Dragon_God
Well-Known Member
- RP Date
- YE 41
- RP Location
- Western Space
===== 07:00 Kyrok City | Xuno | Preparation Planning at Air Base =====
The day was definitely brisk, everyone had been gathered inside the Hanger, as the stage was set up, and all of the troops were in formation before it. The 66 Dovanian Sky Tanks were in their golden Revenant Armor, standing at attention. Meanwhile, Kyro and the others are in the meeting room discussing the mission, as well as the new intelligence that Dovania had obtained.
Kyro stood in his Revenant Armor, he waits for the others to enter in, as his spies and scouts inform him of the most recent intelligence that they have gathered from their missions against Crimson. “I see, this information will prove valuable to the mission ahead. Please return to your bunks and take your time.” He then contemplated how to deliver the briefing to the rest of them. Awaiting for their arrival.
Seraphina was the first to enter the room, her lithe and angelic frame hidden within a shell of aegium and synthetic muscle. Her wings were encased in plated sheaths with supplemental thrust for short durations of flight. A helmet covered her head, but her feminine figure, specifically her bust was still apparent even covered in armor plating. “Your majesty, I trust everything is well prepared for today?”
Shortly behind her, with a helmet on her hip and weapons stowed, was a shock of white hair and red eyes, her posture watchful, attentive. She reached up and adjusted a piece of her armor, letting a belt fed Storm Rifle on its mount slide up and lock into place, before she stowed it again. The chaingun underslung on her forearm spun up for a moment before spooling down. Weapons checks complete, Spark’s Revenant mkII operational. “I’m ready. Though this chestplate is a little tight in the front. Maybe a bit narrow in the lower ribs.”
Last to arrive was a very tall and muscular man clad in a urban grey-black camo Revenant power armor, marching in the room. Right after entering he stopped and saluted Kyro with a heel shot and made a slight bow “ Craig Mulder at your service, your majesty “. He said with his serious deep voice.
The veteran mercenary had brought with him his entire equipment, gunblade longsword, his large and loyal Novacorp heavy assault rifle, plasma grenades and all the ammos he could carry with him.
Kyro was towering over everyone else, the very muscular man, weighing 645 pounds, and stood at 6’11”. His large tamed beard was very noticeable, as well as his high combed hair. Equipped with His IBR on his back, Fatboy on his left hip, and Yamatium modified long sword on his right hip. His face was stern and straight, “Welcome, I am assuming you are the commanders or specialist who will be participating in this operation. I urge you to stand by as I explain the delicate nature of this mission.” Stating in a stern and monotone voice. “Quite, now, it has come to my attention that new information has been acquired by my scouts, after losing 7 of our fighters to enemy fire. They are deploying a convoy out in the next few hours to obtain the target. Maybe you know this young man, Kyle Dee. He has auburn hair, pale skin, grey eyes, and is 5’9”. So expect him to be extremely mistreated and possibly unconscious when you find him. There have also been developments of him possibly having some, physical altercations.” Kyro then provided the file to Spark, “Knowing the target will be most important Warrant Officer Spark.”
“Understood, sir.” Spark briefly held up the file to her chest camera, copying the image for facial recognition by her AI copilot, before offering the file to the others. “I got it.”
Sera only nodded, “I will trust you in leading the way Spark.”
Ceilia sat, floating in the data drive of Spark’s armor, a virtual bubble around her with the images across its surface of the outside world. She sifted through the data coming in through very sources, her hands swiping through windows and pop ups. She stopped as the picture was shown to Spark, a gasp leaving her lips. “Let’s do this Spark, time to get my man back. Give em hell.”
Kyro nodded as he overlooked them, “Alright, let’s get a quick run through. We ambush the convoy, disable their attack craft, and board the cargo vessel. We then grab the target and skedaddle before reinforcements arrive. Any further questions? If not we leave immediately.”
The fully clad mercenary asked briefly “ Your majesty, how many enemies and with which equipment do we expect to face inside the ship? “
Spark smiled at the comment from Celia’s imprint in her comm headset, nodding at Sera’s comment. “Agreed with the mercenary. That’s the kind of intel we need. Moreover, is this just Kyle we’re rescuing and smash ’n grab or are we going full sweep and jump the whole ship? Both would require different loadouts.”
Lora bursted into the room breathing heavily from running, “Sorry I’m late. Our son was a bit hungry and held me longer than I anticipated Kyro.” She then cleaned herself up as she approached with more intel, “Scouts forgot to mention, the cargo ship is loaded with many life signatures with similar genetic coding as this character called, Kyle Dee. They said it numbers around 240. Though one of them has an augmented genetic make up, which we can only assume is the real one. Also, from our informant on the inside said that these clones are fakes and meant to be test subjects, many of them having chips that are controlling them.”
Kyro nodded at Lora, then turned her attention to the others. “This changes nothing, we are to spearhead our boarding attack on the cargo vessel and take only the real one, kill the rest. We can’t have those things running around like Jack does with his brother Lazarus.” Thinking for a moment, “Equipment is not of my concern, make sure you have something to shred through them. Your Storm Rifles will do nicely. These are not the best or fighters. Expect light resistance from slave fighters.”
“Oh, if they have chips, I can detect those through your Geist, as well as through those of the others. They have to work on a wirelessly, so we don’t need to connect, just find where signals are being sent. We ping them and light up any bitch that gives feedback.”, Ceilia chirped from inside Spark’s head. This was good, it was something to work with, and could definitely help seek out her real husband.
“Good idea, Celia, that’ll thin the herd. I’m counting on you for friend and foe, so use everything you need from my Geist and my helmet transceiver. If you can burn a few chips with it, go for it.” Spark nodded thoughtfully.
“Alright. I need a carrier, three cruisers, and a dreadnought to lay some hate. Once we’re in, smash and grab. I want alternating rounds, 8000 round drum of SR flechettes and 7k .50 alternating plasma and Starfire shells. I want a MWS 2 carbine one-hander with a wraparound mag for secondary, and I’m bringing three drums, plus as many plasma grenades as the Armory will let me take. Plus my fireteam. Let’s go kill something.”
