User:The Collective Mind/Prototypes

Worm
SERPENT SHIELD - Threat Analysis Summary [2R6.K2U.ANA.8K7]

Tuuros Expeditionary Initiative / Security / Intelligence / Threat Analysis and Prediction

Product of Javelin Terminal Office

The following is a Threat Analysis Summary of SERPENT SHIELD -- the so-called 'Worm' -- based on all currently known and available evidence [appended, see section 5].

Overview The Worm is an extrinsic parasitoidic biological neural network teleonomically adapted for the infiltration and destruction of civilizations. The appearance of the Worm in a civilization is hereby referred to as an "iteration." The Worm is believed to have been present in Tuuros for well over = billion years. Over that time, Worm iterations have occurred in an estimated ==== civilizations. Each iteration consists of two components: a species and a religion. These components are inseparable. The Worm species promotes the Worm religion, and the Worm religion promotes the Worm species.
 * what the worm is and does

As a species, no two iterations of the Worm are exactly alike, but all share common functionalities, archetypes and goals. Its origins, in terms of both location and evolution, are unknown and likely unnatural [possible Discontinuity source hypothesized].

As a religion, the Worm is as mutable as the species.

Known Worm Morphs
 * worm
 * soldier worm
 * titan worm
 * god-worm: RHAA, ZUOR, QARNH

Stages

Analysis
 * effects on tuuros - part of why everything sucks, responsible for killing at least == civilizations both pre-and post-spaceflight
 * if it gets outside tuuros things will get very bad
 * stage 1: infiltration and subversion. rate of progression depends on relative status of those initially infected. worm cult often piggybacks on pre-existing religions to conceal itself, hiding its true nature. in other cases disguised as social clubs
 * stage 2: expansion. induction of key figures (civil and military authorities, medical infrastructure, etc.) allows infection to progress at exponential speed. uninfected but brainwashed individuals often serve as proxies at this stage and may even outnumber the infected. emergence of first soldier worms, transformed infected
 * stage 3: metamorphosis. armed conflict is inevitable at this stage. nurtured by the cult, select infected undergo transformation into titan worms. process is unclear - either the infected become leviathan worms, or their worms become so using the host as a womb.
 * stage 4: immanence. the god-worms are summoned. not totally sure what that entails. probability of total civilization collapse becomes 1

Serafhan
Horrible ant-things

Horrible flying things

Horrible carnivore thing

Horrible small but poisonous thing (living mushroom?)

Horrible herbivore (needs to be horrible to fight horrible plants)

Horrible herbivore 2

Horrible ambush thing that lives in mud


 * Naturally-occurring andasium crystals, often found in the wake of blowouts
 * thing that puts out more heat than you put in
 * thing that absorbs heat but remains cold
 * mirror panes that reflect your thoughts
 * floater - hovers in the air wherever you let it go, casts too many shadows
 * thing that neutralizes momentum in a small radius -- takes more effort

 Andasium= Flect= Floater= Cooler= Heater= Slower=

Tenet
"The Day of Glory approaches. When it comes, we shall not be found lacking."

Viscountess (sahrif) of the Khidar Court, Peer of the Inner Temple of Khidar, Sister of the Northern Sky Fraternity, the Blind Seer of Talannar, Beloved by All, Fehari Ashazdes Fehari Ashazdes. Viscount of Talannar. The Blind Seer. The Green Lady. My master.
 * wears a veil, top half of her face is horribly burned
 * personality marked by love
 * "Give me your will, o children. Give over your burdens, your pain and your suffering. There is peace in subjugation, and comfort in my thrall."
 * gathering power in preparation to challenge the viceroy of khidar

What can I say about her that you don't already know? She is a magus of unprecedented power for her rank. Her name is whispered across Khidar in fear and reverence. She wraps herself in glamours and enchantments as naturally as they are impenetrable. She commands not through power, the iron fist, but through love and outstretched arms. They say her ambitions are spoken of in the High Court. The Grand Duke of Khidar fears her rising star.

He is right to fear. The Blind Seer's love is a terrible thing.

She is blind because she lost her eyes in one of her first usurpations, when she became Baroness of Divsara. The baron of that title burned them out of her skull even as she hollowed out his mind like a parasite wasp. She made do.

