Fiction:Imperius Occlus Nox

"They've spotted us!" Mikiang'y's panicked voice rang out over the commander centre. "How?" Oji'b, normally so relaxed, grimaced. "Any trickery involed, Miki?" "I don't know!", the response came. "It looked like normal technology, but certainly they're not that advanced, right?" "Never underestimate, Miki", Oij'b replied. "They're launching boarding torpedoes. All Biotics on station, now!"

"Greetings" a voice rang in the heads of the crew members. They saw a figure appear in the hole. First a shattering, then many voices can be heard from inside the ship.Overlord, the leader of the Void Eye Empire walks into the ships belly. Everything seemed empty, but everywhere Biotics were watching them.

"I come in peace." , his voice is heard, "Do not be afraid."He travels slowly inside the ship.

"Then why are you tormenting us?" Though the ship could noy by itself speak, it was essentially a very large Biotic, to whom the smaller ones which were watching Overlord were connected. It talked trough them, all around the Void Eyes, all at once. "To speak with your leader." "Is it because of the trespass?" "Yes, you trespassed our region of space. I would like to talk to your leader, I can sense him." "We do not know why. But we did feel. One who travels aboard us felt something disturbing in this region and relayed that fear trough my senses. It was a very genuine fear. So we went. Then you came." "Yes. Here is something that is not from here... " "Then her intuition was correct."

All around the Void Eyes, Bio-Rangers dropped down from concealed positions, weapons drawn.

"We will bring you to the one who sensed it. And to the one who is connected to my brain. No hostility is intended from us if none is given." "Fine. Bring us to him."

Something canged around the Void Eyes. The ship went silent, it's link to the Biotics broken for the moment. One of them, a slightly larger individual with bark-like armor, moth-like wings and great glowing flagellates floating protectively around it, stepped forwards.

"Then come this way, please."

"Go back to the ship.", said Overlord to the rest of the Void Eyes. I will go alone."

The Scion gestured dismissively to the Rangers and most of them dispersed as well. A small group remained to escort Overlord and the Scion to the command center. The center itself, like most of the ship, looked very much alive. There were no windows, though ports were connected to the ship's eyes, allowing thise inside to see outside. And above, in a great protective tank, floated a titanic brain. The rest of the wide room was given over to the organic equivalents of normal apparatus found in command centers of simillar metallic ships.

And the center of the room, flanked by more Scions, stood two humanoid beings with various maniraptoran and corvid charactistics. Though the Void Eyes of course wouldn't have noticed it, alien as they were, t most humanoids the beings would've seemed quite pretty.

"You! You are th disturbance I felt!" the female cried out. "So, you are the leader of this empire, I assume?" asked Overord. "Leader?" The male raised an eyebrow. "No, no. I'm close to being an exile at this point in time, truth be told." "I apologise." "You are their leader then?" the male asked. "Quite courageous to come here alone." "Do not underestimate him, Oji'b." the female hissed. "I can sense it now! He has the Void!"

A long silence reigned. Then Oji'b reached for his twin pistols.

"What!? Don't move!" "Do not be afraid.", Overlord said slowly. Please, put down the weapons."

Mud welled up around the female, swirling around Overlord too but not lunging for him.

"Why?" she asked."All the Void has ever done is hurt us. Why should this be any different?" "Because I will not harm you if you won't attack me."

The female glanced at Oji'b, the mud having stopped swelling.

"Was...Ada like that?" "Yep". Oji'b replied sadly. "Survival traded for subjugation was all he offered." "Do you want to subjugate us?" He asked, clearly confused. "If you do, pheromones don't give it away." need to subjugate you?" Ecoraptorgisteren om 18:23 "True." the female said. "There is no immediate benefit for you. Well, unless your economy is founded on slaves. Alright, I'll take the shot. I'm Mikiang'y, Raptoranean and Koatria of Mirus. The Raptoranean next to me is Oji'b, my godfather."

The other Raptoranean grunted in a half-greeting, clearly still none too comfortable.

"Anyway, greetings, I am Overlord the leader of the Void Eye Empire." "Thanks for blowing a hole in the side of our ship." Oji'b said "Can we land anywhere close by?"

"Yes please." The voice of the ship once again came all around it's occupants "I am wounded and need medical attendance." "Yes, there is a black hole base nearby, there you can land safely and get refueled." "Exellent. Oji'b, may I?" "Permission granted. You there, Overlord...can you lead the way? And I don't mean by plugging into my ship." "Sure, I will return on the capital ship then and I will show you the way."

Overlord walked back into the capsule and flew to the main ship.

