Post by Seam Daigon on Jul 22, 2014 18:19:12 GMT
Angels Return:
Chapter I: The Unthinkable.
A stiff man in a suit, with slick black hair, sits in an office room with several high ranking agents. The furniture in the room is black with gold amarrian designs. The men and women look to the stiff man in the suit brings up a holo map of the cluster with several uncharted systems highlighted. "These are our targets, I have acquired this intel from a newly discovered temple." The stiff man looks to the agents as they look in shock, one woman even replies "A temple? But we have only ever found one, and it was all but destroyed from years of neglect." The stiff man sits back and brings up a recording of Crimson Squads operations in the temple "This one was very much intact and still being used, the unthinkable has happened. they are real, they are powerful, and they are still here." The agents look to each other and whisper to each other. The stiff man slams his fist on the table "We are the few that actually know of these beings, if their existence was to be known to the cluster... or worse, if they was to attack." The woman speaks up "We need to send scouting parties to these sites, we need to find something that can stop the one known as the Patriarch." The man sighs and sits back "Yes, this is why I sent Crimson to that planet, it has brought new intel to us. We know there is something that can be used against him, I also have some one in mind to give it too, some one that might be able to use it against him." The woman shakes her head "No, we can not trust those that are not in the sanctum. She knows nothing of us other than your some agent in the Ministry of Internal Order, And who is to say the Patriarch can even be stopped. You saw what they did in that recording, just a small group took out all of Crimson Squad like they was just cattle, we..." The stiff man raises his hand to silence the woman "We will do as I say, I built this group to try and uncover all that we can of the angels, we will collect this device and hand it over to Seam Daigon, she will figure out a way to use it against the Patriarch." The woman just grunts as a young man stands up "We can not be so sure, my lord. We have recordings of what they have done to the Sansha and we have data we are still trying to decode and translate that we discovered at the first temple over fifty years ago." The stiff man stands "We are proceeding as planned, you are all dismissed." They all leave the room.
The stiff man sits back down in his chair and adjusts his neck tie and loosens his collar to let in some of the cool air from the room on his neck. A transmission comes in, he opens the holo screen to see a bald man standing on a bridge of a titan "Sir! We have reached Alpha One and are preparing to begin operation Odin." The stiff man nods his head "You may proceed with operations, I trust you will get the job done at all costs." The bald man nods "Yes Sir!"
Chapter II: Operation Odin:
The bald man turns to his communications officer "Set this broadcast to fleet wide." The comms officer nods "It is ready when you are sir." The bald man turns to the view port looking out at the planet "This is Admiral Fitcher, Operation Odin is about to begin, all Captains, prepare your craft to form a blockade around Alpha One, nothing is to get off this planet. We may come up against an enemy we have never seen or faced before, but we must hold this planet. We will be sending a massive force to the planet to engage a temple of unknown origin. So I will repeat, Operation Odin is a go!" The soldiers board drop ships and the fleet moves into blockade formation. A large fleet consisting of one Leviathan titan, 8 Revelation Dreadnoughts, 5 Archon carriers, 25 Paladin battleships, 15 Nighthawk command ships, 20 Cerberus heavy assault cruisers, 10 Thrasher destroyers, 30 Various assault frigates, and 10 various interceptors.
The drop ships wisp to the planet escorted by fighters launched from the carriers, the consist of 5 commanding squads, Squad Omega, Squad Arrow, Squad Hunter, Squad Razor, and Squad Redeemer. They reach the planet's surface with no resistance, it is a lush jungle region with rivers, mountains, and rains that can last for months. The commanding squads start to head in different directions, splitting the large army into 5 groups to search the jungles for the temple, they brought tanks, gunships, heavy weapons, snipers, shock troopers, medics etc. Squad Omega heads north, Squad Razor heads east, Squad Arrow heads south, Squad Hunter heads west, and Squad Redeemer holds the L.Z.
Chapter III: Squad Razor.
"They send us to the most lovely of places huh Sir?" The commander looks back while riding on the tank "Oh yes, dont you like rain that doesnt seem to stop?" One man looks up walking along side the tank "Sir, I actually like it, it reminds me of home, oh how the rain would hit the pond in our back yard, it was beautiful." The commander pauses "What do you mean it "was" beautiful?" The man looks back up "Remember the battle at Caldari Prime? Well my family's home was where the titan crashed" he just looks straight and keeps walking, the other soldier on the tank replies "Serves you right for being Caldari" The commander looks at the man "If you ever make another remark like that, I will kill you before this jungle does." The man just shuts up and looks forward.
