First Impressions
#1 of The Darkest of Days
There stands a man, under a sky filled with alien stars, beneath his feet a meadow of grasses. The foliage of flower and weed is not the familiar green of earth, but instead an odd dark blue, the occasional tree menaces with black thorn girded bark. The yellow sky serves as a stage for the small quartet of moons which race across the horizon in a continuous dance. Sometimes they are partnered with a pair of orange suns, sometimes with unfamiliar constellations.
None of this concerns the man. He searches around him for a moment, then finds what he is looking for, a jacket, black leather, bold words emblazoned on the back with a strange, threatening emblem to accompany them. He shakes off alien pollen and dust particles and dons the pilot's jacket over his light grey jumpsuit. His boots crush plant matter that has never known the step of a sapient being under foot and the man moves forward, glaring at his strange surroundings with mismatched eyes.
For a moment it seems he is alone. But this does not last. As the man maneuvers around these new environs his brain slowly coming to terms with his new reality a light begins to shine. First it is merely a blue glow, but soon enough it shapes itself into the abstract form of a humanoid face. The details are vague and it is mainly a wire frame construction, but still, a face, as large as a small car and floating ten or so feet in the air.
The face speaks and its words scare this world's bird analogues into the air. Flocks of things with mahogany shells and buzzing wings streak off into a saffron sky whilst an alien voice makes authoritarian demands. "HUMAN, YOUR DESIGNATION IS KNOWN TO US. YOU ARE CALLED MADMAN. YOU HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM YOUR CRAFT, DESIGNATED "JUGGERNAUT" FOR THE PURPOSE OF PARTICIPATING IN ONE OF THE SACRED GAMES. NEARBY YOU WILL FIND THE CAPTAIN OF THE FELLMININE SCIENCE VESSEL "NOBLE ENDEAVOUR" SHE HAS BEEN GIVEN THE MISSION OF ENDING YOUR EXISTENCE WITH NOTHING MORE THAN WHAT IS AT HAND. YOU WILL DO THE SAME. ROCKS, TREES, PLANTS, THESE ARE YOUR TOOLS. SLAY HER BEFORE SHE SLAYS YOU." The face disappears, the meadow quiets and Madman grimaces. "Oh, you want to play a game?" a snow white eyebrow arches and a knowing smirk plays over the man's features. "Well old Tesla knows a hundred and one games. Lets see how you play some of mine."
Let's switch our perspective. We move from an alien world with yellow skies and fields of indigo flowers to the bridge of a human Star Cruiser. Its' Captain stands, stepping away from the table where he'd been conducting his meeting. He moves to one of mirrors that show the borders of his conference room. A command in uttered and the mirror becomes transparent. The captain stares down from his conference room to the bridge dispassionately before turning and speaking to his assembled command team. "So..." Red eyes turned to regard the assembled officers of the King of Kings causing more than one man a bit of unease. "On a supposedly routine patrol of this star system one of our fightercraft disappeared. But not just any fightercraft. A specialty Black Brigadier assault craft." The officers tensed, if ever there were words leading up to a rant on incompetence these were it.
"Need I mention that my brother, piloted, maintained and designed that craft? That's right, we just lost an experimental combat prototype as well as several million dollars in training, along with several hundred million in equipment." The captain sat down in his chair, one that had to have been shipped in to hold someone of his prodigious height and weight.
"So. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to find Tesla "Madman" Mandaris. We're going to find an EX/SC 001 fightercraft, and if it turns out someone, as opposed to something is responsible, that someone is going to have a very, very bad day." The tension eased out of the room, there was no rant, just an outlining of the things at stake, and what the consequences were for the ensuing incident. The Captain makes a small gesture with his hand, and the accompanying command causes the group to disperse to their various duties, all save one.
"The reports have been filed?" It wasn't a question. Captain Mandaris had certain expectations of his officers. "Yes sir." The young woman before him coughed nervously. The man was seven feet tall and white as a ghost. These features were disturbing enough but "Captain Goliath" was renowned for his martial abilities and was never seen without a sword sheathed at his hip. Regulations be damned. "Break it down for me." The large man leaned forward, the longsword propped against the table clattering ever so slightly as he toyed with the bundle of alien teeth that decorated its hand guard. Clearing her throat, Abigal Smith, Chief Science Officer of the Experimental Patriot Class Starcraft plunged into her report. "At oh seven hundred hours we sent out the Interceptor codenamed Juggernaut into the debris belt of this system's gas giant. At oh eight hundred we lost contact with him. Since things had been going normally up until then we didn't send anyone to check on him till oh nine hundred. We picked up some etheric residue and what appears to be a hyperspace engine signature but nothing more than that."
The Captain's red eyes brimmed with emotion for just a moment, and then were nothing more than crimson shards of glass. It had happened too quickly for Abigail to get a glance at the man inside but she took some comfort in her commanding officer's sign of humanity, no matter how well hidden.
"Can you give me a course?" This was a question, toneless, flat. The usual calm, stoic demeanor Captain Mandaris gave the world. Abigail shrugged and answered him. This at least, she could give a one hundred percent clear answer on.
"Yes, and no. I can give you the next system they jumped into, but I can't give you their precise location in that system."
The Captain's eyes hardened and he stood, fastening his sword to his belt. "Plot the course. We will find the people responsible for this, and they will answer to the Sol System Alliance."
The stage changes, from a top of the line human vessel we move back to the strange yellow skies and navy blue plants of Telrenamar 4. Our object of interest? Captain Maiayda, scientist, anthropologist, naturalist. She'd been shown a diagram of the humans, a male and female, on the replication of a disk that some other unknown race (her captors had called them something like... "the True peoples, or at least that's the translation her standard issue linguistic translator had given her...) had recovered. They we're superficially similar to the Fellminine. No tails, and strangely placed, underdeveloped ears. No muzzle either, and an odd protuberance of the nostrils. Still, they were far more attractive than her captors. Their facial features were in just the right places to keep the "uncanny valley" effect from taking place. Their legs were a tad odd though, plantigrade instead of digitigrade. In truth they reminded her of some of the native primates of her home nation's jungles.