In another duel, the Baron of Sanit Lam cursed her with barrenness. He did it out of spite, for he died seconds later, his body crumbling to ashes. Fehari Ashazdes, only child of Ashazdes, was now the last of her line.

This and a dozen other wounds she took over her rise. She could have repaired them with her own power, as most do. She did not. "They are lessons," she once told me. "To heal them would be to forget."

And then she laughed, and said, "And it shames my enemies to heap curse after curse upon a poor cripple, and it shames them worse to fear her."

My lady understands the value of perceptions.

Throughout all this, she gathered allies. The magus Izeroth she teased with her power, and then wrapped him in a net of his own ambitions. He will follow her to the grave because he cannot see past his dreams of usurping her. The Fleetmaster, Aqar, acts like he is her grandfather. He is proud of her, and eager to see how much higher she will climb. The spymaster, Zduda, she entranced with sympathy and compassion. The Eyes of Zeyyd are solitary, often outcasts. It was easy to inspire her loyalty. And there are others, dozens of others, charmed by her wit and beauty and power, all across Khidar.

And there was me. The ex-slave she protected and nurtured like her own child. Like the son she will never have.

Arid Anuk of Khidar, Knight-Commandant of the Emerald Host, Baron of the Khidar Court, Right Hand of the Viscountess, the Black Hand, Honor-Bound What a tiresome man. To think someone like him stands at the Baroness's right hand... surely she knows how that reflects on her?
 * thrice-warded plate armor: once for physical shielding, once for thermal shielding, once for magical
 * mechanical arm capable of discharging bolts of thaumic plasma
 * "It is not my place to question the will of my master."
 * honorable man, ex-slave, quiet, obedient, follows orders because that's all he can do
 * slave who slew his master, and was protected from retribution by the viscountess
 * don't forget -- he's much stronger and faster than he should be, thanks to the ritual of slaughter
 * vampire blade -- blade itself enchanted to unmake matter, then draws blood down its fullers lined with runes to invoke sympathetic magic and spells of ruin
 * "Honestly, it's only good he hasn't taken a wife. The last thing we need is more of his kind polluting our families."

His heritage is hardly a secret. Everyone knows he's Da'mir stock. An ex-slave. He came to the attention of his betters after he killed his master, the Esquire of Dein, and fortunately for him, one of those betters was the Baroness.

To think he was freed for it! It wasn't remotely a lawful killing. No challenge was invoked. No duel was fought. Just one man bashing in the skull of another man by surprise in some dirty field, like some animal. But the word of the Baroness was respected beyond her rank, and she wasn't even a baroness back then. She ordered him freed, and gifted him the Esquire's title and lands.

Of course this angered the Khidar Court. Some of them, anyways. The rest were too busy laughing at what happened to the old Esquire. But the Esquire had friends in the court, and other allies besides, who saw the slave's elevation as nothing but the most flagrant disrespect for our laws and traditions. They sent assassins, maledictions.

Unfortunately, so did the Baroness. The new Esquire was under her personal protection, and she made it known in the most direct manner possible. And so, one or two of the titles of Khidar found themselves suddenly without a bearer. Esquire Anuk was safe for the time being. And under the Baroness' wing, he learned he had a supreme talent for violence.

You can take the slave from the barracks, but that still won't make him free. Esquire he was, but Anuk knew he would never have the intelligence for Court politics. [more likely he was disgusted by the whole court in general - z] So he sidestepped them by turning his attention towards the military.

Nemesh Izeroth of Khidar, Magister Lord of the Emerald Host, Left Hand of the Viscountess, Sorcerer Supreme, Lord of Devices, the Clever Kohm Aqar of Khidar, Fleetmaster of the Emerald Host, Chariot of the Viscountess, Chief Strategist of Air and Darkness, the Bone-Burner, the Devout, Word-eater
 * artifice armor, self-enchanted, stuffed with all sorts of weird extras
 * schemer, sly and sarcastic, unruly, arrogant
 * "Insolent upstart children. Give them the least room to quarrel and carve out space for themselves, and they suddenly think themselves mighty."
 * mediates between anuk and izeroth, easygoing in all things, contrast between izeroth's scorn and anuk's coldness
 * even in battle he can't be ruffled, but that's mostly because he enters a zen state - "battle meditation"
 * oldest of the three, remembers when the baroness was just a calf
 * reads a lot
 * religiously inclined, likes to quote scripture
 * sea captain kind of guy. probably used to be a sea captain
 * "There's no use in worrying about everything. It's easier to move with the waves and the wind than against them."