"We are coming up on our first checkpoint, ALL STOP!" the force stops, "What is our next move Thatch." The commander looks back at the young man "Dont call me by my name, it is Sir or commander to you, boy." The young man just nods. "Our next move is to report in and to see what our next checkpoint is." The commander rolls out a plaster mat that has a holo map appear on it. "Alright we are here just before this river, we will need to go around to this clearing and cross over where the river is most narrow" Suddenly an explosion is heard as a tank in the back of the force is destroyed. "Get communications up, report that we are under attack from unknown hostiles." One of the men rushes to reach one of the other squads or even the fleet but gets back no reply "Sir! Our communications are down." The commander barks out orders to take cover "What the hell do you mean our communications are down? Those things work on quantum entanglements." The man hands him the comms "I dont know sir but they are down as you can clearly see, some how they are jamming communications" The commander orders the force to fire in the direction of the incoming enemy fire "This is what they warned us about, those witches we got reports about are here. ALL ATTACK! DONT LET A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE BITCHES LIVE!"
hundreds of machines come running out of the trees and into the firefight. Squad Razor's weapons almost have no affect on the machines as they fight desperately to stay alive, the machines show no emotion, they show no mercy, and they kill as quickly as possible. Soon almost all of Squad Razor is eliminated as several armored female witches come out to see the commander and what few men he has left, out of ammo they try to pull out nova knives and attack but the machines subdue them and hold them down. The female walks up to the commander (With two voices at the same time) "You think you can plunder our temples? You think your powerful? There is only death awaiting you in our temples, you are not yet worthy to walk with us. Your other teams will not make it off this planet alive. News of us will not become too widely known to you humans until you are worthy." Thatch looks at the woman in her blue iris glowing eyes "We have a whole fleet in orbit, we will rain death on this planet and you will not leave alive either." He grins in her face. The woman looks up at the sky "We know this, we know why you come, we watch you, hidden in the shadows. Your fleet will do us no harm, we have millions of ways to stop it, we have millions of ways to let it happen and not be harmed, we are above you. We are not afraid of you, like you are of us. We only fear one thing, the darkness that threatens your worlds. You are working for the agents that wish to see this darkness spread, to corrupt you, to break you, to fill you with fear, to make you lose all hope, and when you are on the brink of hopelessness, it will consume you all. Not even the light can save you my child." She pulls up her black pistol and fires a round of anti matter into the commander's head vaporizing it.
Chapter IV: Squad Arrow.
Hera the commander of Squad Arrow stands next to her APC, she looks into the mists caused by the rain and heat. The force under her command knows her well, a veteran with the Sanctum, serving 23 years with them, she is well trusted. Hera looks back at her men, tired from walking for hours, she is nervous. Hera's second in command walks up and stands on her left, he looks over at her "We haven't received any information from the other squads, something has gone wrong." Hera looks at Covak "Brother, we are in the dark, I have noticed our communications are down and so is our link with the fleet. I am sure they are going to start launching scout fighters to survey the area and see if the mission has failed." Covak looks into the mists ahead of them "What exactly is our mission any ways?" Hera starts to walk forward "We are here to retrieve a piece of their technology and if at all possible, capture one of them alive." Covak stops dead in his tracks "Did you just say "alive"?" Hera chuckles but continues to move "Yes brother, I did say alive. That is the mission of Squad Arrow, Squad Razor's objective was to lure as many of their forces to the east, the temple is said to be in the south, I hope for Razor's sake that they was not all wiped out." Covak starts walking again and a bit faster than Hera to get by her side again "I heard the fighting, they must of engaged them." Hera grins "Thatch is impatient and arrogant, his squad was most likely taken out since the sounds of the battle didnt last long." Covak smiles "So more for us then?" Hera pulls out her pistol "I wouldnt be so eager to see my little brother, I hear they are even stronger than the Jovians."
The squad reaches the site of the temple, unguarded and blocked by a 10 meter triangular door. Black and covered in strange markings, those standing around it feel as if a weight is pushing down on them, foreboding and power, the door is alien to all. Hera steps up and in front of the whole squad, she turns and faces them "Here is the door to the dark witches that infest this world, we are here to retrieve a strange device and capture one of the witches, we will succeed and we will bring honor to our families and that of the Sanctum. NOW LETS GET IN THERE!" They all charge at the door as it opens, the force bottle necks into the temple, the black walls clime to the roof and come to a point 10 meters above their heads, the walls and floor is cold to the touch. Covak and Hera lead the squad with their rifles drawn and eyes forward, they see no sign of the evil they have been sent to capture. They pass many rooms and come to a circular room with a pedestal in the middle. "This must be their famous palm readers, Covak see if it responds." Covak puts his hand on the pedestal and the floor drops at a rapid speed but they feel as if they are not moving at all.
Chapter V: Into The Bowels Of Darkness.
Squad Arrow rode the massive elevator for what seemed like an hour, they arrive deep in the planet's crust. Before them lies a massive city, Hera looks back at the squad "How did they manage to build such large structures in a planet like this, we must be twenty or even thirty kilometers below the surface yet they have lakes, buildings, lights, and the temperature feels just like it does on the surface, it should be hot down this far." Hera then walks forward into the city, the squad follows, their attention is caught off guard by the beauty of the city and the marvels that scatter the streets, vehicles, technology, and machines litter the streets. Hera looks to Covak "Strange that the witches would leave such a place like this, a complete mess." Covak nods "We should find the tech, we was sent here for as soon as possible, I get the feeling that we are being watched." Hera looks around "I believe we are, little brother, they are here, they followed us in." Covak stops and draws his rifle "Then here would be a good place to catch one." Hera pulls his arm "No, little brother, wait till we have the tech, I at least want to get the main objective complete." Covak nods and just follows "What is the tech exactly?" Hera brings up the mission objective on her data pad "A computer, it is supposed to have the data we are after, a way to stop the Patriarch."
