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Post by The Governor on Feb 23, 2016 1:00:27 GMT
The Confederate officer drew back briefly as he felt Sigma's mental touch, but maintained most of his composure. He thought again about his situation. Here stood Sigma at point blank range, and many other Invaders. Embry, Coleridge, a thousand others. All killed by the Invaders, reborn as Sigma had put it. And here the sergeant stood with his experimental equipment and over a hundred men who would fight to their certain deaths if he just said the word. If he wanted vengeance, here it was for the taking.
But there was more to it. A long war with the Invaders, and a universe left to protect, including all the prisoners. And he would have a chance to speak with the planet's lead Invader. Further, he would be escorted to the enemy leader. It was a good offer. Still, there were the prisoners. Carver said in a confident tone, "I'll go in alive, without argument, as will my men. Your superior wants to speak to me, and frankly, I'm flattered. But the prisoners. Please, let them leave the camp and this planet. There's no reason to keep them here."
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Post by Acruan on Feb 23, 2016 2:37:59 GMT
After looking at Sigma for a few moments giving no real answer he walked a bit deeper into the group towards on of the dead commandos before taking of his helmet. He seemed to take a look at it as if not minding being surrounded, outnumbered and having civilians technically there to be protected. He then simply put the helmet on, giving a cough or too before taking a hearable deep breath, "Well then, 'take us to your Master' it is then." He smiled lightly under the helmet, "Though sincerely, I expected for this ambush to lead to our deaths then get us to your Master." He hmms, "Though may you lead the way, I do wonder why he called us here."
He briefly glanced at the people they just rescued, "I'd also like to request that they can safely leave this system, considering how I doubt the situation in space is anywhere near the calculations say it should be."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2016 14:20:17 GMT
Sigma remained quiet for a while, as if she was considering their requests... or talking mentally with someone about it. Who knew... But after a few minutes, possibly, she finally started to speak again.
"Very well... as long as the ships in which those prisoners will leave will be civilian, unarmed ships... we will allow them to leave the system... they've done their job brilliantly, after all..", the pink eyed Invader said, before she once again smiled in her characteristic way."But you people.... will come with me. The High One wants to see you..."
With that, the Invader circle surrounding everyone let the civilians leave... but a couple of minutes later, still surrounded by the Invaders, the Confederates and the Acruani started to walk, seemingly towards the source of the strange energy...
They had been walking through the fog for at least a few hours, but none of them had any idea where they were anymore, as they were just following Sigma and her underlings. None of the Invaders, who were clearly dead, resurrected Colonials, were saying anything, staying quiet, most likely not even breathing. And Sigma... well, for some reason, she was much more quiet than someone would have usually expected from her. Although, after a while, their destination became clear... once through the fog, they could see something that vaguely looked like a huge white column, a few kilometers high. It was hard to exactly tell how it looked like, because of the heavy fog... but it seemed to have a structure similar to that of the Makers... but much, much bigger than anything they had seen until now.
Eventually, they stopped somewhere. The fog was everywhere, and it seemed to be much more thicker than it was before... the tall structure was somewhere, before them. And then, suddenly, all Invaders, including Sigma, knelt. as.. something, seemed to approach through the fog, stopping in front of them, still hidden by the fog. A voice was suddenly heard in everyone's minds.
"Well, well, here they finally come... the people who had dared to attack us and set foot on my planet... could you explain me why have you done something like this? Or do you want to die that much...?"
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Post by Acruan on Feb 25, 2016 1:26:49 GMT
If the civilians just kept walking towards the city, and walked into it enough, they would eventually find one of the Acruani ships there. If they got it, the ship and its AI would drive them to just beyond the planet's atmosphere before attempting to jump to the nearest Acruani system, before jumping to one of the Acruani-Human planets on Andromeda. The ship itself was nothing that could be considered a warship. The ships that transported the Confederates and Acruani were simply standard Acruani cargo ships, with slightly better than standard Acruani shields.
The Acruani and Archene followed them quietly enough, a small walk like that wasn't too much for Archene at least. He would have attempted to talk to Sigma to see if she would slip some information, but hearing the silence, he knew that it wouldn't do enough good to be worth the effort. As he got closer to the Marker-like structure, the absurdly huge white Marker-like structure, or simply White Marker, he was... slightly surprise. He could have hoped that he would find something critical enough to be able to help them in the system, if all went perfectly well, but this... was slightly... beyond expectations.
