"...which concludes the list of charges brought upon the person of the defendant. As set forth in the Code of Justice, the defendant is entitled to present an opinion of the guilt of self. Defendant, please convey to us your opinion."
The Announcer's words seemed to practically float from the holoscreen. I couldn't bring myself to look away from the proceedings, although I knew how it had to end.
Announcer Taahk himself presided over the panel of judges at the head of the courtroom, the pitch-black humanoid clothed in the fire-red robes of the Code of Justice. They indicated his status at present - his word would be law.
The Announcer of the Hetos, however, didn't seem to be reveling in the situation (as I had believed he surely would). If he was drinking in his victory at all, he was doing so in a covert and controlled fashion as he spoke, each word carefully weighed and measured before he sent it reverberating into the court.
The bright-orange hair of his night-black scalp had been stacked up to a conical monument, a representation of dignity, and his emerald eyes beheld coolly the defendant, looking down on the so unassuming creature that had been shackled to the seat below the Lawgiving Pedestal, all manner of devices surrounding him to prevent escape.
I knew who he was. I knew what he was: Acid Zero - Khelari and probably the greatest threat to the peace of the Concile since the depraved machinations of the demented 'Overhead' had finally been brought to an end.
If felt a chill run down my spine at these thoughts, though the reptilian creature's predatorial appearance probably did its part as well. Although he was vaguely humanoid, at least in the arrangement of and number of arms, legs, head and torso, the Khelari was nevertheless so very foreign for my tastes.
The head extended forward into a distinctly reptilian snout, and though long in relation to my own, the skull kept its proportions enough to sit on a standard neck joint instead of a long series of extended vertebrae. The face, however, was far removed from anything humanoid - skinned in a deep-green, leathery hide that retained its hue across the Khelari's whole body, the slitted yellow eyes were the most distinguishing mark of predatory reptilian ancestry. The rows of sharp, carnivorous teeth that exposed themselves as the Khelari smiled his most alien smile only underscored this notion.
One of the five clawed fingers of the left hand tapped with contempt upon the seat's armrest, lashed to the arm at the wrist. The long, whiplike tail that formed an extension of the creature's spine twitched impatiently in its restrains. They weren't taking any chances - it was widely known that a Khelari's tail wasn't just a vestigial remain of evolution. The fifth limb was just as functional as the other four, and perhaps even more dangerous if left unchecked.
And the court had left nothing unchecked - from the tail to the Khelari's garments, an ensemble of black, relaxed-fitting pants, heavy boots, an open jacket of the same hue, and a white T-shirt underneath.
It wasn't white anymore, however - thick streaks of dry, coagulated, crimson blood could be easily seen upon the blank material, unlike the night-black rest of the outfit. Acid Zero hadn't gone willingly, and he bore savage wounds as telltale marks of a vicious battle.
I found myself in thought as to what it must have taken to bring him in. His species was notoriously resilient. I suppose they had to be to survive on a world like Khelaris. It had been a world that most species (especially the humanoids, including me) considered a literal hell.
A rocky planet too close to its sun, its surface partially liquid, resulting in truly scorching temperatures
the atmosphere was so profoundly toxic to most known forms of life almost no one could survive any extended period o time in it. Noxious gases at high altitudes formed a choking cover of clouds across just about the entire planet, creating a perpetual scene of twilight, not to mention adding to the heat via a runaway greenhouse effect.
Indeed, Khelaris had been too hot to support the liquid phase of many substances that assumed this state of matter under normal circumstances. When things did cool down enough, it was never long...and it was no reprieve. Indeed, things only went more extreme when things got cooler, the harsh toxins in the clouds bonding around condensation nuclei to form literal rains of concentrated acid, ferociously sent hailing onto the surface below under the hellishly high gravitational conditions.
I couldn't even imagine surviving in such extremes - but the Khelari had considered it nothing but paradise.
"Not guilty." he finally said, ceasing his finger's tapping, "On grounds of insanity."
"I am afraid the court cannot recognize this argument, Mr. Zero." Announcer Taahk replied, placing his hands on the pedestal in front of him, "You are most certainly not..."
"Oh, I'm not talking about me." the reptilian spat back in interruption, almost with a laugh, "You're the nutcase here, not I."
Hushed mumbles could be heard in the crowd, but the Announcer maintained his composure, returning with, "The court of this trial..."
"Trial?!" the defendant cut through again, this time with a tad of a chuckle, "What trial? Oh, I'm sorry, you mean your little farce?!"
A breath of shock washed through the crowd, propagating like a wave. The murmurs became louder, faster
but Announcer Taahk retained his calm. Keeping his six-fingered hands where they were, the black-skinned Announcer of the Hetos arose to speak order and...
"Thysthe!" someone suddenly barked at me from behind, almost causing me to jump out of my skin right then and there as I whirled about.
It was of course my commanding officer, once more abusing my name almost as a swear word to rush my attention to the matters at hand. His deep-blue blast goggles were already over his eyes, the dull silver of the casings contrasting sharply with the copper skin and green-gray hair. Like me, he was Ferron, and proud of it.
I snapped to attention, my left hand racing to my forehead to lower my own goggles while the right brought my rifle to inspection position. The thermocannon slipped a bit, striking the metal of my armorsuit, reminding me of my second skin for a moment.
I took a short instant of time to mentally check through every function of my technological symbiote. The armor followed the contours of my body, its personal shielding systems affording me some protection in battle, while the tactical assault systems linked to the HUD on my goggles to give me an excellent overview of things.
"At the ready, Sir!" I rapidly answered, already expecting a cannonade of foul language to follow.
The officer, however, didn't let loose as usual. He didn't even get on my case about my long hair, which was somewhat against regulations.
Now I knew things were serious.
"They're coming." was all he said before walking back out of my quarters.
I suddenly had a lump in my throat. I knew who they were: Necrian stormtroopers, each practically a whole unit packed into a single warrior. Even with their planet destroyed, the few wolflike beings hadn't lost their pack mentality, following their leader like a single organism.
I knew the name of that leader as well: Allen of the Fang Clan.
A chill ran down my spine.
This couldn't be happening!
I set my feet into motion almost mechanically, my conscious mind now only remotely attached to my body. Downright robotically, I stepped out of my quarters and into the general assembly area of the barracks, where my unit and commanding officer already awaited, some of my fellow soldiers still falling into line.
As did I.
Standing there, my eyes and ears soaking up the briefing, I already knew the strategy being outlined was doomed to failure.
This Acid had powerful allies - and they were coming for him, willing to tear right through us if necessary.
Chances are it would be.
Our personal shields gave us protection from their paralyzers, which meant they'd be switching to conventional weaponry once we had engaged their number.
Fully lethal conventional weaponry.
I concentrated on shutting down my emotional centers as much as I could. Fear had no place in battle, and if I showed any, my death would be certain.
"...and we'll not only be dealing with them." my commanding officer continued, "General Fang and his men are reported to have in their company a Krayten - a being of great telekinetic power. I need not tell you to keep your shields up at all times. Otherwise this being could reach right into you and stop your vital functions at a whim. Or worse, rip 'em right out of you."
I shuddered at the mere thought of this potential. Vern was the Krayten's name, and what was left of his people weren't exactly on the best terms with our Concile leadership. I didn't even want to imagine running into...
A sound of thunder interrupted both my thoughts and the briefing. The floor shuddered somewhat. Alarms blared in the distance.
"They're in the building." the officer stated coldly, with the same tone one would announce a death sentence, "You know what to do...move out."
This couldn't be happening...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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Right (And write!) on! Gimme dat popcorn, and take a pamphlet, yo!
((AHA! I'm begining to piece this together bit by bit!
*Takes down notes*
Soon...very soon...
MUWHAT MUWHAT MUWHAT))
*takes a pamphlet*
So I take it we're sort of getting into how Thysthe became a bounty hunter now? This is cool.
But I have to ask, is this stuff all new or is it originally part of the large base of writing that you've mentioned before that you have on Acid's universe?
Remind me to ask you to have a look at that stuff someday.
*browses pamphlet*
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Okay, so I decided to take a quick Q&A break. Let's see...
[ QUOTE ]
But.... What would happen if the Concile developed a system to block teleporters?
[/ QUOTE ]
They have. You will see. 
[ QUOTE ]
But I have to ask, is this stuff all new or is it originally part of the large base of writing that you've mentioned before that you have on Acid's universe?
[/ QUOTE ]
Both. The story is still the same, but I felt like telling it from the point of view of everyone involved this time. Don't know why I did this (I hardly ever know why I do things 
), but I just didn't feel like just throwing out another of the many third-person tales we already have on these boards.
Which is also the reason it's taking its time. I'm basically gathering everyone's side of the thing, then selecting and writing down which would fit the current happenings best. Needless to say, that selection can be a little difficult at times, as more than one person may have just the right insight at a certain point.
As for my original chronicles - sorry Khell, that seems to have been lost to time. The electronic copy, anyway. The paper one is...somewhere. Come to think of it, that might've been the one I sent off to the publisher...hm, that'd be not good.
The story itself, thankfully, is not lost. I've still got a good amount of stuff in my head, and if I run across something I've forgotten, I can always go poke Mnemonyev, Vyachslav, or any of the other people with photographic memories I know. 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Madness raged everywhere. If the incessant hollow screams and barked orders that kept bellowing from my comm. link were true, the enemy had already penetrated deep into the building.
Things looked grim - but not hopeless. If we could hold out until the fleet in orbit was reinforced, victory was assured. The day would be ours.
And so I ran.
"They're moving in fast!"
I ran as fast as my feet would take me.
"We need backup! We need backup!"
Octagon after octagon rushed by, my boots sounding an echo on the metal floor of the corridor with every step.
"Northern blocks has been overrun! Fall back!"
Where was I going?
"Seal gate Kappa-two-niner now!"
I had no idea.