The squad reaches the tech they are after, "this is it, we must secure it and get it out of here." Covak calls for some men to get it loaded onto an APC, "It is rather large, I thought we was coming to get a computer?" Hera grins, "A ship computer." Several witches uncloak next to Hera along with several of their AI combat machines. One witch has no armor and is completely unarmed, Hera pulls out her rifle "Fire!" The witch quickly drops to her knees and screams with a their signature dual voices "Stop, I come in peace" Hera raises her hand to signal the squad to not attack "What do you mean? Every other time you show up, you kill everyone." The other witches leave as the one on her knees stays, Hera looks around her and then back at the single witch. Hera looks to Covak "Restrain her and load her onto the APC." Covak gets close to Hera and talks to her quietly "You know this is probably a trap right?" Hera grins, "I will gladly self destruct that APC along with me on it to kill such a ballsy witch." Covak puts his hand on her shoulder "It would be a sight to see, sister" He then puts restraints on the witch and she willingly climbs into the APC. The are able to leave with out a single shot being fired, later a drop ship picks up the squad and takes them to the fleet.
Chapter VI: Squad Omega.
Squad Omega, the largest military force on Alpha One, lead by Evest Dorn (AKA General Dorn) They come across a long dead city over grown by the jungle, An old human colony that failed decades ago. General Dorn rides atop a tank as they travel the city streets "General, this colony is rather large, it will take us days to make our way through these plant covered streets" The General responds "We will push through this area even if it takes us weeks, our mission objective is to eliminate the Witches spotted to the east." the young man nervous to respond to the General "But that was Squad Razor's mission." The General clearing his throat "That ragtag bunch that call them selves soldiers are no match for these witches and their machines, we are Squad Omega, we are the wrecking ball of the Sanctum and we are heading east, this city just happens to be between us and Razor's last known position. Now move your ass and stop asking questions, you are a soldier, your job is to do what I say." The squad continues to break through the roots and broken buildings as they make their way through the dead city.
The men nervous and scared of the General know they must obey all commands, they have seen what the General does to those that straight up tell him no. (10 years ago...) General Dorn standing near the open door of a flying drop ship, his left hand on the safety rail and his rifle in his right, the men are nervous as its their first time in combat but even now General Dorn is a decorated veteran in the art of war, winning and and losing countless battles, General Dorn has been in most of the famous wars in some form or another. One of the men whimpers that he doesnt want to fight, Dorn over hears him and turns to the young man "You dont want to fight? Did I hear that right?" The young man reluctantly nods. Dorn walks over and takes a knee in front of him to be at eye level "Why do you not want to fight?" The General says in a soft calming tone, the young man replies "Because I never wanted to fight this war, sir." The general stands and looks down on him "The enemy out there doesnt care if you dont want to fight, they will still kill you. They probably dont want to fight either, but they are told to do so." The young man just stares at Dorn "But sir, we could always say no." The general grabs the young man and holds him at the open doors "You want to say no? Do you? then go ahead and get out of my drop ship you coward." The general tosses the young man out of the drop ship and to his death, the General turns to the other men "What are you all looking at? You heard him, he didnt want to fight. If you dont fight then your already dead, do any of you want to die today?" The men all yell "NO SIR!" the general stands straight "Good now fight like you want to live."
(Present...) The general now covered in scars and battle worn, he is tough and wont take shit from any of his men when it comes to obeying orders, the men fear him but respect the tyrant of a General.
Chapter VII: The Horrors Of Flesh.
Night falls on the city, Squad Omega camp up for rest, they create a defensive perimeter with the tanks and set up tents and guard shifts. The General sits by the fire listening to the men tell their stories when suddenly he hears one of the guards scream and 2 shots being fired, the General stands and points at 2 of the men "Go see what the hell just happened, we could be under attack." The two men rush over to see a skinny boned man tearing into the flesh of the fallen guard, one of the men tries to pull the skinny man off the dead man. The skinny man turns and scratches the soldier's face and screams an horrifying sound, he then lunges at the soldier, biting into his neck, the other soldier fires at the skinny man, killing it. The other soldier severely hurt and bleeding. The soldier drags the man to the medic, the General rushes in "What the hell happened? Report soldier." The soldier looks at the General "We was attacked by a odd looking feral human sir." The General just walks out of the medic's tent and starts barking orders to reinforce the perimeter and to be on the look out for feral humans that may still live in the city.
Another feral human comes crawling out of a building but this one is more bulky and its arm looks deformed, suddenly it raises the deformed arm and starts launching boned spikes at the soldiers, they return fire but take several rounds to drop the feral woman. "Sir these things are showing up more and more, we may need to move." The General nods "Lets get the tanks moving, we have to get out of this nest of monsters." Suddenly more of the Feral humans start to make their way into the streets, each one different and deadlier than the last. "FIRE!" the General yells to his men as they start to clear a path through the creatures. A 3 meter tall brute of a creature comes busting through a building wall and rams a tank, the muscles protect it from most of the small arms fire as it starts to tear the limbs off soldiers and climb over the tanks, one soldier takes out his jax and fires several missiles at the beast, blowing it apart as they try to fight their way through the mass crowds of the creatures, more and more come into the streets surrounding the squad. The general sees an unknown drop ship come in and drop off some witches and their machines, the witches start to attack the creatures, a heavy armored male barks orders at the witches and runs in with a sword, he cuts through the beasts and fends them off as if they are as weak as children. Beams of light come out of the sky and more of the armored males appear holding strange weapons that shoot arcs of lightning turning the creatures into thin air.