Archene looked at that which hid in the fog, "No, no, we happened to not come with intentions of simply dying." A light smile appeared on his face as he looked towards the figure, "I'd first and foremost say that, I'm sorry for the minor incursion that is happening currently. It was something required of us. I'd just ask politely for you and the others to leave the area Colonial called a defense line, but from what I see you have pretty much settled down on these planets. I'd assume the population of most of these planets has already been transformed." He hmms briefly, "I'd ask if you would like to peacefully join the Collective, but I assume that you would give Us a negative answer, correct?" He tilted his head slightly. It sounded like a sincere question, and it was one. After all, the chance of everything going perfectly fine was a non-zero, so why not try, this time?
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Post by The Governor on Feb 25, 2016 2:17:52 GMT
Before the civilians departed, Carver made a data transfer to the civilians. It contained a map back to the landing zone, and was uploaded to the helmet that Carver had given Sylvia. There was also a text message stating, "Don't worry about me, I'll be alright. Just follow the map, and it will bring you to ships that can get you out of here."
Carver stared up slightly in awe of the Marker. It was larger than the one aboard the Pluto, or the one on Tau Volantis. The fact that it had sentience wasn't surprising, as reports from the Acruani had stated such. The sergeant was uncertain how to answer the Marker. The mission was to kill or capture the Marker itself, and he didn't want to give that away. But the thing still demanded an answer. He was impressed by Archene's calm answer to the Marker, and decided to stay quiet, at least for the moment. Perhaps he could talk smack to Sigma, but Carver knew he was out of his league with the Marker. And so he would let Archene do the talking. The commando officer gave the vague answer, "I only came to aid Archene in dislodging the Invaders here. I command the commandos, but he made the mission."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2016 17:21:04 GMT
"Leave the area? You are indeed very polite, Archene d'Night, but we must politely refuse that request. We are not going to leave this sector without fighting. And of course, without putting our new underlings to a good use. They've been reborn after all, and they have to enjoy their new lives..", whoever was in the fog said, in a perfectly calm voice, as if nothing bad had happened. Then, the voice seemed to think for a few more moments, before answering to Archene's second request. "Joining the Acruani Collective? Unfortunately, the orders of the High Council not only do strictly forbid that, after the interactions of you race with Grand Prior Phi, but we also have no interest in doing something as that... we still need to destroy.. to bring darkness... to drown the stars in blood.."..
It seemed as if someone else than the original voice was also there, and suddenly, whoever was in the fog stepped forward, comming into the visual range of the Confederates and the Acruani. Or more specifically, they stepped forward. To human children looking figures. The first one was a boy, looking around twelve years old. But he clearly wasn't human.. right now at least. He had a pale, white skin, a short, messy, white hair, and light pink glowing eyes. Next to him was a girl, with a pretty long white pale hair bound in twintails, with a light, white skin, and pink eyes maybe a little darker than that of the boy. Judging by the appearances, she was around ten years old, and both of them seemed to be siblings. The boy motioned to Sigma to stand up, and the girl stood up, being really quiet once again, really uncharacteristic for her. The boy and the girl were clearly looking much younger than Sigma, who seemed to be around fourteen years old, but she didn't seem to be affected by that in the least. Then, both the boy and the girl looked at Archene and Carver.
"Should we assume... that you are to fight... wanting to kick us out of this sector and planet?.", the two said, speaking interchangeably, one continuing the others' words."Because if you simply want to fight, there isn't much we can do except for killing you... and giving you a new life.."
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Post by Acruan on Feb 26, 2016 19:44:44 GMT
"I imagined you wouldn't leave the area with simply a polite request." Archene replied before sighing, if they didn't want to simply leave, it simply meant that things are going as expected. At least, all of it went as expected until Phi was mentioned, "I do wonder why they would forbid such thing. All we offer is Data and possibility to develop further." He smiled under the helmet chuckling quietly, "I did hope that the interactions with Phi wouldn't be publicized to those on your side however. It is saddening that it lead to a situation like this." He sighed once more, "If it were only the rules that bound you, I'd say We could help you. I'd even ask you what to do after you destroy, bring darkness and drown stars in blood. Though... I do think that you wouldn't simply give me answers and so forth."
After a moment pondering their words, looking at the boy and the girl, Archene stayed silent for a few brief moments. He even used the time to glance at the White Marker, "Sadly, I do not plan to kick you out of this sector. Considering what you have done here, I'd consider this somewhere you've settled, even if only briefly." He hmmed, "Also, I like my life as is. Trying to take it away by destroying this body, would truly be a waste of energy. But correct me if I'm wrong, do you two happen to be a part of that existence over there?" He vaguely motions at the White Marker, "If so, how should I be addressing you?" By now, he was stalling, while Data was important, he still was thinking of the best possible way to attempt to succeed in the mission. If the two weren't a part of the Marker, then there would be no harm in attempting to destroy them before attacking it... if they were, then at least, he would have more options. Even while using Hamiel, he should have a hard time... and even with his support, the Marines were likely to die... Even then, he had a plan. And thus he smiled as he waited for their answer.
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Post by The Governor on Feb 28, 2016 7:28:24 GMT
Carver ignored the exchange between Archene and the Invaders, thinking instead about what the Abyssal boy and girl had said. He considered how this boy and girl were alive and aware, in contrast to the walking horde. It made him wonder about what would happen to him. Sigma, the Marker, a horde, and now these two children. Carver doubted he would walk away from this alive. But if he was going to die, he wanted to know more about what would come after.
He was rather angered by Archene stating that they weren't here to remove the Invaders. Perhaps the purpose was to capture the Marker, but Carver still wanted the Invaders removed from the system and the Universe. But still, he wanted to know. And so he did something Confederate citizens were never supposed to do. He thought of himself. The question came forth almost unexpectedly. "What is it like?" Carver asked.
The sergeant cursed himself for asking. He knew it was wrong, but he had to know, and once the first question was asked, he had to go on. "What is it like, to be reborn? I see all of these lower Invaders here. Perhaps you have given them new life, but the people seem erased. But Sigma, you two children."
Looking deeper into the cold eyes void of anything good, Carver shivered as he forced himself continue. "What would happen to me? Would I be erased too? What about Lieutenant Embry? Was he erased, or is he like you? Did he retain himself? And what about Helen? She's with you now. Would I recognise her for the woman I loved? Would I love her whatever she's become with my rebirth? Would we be together again? And once I was amongst you as well, could you bring me to her?"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2016 13:58:45 GMT
"There is no need for us to develop any further.... under the guidance of Erebus, we have already achieved perfection... and we can take the data on our own.... without being needed to degrade us in order to join a mortal organization.", the boy and the girl spoke, once again, each completing the other's words. "Grand Prior Phi merely followed her orders....The information of your discussions with her have not been publicized.....It was the decision of the Grand Master to share that information with some of us,...and we have also received that data.....Knowledge is power, indeed.". The two then made a short pause. "The rules do not bind us... darkness does. The blessing, or the curse as you humans consider it, that has been binding us ever since we firstly arrived into this universe. Unfortunately... we are not allowed to tell you what we will do after bringing darkness.... the only ones of you that seem to have a vague idea of our intentions.... are those you call Colonials.... judging by the way they... set their defenses.... but even they... do not know everything....". The two then made another pause, before responding.
"Settling... you can call it that way... too.", the boy said. "Yes, you would be correct... we required a way to show ourselves.... one that would seem familiar to people like you... so we took these forms.... We are one of those.... you call a White Maker.... one in two, two in one, two that are the same.... Our names.... would be impossible to pronounce for you.... but you can call us... Aither... and Hemera..."
The boy and the girl then seemed to be fairly surprised by the words of the Confederate. Sigma seemed to want to answer, but the boy, seemingly called Aither, motioned to her to remain quiet, and answered instead.
"What it is like, to be reborn? We are some of the First, so we no longer remember that... it's something you should ask Sigma about. But yes... some of those reborn are... erased. It all depends... on how big your wish to accept the darkness in your heart is. Some, don't want to, and don't care about rebirth.... they become like that, erased, forever caught in an infinite circle of destruction. Lieutenant Embry.... and your wife.... they accepted it... they accepted the chance... and were almost truly reborn.... losing or retaining their memories was their choice... Others.... like Sigma, were sick of this life.... were tired of living... broken, hurt. They fully accepted the darkness... and were reborn like this."