Craig smirked behind his helmet, seeing that he had around capable warriors. “I’ll take three other plasma grenades and two extra ammos, S6-10mm precisely”, said simply in his disciplined manner
After tuning out minor details they gathered up all of their personnel and loaded up. Dovania provided their three cruisers, the DSS-Xuno, DSS-Thullo, and the DSS-Fahen. Also bringing as many fighters as they could. Kyro and his 67 Sky Tanks were to be the support team, making sure that they were not flanked or were held up in hallways. Playing as Engineers and special forces.
Computerized drills done, intel matched to inches of precision, millimeters of perfect. Spark knew that the mission plan she’d proposed would work. She hoped.
Slipping her helmet on, she moved to her drop pod mounted under a fighter’s wing, locking herself in, oblivious to the movements of ships outside. First to jump in was the dreadnought, Taturus, dropping in within meters of the lead corvette that shattered against the wall of heavy armor across the monster’s front. Massive guns swung around as main engines burned hard, unleashing their nuclear payloads on the cruiser’s shields as she moved to ram.
Not even a minute later, cruisers jumped in, their drives not even beginning to spool down as they opened fire on hapless corvettes, and the Hammer behind them, still lost in the radiation flare of the dreadnought’s opening volley, her bays open and fighters streaming out to deliver their lethal cargo deep within a cargo ship’s hull.
The corvettes and Destroyer were caught completely off guard. The corvettes being destroyed quickly, and the destroyer getting a few
aligned conventional shots off at the Cruisers from Section 6. Before it was completely disabled. Leaving all of the ships dead in the water, woefully unprepared for the assault.
Craig was in his fighter, while activating the thrusters he said through commlink to the other members of the team “ Here is Craig to fire team, me and Spark will get to the bridge, you go for the easy side “ He sniggered then turned to the back of his seat, looking at Spark getting ready to jump, “Everything clear, ma’am?”.
“Clear. You got a shot, you take it! Getting a little cramped in here.” Spark nodded firmly, ready to be unleashed in a hail of thermonuclear hellfire, plasma, and flechettes at the first thing that pissed her off. “How you doing in there, Celia?”
“Fine, just focus on the mission. This is my husband we’re saving, so you know...please hurry!! I’m fine, just get your armored ass moving and shooting!”, Ceilia said wanting to get going, and annoyed that time was wasted on even checking on her.
Meanwhile, Kyro was ordering his ship, the DSS-Xuno to take the more direct approach. Making the Captain maneuver the ship over to the cargo vessel. There, the Sky Tanks would unload and break through the hatches on top of the ship. Once the ship was in position, the Sky Tanks started to jump out, using their jetpacks and rockets to move around to their specific locations, before the engineers began to start working away at the hatches. There were a total of 5.
The thrusters of the of the fighter lighted up, it rapidly took off and in haste it went out from the hangars. “Count down” Craig said.
“Ten...nine…..eight….” The spacecraft was rushing at full speed in direction of the ship which was completely at the mercy of the dovanian fleet.
“Seven “ A fastly change of direction was felt with a momentaneous destabilization of the small gravity engine inside the fighter, it went above the enemy vessel but continued with a trajectory that was parallel with its length.
“Six… five… “ Craig continued the ascension, the fighter was going at full speed, its engines screaming because of the acceleration.
“Four” Another change of maneuver followed a rush deceleration , with the front side pointing downwards, looking directly at the bridge, the mercenary started the dive bombing. The engines loudly sounded again.
“Three...two..” The fighter thrusters bursted and like a lightening rushed down to the crimson ship.
“One!” With another precise maneuver, he showed the downside of the fighter which was carrying a large fuel tank in direction of the bridge. In a matter of an instant Spark was shot like a projectile in to the bridge’s windows, the fueltank where she was in smashed the thick glass.
Spark’s fuel tank crashed through glass and supports, shearing away as the Revenant II’s thrusters corrected her descent, mag boots locking against the decking of the bridge as air began to evacuate, and with a gleam in her eyes, the walls were painted the same color with the fading roar of her shoulder mounted Storm Rifle echoing into empty space.
With a bloodcurdling roar over her comms, Spark signalled her arrival, and with a boom that reverberated through the hull, she crossed the threshold of the bridge airlock, the lock cycling as designed, until the inner door opened to allow her to unleash a furious barrage of plasma and a few grenade-powerful nuclear shells down the hall.
The Crimson aboard were caught off guard for the moment, losing 5 of their men in the volley. They soon got down and started opening fire with their carbines and assault rifles. Those far back with .50 caliber snipers were taking shots at Spark as well. Ceiling turrets were also deployed, and started opening their laser and conventional round in her direction. A total of around 29 Crimson Slave Fighters were in the hallway.
The Sky Tanks had finally breached the hatches in the top of the cargo vessel, dropping in as the engineers resealed the exits. They took up their Mavericks and were ready for combat. Sun Leader Tork, was the Commander of the Sky Tanks. He opened their private comma channel and gave them orders, “Fan out and clear the ship, when you find the target, report back to me. Is that understood?” There was soon a large chatter of responses from the rest. After he was content, they started to move out.
The Revenant 2 power armor came with an upgraded shield module over the base model Revenant, and Spark shrugged off the blows and laser burns against her shields and armor for a time, continuing to sweep with fire from the modified Storm Rifle following the movements of her head, the chaingun glowing hot and spitting Hell incarnate at 1,500 rounds per minute on her left, and the carbine on her right. If the slave fighters had taken cover, they’d soon find it hammered through and melted away under the barrage, fast moving targets picked off by the rifle. Spark’s right was busy lighting up turrets with white hot lead when she got the warning in her helmet that her inertial dampeners were overloading and both of her primary weapons approaching overheat. Her shield was fading fast, so she retreated into the cover of the airlock and switched to burstfire to clean up any stragglers. But she was running low in the chaingun. Thirty seconds and a 3,000 round drum on her back had taken its toll, and she called for a reload from her fireteam as they reported they were making their way across the hull towards Spark’s breach. Before she slipped behind the door to cool off and recharge her shields, she noticed how the chaingun was ripping through walls and floor alike in its destructive opening fight.