Meyian Zduda of Khidar, Eye of Zeyyd, Queen of Lies and Secrets, Watchful Blade of the Viscountess, the Eyes and Ears link to the Emerald Host page, a contemporary Tenet military
 * Intelligence officer and assassin
 * introverted and thoughtful, never acts impulsively
 * Uses perception alteration and sympathetic magic to infiltrate and assassinate - better at real-time combat ritual than izeroth, who mostly uses an arsenal of enchanted weaponry
 * an ex-slave herself, close to anuk with shared history and sympathy
 * "Deception is the highest form of war."

legion of bitter steel

personality-appearance-history-armament

divisions:
 * elite aphor core: armsmen, scouts, knights
 * slave shock infantry, war beasts & terror weapons (one term)
 * war machines
 * ritual weapons

their strength is in their ritual weaponry, everything else exists to defend their superweapons as they're being set up

 Baron Arid Anuk=

"It is not my place to question the will of my master."
 * Name: Arid Anuk of Khidar
 * Titles: Knight-Marshal of the Emerald Host, Baron of the Khidar Court, Right Hand of the Baroness, the Black Hand
 * Role: Supreme general of the Emerald Host's ground forces

Baron Anuk's personality can be defined by two constants: his honor, which has remained stubbornly entrenched across the many centuries of his life, and his bitterness, which has only ever grown deeper. Once a mere labor-slave at the bottom of Tenet's hierarchy, he has risen to the rank of Baron by being more dangerous and more competent than any of his superiors, and by the support of the Viscountess, who sees great things in him. Baron Nemesh Izeroth= "Insolent upstart children. Give them the least room to quarrel and carve out space for themselves, and they suddenly think themselves mighty."
 * Name: Nemesh Izeroth of Khidar
 * Titles: Magister Lord of the Emerald Host, Baron of the Khidar Court, Left Hand of the Baroness
 * Role: Chief thaumaturge of the Emerald Host

Noble by birth and magi-trained, Baron Izeroth was born with an ambition to rule and an understanding of his self-evident superiority.

-We now enter the third month of the war against Faibastez.

what do they believe?

report of strange changes

how are they structured?

report of madness

what are they like?

report of fleeing

Testimonies:

They are impossible to fight. We can formulate no working strategy, because the heretics obey no logic. Every time we do battle, they are using some new, insane weapon or tactic that forces us to tailor our response to that individual circumstance. They are an army of madmen, enacting madness in every direction, impossible to effectively counter.

They're less pirates and more of a wandering natural disaster. They make nothing and take everything. Pirates desire wealth and power, to expand their outlaw dominions with what they steal -- the only desires the yafehrenez have are those of the basest beasts.

We've tried to figure out their motivations, you know. Figure out what drives them. All I can conclude from six weeks of study is that they just... do things, arbitrarily. They have no goals other than to amuse themselves, even when it's to their own detriment.

Report on the History of the Heretics, compiled by Eye Inard

Anungim and Adigartu, Elu-Ashak
 * has its roots in a lower-class protest against the Amwur state government, who had recently imposed strict curfews and behavioral codes in response to rising crime rates in its outlying worlds
 * one of them suddenly started having visions - this was kenanek otem, a food vendor, who also inexplicably developed thaumaturgical ability - he had no formal training, we're certain of it
 * kenanek fled amwur after the court of the creed started taking notice following rumors of unlicensed thaumaturgy, started gathering followers in three other clients
 * as the court of secrets kept track they started finding out really disturbing things
 * first persecution effort to stamp out the heresy unsuccessful, underestimating kenanek's capabilities
 * kenanek flees, attacks some city, rallies forces
 * now there's a war involved. a series of running battles ensue - kenanek flees from direct confrontation, and wherever he goes he somehow recruits more and more people to his cause
 * disaster faibastez province, in which the court of war had a fleet waiting for him - but kenanek was expecting the fleet, sends fire-ships to break the blockade, invades the surface, steals everything not nailed down, steals more spacecraft, and leaves again

Durgesh and Azak, the Uludalgeh

who become niirkesh and zahak, Udarala

footnotes?

