Chapter Three

First topic message reminder :

As the forum auto-splits topics every 50 pages, the next topics will be named further chapters accordingly. This is chapter three, guys, KEEP IT UP!

Post.
POST.
POST!

~Jediluigi

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--Yaga Minor--

“Unfortunately, they did not have one.” He stated, looking over the janitor’s shoulder to confirm his directions mentally. Now there was just the matter of blending in without magic…

--Unknown World--

Leon walked up cautiously toward the creature, pistol ready in his free hand as he kept himself aware of his surroundings. So it takes a shot to the head to kill them. He thought, as he used the opportunity provided by the creature to learn how to combat his potential enemy.

--Gothis Orbit--

The Hive Ship activates its telekinetic powers once more, managing to deflect the torpedoes utilizing similar abilities to the Rachni. The Collective fleet presses on still, taking light losses via the Thanix cannons by comparison to the Turians.

--Gothis Land--

Despite the Collective Troops hunkering in and luring the enemy to them, several were still dieing, while some managed to put up a fight.

--Charad--

The pilot looked at the kiwi incredulously, as if annoyed. She hands the drawing to the kiwi, as if emphasizing it.

--Konnsallann Station--

Cross was annoyed, at first, to the interruption, but then intrigued by the report she overheard. She remained silent, however, waiting to see if anyone would even remember her presence and what they would say in explanation.

--Bladnir--

(On hold until JL either gets Victoria II or managed to talk to me on Skype to discuss where to go from here.)

Inside the 'Cathedral', Planet 031 'Ruhen', System Beta 03, Beta Galaxy:

"Go go go!" Sergeant Munzel nodded, and the squad cleared the breach. Following in single file down the hall, the troopers were in numerical order, weapons raised and ready to go.

/Recopia|Recopi System|M-11|Mazeronian Core Worlds\

The Mazeronian scanners would find nothing unexpected, or the missing ships, except a unusual blip at the edge of the system (sorry for god modding, I'm assuming fairly basic scans will edit if otherwise). The Directorate forces begin transferring power from the shields to weapons. Orbital docking stations would begin to detect attempts by the Directorate fleets to acquire target locks on them. A sequence of outbound highly encrypted transmissions would be detected emanating from Renas' flagship.

Recopia, Recopi system, Core Worlds, Alpha Galaxy:

Once the basic scans failed to pick up anything of note, the Imperial fleet would switch to a wide-band scanning frequency, worried about the missing ships.

As soon as the target locks were detected the Imperial forces sent up scrambling signal waves, designed to keep the locks from being achieved by sensors alone. Unfortunately, the static would also prevent the Imperials from achieving a weapons lock on the Directorate forces, or at least until they turned them off.

--Ruhen--

The doors at the end opened on their own and a being, a sihoutte of a humanoid figure, whose details could not be made out due to the blinding light behind him, stood in the doorway. "Hmm. Humans... It's been some time since I last saw one of your kind..." He murmured to himself before motioning for them to come in as he walked into the light. "Let's see if they are brave enough to withstand death and destruction."

--Marenta Prime--

The soldiers stopped and took aim at the lone being. They did not fire, however, as Jaxe walked calmly forward. "Hm... Brave, but foolish. Stun him." He said, as a trio of soldiers sent a volley of stun blasts toward the Marentanz.

--Ultra Vires--

Lara attempted to follow Lae, but was stopped by another shadow. "Where are you going, miss? Hmm, your soul looks delicious." It snarled in delight as it formed into a smaller bestial shadow. Lara raised an eyebrow at the being. "I'm sure it is, but you're not getting it." She said confidently as she called into existence a sphere of flames in her hand.

The shadow Lae had chosen sped forward towards the island metropolis, keeping at the same speed Lae could sprint oddly enough. The other shadows were not to be seen however.

~Marenta Prime~

The Marentanz fell in a heap to the ground, appearing just as the other dead bodies, were it not for his lack of major external wounds. There is now an eerie quiet in the air, as if the world itself was against the soldier's being there.