Craig moved the fighter in direction of the ship hangar as fast as possible “ This is Craig to sky tanks, open the hangar i am getting in “ he said on the commlink.
“This is Commander Tork, we’ll open the hanger for you.” He then ordered his squad to open the hanger bay. Meanwhile, the other Sky tanks flanked the last of the Crimson Slave Soldiers and executed them, cutting them down with their modified longswords. The few that remained in the hanger were standing and watching the hundreds of glass containers, everyone had a Kyle inside. In each chamber there were some minor living supplies, like food, water, blanket, and a large metal container. Most of them stared at the Sky Tanks. “Warrant Officer, please report to the Main Hanger.” Commander Tork said.
Only seconds after, the containers within the chambers bursted, releasing the airborne strain of the Crimson Virus. Infecting all of the Kyle’s from what could be seen, starting to turn all of them into infected creatures, most of them start coughing and sprawling on the ground. Blood being vomited by a few who were given stronger strains.
The fighter went inside the hangar and landed on the metal floor of the ship, Craig saw from the glass of the cockpit what was happening, clones of the same person getting sick inside their chambers.
He turned to Seraphina, which was sitting right behind him “ Things are getting weird outside miss Seraphina, now we get out but if it turn bad you must get back here in the fighter “ he said seriously.
“No, I will see this mission through Mulder. If things go wrong, then that is the choice I’ve made, but I will not abandon my son. Now. Move.”, Seraphina had said to this, clearly not letting the matter be open to debate.
The cockpit opened and Craig jumped off, with his heavy assault rifle on hands, then walked in direction of a sky tank next to one of the chambers, “What is happening? Are they getting infected?”
With the crew cleaned up, Spark found herself satisfied. Joyous, even. With a bounce in her step and one of her fireteam pushing fresh drums of ammunition into her magazine slots, round counters refreshing and all systems green, she popped the airlock into the cargo area. “Warrant Officer 26, reporting refreshed and ready. What’s the sitrep?”
It took her a few moments to realize what she was seeing. “Shit. Celia, I need a chip analysis on these guys. Go borrow someone else’s armor if you have to. Go find your husband. Sky Tanks and Zulu Fireteam, anyone on this channel, intel said there was significant modification on one specimen. Sweep and show me what you see. Hammer Actual, request decon team for class five biohazard on our landing and potential patient, over.”
The Sky Tanks were already on that, it didn’t take long before one they spotted a cocooned object in the middle of the glass chamber rooms, 3rd in and 4 rows up. “Sir, I am spotting what seems to be a white cocoon three in and 4 up. It’s moving slightly.” A Corporal reported in. “What are my orders sir?” He called out.
“Do not engage. Keep an eye on it and keep moving. If you’re not looking, then get into the computers and pull the entire database, send it to Hammer HQ for analysis and advise.” Spark had taken to looking through the boxes, herself, trying to figure out which box had something different.
Craig sighed “ I’ll take a look at the cocoon, you do your job, i’ll warn you if that thing do something.” then moved in direction of the object, and pointed the assault rifle at it, keeping a distance of thirty feet from it.
It was not a cocoon that it was, but a pair of wings. It was someone crouched down with their wings covering their body. They were large, white and elegant, the resembled Seraphina’s to an exact. Almost a carbon copy. Though there was very little movement from this figure, it was impossible to tell who it was based on that. Except for a few people well informed enough.
“Warrant officer, I’ve a clear view, it’s not a cocoon, those are wings, like the elysian ones. Maybe it’s the heavy genetic modified signature” Craig said while still aiming at the being.
“That’s probably our boy. Celia, how are his life signs?” Spark looked around at the Sky Tanks, calling out over their comms. “I want a three man breach, shortest path to the wings, do not engage the cocoon, as we don’t know what’s in it, and we don’t want to wake it or piss it off. Three men per cube, sweep and clear. Kill the occupant. Everyone reports to decon in the airlock and gets a hydrazine bath.”
“Craig, step aside.”, came Sera’s voice as she approached the winged figure with a scanner and a SMG in the other hand. “Can you talk? What’s your name?”, Sera asked, hiding the frantic hope she was feeling, but was still wary of what she was looking at. She had one trump card she could possibly play. Looking in the direction of Spark’s marker on her helmet’s HUD, the dove woman spoke again. “Ceilia, I know you came...I need you now.”
“Well shit.”
A moment of quiet and a small beep followed, “Okay okay okay, I know what you’re goi-”, Ceilia began.
“Not now! Talk to him. If it’s him, he needs to hear your voice.”, the elysian commanded before giving the AI access to her helmet audio systems. “Kyle?....Babe, it’s me, Ceilia….It’s time to come home.”, came Ceilia’s voice from the helmet.
Kyle Slowly raises his head, his hair was long, down to his back, with streaks of white going through. One eye was gold, the other was red, the same one that was ripped out, though they were dull, dead from PTSD. He had large white wings just like Seraphina’s, they were of course, he was now her biological son. Due to all of the testing done on him. His body was beyond anorexic, bruises and burn marks everywhere. He was a living test experiment that should have died on the first test. But he’s been through it for 4 long months, unable to speak, and didn’t know who they were. Though, upon staring at the woman, as the voice spoke, he broke down in tears. It was a miracle itself he survived even a week. He has been on life support every other day. One wrong move and he would die. “T—that v-v-vo-oice….” he was able to spread through his broken and ripped throat.
Ceilia activated the ECS and the nanoes began their usual dance around the armor. However, Ceilia had another use in mind for them. With a few rewrites of a subroutine, the AI used the system to bend light to form a projection of herself before the armored figure of Seraphina. The projection of the young woman entered the chamber before kneeling before the young man, “Hello my dear husband, I’m ready to take you home.”
”Wh-ah-who are y-y-you…” His cold dead stare looked at her. All of the psychological damage was showing just as clear as the physical on Kyle.
Ceilia felt a pain in her chest where she had become so used to having a heart at. If she had her body, she knew she would have cried, but pushing on was all she could do. “I am Ceilia Dee, your wife, and the mother of our children. And you Kyle Dee, are the husband I love.”, she said as the projection merely brushed his cheek, only giving the faintest sensation of touch, but one nonetheless.
