task such as defensive or offensive actions.

He reached out an inquisitive probe to examine the new arrival hoping to determine its mindset. It felt young by Ta’Nar standards. He turned his mind’s eye to the guest aboard his ship and addressed it.

“What do I owe for the pleasure of your visit?”

"Curiosity, I've never felt another like me. The Guardian's mind also wished to thank you for your assistance, but due to the loss of it's body, it's unable to do much more than drift in my own consciousness.

Now I find my children faced with a new threat, and yet my new prize must be protected. Irene hides on the world below, in a hive cluster, and if things do not go smoothly with these new ships, then her, and a few select Swarmlings must be saved, that the Swarm can re-establish itself later. It is to this very task that I request your assistance, if not by direct intervention with the ships, than by saving the precious few that can." The Overmind asked, it's voice vibrating with the force of the entire swarm.

The Virus was a useless gesture, Phenixican computer systems had totally different programing, language and that makes a Virus that has no understanding of the systems useless....but the attempt did anger them. When they saw the small object fire on the Swarm the Ships were quick to respond.

"Charge the Plasma Torpedo's and fire all shots on that target" It was at best a nuisance, these were the latest and greatest of Phenixican Military Engineering and this tiny spec on the radar thought it could threaten them.

It as not anything personal, just trying to disable the ships in a very fragile situation simply was not allowed.

Harrison was in the Medical Deparment having a new arm built with the latest in Dvslandian Android Technology, he would not be able to conjure fire with it anymore but it should more or less operate as a normal arm.

After several attempts Rattus was greeted with a hiss of air as the blast doors opened.

"Done" was all Rattus said before falling back in to the subconscious. Jockson came forth and took over control of the body, usurping Juaquis now that the danger was over.

"Goodie woodie!" exclaimed Jockson, rubbing his hands together.

If it hadn't been for the mag-boots Jockson would have skipped into the room. However it was upon entering into the room that he bumped into an invisible object. Barely one one hundredth of a second later he was thrown out into the corridor by a violent explosion. He slammed into the opposite wall with bone crushing force. If it hadn't been for his armor and the lack of gravity Jockson, and every other personality, would be nothing more than smear of blood and flesh further decorating the stations already gut wrenching decor.

Jockson sprinted back into the inner workings of the mind, allowing Juaquis to step forth once again.

"Dumb son-ofa-bitch...of courze the plaze is mind you idjit"

The suit began a damage assessment.

>>point of impact....upper left shoulder<<
>>Armor at point of impact...50%<<
>>Inner atmosphere exposed to outter atmosphere<<
>>Nano repairs closing breach<<
>>EToR....5 minutes<<
>>power failure in left shoulder joint....rerouting...<<
>>shoulder operational to 85%<<
>>Operator damage....fractured humerus and dislocated left shoulder<<
>>add+...fractured collar bone, broken ribe number 2,3,5<<
>>add+...compression fracture of vertebrate...<<
>>power down to prevent shock...repair with pre-injury nanos<<
>>User command:relocate left shoulder<<

Juaquis sighed...This was going to hurt, alot.

Reaching over with his right arm Juaquis grabbed onto his broken left arm. Grunting through the pain Juaquis pulled the arm across his body, forcing it back into place. With an audible pop it settled back into joint.

>>begin wound/suit repair<<
>>Attention User:going dark in 5...4...3...2...1<<


The system shut down everything save the most important systems. The nanos used any substance near by to recreate, and repair the damage. Essentially the ship would become part of the body and suit.

From deep within the suit a grayish goo of nanos poored out. They began to break down most materials into manageable bits, to used in the repair. However they weren't exactly the most accurate, so instead of just repairing the wounds they would reinforce all tissue within the body and suit.

The body began to shut down due to shock, and all the personalities began to slip deep under very muddy water.

OOC: I didn't fire yet...

IC:

The virus sent back a string of confused DOS commands that the Ship AI deciphered.

<<Computer systems are different>>
<<Engaging adaption systems>>

Inside the Phenixican ships the virus was evolving into an attack virus that would maliciously delete anything on command...

OOC: Zakos' command of course, which he hasn't given yet.

"Curiosity, I've never felt another like me. The Guardian's mind also wished to thank you for your assistance, but due to the loss of it's body, it's unable to do much more than drift in my own consciousness.

Now I find my children faced with a new threat, and yet my new prize must be protected. Irene hides on the world below, in a hive cluster, and if things do not go smoothly with these new ships, then her, and a few select Swarmlings must be saved, that the Swarm can re-establish itself later. It is to this very task that I request your assistance, if not by direct intervention with the ships, than by saving the precious few that can." The Overmind asked, it's voice vibrating with the force of the entire swarm.

D’Irk chuckled to himself and switched to telepathy. He was sure not to broadcast too strongly.

I have at my means a couple different options. If you can wait ten minutes I can call upon military vessels to assist but they may start more than it would cure. It is a viable option since there is an Ambassador at risk here.

The other option is for me to unincorporate my shuttle. It is composed of about fifty Kythons; I suppose you would call them Swarmlings. They can devour the station from the inside leaving the outside hull intact so it would not be visible to the others. From the extra mass more would be created resulting in a larger force, a much larger judging by the size of this structure.

A third option would be to do this on the planet. I could take my ship down to the planet and do the same thing there. I only need raw matter so dirt, plants, even radioactive fallout would work. From that location I could recombine them together into a vessel and wormhole everyone away to a safe location. This last option would allow for relocation from an underground cavern out of sight from the forces in orbit. If they decide to do genocide there would be no indication to your departure.

Which would you prefer?

*********
DR
*********

with nothing living or automated in that section of the ship, besides anything Juaquis may or may not have brought with him, he was left undisturbed by outside forces and influences.

*************
Phenixica/Ziolis
*************

Reinforcements came round from the back side, to make up over one thousand Devourers in total, which in turn blockaded the planet itself in a defensive pattern.

The swarm, while being suicidally brave, knew it's own weaknesses, and when it was better to try and resolve things, non-violently.

Such was the nature of Dangaloth's next words. It wasn't that the swarm could transmit communications, rather it sent it's thoughts to the Swarmling Satelite, which then sent them out as a standard communications signal. The process was reversed for communicating with Dangaloth.

"Surely we can all walk away from this peacefully, rather than needless slaughter." Dangaloth inquired hopefully.