Then, the girl, Hemera apparently, continued. "Whether you are reborn or erased depends on you... it's your choice... just like keeping or losing your emotions will also be your choice. Darkness is seen as evil... but is often much more forgiving than the light. Yes, if you were reborn, you could meet her... but if you two will recognize each other, and continue to love each other depends on your choices..."
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Post by Acruan on Feb 29, 2016 7:10:39 GMT
"Perfection is nothing but an illusion that those who cannot see a path beyond them have when they believe they are far enough. Though truly, I'm offended with the current status given to Us, We are only slightly too young to compare to anything, as unfathomable as you as We are. Not that we have time to prove otherwise in a way We would like." He paused briefly as if thinking of something, "But yes, knowledge is indeed power, something an Acruani would not be able deny. Truly though, there would be a number of things I would like to ask you in regards of your plans."
"This is an incredibly free universe, as long as you were able to speak in a frequency we could understand and reply most of those here would not care much about your shape. Regardless, thank you for the attempt, it does facilitate conversation. Though physical bodies are still truly, a pain." He looks at the boy then at the girl, "Regardless, a pleasure to meet you, Aither, Hemera. As you know, I'm Archene of the Collective and so forth. I only believed that a proper introduction is always needed. As it seems unlikely that we will be all able to continue this wonderful conversation perpetually."
Archene seemed to either not mind or not notice the anger the Confederate felt, regardless of the Acruani monitoring his vitals through his armor. He briefly glanced at Carver, then at Sigma, before basically, looking around rather briefly as he seemed to stretch his neck.
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Post by The Governor on Mar 1, 2016 13:44:33 GMT
After hearing the words of the Abyssals, Carver set his helmet to silence communication to the outside world, and said to his troops, “Spread out as much as you can. A fight is inevitable, and every one of us is a ticking time bomb. No weapons yet, but everyone inject with focuser three.”
Carver then thought about what would be the best way to fight the Invaders. His troops would be dealing with the common Invaders, Archene probably the Abyssal children. That left Carver with Sigma, who had killed Embry. But that was misleading, Carver knew. Embry had been killed by overdose as well as by Sigma. So just maybe, if he didn't toxify his blood like the Lieutenant had, he could survive the battle. Besides, Carver didn't expect to completely erased, no matter how much or little he accepted darkness. He was an important soldier, and if Helen had been preserved, Carver expected he would be too.
The commando officer said to the Abyssals as he moved closer to Archene, “This is all very interesting information. I don't expect to be erased. I’m planning to accept whatever happens next, albeit with the resistance required of me.” He then hoped the Invaders would let their guard down as he said, “But it shouldn't be too difficult for you to convert me. After all, I'm only a sergeant.” And as he said this, Carver delivered a lone, safe dosage of focus three.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2016 20:01:10 GMT
"True perfection is impossible to be obtained.... but we have reached a level where Our adaptability is more then enough to fulfill Our goals... this is the closest level to perfection... we can get to. We are of course.....always trying to improve ourselves....but joining a young, mortal organization is far beyond our level....no matter how insulted....you might feel about that....You have a great potential, Acruani, but unfortunately,..... you have chosen to become our enemies.... and this is why, our peaceful conversation.... can't last forever... "
As the boy, Aither, motioned to Sigma, she quickly stood up, followed by all the other Invaders, who pointed their weapons at the Acruani and at the Confederates, while Sigma unsheathed her sword. The boy and the girl though, seemed to be as calm as ever, completely ignoring the fact that a possibly bloody battle could happen over the next few moments.
"As a sign of our respect for your achievements..... and because we liked our little discussion.... we will give you a final chance.... go away.... leave this system.... and we won't follow you. But.... if you remain here.... and try to fight us.... we will.... destroy you."
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Post by Acruan on Mar 3, 2016 0:12:21 GMT
"A saddening fact indeed. Though I can surely understand how you view us as it is. But don't worry, I have no strong feelings in that regard," Archene slowly drew his sword, golden vines grew from it, their thorns piercing his skin, "Sadly, not becoming your enemy isn't something most of Us would care even to think about. We have prior alliances and protocols we must follow." He sighed quietly... things were after all going as he expected... even the amount of blood Hamiel was taking was as expected, "I'm saddened to say that retreating now, as is would probably reduce our rating in the view of other nations."