Inside the 'Cathedral', Planet 031 'Ruhen', System Beta 03, Beta Galaxy:

The squad, on the sight of the enemy, halted their advance and leveled their rifles and launchers, all of them caught by surprise. A red dot would appear on the unknown figures head, followed by a harsh voice shouting at him.

Sergeant Munzel had his shotgun aimed at it's chest, waiting. "Halt, identify yourself!"

--Marenta Prime--

The soldiers remained resolute and calm, standing back up at ease as their sensors showed an all-clear of the immediate area. "We proceed to the rendezvous point as planned." Jaxe stated simply, walking forward to what was the center of the city.

--Ruhen--

The being sighed, and continued into the white light regardless of the soldiers' demands. "You are welcome to enter here." He said clear as day at the soldiers, in the same language no less.

Lae continued at full speed for a long distance, covering half a mile in just a couple short minutes. He only saw the one shadow, but he knew he wasn't getting any closer. He gritted his teeth and tried with everything he had to run even faster, but he was already running as fast as his legs could carry him. As he sprinted, he would focus on the shadow he was chasing. He ignored the people who were still running to get off the beach and away from the creatures and everything else. Because of the fact he had gotten tunnel vision, he failed to notice an umbrella that was left sitting on its side in the sand. It was open and so it was sitting on the brim and the handle. He would trip over it and fall face-first into the sand.
"Damn it!" He shouted just before his face hit the ground. His momentum would cause him to slide in the sand a short distance before he got back to his feet.

~Marenta Prime~

The soldiers would be unchallenged during their march on the city; the SRI footsoldiers stationed there had been killed in the initial assault, and the other civilians were busy grieving or hiding.

Inside the 'Cathedral', Planet 031 'Ruhen', System Beta 03, Beta Galaxy:

The squad mates looked to one another, wary. They were trapped on an alien planet in an empty city with no means of escape. Munzel sighed, and took point towards the doorway. He did repeat himself as they move forward, though."Who are you? What is this place?"

--Ultra Vires--

When Lae got back to his feet, he would find himself surrounded by the shadowy creatures. They hissed and growled while the one he was chasing laughed at him. It then proceeded to speak in a foreign language, a demonic one with guttural words and chopped up syllables, to which he didn't understand.

--Marenta Prime--

It wouldn't be long until the soldiers had reached their destination, where the other Imperium invaders had gathered and awaited their commander, Jaxe, to appear. When he did, he took to speaking with the three other commanders, one per task force.

"The bunker has fallen, and so has this city?" He inquired calmly. "Not quite. We believe that several other soldiers have... took to hiding amongst the civilians..." One commander replied hesitantly. "I see. And you have not pursued them?" "It would risk the lives of the civilians if we did." "Yes, yes it would but how many of your own troops will you risk in return? One life does not truly equal to that of another in war. Pursue them and move the civilians out of your way. I care not how. Am I clear?" The commanders bowed in response. "Yes, sir."

--Ruhen--

"You have arrived to one of the last vestiges of a noble race far more ancient than you humans. And as for what I am, well..." He said, as the squad would enter the next chamber. Oddly enough, it looked like a spacious and luxurious apartment typically found on Marzeron, and in one of the many chairs in what could be seen as the living room sat the source of the voice. A man with brown, short hair, green eyes, and fair skin. His eyes and expression was that of warm and welcoming, and most notably, he was unarmed. "I am to be your guide through this mystical palace that you have intruded upon."

~Marenta Prime~

(While I was going for an 'all the soldiers are dead' vibe, I kind of have to accept the fact that you take my army as a bunch of cowards )

At that moment, a sharp crackle is heard, and a flash is seen from one of the skyscraper's floors, still quite high up despite the building having been decapitated.

A small blue bolt shoots out from the same window as the flash and travels incredibly fast into the group of AI soldiers, where it makes deadly contact with one of them. A spurt of blood exits the unlucky soldier's armor, as his body rocks back with the force of the impact. He drops to the group in a slump.