"I don't trust him." Oji'b whispered when we was out of sight. "You said it yourself, he used the Void and that alone makes him suspect." Mikiang'y sighed. "We don't have any other choice at the moment. Let's go along with him for now and learn what we can" "Just what I thought." Oji'b grinned at last.

A short time later the ship was docked at the Black Hole Foundry, Biotics tending to it. Oji'b took in the sight, seemingly having forgotten his former fear.

"Impressive, this foundry. Quite impressive. Efficiency-wise, you are quite ahead compared to others of your age." Mikiang'y made a scowl. "Probably because of the Void", she thought. "The Void only helped us understand the rotational black holes, but we were able to steal rotational energy from it even without the Void." Overlord replied. Oji'b tilted his head sideways. "As I said, impressive." "I have never seen the Void used for understanding" Mikiang'y admitted. "Though seeing the struggle Brygon went trough lately, I'd rather not learn the technique for once." "Well, you can create small black holes with the Void Energy, so that helped." Oji'b looked to the ground, a sudden sadness covering his face "Tell me about it. Ada used that technique to shear ringwords in half if they opposed him. And they weren't quite small." "Oh, this is a sad story, he probably made a supermassive black hole then...", Overlord replied. "...You know him?" Oji'b asked, slowly. "I heard of him." "Huh. While most Plazithians wrote the entire return off as nothing but as exaggerated war. Seems like Andromedans are more trusting, then."

"On that point" Mikiang'y butted in, "Can we have some place to talk?" "Yes, please this way."

He walks into a room that is decorated with the emblems of the Void Eye Empire.

Inside the room are some seats and a table, all composed of a black material with white glowing stripes. At the end is a round window opening the sight of the black hole completely enclosed with mirrors. There are emblems of the empire at each side of the room. The light is coming from above.

"So here we can talk alone." he said. "Good." Mikang'y replied. "Iassume you want to know th reason for our intrusion, ourside your unexpected use of Void Energy." "Yes, please continue."

She projected a star map of Segmentum Umbra from a button on her left wrist.

"We are looking for a world called Nox. Have you heard of it?" "No, could you please give me the coordinates?" "We...don't have them, sadly. You see, the planet is supposed to be inhabited by close allies of ours, the Troodontid Empire. But they are really secretive and last thing we heard about them was that a civil war was brewing. One of their factions, the Troodontid Technocracy, is supposed to be hiding out on Nox, but...you see the problem."

After sighing, she continued.

"The trail runs cold at the Haldiriv system, formerly in the possession of the Naakjian Confederation, over which the Troodontids fought a brief conflict. Shortly after, the Great Xonexian Shism came to the Naakji and they collapsed under the brunt of the Civilisation, annexed by the Nomatari Sovereignty. The problem is that that afterwards, the Sovereignty itself vanished, taking most of the Naakji with them. Those Naakji who survived have no idea what happened, and none were in high enough positions to even be aware of the Haldirivan Conflict at the time. Hence, we have had to retrace everything by hand. The process is tedious."

That seemed to have piqued Overlor'd interest.

"Could you please describe the planet to me?" Overlord asked. "Haldiriv or Nox?" Oji'b took over. "Nox." came the reply. "If I had an image of it I could search through the planet database and maybe find it." "Sadly, no living Waptorian has ever set foot, or wing -Oji'b gestioned in the direction of the Waptorian ship- on Nox. But it must be within a few parsecs of Haldriviv, and since the Troodontids aren't the most imaginable of people, the planet must be very dark. Probably orbits a very dim M-type brown dwarf, which would make the planet extraordinarily hard to spot." "And could you describe Haldiriv then?" "It's not really anything out of the ordinary. Cold but not too cold. Dark but not too dark. The dominant lieform is some sort of fungus. Really agressive, and I have no idea why the Troodontids descided it was a good place to colonise. If the Troodontids have taken over Naakji space now that thir empire is gone, there is no trace of it. Then again, that is to be expected." "Hmm, the archive says that there are many brown dwarfs that are in the west/southwest of the Void Eye Empire, maybe you should look there?" "We have aready scourged Naakji space extensively." Oji'b said. "But we shall redouble our efforts in that region. I thank you for your coöperation." "Is loyalty a trait regarded highly in Void Eye culture then?" Mikiang'y asked. "Yes, loyalty to its allies is highly appreciated here." Overlord responded. "I see. Then that is why..." She trailed off. "Indeed, we thank you for your coöperation. It has been most unexpected." "Well, goodbye then, we already refueled your spaceship, so you can leave at any moment." "We shall." Mikiang'y gestured to Oji'b. "Come on."

Once onboard the undocked Waptorian ship, her smile vanished. "They seem alright but...This source of Void Energy...We have to tell Brygon about it."