The Devourers did not begin to charge themselves with Warp, keeping themselves unpowered as a sign of good faith.

**********************
Balrogga
**********************
"Devour the station and all things attached and within in it's entirety if you wish, for we have no use for such things, just beware any lingering surprises that might be onboard. The other options seem more harmful than helpful, especially since the swarm vocers the entirety of the world below, and if you were to eat it, you would also eat us. Though there are many worlds in this system, perhaps another would make a good snack.

However, let us try for peaceful resolution with words, rather than with violence, first." The Overmind said. It was following a basic simple innate instinct inherent in all living things, it was trying to protect as many swarmlings as it could.

D’Irk sighed to himself. The entity seemed to misunderstand his meaning.

No, you misunderstand me.

I meant to devour some inert matter creating an underground cavern and using the transformed matter to create more Kythons which would incorporate themselves into a vessel for you to escape upon. I did not mean to propose eating your world, just a few hundred meters to create the vessel itself. This would allow you to have the chosen ones to board and escape without the others attention in this Ark.

"I see. This is a new thing, so a few misunderstands are inevitable. I need no escape, for I am composed only of Psionic energy, possessing no body of my own, but sharing the body of many.

The Hive extends deep, but there is a layer within the Mantle of the world that we have not yet reached. Come, let me show you the way."

A swirling pathway appeared in a part of the wall, it lead through The Warp, and came out in a cavern, empty, and uninhabited. The walls showed veins of various metals, and minerals, some precious and valuable, some not.

D’Irk sent a feeling of agreement to the entity and reached out to Shipmind.

Yes boss?

I want you to disincorperate and follow me through that aperture he conjured.

I understand

I have a task for you that demands you be somewhere else than this floating derelict. Besides, I think it will soon be obliterated by the young races out there.

I will comply.

The shuttle seemed to turn black and melt into ebony mercury. The black fluid began to move, shapes bubbling and crawling from the ebon liquid until fifty creatures stood before them.

The creatures possessed both insect and reptile characteristics and had no eyes. Their four insect legs were complemented by four arms ending in elongated hands. An eyeless reptile’s head topped the creature and a mane of black spines trailed down its back that looked as sharp as the maw full of teeth. The collection of creatures stood about two meters tall and was reminiscent of centaur type creatures.

They seemed to cover the floor of the docking bay as they chattered telepathically on their own private telepathic Link. The Kythons quickly lined up as if they were part of a single mind. The large group of Kythons and the Ta’Nar followed the Swarm avatar through the gateway, leaving the station to the fools with the weapons.

Inside the cavern it was pitch black, with no light from anywhere, then, the noise of something eating through above, a light came into being, bright enough to illuminate the entire cavern, which was large enough to house a small carrier.

The source of the light itself, was an eyeball, it had grown out of the hive, which was above them. The swarm, it's attention divided among many tasks, watched with interest as the Kythons set to work.

Zakos heard the message and composed one to be sent to his Ship AI Takira

<<If I were to fire then my AI Takira would alert my home fleet, so I should think it would be better to try diplomacy, but try anything funny and a lot of you will be going up in flames.>>

"Takira, disarm the missile pods because those are the only wep sigs they can detect, keep the Mercava Guns on just in case."

The object has reached the ship, a beam of energy erupts from it and a hole is melted in the ship, it goes through
The object is a red glowing ball surronded by a metal substance that bends and moves around it

The Phenixican Captain laughed at this empty threat, the Imperial Fleet had been completely mobilized and if anyone actually attacked these ships simply sent to investigate then the flood-gates would open and hundreds of ships would pour through to cleansed the system of all hostile contacts.

The captain talked to the Celebrate

"I mean no threat to the swarm, a idiot is trying to put a virus through a ship where it has no idea what it is doing. Trying to hack and implant a virus into a system not using the same programing language, it's trying to adapt but we have boxed it in"

"I see. We both wish peace, and yet there is a third party trouble maker still in the system, If everyone has their own countrymen, then how about we all simply part ways, starting with the singular one." Dangaloth suggested, referring to the fact that as the currently most aggressive entity in the system, Zakos was no longer welcome in the swarm's eyes.

OOC: Zanzibar, there's no one to respond to you, unless you go antagonize Dynamic Revolution.

Also, I'm going to make the assumption Bal safely gets Irene out of this system to an uninhabited mostly abandoned system where I can peacefully get another Hive established, alone and unaided by him or anyone else. This is so I can do a thread with Asfaltum that we have all planned before the enthusiasm for it dies.

The fifty Kythons swarmed throughout the dark chamber, not needing light to function. They perceived energy directly and was able to navigate in a complete absence of light. When the hole appeared and the eye peeked in, it would observe the cavern surfaces crawling with an ever growing black plague.

Wherever the Kythons traveled, they spread a blackness that seemingly transformed the very ground they touched into a black metallic liquid. The Thur’Tahg seemed alive and moved on its own until more Kythons rose from the fluid. Within minutes fifty became a hundred, then two hundred, doubling each generation at an exponential rate.

After there were thousands, they all gathered in the center of the much larger cavern (although they avoided the ceiling for structural reasons) and began to merge into a single mass. Quicker than what was thought to be possible, the shape of a massive vessel began to form. The vessel took the form of the chamber allowing the insides to contain the most space possible for carrying refugees away from the endangered system.

While this was going on, D’Irk accompanied the Swarm Avatar. When things were complete, he turned toward the Overmind.

You can move your Swarmlings inside. Fit as many as possible for the journey will not take much more than the totality of an hour.

The object began to move towards where it sensed the terraforming bombs, floating through the air

OOC:

Everyone seems to be going after those terraform bombs. It would be a shame if they went off....

OCC: A shame it would be, for the planet and the fleet

OOC: lol...so its up to my insane character to save the day?...y'all are screwed

OCC: Yes they are

The fifty Kythons swarmed throughout the dark chamber, not needing light to function. They perceived energy directly and was able to navigate in a complete absence of light. When the hole appeared and the eye peeked in, it would observe the cavern surfaces crawling with an ever growing black plague.

Wherever the Kythons traveled, they spread a blackness that seemingly transformed the very ground they touched into a black metallic liquid. The Thur’Tahg seemed alive and moved on its own until more Kythons rose from the fluid. Within minutes fifty became a hundred, then two hundred, doubling each generation at an exponential rate.