The General stands on top of the tank stunned from the sight, and as quickly as they appeared the witches left in pillars of light. The General calls for a drop ship to get what is left of his squad back to the fleet.
Chapter VIII: The Ballsy Witch.
Guards take the witch to the brig on the Titan, they secure the room with an interrogator, A Sanctum Diplomat, Hera, and several armed security guards. Admiral Fitcher watches the security feed from the bridge along side General Dorn. The interrogator looks at the witch who sits in the chair straight and calm, she constantly looks straight ahead at the wall not moving as the interrogator walks around her "I hear you speak a language our translators are able to translate." The witches replies with only a single voice instead of their signature dual voices "I can speak any language you humans know, even the ones used by the ones you call the ancient terrans, I am currently speaking Amarrian." The diplomat steps forward "How do you know all our languages? "The witch grins "Your wireless network communications is full of free to access information, we have collected all of it including all of your slang, culture, and languages." The interrogator looks to the diplomat as the diplomat continues "Yes but I mean you personally have learned all of this information? That is a lot for one person to know." The witch still looking straight ahead at the blank wall replies "I personally do not know this information but I am able to access it from my implants, if that is what you are asking." The diplomat smiles "So there is at least limits to what you are able to do." The witch grins and then looks to the diplomat "There is limits to everything, that does not mean you cant over come them." Hera clinches her fist "Why did you come so willingly, that is my main question and probably everyone else's as well, No one has any record of ever openly communicating with any of your kind before now." The witch looks to Hera "You are the reason I came so willingly." Hera stands in front of the witch "Why me?" The witch replies "I overheard you speak of the one called the Patriarch, I heard you say that you are trying to stop him." Hera looks to the others in the room and then the interrogator looks to the witch "Why do you come so willingly if we are trying to kill one of your own?" The witch goes back to looking at the wall "We are also trying to stop him, he has betrayed my people and our way of life." The interrogator clears his throat "Then why do you kill us on sight?" The witch looks to the interrogator "We do not kill on sight, you are trespassing and stealing, you ignore our warnings and continue on, so we resort to termination of life. We feel you are not worthy of the information held in our temples nor do we feel you are worthy to know of our existence."
The admiral comes in on loud speaker in the room "What did you do to the colony that was located on that planet, we have reports of deformed feral humans that attacked one of our squads." The witch sighs and responds "That is the work of the darkness, agents aligned with this evil has done this to that colony, we had intel that you was also working for such agents but it seems that if you are wanting to stop the Patriarch then you do not work for such agents." Hera takes a seat in front of the witch "Why dont you stop the patriarch your self? You are obviously more advanced than we are." The witch sighs again "The Patriarch is just as advanced, he has the same tech, the same abilities, the same power. The patriarch has created an army of his own and many join him every day, his power grows with every passing rotation. We can not stop him with out making our presence known to your universe." Hera stands back up and turns away from the witch "and what would be so wrong for us to know of you if it saves us from this lunatic?" The witch looks to Hera "Have you not seen what we can do? Do you not think that any of you would not want the same power? If every human knew of us, they would all fight for this power and the ones who achieve it will end up making you more known to others like us, it will signal that you are ready for a higher form of war, a war of an entire universe, a war you are not ready to engage at this time. You are afraid of weapons that can destroy worlds, what would your kind do if they had to fear weapons that can destroy galaxies? Weapons that can destroy entire sections of your universe? Or even your whole universe?" Hera looks down and sighs as the diplomat looks to the witch "Then what do you suggest?" The witch smiles "Give the AI spirit to the one you have plans for, the one known as Seam, She will end up handing it over to ones that have a chance to win against him, ones that can help us as well. I can not give any more information than that." The diplomat nods "But how do you know of Seam and our Leader's plans?" The witch stands and snaps her binds as if they was made of tin foil "I know of the relationship with your leader and that of Seam, Things will happen for the better this way, trust in your feelings and of your leader." A pillar of light shoots through the titan and the witch is gone, no damage is done to the structure of the titan and none of the sensors could pick up the pillar of light passing through it.
The fleet calls back all squads and makes it's way back to the Sanctum HQ.
Chapter IX: The Connections Deepen.
The Admiral hands over the AI probe to the Sanctum and all of the Sanctum's leading officers are summoned once again by the stiff man in the suit. "We have just got our secret weapon against the Patriarch, It is an old AI that has the intel we need to stop him and what ever he plans to do." The officers all nod in agreement except for the Gallente female "I still do not feel it is right to involve Seam Daigon in our plans." The stiff man responds "It is the best course, she has a proven track record of doing the right thing and not the selfish thing, she is also not affiliated with us in any way, if things go down hill, no one can track it back to us and we can remain the hidden hand." The gallente woman reluctantly nods "Then it is agreed then, we will hand over the AI to your daughter and set the events in motion." All the officers stand and say "All hail the Sanctum and all hail Akhilesh Feran" Akhilesh (AKA the stiff man in the suit) stands and looks to the gallente woman "Jula please join me on a walk." Jula Daigon stands and follows Akhilesh out of the room as the officers leave.