Regardless her captors were demanding that she, she, fourth daughter of Governess Ashayta slay another sapient being. One who'd done her no wrong no less! Whenever she thought about it her fur stood on end from the indignation. Nevertheless her captors had contacted her recently and told her they'd finally managed to capture a "Human To-exist" (her translator was definitely acting up. She'd have to get her expert on alien languages and try to find some way to fine tune the device...) and spent minutes detailing the "obvious" signs of the their specimen's bloodthirst. First, they pointed out his scar, it started out at his scalp, moved down through the eye, then to the side of his... Nose was probably the proper word, through his lips, down his...yes, chin was obviously the only useful term, down his neck, whatever had caused it had barely avoided destroying one of his nipples, finally it swerved off to the right before reaching his groin and fading from existence altogether.
Maia had to agree, it was certainly an impressive scar, but the prosthetic, a golden, metallic eye intrigued her far more than superficial damage to the Human...was that the right word? Well it was the only name they had given her (other than a poorly translated descriptor) so it had to be. Either way she was more interested in the story behind the scar than the scar itself. Then they spent what felt like an hour blathering on about the Human's sidearm. So what if it was a kinetic weapon? Non-Lethal weapons were very difficult to design and usually woefully specific in their application, a lethal, easy to use, broad-purpose weapon made the most sense for a space going civilization's explorer.
Then they fetishized over the necklace of teeth he wore. Maybe if they'd said the teeth came from a peaceful race she'd have made some unpleasant judgments about her fellow captive wearing such a thing. But instead they fully admitted that each and every one of those teeth came from the warrior races of "The True peoples." Well what did that mean any way? Inquiries were bleak and cryptic, weaseling information out of her captors was difficult but she finally managed to get her captors to answer two of the questions that most bothered her. One: The True peoples were at war with the humans, furthermore The True Peoples had recovered an artifact that the Humans had sent out during their earliest days, a primitive slower than light probe with a golden disk on it, it was from there that her captives had a rough diagram of human physiology. Two: the true peoples had used that artifact to hunt the humans down, finding them when they had just finished several major space construction projects, and attacked them.
They dropped the issue shortly thereafter and told her to attack the human before he could get his bearings, it was, apparently her only hope. Maia managed to hold in her incredulous laughter until their communication avatar had disappeared. She'd grant them that the human looked intimidating. But only because of his scar, and maybe his prosthetic... Though he was using a set of dark lenses mounted in a metal frame to hide his eyes, so the prosthetic wasn't terribly obvious. They'd talked about the legendary battle prowess of his people, and Maia couldn't help but chuckle at the naiveté, or blunt stupidity of her captors. Either they expected her to buy into obvious hype, or they bought into it themselves. The Fellminine had never encountered "The True Peoples" but judging from the details she'd managed gather she'd applied the profile of a highly expansionistic imperial culture on them. The humans on the other hand, she had little detail on them. Which probably meant her captors had next to nothing. Oh no. she wouldn't be attacking the human. She'd defend herself if she had to. But she wouldn't be attacking him.
Which left her with her one real option. Find the human, and study him. That wouldn't be terribly difficult. She was a xenonaturalist after all, if she could track the footsteps of a being who clad his feet in protective layers then she'd throw in her captainship and apprentice herself all over again. It took her a few minutes to find the area she'd made her dwelling in. It was a natural rock cavern, the area was studded with them. She'd first taken it for a sinkhole but further examination showed her that it was actually a cave that'd had some of its roof collapse in on itself. A little bit of effort and she'd managed to make a fairly livable space with the proper application of her Academy Survival training. Weaving had given her some baskets and a whicker container for bedding materials. Hunting had given her a sling (and a bow, but making arrows was so mrawing tedious that she preferred the sling) which she was quite skilled with. Primitive Tools 101 had given her rock knives which she'd used to skin her kills. The fact that she'd been here long enough to be able to make one or two tanned hides (treated insect chitin was a better description, The planet's native life forms had more in common with insects than anything else) worried her a little. So she gathered up her sling (something she kept in the pouches on the belt she wore, along with other scientific instruments)and a pouch of river stones and set off on her journey.
Maia's progress in her hunt for the human startled her. She hadn't expected so much success so fast. He hadn't bothered to hide his tracks. arrogance? Haste? Preoccupation? There were a lot of possibilities and it took her a moment to focus herself and keep from bogging down and following each thought pattern to its end. There was work to be done. Her quarry hadn't bothered to hide his tracks; this led her to a sapling of one of the local tree equivalents. Or what had been a sapling. Now there was a hole in the ground, wood shavings, rock shards and the exposed root system of the plant, some of the odd, fuzzy leaves that most of the flora on this world sported were about but it was obvious that the human had taken some for himself. Maia crouched, as her ears and whiskers assumed an expression indicating discontent or deep thought. He'd just discarded the rock knives after using them... Either that or he'd made at least six before finally claiming one for himself. That didn't make much sense to Maia, unless her quarry was very obsessive about the quality of his works he wouldn't have bothered to make six stone knives. She gathered up the artifacts in question and examined them, at least two were rejects. Useless for anything except cutting an unprotected hand. One appeared to be used for etching, or chiseling, either way it had been crafted so that a sharpened point could be used on something. The others were all for hacking. Why would he need so man- of course. Maia looked back over the other fragments; he'd broken several knives, at least two, probably more than that. If she'd had more time Maia would have pieced the shards back together but all she'd really need was the confirmation that he'd broken several knives. So, he wanted a chiseling knife, and a hacking knife but had kept breaking knives so he'd made extras, then gone back to work and ended up with a surplus once he was finished...