After there were thousands, they all gathered in the center of the much larger cavern (although they avoided the ceiling for structural reasons) and began to merge into a single mass. Quicker than what was thought to be possible, the shape of a massive vessel began to form. The vessel took the form of the chamber allowing the insides to contain the most space possible for carrying refugees away from the endangered system.

While this was going on, D’Irk accompanied the Swarm Avatar. When things were complete, he turned toward the Overmind.

You can move your Swarmlings inside. Fit as many as possible for the journey will not take much more than the totality of an hour.

Though the Kythons ignored the ceiling, the swarm did not, could not. It ate it's way through the ceiling, replacing it with itself, and began to expand down the sides of the cavern once the Kythons began assembling into the ark, slipping beneath it's considerable bulk and swelling beneath it, raising it to a level the swarm could enter. The hive ceiling above seperated from itself, making a large tunnel for the ship to be raised through.

The hive continued to lift the ark, and the first passenger was Irene, who took a spot in the very center of the ship, and sighed as drones quickly pressed in around her. They carried a few deflated overlords, a select few who were emptied of their air and Vespene gases via an emptying of the proper bladders. The deflated overlords were neatly folded to allow the most room. Beyond the swarm of drones Zealots slithered in, and were immediatly coiled to allow for maximum room. Beyond them were Khornate Swarmlings, all of whom twisted this way and that to allow for as much room as possible, beyond them came the spitters, their considerable bulks lessened by their sacs of fluid being emptied. As if the first wave of drones were not enough, another wave crawled in, carrying not more overlords, but Taros, the winged breed of Swarmling. The Taros had their wings folded up neatly, and their bodies curled up tightly, to provide for the most room possible.

The swarm had loaded as the ship was raised, a few on each level, until at last the swarm was loaded as the hive finished lifting the ship to the surface. A large swarm of Overlords picked the ship up off the ground while the ground covered itself in a Carapace very quickly, to create a launching pad for D'Irk's ship to take off from. Once gently lowered onto the launching pad, the Overlords departed.

The Overmind felt satisfaction at seeing the swarm pack the ark more thoroughly than some might think possible. It was a solid wall of flesh, with Irene's head barely peaking up over the top of the swarm for air.

"We shall meet again." the Overmind said as it faded away.

"Can we get going please? It's rather uncomfortable being sardined, even if it's for my own good." Irene called out plaintivly.

The object began to move towards where it sensed the terraforming bombs, floating through the air

OOC:

Everyone seems to be going after those terraform bombs. It would be a shame if they went off....

OCC: A shame it would be, for the planet and the fleet

OOC: lol...so its up to my insane character to save the day?...y'all are screwed

OCC: Yes they are

I never once said, they could be fired. I never said they didn't require a long and complex password in order to even arm themselves, let alone a second to go off. So, go ahead, get a bomb or two, go right on ahead. Fail any password three times and the bomb implodes, becoming unusable. No, I never once said I didn't have backup in case circumstances made the bombs easy to get too. I haven't said a lot of things...

OCC: Not so much fire them as mess with them and probably set them off. Besides the creature could easily survive an explosion from mines, with its little protective shell. Or it might not set them off, right now it's just curious. I think It'd be more likely that DR will set them off, being he's insane

The Ark sat upon the makeshift launch pad the Swarmlings made without knowing it was not necessary. D’Irk merged himself with the Shipmind of the Ark and commanded the ship to be underway.

The vessel activated its drives and simply faded away, shifting to another dimension. Outside the ship, violet energy arc strong enough to incinerate a moon struck the shielding of the Ark and was discharged harmlessly. It was a specialty of the Ta’Nar, dimensional technology. They could go places other nations could not imagine and did so frequently.

The Ark Emerged several light years away the Ark Emerged from Dimensional space to a waiting artificial wormhole. After ten minutes travel time to transit the wormhole the Ark found itself in orbit above a nameless world. The ship lowered itself into the atmosphere and settled down without a bump. The sides of the ship dissolved allowing the Swarm to depart in every direction to explore their new world.

All without anyone in orbit of their old world detecting their departure due to other matters attracting their attention.

The swarm scattered in different directions, Taros taking to the sky, other swarmlings running in every direction they could. Irene stumbled out, seemingly distracted by the new responsibilities of being a Cerebrate.

She stopped and surveyed the land around her. She nodded, and then moved off to sit on a rock.

Meanwhile, at the spot where she had stood, which was about fifty feet away from the ark, a Drone ran over, and hunkered down on the spot. It squished itself flat, it's insides spilling out. It's insides writhed, twisted, and grew, mutating into something new, but what would remain a mystery as a shell arose to cover it's squirming insides. This process would go on for quite some time, but a few Zealots came over and flooded the thing with Warp energy speeding up the process greatly.

The new Hive came into being with a buzz, and immediately, swarms of drones came over, some crawled inside the hive, others began maintaining the creep that began to extend from the hive.

"Maybe in a day or two I'll be able to go inside." Irene said.

(ooc: of course you'd want to ruin our fun...)

(ooc: of course you'd want to ruin our fun...)

Why, you haven't even tried yet, and you seem to be assuming Your going to fail and die. If you don't try, then you will fail. If you do try, then you may not entirely succeed, but you may not entirely fail either.

After the Swarm had left The Arc, D’Irk materialized to speak to Irene.

If you need assistance, feel free to contact us. We will keep an ear out for your voice and occasionally stop by to make sure you are safe.

He turned and stepped back aboard the open Ark and turned around to face the Swarm Queen. The sides of the Arc closed and the ship vanished from sight as D’Irk resumed his trip home.




OOC:


This is my exit from the Thread

The Phenixican ships activate a warpgate buoy in order to head back to imperial space. Harrison had other plans, the women had interested him somewhat and using his powers manage to send a message to her.

I would wish to act as a sort of representation of the Phenixican people to the swarm, to keep a eye on it as well. Could I possibly join you and your swarm in your expansions and explorations?

"You sure you know what your doing?" said the Phoenix Priest who served on the ship as it's spiritual officer.

"The Swarm is a dangerous force who will only grow stronger, I want to make sure this threat is kept under our eye"

"You also wish to help the woman"

"If she can make a more peaceful swarm, then I will have to make sure exactly that happens. I will not become one of them, but simply travel with them. What small vessels does this ship carry?"