Seraphina on the other hand, was happy for the helmet she wore as cheeks ran wet with tears. She cursed the names of many in her mind, and felt anger for once. This hurt, but the goal was the same, bring her son home. The angel would do that, even if the side effect of what had been done to him hurt.
Craig looked first at the elysianish Kyle, tortured and anorexic then to the others which weren’t in the same shape as the first one. *Fuck, if that one gets infected too he might die before the others*, he rapidly turned his back to the angelic Kyle glass cage and started to fastly march in the corridors of the other chambers “This is Craig, if they are all getting infected, seeing the status of our objective he might die before the others. The crew of this ship knew of the disease, and the cure of it’s most probably here, we have to find it now”.
He then stopped for a moment to look at one chamber where a Kyle’s clone was coughing hard, *How pitiful* his mind thought .Outside of it two soldiers of the fireteam were ready to follow Spark’s order, Craig nodded to them, they all aimed at the occupant and started the summary execution.
Spark kept to the comms as she noticed the cocoon she’d seen were actually wings wrapping around an emaciated figure. “Good boy, Kyle. Alright, let’s get our boy home. Hammer actual, you should be receiving databases from the cargo ship, now. Please advise on biohazard and any cures on board.”
Commander Tork had been sweeping through the data banks and had gotten the antidote for the virus, as well as Kyle’s current genetic information and data. After a moment for reading through it he downloaded and took the information, then calling out, “This kid’s more fucked up than Nepleslian politics. Take a look at this.”
The information popped up in Spark’s HUD as she received it, and started looking through it, calmly directing traffic. “Last man, bring an injector of cure to our boy. Shouldn’t have to say which one it. We can’t be sure this wasn’t an ambush. Grab and go, boys,”
With a muffled curse, she started following the Sky Tanks troopers in, partially to give Celia the range to manifest closer to Kyle’s form.
Kyle continued to cry, collapsing on the floor. His body was too weak to do much of anything. He could only lay there and cry. It wasn’t till he began singing to himself and crying, as he has been doing to try to retain his sanity.
A fellow Sky Tank had approached from behind Seraphina and got down to Kyle. He turned to look at Ceilia and Seraphina for a moment before injecting the cure into Kyle. Then standing up and returning to his commander.
Seraphina realizing that she wasn’t going to see a reply out of Kyle soon, moved to scoop him up into her armored arms. “We’ll get you home, then you can rest. Momma’s got you.”
Ceilia withdrew back into the armor, but continued to talk to Kyle as he was carried out, “Don’t worry, we’ll be out soon enough. Don’t cry love, we’re both here for you, me and your mother.”
Craig continued to execute systematically each Kyle’s clone in the chambers, turning fastly and shooting with single precise shots to each glass cage even preceding the other soldiers, he acted like a murderbot. Someone even tried to evade their death but for the mercenary was like playing with a cockroach inside a glass, he was silent as they were screaming in pain.
After two minutes every clone inside the chambers on the way to Kyle were dead, “Done cleaning, let’s leave this place”, he said in monotone voice.
Kyle was singing the same song over and over again, it was a strange language and wording. His wings hanged low from Seraphina’s arms, as his dull eyes and deadman’s glare looked directly at Seraphina. He looked like a corpse, just somehow alive. Hanging onto whatever subsistence he was given by crimson to stay alive.
The Sky Tanks were grabbing all of the crates and information that they could before flying out of the hanger to the DSS-Xuno. Commander Tork staying to see if there was anything else that they needed. “We’re going to have to put that kid in a suit, or we’re not getting anywhere.” Pointing out as a major issue. “Not to mention, the other’s are all dead.” As he pointed to the other Kyle’s that were on the ground, appearing to be dead, however were unconscious.
“We’ll handle that.” Spark said, double checking her surroundings for something to place Kyle in for transport. “WO26, Hammer Actual, request, nuclear strike on occupied vessel, target alpha, also request one Tenba pickup. Time One-Two-Zero second to evac, One-Eight-Zero to strike..”
“Roger that, WO26, request acknowledged. Tenba on its way, 60 seconds to puckup. 180 to nuclear strike.”
“All personnel, evacuate if you’re not already moving. Sera, Kyle, and I will be on the Tenba. Craig, report to decontamination on the Hammer.” Spark’s order was fast and clear, and she gave up on looking for something to shove Kyle into.
“Yes ma’am” Craig answered, then run in direction of the fighter. A dozen of seconds later the fighter was seeing lifting off and leaving the ship in haste.
“This is Craig to Hammer, requesting decontamination for me and my fighter’s cockpit” He said, worried that probably that virus could had stick all over the place.
Commander Tork took off with a salute, and headed back to the DSS-Xuno. Not having anything else to report, he awaited for the fleet to call for the recall back to base, so the everyone can go back home. He only hoped for the best regarding the kid. The young lad didn’t look like he was going to last long from just the initial glance. Looked more like a corpse than a person.
The marker for the shuttle was fast approaching, Sera holding Kyle a little closer. “This shuttle needs to be faster, will work on a upgrade once we’re back. Right now, can however get the fuck out of here now?”, she said as she looked down to the young man in her arms. “Doesn’t matter, we have Kyle, and are about to blow the shit out of this flying dumpster.”, Ceilia commented rather annoyed with the shuttle as well.
After they loaded onto the Shuttle, Two Dreadnaughts jumped into the area, opening fire upon the S6 ships. The Dovanian Corvettes having jumped before the Dreadnaughts had arrived, assuming the mission was already over. Leaving only the carrier and the Dreadnaught alone to deal with the Two Crimson Dreadnaughts heading towards the S6 Dreadnaught.
The fleet watched the jump signatures closely, and sent a broadcast for all ships to prepare for jump. The call couldn’t have gone out but a few seconds before the the two dreadnoughts showed up. And so to buy a radiation cover for the Tenba flying, the Tarturus, and the Hammer, both ships opened fire with railgun and Starfire, three rounds flying past the Tenba to vaporize the little cargo ship, but more flying straight and true to the Crimson dreadnoughts. Those aboard the Tenba felt the familiar thump and pull of an FTRL jump, losing contact.