Stasis. bubbles of frozen time, thaumaturgically complicated and expensive to maintain but worth it -- food never spoils, wounded can receive medical attention "immediately",

fleshcrafting and thoughtbinding

Fleshcrafting. One of the two "Holy Arts" said to have been taught to Tenet magi directly through divine correspondence. It is believed to be one of the most difficult schools of thaumaturgy to learn [requiring a comprehensive understanding of all fields of biology], and its practice is both prestigious and applicable. Not only is it useful medically, it is also how Tenet constructs its biological servitors. Fleshcrafting is a vital part of Tenet society, and its control is part of how Tenet magi ensure their social dominance.

a page for eyes of zeyyd? shapeshifters, mind readers, exist to stir up trouble in outlying systems for a raider fleet to take advantage of

Servitors are autonomous

Ghuruk are considerably more dangerous than conventional fleshcrafted servitors and are capable of operating independently of a handler. As with all Tenet bio-servitors, ghuruk demonstrate exceptional speed, strength, and regenerative ability. However, ghuruk are uniquely able to channel Essence, thereby enhancing their lethality through paracausal means.

All understanding of Ghuruk biology is speculative, as dead Ghuruk rapidly disintegrate. Tenet is believed to be incapable of replacing lost Ghuruk [being too advanced for its current level of thaumaturgy to replicate]; thus, their deployment is reserved for emergencies and operations of extreme significance.

The following target profiles are written in the context of Tenet bio-servitors. See SI:C1 for their context within the Prime Criterion.

Tenet servitor type E/B-A [ghuruk ammur]

Height: 11 ft

Length: ?

Mass: 14,000 lbs

Function: Shock trooper/tank destroyer/terror weapon

Incredibly resilient servitor type. Regenerates from injury at greater speed than conventional servitors and will continue to fight following catastrophic injury [such as bisection, dismemberment, and decapitation]. Only total destruction of both cranium and center of mass has been observed to reliably kill an Ammur.

Essence capabilities: Advisory: Notes:
 * Pyrokinesis: Ammur may generate and hurl projectiles composed of Cryptic plasma. This plasma is hyper-oxidizing and is known to cause incombustible materials to ignite, in most cases explosively.
 * Aciukinesis: When attacking, Ammur focus Cryptic energy into their claws and teeth, imposing an artificial and exceptional degree of sharpness capable of cutting through superhard materials.
 * Wallcrawling: Despite their size and weight, ammur are capable of scaling sheer, vertical surfaces.
 * When orbital bombardment is impossible, air or artillery strikes are recommended, ideally multiple passes. Do not assume an ammur is dead until it has disintegrated.
 * Tenet scripture describes Ghuruk Ammur as being raised in armies of billions during the 'War in Heaven'. As Tenet has only a limited supply of Ammur, it must be much more selective in their deployment.

Motive
doctrine -- interchangeability and redundancy, fortifications everywhere, defeat is worse than death organization --
 * generally, inferior armor combined with superior weapons and plenty of support
 * everyone is a combat engineer, combined with motive construction technology means fortifications get erected stupidly fast
 * noncom equivalents called "conductors", ranging from GDC:1 to GDC:12


 * commissioned officer and enlisted equivalents called "operators", ranging from GDO:1 to GDO:10 with specialist qualifiers as necessary


 * Garrison infantry
 * Shock infantry

Hubs:
 * Mechs: biped/quadruped/hexapod/scout
 * modular weapons mounts
 * Land carrier
 * 1) Triumphator -- the first, and biggest
 * 2) Alliance
 * 3) Keyport
 * 4) Axis
 * 5) Reliance
 * 6) Stronghold
 * 7) Colossus
 * 8) Hallowed
 * 9) Virtue
 * 10) Imperial
 * 11) Crossroads
 * 12) Helicon
 * 13) Phalanx
 * 14) Regime

!!ALERT!!
PRIORITY RED MESSAGE

FROM: Prime Analyst (11:18): Travat Petrushov, Asken [Legions: Intelligence/Alien]

TO: Sector 11 Intelligence Director: Anaya Kiril, Toboloi [Legions: Intelligence/Alien]

SUBJECT: IRON AXIS threat capacity review

TAGS: IRON AXIS, threat level, allies...