"Only vessel capable of FTL travel is the Dropship, you would have to re-design it to make it homely"

"I am sure I will manage"

"May the four watch over you"

"I might be about to journey with the servants of Chaos, hopefully they can see passed the fog"

The Phenixican ships activate a warpgate buoy in order to head back to imperial space. Harrison had other plans, the women had interested him somewhat and using his powers manage to send a message to her.

I would wish to act as a sort of representation of the Phenixican people to the swarm, to keep a eye on it as well. Could I possibly join you and your swarm in your expansions and explorations?

"You sure you know what your doing?" said the Phoenix Priest who served on the ship as it's spiritual officer.

"The Swarm is a dangerous force who will only grow stronger, I want to make sure this threat is kept under our eye"

"You also wish to help the woman"

"If she can make a more peaceful swarm, then I will have to make sure exactly that happens. I will not become one of them, but simply travel with them. What small vessels does this ship carry?"

"Only vessel capable of FTL travel is the Dropship, you would have to re-design it to make it homely"

"I am sure I will manage"

"May the four watch over you"

"I might be about to journey with the servants of Chaos, hopefully they can see passed the fog"

"She is gone. A third party onboard the ship took her far away at our request, along with a colony of Swarmlings to keep her safe, for it seemed that something bad was going to happen.

Once they reach spacial capabilities, we would be glad to direct you to her current location." Dangaloth replied.

Though Harrison had intended his message for Irene, it was picked up by the entire swarm.

The two battlecruisers leave the system inside the blue portal that erupted all that was left behind was a small dropship. Normally used to carry armour and troops to the battlefront.

Now Harrison was going to use it in his travels with the swarm, he had to modify it naturally but he was in no rush. He had enough food to last him a few months.

He also had the equipment needed to setup a small lab as he toke on the project of testing the swarm on strengths and weaknesses on his travels.

And that might be the end of it for old Harrison, but at the edge of the system, something colossal uncloaked as it finished moving in, a giant space station large enough to house a small nation.

It noticed the small dropship, and hailed it.

"This is the Inter-Galactic Science Consortium research station Causa, I am Doctor Yamato Nasagori, lead researcher on The Eternal Swarm. Who might you be?" the good Doctor asked.

The Inter-Galactic Science Consortium was one of the most prestigious scientific international bodies known, though it refused to affiliate itself with any one nation. Scientists from all nations, regardless of who they were, were welcome to become apart of the consortium.

Lately, the consortium had taken an interest in the swarm, unaware that the original consortium had seen the swarm once before, a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.

OOC: I can't just leave Harrison out in the cold like that, it feels wrong, so I'm going to give him the rare one time chance to become a part of the Consortium, and research the swarm along side Dr. Nasagori. He doesn't have to give anything up, so no worries there.

"Lord Harrison Solus, Order of the Burning sky. I work for the Empress of the Phenixican Empire. I doubt you have heard of us, we are a very isolated Empire in our little galaxy. I came here to find out what happened to the nearby station, when we arrived we found the swarm had butchered the crewmen. Apparently they were threatened first but since there was a language barrier neither side really knew what the other wanted"

Harrison was not a scientist, but he would send any information his computers could find to the Empire for research. He wanted to travel with the swarm, but this would be good until he could fit his ship for solo traveling a bit better.

"Permission to dock so we can talk further, I think you have allot of offer me and I can tell you what I found out when I arrived on the station"

Keeping a close eye on the swarm would help, this Science Consortium looked like it could quench the Empires thirst for knowledge on the swarm for now. Then a communication from the Empress came through.

"I see you decided to stay, please tell me why you think you should not have help on this task?"

"The Eternal Swarm eradicated a entire station in a matter of hours, if I travel this way the Swarm will consider me less of a threat. So what are my orders your majesty?"

"The Imperial Senate has become interested in this matter, they want you to try and find out more about this Swarm and see if it can be manipulated into something more Phenixican friendly"

"So they want a Alliance?"

"They want a friendship, the Navy is not going to be as available as it was before and you know why. We need to make sure we don't have a enemy on our hands here, we need to be on warm terms with the Swarm and that's a order"

"Yes your majesty, I will do what it takes to become close to the Swarm"

He knew this meant the consortium was going to be a temporary measure, he had to work his way into the swarms trust and spying on them was not the perfect way to go about it. The Empress cuts off.

She was not as warm as her father, but she was a leader in the making. her father counted on organizations like PEACS (Phenixican Exploration of Alien Cultures Society) to explore these situations. PEACS had lost 60% of it's funding which had gone to upgrading the infrastructure in the economic crisis that Phenixica had only just escaped a few months back.

So now the Order and military have to take on more roles, PEACS is busy licking it's wounds and trying to get it's investors back. Problem with the PEACS is they are not military and lose quite a few pilots and ships to dangerous situations a year. The more military organizations are far more reliable to return from these missions.

Sadly he knew if he did get in trouble only the PEACS would be able to spare the ships to save him.

"It sounds like you have an interesting story to tell. Come aboard, care for some tea?" Dr. Nasagori asked.

Meanwhile, a beam, invisible on the normal spectrum but clearly seen with a UV filter, shot out of the docking port to guide the ship in passivly. It was like someone turning on a porch light at night to mark the house.

Once properly docked, the bay large enough for the entire dropship to fly into and settle down upon comfortably. Dr. Yamato Nasagori stood waiting for him at the end of the walkway. He had a thin pair of glasses on in which various lights flickered. His hair was long and black, and his eyes were brown. His skin was off white. He wore a white lab coat, brown slacks, and shiny black shoes. He had pens, tubes, paper, and various mechanical devices in spots all over his lab coat. He kept his hands behind him, his left hand grasping his right wrist, and he was slightly hunched forward.

He made to shake Harrison's hand as the two came close.

"Welcome, welcome, let's retreat to more comfortable quarters." Dr. Yamato said in his normally calm demeanor. Many said he was unimpassioned to the point of absolute apathy. A few thought he was incapable of any emotion at all. The truth was, Dr. Yamato was just very good at controlling his emotions.

He motioned with his head to follow along to someplace nicer. He shuffled along with a slow gait that one might take on a casual Sunday stroll. He lead Harrison out of the docking bay, and into a hall. It lead past another docking bay that was filled with Swarmlings, they filled the entire docking bay. Dr. Nasagori stopped at the window, looking at the swarm.