"Close the blast door! Close the blast door!"
I rounded a corner into a transformer hall, the massive gate at the other end just now sliding down and into position. The three-meter-thick slab of unrelenting resistance came down with the inevitability of fate itself, soldiers diving underneath the titanic teeth of the blast door, sliding towards me into the room as I stormed to help.
Without conscious thought, my hand locked around another's, and in spastic reflex I pulled, yanking the squidlike soldier under the door by the tentacles that served as his hand: a boneless assembly of muscle and tendons that almost seemed to give way under the pressure I applied.
Normally, I likely would have seized up. Now I didn't even notice. That was no Abosseluu, that was but a comrade, a fellow soldier, and right now that was all that mattered.
That was, until I came to my senses again.
I nearly froze as I stared into the creature's ten expressionless eyes; black, immobile, and button-like, as they always were. Arranged in two vertical rows of five on the fire-red flesh of the conical, molluskian head, they simply gazed at me unblinking, frozen in time in that cold, unfeeling look.
I knew it wasn't true, and that should've been another perfectly good reason to let go of the hand right about now.
Yet I did nothing.
I couldn't even speak.
Until a titanic empty sound boomed from the door, sending us both scrambling back, running for the line our fellow soldiers had formed to defend the gate.
Leaping behind something that resembled a control console (my mind only registered it as 'potential cover' right now), I found myself, to great relief, alone once more
at least relatively.
I spied over the console and to the blast door, which sounded again and again, as if some giant hammer was beating on it from the other side.
Thankfully, it didn't budge.
Yet.
As I checked my rifle again, I took the time to survey our position. It wasn't bad. The transformer hall only had one solid path, which was the wide bridge running from one end to the other. Rimmed by guardrails and mounted control panels, the bridge ran centerline amongst gargantuan cylinders that started at the ceiling some ten or twelve meters above, and stretched down into the seemingly bottomless abyss below. A dull blue aura filled the void, a lone clue to the energies these machines were tasked with.
Suddenly, the hammering stopped.
Rifles clicked and mounts were made ready, heavy repeaters latching onto tripods in only moments, their crews capable of assembling the heavy weapons under virtually any conditions.
Then things grew silent once more.
Mumbles arose.
"Think they gave up...?"
"Don't trust this..."
"What if it's a trap...?"
"I heard they can walk through walls. What if they're circling around...?"
"But there's only one way into this sector..."
They were getting nervous.
So was I - what the heck was going on? I'd expected them to come crashing into here...and now...?
An officer and field engineer slowly advanced, the latter carrying some sort of scanning device.
They approached in a crouch, ready to bound back at a moment's notice...but nothing happened, even as the officer put his hand to the door.
"Feels unusually warm." he remarked to the engineer. It was but a whisper, but we'd quieted down again, the silence only broken by the steady, low hum of the transformers.
"They're not cutting through." was the befuddled reply, "Not hot enough for that. No procedure works this low, and...Sir, the chemical composition of the door is changing
"
"Changing?" questioned the officer suspiciously, "Into what?"
"I'm not sure yet. Maybe I can..."
The engineer's eyes widened in an expression of pure horror.
"Everybody down!!!"
My world exploded.
In a titanic fireball, the blast door ripped itself to shreds, a wave of fire, shrapnel, pressure, and molten debris roaring at me to devour, like the mouth of a gargantuan beast unleashed to feed indiscriminately upon all in its path.
I ducked low, the wave blasting around the console and overhead, my personal shield absorbing what did make it to me. Still, it wasn't pleasant - heat washed over me, and everything seemed to shake and rattle under the stresses, plates of the floor softening from the intense heat, the wave ripping them along like so many specks of dust.
Finally, it subsided, only the clatter of debris in the back of the transformer hall still echoing as a reminder.
But not a moment later, a sound rang out, some mixture of a hiss and the sharp crack of thunder.
Paralyzer fire!
They were here!
I lurched forward, throwing my rifle over my cover. What I saw downright robbed me of my conscious will to take any other action.
The door wasn't there anymore. In its place stood only a singular gaping hole, still ablaze with tall flames that roared higher and higher as they fed on the synthetics within the surrounding materials.
And through the fire without the slightest hesitation, as abyssal demons from the darkest reaches of the Pit, advanced the Necrian storm troops, the flames licking at their powersuits, reflecting coldly from their night-black armor in an icy-gray luster.
My shield sputtered and crackled violently as a discharge arc ran over my body, the invisible paralyzer fire from their arm cannons lashing into my fortifications with the singular goal of striking me down.
The impacts tore my mind from the brink, thrusting me back into full awareness of the situation. Instinct raised my rifle, reflexes squeezed the trigger, and years of arduous training let the thermocannon find its mark, the bright-orange beam crashing and searing into the Necrian closest to me.
The impact threw him back, his own suit's shields taking the brunt of my assault, but he keenly twisted out of my beam even as I tried to keep him in my sights, my fingers clenching the trigger and refusing to release the mechanism.
Then something hit me, bashing my body away like a colossal mallet, sending me flipping backwards head over heels, only to crash painfully upon the floor again.
My earns rang brutally, but not only with the force of shock and sudden disparity, but also with the cacophonous crack of thunder that only now registered in my waking mind.
The redlining stress gauge of my shield confirmed it. My blast goggles fed me all the information of what had just happened - I'd been hit, and hard.
Seeing their paralyzers ineffective (though I knew they had to have been aware of this beforehand), they'd switched to impulse blasters.
I'd no time to contemplate why. Another blast thundered into the floor beside me, and I frantically rolled to escape the quickly melting plating, finding a moment of respite behind a large, reinforced cargo crate a maintenance crew had left behind when the alarm had sounded.
My back slammed into the crate with vigor, but also great relief. I had a moment to myself. My heart raced, my breath labored. Around me I saw my companions in full retreat.
No, this couldn't be - I couldnt let it be. I had to do something! The officer was dead, the door's detonation having surely left nothing of him or the engineer
Or had it?
I detached the targeting camera of my rifle, linking the feed to my goggles, and held the lens around my cover and back towards the gate.
The floor was charred; the bodies of the officer and the engineer now only widely flayed masses of charcoal-black ash, spattered trails on the now-cratered plating.
I followed one such trail led back to my side, the engineer's blackened scanner still clutched in the ashen remains of his hand, its screen showing now barely readable output.
A molecule.
C6H12N2O6 - hexamethylene triperoxide diamine.
H.M.T.D.!
Now I knew why they hadn't cut through.
They'd turned the whole blast door into one massive chunk of high explosive!
Horror gripped at my sanity. What sort of enemy were we dealing with that had these means? Rearranging matter was possible, yes, but it took days, not minutes.
Unless...
I turned the camera outwards again - and then I saw him.
The Krayten.
He wasn't very large, perhaps the size of a large pet, but not quite the horrific monster I'd expected. He was some sort of reptilian, and a quadruped at that. Long and thin, he reminded me of some sort of predatory cat, at least in the way he moved, slowly setting one leg in front of the other, the three clawed toes on each digitigrade foot spreading to contact the floor and curling back somewhat once lifted off.
The skull was large and long, the characteristic shape of a sizeable carnivorous reptile unmistakable, the sharp teeth only adding to the sense. A deep-green, fibrous hide covered him from head to toe to the tip of the long, thin tail, and even the large pair of wings that rose from the Krayten's back, membranes of the same leathery hide stretched tightly between the supporting bones in a display of threat, the being making himself appear larger than he truly was by spreading the pair of aerial appendages.
The eyes, however, carried the cold and calculating glare of great intelligence, and though the Krayten wore nothing but a silver collar round his neck (in addition to the animalistic threat display), I knew better than to underestimate him.
Nothing underscored this more than two of the massive transformers suddenly shredding loose and ramming their way down into our already broken formation, crashing and tumbling chaotically as if haunted by sheer madness.
I gathered my courage, rolling out from behind the crate and laying into him, as did my comrades, thermocannons scorching the air with vicious discharges.
But that was all we scorched.
The beams lanced away into every direction except at the Krayten, sometimes even splitting into more just before impact. A malicious smile crossed his reptilian lips even as mine pressed together into bloodless lines.
He was doing this - he was consciously manipulating not only the transformers, throwing them at us like so many small pebbles, but also the very energies of our weapons, commanding them to do his bidding with nothing but his mind, his will.
And he kept approaching, sending our forces to scatter as he scattered our fire. The searing heat just near the beams should have made him succumb - yet he didnt even seem to notice.
His cold eyes focused on me.
"Do you mind?" he chuckled in a gentle tone, and my rifle suddenly flung itself from my hands, as did those of my comrades.
Our weapons had seemingly taken on a will of their own, and not a moment later returned as our enemies, the Krayten using them as remote-controlled clubs to lay into us now, beating many of my comrades senseless as they still reeled in shock.
The butt of my rifle came for my head as well, but I thrust my hands forward to intercept my wayward weapon. I succeeded only partially, the sheer force behind the rebellious rifle enough to knock me to the ground again.
I watched in horror as my weapon turned away from me, then crumpled together in the fashion of an accordion, only a crushed and mangled mess left to hit the floor after the Krayten was done with it.
I heard the screams of my comrades, but they seemed so distant now, so far away, as I lay there defeated, and with such horrid ease.
A footstep sounded next to me, and my hand already rushed to my dagger to cleave into the treacherous reptile, reflex once more taking over as my body spasmed up to strike.
But when I saw my opponent, I froze with fear.
My blade dropped to the floor, my eyes beholding just a glimpse of the wolflike visage behind the visor of the night-black armorsuit.
General Fang!
Conscious thought overpowered reflex, making use of it for my fingers to rush to my comm. unit. I had to warn the others, tell them of the enemy's position.
Only crackling static came across - they were jamming our communications!