MESSAGE BEGINS.

Sir Kiril, I fear we have severely underestimated the threat capacity of IRON AXIS.

Earlier today (cycle 05-12), reconnaissance fleet T490-11:18 clandestinely entered IRON AXIS space outside Sector 11 to observe Channel operations and IRON AXIS activities in and around system AY/1787. AY/1787 was believed to be a major IRON AXIS population center based on intercepted comms traffic and hyperspace activity (attached: AY/1787, Stellar Activity, 599 03-01).

It appears that most of what we know about IRON AXIS is built on faulty evidence.

The asteroid habitats within joint Imperial-IRON AXIS space seem to be no more than a manned perimeter, a buffer zone for potential threats. What the recon fleet discovered was an actual IRON AXIS city. Look at this:

This is AY/1787:08, the smallest of the eight planets in the system. All of them were like this. This represents an astral engineering capacity millennia beyond our capabilities. They're taking the whole planet apart.

Attached is a full report on IRON AXIS activities and construction within the AY/1787 system. To summarize: From the scale of this project, the sheer amount of resources involved, and the fact that no Monitors are present, we must assume that the AY/1787 project is not unusual for IRON AXIS. It may even be routine. Espionage Officer (11:18) Kol is organizing another reconnaissance operation to probe deeper into IRON AXIS space to confirm. Target stars are UY/2410, UD/0122, and AY/4415.
 * AY/1787 is covered by an incomplete stellar shell, made up of an estimated 72576 solar collection satellites.
 * Extensive celestial demolition in progress; AY/1787:03 estimated to be fully dismantled within 4 years.
 * No fewer than five Channel nodes present. Channel activity 864% greater than previously estimated average.
 * Orbital habitats:
 * 3 confirmed Class 4 (metropolis+), 1 unconfirmed
 * 33 confirmed Class 3 (metropolis-scale), 58 unconfirmed.
 * 70 confirmed Class 2 (city-scale), 119 unconfirmed.
 * 284 confirmed Class 1 (colony-scale), 537 unconfirmed.
 * 8 new IRON AXIS starship types, apparently specialized for planet-dismantling/megastructure-construction purposes.
 * No Monitors detected.

Based on the findings of T490-11:18, I humbly submit that IRON AXIS should be reclassified to Threat Level 2. I await your response, Sir Kiril.

Prime Analyst Asken Travat Petrushov

MESSAGE ENDS.

GLORY TO THE EMPIRE - LONG LIVE THE TETRARCHS

Quote
"Motive is the most thoroughly joyless society I have ever had the dubious pleasure of studying."

- Oraxes Merl, Necrox Commonwealth (Biotic Catalogue)

"One of my friends heard from a Motivator that the Monitors get weirder the deeper inside you go. Things like the corridors changing when you aren't looking, weird sounds, rooms that don't make sense... he heard the pipes and the wires start looking like writing, when you get far enough."

"Don't be fooled by all the gears and pistons - Motive builds for function, not aesthetics. Their tech's at least as advanced as anything you've got. Probably more."

- Analyst Shuykim Auv, Imperial Intelligence

Concord Terminal
Welcome to Concord Terminal, our foremost intergalactic diplomatic nexus! If you're reading this, then you are either a traveler on a long journey, a foreign dignitary on a mission, or some other valued client of our services. Whoever you are, you've come to the right place. Motive knows your needs and is ready to serve! WARNING TO PSYCHICALLY SENSITIVE INDIVIDUALS: while staying at Concord Terminal, you may experience feelings of dysphoria, subjective blindness, and the sensation of being watched. This is normal.
 * About Concord Terminal -- history, significance
 * Accommodations -- whether you're here to make use of one of our channel gates, seeking to negotiate a trade deal, or something else entirely -- atmosphere and gravity habitable for most forms of organic carbon-based life, notify within 24 hours if you have any requirements significantly different from the norm
 * Layout: production lines, habitats, wormhole gates, defenses
 * Quotes -- "customer reviews"
 * Great accomodations and wonderful staff. Felt like I was being watched the whole time. 5/5
 * The rooms are lovely but the food is awful. 3/5
 * Definitely go for the guided tour if you have the time! I thought I'd seen big, then I saw the assembly line for spaceships.
 * Went to the bathroom. When I came out the way back wasn't the same as the way to. Wandered around for 20 minutes before I found a concierge to ask for directions. 2/5

