Scattered Through Time

[Loc]

Floaro woke up in some sort of Lab. He turned their was Kait and Yema.

[Guest Levy]

((Ehh, I told you to read what you missed. :competitive: Floaro should be in the underground lab. C is flying on the back of an alien drop shuttle heading toward the lab to pick everyone up. The three at the lab are Kait, Yema, and Floaro.))

[antiaircraft]

((The Echronal Physig is a destroyer, which technically should be a small, fast ship with plenty of firepower. However, the Echronal Physig actually earned its role as a destroyer for its supreme speed and agility instead of being assigned as a destroyer (it was initially designated a battleship).))

 

The Echronal Physig rocked as a stray shot from one of the Super-dreadnoughts discharged over its shields. Shade glanced back at the tactical display, which blinked to indicate that the massive ships were just beginning to power down their weapons. Hardly expert fire coordinators, Shade thought as he called out a new set of orders to the small group of ships pursuing Asyphar's corvette.

 

---

 

Hyemist followed C's indications and angled the shuttle rapidly towards the cave. 30 seconds later, she yanked the control stick around, landing the shuttle perfectly with its rear deployment hatch facing into the cave.

 

Mird glanced briefly out one of the shuttle's not-quite-glass windows, and spotted two black shapes closing in. Their sleek, angular outlines sliced through the air easily, and menacing gun turrets protruded from their hulls.

 

Hyemist noticed the incoming craft too, but she recognised them much more clearly. "Sir, whatever you have to do here, you'd best do it fast. We have Che-jan hovertanks closing in!"

[Guest Levy]

Kait and Floaro walked out of the cave and met C, who had gotten off the shuttle.

((If Loc won't read what he missed then I might as well take over Floaro if he doesn't pop back in soon.))

Kait ran up to C and gripped his right arm.

"Get into the shuttle, we need to leave." C commanded.

He looked and noticed Floaro in a zombie-like stance.

"Do I need to guess where Yema is?" C said a bit mockingly.

"Shut up, this isn't fun. But it beats getting burned alive." Yema's voice said out of Floaro's mouth, mixed with bits of Floaro's voice in uneven intervals. "In case you are wondering, he volunteered. I am grateful."

"Enough! On board now! There's no time!" C said. He ripped part of the wall off, revealing a number-pad with metallic buttons. He tapped out 0521 and activated the pad.

He was the last inside the craft and shut the door.

"Go!"

The shuttle raised off the ground and headed south. Anywhere was better than the lab.

They looked at the red-tinted window in the back and the cave exploded with conventional explosives and it caved in.

C looked at Kait, "I'm am so glad you are not hurt." He lifted the visor off his face and showed his eyes. The rest of the helmet covers his mouth and nasal area.

She embraced him as best as she could. "The data is purged, everything of any importance is with me." she said, then held up a pen drive.

"Excuse me." Yema said, using Floaro as a proxy still, "Is there anyway the sun can be blocked here so I can leave Floaro?"

[antiaircraft]

((I think Loc did read up - his most recent post fits the storyline at least.))

 

Hyemist used one of her feelers to indicate a small control panel on the wall by the heroes. "The window polarization controls are there if you need to alter the light levels. Hang on tight by the way."

 

She slewed the shuttle violently to the right, just as a stream of turret fire from the hovertanks sliced through their previous position. The two Che-jan vehicles could be seen clearly now. Their wings were swept forward, making a rough V-shape, and two blacked-out panes were set in the lower half of the two tanks' noses - presumably armoured cockpit windows. Each tank carried twin plasma turrets on each of its wings, and these turrets were firing at the shuttle with deadly accuracy. Their armoured black hulls appeared thick and heavy - taking into account the Che-jan obsession with sleek craft, this indicated that the armour was very, very thick. Nothing short of a fighter loaded with anti-capital ship missiles could take down a pPi44 Heavy Hovertank.