I had no time to try and break through, the Necrian's armored hand already reaching down towards me. A flare grenade slipped through my fingers and onto the floor with ludicrous speed, blasting out a blinding flash that momentarily dipped the entire transformer hall into the luminance of a sun.
I knew I had but a moment, scrambling to my feet even as I rolled to escape the General's grasp, hoping only to survive the next few seconds.
I saw nothing, heard nothing, and felt only floor under my hands and feet, obsessed with nothing but the thought of getting away and warning the others.
That floor suddenly vanished, a hole molten into the bridge swallowing me hole like some hungry beast. I felt myself fall, then collided with a transformer, the smooth surface of the metal sliding by my fingers, unable to find any sort of grasp by which to stop my rapid descent.
To my great surprise, the cargo crate wasn't the only thing the maintenance crew had left behind - I collided with yet something else, which I quickly discovered to be an open maintenance hatch. It didn't leave me much choice in the matter, gobbling me up as the hole had, but at least it led to somewhere other than the abyssal energies.
The shaft spat me out at the bottom of the presently shut-down transformer, and I wasted no time snaking my way in between the pipes and conduits to the spot where I knew another maintenance hatch from the designs I'd studied.
It took me but moments to find and open the thing, lurching out of the machine and into the corridor that served the monitor stations of the transformer hall, falling flat on my face as I slid from the wall in three meters' height.
Still, even my bloody nose couldn't deter me now. I'd escaped. I had to use my chance. The others had to be warned before it was too late.
I ran...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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You know, I don't I've ever gotten as good a description of Vern as you gave just now. I am quite pleased at this mental image.
<_< And damn man, Vern can do some FREAKY [censored]. I think I'm very glad Toy has always been on his side one way or another.
Also lol, the Necrians's reminded me of Space Marines.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Telekinesis! Never leave home without it!
Do the Akira thing, yeah yeah, crush em, mash em, pulp em, grind them into a tiny point and make it rain blood upon the ground! Raise, Rise, Collide, Mash, Meld, Bleed, Crush, Pulp, Gore, Drip, Puncture, Leak, Implode...
Do the Akira thing, yeah yeah...
Ermpskef. Did I just say that all aloud?
And yes, I have to agree with Khell. Up until now I always thought Vern looked like a mini-version of big M. This entirely repaints my mental image of him.
A smile crossed my lips. It was always good to have a reputation. At times, it was the only thing that could bail you out if you happened to get in over your wings.
"He made it." I stated, peering down the hole the man had dropped through. I didn't have to, but at times actually seeing something was a comfortable affirmation.
"Perfect." Allen nodded as I turned to look at him, kneeling beside me to get a better look at the abyss as well, "He suspect anything?"
"I don't think so." I answered as he rose, "I had to open a hatch, but there's almost no chance he noticed it was me."
"Alright, so everything's going according to plan." he let out s slight sigh, "So far, so good."
"Let's hope it keeps." I added as his troopers started to gather up the fallen soldiers, "Casualties?"
"Three." Allen broke the news directly. No need to beat around the spire, "Two were too close when the door went, and one of 'em wanted to throw an ion charge when his shield went and a paralyzer got him. There's not much left."
I didn't answer.
"It was to be expected." I felt a hand between my shoulders, "All we can do is minimize, and you know that. There's no way you could've known they'd sniff around the stupid door just before the explosion."
He was right, of course - but that didn't exactly make me feel any better. It wasn't the act of killing, the conscious termination of another life, either. There existed people who I wouldn't hesitate to end at a moment's notice. But...
"Alright, let's get moving." Allen's hand gave me a tap as he stepped towards the door, "He'll be reporting our progress soon. You sure you can handle this?"
"I'll be alright." I retorted with a hint of malice, "Not the first time, remember?"
"We still think you should have an escort, Sir." a trooper took the words right out of Allen's mouth, the general only nodding silently as I looked up at him.
"I get you guys don't like this plan." I chuckled lightly, closing my eyes for a moment, "But the only way we're going to get through this is if they think we're heading in a different direction - and once they figure out it's just me..."
"
which none of us doubt they will," Allen sighed, "they'll let off you and come charging at us. And once they do that, our Glass Dagger takes over. Vern, you don't have to lecture me on my own strategy."
"Just thought you might need a reminder." I smirked, "It's a good plan, and you know it. It's got substance. I wouldn't have jumped in if I didn't think so."
"You still didn't have to pounce on it right away..." Allen grumbled quietly, but finally resigned. As he clamped onto one of the transformers I'd left intact, he turned to me once more, "Just come back in one piece, okay?"
"No promises." I retorted, "But I'll do my best."
"Right." he nodded, and with that he was gone, the full division dropping down along the cylinders to the lower levels to continue the assault where the enemy now least expected.
I stopped in front of the transformer hall's second gate for a moment, looking the blast door up and down. A deep breath to relax, a bit of wing spread to reduce tension.
Showtime.
With a horrid, cacophonous squeal, the alloys of the gate bent to my whim, wrenching apart under the pressure I applied to literally rip the door's innards to shreds.
I didn't have arms, nor did I ever feel the need for any. My mind was the only tool I'd ever needed to see and interact with the world around me. Indeed, I pitied most creatures, which could not understand what I did, not see what I saw.
An object wasn't just an object to me, but so much more. A region of empty space was filled with possibilities, and time itself was just a flow within the massive myriad of the cosmic stream.
Matter, energy, space, time - the four fundamental components of this universe, and so many others. Ever-present, ever-changing, static and dynamic, still and never stopping, an infinity of infinities of conversions and redirections - that was my world.
And I knew how to use it.
It didn't take long before I needed to, either. Upon entering a small junction chamber, the enemy and I mutually stumbled across one another once more. I wasn't sure how or why (I don't believe in fate), but I was certain it was the very same man who'd 'escaped' just a short while ago.
Only now he had another troop with him.
"Surrender!" they commanded forcefully, the glimmering barrels of their thermocannons primed, just waiting for the quick squeeze of a trigger. But their tone had little confidence. There were nine, and all of us knew those odds were very uneven indeed.
Favoring me.
I noticed their eyes twitching, looking for the nearest intercom to call for backup with. Those were hardwired into the building, meaning we couldn't just trip them up with a jamming signal.
"And if I don't?" I chuckled viciously, my claws clacking ominously on the floor as I advanced towards them, doing my best to look intimidating - with a good many flaws, of course. Already berating myself, I could only hope they wouldn't see right through me, "Then what will you do?"
They didn't answer, opening fire instead.
I had no need to fear the sun-hot beams, twisting and turning their energies away as I pleased, the aura of heat washing over me only a comfortable bath of thermal currents.
Then the floor rose up beneath them, plating peeling loose as I imposed my force upon it, the ground wavering and quaking until they lost their footing.
I threw the plates forward like bits of paper in a storm, striking at their personal shielding, the potent contacts arcing pale-blue flares throughout the hallway.
Of course, they could take much more than that, but brining their shields down wasn't my objective right now. That I could casually leave to them.
And it didn't take long.
A misfire soon occurred, a thermocannon striking the shield of another soldier in an incident of friendly fire (which, incidentally, never is), and in that instant the verdict had fallen.
I'd won, they'd lost.
They just didn't know it yet.
I grasped control of the rifle of the unshielded soldier, thrusting it back and into his gut with a vengeance. The man doubled over in pain, gasping for air as his own weapon so brutally assaulted him, and then I crashed it into his head to follow up, robbing him of conscious brain function.
The rifle, however, was mine now, and before they even knew what had transpired, the roar of another bright-orange beam echoed, yet another soldier robbed of his shield.
His fate was the same as the first.
Now I had two rifles, tearing into their formation with what must have seemed like relentless rage - one weapon blasting, the other bashing into whatever body parts it could reach, and a new traitorous rifle joining the turncoat procession as shield after shield went down, faster and faster every consecutive time.
The soldier from before seemed to be the only one in the bunch without vapor for brains, bounding backwards and opening fire on the stolen weapons instead of me. His thermocannon cut through two, vaporizing the core parts and leaving little more of the rifles than a few bits of molten slag.
I had to admit, I was impressed - especially as he managed to get to the intercom before I could have 'my' rifles, get to him, the sun-hot beams blasting him away from the unit with sheer force of impact, ramming him into a wall at the other end of the chamber.
But a small red light on the intercom now blinked rapidly - he'd managed to touch the alert contact.
I watched as he strained to get up off the floor, a small trail of blood crossing his lips, likely from the vehement collision. And as he half-sat, half-lay there, he practically spat at me in defiance, "Now...now the whole base knows you're here."
I grinned my best evil grin as I chuckled maliciously, watching his eyes widen in the terrible realization he'd done just what I wanted.
The intercom exploded in a shower of sparks as I brought my neck forward to lower my head in the manner of the predator sure of its kill.
"Perfect..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
My world practically collapsed.
Had I really just played exactly into this thing's...hands?
Had we really just lost? By my own merit?
No, it couldn't be - I'd followed my orders, observed procedures, done exactly what the rules...!
I had! They'd been using me all along, twisting my observance of our strategy to repel them to their own ends!
Now I was mad.
Rage vehemently kicked fear from my mind, yelling raucously never to return, and then took control with a vengeance.
If my observance of rules was so important, let's see what would happen if I didn't play by those rules anymore.
Luckily, my hand was just where it needed to be to pull that off - right at the clip of my belt that held a very special grenade.
In truth, it wasn't a grenade at all, but a strong emitter of hyperwaves, a sort of gravity well but with different frequencies of hyperradiation. It wasn't enough to alter the curvature of space, but damn it all to hell if it wasn't enough to give this freakin' salamander a pounding headache!
A shrill whine erupted for a fraction of a second, filling the room before its echo exceeded my audible range. But from the sudden twist of the Krayten's monstrous visage, he could still hear it - and he didnt like it one bit.