(Hope you don't mind having one less in your headcount)

(I was going off of your statement that the soldiers would hide underground, within the city. The Imperium would take that as using the civilians as a shield in a way. And no, I don't mind. Got several thousand more to have spectacular deaths. )

Jaxe hummed in intrigue while the soldier fell to the ground. While the others immediately scrambled for cover against the attacker, Jaxe stood alone and looked up to see who it was.

Atrum Imperium Hyper-Communication Network

Logging into AIHCN... Username: SIEGE-MASTER is requesting assistance...
... Granted. Username: ARBITER responding. Status report.
New contacts detected engaging Fifth Invasion Fleet, location, Invictus.
Identify vessels.
Scanning...
... Federation warships, confirmed. Cease ground operations and engage?
Negative. Invictus invasion must proceed On Schedule. Divert assets but continue the assault.
Losses may be over tolerance level. Confirm orders?
Confirm. Invictus must fall at any cost. Priority Status JAXE. Failure is UNACCEPTABLE.
Priority Status Confirmed. Orders updated. Redirecting forces to engage. For the Imperium.

Invictus, Altair Galaxy

The Imperium forces responded swiftly to the new arrivals, with mixed results.

Firstly, the response the initial swarm of torpedoes was in fact the mines themselves; hunter-seeker explosive warheads that would target incoming projectile and missile weaponry that would detonate them far from the their intended targets. The volley would somewhat diminish the number of mines, but few made it close the original location.

The warheads were not entirely ineffective, managing to remove a large sum of the drones currently in heading for the Federation forces, but once lost the drones were quickly replaced by yet unseen sources. The 'horde' of Federation fighter craft would find themselves in a serious dogfight with the Imperium drones in equal numbers.

The main group of Federation warships would be immediately assaulted by a barrage of long range railguns with plasma warheads of various yields, along with a fine spread of photon missiles and beam weapons. If the Federation dared to get within close range, they would find themselves on the wrong end of the Imperium's neutron cannons and plasma flak batteries. The First Atrum Battle group would be giving most of their attention to the main Federation forces, as the planetary defenders were nearly annihilated and no longer a threat.

The Klingon forces attack would come as a bitter surprise to the Second Atrum Battle group, who, by luck, had not detected the Klingons, and suffered a few loses from the attack. The trick wouldn't work a second time, but that it did would be a minor victory. The bombarding ships reorganized, keeping up the assault and not following the Klingon vessels, who could see the ferocity of the planetary bombardment taking place. The Imperium forces used the time the Klingons had tried to waste by moving some of the vessels to defensive positions, allowing a majority of the Second Battle group to continue the assault.

Inside the 'Cathedral', Planet 031 'Ruhen', System Beta 03, Beta Galaxy:

The squad, carefully and one by one, lowered their weapons. Sergeant Munzel scowled, quite annoyed and disturbed. "Mystical palace? Intruded? If you don't want anyone coming into this 'magic' place you should put up a sign, by the Emperor. But fine, you have our attention with this... Place. We were just exploring, Mr....?"

Lae spun around to quickly take in all the demons that were around him. He listened to the incomprehensible speech, and tried to guess what they were saying, but couldn't. So he just bluntly replied, "Yeah, well, you're ugly."

--Ultra Vires--

The shadow that was speaking stopped for a moment, tilting its head in confusion. It spoke another phrase, which seemed to end in a query. It spoke another statement in a more mocking tone and laughed again. And then, the shadows became one again, forming a humanoid figure made of a black mass. "It is a shame that you can not yet understand us... A pity that I have to resort to this form of communication. It's always so... primitive and restrictive."

--Ruhen--

"My apologies. I am constricted in my vocabulary in so that my... voice can be comprehended in your language. This "Marzon" language is... challenging? To transplant from my original language." The man spoke calmly, attempting to explain his predicament. "As for my name, I have none I am afraid."

Quantum Rain wrote:--Ultra Vires--

The shadow that was speaking stopped for a moment, tilting its head in confusion. It spoke another phrase, which seemed to end in a query. It spoke another statement in a more mocking tone and laughed again. And then, the shadows became one again, forming a humanoid figure made of a black mass. "It is a shame that you can not yet understand us... A pity that I have to resort to this form of communication. It's always so... primitive and restrictive."