Chapter I: The Unthinkable.
A stiff man in a suit, with slick black hair, sits in an office room with several high ranking agents. The furniture in the room is black with gold amarrian designs. The men and women look to the stiff man in the suit brings up a holo map of the cluster with several uncharted systems highlighted. "These are our targets, I have acquired this intel from a newly discovered temple." The stiff man looks to the agents as they look in shock, one woman even replies "A temple? But we have only ever found one, and it was all but destroyed from years of neglect." The stiff man sits back and brings up a recording of Crimson Squads operations in the temple "This one was very much intact and still being used, the unthinkable has happened. they are real, they are powerful, and they are still here." The agents look to each other and whisper to each other. The stiff man slams his fist on the table "We are the few that actually know of these beings, if their existence was to be known to the cluster... or worse, if they was to attack." The woman speaks up "We need to send scouting parties to these sites, we need to find something that can stop the one known as the Patriarch." The man sighs and sits back "Yes, this is why I sent Crimson to that planet, it has brought new intel to us. We know there is something that can be used against him, I also have some one in mind to give it too, some one that might be able to use it against him." The woman shakes her head "No, we can not trust those that are not in the sanctum. She knows nothing of us other than your some agent in the Ministry of Internal Order, And who is to say the Patriarch can even be stopped. You saw what they did in that recording, just a small group took out all of Crimson Squad like they was just cattle, we..." The stiff man raises his hand to silence the woman "We will do as I say, I built this group to try and uncover all that we can of the angels, we will collect this device and hand it over to Seam Daigon, she will figure out a way to use it against the Patriarch." The woman just grunts as a young man stands up "We can not be so sure, my lord. We have recordings of what they have done to the Sansha and we have data we are still trying to decode and translate that we discovered at the first temple over fifty years ago." The stiff man stands "We are proceeding as planned, you are all dismissed." They all leave the room.
The stiff man sits back down in his chair and adjusts his neck tie and loosens his collar to let in some of the cool air from the room on his neck. A transmission comes in, he opens the holo screen to see a bald man standing on a bridge of a titan "Sir! We have reached Alpha One and are preparing to begin operation Odin." The stiff man nods his head "You may proceed with operations, I trust you will get the job done at all costs." The bald man nods "Yes Sir!"
Chapter II: Operation Odin:
The bald man turns to his communications officer "Set this broadcast to fleet wide." The comms officer nods "It is ready when you are sir." The bald man turns to the view port looking out at the planet "This is Admiral Fitcher, Operation Odin is about to begin, all Captains, prepare your craft to form a blockade around Alpha One, nothing is to get off this planet. We may come up against an enemy we have never seen or faced before, but we must hold this planet. We will be sending a massive force to the planet to engage a temple of unknown origin. So I will repeat, Operation Odin is a go!" The soldiers board drop ships and the fleet moves into blockade formation. A large fleet consisting of one Leviathan titan, 8 Revelation Dreadnoughts, 5 Archon carriers, 25 Paladin battleships, 15 Nighthawk command ships, 20 Cerberus heavy assault cruisers, 10 Thrasher destroyers, 30 Various assault frigates, and 10 various interceptors.
The drop ships wisp to the planet escorted by fighters launched from the carriers, the consist of 5 commanding squads, Squad Omega, Squad Arrow, Squad Hunter, Squad Razor, and Squad Redeemer. They reach the planet's surface with no resistance, it is a lush jungle region with rivers, mountains, and rains that can last for months. The commanding squads start to head in different directions, splitting the large army into 5 groups to search the jungles for the temple, they brought tanks, gunships, heavy weapons, snipers, shock troopers, medics etc. Squad Omega heads north, Squad Razor heads east, Squad Arrow heads south, Squad Hunter heads west, and Squad Redeemer holds the L.Z.
Chapter III: Squad Razor.
"They send us to the most lovely of places huh Sir?" The commander looks back while riding on the tank "Oh yes, dont you like rain that doesnt seem to stop?" One man looks up walking along side the tank "Sir, I actually like it, it reminds me of home, oh how the rain would hit the pond in our back yard, it was beautiful." The commander pauses "What do you mean it "was" beautiful?" The man looks back up "Remember the battle at Caldari Prime? Well my family's home was where the titan crashed" he just looks straight and keeps walking, the other soldier on the tank replies "Serves you right for being Caldari" The commander looks at the man "If you ever make another remark like that, I will kill you before this jungle does." The man just shuts up and looks forward.