Less than ten seconds later, the Tarturus followed, leaving the Anvil to fight on its own until it's jump was ready, ripping the supermass carrier from space and time.
The day was definitely brisk, everyone had been gathered inside the Hanger, as the stage was set up, and all of the troops were in formation before it. The 66 Dovanian Sky Tanks were in their golden Revenant Armor, standing at attention. Meanwhile, Kyro and the others are in the meeting room discussing the mission, as well as the new intelligence that Dovania had obtained.
Kyro stood in his Revenant Armor, he waits for the others to enter in, as his spies and scouts inform him of the most recent intelligence that they have gathered from their missions against Crimson. “I see, this information will prove valuable to the mission ahead. Please return to your bunks and take your time.” He then contemplated how to deliver the briefing to the rest of them. Awaiting for their arrival.
Seraphina was the first to enter the room, her lithe and angelic frame hidden within a shell of aegium and synthetic muscle. Her wings were encased in plated sheaths with supplemental thrust for short durations of flight. A helmet covered her head, but her feminine figure, specifically her bust was still apparent even covered in armor plating. “Your majesty, I trust everything is well prepared for today?”
Shortly behind her, with a helmet on her hip and weapons stowed, was a shock of white hair and red eyes, her posture watchful, attentive. She reached up and adjusted a piece of her armor, letting a belt fed Storm Rifle on its mount slide up and lock into place, before she stowed it again. The chaingun underslung on her forearm spun up for a moment before spooling down. Weapons checks complete, Spark’s Revenant mkII operational. “I’m ready. Though this chestplate is a little tight in the front. Maybe a bit narrow in the lower ribs.”
Last to arrive was a very tall and muscular man clad in a urban grey-black camo Revenant power armor, marching in the room. Right after entering he stopped and saluted Kyro with a heel shot and made a slight bow “ Craig Mulder at your service, your majesty “. He said with his serious deep voice.
The veteran mercenary had brought with him his entire equipment, gunblade longsword, his large and loyal Novacorp heavy assault rifle, plasma grenades and all the ammos he could carry with him.
Kyro was towering over everyone else, the very muscular man, weighing 645 pounds, and stood at 6’11”. His large tamed beard was very noticeable, as well as his high combed hair. Equipped with His IBR on his back, Fatboy on his left hip, and Yamatium modified long sword on his right hip. His face was stern and straight, “Welcome, I am assuming you are the commanders or specialist who will be participating in this operation. I urge you to stand by as I explain the delicate nature of this mission.” Stating in a stern and monotone voice. “Quite, now, it has come to my attention that new information has been acquired by my scouts, after losing 7 of our fighters to enemy fire. They are deploying a convoy out in the next few hours to obtain the target. Maybe you know this young man, Kyle Dee. He has auburn hair, pale skin, grey eyes, and is 5’9”. So expect him to be extremely mistreated and possibly unconscious when you find him. There have also been developments of him possibly having some, physical altercations.” Kyro then provided the file to Spark, “Knowing the target will be most important Warrant Officer Spark.”
“Understood, sir.” Spark briefly held up the file to her chest camera, copying the image for facial recognition by her AI copilot, before offering the file to the others. “I got it.”
Sera only nodded, “I will trust you in leading the way Spark.”
Ceilia sat, floating in the data drive of Spark’s armor, a virtual bubble around her with the images across its surface of the outside world. She sifted through the data coming in through very sources, her hands swiping through windows and pop ups. She stopped as the picture was shown to Spark, a gasp leaving her lips. “Let’s do this Spark, time to get my man back. Give em hell.”
Kyro nodded as he overlooked them, “Alright, let’s get a quick run through. We ambush the convoy, disable their attack craft, and board the cargo vessel. We then grab the target and skedaddle before reinforcements arrive. Any further questions? If not we leave immediately.”
The fully clad mercenary asked briefly “ Your majesty, how many enemies and with which equipment do we expect to face inside the ship? “
Spark smiled at the comment from Celia’s imprint in her comm headset, nodding at Sera’s comment. “Agreed with the mercenary. That’s the kind of intel we need. Moreover, is this just Kyle we’re rescuing and smash ’n grab or are we going full sweep and jump the whole ship? Both would require different loadouts.”
Lora bursted into the room breathing heavily from running, “Sorry I’m late. Our son was a bit hungry and held me longer than I anticipated Kyro.” She then cleaned herself up as she approached with more intel, “Scouts forgot to mention, the cargo ship is loaded with many life signatures with similar genetic coding as this character called, Kyle Dee. They said it numbers around 240. Though one of them has an augmented genetic make up, which we can only assume is the real one. Also, from our informant on the inside said that these clones are fakes and meant to be test subjects, many of them having chips that are controlling them.”
Kyro nodded at Lora, then turned her attention to the others. “This changes nothing, we are to spearhead our boarding attack on the cargo vessel and take only the real one, kill the rest. We can’t have those things running around like Jack does with his brother Lazarus.” Thinking for a moment, “Equipment is not of my concern, make sure you have something to shred through them. Your Storm Rifles will do nicely. These are not the best or fighters. Expect light resistance from slave fighters.”
“Oh, if they have chips, I can detect those through your Geist, as well as through those of the others. They have to work on a wirelessly, so we don’t need to connect, just find where signals are being sent. We ping them and light up any bitch that gives feedback.”, Ceilia chirped from inside Spark’s head. This was good, it was something to work with, and could definitely help seek out her real husband.
“Good idea, Celia, that’ll thin the herd. I’m counting on you for friend and foe, so use everything you need from my Geist and my helmet transceiver. If you can burn a few chips with it, go for it.” Spark nodded thoughtfully.
“Alright. I need a carrier, three cruisers, and a dreadnought to lay some hate. Once we’re in, smash and grab. I want alternating rounds, 8000 round drum of SR flechettes and 7k .50 alternating plasma and Starfire shells. I want a MWS 2 carbine one-hander with a wraparound mag for secondary, and I’m bringing three drums, plus as many plasma grenades as the Armory will let me take. Plus my fireteam. Let’s go kill something.”