"I don't think so!" he snarled viciously, and the doors to the chamber suddenly rammed shut with such force they cracked with thunder.
I scrambled away as the floor around me rose with speed, trying to imprison me. It was working - his influence was slowing down. To my great dismay, however, not so instantaneously as I had expected. Apparently, the Krayten could not only punch through a good level of interference, but also sense the hyperradiation and where it was coming from.
I immediately knew he'd try everything in his power to eliminate it, and the easiest way to do that was to eliminate me.
What had rage just gotten me into?
Luckily, the slowing of his influence allowed my escape from the floor, which swallowed nothing but thin air as I lurched away, biting through the burning pain of my insides - I'd pushed my body far already, and if I couldn't somehow end this quickly, I was sure it'd hand me a letter of resignation with no advance notice.
But I also had to reach the intercom at the far end of the chamber in order to inform the others that the first alert had been but a diversion. If they didn't find out soon...
Cold shivers ran down my spine.
No! I couldn't even consider that possibility! I would do this! I had to!
How, however, was another question entirely.
But as a fixture the Krayten had just thrown at me dropped to the floor with loud clatter, I saw my chance, bolting for the intercom. The radiation had finally won, robbing the beast of its horrid influence over space for at least a little while.
Now I had the upper hand.
Sadly, he had the upper jaw.
I didn't even see anything before a thousand needles pierced into my arm, a sudden force gripping me by the appendage and flinging me away like a frisbee, crashing into the wall yet again.
As I came to my senses once more, the pain in my arm thrust my eyes there, a myriad of bloody pinpricks in the material of the suit covering my upper arm.
The action of the Krayten told me all I had to know - pacing about from side to side in the predatory fashion of a large cat, the dagger-shaped tongue licking razor-sharp teeth gave it all away.
The creature had bitten me! And not only that, the teeth had actually penetrated the material of my suit! Not deeply, but enough to cause pain and draw a bi of blood, and that was saying something with powered armor.
I struggled to come to terms with that, but found it somewhat easier to accept than to deny in order to keep fighting. I only prayed he wasn't poisonous as well.
"No way you're getting to that." the Krayten hissed at me, lowering his neck ahead, his legs and wings in a position constantly prepared to lurch at me.
"Don't you realize what's going to happen if I don't?!" I bellowed at him as I stood, trying to stall for time while I salvaged the last pieces of my shredded plan, "Once they get here, you'll have no chance! They'll massacre you!"
"Then that's fine with me." his answer sent a shock down my spine, his demeanor eerily cold and terribly calm, "That's what you do for a f..."
I saw my chance, rolling low and to the side, feigning another go at the intercom as I gathered up a few pieces of sharp rubble, using them as makeshift shuriken as I ran.
But the Krayten was faster once more, closing swiftly, his long tail lashing out like a whip at my arm even as one of his wings enveloped me from the side, batting me back to another corner yet again.
My head rang of bells, my heart throbbed of pain, and I could feel every bone in my body. The Krayten was no pushover, even without his 'hands', and I had the horrid sensation he was just stalling as well, having access to a great many more resources than he was willing to show me.
"But you'll die!" I yelled back, continuing my tactic, but now with another strategy plan. The 'shuriken' had been poorly aimed, and what had hit the Krayten had just bounced off the being's tough hide, not even a scratch on him, "How can you succeed if you die?!"
"Oh, that's an easy one." he chuckled, "I'm just the distraction. Whether I go or not, the main force is well away from me, your precious defenses completely oblivious to their presence."
And suddenly, in that one instant, everything changed.
The exasperated scowl on my bloody lips curled into my very nastiest smile.
The Krayten's smirk grew cold, his eyes narrowing at me for a moment before his head whirled about, his gaze fixating on the intercom.
I'd never aimed the projectiles at him in the first place.
I'd only made him believe so with a wide scatter.
But one had hit its target.
The 'talk' contact on the intercom.
And now it was stuck in the plate, the contact permanently depressed. Everything we'd just said had run through the lines and out of every single intercom in the building.
I lunged forward as the shock occupied my opponent for a moment, forcefully slinging my arms around his neck, trying to grapple him to the ground.
Sadly, my plan was nowhere near as successful as I would've liked. I didnt even manage to drag the Krayten down anywhere near as much as I'd planned. Apparently, my strength couldn't compare to the hellish gravity of Krayt.
A trio of claws ripped across my face, my right eye practically flayed from its socket as my whole vision went red with blood.
Pain mixed with a sudden sensation of weakness as a tail wrapped about my neck and squeezed like s snake, cutting off my air and leaving me gasping for breath, nearly crushing my windpipe.
As my world sank away into the dark, muddy realm of unconsciousness, I faintly perceived the sound of wrenched metal and sparking lines, the crimson hue over my eyes only allowing me a tiny glimpse of the monstrous Krayten ripping the intercom from the wall with his teeth.
It must have been painful, as I saw his own jaws now bloody, the tissue around his teeth having torn open on the relentless assault.
I couldn't understand his actions, couldn't comprehend his ways.
Perhaps I never would.
"You've all still lost - you just don't know it yet." was the last thing that reached my mind before my world sank away into the serene abyss of silent black...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Guilty!"
My eyes narrowed at the Announcer presiding over the assembly on his grand pedestal. For as long as I'd known this man, the only things I recall ever feeling for him were detest and disgust. I really don't know what I would've given to walk up right now and land a solid punch right in the middle of his night-black face. There he had all this power - and he used it only to gain more.
Pathetic.
"The sentence is death by firing squad." Taahk spread his hands to enunciate his verdict, "The execution is to commence immediately. May the Creator have mercy on your soul, Acid Zero."
I growled as strong hands wrapped around my arms, the present guardsmen taking no chance as they detached me from the chair of the accused.
I grinned viciously as a sudden, momentary tremor interrupted their procedure of shackling my limbs for transport. It wasn't strong, but it could be felt. I saw the fear run rampant in their faces as they walked me out of the courtroom.
My friends were coming.
And they knew it, dreading every second that ticked by.
Then again, so did I.
Announcer Taahk had chosen a curious selection of words there. I knew I wasn't normal, that I didn't quite fit the definition of a living thing. I'd been told many a time that though my body was certainly alive, I was but an empty shell, a soulless vessel devoid of any true life.
I'd often asked myself the question what I was then. That if I was dead, why did I not lie still? From all I'd come to experience, the dead usually aren't a very lively bunch.
But if I was not dead, if I had no soul, then what was animating me? What was I? And better yet, what would happen to what I was, the something that wasn't a soul yet certainly felt like me, when I did die?
Would I just disappear, simply cease to exist? My being usurped by the order that declared the dead should lie still?
Such thoughts haunted me whenever I had nothing to do, whenever I got a little time to think. I didn't like having time to think - it only brought up a sense of dread.
I was afraid. Afraid of what death meant for me, a meaning that had to be so very different from what it meant to anyone else. Death of the dead, the end of something not alive - what would it be?
"Ah, the infamous Acid Zero." chuckled the headman of the firing squad as we passed into the execution chamber, "I never thought I would receive the honor of disposing of you. It may just be mopping up, but it will certainly not feel so."
He was right, in a way. My bloodstained garments told the tale explicitly - and they were no testament to how I really felt.
"Oh, and your friends won't be coming." he laughed barbarously, drinking in the moment, "Thanks to a twist of fate, we knew where to strike at their main force. They are being exterminated as we speak. Do you see, Mr. Zero? It is fate that the Concile shall rule, now and forever - and you cannot defy fate, no matter how you might try."
"I don't believe in fate." I spat back in a snarl as they led me to the wall, scorch marks and streaks of dried blood still visible from the last execution.
Now genuine fear crept into my being. There it was: death, staring me in the face, grinning its demented grin in the form of a dozen glimmering thermocannons. It taunted me, laughed at me, as if to say, "The chase is over, my dear friend. I win. I always win, in the end."
No.
I wasn't giving up just yet. Someone very wise once told me that things weren't over until one stopped fighting - and damn it all to hell if I was the one to go silently into the night here! If they wanted me to vanish, they'd have to work for it!
I didn't even wait for the famous last words, deciding that if I didn't act now, I might as well never.
Pain surged from my hand and up my arm as I willfully dislocated every bone in my palm, every connection in my wrist, forcing that part of my skeleton to conform to my whim no matter how loudly it protested.
I barely felt my hand slipping from its restraints, focusing vicariously on cutting off the nerves of my arm from my conscious being, batting back the signals of pain and torment my arm screamed into my mind.
Acting almost purely on instinct, I thrust my hand ahead at the back of the guard I knew to be there, my claws making contact with something firm and elastic, turning warm and moist just a moment later. Right then I didn't even realize I'd cut almost completely through my captor, his blood running slickly down the hide of my hand as a convulsion of pain and bodily shock overtook him.
He wanted to slump to the ground, and I could feel gravity's tug wishing to fulfill that desire. But if he did, this would be over before it began, and I knew it.
Wrenching the stricken about, maintaining my grip on his innards, his very bones between my claws, I snapped my tail from its restraints next, the vertebrae of my elongated spine howling up in vicious protest as I drove them past limits I no longer cared for.
All feeling seemed to evaporate, no sensation reaching me any longer, even as I freed my other hand, trusting my survival completely to cold, logical thought masterminding unrelenting instinct.
I heard barked orders and screams of pain and shock, then the raucous roar of thermocannon fire gone astray. My once more freed limbs shot towards whatever was in reach in a desperate attempt to protect myself.
As the pain ebbed away in what I felt had taken an eternity, though only fractal bits of time must have passed, my conscious mind returned to its rightful place, once more absorbing instinct, left in charge as pain nearly drove me mad.
The situation was quickly assessed, and in my favor. I remembered a leg in the coils of my tail, wasting no time in hurling the guard attached to it at the befuddled firing squad, bowling them over like so many cinders in a volcanic storm.