--Ruhen--

"My apologies. I am constricted in my vocabulary in so that my... voice can be comprehended in your language. This "Marzon" language is... challenging? To transplant from my original language." The man spoke calmly, attempting to explain his predicament. "As for my name, I have none I am afraid."

Daniel gave the demon a look of boredom. "I'm sorry," He began in an annoyed tone. "I didn't realize that sounding like a choking cat was more civil than this." He was clearly not impressed by them. He kept his hand ready to draw his short sword at any moment, but knew that it would be better to avoid a fight with all of them if he could.

Inside the 'Cathedral', Planet 031 'Ruhen', System Beta 03, Beta Galaxy:

"Right then, well, you said you were here to 'guide' us... Guide us how, exactly? What is this place, anyway?" Munzel kept it short and to the point, it was simply his nature.

Invictus

The federation fighters break and engage the drones while the federation capital ships bunker down for a long range duel with the AI fleet the Zaitsev class artillery cruisers among the federation fleet open fire their massive 7200mm rail guns hurling antimatter charges into the AI fleet along with volleys of high yield cruise missiles. The Klingon fleet dive into the AI group bombarding the planet buzz fighter style attacking from above and diving through their formations they could either continue their bombardment or be destroyed.

Meanwhile federation ships begin sending out charged particle bursts if they made contact with a cloaked ship they would light up like the vegas strip.

~Marenta Prime~

A few seconds passed, and another shot came flying through the air, this time from a different window, hitting a soldier who hadn't gotten into cover straight in the head. The AI soldiers were obviously dealing with an expert marksman, albeit only a single man.

--Marenta Prime--

"A sniper, huh?" Jaxe said, slightly amused. He took out his scythe and jumped onto the wall of the building, using the scythe as a climbing hook as he sliced into the building, jumped up, and sliced again, making steady progress toward the window from which the sniper last fired from.

--Ruhen--

"This was one of numerous cities crafted by my ancient masters." The guide stated. "I do not know the name by which they entitled to their civilization... They have long since been nonexistent." The guide explained calmly. "What has... ensnared you here is known as a Rune. The final vestige of our civilization. It is as well a gift to those that are worthy." He stands up from his comfortable seat, smoothing out his shirt. "To those who are unworthy... death greets them."

All across True Sith Empire Territory

Word begins to spread like a wildfire among the general populace and military of Imperial space of an uprising. Many who hear it believe it to be little more than a rumor, however the supporters of such an idea secretly align themselves to this new ideal in droves. Little do all of the Sith Empire know is that a new dawn, The Crimson Rising, is coming and is only a mere few months away.



Directorate Space - Outer systems

A large, unmarked vessel matching the shape of a Venator II came out of hyperspace over a small uninhabited planet with a thunderous crack, any form of sensor array or patrol would have detected the ship. Anyone who would be able to see the vessel would see its hull pocked with large impact craters in most major sectors with the entire ship shuddering upon exit from Hyperspace in a way that would appear that the vessel's major supports had been broken or buckled, breaking its spine and making sure it could not jump again, and began to slowly roll as its orbit slowly decayed through to geosynchronous orbit.

There was a faint, looping transmission coming from within the vessel but would be difficult to pinpoint from external scans.

/ACE Sector Head Quarters(Orbital)|Pleadic V|Pleadic System|Directorate Sector E-8 space\

A rather young human male, not much older then 20, walked into the office of the Sector Director's office. He looked anxious, he was clearly shocked out of his normal state. In the areas under the administration of ACE it was not uncommon to be perturbed by the petty empires of the region that the Directorate had not yet gotten around to squashing, but for them to appear near Chiss space was almost unheard of. So this man, the sensor operator for the sector, was quite out of his element when anything unusual happened, and a massive ship was most unusual. "Speak, Lieutenant, you clearly have some thing to say," The director commanded.

"Sir, a large vessel has appeared in the System E7-81, it appears to be broadcasting something but we can't tell what," the operator responds stuttering several times.