"We are coming up on our first checkpoint, ALL STOP!" the force stops, "What is our next move Thatch." The commander looks back at the young man "Dont call me by my name, it is Sir or commander to you, boy." The young man just nods. "Our next move is to report in and to see what our next checkpoint is." The commander rolls out a plaster mat that has a holo map appear on it. "Alright we are here just before this river, we will need to go around to this clearing and cross over where the river is most narrow" Suddenly an explosion is heard as a tank in the back of the force is destroyed. "Get communications up, report that we are under attack from unknown hostiles." One of the men rushes to reach one of the other squads or even the fleet but gets back no reply "Sir! Our communications are down." The commander barks out orders to take cover "What the hell do you mean our communications are down? Those things work on quantum entanglements." The man hands him the comms "I dont know sir but they are down as you can clearly see, some how they are jamming communications" The commander orders the force to fire in the direction of the incoming enemy fire "This is what they warned us about, those witches we got reports about are here. ALL ATTACK! DONT LET A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE BITCHES LIVE!"
hundreds of machines come running out of the trees and into the firefight. Squad Razor's weapons almost have no affect on the machines as they fight desperately to stay alive, the machines show no emotion, they show no mercy, and they kill as quickly as possible. Soon almost all of Squad Razor is eliminated as several armored female witches come out to see the commander and what few men he has left, out of ammo they try to pull out nova knives and attack but the machines subdue them and hold them down. The female walks up to the commander (With two voices at the same time) "You think you can plunder our temples? You think your powerful? There is only death awaiting you in our temples, you are not yet worthy to walk with us. Your other teams will not make it off this planet alive. News of us will not become too widely known to you humans until you are worthy." Thatch looks at the woman in her blue iris glowing eyes "We have a whole fleet in orbit, we will rain death on this planet and you will not leave alive either." He grins in her face. The woman looks up at the sky "We know this, we know why you come, we watch you, hidden in the shadows. Your fleet will do us no harm, we have millions of ways to stop it, we have millions of ways to let it happen and not be harmed, we are above you. We are not afraid of you, like you are of us. We only fear one thing, the darkness that threatens your worlds. You are working for the agents that wish to see this darkness spread, to corrupt you, to break you, to fill you with fear, to make you lose all hope, and when you are on the brink of hopelessness, it will consume you all. Not even the light can save you my child." She pulls up her black pistol and fires a round of anti matter into the commander's head vaporizing it.
Chapter IV: Squad Arrow.
Hera the commander of Squad Arrow stands next to her APC, she looks into the mists caused by the rain and heat. The force under her command knows her well, a veteran with the Sanctum, serving 23 years with them, she is well trusted. Hera looks back at her men, tired from walking for hours, she is nervous. Hera's second in command walks up and stands on her left, he looks over at her "We haven't received any information from the other squads, something has gone wrong." Hera looks at Covak "Brother, we are in the dark, I have noticed our communications are down and so is our link with the fleet. I am sure they are going to start launching scout fighters to survey the area and see if the mission has failed." Covak looks into the mists ahead of them "What exactly is our mission any ways?" Hera starts to walk forward "We are here to retrieve a piece of their technology and if at all possible, capture one of them alive." Covak stops dead in his tracks "Did you just say "alive"?" Hera chuckles but continues to move "Yes brother, I did say alive. That is the mission of Squad Arrow, Squad Razor's objective was to lure as many of their forces to the east, the temple is said to be in the south, I hope for Razor's sake that they was not all wiped out." Covak starts walking again and a bit faster than Hera to get by her side again "I heard the fighting, they must of engaged them." Hera grins "Thatch is impatient and arrogant, his squad was most likely taken out since the sounds of the battle didnt last long." Covak smiles "So more for us then?" Hera pulls out her pistol "I wouldnt be so eager to see my little brother, I hear they are even stronger than the Jovians."
The squad reaches the site of the temple, unguarded and blocked by a 10 meter triangular door. Black and covered in strange markings, those standing around it feel as if a weight is pushing down on them, foreboding and power, the door is alien to all. Hera steps up and in front of the whole squad, she turns and faces them "Here is the door to the dark witches that infest this world, we are here to retrieve a strange device and capture one of the witches, we will succeed and we will bring honor to our families and that of the Sanctum. NOW LETS GET IN THERE!" They all charge at the door as it opens, the force bottle necks into the temple, the black walls clime to the roof and come to a point 10 meters above their heads, the walls and floor is cold to the touch. Covak and Hera lead the squad with their rifles drawn and eyes forward, they see no sign of the evil they have been sent to capture. They pass many rooms and come to a circular room with a pedestal in the middle. "This must be their famous palm readers, Covak see if it responds." Covak puts his hand on the pedestal and the floor drops at a rapid speed but they feel as if they are not moving at all.
Chapter V: Into The Bowels Of Darkness.
Squad Arrow rode the massive elevator for what seemed like an hour, they arrive deep in the planet's crust. Before them lies a massive city, Hera looks back at the squad "How did they manage to build such large structures in a planet like this, we must be twenty or even thirty kilometers below the surface yet they have lakes, buildings, lights, and the temperature feels just like it does on the surface, it should be hot down this far." Hera then walks forward into the city, the squad follows, their attention is caught off guard by the beauty of the city and the marvels that scatter the streets, vehicles, technology, and machines litter the streets. Hera looks to Covak "Strange that the witches would leave such a place like this, a complete mess." Covak nods "We should find the tech, we was sent here for as soon as possible, I get the feeling that we are being watched." Hera looks around "I believe we are, little brother, they are here, they followed us in." Covak stops and draws his rifle "Then here would be a good place to catch one." Hera pulls his arm "No, little brother, wait till we have the tech, I at least want to get the main objective complete." Covak nods and just follows "What is the tech exactly?" Hera brings up the mission objective on her data pad "A computer, it is supposed to have the data we are after, a way to stop the Patriarch."