That bought me a few moments, and I opted not to waste them, throwing the guard dangling on my hand into the headman, who'd bolted to the side and drawn a pistol. The two rammed together with a vengeance, turning into a tumbling, bloody knot of twisted arms and legs.
Vaulting away and over the short wall of the presently empty witness lounge, my fingers quickly found the proper contacts for the security barrier, though every clack of my claws upon the console seemed minutes apart. Already, I could see the firing squad recovering. My respite would be brief at best.
With an energetic hum, the barrier systems came online, a field of force shooting up vertically from the console to separate the lounge from the execution area.
Sadly, there still sat a door at each side, and already my adversaries gunned for those, preparing to tear hem open and turn me into a smoldering pile of ashes.
It was not to be.
The gate I'd walked through suddenly buckled inward under some titanic force, then blasted itself into the room as a projectile, propelled by a gout of smoke and flame, and trailing a cacophony of thunder that not even its impact on the far wall could eclipse.
My smile returned as the cause stepped into the room. The figure coated from head to toe in powered armor of supremely black luster was well known to me.
"Al!" I found myself exclaiming happily and without restraint, the wolflike visage under the reflective visor nowhere near invisible to my eyes. Though black and distorted through the reflection, I'd recognize my Necrian friend anywhere, the color of his soft gray fur and deep-green eyes jumping into my perception in but a moment's notice.
Only then did I notice he was alone - and it all came together.
Glass Dagger.
What the headman had told me was true. But there had been no such thing as a main force, only a lightning-quick thrust into the heart of the enemy, a stab of a dagger that shattered no sooner than it met any sort of resistance. Now every single shard, sharp as a serpents tooth, pierced into the enemy to carve him to pieces from the inside.
The Necrians had dispersed into one-man units, crashing the Concile forces into utter chaos if they stayed together, and complete tactical inadequacy if they split up to mimic the move.
The Glass Dagger had struck - and it had lodged deeply.
"Nice to see ya." I nodded in greeting with a smirk, "Let's get going before..."
A sound of thunder overpowered my words. In an instant, but only for such an instant, the pain returned.
Then a sensation of cold gripped my being. I watched in horror as Allen's eyes went wide, the cannon that formed his suit's right arm roaring a beam away in my direction, slicing through the air beside me. The stocking gurgle of death echoed from behind.
My hand reached to my chest, though I realized it was fairly useless to confirm what was there. I already knew.
From the look on Allen's face, so did he.
The blood on my fingers was fresh and warm, the hole running through me from back to front not letting a doubt that it was indeed my own.
But all I could feel was cold.
Even as the floor came up to greet me, and I knew I should've felt impact.
All I felt was cold...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
You know what? I'm currently wondering how much help any of my guys would be in Acid's war to take down the Concile.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
This is cool. XD
End comment.
When one takes the scene of a shot friend robbed of strength, slumping to the floor in front of one, the actions of rushing to his aid and preempting the impact with a catch by one's arms is thought to be synonymous.
In fiction.
I found my waking mind petrified, grappling with disbelief as it tried to process what had just transpired. My arm came up by mere reflex, an instinctive reaction without any conscious thought. Neither the thunderous roar of the impulse beam, nor the choke of death upon the assassin of my friend fully registered.
I watched the scene detached, as if light-years away, playing itself out before me, unable to take any willful action. The tattered, bloody remains of the half-vaporized guardsman jittered spasmodically to the floor, the still-active muscles twitching viciously under the spontaneous, conflicting signals of his dying nervous system.
Acid dropped to his knees as his gaze of horror drilled into my being, looking first to his blood-covered fingers, then to the crimson-rimmed hole in his torso. As his kneecaps made contact with the ground, momentum carrying his body over and ahead, the seeking stare went to me for a moment, before the rest of him struck the floor as well.
I still stared in disbelief, my mind in the clutches of denial, refusing to accept the images my eyes were bombarding me with.
This couldn't be how it would end. It just couldn't. The Concile had tried so many times, tried and failed with schemes more sinister and elaborate that most people could even imagine. And now a pistol had succeeded where the stars themselves had not, wielded by a coward of a soldier who'd rather execute helpless victims than fight the enemy come gunning into this building?
I just couldn't believe it. What sort of divine being would condone this irony? Had the universe gone mad? Or was it but I who'd lost it?
It certainly felt that way.
A sudden, gargled cough ripped me from my dismal thoughts, clutching at my waking mind and tearing it back with speed, even as my body rushed down to my stricken friend, my hands quickly rolling his form onto his back in the hopes that hadn't been just wishful thinking.
I was at once elated as well as mortified to find life still within the yellow, reptilian eyes - for their blank stare conveyed a horror of things to come I'd hardly ever come across. Acid's life was fleeting, and we both knew it.
"Al..." came a whisper over crimson teeth and bloodstained lips, his eyes not even making contact. I doubted he could even still see, "I'm...I'm scared..."
"Don't worry." I lied. It was the only thing I could think of, "You're gonna be okay. I'll get you out, and..."
A haphazard chuckle combined with a cough and a minute smirk in response, "What happens...to people like me...?"
I only stared in silence. I had no reply. More than a few had taken their last breaths in my arms, but them I could at least comfort with faith, with belief their soul would continue even after their living body had ceased to be.
But what did you tell someone whom you knew to have no soul? Who'd been called a monster and an abomination, so radically different from the norm that all old logic simply broke down, that faith meant less than a speck of cosmic dust?
"Nature doesn't waste." I found myself saying, though I wasn't sure why, "I can't believe you would be. It'll be alright. Somehow. Somehow, it'll..."
I never finished that sentence. Without warning, Acid's body suddenly arched backward with energy I knew for a fact it shouldn't have had anymore, the claws of his hand gripping my wrist with downright ridiculous force.
But my attention was focused elsewhere.
In his eyes.
His eyes were clear as day, staring into mine with a gaze plagued by fear and despair, horror at the unknown too alien to grasp.
"Al..." he whispered in shock, his voice a deathly tone filled with terror, "Something...something's wrong..."
"No duh." my teeth clenched, "You've been shot. There's a hole through you these size of my arm. Now you hang on, I'm getting..."
"No." he still whispered, but no longer in a stutter, "Get away. Get away. I don't know...something...it hurts..."
He arced in a spasm again, as if under some sort of electric shock, and I didn't even need to hear his cry of suffering. The blank stare in his eyes told all.
I watched in horror as the crimson blood turned pitch-black, a shade darker than I'd ever seen. Before I even knew it, the hand around my wrist flung me away like a rag doll, and I could see the formerly deep-green hide char into the same shadeless hue before my friend's flesh literally began to liquefy, appearing to melt off his very bones.
The process took hold of him in his entirety now, and even as the gleaming eyes were consumed, their terrified stare wouldn't leave my gaze, burned into my mind as a haunt that would not depart.
Then something pounded into my head with a vengeance, tearing my mind from its rightful place and animating my body, driving me to scramble up. I fought to stay, to drive away whatever had to have taken both Acid and me, but as my reptilian friend's bones blackened as well, only to merge with the same shadeless liquid, my survival instinct thrashed to the aid of the presence, commanding my body up without relent, my legs to move with no care other than to escape...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
I barely heard my claws clack upon the floor plates as I ran, most of my concentration focused on the sudden sensation of disappearance. The corridors were too narrow for my wings in most places, and the interference charge that moron had hit me with still hadn't quite work off.
I couldn't wrap my mind around this awful feeling. That sensation, devoid of everything, as if a great gout of naught had just spilled into the material world, deluging all in its wake. I'd felt it before, long ago, and the haunting memories now came flooding back.
No!
I lashed out at the ghouls long gone, batting them back and away from the present. This was neither the time nor the place.
Not only that - I had to be sure.
I didn't know it yet, but a moment later, I would be.
Allen suddenly stormed out of a side corridor directly ahead of me, the soles of his armored feet skidding dissonantly on the metal of the floor as the Necrian used his left fist as a fulcrum to achieve a closer rotation.
Before I knew it, that same arm had slammed into me and locked itself around my midst, Allen snatching me up from the floor like a log, then taking off again down the way I'd come.
"Al!" I burst out, trying and failing to wrench myself out of his grip, "What's gotten into you?! What in blazes are you running...?!"
My question was left unfinished, but not unanswered. From the hallway the Necrian had shot from now sped what could only be described as strings - lines like that of a pencil, drawn into the fabric of the universe, so black they looked as if they represented a hole in space, devoid of it all.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. They felt like that too.
I felt nothing.
The lines lashed themselves against anything they could find; wall plates, wiring, supports, pipes, anything at all in their reach, making contact faster than even I could keep track of - and considering I was able to differentiate the movements of individual photons, that was saying something.
Then they pulled, suddenly and without warning, snatching their prey back to whence they came, and I felt it all disappear, vanish into nothing as sheer void replaced whatever the lines got a hold of.
It was a horrid sensation, a hollow and utterly empty feeling beyond description, and a pit so deep formed in my stomach that for a moment I'd thought they'd gotten a hold of me as well.
But despite the dread, I knew one thing for sure now. This was the very same as all those years ago. And while I never understood how, this was still my friend, was still Ace. Accuse me of being overtaken by emotions, but this I knew this beyond a doubt, could feel it to be fact.
Allen, however, didn't seem to agree with me.
"All units to fallback positions!" I heard his voice from the communications device in my collar, "We're pulling out! I repeat: we're pulling out! Leave everything and just get the hell out!"
I didn't want to believe what I'd just heard. He knew as well! It had been one of the first things we'd told him about Ace! Had the world flipped upside-down while I'd blinked?!
"Let go of me!" I demanded, attempting to yank myself free, but again to no avail, "That's Ace! We have to...!"