 

Despite Hyemist's best efforts, the shuttle was taking severe damage. It was a landing craft after all, not built to survive a long-term horizontal pursuit. She would have to try something different. "Hang on!" she shouted to the others, then flipped the ungainly drop shuttle into an evasive 360 degree snap roll. They cleared the field of plasma fire for a moment, and then rapidly lost altitude as Hyemist throttled back, dropping so low that the shuttle's engines kicked up long plumes of dirt behind them. They were now dodging through the trees of a forest of some sort, an extremely hazardous activity as was made clear by the sound of snapping branches outside.

 

The two hovertanks stayed clear of the treeline, calmly waiting for Hyemist to either slip up and smash into a tree or be forced to head into an open area again. Hyemist found this somewhat irritating, but tried not to let it distract her from weaving frantically through the blur of extremely solid obstructions. Then the sensor display beeped, and a Chraxon corvette appeared, being pursued by several fighters and a pair of boarding craft. The corvette was flying dangerously low for a capital ship - only 200 metres above the ground.

 

Hyemist took the chance, making a sharp turn and pulling the shuttle above the treeline, heading full speed for the corvette. The two hovertanks immediately followed, opening up again with whithering barrages of plasma. They closed in on the corvette, and one of its heavy turrets abruptly swivelled around, loosing devastating burst of energy that reduced the hovertanks to nothing morethan unusually aerodynamic fireballs.

 

Hyemist felt a brief feeling of elation. The feeling was brief because she noticed that the heavy turret was now turning to target the shuttle.

 

---

 

"Hold your fire, divert back back to pursuers. That shuttle is unlikely to be under Che-jan control." Asyphar instructed the turret operator.

 

Even as he complied, the gunner voiced a half-hearted objection, just in case Asyphar had managed to miss out on something. "But it could be a trick sir!"

 

"That is highly improbable. I know my opponent: were this a ruse, he would be using a captured Chraxon ship." Asyphar mused while artfully directing the fire of the corvette's twelve turrets. "And I doubt I would have realised the trick until it was too late." he added calmly.

[Guest Levy]

((He edited that after I corrected him in the next post.))

 

C shaded the shuttle from the UV light and Yema emerged from Floaro, leaving him weak and he fainted.

"Any ideas Yema?" C asked.

"I have no..." She began to respond then paused. She was heavily distracted, the plain began to burn and take on a more sinister form. The apocalyptic 103 AE time of C. This was only a glimpse, but it was unmistakable. The sight disappeared not long after.

"The invaders have time-travel capabilities! The fabric is beginning to tear! This is not good, this is not good!!" She began to panic.

Everyone was silent.

She was pacing in the air. Something was terribly wrong.

"I never thought I would mess up this badly! This is all too wrong! She'll come soon, its only a matter of time! She'll come and the galaxy will be purged!"

C was stern, "We need to hide. How fast can this thing move?" he asked Hyemist.

[antiaircraft]

"Not particularly fast," Hyemist said, "but the Chraxon corvette there is the fastest ship you'll find within a few light years, at least in space. It also happens to be hailing us on comm channel 116." She added the last sentence as she tapped a few points on the control board to confirm the communications link. A large, holographic rendering Asyphar's face appeared in the air. Hyemist snapped to attention as fast as it is possible to while still flying a ship.

 

"Ground Commander Hyemist reporting, sir!"

 

"Acknowledged. If you wish to dock with us, it would be advisable to do it quickly. We will be engaging auxiliary drives in 20 seconds, and no drop shuttle will be able to keep up with us then. Transmit signal 118 on channel 13 to bay door control, and they will stay open for you as long as possible. Over."

[Midtime]

Unknown to Echo, there is a fifth dimension. A time-beyond-time, through which disembodied, partially omnipotent, often powerful beings pass as three-dimensional entity do through the fourth. As Echo relives the happiest moment of his past, the mix of pride and relief as his young break through their eggs, one such being has noticed an opportunity to become, once again, flesh and bone, as all such beings crave.

Echo is about to learn an unforgettable lesson:

 

Never enter an omnitrance without appropriate - albeit enormously powerful - spirit wards.