The squad reaches the tech they are after, "this is it, we must secure it and get it out of here." Covak calls for some men to get it loaded onto an APC, "It is rather large, I thought we was coming to get a computer?" Hera grins, "A ship computer." Several witches uncloak next to Hera along with several of their AI combat machines. One witch has no armor and is completely unarmed, Hera pulls out her rifle "Fire!" The witch quickly drops to her knees and screams with a their signature dual voices "Stop, I come in peace" Hera raises her hand to signal the squad to not attack "What do you mean? Every other time you show up, you kill everyone." The other witches leave as the one on her knees stays, Hera looks around her and then back at the single witch. Hera looks to Covak "Restrain her and load her onto the APC." Covak gets close to Hera and talks to her quietly "You know this is probably a trap right?" Hera grins, "I will gladly self destruct that APC along with me on it to kill such a ballsy witch." Covak puts his hand on her shoulder "It would be a sight to see, sister" He then puts restraints on the witch and she willingly climbs into the APC. The are able to leave with out a single shot being fired, later a drop ship picks up the squad and takes them to the fleet.
Chapter VI: Squad Omega.
Squad Omega, the largest military force on Alpha One, lead by Evest Dorn (AKA General Dorn) They come across a long dead city over grown by the jungle, An old human colony that failed decades ago. General Dorn rides atop a tank as they travel the city streets "General, this colony is rather large, it will take us days to make our way through these plant covered streets" The General responds "We will push through this area even if it takes us weeks, our mission objective is to eliminate the Witches spotted to the east." the young man nervous to respond to the General "But that was Squad Razor's mission." The General clearing his throat "That ragtag bunch that call them selves soldiers are no match for these witches and their machines, we are Squad Omega, we are the wrecking ball of the Sanctum and we are heading east, this city just happens to be between us and Razor's last known position. Now move your ass and stop asking questions, you are a soldier, your job is to do what I say." The squad continues to break through the roots and broken buildings as they make their way through the dead city.
The men nervous and scared of the General know they must obey all commands, they have seen what the General does to those that straight up tell him no. (10 years ago...) General Dorn standing near the open door of a flying drop ship, his left hand on the safety rail and his rifle in his right, the men are nervous as its their first time in combat but even now General Dorn is a decorated veteran in the art of war, winning and and losing countless battles, General Dorn has been in most of the famous wars in some form or another. One of the men whimpers that he doesnt want to fight, Dorn over hears him and turns to the young man "You dont want to fight? Did I hear that right?" The young man reluctantly nods. Dorn walks over and takes a knee in front of him to be at eye level "Why do you not want to fight?" The General says in a soft calming tone, the young man replies "Because I never wanted to fight this war, sir." The general stands and looks down on him "The enemy out there doesnt care if you dont want to fight, they will still kill you. They probably dont want to fight either, but they are told to do so." The young man just stares at Dorn "But sir, we could always say no." The general grabs the young man and holds him at the open doors "You want to say no? Do you? then go ahead and get out of my drop ship you coward." The general tosses the young man out of the drop ship and to his death, the General turns to the other men "What are you all looking at? You heard him, he didnt want to fight. If you dont fight then your already dead, do any of you want to die today?" The men all yell "NO SIR!" the general stands straight "Good now fight like you want to live."
(Present...) The general now covered in scars and battle worn, he is tough and wont take shit from any of his men when it comes to obeying orders, the men fear him but respect the tyrant of a General.
Chapter VII: The Horrors Of Flesh.
Night falls on the city, Squad Omega camp up for rest, they create a defensive perimeter with the tanks and set up tents and guard shifts. The General sits by the fire listening to the men tell their stories when suddenly he hears one of the guards scream and 2 shots being fired, the General stands and points at 2 of the men "Go see what the hell just happened, we could be under attack." The two men rush over to see a skinny boned man tearing into the flesh of the fallen guard, one of the men tries to pull the skinny man off the dead man. The skinny man turns and scratches the soldier's face and screams an horrifying sound, he then lunges at the soldier, biting into his neck, the other soldier fires at the skinny man, killing it. The other soldier severely hurt and bleeding. The soldier drags the man to the medic, the General rushes in "What the hell happened? Report soldier." The soldier looks at the General "We was attacked by a odd looking feral human sir." The General just walks out of the medic's tent and starts barking orders to reinforce the perimeter and to be on the look out for feral humans that may still live in the city.
Another feral human comes crawling out of a building but this one is more bulky and its arm looks deformed, suddenly it raises the deformed arm and starts launching boned spikes at the soldiers, they return fire but take several rounds to drop the feral woman. "Sir these things are showing up more and more, we may need to move." The General nods "Lets get the tanks moving, we have to get out of this nest of monsters." Suddenly more of the Feral humans start to make their way into the streets, each one different and deadlier than the last. "FIRE!" the General yells to his men as they start to clear a path through the creatures. A 3 meter tall brute of a creature comes busting through a building wall and rams a tank, the muscles protect it from most of the small arms fire as it starts to tear the limbs off soldiers and climb over the tanks, one soldier takes out his jax and fires several missiles at the beast, blowing it apart as they try to fight their way through the mass crowds of the creatures, more and more come into the streets surrounding the squad. The general sees an unknown drop ship come in and drop off some witches and their machines, the witches start to attack the creatures, a heavy armored male barks orders at the witches and runs in with a sword, he cuts through the beasts and fends them off as if they are as weak as children. Beams of light come out of the sky and more of the armored males appear holding strange weapons that shoot arcs of lightning turning the creatures into thin air.
The General stands on top of the tank stunned from the sight, and as quickly as they appeared the witches left in pillars of light. The General calls for a drop ship to get what is left of his squad back to the fleet.
Chapter VIII: The Ballsy Witch.
Guards take the witch to the brig on the Titan, they secure the room with an interrogator, A Sanctum Diplomat, Hera, and several armed security guards. Admiral Fitcher watches the security feed from the bridge along side General Dorn. The interrogator looks at the witch who sits in the chair straight and calm, she constantly looks straight ahead at the wall not moving as the interrogator walks around her "I hear you speak a language our translators are able to translate." The witches replies with only a single voice instead of their signature dual voices "I can speak any language you humans know, even the ones used by the ones you call the ancient terrans, I am currently speaking Amarrian." The diplomat steps forward "How do you know all our languages? "The witch grins "Your wireless network communications is full of free to access information, we have collected all of it including all of your slang, culture, and languages." The interrogator looks to the diplomat as the diplomat continues "Yes but I mean you personally have learned all of this information? That is a lot for one person to know." The witch still looking straight ahead at the blank wall replies "I personally do not know this information but I am able to access it from my implants, if that is what you are asking." The diplomat smiles "So there is at least limits to what you are able to do." The witch grins and then looks to the diplomat "There is limits to everything, that does not mean you cant over come them." Hera clinches her fist "Why did you come so willingly, that is my main question and probably everyone else's as well, No one has any record of ever openly communicating with any of your kind before now." The witch looks to Hera "You are the reason I came so willingly." Hera stands in front of the witch "Why me?" The witch replies "I overheard you speak of the one called the Patriarch, I heard you say that you are trying to stop him." Hera looks to the others in the room and then the interrogator looks to the witch "Why do you come so willingly if we are trying to kill one of your own?" The witch goes back to looking at the wall "We are also trying to stop him, he has betrayed my people and our way of life." The interrogator clears his throat "Then why do you kill us on sight?" The witch looks to the interrogator "We do not kill on sight, you are trespassing and stealing, you ignore our warnings and continue on, so we resort to termination of life. We feel you are not worthy of the information held in our temples nor do we feel you are worthy to know of our existence."
The admiral comes in on loud speaker in the room "What did you do to the colony that was located on that planet, we have reports of deformed feral humans that attacked one of our squads." The witch sighs and responds "That is the work of the darkness, agents aligned with this evil has done this to that colony, we had intel that you was also working for such agents but it seems that if you are wanting to stop the Patriarch then you do not work for such agents." Hera takes a seat in front of the witch "Why dont you stop the patriarch your self? You are obviously more advanced than we are." The witch sighs again "The Patriarch is just as advanced, he has the same tech, the same abilities, the same power. The patriarch has created an army of his own and many join him every day, his power grows with every passing rotation. We can not stop him with out making our presence known to your universe." Hera stands back up and turns away from the witch "and what would be so wrong for us to know of you if it saves us from this lunatic?" The witch looks to Hera "Have you not seen what we can do? Do you not think that any of you would not want the same power? If every human knew of us, they would all fight for this power and the ones who achieve it will end up making you more known to others like us, it will signal that you are ready for a higher form of war, a war of an entire universe, a war you are not ready to engage at this time. You are afraid of weapons that can destroy worlds, what would your kind do if they had to fear weapons that can destroy galaxies? Weapons that can destroy entire sections of your universe? Or even your whole universe?" Hera looks down and sighs as the diplomat looks to the witch "Then what do you suggest?" The witch smiles "Give the AI spirit to the one you have plans for, the one known as Seam, She will end up handing it over to ones that have a chance to win against him, ones that can help us as well. I can not give any more information than that." The diplomat nods "But how do you know of Seam and our Leader's plans?" The witch stands and snaps her binds as if they was made of tin foil "I know of the relationship with your leader and that of Seam, Things will happen for the better this way, trust in your feelings and of your leader." A pillar of light shoots through the titan and the witch is gone, no damage is done to the structure of the titan and none of the sensors could pick up the pillar of light passing through it.
The fleet calls back all squads and makes it's way back to the Sanctum HQ.
Chapter IX: The Connections Deepen.
The Admiral hands over the AI probe to the Sanctum and all of the Sanctum's leading officers are summoned once again by the stiff man in the suit. "We have just got our secret weapon against the Patriarch, It is an old AI that has the intel we need to stop him and what ever he plans to do." The officers all nod in agreement except for the Gallente female "I still do not feel it is right to involve Seam Daigon in our plans." The stiff man responds "It is the best course, she has a proven track record of doing the right thing and not the selfish thing, she is also not affiliated with us in any way, if things go down hill, no one can track it back to us and we can remain the hidden hand." The gallente woman reluctantly nods "Then it is agreed then, we will hand over the AI to your daughter and set the events in motion." All the officers stand and say "All hail the Sanctum and all hail Akhilesh Feran" Akhilesh (AKA the stiff man in the suit) stands and looks to the gallente woman "Jula please join me on a walk." Jula Daigon stands and follows Akhilesh out of the room as the officers leave.