Maia moved onto examining the sapling fragments, some branches and leaves, not as many as there should have been, so he'd taken several branches and leaves with him. Wood shavings, bark, the root system of the plant what could he possibly- A sudden picture came to mind. The festival of the All Mother's Concubine Matchka, males dressed in ceremonial armor smashing each other with wooden swords until one was unconscious or conceded defeat. Injuries, and even death in such contests were not unheard of. Maia looked over her shoulder uneasily, could the human really be that barbaric? Had he made a club, a club studded with small spikes no less, and was he sneaking up on her even now? Of course not. His track led off to the east, in the same arrogant/hasty/busy stride that had brought her here. So he made a club, a very unpleasant club, and from the looks of things he had a target, what could he possibly be up to? Now that her quarry was armed, well armed, Maia made certain to take extra care in her movements. The Standard survival sling was loaded with a river stone and her senses were heightened by fear and...excitement? Odd, here she was dealing with what might be a homicidal alien and she was excited.
Carefully, quietly she crept forward, moving from meadow, into forest, and finally onto one of the rock spires that dotted the landscape. After looking over the area she was able to spot her quarry's tracks, though they were slower, more...determined perhaps? What was he up to? Maia was so focused on her tracking that she didn't notice the metallic refuse until she stubbed a toe on it. Swearing slightly she crouched down to examine the offending object.
Strange, upon further examination the wreckage was part of a rock, she'd been over this area two or three times and never noticed this. So, the captors had disguised a stone as part of the landscape, not out of the question but how had the human noticed it when she had not? The answer was so obvious she wanted to kick herself. His eye it was such a glaringly obvious physical abnormality that you'd end up overlooking it. He had a golden prosthetic installed in his skull. What if he'd crammed as many scanning devices into that orb as...humanly possible was probably the appropriate phrase... So he was using his eye to find captor devices and dismantle them. But to what end? Maia was no techie but she could easily see that the, device had been stripped down to the point where it was nothing more than rust worthy junk. What was he going to do with all that equipment? Shaking off her confusion Maia moved forward following the human's tracks into the ca- cave? There was no cave in this area she had checked. Dozens of times. Her face took on the thoughtful aspect (ears tilted just so, whiskers pressed against her muzzle, tail probably waving about) and then her eyes traced the base of the cavern's entrance. More metal ruination, the human's work obviously. Her face took on the aspect of a smirk (ears up, whiskers out, tail mostly still except for the waggling tip) and she climbed up the spire's face till she could examine the valley from on high. All it took was a few seconds examination. Metal glinted in a dozen places that it shouldn't have. All of which, she noted, were places that the captor's avatars had spoken to her.
Maia leapt down and landed effortlessly, pausing only to discard a few burrs that had gotten caught in the knee length skirt of her uniform before continuing on her way. The cave was dank, rot, wet, and the smell of cave dweller dung clouded Maia's senses. The sounds of dripping water and echoes threw off her hearing. Maia's training, thankfully allowed her to make some sense of the cacophony, though anyone with her level of sensory sensitivity couldn't help but be a little confused by the sheer level of differing scents and sounds. Tracking was a little difficult, but thankfully nothing on this world had a gait even vaguely humanoid and as far as Maia knew none of the humanoid species discovered by The Exploration Fleets had encountered a Sapient species that felt the need to bind their feet. So maybe Humans had to? Perhaps the clothing he was wearing wasn't so much for uniform purposes like in the Fellminine's case and was more for protection? After all he didn't have any fur...
So caught up in her thoughts was Maia that she was rather surprised when she stumbled onto the Captor's corpse, thankfully she was no shrinking violet, to tremble and cower before a dead sapient. Though, the damage to the body did churn her gut. His, her, it, whatever, its face had been smashed in, its eyes reduced to so much goo by the thorns of the Human's club. Its teeth were smashed in and over all its face was now pretty much one giant wound. Thankfully the damage seemed confined to the captor's head, this may have been a vengeance killing but the human probably wasn't going to waste the time required to maim a corpse. Hmm... did the creature have a translator? Maia removed the translator badge from its position on her uniform as she removed what looked like a personal computer from the creature, after a moment she managed to get the translator badge to interface with it and download what the dedicated AI would deem relevant information. That task done she moved on to examine her captor's corpse.
Yes, it was as she first thought, the trauma to the face was so extreme that she wouldn't be able to tell anything, other than that it had hideously large eyes and long, thin needle like teeth, most of which had been smashed or sent flying out of its mouth by the Human's thorny club. The creature wore a body suit that had several pockets built into it, all of which had been emptied, bits of dried meat and other detritus she couldn't identify littered the ground around the dead alien. A belt that had held what appeared to be a knife and a side arm had been emptied... So now the Human had a knife, a sidearm (that he probably couldn't use, anyone with any sense in space would put security devices into their side arms if they were a government operation)and that fiendish club that he'd made. Her translator meanwhile had digested the new data. The proper name for her quarry's species was not "Human To-Exist" but "Human Being." That made a lot more sense actually. Taking a deep breath for strength, Maia readied her sling and continued deeper into the cave.
Maia moved forward with all the grace and stealth that one of her ancestors would have used tracking a Varmanar herd beast across the plains of the Dajhani desert. The allusion brought a smile (well, a pleasant expression at any rate. Whiskers out, ears at an angle, tail tip twitching to the left and right...) to her face as she moved through the murk of the cave. As she moved forward she noted that there were a variety of machines, all in various states of working order, she saw what she recognized as a security post, still functioning, whilst several of the displays (on solid screens no less! Just how old was this thing?) were displaying nothing more than static, others were displaying various rooms in what were probably the captor's habitation areas. She identified a workshop, what appeared to be a garage full of ships in various states of disassembly, a cafeteria full of active captors, a motorpool full of wheeled vehicles, several empty cells (she assumed they were cells rate. They had the look of a room that you'd put someone you didn't have much respect for in.) and what she assumed was an area used by the captors to maintain hygiene before a commotion drew her attention. "HERE! I saw the bastard mammal over here!" Carefully Maia moved towards the sounds, several captors, all toting some form of hand weapon were milling around one of the cavern's chambers, which were surprisingly well lit. With eyes that size Maia had just assumed they'd have decent night vision. Apparently that wasn't the case.