Craig smirked behind his helmet, seeing that he had around capable warriors. “I’ll take three other plasma grenades and two extra ammos, S6-10mm precisely”, said simply in his disciplined manner
After tuning out minor details they gathered up all of their personnel and loaded up. Dovania provided their three cruisers, the DSS-Xuno, DSS-Thullo, and the DSS-Fahen. Also bringing as many fighters as they could. Kyro and his 67 Sky Tanks were to be the support team, making sure that they were not flanked or were held up in hallways. Playing as Engineers and special forces.
Computerized drills done, intel matched to inches of precision, millimeters of perfect. Spark knew that the mission plan she’d proposed would work. She hoped.
Slipping her helmet on, she moved to her drop pod mounted under a fighter’s wing, locking herself in, oblivious to the movements of ships outside. First to jump in was the dreadnought, Taturus, dropping in within meters of the lead corvette that shattered against the wall of heavy armor across the monster’s front. Massive guns swung around as main engines burned hard, unleashing their nuclear payloads on the cruiser’s shields as she moved to ram.
Not even a minute later, cruisers jumped in, their drives not even beginning to spool down as they opened fire on hapless corvettes, and the Hammer behind them, still lost in the radiation flare of the dreadnought’s opening volley, her bays open and fighters streaming out to deliver their lethal cargo deep within a cargo ship’s hull.
The corvettes and Destroyer were caught completely off guard. The corvettes being destroyed quickly, and the destroyer getting a few
aligned conventional shots off at the Cruisers from Section 6. Before it was completely disabled. Leaving all of the ships dead in the water, woefully unprepared for the assault.
Craig was in his fighter, while activating the thrusters he said through commlink to the other members of the team “ Here is Craig to fire team, me and Spark will get to the bridge, you go for the easy side “ He sniggered then turned to the back of his seat, looking at Spark getting ready to jump, “Everything clear, ma’am?”.
“Clear. You got a shot, you take it! Getting a little cramped in here.” Spark nodded firmly, ready to be unleashed in a hail of thermonuclear hellfire, plasma, and flechettes at the first thing that pissed her off. “How you doing in there, Celia?”
“Fine, just focus on the mission. This is my husband we’re saving, so you know...please hurry!! I’m fine, just get your armored ass moving and shooting!”, Ceilia said wanting to get going, and annoyed that time was wasted on even checking on her.
Meanwhile, Kyro was ordering his ship, the DSS-Xuno to take the more direct approach. Making the Captain maneuver the ship over to the cargo vessel. There, the Sky Tanks would unload and break through the hatches on top of the ship. Once the ship was in position, the Sky Tanks started to jump out, using their jetpacks and rockets to move around to their specific locations, before the engineers began to start working away at the hatches. There were a total of 5.
The thrusters of the of the fighter lighted up, it rapidly took off and in haste it went out from the hangars. “Count down” Craig said.
“Ten...nine…..eight….” The spacecraft was rushing at full speed in direction of the ship which was completely at the mercy of the dovanian fleet.
“Seven “ A fastly change of direction was felt with a momentaneous destabilization of the small gravity engine inside the fighter, it went above the enemy vessel but continued with a trajectory that was parallel with its length.
“Six… five… “ Craig continued the ascension, the fighter was going at full speed, its engines screaming because of the acceleration.
“Four” Another change of maneuver followed a rush deceleration , with the front side pointing downwards, looking directly at the bridge, the mercenary started the dive bombing. The engines loudly sounded again.
“Three...two..” The fighter thrusters bursted and like a lightening rushed down to the crimson ship.
“One!” With another precise maneuver, he showed the downside of the fighter which was carrying a large fuel tank in direction of the bridge. In a matter of an instant Spark was shot like a projectile in to the bridge’s windows, the fueltank where she was in smashed the thick glass.
Spark’s fuel tank crashed through glass and supports, shearing away as the Revenant II’s thrusters corrected her descent, mag boots locking against the decking of the bridge as air began to evacuate, and with a gleam in her eyes, the walls were painted the same color with the fading roar of her shoulder mounted Storm Rifle echoing into empty space.
With a bloodcurdling roar over her comms, Spark signalled her arrival, and with a boom that reverberated through the hull, she crossed the threshold of the bridge airlock, the lock cycling as designed, until the inner door opened to allow her to unleash a furious barrage of plasma and a few grenade-powerful nuclear shells down the hall.
The Crimson aboard were caught off guard for the moment, losing 5 of their men in the volley. They soon got down and started opening fire with their carbines and assault rifles. Those far back with .50 caliber snipers were taking shots at Spark as well. Ceiling turrets were also deployed, and started opening their laser and conventional round in her direction. A total of around 29 Crimson Slave Fighters were in the hallway.
The Sky Tanks had finally breached the hatches in the top of the cargo vessel, dropping in as the engineers resealed the exits. They took up their Mavericks and were ready for combat. Sun Leader Tork, was the Commander of the Sky Tanks. He opened their private comma channel and gave them orders, “Fan out and clear the ship, when you find the target, report back to me. Is that understood?” There was soon a large chatter of responses from the rest. After he was content, they started to move out.
The Revenant 2 power armor came with an upgraded shield module over the base model Revenant, and Spark shrugged off the blows and laser burns against her shields and armor for a time, continuing to sweep with fire from the modified Storm Rifle following the movements of her head, the chaingun glowing hot and spitting Hell incarnate at 1,500 rounds per minute on her left, and the carbine on her right. If the slave fighters had taken cover, they’d soon find it hammered through and melted away under the barrage, fast moving targets picked off by the rifle. Spark’s right was busy lighting up turrets with white hot lead when she got the warning in her helmet that her inertial dampeners were overloading and both of her primary weapons approaching overheat. Her shield was fading fast, so she retreated into the cover of the airlock and switched to burstfire to clean up any stragglers. But she was running low in the chaingun. Thirty seconds and a 3,000 round drum on her back had taken its toll, and she called for a reload from her fireteam as they reported they were making their way across the hull towards Spark’s breach. Before she slipped behind the door to cool off and recharge her shields, she noticed how the chaingun was ripping through walls and floor alike in its destructive opening fight.
Craig moved the fighter in direction of the ship hangar as fast as possible “ This is Craig to sky tanks, open the hangar i am getting in “ he said on the commlink.