Prime Solar Republic
The Prime Solar Rebellion is the name for a series of conflicts in the Trans-Western Territory between Motive and rebellious elements of the Prime Solar Republic. Following years of increasing Motive influence within the economy and politics of the Prime Solar Republic to the detriment of civil rights and freedoms, multiple rebel cells began to form within the Republic, all with the ultimate goal of expelling Motive interests from Republic space. These cells were highly variable in size and social class, ranging from secret partisan movements to renegade military formations. After a time, they became collectively known as the Solar Resistance.

These rebellions both slowed and accelerated the process of assimilation. On one hand, Motive experienced setbacks as the Solar Resistance broke supply lines and bombed vital installations. On the other, Motive suffered no significant losses outside of its interests in Republic space, and furthermore began instating martial law across broad regions of space to "ensure the peace and security of Republic citizens", supplanting Republic governance entirely.

As Motive consolidated its control of the Republic, the Solar Resistance similarly began to centralize as the various rebel cells united, adopting that collective moniker as their own. With their various assets pooled together and with popular support from the people of the Republic, the Resistance escalated the conflict to open warfare.

1
Andres!

Far-flung outpost of the Prime Solar Republic. City of brick and stone and glass, built with muscle and pioneer spirit beneath a red sun, on the edge of a brown dry plain. Its people: plain, rustic, honest.

Andres has new tenants now.

They brought concrete, steel, smoke, noise. The low buildings of Andres (built low and tough to withstand tornadoes and dust storms) are dwarfed and humbled by their new neighbors: ugly gray compounds and complexes, monolithic and sprawling, edged with foglights and razor wire. Tall spikes pierce the sky, vent greasy fumes into the air. Nature is adjourned. These new structures stand immobile, heedless of wind and weather. Quiet Andres now rattles with the sound of machines and brutal industry -- the song of Motive.

Descend into the smog-shrouded streets, down between the high gray tenements and apartments onto ash-stained pavement. Dawn is approaching, a lightening in the smoky sky. A new day begins. Loudspeakers chime, awakening people from their beds: time for work.

2
Kar Zeil slams his back into the wall, panting. The barrel of his blaster pistol is glowing cherry red with heat but he doesn't have a spare to replace it with. This is not going to plan.

The plan: infiltrate Andres. Create a loud, flashy distraction. Plant bombs in Motive's factories and production lines while their forces are all rushing the other way. Cripple their industry in the Dryden region, clearing a way for a major Resistance push.

Their successes: infiltrated Andres without incident.

Then some Motive patrol had caught the distraction team in the middle of wiring that chimney up. No way to pass it off as an accident. They'd made a big bang all right, but hours too early -- and now, alert to insurgents in their midst, Motive has flooded the whole city with troops. The sheer bad luck of it all makes Kar seethe.

"Take mine," says Beck. He hefts a stolen Motive rifle. Kar drops his pistol -- heat degradation would steal most of its potency, and he doesn't have the means to cool it -- and takes the proffered weapon gratefully. The gun's workings are complex (Motive loves complexity) but he's used enemy weapons before. He cycles its firing mechanism and takes stock of his forces.

Right now, it's just him, Beck, and Trenn. Every man of them carries a demo charge, but unless they can link up with other Resistance fighters along the way (not likely, given the fight raging all over the city) they'll have to reach Target 2 by themselves. Not good odds. But the Resistance needs this break, and Kar refuses to fail it.

A platoon of gas-masked Motive soldiers tromps past the alley they're sheltering in, all boot-stomps and rattling gear. Kar waits for them to pass, then darts across the street. Beck and Trenn follow.

"We're close," says Kar. "Hear that?"

A slow clunk, clunk, clunk above the din of combat, interspersed with mechanical whirring. Target 2 is a facility that manufactures payload-less artillery shells, to be armed elsewhere, and the clunking is the noise of shells being loaded onto racks by heavy lifting arms.