"Find him! He's been wreaking havoc all over the place! We've already lost all the hologenerators in the game area! I can't raise Verfum on his comm, and I don't even want to think about what he's doing with all the crap he stole from the storage room! Split up, find him. He's only one sapient, just what could he do against us?" There was much belligerent boasting of what they would do to the human when they found him and then the group split up, several of the captors headed off to some dark caverns to the east, while several others went to the west.
The Overseer (she assumed he was their overseer, or possessed some other form of rank since he was staying in the "safe" area of the tunnels) on the other hand spent something like ten minutes eating a gut churningly disgusting looking substance that smelled like rotten fish, and looked like something her pet Xanshi would have left in its waste box before "performing recon." This apparently entailed puttering about the chamber that had been used as some form of security office. The overseer showed all signs of comfortable complacency right until he discovered the corpse of what Maia assumed had been an on duty security guard. He panicked, called for backup and spent several seconds trying to get some sort of flat, ceramic container open. This lasted right up until a Javelin took him in one of his knees, bringing the slimy amphibian crashing to the floor. "You! You can't do this!" The captor scrambled into a sitting position and tried to key his communicator, only to have a thick, wooden shaft slam through the the device rendering it down to so much ceramic and plastic refuse.
The Human stepped out of the deep shadows of the chamber with stealth she wouldn't have given him credit for. "Why not, precisely?" So her translator had managed to download more than a few useful terms. She'd have to complement the Technology Corp on their interface designs. Or the politicos for trading with the Normellay for widely used technologies. "You kidnap me, tear apart my ship, demand, that I kill another sapient being for no other reason than "I told you so" and are surprised when I take the fight to you. Well let me tell you son. That dog don't hunt." The captor soiled itself. At least she hoped it soiled itself, Maia didn't like to think that any creature could smell so bad without having a special reason for it. "W, w, We are the masters of this space! We make the rules! By entering this area of space you have subjected yourself to our la-"
The captor was silenced with brutal speed. The human's strangely covered foot moved forth in a blur, kicking up guano and mud, and sending blood and teeth to the cavern floor. "Your friends won't get here fast enough to save you. I set some traps." The human's face moved strangely, apparently they conveyed emotion via a set of very mobile facial muscles. She supposed some would have found the effect repulsive but it honestly amused her more than anything else. The scene of bloody vengeance managed to mitigate her scientific curiosity and the joy she took in discovery, still, she found it hard, if not outright impossible to feel pity for the captor. "Honestly it's your own fault for making all those lovely chemicals and spare parts so easy to find. As for your laws..." Even if she required a translator to understand him Maia could still understand the emotion that he loaded the word "law" with. Pure, unadulterated scorn.
"Any sapient being who presumes that privilege grants him the right to enslave or make sport of the lives of other sapient beings deserves only death. You're lucky I have so little time. Otherwise I'd drag this out." Any protests the captor would've made were quickly silenced by the club the human had made. The captor died after the first blow, or was rendered unconscious, the subsequent blows tore the long, stringy strands of flesh that hung down past its mouth and obscured it nostrils to shreds and generally rendered the creatures face a mess. After a moment's contemplation the human picked the corpse up and positioned it just so... (in the meantime giving her a good view of the makeshift quiver he'd made for the thorn tree javelin's he'd made, apparently he'd found one of the massive seed pods that the tree's occasionally produced, hollowed it out, tied it to his back with vines and used into to store javelins carved from suitable tree branches...) He placed a contraption under the corpse which clicked ominously just once before he managed to slip off into the gloom of the cave.
Maia spent a moment to get as good a look at the device a possible, but ultimately it would be impossible to look at it without moving the corpse. Judging by the human's actions the only logical conclusion was that he had booby trapped the corpse with an explosive, or some other terribly unpleasant area effect weapon. Shaking her head at the sheer audacity of her fellow prisoner the Fellminine padded out of the security office and traced her steps to the entrance of the cave. Her movements were promptly brought to a halt when she found the human, not even bothering to hide his presence he was tinkering with some metal, plastic and glass containers, all full of some murky white liquid. She paused, unsure of what to do, she couldn't just sneak past him, he'd surely see her. Perhaps she could wait and hide in the cave?
"I'm not certain of your intent or even if you understand me but..." The human raised his head and looked straight at her. "If you don't want to end up trapped in there I suggest you leave the cave. Now." He stood, resting one of his hands on a Javelin, though he seemed somehow...reluctant? Was that what his scent and body language were telling her? Regardless it was obvious he was up to something with all of canisters and other mechanical refuse that he was getting ready to make use of.
Stepping forward Maia walked out into the sunlight, in clear view of the Human; maybe this would be easier if she just thought of him as a fellow victim? "So, just what is it you intend to do here?" Not really the most astoundingly dramatic dialogue she'd hoped for with her first alien encounter. The Normellay didn't count. They were interstellar merchants, and very secretive ones at that, usually charging impossible prices for information about themselves. The entire point of meeting sentient aliens was to learn about their history, culture, technology, biology, their, art, sex lives. Just open up about something damn it!
"Long term: activate etheric beacon and get help from my people. Short term: detonate these explosives and create a wall of fire that should create very unpleasant conditions in the caverns. I've managed to booby trap their motor pools and sabotage their flight vehicles so they're stuck walkin' on the ground like us." He obviously didn't trust her but...his work was more important than she was, and she'd put away her sling on good faith so he set aside his javelin and went back to using some odd tools to modify what appeared to Normellay microwave oven timer.