“This is Commander Tork, we’ll open the hanger for you.” He then ordered his squad to open the hanger bay. Meanwhile, the other Sky tanks flanked the last of the Crimson Slave Soldiers and executed them, cutting them down with their modified longswords. The few that remained in the hanger were standing and watching the hundreds of glass containers, everyone had a Kyle inside. In each chamber there were some minor living supplies, like food, water, blanket, and a large metal container. Most of them stared at the Sky Tanks. “Warrant Officer, please report to the Main Hanger.” Commander Tork said.
Only seconds after, the containers within the chambers bursted, releasing the airborne strain of the Crimson Virus. Infecting all of the Kyle’s from what could be seen, starting to turn all of them into infected creatures, most of them start coughing and sprawling on the ground. Blood being vomited by a few who were given stronger strains.
The fighter went inside the hangar and landed on the metal floor of the ship, Craig saw from the glass of the cockpit what was happening, clones of the same person getting sick inside their chambers.
He turned to Seraphina, which was sitting right behind him “ Things are getting weird outside miss Seraphina, now we get out but if it turn bad you must get back here in the fighter “ he said seriously.
“No, I will see this mission through Mulder. If things go wrong, then that is the choice I’ve made, but I will not abandon my son. Now. Move.”, Seraphina had said to this, clearly not letting the matter be open to debate.
The cockpit opened and Craig jumped off, with his heavy assault rifle on hands, then walked in direction of a sky tank next to one of the chambers, “What is happening? Are they getting infected?”
With the crew cleaned up, Spark found herself satisfied. Joyous, even. With a bounce in her step and one of her fireteam pushing fresh drums of ammunition into her magazine slots, round counters refreshing and all systems green, she popped the airlock into the cargo area. “Warrant Officer 26, reporting refreshed and ready. What’s the sitrep?”
It took her a few moments to realize what she was seeing. “Shit. Celia, I need a chip analysis on these guys. Go borrow someone else’s armor if you have to. Go find your husband. Sky Tanks and Zulu Fireteam, anyone on this channel, intel said there was significant modification on one specimen. Sweep and show me what you see. Hammer Actual, request decon team for class five biohazard on our landing and potential patient, over.”
The Sky Tanks were already on that, it didn’t take long before one they spotted a cocooned object in the middle of the glass chamber rooms, 3rd in and 4 rows up. “Sir, I am spotting what seems to be a white cocoon three in and 4 up. It’s moving slightly.” A Corporal reported in. “What are my orders sir?” He called out.
“Do not engage. Keep an eye on it and keep moving. If you’re not looking, then get into the computers and pull the entire database, send it to Hammer HQ for analysis and advise.” Spark had taken to looking through the boxes, herself, trying to figure out which box had something different.
Craig sighed “ I’ll take a look at the cocoon, you do your job, i’ll warn you if that thing do something.” then moved in direction of the object, and pointed the assault rifle at it, keeping a distance of thirty feet from it.
It was not a cocoon that it was, but a pair of wings. It was someone crouched down with their wings covering their body. They were large, white and elegant, the resembled Seraphina’s to an exact. Almost a carbon copy. Though there was very little movement from this figure, it was impossible to tell who it was based on that. Except for a few people well informed enough.
“Warrant officer, I’ve a clear view, it’s not a cocoon, those are wings, like the elysian ones. Maybe it’s the heavy genetic modified signature” Craig said while still aiming at the being.
“That’s probably our boy. Celia, how are his life signs?” Spark looked around at the Sky Tanks, calling out over their comms. “I want a three man breach, shortest path to the wings, do not engage the cocoon, as we don’t know what’s in it, and we don’t want to wake it or piss it off. Three men per cube, sweep and clear. Kill the occupant. Everyone reports to decon in the airlock and gets a hydrazine bath.”
“Craig, step aside.”, came Sera’s voice as she approached the winged figure with a scanner and a SMG in the other hand. “Can you talk? What’s your name?”, Sera asked, hiding the frantic hope she was feeling, but was still wary of what she was looking at. She had one trump card she could possibly play. Looking in the direction of Spark’s marker on her helmet’s HUD, the dove woman spoke again. “Ceilia, I know you came...I need you now.”
“Well shit.”
A moment of quiet and a small beep followed, “Okay okay okay, I know what you’re goi-”, Ceilia began.
“Not now! Talk to him. If it’s him, he needs to hear your voice.”, the elysian commanded before giving the AI access to her helmet audio systems. “Kyle?....Babe, it’s me, Ceilia….It’s time to come home.”, came Ceilia’s voice from the helmet.
Kyle Slowly raises his head, his hair was long, down to his back, with streaks of white going through. One eye was gold, the other was red, the same one that was ripped out, though they were dull, dead from PTSD. He had large white wings just like Seraphina’s, they were of course, he was now her biological son. Due to all of the testing done on him. His body was beyond anorexic, bruises and burn marks everywhere. He was a living test experiment that should have died on the first test. But he’s been through it for 4 long months, unable to speak, and didn’t know who they were. Though, upon staring at the woman, as the voice spoke, he broke down in tears. It was a miracle itself he survived even a week. He has been on life support every other day. One wrong move and he would die. “T—that v-v-vo-oice….” he was able to spread through his broken and ripped throat.
Ceilia activated the ECS and the nanoes began their usual dance around the armor. However, Ceilia had another use in mind for them. With a few rewrites of a subroutine, the AI used the system to bend light to form a projection of herself before the armored figure of Seraphina. The projection of the young woman entered the chamber before kneeling before the young man, “Hello my dear husband, I’m ready to take you home.”
”Wh-ah-who are y-y-you…” His cold dead stare looked at her. All of the psychological damage was showing just as clear as the physical on Kyle.
Ceilia felt a pain in her chest where she had become so used to having a heart at. If she had her body, she knew she would have cried, but pushing on was all she could do. “I am Ceilia Dee, your wife, and the mother of our children. And you Kyle Dee, are the husband I love.”, she said as the projection merely brushed his cheek, only giving the faintest sensation of touch, but one nonetheless.
Seraphina on the other hand, was happy for the helmet she wore as cheeks ran wet with tears. She cursed the names of many in her mind, and felt anger for once. This hurt, but the goal was the same, bring her son home. The angel would do that, even if the side effect of what had been done to him hurt.