The Acruani quickly positioned themselves among the commandos, more than ready to attack by now. Archene, himself, was also more than ready to fight since halfway into the conversation, "As such, we will be declining your polite offer to allow us to leave the system." As he finished the sentence, he lunged forward towards the boy and the girl, his sword visibly aiming for the girl's head with what could be considered the simplest of the thrusts.
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Post by The Governor on Mar 3, 2016 2:32:01 GMT
Carver saw Archene attack, and took that as a signal for his own troops to attack. “Go, go go!” he shouted to the other commandos. Before anything else, he removed the scattergun from its mounting in his armour pocket, and fired both shells point blank straight at Sigma. Being low trisilviate, Carver knew it wouldn't kill her, but it would catch her off guard and make her angry as Hell. Most importantly, she would be taken by surprise and thrown off balance.
The other troops, meanwhile, all opened fire. Their hundreds of shells did far more damage, killing several of the common Invaders. Once everyone had fired, the larger commandos formed barriers with their powerful bodies and sturdy armours while the others reloaded. Others engaged the Invaders in a melee. They were spread far from the others, and their armours exploded when they were overwhelmed, taking further Invaders with them.
As for Carver, he furiously attacked with his vibrosword at the maximum power setting. If not for his visor, Sigma would have seen the almost inhuman anger in his eyes. All the pain and loss he'd ever felt with the Invaders surfaced. Coleridge, Embry, every Wendigo corpse. Here and now, Carver seemed to be possessed by all of them, and his sword strokes were those of an avenging angel. As his heavy strokes continued to fall, Carver thought, “I’m not like the old Lieutenant. I don’t need chemicals for my power. Like every great Confederate soldier, I am fuelled by vengeance.”
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2016 14:31:43 GMT
Before Archene's sword was able to finish its trust and hit the girl's head, it clashed into Aither's huge, completely white, battle axe, that parried the thrust, before pushing forward, forcing Archene back, while another similar battle axe appeared in Hemera's hands, the girl helping her so called brother. Even if technically, for a small boy and a small girl, using such large weapons should have been impossible, the two children that seemingly formed the White Maker didn't seem to be any affected by it, using the weapons that seemed to be so big compared to them as there were nothing. One after the other, they violently and quickly attacked Archene, forcing the Acruani to fight as not only was he in a numerical inferiority, two against one, but also, obviously, the two battle axes of the Invaders had a much longer range. But at least for now, the battle axes didn't seem to have any abilities.
Meanwhile, the Invader soldiers engaged the commandos in combat. Hiding behind cover, the Invaders using HMG's opened fire with their high caliber guns, supported by the others with their rifles. The Invaders engaging in melee combat fought in their usual fearless way, since they didn't feel any pay, pushing forward and doing anything to kill their enemies. Some of the Invaders even used the small, portable Panzerfaust, the Colonial "pocket rocket launcher", to fire at the heavy armored commandos.
Laughing, the pink eyed Sigma simply parried each one of his attacks, doing it as if she wasn't even trying. The Confederates and the Acruani probably didn't realize it yet, but they were in the close proximity of a Maker- more specifically, the Maker which was the superior of these specific Invaders. In a video game, this would have raised the stats of the Invaders, and even if this was no video game, the Invaders were clearly more powerful then usual, fed with the Maker's energy.
Laughing yet again, and with the usual rather insane smile on her face(to be read as "yandere smile"), Sigma, after parrying the last stroke of Carver directly with her sword's white blade, pushed forward, locking her blade horizontally against Carver's blade, pushing against the clinch, trying to knock him off balance. Looking at him with her dark, purple eyes, Sigma laughed once again. "Vengeance? That's a nice thing to fight for, but I don't think that it will help you~", the pale, white Invader girl said, her long, white hair flowing as a rather cold wind started to blow, Sigma, with her rather... revealing uniform not seeming to mind it. "Yes, I am the one who killed Lieutenant Embry, and many of your comrades... yes, I killed countless innocent civilans... and yes, my underlings killed your fiancée. What are you going to do about it? "
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