"I know!" he cut me off with such speed he had to have seen my protest coming, "I saw it! I saw him turn into it! He told me to run - told us all to run! And I don't know about you, but last I checked, not only was he still my commanding officer, but a friend I'd trust with my life! If he says we run, we run! End of discussion!"
My lips hung open, but not a sound emerged. He wasn't willing to quarrel, nor did I have anything to back up an argument of my own. Those lines scared the tar out of me, just their blatant emptiness making my senses revolt, a sensation of sickness almost overcoming me.
I had nothing to stop them. Neither did anyone else, and I knew it.
We knew it.
So I shut up.
And Allen ran.
Behind us, the corridor vanished into oblivion piece by piece, the lines deconstructing the very fabric of the cosmos and leaving absolutely nothing in their wake. They worked with fearsome speed, and seemed to have no care for anything that could be considered a solid obstacle.
They reached right through walls and floors, latching onto whatever caught their fancy, then ripped that back into and through what had opposed them in mere instants, the solid material only then giving way. It was as if the lines could choose when to have substance or not, be selective about their prey, and had utterly all the time in the world due to their near-instantaneous pace.
I had a feeling the things themselves had no regard for time, as I couldnt feel any in nor around them, just paying me the courtesy of actual motion in time because the things they snatched were still a part of our world.
At least until they faded away to nothing.
I hated to admit it, even to myself, calling my own person traitor for abandoning a friend, but I felt such relief when we finally emerged outside on a glider platform. The construct sat attached to the side of the tower-like structure wed invaded, a concave cone stretching high into the sky like a needle, platforms and extensions jutting from the building like fungi from a tree.
The once snow-white exterior had been charred in numerous places, the smoke of fires coating the walls in streaks of drab gray. There were a good many holes, too - one of them being the former blast door to this very platform.
More than a hundred meters above ground, the glider platform allowed us a view of the surrounding structures, concave, needle-like cones all of them, a good many already being devoured by the lines shooting from 'our' building with no regard for what got in their way.
Even more frightening was the inky hemisphere that said building now stood in. Against all logic, reason, or possibility, the tower we stood on rested in a hueless dome of blackest black, a perfect hole in existence where I felt not a thing at all.
"I'll take it from here." I stated, already sensing an approaching Dropship in the distance, and Allen relented, releasing his grip to allow me to spread my wings. He expected me to fly ahead, and I knew this, the Necrian to follow shortly.
Now I reprimand myself for my actions then - but at that moment, my emotions got the better of me.
I bolted away like a coiled spring, shooting back to the hole in the door with but the desire to somehow get my friend out of there.
It was not to be.
Before I even knew it, a line shot forth from the wall ahead, wrapping itself about my left forelimb, then yanked me onward with ludicrous force.
Only to send me smashing headfirst into said wall.
I faintly perceived curses behind me, probably from Allen. As I felt his armored hands make contact with my hide, my world already sank away into nothing but a muddy collection of shadows.
I felt nothing
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
APOCAPLYPSE Construction Site
Undisclosed Location
Present Day...
My pace was quick, my step secure.
The window gallery passed me swiftly, the many parts of the gargantuan scaffold taking up most of the view. Only every now and then, the faint twinkle of a star managed to make its way through the hundreds of floodlights on the structure's interior.
I stopped to watch the work. It gave me a few moments of peace. Like pieces of a puzzle, skyscraper-sized modules drifted through the vacuum of space, guided securely into place by invisible assembly mechanisms. Work was always progressing, always in motion, the supply lines of the Cosmic Factory copies floating a few kilometers off the main scaffold constantly sending the assembly work new parts.
"Hey." I heard a voice behind me, taking a breath a little deeper than my last, my ears clearly conveying to me the clack of claws upon the floor plates.
"Hey." I responded solemnly, not taking my eyes off the assembly process. I couldn't see the whole thing from here - it was just too large, and even at a few hundred meters distance, the gargantuan construction effort took up the entire view - but it gave me an excuse not to look at Vern right then.
I just couldn't do it right now. People always say we Necrians are cold-blooded killers. That we're devoid of emotion because of the harsh nature of our world - cold, dark, and filled with unforgiving cruelty for anyone trying to carve out survival on its barren surface.
Sometimes, I wanted it to be true. I felt like my insides had been shredded. I felt empty, misplaced, like a part of me had suddenly gone astray, vanished, never to return. I felt a void, a vacant spot, and it was a downright ghastly sensation.
"So..." Vern started as he climbed up onto the sill of the gallery, placing his forelimbs upon it to steady himself, "I hear you shot a holoscreen."
"Yeah." was my only answer. I didn't quite know what else to say.
"Look," the Krayten sighed, turning to me, "I wanted to apologize for earlier. I just...lost it. I didn't think, and..."
The dry smile playing around my fangs gave him pause as he noticed it. It was the kind of smirk one can use only as a mask, to cover up wrenching despair - and he was no stranger to it.
"You want to apologize?" I huffed, putting my fist against the gallery, leaning my head against the armortroplon as I closed my eyes, "No, Vern - I should be doing the apologizing here. I should be pleading your forgiveness. But...I can't even forgive myself. I messed up. Big-time. I killed him twice, you know. First when I let him get shot, and then when I ran instead of trying to help."
A few seconds of silence passed. I felt the subtle vibrations of a gargantuan module passing by outside, the metallic construct gliding on rails of directed energy, gravitic radiance jittering the space around it.
"No, I don't think so." Vern then argued. He'd read my report, knew every event that had transpired in that execution chamber, "There was no way you could've seen the shot coming. Take it from me. I know what I'm talking about. And let me ask you this - if you hadn't run, what would you have done?"
I had no answer.
"I'll tell you - die. You would've died, just like everyone else. Or worse. Can you even imagine being completely nullified? Because I can. I felt it. Over and over again. And it was the most petrifying thing I've ever felt. I nearly threw up. I was that scared."
"But you went back." I turned to him, "You faced your fear. I...I ran from it. I'm a Clan elder, dammit, I'm not supposed to run from my fears!"
"I don't think you did." Vern dropped to the floor again, "I know you too well. You went for the larger picture. You thought of the after. I only thought of the now, of saving one. You went for more. And Al...if you hadn't run, they wouldn't be more anymore. They'd be nothing. You did all you could. Gave it your all. That's all that matters. Remember what Ace always said?"
I nodded, now with a genuine smile, looking out at the twinkling stars between the assembly floodlights, "Yeah. Get as many as you can..."
"...because you can't save them all." the Krayten completed the sentence.
I took a deep breath, "Thanks. I do feel a little better now. I guess..."
"Sometimes this old wolf just gets silly?"
"Watch it, buster." I grinned with a chuckle, "I'm not that old. Yet."
"Blessed be the believers." Vern retorted in a smirk, stepping beside me as I walked on, "How's Big M holding up?"
"Stable." I stated, "He's still out cold, though, and I'm not expecting that to change for a while, even with the PRE transfer. He got shot up pretty bad."
"I saw. How's his brother taking it?"
"Oh, I think he's doing better than any of us right now. Might be in denial, though, I'm not sure. Doesn't help that I know squat about their psychology. All he said after the debriefing was 'that's good', and then went to meditate. Haven't seen him since."
"Hm, that does sound kind of odd. I take it he asked not to be disturbed?"
"Verily." I nodded, "I think he's beating down the shock, myself. Probably got hit with every last thought of every last person on that planet when they bit it. I can't even imagine what that feels like."
I didn't know how wrong I was.
But that I was wrong, this I found out quickly, as at that moment Vyachslav's soundless voice echoed through the hallway.
All of you, on a ship, now! We're going after Ace. No, I don't have time to explain. I'll send coordinates as soon as I know where I'm going.
Vern and I looked at one another for a moment, making sure by the baffled expression on the other's face that this hadn't just been our respective imagination.
"Well, you heard him." I motioned to run, and we took off down the corridor to the Gunship AGS-3. I slipped a transmitter from a pocket in my uniform, "Kerat, we're taking the 3! Run things up and get her ready to go linear!"
"Way ahead of ya." came the reply, "Any idea where we're going?"
"No duh." I commented as the airlock hissed open in front of me, the connection to the Gunship brightly illuminated in my view, "Of course I do - where the trail leads..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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Whether I'd ever understand it was another question.
Kerat disengaged our linear converter as soon as he noticed Vyachslav's echo disappear from the relief screen of the halfspace tracker. The compensation field dispersed in literally no time, not bound by the rules of the 'real' world, and I watched as the stars once more filled the view ahead as only dots of light, space again turning black from the muddy, drab gray it had presented itself through when viewed in a linear maneuver.
"Cloak up, passive sensors only." Kerat ordered not a moment later, his claws reaching around the control sticks at the sides of the pilot seat. Set into the central raised floor of the somewhat semi-circular bridge, it formed the rough midst of the flight deck, the pilot able to keep an overview of everything that went on around him at all times. Holographic screens and consoles complemented the transparent bridge windows, showing angles out of view through the armortroplon.
It was a very familiar sight.
The sphere of naught, the hole in the universe, the region devoid of anything at all that had once been a heavily populated planet with a highly developed civilization.
We'd returned to the scene of the crime - and I couldn't help but feel somehow responsible.
Allen, don't go there.
The soundless warning startled me, shaking me from my thoughts. Vyachslav was right, of course, but sometimes having a conscience could a real pain.
"I'm giving us seven minutes, tops." Kerat broke the hovering silence, his eyes flitting across the myriad of contact emissions all over the readouts. There were several hundred ships in the system, and though not all were potentially hostile, as soon as one got close enough, the icecap was out of the bag. The only thing that moved faster than the speed of light was gossip, and the rumors that surrounded our connection with the phenomenon had probably spread throughout the galaxy at this point.
"Right." I nodded in acknowledgement, stepping to the window gallery, "Big V, you said you had a plan?"
More of a feeling, really. I can't explain it. I just know this wasn't over the way we left it. There's a piece missing.