 

 

((Name: NightStar

Gender: N/A

Age: N/A

Species: Partially omnipotent being. For the sake of convenience I will from now on call such entities 'omnipotents'.

Alignment: Neutral (this can be changed)

Skill: Quite adept at wielding magical power, of which it has a lot. You get the idea.

Time period: N/A

Character Description: Any being able to detect an omnipotent will not so much sense them as feel them, as a sort of buzzing that you hear inside the head. Is able to talk in any language, and displays wonder at how anyone can take a physical body for granted.

Other info: Like most omnipotents, NightStar once had a body, but it was destroyed when he was in an omnitrance, causing its mind to detach. It has spent so much time-beyond-time since that he can remember nothing but its name, which roughly translates to 'NightStar'. The ability to enter an omnitrance can be learned only with difficulty, but once achieved a first time it becomes easy. This ability is also granted by an experience beyond death, such as the one Echo endured when the others were watching Mird fight. You have to come back, of course, which is markedly more difficult, but there are quite a few beings with abilities like Yema's. Omnipotents are 'anchored' to the point where they were disembodied. If they move past that point, the world splits into 'a mind-boggling infinity of futures' as demonstrated by Echo. Echo was able to see further by returning to his body and waiting for time to pass, so the next time he left he was 'anchored' to a later point. NightStar has found a way to decipher which future will happen and single it out, thus allowing it to reach this time without becoming hopelessly confused. However, because of the event that Yema is screaming about, this ability is disabled, so omnipotents cannot enter the future at all. It can only use its magical abilities if in possession of a body without a mind, such as Echo's is right now.))

 

At last! After such a long time of waiting, it had finally found an unprotected host body. To be able to move, to breathe, to live!

It wasted no 'time' in entering the body.

It stood. It took in a breath, acquainting itself with the muscles, the powerful legs and mobile feathers. The wind! A cold air blew through the chamber, bringing back memories of splendor...

Memories! It had new ones, ones of friends and hunts and kills and joy and fear and failure and success...

There were other beings in the vicinity.

Suddenly, it recognised one of them ((Yema)) as one it had fought, furious, for the secret of making a new form.

 

It let out what was probably the equivalent of a battle cry, and lunged.

[antiaircraft]

Hyemist was too focused on manoeuvring the shuttle into position to notice the commotion in the back of the shuttle. Performing a docking procedure at over 700 kilometres an hour with a corvette that is performing evasive manoeuvres and deadly plasma projectiles streaking back and forth is not an easy task. The 20 second time limit didn't make it any easier.

 

After 7 tense seconds of struggling with the control stick, she managed to align the shuttle with the corvette's open docking bay. She slammed the throttle forward as far as it would go, probably doing permanent damage to the shuttle's engines in the process, but getting securely in the corvette was far more important at the moment. The shuttle dropped smoothly onto the meticulously cleaned floor of the docking bay just in time, skidding several metres forward as the bay door rapidly locked shut behind it.

 

Hyemist was about to tell the others to make sure they had a firm grip before a deafening roar ripped through the air. A force of well over 200 Gs yanked the shuttle's occupants backwards, straining even Hyemist's firm insectoid grip, and only the kinetic compensation field that activated a few milliseconds later saved them from being killed outright. After a while the roar subsided, and several Chraxon engineers rushed towards the shuttle, still dressed in their hardened G-force survival suits.

 

((The corvette's auxiliary engines can only fire for short bursts, but combined with the main engine they can propel the corvette to an incredible 0.68 times lightspeed. While this speed wasn't achievable in atmosphere, the engines managed to propel the corvette past the Che-jan fleet, and it is now speeding away from the Earth, well out of sensor range.))

[Guest Levy]

C had held Echo down. This hadn't surprised him in the least. Until they would be able to teach him some kind of language, he would only act like an animal.

"Kait," C requested, "Give him a sedative."

Kait walked up to Echo and pulled a small needle from a strap on her shoulder. She used it on Echo and he slowly went to sleep.

"We're okay back here now. All good up there?" C asked Hyemist.