They run towards the noise, passing intersections and alleyways. A squad of Motive troops pops around a corner and Kar shoots on instinct, flinging one bewildered Crewman backwards in a spray of armor shards and sending the rest scurrying back for cover. Kar and his team dart into a side street as the other Crewman return fire. No point in shooting back -- they can't beat Motive in a open fight, on its own turf. Speed is of the essence.

The walls of the narrow street are a blur. The noise is getting louder. Kar can hear other notes in its rhythm now, following their own individual beats. A kliklikliklik and a buzzzzz and a ''stomp - stomp - stomp. ''Engine-song, he's heard it described. The song of Motive. In fact, that stomping sound seems to be getting louder faster than the others --

Kar and his team burst out of the street and into a concrete courtyard. At the same moment, golden sunlight breaks through the oppressive cloud cover behind them, illuminating the brutal industrial mass of Target 2 --

-- and framing the towering tripod scout walker patrolling it with a stomp - stomp - stomp.

The walker halts. Atop the three pillars of its legs a cylindrical head rotates towards them, its searchlight pinning them in horrified place, its autocannons leveling downwards towards them. Even blinded by the searchlight Kar reckons he can see the Crewmen operating the thing behind the narrow viewslit on its head, see the shells loading into the barrels of its cannons that, for the moment, take up his entire world and doesn't this planet have a red sun --

Something person-sized, sun-bright and golden, smashes into the scout walker's head and obliterates it in a brilliant magnesium flash. Kar shields his eyes just in time (fragments of metal bounce off his head and elbow), and when he looks up, he sees that armored cockpit transformed into a shattered, scorched shell like a broken wineglass. And he sees that glowing person-shape perched atop it, and sees the whole broken contraption (knocked off-balance by the blow) slowly topple to the ground with a metallic groan. When it hits, it hits with a colossal crash, throwing up a cloud of dust and soot.

Kar rushes into it, but all thoughts of Target 2 are forgotten. The light was so beautiful. He needs to see it again, almost physically needs it.

A gust of wind blows the dust aside. And kneeling atop the ruin of the fallen scout walker is a woman.

She is radiant, beautiful. She glows with inner light. Wisps of it rise from her limbs like tiny solar prominences. Gossamer insectoid wings twice as long as she is tall trail from her back, her waist, drifting weightlessly around her. She stares at her own hands as if awed by her own power.

Kar stumbles and sinks to his knees. Behind him, Beck and Trenn do the same, each similarly enraptured. None of them are suspicious enough or resistant enough to wonder how natural their reactions are.

Slowly, she looks up at them. Her eyes are white on white. Slowly, joyously, she smiles.

"Are you with the Resistance?" she asks.

Kar stands. Her attention on him feels like warmth and light. "Y-yes, ma'am," he stammers, then almost chokes with embarrassment at how childish he sounds in front of her.

"You're here to free us."

Not trusting his voice, Kar nods.

"I have... power, now. I can help you fight them. But I need to know how." Her wings flare outwards like fans. Her smile turns fierce. "Tell me what to do."

Kar suddenly remembers he has a mission to accomplish, and he smiles too. His heart lifts with rare hope. The mission has just become a lot more possible.

3
VL: I'm not casting doubt on what she's accomplished. I'm just saying.

MO: And I say it doesn't matter. She hates Motive; she fights for us; good enough for me.

VL: But who is she? Where did she come from? How did she Ascend? As far as I know there are only three ways for that to happen, and none of them are plausible here. When someone Ascends there are galactic consequences. Is nobody else suspicious?

MO: You're out of line, Vic.

ND: You wouldn't be talking like this if you'd seen her. With your own eyes, not the picts and recordings.

VL: No. I wouldn't.

ND: ...what do you mean?

VL: I haven't seen her with my own eyes and I intend to stay that way. Keep her away from me. I'm done here.

for the crimes of arrogance, and hubris, and for thinking you could ever fight us

we'll send you four plagues. one upon your minds, one upon your flesh, one upon your stars, one upon your souls. each one is a lesson. we hope you learn something

it's already begun.

and at the end, when we raise the axe before your neck, you will beg us to swing it