"Can't say I disagree." Vern added, turning to me, "Al, before he...vanished, Ace said there was something wrong, right?"
I gave a nod.
"Okay, so we know for a fact something unexpected happened." he continued, throwing a glance at the region of darkness that even eclipsed the black of space, "I'd say that there qualifies. Very similar to how we found Ace in the first place."
"Except about a trillion times smaller." Kerat interjected, following with a sigh, "We barely figured out how to move him last time. How the hell are we supposed to now?"
"Not sure yet." retorted Vern, his tail performing a thoughtful coil in the air, "I can't wrap my mind around it, so that rules me out - and I'd doubt tractor beams would have any effect whatsoever."
"There's a given." I huffed with a cold smirk, closing my eyes for a moment to focus better. And suddenly, I knew what to do, adding "We know Ace turned into a person after he got a hold of Kerat last time..."
"I don't like where this is going." the Khelari enunciated his diverging opinion, eyeing me suspiciously, "If you think I'm..."
"No." I declared calmly, taking a step forward, "I'll be going. You fire up the fictive transmitter."
"Like hell I will!" he shot up from the chair, letting the ship take over, "I know the news is all politics these days, but that doesn't mean listening is a bad idea. Everything that's gone in there went poof. Gone. Done for, and without a trace."
"That doesn't mean destroyed." I countered with a dismissive wave of my hand, "Remember what they used to say about wormholes? That they tear stuff apart? And then, lo and behold, someone discovered..."
"Actually, it does." Vern stopped the argument cold with his interjection. He looked directly at me now, and I could practically feel the conviction in his eyes. He didn't just believe - he knew.
"I'm sorry." I told him, my hands balling into fists, "I know you feel what you feel. But I have to go with what I feel is right here."
I didn't wait for his reply. I already knew what it would be. He felt that now it was me whose emotions had gotten the better of him, and he'd try to stop me like I'd done with him.
I needed help.
Luckily, there was one who shared my point of view.
The cacophony of the detection alert blared through the whole ship as Vyachslav disengaged his cloak, active scanner waves instantly pouring at him from all directions, the large being now a clear echo on their screens.
Kerat swore colorfully as his back hit the pilot seat, his claws gunning the ship ahead and to the side, opening hangar door already prepared to swallow up Vyachslav as Vern's invisible hands reached out to pull him in.
But he wasn't having it.
And I used my chance.
Bolting astern and out of the bridge, I stormed down the central corridor as quickly as my feet would take me.
I can't keep him off me for long. Hurry!
At that moment, I didn't know if I could ever repay Big V for this. I just hoped I'd have the chance. For all I knew, Vern could be completely correct. I couldn't blame the guy for trying to stop me - he probably thought I'd gone into depression and wanted to die now.
But I just couldn't believe that, couldn't accept that what I was feeling now wasn't true. I listened to my heart over my head far too little, but right then my head could've been playing death metal and I wouldn't have cared.
I knew. Somehow, some way, I just knew.
I reached the starboard Drop Bay in less than forty seconds, rushing to the other end of the long, narrow room that resembled an inverse trapezoid. The slanted walls contained stacks of numbered metal re-entry pods, each of the crate-shaped things containing a mechanoid just waiting for deployment. I only hoped nobody got the bright idea to activate them.
Fat chance.
Clicks and clacks spurred me on my way even faster than before, up the small ramp that connected the raised floor of the fictive transmitter's control systems with the hatch-perforated bottom of the Drop Bay.
The transmitter was truly a sight. Spherical and free-floating in its energetic restraints, the globe of more than two meters in diameter hovered silently in the air, the single large lens staring down at me like an oversized eye, the surrounding iris an iridescent rainbow.
"Al!" came a shout that froze the blood in my veins firm, my hand snapping to stop just millimeters from the holographic control panel.
I turned to look at the source, knowing already what awaited me - the sight of Vern at the other end of the Bay, a heavy paralyzer floating in the air on each side of him. Stepping forward slowly and cautiously, the Krayten gradually let the robots that had emerged from their containers join him, the glimmering barrels of their weapons aimed squarely in my direction.
"Don't do it." he told me sternly, "Please. I've already lost one friend today. I don't want to lose another."
"Then I need you to trust me." I answered with confidence, though I didn't quite know why, "I'm planning on coming back. But I need to do this. And you know it."
I didn't wait for his reply. I didn't know whether he'd let me go or not, but I had to try.
With that, my hand depressed the contact, and the transmitter hummed to life. A mere instant later, it performed its function, tearing my body apart into is fundamental components and hurling them towards the intended destination: the location it had taken directly from my mind.
Vern hadn't tried to stop me. If he had wanted to, I never would have succeeded.
But I did.
He'd let me go.
Now I knew...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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With a heavy heart, I watched as Allen vanished in front of my eyes.
And not just my eyes.
I don't see the world as most do. But then, I don't really see it at all. Sure, I have eyes, but I could rent those out for eternity and not miss them a bit.
My sense of vision is a bit more complex. Where most see an atom in an object, I see not only every little bit, every tiny effort that went into its construction, but also the threads and streams connecting it to all other atoms around it. I smell matter, see energy, feel space, and taste time (for lack of a better analogy), and I have every right to call anyone who believes separate entities actually exist a deluded moron.
It just isn't true. Everyone, everything is connected, and in so many ways it confounds imagination. One act can one day affect all.
As it did now.
The connections to Allen, the very essence that was him, and the threads that linked him to everything else, severed right then and there, replaced only by a dreadful awareness of looming, bottomless void.
And then I felt nothing at all.
Had I known, however, what would happen the very next instant...well, to tell the truth, I'm still not sure what I would've done.
All I knew is that the platform of the fictive transmitter spat out two figures, suddenly and without warning, and that the mechanism had nothing at all to do with any of it.
For a moment, I thought I'd succumbed to a hallucination. The two figures were Ace and Al, dropping to the floor right then and there from their standing positions as if a malignant gnome had knocked them out cold with a really big hammer.
But even as I still contemplated whether I'd finally lost it now, I felt space wane and vanish about the hull of the Gunship, Kerat pushing the vessel into another linear maneuver. I didn't know where to, and I don't think he did either, but for now that didn't matter.
Shaking off my surprise, I bolted forward as my senses confirmed those two were indeed the genuine article. I rolled Ace over onto his back, a little too nervous to use anything but my limbs then, proceeding quickly to grab his shoulders to shake him awake.
I didn't realize he already was.
"Ah! Dude! No! Stop!" he flailed about with arms, legs and tail, trying to push me off him in a very uncoordinated effort. The verbal outburst was probably the most effective, "Claws! No! Vern! Get off me!"
Taken aback, I scrambled to the side and nearly fell over myself, my balance teetering on edge at that point. It took me several seconds to calm back down again, the sudden flood of perceived impressions having nearly overwhelmed me. The ability to feel everything going on around oneself isn't always a good thing, especially when the sensations become strong - and I'd classify a dear friend vanishing into nothing followed by two I'd already thought gone for eternity drop back into being in such a short time as very strong sensations indeed.
With a groan of that familiar stiffness after an arduous day, Ace managed to get half of himself up off the floor, his hands behind him in an effort not to slump back to the ground. His eyes blinked more often than normal as he eyed himself up and down as if making sure everything was where it should be, wiggling his clawed toes to check for feeling in his extremities.
"Okay, which one of yas stole my clothes?" he remarked, "I distinctly remember wearing some last time I checked, and..."
He quieted down suddenly as he noticed that a good bit more was missing - the gashes and cuts he'd taken earlier, not to peak of the gaping hole in his chest I'd been told of.
They were simply gone. He looked exactly like he had the day I'd first laid eyes on him, absolutely nothing out of place.
"Did I...miss something?" he turned to me, my first elicited response being a poor twitch of my shoulders, perhaps even more clueless than him about the whole situation.
"I think we all might have." I finally added to the shrug, looking to the unconscious Al (and this time I was quite sure of that), "Geez, you nearly scared me outta my hide there."
"I think I did." he nodded, looking about as he slowly rose, taking it one leg at a time in a somewhat unsteady and awkward fashion, "Me, that is. Did...I mean, did I really die back there?"
"I don't think so." I told him, finding it somewhat strange that he hadn't asked about Al just lying there. I knew he was just out cold - but did Ace know as well? And if so, how?
"I'm gonna have to think about this." Ace nodded slowly, setting a less and less meandering course for the Drop Bay's other end, "But I need a shower first. Oh, and once we get to the blue supergiant, make sure Kerat doesn't stop too long. There's a Pyramid doing surveys there."
That settled it for me. He knew. Somehow, some way, and currently I couldn't have cared less. If I investigates this too, I'd run my mind over another bottomless pit, I just knew it, and I couldn't stomach that right now. For all it was worth, I could finally believe Ace as back now, and that was good enough for the time being.
But if seeing was believing...
Then what was I seeing...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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I found him in the observatory. My search hadn't lasted long. I knew he'd be here, and so taken that route as soon as I'd been able to escape the hospital. All things considered, I felt well enough, but sometimes I question the wisdom of fully articulated medical equipment - the kind with robotic arms that can reach anywhere they need to and you don't want them to.
The observatory wasn't large, the transparent armortroplon dome above just over a dozen meters in diamater, forming a niche the telescope array fit flush into. Many people didn't consider an optical telescope a piece of equipment that made good sense anymore, but then again, we'd always disagreed with most people on most subjects - so this ship would have one.
And so there he was, fitting the last tiny pieces together the old-fashioned way, making adjustments as things came to a close. After all, what else would he be doing on a construction site?
Then again, there were five of him.
They sat, stood, and hung from the equipment as if it was the most natural thing in the world, silently working...working to avoid thinking.
"Hey, Al." the Acid nearest the floor turned to me, "Good to see ya up and about."
"Yeah, it is." I scratched my head behind my right ear, stopping my own thoughts cold with a speedy blink, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this."
"It's all I know." another of him retorted as the other four started climbing down from the telescope, "You should know there aren't really any multiple mes by now."
"Sure looks that way to an outside observer." I gave him a wry sneer, "Your nature's still beyond me."
"Ah, but you know what they say." the first returned the gesture, raising a finger for a second, "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
"You've been thinking again." I commented as the other four departed the room, waving my fingers about in an encompassing manner, "I thought you were working on this to, you know...not think."
"Can't help it." the reptilian sighed with a shrug, taking a seat at the ledge of the circular trench that ran about the room's perimeter at two-thirds radius, "This whole thing about me...not even really existing got me a little riled up."
"Understandable." I nodded, taking a seat beside him, "But I disagree."
"Hm?" he wanted to know, "How so?"
"Vern told me the whole thing." I answered calmly, giving my head a quick shake, "And I disagree with that. If you didn't exist, then I couldn't very well be talking to you right now. Unless I don't exist either, in which case from my point of view, you're just as real as I am. And if we're just comparing meaningful quotes, let me add that a person starts to live when he can live outside himself - considering you turned into a big ball of nothing, I'd say that's about as outside as things can get."
Acid chuckled, elbowing me in the ribs, "You just made that one up."
"No, really." I insisted, pushing back, "I've taken a little bit of time to study these humans of yours. Albert Einstein. Smart man."
"Hm." he nodded in response, "I guess you got a point. It was just...kinda creepy. I mean, I saw...well, just about everything. The big picture, everywhere - not just places where I keep a body or two."
"Yeah, Vern told me." I shrugged, "The Pyramid was there, by the way. What else did you see?"
"A lot." Acid took a deep breath, "But I think I'll need a good bit of time to sort through it all. Oh, and about the you not existing thing...you know, only when the illusion knows it is an illusion can it know reality."
"You just made that one up." I smiled wryly.
"Guilty." he gave a nod with a shrug, "Doesn't make it any less true, though."
"You and your philosophy junk." I rolled my eyes, "I swear..."
"I get it, I get it." he waved me off, placing a hand on my shoulder, "And don't worry, I'm not gonna fall apart over this. You know me."
"That's what worries me."
"Touché." he admitted, "But seriously now - I think I'm starting to come to terms with it. At least now I know that I can't be killed, or at least not like that. Of course, that just trades one issue for another."
"The what happens if you can't actually die?" I ventured a guess, prompting a solemn nod as Acid looked at the scaffold through the transparent dome.
"Yeah." he finally answered, "I mean...that's why I turned down It's offer in the first place. I don't wanna live forever. Have everything around me move on and just be stuck myself
no. Just no. I think that scares me more than even the thought of disappearing into...well, myself. The other myself."
"I get where you're coming from." I told him, standing again, "But how about we cross that bridge when we come to it?"
"Fair enough." he nodded with a smirk, following me to the door, "So what now? Food?"
"Food."
"That'll have to wait." the intercom broke the conversation, Kerat's announcement echoing through the observatory, "Halfspace tracker's showing contacts, and not few. I think our secret's out. They're heading this way."
"How long?" Acid questioned with a focused visage as we kept walking.
"Ten hours, give or take." came the reply, "But I don't think we can take 'em."
"You let me worry about that." he gave me a malicious, toothy smirk, "I think it's about time ol' Taahk got to know me for just who I really am."
"Hm?" I preformed the equivalent of cocking an eyebrow, "So you figured it out? Who you are?"
"Sure did." he just kept smiling.
"Well?!" I urged him on, "Certain other people would like to know as well here."
He spread his hands in a hapless gesture, then gave me his answer, "Just a stranger, my friend. Just a stranger..."
---------------------
Fin
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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I didn't like the idea of sending my younger brother off alone.
I didn't like it one bit.
But right now, I had something to take care of - and with his injury, he wouldnt survive the encounter.
My fingers tightened around the sphere of the paratron as I watched the fighters engage the Concile formation. The battlecruiser was still there, acting as a deflection unit, preventing us from breaking through into the heart of the formation.
It would have to go.
Now.
I threw my wings behind me, laying hard into the cosmic streams, and propelled myself ahead with ludicrous accelerations. The pale-blue streams of particle cannons lanced by again and again, often streaking so close to my flesh I could feel the prickling energies rush past.
I twisted and turned, pitched and rolled, yawed and veered, rushing through a maddening, lethal labyrinth of firepower towards my target.
The battlecruiser came up fast, rushing from a point in orbit to filling my whole view faster than most creatures could react. Its point defense weaponry locked in on me, the beam trails ripping through the vacuum as they attempted to skewer me against the planet's exosphere.
My mind raced, my heart hammered, the ventral hull of the cruiser rushing by 'above' me as I tore by gun after gun, the barrels tracking as fast as they could, blasting their lethal beams after me time and again.
It took me only instants to drive myself past half the ship, and then I sent the commands to my back-mounted launcher. The machine obeyed immediately, and I blasted a volley of multi-missiles right into the midsection, tearing the vessel above me in half in a single, bright-blue detonation.
I quickly fell away from the cruiser as it was torn asunder in a reaction detonation, the explosion chasing me down, licking at the tip of my tail, the Concile ship trying to drag me with it into the depths of oblivion.
I felt the sting upon my flesh as the fringes overtook me, sending a wave of pain racking through my whole form.
No...I'm not that easy. I've still got a job to do.
I burst from the nuclear fireball like the spawn of hell itself, trailing thick streams of superheated plasma behind me, dragging the dissociated gases out into the vacuum.
I didn't stop, pressing on, the other ships already engaging once more. Another missile volley drove off the destroyer coming in high, and it was only through a stroke of luck I noticed the other coming from below and to the left in time, laying a burst of plasma artillery into and through the vessel's shields. Detonations cascaded across its hull as it veered to the side, breaking off pursuit.
I was in the formation. The path was clear.
At least relatively.
SVE vessels sent their particle cannons rushing in my direction, trying to take me down before I could pick their other units apart from the inside out.
Little did they know I was gunning for them as well.
I pitched upward, hurdling over the closely lancing beams of charged particles, then veered left to send a missile swarm streaking into one of their own. Only a moment later, a particle beam seared into my right side.
My flesh burned with pain, and I could feel the cold vacuum of space clawing at my insides, almost see my form now trailing a long trail of bloody gobs through the airless depths.
They were getting faster. I had to hurry.
I passed the paratron to my other hand, pressing the now-free limb across onto the wound as best I could to stem the bleeding. Biting through the pain, I kept rushing ahead, the fictional point in space I had to reach now so very close.
I couldnt see it, but I knew it was there. It was nothing more than an imaginary collection of mathematical coordinates, but in those moments it seemed the only real thing left in all of existence.
I had to reach it - there was no alternative!
I gunned into the home stretch, yawing away from another beam volley, then threw myself into a downward helix to confuse their targeting systems.
Their thoughts betrayed them all.
No sooner did I perceive an adjustment than I broke the spiral and rolled to the right, rushing up and ahead to my goal.
Now!
The touch of a contact plate was all it took to start the pre-rigged overload sequence. It felt as in a dream, no sensation, not even a soft depression in the sphere's surface indicating I had done anything at all.
I released the sphere.
And made a break for it.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, even in my perception. Instants turned to minutes, beams still arcing my way as I frantically threw my body every which way, each single twist and motion sending another pulse of pain through my frame.
No - I wouldn't give them the satisfaction!
Then all hell broke loose.
The paratron overloaded.
It was as if a sound of thunder had suddenly found a way to be manifest in the vacuum of space, shattering the very fabric of the airless continuum with a cacophony unlike any before.
Now I saw why I'd been told to be careful with the paratron.
It acted indeed very much like a gravity bomb.
The detonation was massive, the energies blasting outward from a single point so powerful they tore space itself to shreds. An extreme amount of hyperradiation literally flooded the region, almost immediately generating an interference hyperbarie.
The shock ripped the area wide open, the naturally familiar energies lashing into the time-space continuum in endless desire to return to their natural environment. A gigantic structural tear opened in no measurable time, ripping everything in its general vicinity into the overloaded continuum of hyperspace.
Great cascades of energy and matter flowed in torrents like into a titanic drain, the Concile attack force swept along by the flood like ping-pong balls tossed into the swirling tumult of a river's most convulsive rapids.
The spectacle lasted but a microsecond - no, less - before the hyperradiation had fully vanished into the tear and everything returned to normal. But the sheer power of its impression would last any witness a lifetime and longer.
The core of the Concile attack force, every single SVE ship in that formation, had been ripped from normal space faster than a human could even blink.
I tried to fathom what would happen to them in hyperspace. The normal units would instantly disintegrate, the overordered laws of the continuum permitting no matter to exist. The energy hulls of the SVE ships might make it, though I cringed at the thought of that fate as well - perhaps instant death was preferable to an eternity spent in hyperspace, lost forever from the world they'd called home.
In the depths of my being, I hoped they could find a way back. They may have been the enemy, but even they didn't deserve such a monstrous fate.
I had no time to think about it.
The battle wasn't over.
Already, the units at the fringe of the formation were coming about again, laying into the fighters and me in vengeful attempts at revenge for the loss of their comrades. I could eel the sorrow, the anger, the bloodlust, drilling itself into every fiber of my being.
I twisted out of the way once more, clutching my wound tighter as it sent a pulse of pain racking through me in response.
Below and ahead of me, a battlecruiser suddenly ascended - I had veered right into it!
In what seemed to take an eternity, I saw its main cannons lock in on me as I pitched up, cold machines tracking me at the beckon of rage-filled gunners.
Im not sure what sensation was more vehement at that point - the boiling outpouring of rage and thirst for vengeance or the stone-cold menace of looking down a particle cannon's barrel.
Either or...I'd lost.
The cannon fired...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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