[antiaircraft]

Shade watched idly as the Chraxon corvette shot off his tactical display. It would be back, and most likely with reinforcements. The initial Chraxon fleet they had encountered was probably only a small holding force, meant to delay the Che-jan for as long as possible while a more powerful force moved in.

 

The battle had been hard won, and another was fast approaching. But Shade felt strangely exhilarated. He had finally found a counterpart, an opponent that was his match. He was looking forward to the coming engagement.

 

---

 

Hyemist exchanged a rapid series of clicks with one of the Chraxon engineers - the Chraxon military language was a highly efficient method of communication that allowed the two Chraxon to communicate what would have been several minutes worth of information in English in less than 3 seconds.

 

"Things aren't going particularly well as a matter of fact. Most elements of the fleet were destroyed in the battle. The majority of the surviving ships managed to successfully ditch on the planet, and their crews will now be working to interfere with the Che-jan's attempts to consolidate their position.

 

"This corvette is the command post for Asyphar, the fleet's highest commander, and is heading to rendezvous with the nest-ship Achyndar and her escort. I do not know the exact size of the combined force that will be deployed, but it should be a match for the Che-jan fleet. We will re-engage in about 1 hour."

 

In the back of the shuttle, Mird was staring suspiciously at the strange reptile. There was an aura of some sort around it that hadn't been there before. Mird had encountered many supernatural creatures in the past - he had killed quite a number of them as well. In fact, it was partially the exposure to the energies around the creatures that had given him near-superhuman speed and strength. He had also picked up the ability to glean a rough sense of an individual's mind. Right now, Echo was feeling unusual... almost possessed.

[Guest Levy]

Yema was still distressed. She hadn't even noticed Echo lunge toward her, not that he would have hurt her. She sat in a corner with her arms crossed over her knees and her face down. She was silent.

[antiaircraft]

A Chraxon officer scurried into the hangar bay, and signalled repeatedly to Hyemist with his feelers.

 

"The commanding officer wishes for us to meet him on deck." Hyemist said to the others. "I must comply, as I am technically under his command, but for you it is only a request. If you do not wish to meet him, you can stay down here."

 

((Chraxon etiquette :P ))

[Guest Levy]

C stood up, "I'll go, you all can stay here if you would like. Infact, it might be best." He took a few steps and got a footing on the floor of the hangar bay.

 

((Start giving descriptions of the ship, I expect it to be incredibly different from the Che-jan vessels.))

[Midtime]

((In case you were wondering, I kept forgetting to use 'it' for NightStar so I decided to forget it (excuse the pun).))

NightStar was enraged. How could they think they could hold him with a mere incapacitating poison?!

He quickly purged it from Echo's bloodstream. Then he rose. Magical lightning coalesced in his newfound hands and leapt from his claws, straight at Yema.

((@Levy: I had a really big idea, but it would involve controlling Yema. Can I PM it to you to see if it's okay or something like that?))

[Guest Public Enemy #1 Levy]

((No need to PM, as long as you don't kill her off or corrupt her.))

[antiaircraft]

((Okay, I'm just going to give a general description of Chraxon ship design:

 

"As opposed to the sleek, combat oriented designs of the Che-jan fleets, the various craft that our trading fleet employs are designed to be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. This applies to both military and civilian ships of all sizes and classes, since fighters, capital ships, freighters, and trading craft alike are all visible to customers in an organised trading convoy.

 

"The appearance of our ships is based on a set of universal principles that have been tailored to appeal positively to the senses of all our customers, no matter what their species. I cannot explain how this is achieved without complicated references to philosophical texts and cranial analyses, but let us simply take the example of the floor textures.

 

"A careful balance is required, since some species (including insectoids like ourselves) prefer a rougher surface to improve their grip, while others may have methods of locomotion that make them more at ease on smooth surfaces. Every Chraxon engineer knows that a fine honeycomb surface can be adjusted so that it is easy to grip, while still feeling smooth to the touch. Likewise, every other aspect of virtually every Chraxon ship is tweaked to perfection to provide an enjoyable experience for our customers.