"You," a pause most awkward "Seem to be taking this in stride." For that matter he really seemed to be taking being kidnapped by hostile enemy forces in stride. Just what was this Human's profession? While her people did employ soldiers and police officers as security on ships Maia couldn't help but wonder how humans did things. Were they patriarchal or matriarchal, did they even have gender duality? They seemed to. The human male smelled...very male indeed. Maia was suddenly struck by the strangeness of that, how could he even be biochemically close enough for her nose to identify his pheromones as those of a male? Much less for said pheromones to even set off a reaction like that, it was almost unheard of. Granted the Normellay had a niche market for unusual arousing scents but they adamantly refused to speak of where they got most of them, other than assurances that they came from other sapient species and that the providers were fairly compensated for their contribution.
"It's my job to take it in stride." The human replied without rancor. "I'm a soldier." It happened so fast she didn't even have time to really register it, one moment they were speaking. Then there was the distinctive sound of laser weapons firing, a thin, brittle sort of cracking noise as the air was exposed to superhot coherent light. Casually, as if it were the easiest thing in the world the human lifted up his javelin and tossed it, sideways instead of in its intended manner. Whilst Maia prided herself on her grace and poise she couldn't help but collapse in a heap once the wooden rod slammed into her shins and sent her sprawling onto the ground. As she regained her senses she could see the captors line up in a firing formation at the mouth of the cave, laser weapons at ready. "....AIM!" Some we're crouched, others stood fully erect, either way they were all aiming at the human. Instead of panicking or surrendering like one of the captors was demanding him to, the human just bared his teeth, grabbed a small metal cylinder and twisted at the cap that topped it before tossing it at the captors. He grabbed her and dragged her bodily into the cover created by one of the gutted holoprojector rocks. A low "whoopf" sounded before a louder explosion tore the world apart. There was a sensation of apocalyptic heat and suddenly a raging inferno burned where the cave mouth had been.
"Pity. I worked very hard on that timer." The human muttered to himself before standing, and helping her stand. He actually checked her over, dusting her uniform off before examining himself for any wounds. "All right, now that that's done. Let's go and see if we can't contact our respective races."
"I..." It had all happened so fast! Weapons fire, explosions, a wall
of flame. It was like an old adventure serial and here she was; the Mahdji in distress! She'd have felt indignant at the thought of being reduced to a submissive whose only apparent role was to be rescued by a strapping young male or female. But the fact of the matter was that the human appeared to be a soldier, a very good one in fact. So any outrage over being reduced to a classic Mahdji (at least for one scene...) were mollified by her having come so close to being shot to death. "Just... Just what happened back there?" She managed to stammer out, separating herself from the Human's touch rather forcefully.
Thankfully the human appeared to have something resembling empathy, he kept his distance while he very carefully laid out what had just occurred. "I was building an incendiary bomb designed to burn for several days with salvaged equipment. I asked you to step out of the cavern entrance and you did. We conversed. The fish-fu- hostiles, opened fire with some warning shots and demanded surrender. I used an incendiary grenade to set off the explosives. We'll get two days instead of the five I wanted but that should be enough time to get a distress signal out." He shrugged and his body posture seemed to say "Wasn't that obvious?" But in between the ash that rained down upon them both, the wall of fire, the oppressing heat, the ringing in her ears, and the strange need she felt to groom her dirty fur Maia couldn't bring herself to care very much about her alien companion.
"Etheric transmitter... one that will transmit a message to an underlying level of reality, one filled with matter that can be siphoned off to create energy?" Take this odd word, Etheric, was it a base word or derivative? Did it describe something, a state, or an action? Regardless she had just described a Raranni Principle Communicator. Hopefully these Humans weren't so backward as to rely on slower than light communication?
"Yes, that's it precisely. I have all the tools I need. I just need a place to build it. Then we can find a place and set it off. It gets found and destroyed I can always make another." The idea of building seemed to excite him. A race of builders perhaps? Anyone who had sufficient imagination would be capable of terrible feats of destruction if they had the proper technology and skill. Perhaps this was why the captors had been so frightened of his race?
"Come with me then." She extended her hand, without hesistation he took it. An encouraging response, or a frightening one. Either we was naturally friendly or he considered her to be so helpless as to pose no threat to him. "You can work in my living space and maybe I can help you."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Tesla said, though it was more to himself than to the alien, who he had to admit was actually attractive in a fuzzy sort of way. "Let me just grab what we'll need and then we can go. First we'll need to build the thing. Then place it up high, that way it can beam the signal out into Ether Space. Once there our people should be able to find it. I've got a signal in mind for my group, do you have an obscure, but culturally relevant signal that we can use to notify your people of your location?" Her ears tilted just so and her eyes took on the cast of deep thought.
"What are you using?" Tesla shrugged and spent about two seconds considering withholding information before deciding to just tell her. It was a reasonable question, and to be perfectly honest she reminded him too much of his mother's housecats for him to be able to distrust her without proof of her ill intent. Foolish approach perhaps but he could handle things if they went in a southern direction.
"Morse code. Four notes, repeating continuously. The message shouldn't be too complicated since it will be traceable back to a single location. But should hold enough cultural relevance that it should serve as a sign of our location on this planet." She looked as if she wanted to ask him something (how he knew this he didn't know. He just did.) but she thought better of it. "Well, I could always use the first six notes of Rawninar Symphony. That would hold enough value for my crew to come looking for the source of the signal." A piece of music? Well Morse code for the letter V was the first four notes of one of Beethoven's works.
"Right. Once I have the transmitter up and running we can input the information. After a review of the signals to assure they will be recognizable to both of our cultures course." He was sorely tempted to wrap his arm around her waist, or find some covert way to feel the alien woman up but... Bad idea, definitely bad idea. Why a man who'd been literally made to kill aliens felt himself attracted to this one (physically or emotionally he couldn't really say. Either way there was something about her "design aesthetic" that he liked.) Tesla couldn't say. Either way he'd see what this alien's culture was like. Was her race hostile towards alien cultures? Or would they prove to be worth trading technology and resources with? Perhaps even allies? Lord knew that humanity felt bad enough about interstellar travel before aliens had come and proven to be hostile, Half the reason the council had gotten the exploration budget it had gotten was due to fears of invasion from outside Sol system. With an irritated grunt that earned him a funny look from his companion Tesla cut off his train of thought. "You're a soldier. The brass points, you punch. Less gold bricking more working." With that muttered admonition Tesla set to work getting information from his companion (whose name appeared to be Maia, and was apparently a kidnapped Scientist/Ship Captain) on the surrounding area, what she knew about her, no their, captors (this amounted to diddly, and Squat) and whether or not she'd ever found any useful technology in all her time here. (the answer was, depressingly a resounding no.) Oh well, he'd been in worse, if less unusual situations before. Time to get to work.
The stage shifts, no longer do we walk under yellow skies whilst carefully avoiding thorns and unpleasant looking alien fauna. We switch instead to field of stars, black speckled with white, the infinite reaches of space span around us. Within the panorama of stars moves King of Kings her running lights no longer flash in the standard patterns. Instead she moves quietly, sensory devices at full extension from their stowing chambers within the armor of the great Spacecraft. Her massive ion thrusters pump out every ounce of thrust the Chief Engineer can safely summon from them. Her point defenses incinerate micrometeorites with intense blasts of light and heat. Occasionally the system's sun manages to light the Spacecraft just right, light gleams off metal while the envelope of energy appears as nothing more than a faint, grey cloak.
We move within. Past energy fields, past point defense systems, armor, past integral circuitry, wiring and fiber optic cable, past life support systems, till finally we reach the inside of the King of Kings. Through corridors crowded with anxious Starsoldiers, up ladders and we climb till we reach the lifts that lead us to the command center. Dark and cramped it lies at the center of the vessel, protected by armor and multiple doors as well as numerous security personnel it is presided over by Captain (actual rank, Commander) Nikola "Goliath" Mandaris. Command personnel sit at work screens, some use holographic interfaces, other commune with the machines via implants, still others use old fashioned auxillary 2D screens. The pilot lies at the head of the vessel displays of every kind feed him information as he guides the Patriot class Warcraft on its way. We move above, up the ladder that lies in the center of the Command and Control center. We enter the Captain's conference room. It is as cramped as the chambers beneath it, more so, instead of being designed for the numerous men and women needed to run a Warcraft this small chamber is for the select few who have the Captain's Confidence. A small table runs around the holoprojector that lies at the center of the chamber, chairs, upholstered with leather and made of the finest teak wood (though, they were supplemented with magnetic caps on their feet to keep them from being tossed about in the event of the ship performing unorthodox maneuvers that the gravity polarizers couldn't compensate for.) stand ready for use, indeed they are being used. The Conference room is full to capacity and Captain Mandaris holds court with ruby eye and a steady, pale hand.
"You said you had some very interesting information Lieutenant Alhandra. Please Elaborate." Nikola already knew what she was going to say. He and the Lieutenant had already gone over the events that had led up to the receiving of the Etheric Transmissions, what the transmissions themselves were, and what they likely meant. But his officers didn't know, and a big part of being able to maintain a paternal image to his men and women without being seen as too soft was being larger than life. Granted, he was seven feet tall, his weight fluctuated from two hundred fifty pounds to three hundred pounds depending on how well he ate. He was well known for having rudimentary training in a variety of martial arts, as well as his sword skills. But reputation was one thing, a few minor spectacles were still necessary to maintain his image. Plus it helped foster a relationship among his officers, if he could get them to regard one another as a family, hell, even just friends, it would make life a lot easier for everyone involved. Thus the conference.
Alhandra cleared her throat, and through his mask of emotionless Nikola let himself admire her, she was of African descent, moderately attractive, thankfully she came from the school of thought that derided surgery to enhance ones looks so her features were far more interesting than any of the token wives of some of the military officers that he'd had to hobnob with during his brief stint at the officer's academy back on Earth. "At Twelve hundred we picked up a signal after our initial scans of what I've dubbed Carver system, though it's on record as one of our standard numbers. I'll spare you the trivia. Simply put we received Morse code for the Letter V, then an unidentifiable series of tones. We've tracked it back to the second planet in the system." She tapped at some of the keys on the holographic display generated by the computer mounted on her wrist. The holoprojector produced an image of the solar system, a few ice balls on the edge of space, a single massive gas giant, twice the size of Jupiter, populated with a hundred or so earth size moons, hundreds of bodies that were even smaller. Then an earth sized world with dozens of small asteroids as moons, then a massive scorched rock that appeared to have several large bodies of molten metal on its surface.
"Looks like a welcoming place." Stated Chief Security officer Lang, the old Starsoldier had a rather ironic sense of humour. Lang's words were usually loaded with sarchasm, today was no exception.
"It does actually. Who knows what precious elements are just waiting for us?" Science officer Wilhelm appeared to have gotten sidetracked at some point, he was very obviously reviewing the scientific data that the King of Kings long range sensors and probes had gleaned of Carver system, which was to say, not much.
"That second world has actual oceans! High command is gonna love this system." Lieutenant Brennan, as usual was more worried about currying favour from the brass than scientific discoveries or mining operations. Not that he wasn't loyal to his captain, or concerned with getting his job done, he was just a born politician.
"Enough." Nikola raised a hand from the pommel of his sword and waved his officers into silence. "We have a job to do here. The V signal I get, my brother has a fascination with World War Two, and the past in general. The other signals though, those I'm foggy on. Kelly, can you give me anything on the other signal?" Nikola turned his eyes to his resident Xenopsychology expert. (the man was also a dabbler in Xenobiology and Xenotechnology but that was neither here nor there.)
Kelly shook his head, his faint Irish accent somehow making his words that much more melancholy. "No sir, I'm sorry. It occurs after a 3 second pause and is made up of six notes. That's the only answer I can give you." The man shrugged and fidgeted slightly as the eyes of his fellows turned upon him. Kelly obviously wasn't much for being the center of attention. Oh well, time to let him off the hook.
"Okay then. So we know the signal coming from the second planet. I think our course of action is obvious. Pilot Vidkun already has a course set in for the second planet and is bringing us in as we speak. Your orders are as follows. Go to your quarters; get some rest, that's what the entire crew is doing. I've made certain that everyone is ready for combat at a moment's notice but in the mean time I want you all to take it easy. Hell is going to break loose; I can feel it in my bones." With that prophetic and heartfelt statement Nikola dismissed his inner circle. He kept up his mask just long enough to keep anyone from seeing his inner turmoil, then he locked himself in the conference room and began going over the details of the last few day's incident with obsessive fervor. His brother was gone; there wasn't even wreckage from his ship. At first he'd feared him dead, but then this signal, Morse code for V, then something that was obviously gibberish what could it mean? Well the V was obvious enough. V. V for Victory. V for Vendetta.
V for Vendetta, someone had attacked his brother, more importantly they'd attacked his crew. They were going to pay a steep price. If there was one thing Nikola was certain of in this universe, it was that.
It took roughly a few hours, during which King of Kings ran on a skeleton crew, but eventually the mighty Warcraft reached close visual range of Carver 2. Things became interesting here because the SSA Warcraft King of Kings was contacted by an alien vessel. This was unusual because they were able to immediately interface visually, and audially with the communication equipment of the Warcraft. All Human Vessels carried typical radio communication devices, as well as Etheric audio-visual communication devices. Though usually most just made use of the audio functions and left it at that. Somehow, these aliens had managed to figure out what communications frequencies human spacecraft used, and how to make use of them to optimal effect. Sadly their first message was a threat.
An image of a rather detailed alien head appeared on the Command Center's main holoprojector, it was probably considered fearsome to the aliens but it looked more like a well done B Movie prop to the Command Center crew. It was vaguely humanoid, had eyes which were far too large, orange in colour, and were perched above a pair of nostrils which were surrounded by violently twitching flagella. Finally its mouth was large, lipless and full of pointy teeth. The creature spoke in a booming voice, until the audio system automatically adjusted itself and brought the authorative boom down into inside voice ranges. "HUMAN VESSEL THIS PLANET HAS BEen claimed by the Jagged Knife syndicate. You will turn your vessel around immediately and leave this system or suffer the consequences." The crew tensed slightly, until a bout of puzzlement made its way around the command crew. Captain Mandaris was laughing.
"Look at the balls on you..." he muttered to himself as he used his wrist computer to review the specs on the alien vessel. Craft sensors and craft based autonomous exploration probes showed that it was actually rather small, it was analogous to a human Skirmishcraft (what the navy would've called a frigate.) and whilst it did have an unsually high energy output, judging from its construction it armed mostly with energy weapons. There might have been some missile type weapons on it, but ultimately it was still a lightly armed Skrimishcraft, that was apparently alone.
Captain Nikola raised his head and marched over to the Communications console. Communication's Officer Santiago had everything in preparation. "Kind of odd how they already have a communications cipher for us huh sir?" The man turned and regarded his captain with the same air of confident respect that he treated all of his crewmen with. Nikola wasn't certain of the man's actual heritage, he could be Latin American, Mexican, or hell actually be Spanish with some mixed heritage. None of it really mattered much to Nikola.
"Exceedingly odd, I'm beginning to think that what I've been officially referring to as an accident is anything but." Okay, fine, he'd never thought was an accident but that was neither here nor there. "Transmit the following message to the alien craft: Identify yourself or be destroyed." Santiago's eyebrow rose but the man didn't say anything besides the nigh universal "Yes sir" before carrying out his orders.
The reaction from the alien ship was immediate "HUMAN VESSEL TURN AROUND AND LEAve the system or be destroyed." Captain Mandaris turned back to his Santaigo and arched an eyebrow. The comm officer shrugged as if not sure what to make of the aliens standoffish attitude. Nikola quickly ordered that his first message be repeated. Instead of identifying themselves the alien's opened fire, several missiles and a barrage of energy bolts lanced forth from the vessel.
The energy bolts impacted harmlessly against the shielding of the Warcraft and the missiles were blasted out of the void by the King of King's point defenses. "Cripple Them." With these two words Captain Nikola "Goliath" Mandaris set into action a very complex set of events. The pilot fired the maneuvering thrusters and killed King of Kings acceleration by making use of the various advanced technologies they had claimed as spoils in their war with The Chosen.
First, the missile racks were extended from their storage compartments in the hull, they fired, and several conventional as well as Etherpod warheads detonated on contact with both flak and the alien vessel's hull. The conventional missiles merely detonated and covered the enemy hull in a layer of VERY advanced incendiary materials, setting the very metal of the hull alight. The Ether warheads on the other hand, caused some very interesting effects. Some produced Electromagnetic Pulses, others produced dozens of different kinds of radiation, and about a three or so out of the 50+ missiles fired caused gravity to be undecided in its stance on whether it was light, heavy, or nonexistent, in the vessel's area.
The missiles had managed to destroy seven point defense systems, two rapid firing laser weapons, one constant beam laser weapon and a hidden missile wrack as well as destroying all of the escape pods on the left side of the alien vessel. Despite this the vessel maintained enough power to attempt an escape. The attempt was quickly stymied by a burst from the King of King's forward coil guns. The rounds from the coil guns were metal balls roughly the size of your common baseball, they were made wholly of light metals (aluminum was common but other types tended to get sneaked in, whatever the nanofactories each vessel had on hand were used.) and they tended to be accelerated at speeds that would let them hit with the force of a cruise missile with a conventional explosive load out. The main drive of the Jagged Knife spacecraft was quickly reduced to so much slag metal.