"Interesting creatures. This is the control colony, that is, we don't do anything to this one except watch it. They show no signs of evolution or adaptation to any of the things done to the other colonies. We have their permission of course, though I most admit it did take a long time to decipher their native language. This may be due to the fact that it's comprised of 256 unique sounds, each of which can translate into one three different characters without overlap which can combine in more ways than a species like us normally has need for. Swarmling is a complex language, and we have difficulty translating even by computer. It wasn't until a Psion master agreed to help that we managed to get basic communications established. Even still, I have been studying it for some time now, and can only get a few basic commands across. I have been trying to teach them Galactic Common, it is very difficult. The swarm cannot comprehend such concepts as love, peace, or fear. they have difficulty with terms like trust and mutual understanding, but understand things like War, anger, wrath, and kill all to easily. I have made progress though, but not much." Dr. Nasagori said.

He turned, and walked on along the hall. everywhere one went, one seemed to see something related to the swarm.

"Fully a third of the station is devoted to Swarmling Research, and as the largest portion of it's many purposes, this stations primary function therefore, is to follow the eternal swarm and research it." Dr. Nasagori said.

He stopped at another window, a cargo bay, filled with the swarm.

"This hive we have devoted to exploring their offensive and defensive capabilities, but we ran out of things to test on them, they adapted to all our testing methods and became immune to them. If you ever have occasion to fight a swarmling, remember that the tend to explode when defeated. This is because unlike most species, who have a cellular structure, Swarmlings are instead composed entirely of different Viruses, and when they die they tend to lose the mysterious thing that bonds their Virus structure together." Dr. Nasagori said. He moved on, stepped on a platform, and disappeared.

"That's our Floorivator. It swaps out tiny portions of space in a very confined area. It's proof against teleportation blockades, but we don't know how to make it viable for normal transport systems. Go on, step on it. That one takes you up one floor." a nearby crew member said.

After Harrison braves the Floorivator, a near instantaneous process, Dr. Nasagori continues walking on. He goes through an open lab.

"Behold, the Disintegrating Ray gun, I've got it figured out this time Dr. Nasagori!" A young entusiastic man says waving a yellow gun in the air.

"Proof?" Dr. Nasagori asks simply. The young scientist turns to a wooden dummy and pulls the trigger. The gun disintegrates into nothingness.
"Boy, when it disintegrates, that sucker really disintegrates." the young man said dejectedly.
"Try fine-tuning the crystal matrix. It doesn't seem focused enough to project the ray out of the gun." Dr. Nasagori said. The young man nods full of enthusiasim once again and runs back to the bench.

"My younger cousin, removed three times. He really wants to work on the swarm, but it is consortium policy to not leave any projects unfinished before partaking of a new one, unless it can be proven conclusively that the old one cannot be finished." Dr. Nasagori said.

After a few more minutes of walking down the hallway, most of the windows closed for one reason or another, they reach a door with teeth on it. Dr. Nasagori pokes the door in one certain spot, and the entire thing thing opens like a mouth. It's easy to see that it was made based on the swarm. Infact, the door was a swarmling.

There was a pot of steaming hot water, and two fine white cups.

"Tea?" Dr. Nasagori asks, indicating his impressive tea collection, featuring rare and exotic teas from around the universes. The good docter selects a simple peppermint, and sits down with his cup in a nearby comfortable chair. He takes a sip, and sets it down on a floating glass table.

"Now, what's been going on?" Dr. Nasagori asked sitting forward.

OOC: Ohhh so now the swarm dislikes me, reinforcements for my side?

OOC: Ohhh so now the swarm dislikes me, reinforcements for my side?

Instead of making an OOC comment, how about actual RP'ing? Or are you too afraid of me, now that I have no reason to be nice anymore, with Irene being gone?

Juaquis regained consciousness sometime later. The suit was repaired, his wounds mended, the only thing not proper and right in the universe was the splitting headache.

Slowly, tentatively Juaquis stood up, testing his limbs and the suit. He was happy to find that the suit performed just as well as ever.

With a grunt his thoughts returned to hi original mission. The terra forming bombs.

"Howze we gonna getz da goodiez..."

Then, an idea. Using the same "can opening" motion he had preformed earlier Juaquis began stripping the walls of their metallic outside. Once he had an acceptable length he folded it several times. Lastly he activated the mag-glove in his left hand and held onto the make shift shield.

Juaquis hunched down behind his shield and once again entered the room. With any luck the shield would take most of the explosion. Juaquis had always been fond of brute force solutions

Juaquis regained consciousness sometime later. The suit was repaired, his wounds mended, the only thing not proper and right in the universe was the splitting headache.

Slowly, tentatively Juaquis stood up, testing his limbs and the suit. He was happy to find that the suit performed just as well as ever.

With a grunt his thoughts returned to hi original mission. The terra forming bombs.

"Howze we gonna getz da goodiez..."

Then, an idea. Using the same "can opening" motion he had preformed earlier Juaquis began stripping the walls of their metallic outside. Once he had an acceptable length he folded it several times. Lastly he activated the mag-glove in his left hand and held onto the make shift shield.

Juaquis hunched down behind his shield and once again entered the room. With any luck the shield would take most of the explosion. Juaquis had always been fond of brute force solutions

Despite the original crews intent to make the bombs impossible to steal, situations like now had not been accounted for. So it was that as Juaquis went down the hall, explosions could be heard behind him as mines drifted out and into walls. One drifted against his shield though, and after Juaquis got to the bombs, and opened a case, he'd see every letter of the English alphabet, numbers zero through nine, and all standard symbols.

Automatically, it's batteries kicked in, stirred into action by the opening of the case.

"Please enter your forty character password to arm and free the bomb. Remember, it consists of letters, numbers, and symbols. Some letters a capitalized, some are not. Warning: three failures will activate the fail safe." the screen read.

OOC: And yes, I demand to read three different passwords to continue, they should meet specifications. All symbols on the standard 101 key us keyboard are there.

OOC: Clarification...

IC:

Zakos pretty much knew that hostilities would arise as soon as the Virus was boxed in. He commanded the AI to begin fire with the guns. As soon as the first burst was over he commanded the ship to get back to the station so he could find something to use against the swarm.

OOC: Yay Terraform hunt!

(OOC: The ships left, they are not going to stay around in a empty system and my fleets have much more important matters to attend to then this)

Harrison shows Dr. Nasagori his robotic arm, it was plated like it was just armour over the hand. Yet where you would normally see the clothing the wires could be seen.

"I just fought a Guardian on the station, he toke my arm and killed my Sidearm which is sort of a Knights Apprentice. I have Earl Grey tea, it clears my senses"

He takes a sip, the warm tea keeping him relaxed. The arm was hindering his senses, the technology around him making him feel weak. He was used to the feeling.

"They mutated a Human woman named Irene, apparently that alone allowed them to understand and speak 'basic' she said they are the creations of the Chaos god. Which naturally got us worried because the only other nation we know to worship such a deity is Chronosia which is a nation Phenixica is not on good terms with. They seem to be nothing more then a parasite so powerful it overwhelms the host body completely and absorbs all knowledge. All that interests me is keeping a eye on them"

Phenixicans disliked the term basic, they simply called it English. Phenixica had it's own language but it is only spoken between Phenixicans to keep secrets secret.

"Phenixican foreign policy on such matters is to keep a eye and see what use we can get out of such a organism"

"Not this shit again, that man thing has been nothing but pain for us, destroy it, and anyone, or anything that might be onboard, and if it can't be destroyed, push it into the System Star." Dangaloth sighed to himself as twenty Devourers were shot up.

With a single command, the Devourers powered up, and than began shooting at the empty station, their warp beams slowly tearing the dead station to pieces. The station was equally targeted.

***************
Dr. Nasagori pushed his specs up on his eyes.

"Interesting, it seems the Swarm has given rise to two new species then. Let us call this Irene an Infested Human, for it is my theory the assimilation can be removed. Infested Irene might even rise to become a leader within the swarm. I'm pleased to know they can speak a language other than Swarmling, but I must profess never having heard of a language called Basic, unless your referring to the ancient and now defunct programming language, but you can't speak programming languages very well. I was sort of hoping they would've learned Galactic Common. Regardless, I'm excited now for I have two new subjects to study.

I know of their worship of the four gods of Chaos, and while I am not a religious man myself, I respect the rights of others to believe what they will. I think if the swarm ever met the Chronosian Imperium, a relationship most disastrous for the rest of us would be formed.

As for keeping an "eye" on them, that is what I am up to. I'm sure you have curiosities about the swarm of your own, why not research them here on the IGSC research station? We've come to settle in for the long haul. The swarm is the only experients we have going on that we need to be in a specific place for, so we've come to settle in near the swarm world. It'll be far more comfortable than a dropship, even if you modify it to be more homelike." Dr. Nasagori said.

He took a sip, and looked up.

"It seems our friends have been fired upon again, for I am reading Warp fire, the sort of signature only an organic being can produce, and since I personally know of no Chronosian or other Chaos Worshipper who regularly flies among the stars like some sort of superman, shooting eye beams of Chaos wherever he goes, it must be the Devourer evolutions. Besides that, I'm reading hundreds of shots per second. It'll be mere minutes before the defunct station is destroyed. I say they were fired upon, because I am picking up readings of some dead Devourer remains floating in space.

We'll have to remain here for our own safety, because the Experimental Weapons Department has a cache weapons that would annihilate an enemy, should they ever get them to work. And if my swarms are destroyed, I'll give authorization to blow the star and free the colony I have on an empty world elsewhere." Dr. Nasagori said.

He leaned back, and tapped a few buttons on a thin membrane in the wall. Seconds later, a wave of energy washed through the walls, cloaking the ship in an undetectability field.

"For our own protection, the station is re-cloaked. As I'm sure you can guess, I'm the man in charge of this station. The station's captain answers to me. Though really I trust his judgment in all matters.

If you were to stay here, it'd be as a member of the Consortium. Once a member, always a member, unless you do something so insidiously evil and against the moral code of most civilized societies that it forces the IGSC to kick you out. You don't pay anything, but you do share your research with us, even as we share ours with you. That is the basis of the IGSC, Scientists collaborating in the pursuit of knowledge, pure and absolute. It's the people who purchase our knowledge that support us, but they must abide by our terms and agreements in using it, such as non-military applications. Sounds strange I know, Developing weapons for non-military applications. And that's why we don't research them for anyone. The Weapons Department I mentioned earlier researches for us directly, so that we can protect ourselves in certain hostile areas, or when things turn hostile." Dr. Nasagori said, expanding on the purpose the IGSC.

A beam narrowly sliced the ships main engine, the ship drifted for a while in space as the secondary ion engines came online. As promised two more Ziolisian ships warped in. They were Caldari Enforcer Ships. Once in the system the immediately hauled Zakos' disabled ship behind them with a tractor beam.

The object begins to unravel, picking up debris and examining them before placing them down. It continues to float, when explosions rock the ship, so it moves towards the blast area.

The Devourers ignored the enforcer ships, and continued firing upon the station.

Meanwhile, the IGSC station settled into orbit around the world, safe behind their field.

Harrison smiled

"I will help you in your research, I will become a member but my first priority is always the Empress and her Empire. I swore loyalty for life to the Monrachy when I was accepted into the Order, you cannot break it easily. I am here to make sure no threat comes to the Empress."

The Order of the Burning Sky was at one time a religious order, but under the rule of Queen Kathrine Cook of the Bis Kingdom over 1600 years ago they owed there existence to her intervention during the Schism. So they toke a pledge of loyalty to her family. Since the Cook family got the throne when the Phenixican people united to form the Empire they are in the direct service of the monarchy and answer to only the leader of the time. They are accountable to nobody else.

The Knights do not mind, most of the leaders have been good worshipers and Emperor Belcameron 1st and 2nd were Knights themselves. Harrison would help the scientist as long as it benefited Phenixican knowledge of the swarm.

When he hears of the battle starting he frowns.

"This swarm is one of the most threatening rising powers i have ever seen, yet I cannot help but be interested by them"

Harrison smiled

"I will help you in your research, I will become a member but my first priority is always the Empress and her Empire. I swore loyalty for life to the Monrachy when I was accepted into the Order, you cannot break it easily. I am here to make sure no threat comes to the Empress."

The Order of the Burning Sky was at one time a religious order, but under the rule of Queen Kathrine Cook of the Bis Kingdom over 1600 years ago they owed there existence to her intervention during the Schism. So they toke a pledge of loyalty to her family. Since the Cook family got the throne when the Phenixican people united to form the Empire they are in the direct service of the monarchy and answer to only the leader of the time. They are accountable to nobody else.

The Knights do not mind, most of the leaders have been good worshipers and Emperor Belcameron 1st and 2nd were Knights themselves. Harrison would help the scientist as long as it benefited Phenixican knowledge of the swarm.

When he hears of the battle starting he frowns.

"This swarm is one of the most threatening rising powers i have ever seen, yet I cannot help but be interested by them"

"Indeed, that is why most people join the IGSC. Understand the consortium as a whole cannot align itself with anyone, or anything, but individuals are free to align themselves as they will. We would never dream of being more important than family, friends, home. I myself am Warhavenite.

But let us watch, and see what is going on." the doctor says as he leans back and fiddles with the membrane keys. A swarm of Nanites cloud up, and coalesced into a view screen, which in turn displayed the action outside.

Juaquis sat down in-front of the bomb, staring at the screen and it's command prompt. He knew there was no way to guess the correct code and with this knowledge he pouted. He had to think of something...maybe Rattus cou....

The station was rocked by an explosion. However this explosion was different. This explosion was continuous. As if to explain what was going on a jet of energy cut through the room, nearly slicing a bomb in half.

"Holzy shitzor!" exclaimed Juaquis as he dove away from the beam.

With some quick calculations Juaquis decided he didn't want the trophy so badly that he would die to get it. Spinning around he began to sprint back to his ship. He didn't even bother to use doorways, instead he just charged straight through bulkheads.

He had to get off this ship...and whoever had made him lose his trophy was going to pay for their insolence.

Juaquis sat down in-front of the bomb, staring at the screen and it's command prompt. He knew there was no way to guess the correct code and with this knowledge he pouted. He had to think of something...maybe Rattus cou....

The station was rocked by an explosion. However this explosion was different. This explosion was continuous. As if to explain what was going on a jet of energy cut through the room, nearly slicing a bomb in half.

"Holzy shitzor!" exclaimed Juaquis as he dove away from the beam.

With some quick calculations Juaquis decided he didn't want the trophy so badly that he would die to get it. Spinning around he began to sprint back to his ship. He didn't even bother to use doorways, instead he just charged straight through bulkheads.

He had to get off this ship...and whoever had made him lose his trophy was going to pay for their insolence.

Still the devourers continued to fire on the station, all 1180 of them.

Harrison was amazed.

"I never seen a biological creature which can actually use weaponized energy. They resemble the Qwelva before they became extinct but even the n the Qwelva were just overgrown insects with a large brain"

Harrison was amazed.

"I never seen a biological creature which can actually use weaponized energy. They resemble the Qwelva before they became extinct but even the n the Qwelva were just overgrown insects with a large brain"

"Though I myself have been unable to entirely identify the process, The swarm has a series of specialized organs that require the presence of a Zealot breed to function. These organs can pull the energy of the warp, process it, and allow the body to use it. But even I am incorrect in what I just said, though I don't know how. Swarms vaporize upon death, what little remains after the body explodes.

I pray the swarm never takes up the notion to travel to Andromeda, for there controlling the Omega sector lies a similar yet more powerful species like the Swarm. They are called Tyranids, and if the swarm and the Tyranids were to ever assimilate each other..."

"If the Swarm became more powerful then the Phenixican Empire would put them on high watch, sadly our fleets are about to be very busy with more important foes. The Swarm itself seems scary but they are not strong enough yet to be any real threat to the Empire if a war did break out. It would be the first time in our history where we actually had the advantage when a war started"

((OOC:Not a insult, when your nation is bigger Phenixica will be starting to sweat a bit))

"If the Swarm became more powerful then the Phenixican Empire would put them on high watch, sadly our fleets are about to be very busy with more important foes. The Swarm itself seems scary but they are not strong enough yet to be any real threat to the Empire if a war did break out. It would be the first time in our history where we actually had the advantage when a war started"

((OOC:Not a insult, when your nation is bigger Phenixica will be starting to sweat a bit))

"I wish you luck in your impending struggles. I must wonder though, why are they attacking the station so relentlessly? It's a dead and unarmed station. Are they maybe breaking it into smaller scraps to feed upon?"

Juaquis smashed through the last bulkhead and saw his ship still intact. He sprinted into the cockpit and began warming up the engines. He disconnected Flying Dawn from the station and began to drift. His finger flew across the controls with the same speed used to hack the door.

What seemed like an eternity was actaually roughly 30 seconds as Flying Dawn came online.


Flying Dawn looked like a cobbled together piece of crap but was in fact a formidably opponent to capital ships 100 times her size. In fact it was made from a good portion of capital ships that had been scavenged by Jockson, Juaquis, Rattus, and friends. With shields that were usually found on frigates, Weapons systems with 360* degree arks of fire, and a FTL system that allowed for a quick escape, the Flying Dawn was a fearsome combatant indeed.

Still the devourers fired upon the station, thinking the ship just a piece of debris that had fallen off.

Interestingly, a part of the ship did fall off, and drift silently, it contained two mint condition Terra forming bombs, all one had to do was tow it away.

One disappeared in a transporter beam, though to all sensors there was no ship nearby, but in truth it went behind the IGSC's undetectability field to be studied by the IGSC. That left one Terra forming bomb left for whatever crazy person wanted it.

"Most likely because that station was weapons capable of devastating a Swarm World by terraforming it. Naturally that would need to be deposed of very quickly. Also I never saw one of the ships leave the station meaning somebody is still on board, but judging from the fact I saved someones ass in there and for thanks they tried to put a virus into my nations ships I wouldn't be so quick to help"

It was not cold, just Harrison duty as a Knight was to protect the monarchy and it's Empire. Trying to harm the Empire brought no sympathy, he was generalizing because the person in the station had nothing to do with it but he wasnt so forgiving.

Phenixica has had allot of bad experience with foreigners.

The object relizes it's being fired upon, and quickly makes an escape attempt. It sends a message somewhere far away, and gets a response, something will come to aid it.

OOC: Alright y'all, let's end this.

IC:

"We picked up the signature of a few strange devices, glad to know it's for Terra Forming. It was brought aboard, being looked at. It's been thoroughly de-armed and separated into it's component pieces. Initial theories suggest that it operates similar to a Genesis Device, transforming a world from dead to living." Dr. Nasagori said, picking up the information from the feeds in his glasses.

"I do look forward to joining you, this is one of the few good occasions Phenixica has had with foreigners" He takes a sip of tea, the station would be destroyed soon and the station would move on. When they finally left this cursed system he would wire up the dropship to send information gathered about the swarm back to the empire.

He stares at his robotic hand, it was draining his magical potential which meant he was going to have to train harder then ever, more so since he will have prolonged exposure to a technological environment.

The Temple wont like what he is doing, they don't like huge risk takers ever since the Emperor died. He knew this was important, the Eternal Swarm was nothing but a mole to the universe. Thing is it's potential to turn cancerous is dangerous if given the right conditions.

The Phenixican Empire knew little of Chaos, but by what they did know it clashed in every way to the Temple. Religion is a powerful force in the Phenixican Empire because the temple indirectly promotes loyalty to he empire.

Sure the Phenixican people got their powers through the death of the Phoenix, they were like the swarm. Offspring of a Deity but in the end this could be the greatest hindrance to a friendly relationship.

He whispers to himself.

"Guardians of fire watch over me"

"I do look forward to joining you, this is one of the few good occasions Phenixica has had with foreigners" He takes a sip of tea, the station would be destroyed soon and the station would move on. When they finally left this cursed system he would wire up the dropship to send information gathered about the swarm back to the empire.

He stares at his robotic hand, it was draining his magical potential which meant he was going to have to train harder then ever, more so since he will have prolonged exposure to a technological environment.

The Temple wont like what he is doing, they don't like huge risk takers ever since the Emperor died. He knew this was important, the Eternal Swarm was nothing but a mole to the universe. Thing is it's potential to turn cancerous is dangerous if given the right conditions.

The Phenixican Empire knew little of Chaos, but by what they did know it clashed in every way to the Temple. Religion is a powerful force in the Phenixican Empire because the temple indirectly promotes loyalty to he empire.

Sure the Phenixican people got their powers through the death of the Phoenix, they were like the swarm. Offspring of a Deity but in the end this could be the greatest hindrance to a friendly relationship.

He whispers to himself.

"Guardians of fire watch over me"
"Unless I've gone insane, which I highly doubt, it seems to me you have a robotic arm, AND magic. Now, as opposing as the two factors are, we have this brilliant lad down in R&D who can alter that arm to where it won't hamper your magic. He's a practicing magic user, and as varied as it is, he seems to be quite skilled at it. Fact is, he's the sort of user that blends magic with technology. It's not as effective as pure bio-matter, that is, a real arm, but it doesn't hamper your magic as much as a normal Robo arm does. I could schedule an appointment with him as early as later on this evening, meanwhile I suggest we move over to your room.

As it just so happens, it's on this floor, and down the hall. Maintenance has just finished cleaning it and insuring it's proper working order. It's main room is approximately sixty foot square, has a small ten by twenty kitchen, a fifteen by twenty dining room, the standard restroom, shower is optionally water, or sonic, a Guest room, in case of company, and the master suite is twenty by forty. You must funrish it yourself, but it does come with a replicator, a rather large one at that, it can provide furniture, and if you don't feel like cooking, it can. It also has a computer interface, tomorrow we'll go through and assist you with connecting your drop ship so you can access your personal system from there, without the need to trudge down to the docking bay. The dock you ship is in has been assigned as your personal parking space as it were, and if you like, we can assist with keeping the outside all neat and sparkly, but we won't meddle with the insides or engines, unless you specifically ask. All we need do is get the computer to recognize you." Dr. Nasagori said.

From the Dark reaches of space, a large metalic smooth object emerges, it heads toward the Swarm homeworld, the one creatue joins into it

The station now in pieces, the Devourers turn their attention towards the large smooth object, still powered up, but not firing.

Harrison says goodbye to head towards his quarters for some sleep, he goes into the shower. Water trickled down his body, he felt weak in his new surroundings which were doing more harm to him then his arm.

As he puts a towel around his waist, his body showing the signs of battle with scars and also a tattoo of a Phoenix on the back of his right shoulder he collapses on his bed.

He closes his eyes, first time he has slept in a week. He thinks of Rebbecca another victim of the radical and aggressive Exploration Policies that the Empire enforces to assure it's safety.

He would most likely be sent another Sidearm, but he would miss her company.

When the object gets close enough, it splits into hundreds, maybe thousands of smaller objects. They swarm at the devorers trying to cut at them with sharpened metal and electrocute them with their bodies

But the Devourers have shields. Seeing the attack, the Devourers fight back, shooting with sheets of Acid. Taros fly up from the world, and shoot at them with their exploding acid worms.

OOC: Taros number another thousand. No killing the whole hive cluster.

Shrugging off the acid as if it were merely a slap, the creatures try something new. They they combine the metals around them into what appears to be some sort of a cannon. They all gather into the middle and charge themselves. Then they release a huge wave of plasma, directed by the metal substance, at the swarm
OCC: The creatures are living balls of plasma and electricity, Energy Based Life Forms, physical and attacks like acid won't hurt them, energy weapons will though

The plasma hits the devourers, completly demolishing their shields. The injured swarmlings cluster around the invaders and explode in a shower of Warp energy. The energy doesn't disappear, it stays but doesn't do further damage, except for the occasional little jolt.

OOC: Beware, kill too many Warp power capable swarmlings, and you'll cause the warp to open up. This swarm doesn't have The Shadow in The Warp ability, they can't keep the warp demons in the warp.

Some of the creatures "blink-out" (die), causing more fury. They come back together and place the metal around them and begin to do the same attack again, only this time much more ferocious than before.

Some of the creatures "blink-out" (die), causing more fury. They come back together and place the metal around them and begin to do the same attack again, only this time much more ferocious than before.

More Devourers cluster around the thing and die in a Warp explosion. The Devourers are all gone, but the Taros have replaced them, but the Taros, only having non-energy based attacks, are ineffective at best.

On the world below, the swarm buries itself for protection.

The warp energy has become nebulous.

The remaining creatures that didn't blink-out in the explosion easily cut through the Taros. The EBL do not seem to care about warp energy.

And so the space fleet was defeated...

The EBL seem to lose interest in the swarm and depart

http://www.human-age.com/

OOC: This is ended!