 

"Even the interiors of our military ships are built to these standards, as customers may be required to reside here by unusual circumstances. However, they are not as finely crafted as our civilian craft, but rather have designs adjusted to allow for their combat roles while still retaining the essence of universal comfort to a considerable degree. For example, it is not uncommon to find priceless works of art carefully placed throughout one of our product-display ships, but as these would impede the functionality of a military ship, they are not included.

 

"The only exceptions to the rule are the Chraxon nest-ships. These ships are where Chraxon are born, and where they die - only Chraxon are allowed here, so nest-ships are specifically designed to suit our race. No offence is intended by this statement."

 

- Ettinso, Chraxon xenopsychologist))

[Midtime]

((Er, it involves a lot of history which might interfere with your plans. Such as Yema's origin and what "She" is.))

[Guest Public Enemy #1 Levy]

((Then run it by me in a PM first.))

[antiaircraft]

An alarm sounded throughout the Chraxon corvette, and several squads of armed crew members moved rapidly in the direction of the hangar bay. A flustered officer rushed up to the bridge, stopping at rigid attention in front of Asyphar. "Sir, it's not clear what the disturbance is, but it appears that one of the heroes is attacking the others. Combat squads are moving in to try and deal with the situation, but they won't fire until it's clear there is a threat. We're all rather confused at the moment actually."

 

Asyphar nodded. "All right, let's go and see what this is all about."

[Midtime]

The blast scorched they air just above Yema as she dodged. She raised a hand, temporarily pinning NightStar to the ground. "We don't have time for this!" she cried, though she knew he would not listen. "She is coming back!"

A gesture, and Yema reeled back, her hold released. NightStar rose. He spoke in a low, deadly whisper. "You seek to weaken me with guile, as before. I have long since learned that She is but a myth." Now his voice began to rise. "In our last encounter, you prevailed. But I have prepared myself. I planned, and I increased in power as you languished! And now, at this very moment, my plan comes to fruition! And this time, I will vanquish you! I will destroy you, and I shall have the Secret! I AM STRONGER THAN YOU!"

At his last sentence, fire rushed from his new mouth, not bright orange and yellow, but black, unnatural, like a flower of death. It raced towards Yema, ready to consume her, leaving not a scrap of thought or memory to haunt him...

And vanished in midair.

 

Echo had returned, and now they locked in combat, the body that was the prize contorting into strange positions. NightStar had experience, but Echo had the element of surprise and his pure animal ferocity. They shifted out of the grip of time, so that the fight that followed might have taken an instant, or an eternity.

Echo won. He backed into a corner, angry and afraid, hissing at the empty air. NightStar was thrust out, and they could feel him, a nonexistent soft hum that puts you in mind of a dynamo, spinning so fast it appears to be still.

A non-voice - NightStar's - sounded in Yema's head, a cry of defeat and despair and helpless rage that shook the soul. But it was as ineffectual as a soft breeze, as fleeting as a midnight dream.

 

Above, the stars seemed to shake...

[Guest Public Enemy #1 Levy]

Yema didn't move as the black flame headed toward her. She put up her hand and just as the flame hit her hand, she absorbed it completely. She was not moved.

"I've had enough of this. Echo, time to speak!" she said impatiently.

She floated up to his head and placed her hand through his skull and onto his cerebral cortex. She absorbed any ambient energy and concentrated it on manipulating Echo's brain structure.

"Much like the bird, you will speak! I will let you." she chanted, her eyes were jet black.

Echo's eyes blackened as well.

Static energy coursed through Yema's body like blood.

And soon, Echo found his voice and yelled, like a Velociraptor of course, but more controlled.

She instilled three languages in his mind; English, German, and Chinese.

Her eyes returned to their original coloring and so did Echo's. She removed her hand and floated back a bit.

 

((Note, Echo should be able to speak like a bird, though as he speaks his mouth shouldn't move much. If you have ever seen a bird mimic human speech, it should be like a ventriloquist without the doll. Also, I chose three languages which are some of the most popular on Earth. He should be able to speak German the easiest due to the fact that it is a deep throat language. Any concerns here, just speak up.))

[antiaircraft]

As it would be at least 15 more minutes before the corvette docked with the Achyndar, Asyphar wouldn't be needed on the bridge, so he headed down towards the hangar bay along with one of the combat squads. While some might consider it tactically unsound for such a brilliant commander to head into harm's way, the Chraxon officers knew Asyphar well, and only voiced their objections once.

 

Dropping into the hangar bay with the rest of the combat squad, Asyphar found the scene of the fight already surrounded by Chraxon soldiers, their weapons respectfully powered-down as a sign of non-aggresiveness, but ready to be activated in a moment's notice if intervention was required. A smaller group of soldiers had their weapons powered-up, focused on a point in the air.

 

Asyphar moved to join his troops, holding a light plasma-weapon with expertise gained from years of experience. He was no novice at combat himself.

 

One of the officers hurried over. He thought briefly of asking Asyphar to leave, but quickly decided against it, jumping straight to his report. "Sir, the activity seems to have been subsided. It appears that a secondary-UBLB inhabited the mind of one of the heroes for a few moments, utilizing magical attacks in an attempt to destroy another one of the heroes." The officer waved a portable sensor unit in the general direction of the group of soldiers with active weapons. A small series of dots represented the space that NightStar currently occupied. "We have successfully contained the UBLB for the moment, but we are unsure of how aggressively it will behave once fired upon. Plasma weapons can only act as a deterrent, and the specialized containment systems for beings of this type will take some time to prepare."

 

Asyphar nodded. "Okay. See if you can find a means to communicate with it for now. I'd like to talk with the heroes for a moment."

 

((UBLB = Unbound Liberal Being, 'secondary' indicates that it is aggressive.))

[Midtime]

((@Levy: I spent a long time pondering a reply to that post, and drew a blank. I'll give it my best shot anyway. :P

And I have one concern: I don't know any German.))

 

The world seem to go dark for Echo for a moment. He was even more confused than before. It seemed he couldn't even take refuge in the time-beyond-time. He felt his brain rearranging itself, growing more complex and aware.

Suddenly, the conversation going on seemed to shift smoothly to velociraptor-speak. But wait. It was the other way round; he could understand them.

Impossible...

Something twisted in his throat, and the change was complete.

The world didn't seem so simple anymore, no longer content to be divided into predator and prey (("Friends" are included as predators, only they are less likely to eat you. XD)). He felt an unprecedented urge to understand the world as it was, or shape it into something he could understand. Though he didn't know it, he now had the capacity to develop a personality, to - though grudgingly - recreate his concept of life.

The wonder of this change lost to him, all he felt was slightly sick.

He opened his mouth, at an instinct, and spoke his first word. His voice was low-pitched and quite whispery, far from perfect, but also far from incoherent.

 

"Yema..."

 

 

After all this time, the sorrow and boredom having built up beyond the point of suicide - death being another luxury denied him - NightStar felt, the elation of the moment past having drained away, nothing but bitter anger and pure hatred. And now, what would his fate be? They had trapped him, as if he was some interesting shequat animal specimen.

Oh, how he wished for a body, that he could unleash his legendary fury on these pitiful mortals, whose kind had ignored him and abused him as he floated, helpless, in the brutally impassive cosmos. Even now they mocked him.

Wait...

What was that that had flashed through his thoughts? The swear word, shequat.

Where am I from? he wondered, just as he had when he first lost his memory.

He latched onto one recollection, refusing to let go of it.

 

Once I was feared.

 

Once I was known.

[antiaircraft]

Asyphar walked briskly up to the group of heroes, then bowed in a standard Chraxon greeting. "Welcome aboard, heroes. It is an honour to acknowledge you as guests aboard this ship. I apologise for the difficult landing and poor experience you have had with our hospitality, but please allow me to amend these mistakes promptly. Would you care to come up to the bridge for refreshments?"