"Alien Vessel has sent a message of surrender." Santiago said in a voice that somehow mixed his usual lazy drawl with urgency. If the Comm officer had anything more to say it was quickly cut short by Science officer Curth.
"We have inbound hostiles, counting six, no seven alien vessels, moving at 5Gs from Carver 2's moon. Suggest we ready for action." Nikola smiled to himself. His crew thankfully had the balls to offer suggestions. He appreciated that, if ever he were rendered incapable of doing his duty his successor would be in good hands.
"Use the interdictor fields to toss the crippled vessel into a stable orbit. Then ready all weapons systems for use." Nikola spent a moment to crib field notes off the main holoprojector. Apparently there were four large skirmishcraft and three large battlecraft headed their way. Well this should make things interesting. "Launch all fightercraft."
"Acknowledged, Loyalty Flight and Devotion Flight have been launched." Nikola watched as the battle developed on the holoprojector, icons indicating the enemy appeared on screen, with one for the King of Kings after the time needed to prep and launch the bomber and interceptor craft (roughly fifteen minutes) had passed thirty smaller icons popped up on the screen. "Orders for the King's Guard sir?"
Nikola couldn't help but share Santiago's smile. The Kings Guard had given themselves a nickname some time after King of Kings had explored its third system. Maybe they were being a little pretentions but what the hell, It helped morale. "Tell them to harass the enemy, cripple their weapons system, and generally make their lives unpleasant." Santiago nodded and relayed the orders. What happened next confused Nikola.
After humans began using fightercraft on their ships the chosen had at least tried to fight back on the same level. These aliens on the other hand tried to use an energy antifighter craft on the fighters. Nikola quickly had the fighters retreat before major damage could be inflicted on the squad. 4 out of the twenty four fighters were sent back to the hangars for repair. While the fighter wings regrouped King of Kings blew the two antifighter vessels to pieces with four of the Warcraft's cruise missiles. Lacking any adequate defenses against fighters the other vessels were set upon by the King's guard. After the largest vessel of their number (presumably where their commander was based) was reduced to a floating, neutered hulking by several bombing runs the remaining four vessels attempted to retreat.
"All power to the main drive. Give chase, I want those alien bastards to see why this vessel is called The King of Kings." The massive Warcraft's Ion drive stuttered to life, and began slowly pushing the vessel through the void, a few quick burns of auxiliary engines brought the craft up to speed though. Within thirty minutes The King of Kings was brought even with the Jagged Knife Vessels. Each one in turn found itself on the receiving end of a broadside, and each one in turn was quickly reduced to tumbling debris.
We draw the curtain on the battle between the King of Kings and the alien vessels and move instead down to the surface of the alien world. The sky is darkened with smoke and twilight, but suddenly light streaks through the sky. A sleek alien vessel, shining silver with glowing blue highlights lands on the planet's surface. It hovers on a cushion of air that scorches the ground, then gleaming panels give way to dull metal legs and the ship settles. A door opens and a buff, feminine figure steps out of its confines, followed by eleven other figures wearing identical body armor, armed with the same, elegant, but deadly looking weapons.
Hasheti clutched her laser rifle close as she moved through the dark terrain of the alien world. The yellow sky was darkening and slowly fading to the black of night. Night would've made her slightly more comfortable but the facts remained. One: Her captain had been kidnapped during a survey of one of the possible colony worlds. Two: They'd managed to track the signal to this system before engaging several enemy ships and being forced to flee, that was several local weeks ago. Three, the single largest ship she had ever laid eyes on had appeared several hours ago and annihilated the alien ships; the space pirates no doubt, that had forced the Noble Endeavour out of the system. Four: That ship had arrived after an unusual signal, four meaningless notes, followed by the first six notes of their Captain's favorite song. The first part of it made sense now, the meaningless notes had called the massive vessel that had so thoroughly trounced the Pirates, and the second part was to call them to pick up the captain? But what did it all mean?
Regardless, she had a job to do. She picked her way over the landscape, her augmented night vision letting her pick out what were obviously (well to her at any rate) the tracks of her captain. First, they led off to that wall of fire that hugged the bottom of one of the rock spires that dotted the landscape. Then, they appeared to lead off towards the area's forest. What really irked her were the tracks that accompanied Captain Maiayda appeared, not to be bare paws, but instead the covered feet of some odd organism. Perhaps she'd been kidnapped by a slaving operation, and teamed up with some race that had to use an environmental suit on this world?
Whatever, it didn't matter. Her job was simple. Find the captain and leave. Hasheti led her group through the woods, and down to what appeared to be a sinkhole. Odd, but if it led into a cave then it was a good choice to build a habitation area, annnd yes. There was a ladder built from carefully carved branches and vines. Hasheti mentally winced when she thought of the effort the Captain would've had to go through to make such a thing. The local flora was rather...hostile so it would've taken no small amount of care. She led her team down the ladder, it wasn't that tall but a fall from that height still could've given someone a broken ankle or neck.
This is where things became odd, though the atmosphere made breathing difficult what with the high humidity and lower than normal oxygen content, Hasheti could still detect a...primal scent in the air. Had Captain Maiayda gone into heat? Well, that was something a few quick injections could attend to. Hasheti continued into what was obviously a dwelling, though one with primitive amenities and received the shock of her life. There, in "bed" with her Captain was a furless alien, very nude, very male, and very obviously coming down from a post coitus high. The security team spent several uncomfortable moments staring at the scene. The alien seemed a tad surprised, their Captain Seemed as if she wanted her ancestors to strike her down, and the security team wasn't quite certain what to do about this faux pas. Hell Hasheti was one of the oldest members of the crew and she didn't know what to do. The alien then managed to cut through the tension with a subdued statement. "Yeah. This is exactly what it looks like."