"Calm down, also relay an order to have a frigate go check it out," The director orders.

/Survey 72 Fence-class Light Frigate|E7-81 1IC|System E7-81|Directorate Sector E-7 Space\

The Fence-class Light Frigate, Survey 72, arrived in system several hours after the Venator II had abruptly entered Directorate space. It approached somewhat cautiously before assuming an orbit roughly a megameter away from the other ship.

///Ship-to-Ship Hail\\\
Good day, you have breached space controlled by the Directorate. State who you are and your intent.
///End\\\

The hail message is repeated several times, and in several languages before the crew of Survey 72 waits for a response.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Recopia|Recopi System|M-11|Mazeronian Core Worlds\

The Directorate fleets, at the instance of the Mazeronians activating their scramblers, opened fire on the docks and launched a full salvo of rockets at the planetary surface aiming toward the capital zone. The missing ships would also attempt to microjump in around the docks from the previous blip near the edge of the system.

"Status report!" a soldier, wearing a Nanosuit 2.0, shouted after the vessel had settled out after arriving in E7-81.

Another soldier, equipped with heavy body armour, began to list off details from a quick damage diagnostics scan of the ship from one of few functioning terminals on the bridge.

"Scans detect major damage across all sectors. Hull breaches all across half our decks. Fires in Engineering, Primary Cargo Bay, and near Munitions stowage bunkers Alpha 3 and Bravo 6 fully extinguished in purge, all hostiles were purged as well. Power is unstable in all sectors. Weapons, Shielding, and Life Support systems unresponsive." He then ran a scan of the structural integrity of the vessel, "Hull integrity is at 40% while support structures between decks and the hull as well have been heavily damaged beyond repair, that jump broke the ship's back... It won't be able to jump again."

"Well that mission was a success then... Start up an SOS beacon to transmit on loop." The soldier in the Nanosuit commanded with a relaxed tone, despite the situation. "Any idea where we are?" he asked as he started to look over an inactive holoprojection table.

"Unknown sir. Coordinates put us somewhere within an area of the unknown Regions that we have not charted. Approximately 200 lighyears from our jump point." Another had responded looking over the navigation systems that were still functional.

--Several Minutes pass--

"Sir, sensors are detecting a vessel fitting a profile of a frigate, unknown origin. They're trying to hail us, but..." another nanosuit soldier stated and trailed off.

"But?" the first soldier asked.

"The battle left the communications array heavily damaged, our receivers are still functional but our communications transmitters are fried meaning we are unable to respond."


"We'll have to find another way to contact them then..." The officer then thought for a moment and began again, "Ready a second Beacon and I'll have Valkyrie squadron get it loaded into a launch tube and have it set to transmit via Quantum Entanglement processes detailing who we are, our situation, and request for their identification."

--A few minutes later--

The Beacon was launched and began transmitting the following:

"This is Omega, Valkyrie, and Hadron Squadrons of the Red Faction. We were tasked with retrieving this vessel and have sustained major damage in taking it before making a blind jump to this location. Communications transmitters down, requesting identification of unknown vessel and your intentions."

/Survey 72 Fence-class Light Frigate|E7-81 1IC|System E7-81|Directorate Sector E-7 Space\

After the beacon was launched the crew of the Survey 72 had a slight panic thinking they were under attack before they realized it was beacon and switched on the appropriate systems to receive the message.

"Captain, what's a Red Faction?" The comms officer asks after the bridge crew listened to the message.

"I haven't the faintest idea, but I strongly suspect we're going to get to the crash in it over the course of the next few hours," the Captain responds before barking out orders. "Relay to HQ that we've made contact with the unidentified vessel and ask them to advise on how to proceed. Also, query Bastion about this 'Red Faction' if we have anything on them, I want to know it"

---

Several minutes pass while waiting for response from HQ before the captain sends out a return message to the beacon:

///ship-to-relay\\\
This is the Directorate vessel Survey 72 we are/were investigating an in incursion into our space by yourselves. We request permission to board to establish more formal contact, if you have wounded our medical bays are open.
///end\\\