Craig looked first at the elysianish Kyle, tortured and anorexic then to the others which weren’t in the same shape as the first one. *Fuck, if that one gets infected too he might die before the others*, he rapidly turned his back to the angelic Kyle glass cage and started to fastly march in the corridors of the other chambers “This is Craig, if they are all getting infected, seeing the status of our objective he might die before the others. The crew of this ship knew of the disease, and the cure of it’s most probably here, we have to find it now”.
He then stopped for a moment to look at one chamber where a Kyle’s clone was coughing hard, *How pitiful* his mind thought .Outside of it two soldiers of the fireteam were ready to follow Spark’s order, Craig nodded to them, they all aimed at the occupant and started the summary execution.
Spark kept to the comms as she noticed the cocoon she’d seen were actually wings wrapping around an emaciated figure. “Good boy, Kyle. Alright, let’s get our boy home. Hammer actual, you should be receiving databases from the cargo ship, now. Please advise on biohazard and any cures on board.”
Commander Tork had been sweeping through the data banks and had gotten the antidote for the virus, as well as Kyle’s current genetic information and data. After a moment for reading through it he downloaded and took the information, then calling out, “This kid’s more fucked up than Nepleslian politics. Take a look at this.”
The information popped up in Spark’s HUD as she received it, and started looking through it, calmly directing traffic. “Last man, bring an injector of cure to our boy. Shouldn’t have to say which one it. We can’t be sure this wasn’t an ambush. Grab and go, boys,”
With a muffled curse, she started following the Sky Tanks troopers in, partially to give Celia the range to manifest closer to Kyle’s form.
Kyle continued to cry, collapsing on the floor. His body was too weak to do much of anything. He could only lay there and cry. It wasn’t till he began singing to himself and crying, as he has been doing to try to retain his sanity.
A fellow Sky Tank had approached from behind Seraphina and got down to Kyle. He turned to look at Ceilia and Seraphina for a moment before injecting the cure into Kyle. Then standing up and returning to his commander.
Seraphina realizing that she wasn’t going to see a reply out of Kyle soon, moved to scoop him up into her armored arms. “We’ll get you home, then you can rest. Momma’s got you.”
Ceilia withdrew back into the armor, but continued to talk to Kyle as he was carried out, “Don’t worry, we’ll be out soon enough. Don’t cry love, we’re both here for you, me and your mother.”
Craig continued to execute systematically each Kyle’s clone in the chambers, turning fastly and shooting with single precise shots to each glass cage even preceding the other soldiers, he acted like a murderbot. Someone even tried to evade their death but for the mercenary was like playing with a cockroach inside a glass, he was silent as they were screaming in pain.
After two minutes every clone inside the chambers on the way to Kyle were dead, “Done cleaning, let’s leave this place”, he said in monotone voice.
Kyle was singing the same song over and over again, it was a strange language and wording. His wings hanged low from Seraphina’s arms, as his dull eyes and deadman’s glare looked directly at Seraphina. He looked like a corpse, just somehow alive. Hanging onto whatever subsistence he was given by crimson to stay alive.
The Sky Tanks were grabbing all of the crates and information that they could before flying out of the hanger to the DSS-Xuno. Commander Tork staying to see if there was anything else that they needed. “We’re going to have to put that kid in a suit, or we’re not getting anywhere.” Pointing out as a major issue. “Not to mention, the other’s are all dead.” As he pointed to the other Kyle’s that were on the ground, appearing to be dead, however were unconscious.
“We’ll handle that.” Spark said, double checking her surroundings for something to place Kyle in for transport. “WO26, Hammer Actual, request, nuclear strike on occupied vessel, target alpha, also request one Tenba pickup. Time One-Two-Zero second to evac, One-Eight-Zero to strike..”
“Roger that, WO26, request acknowledged. Tenba on its way, 60 seconds to puckup. 180 to nuclear strike.”
“All personnel, evacuate if you’re not already moving. Sera, Kyle, and I will be on the Tenba. Craig, report to decontamination on the Hammer.” Spark’s order was fast and clear, and she gave up on looking for something to shove Kyle into.
“Yes ma’am” Craig answered, then run in direction of the fighter. A dozen of seconds later the fighter was seeing lifting off and leaving the ship in haste.
“This is Craig to Hammer, requesting decontamination for me and my fighter’s cockpit” He said, worried that probably that virus could had stick all over the place.
Commander Tork took off with a salute, and headed back to the DSS-Xuno. Not having anything else to report, he awaited for the fleet to call for the recall back to base, so the everyone can go back home. He only hoped for the best regarding the kid. The young lad didn’t look like he was going to last long from just the initial glance. Looked more like a corpse than a person.
The marker for the shuttle was fast approaching, Sera holding Kyle a little closer. “This shuttle needs to be faster, will work on a upgrade once we’re back. Right now, can however get the fuck out of here now?”, she said as she looked down to the young man in her arms. “Doesn’t matter, we have Kyle, and are about to blow the shit out of this flying dumpster.”, Ceilia commented rather annoyed with the shuttle as well.
After they loaded onto the Shuttle, Two Dreadnaughts jumped into the area, opening fire upon the S6 ships. The Dovanian Corvettes having jumped before the Dreadnaughts had arrived, assuming the mission was already over. Leaving only the carrier and the Dreadnaught alone to deal with the Two Crimson Dreadnaughts heading towards the S6 Dreadnaught.
The fleet watched the jump signatures closely, and sent a broadcast for all ships to prepare for jump. The call couldn’t have gone out but a few seconds before the the two dreadnoughts showed up. And so to buy a radiation cover for the Tenba flying, the Tarturus, and the Hammer, both ships opened fire with railgun and Starfire, three rounds flying past the Tenba to vaporize the little cargo ship, but more flying straight and true to the Crimson dreadnoughts. Those aboard the Tenba felt the familiar thump and pull of an FTRL jump, losing contact.
Less than ten seconds later, the Tarturus followed, leaving the Anvil to fight on its own until it's jump was ready, ripping the supermass carrier from space and time.
Last edited:
