Fiction:The Mineral Conflict

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The Drodo Empire found a sort of power crystal, called "Drodoian Gold". This crystal is very valuable as it can power an entire world for thousands of years-or a superweapon...

Using this newly found mineral, the Drodo's ally, the United Federation of Species, created a wormhole that connected the Kraw Galaxy to the Milky Way, the Eranian Collective, curious, send ships through the wormhole. The Oppressive Mag'Heli Dominion does the same. Little do these four factions know is that this is the prelude to a great war for the Drodoian Gold. This is the story.

Mag'heli Prelude
The Mag'heli raiding vessel "Proxy" flew through space on the fifteenth patrol of the Eranian/Mag'heli border it had been forced to make this past week. It's crew were tired, it's brutes were bored. As the brutes passed by each citizen, each section of the ship, the crewmembers snapped from nearly napping to full attention, terrified the brute would notice the slightest flaw, create the slightest excuse to entertain itself by punishing them. While they knew it technically had no sentience, and that it would not be them deciding to gather entertainment through their pain, they remained terrified nontheless.

An old, scarred brute who had earned the nickname "Old Scarclaw" lumbered towards a sleeping crewmember who was supposed to be watching the sensors, and grabbed him roughly by the neck. The crewmember awoke with a jolt and almost yelled out from the shock of being woken from his peaceful dreams to such a ugly sight. He began to panic, and looked to his fellow crewmates for support, they denied him such support, shying away and tried to look like they were buisy working. Seeing no other choice, he croaked out in a weak voice "Yes, master?". The brute paused momentarily, as if struggling to comprehend the question just asked him, before finally yelling out "Why were you sleeping?!". The sound echoed throught the ship. Panicing, the crewmember could not think of a reasonable excuse and instead attempted to satisfy the brute by pinning the blame on somebody else. "I wasn't me who was sleeping, it was Kur'kloc!". Kur'kloc looked up at the crewmember, horrified at being singled out in such a manner. Fortunately for him the brute, rather than putting the crewmember down, crushed his skull in its hands and dropping his shattered carcass onto the floor. It muttered "Liar" before slowly plodding off, dragging the corpse behind him.

Eranian Prelude
A dozen computer screens were all that lit the room. A sole Eranian crouched there, her already pale face rendered ghastly by the white light that shone upon it. Her face was bored and contemplative, as she watched swathes of data fly over the screens of the computers surrounding her, too fast for most people to read. For hours on end, she would sit like this, haunched beside the computers, breaking the eerie silence only to issue orders to her subordinates or recieve them from her supiriors. In honesty, she would have it no other way. She pressed down a switch on a panel before her, keeping her finger upon it as she said "Find me a channel to Mikios. I need him to investigate something" in her clear yet monotonous voice. The response came swiftly and sharply, a male answering "As you wish, ma'am". She removed her finger from the switch and returned to watching the screens.

Mikios was confused but intregued. He knew Kerrata, and had worked under her several times before. She was not the kind of person to specifically ask for the aid of somebody who was not at the time a member of the millitary. Well, she was, but she would not specifically ask for the aid of somebody of his personality. He was led to a room by his escourt, a large man, for an Eranian (Which was still fairly thin and spindly), and he had discovered thorugh what little conversation he could strike up during the journey that he was relatively simple minded. It mattered little, he entered the room designated and discovered it empty, save a for simple, metallic table and a positively archaic laptop computer of the kind that had been out of use for over five centuries. Smart, he thought, nobody would bother to hack the databand frequencies those things used to communicate... He spoke aloud to an empty room "So, what do you want me for then?"

USF Prelude
And for several months working on this project and almost finished. At the checkpoint a young Uzcar, much higher than usual in their kind, carefully watching a screen, where hundreds of data in and out at an astounding rate. Front Uzcar a small object about ten cubic centimeters began to flicker, with increasing speed. The Uzcar left his intense concentration and pressed with a finger the object, it was opened, revealing a hologram of the Supreme Brinal Aranelia Senator. -Chief of Research Saudioch, good to talk to you- said the hologram -I hope that the project is in good condition. The Uzcar bowed. -You can count on it, Senator, I am eternally grateful to you for letting me do this- he said. -I suppose you are putting the finishing touches, right? -Of course, I think the wormhole will be ready for tomorrow -Excellent, General Vankalian going to inspect this evening, peace and prosperity- and Aranelia cut the transmittance.

Sadioch was very proud, Vankalian, generally of a thousand battles, would go there specifically for his project, sent by the only Great Senator, the dream of every scientist Uzcar. Send a message to all the engineers working at the station, ordering up the pace, soon be over. Soon a network of wormholes connect all Federation colonies and ships could move freely, the limits of time and space disappear soon, be overcome by the intelligence of a Uzcar, all allowed by the strange cristal which the Senate ordered him to study, the Drodonian Gold. But soon a dark thought Sadioch invaded the mind. If something went wrong? If the federation had another crisis like the Elipsion Complex? No, calculations were accurate, but just in case put on display all his calculations, would review them one by one.

Meanwhile, Vankalian on his ship approached the station, he had nothing bad happen asegurarce was something important. Just for routine, a squad of Steel Soldiers accompanied him, was boring twenty hours travel unaccompanied, but did not need Vankalian could care for himself. But his wife, Aranelia, required to follow the rules, so he was forced to travel in a very slow Conqueror, with all the elegance possible.

Drodo Prelude
Cesterity was bored, but did not let his crew see it,

For a few weeks now his ship, the Impaler 2, patrolled the space around the wormhole, along with a few other Drodo vessels. He heard of some news that the wormhole was almost finished - something that the Captain was very excited about.

"I can finally get back to..." he thought;

"to what? There's been nothing but petty pirate raids ever since the Two Unions' War five years ago, so I suppose this butt-numbingly boring job is better than none at the moment."

Almost as if on queue, one of his crewmembers pulled him out of his thoughts;

"Sir,"

"Yes?"

"Its ready."

Drakodominatus Prelude
Drakodominatus Prelude The Drakodominatus Fleet “Vrichtfaust” was in hyperspace transit, along the Norma arm of the Milky Way. Colonization efforts were going along well, with a dozen systems already under Drakodominatus control after only a year of one expeditionary fleet going through the Milky Way. These planets were being convereted to bastions and outposts, while asteroids and planets were consumed by the Nanoswarm to create raw materials. Overall, the colonization effort and the mission of the Expeditionary Force were going along splendidly.

The Admiral of the expeditionary force, Vitaze Nasdtzectht suddenly was called to attention by his adjutant.

“Sir, it has recently come to my attention that one of our informants in this area has knowledge of a certain substance or material that can provide an amount of power generation that surpasses even that of antimatter matter annihilation, he said that it belonged to a nation called the Drodo Empire which inhabits some of the Norma arm of this galaxy, he says it is by this very material that a wormhole has been created between this galaxy and the Kraw galaxy, Should we do anything?” the adjutant reported,

A rare smile graced the jaded face of Vitaze Nasdtzectht, and he simply said “have some of the expeditionary force, turn course for the wormhole, capital ships only check weapons,put the shields up and use the Space Transatic Analyzer to pinpoint the locations of all other forces in the area I want guns blazing as soon as we exit hyperspace, relay this message to all the other ships.

At this, the fleet, composed of everything from 15km Star Dreadnaughts and Carriers and nanobots changed course for the wormhole.

“Prepare for battle” Vitaze Nasdtzectht stated

Contact
The world shook. Brutes were pushed to the ground and took time to get up, while regular Mag'heli had the prescence of mind to grab onto something. Several still were thrown around the ship, and one even managed to impale herself upon a spike protruduing from a Brute's back, to the Brute's great amusement. Once things settled, Brutes began barking orders, demanding to know what was occuring. People scurried from place to place, desperate to find out what. Yelling of status reports filled the room, so much that few were distinguishable from the rest. The reports mainly went along the lines of "Damage is superficial at best!" and "Engines are disabled! Wait, no, they just stalled.". Eventually Kur'kloc thought to check the scanners his deceased friend was no longer watching, and sp he discovered what had occured. "Scanners show we've been surrounded by a giant ring structure. They must have attacked us, causing the shaking!" he stated, quietly so as to avoid drawing attention to himself. Somebody must have hurd him, as a booming voice, which all recognised as that of Old Scarclaw called out. "Fire on the ring!"

Another trouble with wormhole
Vankalian got off his ship in the hangar space station, should see Sadioch and ensure that the wormhole was ready for use. He walked the corridors of the station accompanied by his faithful companions Steel Soldiers, all was quiet, the only noise came from the cabin where it should be Sadioch. He climbed the magnetic elevator, noting the distance the huge gravitational monster: the wormhole, a chill down his spine as he recalled seeing a spaceship ripped through the wormhole, remembered seeing as a king was espagetizado Macraborg and recalled seeing his brother fall and die on the inside of that hole in space time. Not this time everything would be fine, Sadioc is competent.

In his cabin, Sadioch, was smiling proudly with itself. -Sadioch, sorry to bother you, but I come to supervise the construction of the wormhole- sayed Vankalian when he entered in the cabin. -General, is a pleasure talk with you, you arrived on time to see the activation of the wormhole. -It is ready?- wondered Vankalian -Yes, it is -Can I ask how you managed to do something that many thought impossible? -Of course, we owe it all to this object.- say Sadioch and show to the captain a lead container -It is lead? -Not exactly, is the material which it's into the lead container, a piece of Drodonian Gold. -What is so different from common gold? -This material is a crystal whose electrons revolve in orbits of very high energy so it is very easy to excite, from an excited state to a lower energy electrons released much radiation and the higher the orbit, the less energy is needed to excite the atoms, making it easier to release radiation. -So if we apply some light photons, increase it energy so that release gamma rays. -Exactly -How many energy? -Look this equation- and Sadioch show to the general this equation:
 * Ec = W.mc3

Where Ec is the energy released by the glass, mc is the mass of glass and W is the energy applied to it in watts. -Then, with a ton of this material and ten kilowatts of power a city could feed a thousand years ... -Exactly Suddenly, the whole station shook and a beam of light hit hard on the ring where the checkpoint was a monstrous ship emerged from the wormhole, between the sounds of chaos and destruction will hear the clear voice of General Vankalian: -Not again... another trouble with wormhole

Signal
Cesterity ran double shifts on the bridge for a week or so now, as his first officer was on leave. He was ready to fall asleep in his chair when a crewman said;

"Sir, we are picking up a message from the UFS wormhole station-its a distress signal."

Cesterity stood up in his seat, and said cautiously,

"Patch it through."

It was mostly static, but Cesterity could make out some details. They where under attack, which explained a lot more than one would expect, it was from an unspecified enemy, either completly unknown or that detail was drowned out by static, and they where getting hit hard. The signal ended as soon as it started, and Cesterity immediatly started giving orders,

"Helmsman,"

"Yes captain?"

"Set a course for the wormhole-now."

Combat
Plasma fire filled the air as the gun on the Mag'heli raider stutteringly fired wildly on the ring with which it had been confronted. It's firing patterns were wild, and fortunately failed to hit any critical systems. Drodo and USF ships converged on the newcomers location, at first startles by it's appearance, then in an attempt to prevent damage to the ring. Their projectiles rent the hull of their target, spilling many of the Proxy's internal systems into space. A terrified Mag'heli, desperate to survive the flurry of weapons fire upon his ship, activated the engines to full power, throwing the ship forward. As Mag'heli vessel entered the atmosphere of a planet it didn't know existed, around which the ring was orbiting, many of it's engineers who clung still alive to the shattered and torn outer hull of the ship were incinerated and the gun, crudely attached by those engineers, creaked and tore away from the ship, much to the dismay of those brutes who would maintain firing throught atmospheric entry in the hope of hitting something by pure chance.

Discovery
It seemed like overkill, in hindsight. To send such a fleet after one scoutship... No, on second thoughts, it was perfect. If it was the Eranians indeed who had attacked, it would be the perfect excuse to attack them with diplomatic impunity, and just what the government had wanted for years now. Controller M'kras was sat at the head of the bridge of the raider "Mourn". Each Mag'heli vessel had a captain to act as a mouthpeice. He was, in fact, controlled by the Brutes, who were in turn controlled by the aptly named "Controllers", who were assigned by the government and usually remained hidden amongst the masses of crewmen. Who would then suspect the captain, who was supposed to be himself controlled, to be the controler? It mattered little, regardless. He turned his focus back to the matter at hand, the search for the missing scoutship.

All readings appeared normal, save for a minor amount of radiation in what should be a vacuum. The last known location of the proxy lent no trace, the engine trace stopped abruptly. M'kras cringed as he felt a disturbance in the connection patterns between the fleets ships. Like something had been suddenly severed from the connection. He closed his eyes and focused, a dreadnought had dissapeared? His concentration was broken by the voice of a new slave who had yet to be shown proper respect. "There was just a major increase in radiation from coordinates 3,5,2 from here...". M'kras swiftly "Brutes, punish the recruit for not calling me sir, then pilot a raider to that area to see what happens". The nearest brute to the recruit simply picked her up by the head in it's massive groping hand and carried her off screaming, while another Mag'heli issued orders to another raider as he was instructed.

As a second Mag'heli vessel simply dissapeared in a bright flash of light, and a spatial distortion, the Mag'heli energy sensors went off the scale. Excited murmurings went through the crewmembers of each ship in the fleet, each one quietly hoping this odd phenomenon could be somehow weaponised, and the pseudo-officers hushed in anticipation of whether or not the raider would somehow return. When finally it did, in yet another flash, they were amazed indeed. "It's a gate... I think, maybe some kind of teleporter" was the message they recieved from the ship that returned. After a moments contemplation, M'kras realised the implications. A gate meant something on the other side. That meant land, which meant new opportunities to expand the Dominion, as the Government and high controllers had been unable to do for decades. If he could secure some territory there, he would doubtless be promoted to command of a major colony at least. Rather than thousands of people to torture, he would have millions. After a moments contemplation of the possibilities, he ordered all ships to enter the gate.

Several parsecs away, inside a Eranian Ravager class combat ship, Mikios Jertar watched as the sensors fed him the exact data he had been told he would. Minor gamma radiation increases, free electrons where there should be none, and dissapearing Mag'heli vessels. He had found the wormhole gate, exactly as predicted. His second in capacity asked for instructions to give his fleet. Mikios hastily replied "Wait ten seconds for the Mag'heli to start a fight, then ten minutes, given it'll take us twenty minutes to arrive at the gate, any hostile resistance on the other side should be weakened or eliminated by the time we arrive. We'll gather Kerrata's 'Scientific data' then, after making sure the other side is safe."

Scape
Vankalian ran through the halls followed Sadioch and his men were under attack. -Steels, take each one sector to evacuate workers, Drodo help them. Afnai, I leave you in charge- ordered Vankalian -And you, sir?-say Afnai -I must to do something, Sadioch you came with me Vankalian and Sadioch ran alongside the hangar and climbed into his personnal hunter. Once there, called the Senate. -Senator, I have the packet, I'm going to the refuge with Sadioch in the sector Gamma.

Sadioch and Vankalian jumped into hyperspace route to a desert planet hundreds of parsecs away, coming out of hyperspace speed was such that Vankalian could not avoid crashing into a ring of asteroids plummeting on a desert of the planet. With the ship in pieces, the two survivors crossed on foot the huge desert, the scorching heat and lack of water caused Sadioch fainted a few miles of walking. Vankalian, on the other hand, was a well prepared physically Giomb, so had no trouble to withstand fatigue and lack of water, so we had to carry the Uzcar on his shoulders. In a couple of hours, Sadioch woke up. -What happend?- say a weak Sadioch -You fainted- answer Vankalian, who was sitted in a chair -Me? -Yes, your specie cannot survive a lot of time without water -Well... thanks -Don't worry, is my job In thats moment Sadioch answer itself what happend if he don't be too important for the Federation, Vankalian would have saved him?, was silence.

-Where are we?- Sadioch broke the silence -In a secret base of the Federation Sadioch observed the place, it appeared uninhabited for centuries. -Well, you don't take care it -The Shadow Regimient established that almost a year, was never used, but has the technology to make us survive for a few days to reset the ship and the report of the Federation or Drodo where we are. -Why?-sayed a thoughtful Vankalian -Why what? -Why you are so important for Aranelia -Well...-The Uzcar look the stolid face of his interlocutor- I have in my possesion a code, a secret code which the Senate want to active the wormhole -The wormhole is actived -Not quite, the wormhole is unstable in less than a week it will close

Vankalian woke up of his chair and drew Bertranian, his blaster fusil, pointed to Sadioch and say: -Don't move...- the flash flooded the room

Aggression
Cesterity was soon within the vicinity of the wormhole, it was worse than he thought, the attacker has apparently already taken control of the wormhole. Ships surrounded the wormhole and the nearby planet, it didn't take sensor readings for the Captain to know that they where not UFS ships, he gave the command;

"Hail them."

The ship's captain had yet to respond, but he knew that they, whoever "they" where, could hear him;

"This is Fleet Captain Cesterity of the Drodo Empire, what in good god do you think you're doing?"

After a moments pause, M'kras called a Brute to him. He had to feign that each thing he said was the instructions from a higher power, and had the brute act as a mouthpiece for that illusiory power. He activated the comms channel and repeated the words as they were muttered to him by the Brute.

"This is Slave Taskkeeper M'kras, and i see no reason to inform you of my nation. I am following the orders i have been set, which is to expand our territories. By any means neccessary. Your gateway doubtless leads to an area of space in which we are unknown. Provided we retain anonymity, we are able to do whatever we wish."

He paused a moment, conversed with the brute, then continued

"I reccomend you leave this place, "Fleet captain Cesterity of the Drodo Empire", for it is lost to you and you shall not reclaim it. This land is ours now.".

Cesterity glared for a moment, and said;

"Its yours when I say its yours, we aren't giving this place up so easily. Now I believe you and your little playmates better turn around and set a course home, you hear? This piece of the galaxy is ours."

A crewman turned to face Cesterity;

"Sir, do we open fire?"

"No, but shields up, I have a feeling their response will be by fire rather than by words."

M'kras paused a moment, and a Brute, remarkebly quietly for one of their kind, instructed the slave crew to begin targeting the Drodo ships, and to fire at will as M'kras kept their attention on talking.

"I am sure we can come to some form of agreement" he said over the coms, "You may decide what you wish in exchange for this meagre fragment of the galaxy at your leisure. Although i would first ask what about it is so valuable that you would take up arms to retain control of it?"

Cesterity was suprised by the sudden inhostility in the alien's voice, he had some sense that it might be a trap of some kind, but went along with it nonetheless;

"Why this 'meagre fragment of space' is so important is classified, you're going to have to find that out by prying the information from my cold, dead, hands."

"Sir, they have weapons locked on to us!" A nervous ensign exclaimed.

"Steady, steady... don't overreact to the situation," Cesterity said calmly.

"there weapons probably aren't that strong." He added,

"...Or they could blow us apart!" The ensign said again

"Maybe, but we'll just have to wait and see..." Cesterity said slowly, running thin on patience.

The ensign gulped, "Yes, sir."

M'kras sighed. So much for that idea. He thought a moment, realising combat so near the gate, which must be this ring, could close their only route back to Mag'heli territory. He paused a moment, ordered a single automated dreadnought to break off and return to Mag'heli territory, and relay it's data logs along with a message to the controller of the nearest planet it could find. He gave orders to meneuver ships to close the gap that dreadnought left, and more importantly to bring his ship to the back where it was less likely to be fired upon, all these ordered were relayed through the brutes of course, then made the brutes re-iterate the order to fire. He was surprised it had taken so long for his subordinates to do so, usually they are eager to kill something when given the chance.

"Classified... That means important, that means worth taking... Well, i'll find out soon enough" were the last words to go through the comms channel before it went dead.

Cesterity swore under his breath when the comm turned off, he finally gave the order;

"Open fire!"

Confusion
The Eranian ship maintained a safe distance from the wormholes location, watching for any signs of activity. Mikios had long since grown bored and was discreetly playing a pre-Eranian Exodus video game on a nearby panel. The silence was total, as there was little communication needed unless something were to change. Said silence was short lived, however, as the wormhole opened, disgorging a large, crude, bulky Mag'heli dreadnought which immediately sped off as fast as it could, which was relatively slowly, towards Dominion territory. Mikios spoke mostly to himself, his eyes never lifting from his game. "Hrm, that's either a messenger or the only survivor of a battle combat. I can never tell if anything made by Mag'heli is damaged... Either way, it means there's something of interest on the other side. Either a battleground or something worth sending a message regarding." He then looked to his second in capacity. "Get us through the gate. Full speed, all weapons primed. Be ready to fire at a moments notice. We aren't an armada like they were, just a science vessel and a really, really heavily armed escort. Best be ready for a fight, we'll lose if we aren't.". The second in capacity raised an eyebrow, as Mikios's speech patterns were slightly less percise than an Eranian and many of their kind have trouble comprehending people whom make grammatical errors. He worked out what he had been ordered, however, and moved to make it so.

The world flashed brightly as the wormhole light seeped even through the hull of the Eranian ships, and radiated throught the rooms. The light was brief, if almost blinding in contrast to the relative darkness that was there before, and the crew quickly regained their bearings, only to lose them again as the ship was rocked by an explosion just off the prow of their hull, and metallic debris crashing against it. "What was that?" requested approximately a quarter of the crew simultaniously. A single Eranian, a veteran of two Mag'heli battles and expert psychologist and technologist was the only person to respond to the question. "We appear to be in the midst of a combat zone, the combat is between Mag'heli vessels and numerious unidentified ones. I believe there to be a minimum of three unidentified organisations present, We are also surrounded by a large ring-like structure which none of the involved organisations seem willing to damage".

Assumption
Cesterity has since accustomed to the shaking of the vessel, it simply a matter of balance, but what you feel emotonally never changes, and is always hard to get used to. Over the explosions and shaking, he heard one of his subordonates say something;

"More ships coming through the wormhole, sir!"

"Damn it!" He exclaimed,

"Open fire on them too!"

"But sir, they don't share the same signat-"

"Do it!" Cesterity insisted, afterwards, he saw the ship-to-ship railguns turn around, and light up as they rapidly fired metre-long projectiles at the alien ships.

The initial salvo refracted off the Eranian millitary shielding, but the almost crystalline shielding almost buckled under the strain of withstanding it. The sole science ship within the Eranian fleet fared much worse, it's shields could not withstand the Drodo weaponary and the projectiles shredded it's hull, leaving huge scathing wounds in the ship which left the crew exposed to the void of space, killing them all, a similar fate befell multiple pilots of "Ghost" ships, leaving only two remaining.

The Eranians were startled at the sudden attack, and failed to respond. Mikios was himself confused, but resolved to use what little knowledge he had at his disposal to it's fullest potential. He peered over the shoulders of those observing the various sensory arrays which his ship carried, and placed his finger upon a specific point on a projection of the ring upon one of the pilot's screens, leaving his finger hovering an inch above the sensitive touchscreen. "We are to dock here, by force if neccessary. Keep weapons primed, it's right next to what is according to this projection a critical system. Hopefully they'll know if they don't let us dock we'll fire, taking out the ring, which according to Mr Etar", at this point he guestured to the Eranian whom had spoked previously "they don't want to happen. I want all our other ships docking anywhere else they can, or providing cover for those that are docking. Also, don't use any shieldsteel antimatter rockets, they're liable to hit one of our ships."

Cesterity was on the edge of his seat, something he'd soon regret as he was thrown to the floor with a resounding thud,

"Ow!"

He soon got up, and wiped some blood from his face.

"Report!"

"That last hit has a big one, sir! Our shields are down and they breached deck five!" An officer at ops soon reported.

"Sir! More reports coming in! Those new ships are boarding the ring!"

Cesterity's eyes widened, he ordered;

"Fire boarding pods at the effected levels, I want marines on that station! After your done, pull this ship back."

"Yes sir!" the officer reported, he was not at all surprised when the captain also said he was going, he was a good warrior.

Defence
Cesterity got suited up, and grabbed his X8-36 assault rifle. He soon met up with the other soldiers in the drop pods. The small pod shifted as it left the ship, and set a course for the ring. Thirty seconds passed, and the sharpened spike at the front of the pod penetrated the hull. The spike opened, allowing the troops to go through. Cesterity looked around, it was a fairly large room, with some heavy crates that could be used as cover, there was turbolift at the end of the room, allowing access to the "upper" levels. Cesterity began barking orders;

"I need those crates facing that door, once your done, set up machine guns on them!"

It took all of five minutes, strategically-placed machine guns had every angle covered on the only entrance, and Cesterity had his assault rifle clenched in his grip, not knowing what could come through that door. He concentrated.

Soon, the unknown enemy was slowly cutting through the door with a blowtorch-like device, there was some audible rustling and guns cocking, but besides that, nothing. Cesterity was pumped with adreneline, he knew this was it, the moment. He slowly turned the safety off. Seconds later, a group of battle armor clad, humanoid soldiers came out of the gap. Cesterity did not waste time, he squeesed the trigger at the same time as three machine guns whaled on the attackers, many fell prey to the relentless automatic fire, but many where still left, taking cover. One popped out of cover and executed a perfect shot to the shoulder against Cesterity. He felt a stinging sensation as he fell to the ground.

"AAAH!" Cesterity screamed as he crawled back into cover, he quickly pulled out a pistol.

"You alright sir!?" A marine exclaimed as he fired another burst at the aliens.

"I'm alright." The Captain responded through breaths.

The gunfire stopped abruptly,

"We've... won. Oh my god we've won!" A rookie marine said with amazement. The marines rejoiced before the comms soldier reported;

"Not so fast, I'm getting reports of other decks being under attack, too. On most of them, we're losing."

Cesterity struggled to his feet;

"We should support elsewhere, we've won here..."

For the first time, Cesterity looked down at his wound, it was a bad burn, he quietly said to himself;

"...and besides, they have a few debts to pay."

Footsteps echoed throught the steel halls of the ring, teams of soldiers running to their positions, desperately trying to survive or protect, or simply to deny their foes survival. Captain Mikios Jertar signalled his team to stop as he heard another patrol nearing his location. He had lost three men and women to ambushes, and it would be pointless to lose another, and it would be a very bad idea to alert them to his location this close to his destination. He waited, tense with anticipation as the footsteps approached then slowly, tantalizingly died away. Once he was certain they were out of earshot, he continued on, determined to reach the ring's control center.

The halls seemed endless, each one exactly like the next, with no progress being made. Mikios was bored of the repetitiveness, and needed something to happen. As the soldier at the front of his group, a man in an "Vespid" battlesuit as it was all he could find in time, was riddled with bullets after turning a corner before his eyes, he knew he had found that change he wanted. He stopped cold, Whatever was around that corner was deadly, how to destroy it without knowing what it was? Voices rang through the hallway, just around the corner, but without his universal translator he did not know what was said, but he could certainly place their location. He removed a grenade from his belt... He only had one chance, as he only had one grenade. Othewise, he'd be unable to pass this corridor without being cut down by bullets. He stuck his hand around the cornet, and blindly threw the grenade down the hallway. Bullets whirled, but none hit his hand. He heard a scream, and an explosion, then silence. That was enough to satisfy him, although in honesty it would probably alert half the facility to the fact they were so close to the control center... He thought, anyway. As he turned the corner, he braced himself for death, and finding it was not yet coming for him, he looked down the hallway. A five man squad, all dead. One held a still-smoking gatling gun of some kind. Mikios paused, dropped his weapon, and picked up the gatling gun, which he assumed to be the one which killed his teammate.

Meeting
The two guards never knew what had hit them, their chin, necks and extended asophagi being melted an instant in under a second. They collapsed to the ground, unable to scream without voiceboxes. Mikios and his squad, now numbering six soldiers, only two of whom had managed to don their battlesuits before disembarking from their ship. He quickly took a atomic cutter from his belt, and began cutting through the door to the control room. Two of his squadmates, the two with battlesuits (Both Ursine pattern) stood ready to burst through the door once it was open and slay those inside, while the remaining three stood watch for passing patrols. Once the door was open, the battlesuit soldiers simply stepped through the door and systematically shot down any Drodo they saw. "Okay, Perstal, get a data transfer unit onto those computers. We need to find out the science of these wormholes, that's out mission. Anything else is secondary"

Cesterity was crouched behind cover when the entire room was lit up by blaster fire. They won that fight. He looked around, the door out of the room was too far away, he would be cut down. So, he looked behind him;

"I'll have to hide," He thought to himself, he soon found a access panel large enough for him to fit inside.

He looked behind his shoulder, a soldier was just rounding the corner when he quickly jumped out of his vision.

"Huh?" The soldier questioned as he stood still for a moment, before returning to patrols.

Cesterity was cramped inside of the small alcove. But through a small slit in the panel, he could see that what he assumed was their leader was coming close to his location. He silently slid the panel off, pulled out his pistol, and put the cold barrel up to his head. He said;

"Stop."

Mikios stopped in his tracks as he felt the cold, hard metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of his skull. He sighed heavily, and put both hands up.

"How many damn guards does one room need?" he muttered under his breath, before saying

"Alright, you got me. I'm leader of this whole science vessel escort. You probably have a lot of questions to ask. You won't shoot" He said aloud, without turning.

He knew he had to keep whomever was behind him distracted while Perstal can attach the data compiler and then escape. If the information is returned to the Collective, he'll have fufilled his usefulness. He quickly ordered his four squadmates to stand down and not fire upon their presumed foe.

"Look, we aren't trying to kill anybody, hell, we'd try for peaceful negotiations if we got a chance. We just want the data we came for, then we're willing to leave"

Cesterity looked up at his foe with contempt. He had a lot of questions that needed answering;

"So I'm guessing your one of M'kras' subordinates, hmm?" He tightened his grip on his pistol, a soldier was going to step forward, when Cesterity said;

"One step, and your leader's head will be a fine, red mist!"

He slowly stepped back.

Shattering
M'kras paced aggravatedly as he issued orders. These aliens and their ships showed no signs of relenting, and their weapons fire were taking their toll on the Mag'heli fleet. Already two of his six dreadnoughts had fallen, and his raiders had fallen into chaos after the Eranian Collective's arrival. One ship had even gone so far as to mutiny, which was fairly common place in as chaotic a battle as the one taking place. That ship was now little more than debris, and it's treacherous crew mere ashes floating through the celestial void. When the Collective arrived, he had nigh collapsed from fear, as he knew that the foolish Eranians could identify them, and he knew full well the consequences of identification in this matter. He had to stop them, and he knew how. Each and every Eranian present was on the ring. Destroy that, and they are no longer a threat. He issued the order, and immediately all four remaining dreadnoughts opened fire on critical areas of the ring, hoping to shatter it.

Mikios was thrown to the ground as the floor beneath him violently shuddered. He scrambled for his weapon, and, having grabbed it, aimed it at the man who had a moment ago placed the barrel of a gun to his head, and stood slowly. The room shuddered and shook a second time, and he asked his subordinates for a explanation as to the cause. A short, stocky Eranian in a "Ursine" battle suit answered. "It appears that the entire ring structure is thus effected. The most likely scenario is that kinetic weapons have been directed at the structure. These weapons would almost certainly be easily capable of shattering the ring, which would undoubtedly lead to our own death. I reccomend we evacuate the structure immediately". Mikios agreed, and lowered his weapon. Mikios instructed the soldier in the Ursine battlesuit to send a evacuation signal to all other Eranians on the ring, then proceeded to leave.

Just before exiting the room, he stopped. He did not know the inner structure of the ring, and could easily wander the labyrinthine halls for hours prior to locating his ship. It was doubtful he had over ten minutes in which to make his escape. He turned to the man who was a moment ago his foe. "Look, i don't have a map of this facility, and i know you do. I don't have time to guess the way out, either, and you don't have time to fight my men. I propose we work together until we are off this ring. You show us the way back to our ships, or i'll order every Eranian here to do anything they can to stop your troops escaping. That's hundreds of deaths you could've stopped.". He knew, innately, he would not give such an order. It didn't benefit him, and frankly he just wasn't malicious enough. He hoped his opponant believed his bluff, because otherwise he would likely die.

Cesterity looked contemplatently into his opponant's eyes, while casually holding his pistol in his grip. He then said;

"I suppose we'll have to work together, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', as the old saying goes."

He raised his arm, and pulled back his trenchcoat's sleeve to reveal a wrist-pad, he pressed the touch-screen a few times to reveal a map,

"I advise that we move to Deck 5, its closest and one of your ships are there, now move!"

The group started to run across the halls when Cesterity felt a stinging sensation, the stim-pack he took earlier was starting to wear off. That wound was going to slow him down again.

"Take a right!" He said, afterwards he felt a considerably worse sting, he sucked it up, and kept moving.

They got to where the ship was when the Captain couldn't take it anymore;

"OWW!"

He clenched his shoulder, and fell to one knee, a few of the aliens stayed back and looked,

"Go," Cesterity said, they stayed, ready to bring him with them if there leader desired,

"I said, GO!!!"

He shot up into the air, and before he lost consieousness, he heard there commander say;

"Leave him."

He fell to the floor with a thud..

Mikios had made the plan near instantaniously. This captain appeared to hate the Collective because they entered his species territory, and that hatred might lead him to wage a more open war with the Collective. If he died, then whomever his species sent to this area of space as a replacement might be more friendly towards the collective, as he did not desire a war. Frankly though, if the new leader wasn't it didn't concern him anyway. The mission was complete, and it was time to return to Teros. The ring shook again, and the walls creaked loudly. It was very much time to return to Teros.

Cesterity woke up a minute later, he moaned as he got up, his arm was killing him. Just as he got up, the nearby shuttlecraft exploded;

"Holy crap!"

He dropped to the floor, and quickly got up and ran to the debris, he found something worth of interest;

"No way!"

It was a stim-pack, he immediatly grabbed it, and drove it into his burnt shoulder, it started working immediatly. That was a good thing, too, as the entire station shook violently, he stayed on his feet, and ran for another hangar, before being confronted by a massive hulk of steel and flesh, he stood there for a few seconds;

"Oh what in fresh-"

The attacker didn't give him time to respond, he slammed him a good fifteen feet back across the hall, Cesterity barily felt anything thanks to the stim-pack, he got up and wiped some blood from his mouth. He continued to fire several shots at his target, the distinctive K-CRACK! of the handgun echoed across the corridor, but to no avail. He slowly walked toward him, Cesterity sprinted the other way, and got to a door to a hangar, he quickly put his gun in his holster, and quickly put in a code on the touch-screen panel it said in a calm, computer voice;

"Access Denied."

"No... NO!" Cesterity cried as his impending doom came closer.

"Come on..."

"Access Denied."

"Damn it!" He exclaimed, he simply took several steps back, and sprinted at the door, he jumped, and tackled the door.

It broke open, the Attacker was getting impatient, it simply sprinted at the terrified Captain, he ran for the shuttle, randomly firing backwards, the machine shot it out of his hand, and shot Cesterity in the side of the tail.

"Ouch!" He kept on running, seconds felt like hours as he finally got into the shuttle, and so did the attacker. He slowly turned around;

"Oh...No."

The attacker grabbed Cesterity by the neck and drove him against the wall of the shuttle, which had long since left the dying station.

The brute tightened the grip around Cesterity's throat. The Captain watched as the the monstrosity's face went from a sick, twisted smile, to a surprised, furious complexion to a blank, pale face. Cesterity had shoved a wrist-blade into his gut. A sea of blood and gore poured from his lower torso. He twisted his wrist, and pulled his hand free. It was thick with blood. The brute released its grip, and fell to the floor. Cesterity, breathing heavily after his ordeal, landed the craft in the Impaler 2's hangar, two Drodoian Marines came through the now open door. One asked;

"Are you alright sir?"

"Yeah... I'm alright." He once again drifted out of consiousness as his arm started to hurt chronnicly.

M'kras tapped his foot, impatient. It had been fully fifteen minutes of constant firing upon the ring, by now it should have collapsed. His raiders, who were supplying covering fire to the Dreadnoughts as they systematically demolished the ring, were slowly repeatedly hammered by the enemy ships. He wondered exactly how many ships these aliens had at their disposal. Frankly, the majority of raider's captains were so caught up in the heat of battle that giving orders was by now pointless. The neural implant with which he controlled the brutes and dreadnoughts sent a message, indicating the dreadnought's target had been destroyed. He ordered a nearby Mag'heli to make the main display show the ring, and he saw it. The ring had shattered into five pieces, which then broke into thirteen, and then more. But one sight there infuriated him. Eranian ships pulling away. He cursed loudly, and ordered all fire to be directed at the Eranian ships.

On the ground of a nearby planet, several Mag'heli sat, recovering from injuries they had sustained when the Proxy crashed upon the planet. The planet was deserted as far as they could see, leaving them to fend for themselves. B'nee had discovered that the brutes had been disabled, all disconnected from their controller, who had presumably died in the crash, crushed by several tons of mettalic hull or burnt to a crisp during atmospheric entry. The remaining Mag'heli were ecstatic about their newfound freedom, but at a loss as to what to do with it given their situation. After a chain of command had been established via a series of arguements in which several of Kur'kloc's opponents found themselves without skulls, or bodies for that matter, scouts were sent out to survey the area and to search for food. There was little else to do except wait for them to return, scavenge the wreckage, and torment the unconcious bodies of the disconnected brutes.

Intruder
Sadioch opened his eyes, was alive, definitely alive, sweating from every pore of his body, his muscles were taut, his pupils dilated. He looked Vankalian was as impassive as ever but was a bit agitated, pointing his rifle on his shoulder, he had not attacked him. Slowly he turned his head, everything seemed to move in slow motion, he lay unconscious next to a humanoid creature, very muscular and horrible. -What it's that?-asked Sadioch -I don't know, but we will find it- answer Vankalian as he lifted the unconscious intruder soil.

So within minutes, the creature was bound by shackles magnetic, a metal table that was suspended before the general and scientific. Vankalian looked at the face of the creature, this reeked of anger and violence, his muscles were very tense, sharp teeth were yellow and his breath smelled like hell. Sadioch, meanwhile, sat at the desk of the secret base and began to search the computer and drawers something only he knew. Suddenly the creature awoke, his pupils contracted and started screaming and cursing the members of the USF.

-We'll have to reassure our friend- say Sadioch as he covered his ears. -Yes, have we some soothing? -No, every already spoiled, but I find some Apatic Serum -Ok, how much time I have once you apply it? -I could not tell you, his biological structure is different than I've ever seen, I can't predict which effects will the gas -Ok, I run the risk Sadioch injected the beast with a purple substance and after a few seconds your muscles relaxed and his pupils dilated, the creature seemed to be totally different. -Well, ugly- started to say Vankalian- you owe us some explanations, who are you and where you come from? -My name is B'naan, I am a crewmember of the ship Proxy, of the glorious Mag'heli Domain and I come from the galaxy Kraw- sayed the creature with a rough voice. -Sadioch...-sayed Vankalian -Yes, it's true, I have information about this galaxy- informed Sadioch -Right, how you arrived here? -A powerfull gravitational field absorved us and launched us against a ring-shaped structure, intuitively we attacked it -So you was who attacked our command post -We have to expand our territories, the Eranian Collective hasn't let us do it since many years- whispered B'naan, as his muscles began to tighten -General...- sayed Sadioch -Wait... you are better warriors, why do you don't fight with them? -Because... their technology, we can destroy them if we have a better power source With each word, B'naan regained its normal state, but that did not bother Sadioch and Vankalian, because they remembered that planet on which they were, in most Drodonian gold reserve in the known universe. -Are there more survivents? -Yes, the Domain will come here to pick us at any time -Only one question more, Do you know what is the Drodonian Gold? -What?- sayed B'naan between grunts -General!- sayed Sadioch but it was late, the creature jump to attack Vankalian, immediatly Sadioch pulled a button and the magnetics shackles joined back to the metal table, Vankalian taked his rifle and shot to the creature -Sadioch, send a message to the Federation, we will have company...

Aftermath
Cesterity opened his eyes, and quickly lifted himself up, breathing heavily. He was in a loose medical robe. The Captain had a few questions;

"Lieutenant, where am I?"

"Your in med-bay sir."

He heard some mechanical whirring, there wasn't anything in the room that would make that noise. He asked;

"Where's that whirring coming from, Lieutenant?"

He simply pointed to his left arm, Cesterity slowly turned his head, not knowing what to expect, his gaze finally set upon a hefty, bionic arm. A giant, glowing smile slowly spread across his face. He then turned to a Uzcar doctor;

"Wait a second, why?"

"I could of repaired that blaster wound, any doctor could, but those 'stim-packs' of yours sealed the deal, they're toxic. So, I had to amputate the arm." She said simply while cleaning her instruments.

"Hmph, okay." He quickly put on his uniform and returned to the bridge, they had since pulled back from the wormhole, it was a lost cause. But he swore he would retake it. In the meantime, the Impaler 2 was regrouping with the rest of the fleet. He contacted the Drodo Empire and the UFS a few hours ago, they where at war. They where setting up a defensive barrier in the neighbouring system. The enemy couldn't go around the system, as there was a ion nebula on one side, and a black hole field on the other side, it was a bottleneck. The loss of another Drodoian Gold-rich planet was not an option.

Grounded
The crew of the proxy were utterly bored. Several fights had erupted between them in order to stave off the boredom, which invariably ended in the excruciating and bloody death of one or more crewmembers. The scouts had yet to return and until they did there were few other methods of entertainment available. A the sound of footsteps was suddenly heard from beyond a small hill, over which seven Mag'heli ran, firing their guns behind them. Pursuing these Mag'heli were a group of blue, horned and armored humanoids who carried relatively fancy looking weapons. One of the fleeing Mag'heli dragged a bloodied pink humanoid with small antlers along by the arm, the other one of which had been removed. The crew of the Proxy had grabbed their own weapons within seconds, and fired upon the blue humanoids. As the blue humanoids were cut down, some began to flee, and while most were cut down some very few escaped.

Kur'kloc viciously grabbed the pink humanoid by the antlers, so viciously it accidentally snapped it off. He threw the humanoid to the ground and pressed the barrel of his gun to the creature's skull. He could see that the humanoid was on the verge of death, so asked one question.

"Who are you".

The creature responded in a soft tone, "I will not reveal my identity to one such as you... Your kind do not deserve the Drodoian gold, and you will never have it".

Kur'kloc was insulted. He had been in power of the ship for a very short time, but he was already mad with it. In his fury at the creatures defiance, he tore through it's ribcage in an attempt to rip out it's heart, and found a lung which he tossed aside in disgust. The trauma had killed the creature. and he found no joy in tearing out the heart of a creature he had already killed, and so dropped it's limp corpse and left it to his men. He stopped to contemplate what the pink-skinned being had said. He does not deserve the Drodoian gold... If that creature thought that his crew wanted the gold, that meant it was worth taking. He had decided, he would rally his soldiers and take this gold from the hands of this new species, and maybe form his own Dominion once he was done. One where he wouldn't be oppressed and commanded and pushed around. Everybody else... Maybe they would be oppressed, but not him!

Implications
Cesterity thought back to the day before, there was a lot to think about. And a lot of questions that needed answering;

"What did M'kras say when he said, 'I'll find out soon enough'? Did he mean..."

He looked down at his biological arm, the scars where still there the last time he was tortured, five years ago.

"No, of course not."

Many more thoughts and questions clouded his mind, but he didn't get time to think about it, when a crewman said;

"Sir! Multiple ships incoming! They match M'kras's fleet!"

Cesterity got out of his chair and walked a few steps forward, he said;

"Gentlemen, prepare for war."

M'kras was glad. The prescence of enemy ships at this galactic bottleneck proved that there was something of value beyond. His reinforcements had arrived shortly after the ring's destruction, along with controller Tu'rak. After a lengthy discussion, Tu'rak had remained behind to maintain control of the wormhole and to take control of the nearest planet, but had sent his forces, along with M'kras and his ship, further into enemy territory to expand the dominion and colonise any habitable planets seen. Even if they were already inhabited. The enemy ships had their weapons already trained on his fleet, it mattered little. He issued his intructions, relayed through the brutes. He had to be careful with how he did so, for he knew that Tu'rak had a very different vocabulary to him, and the brutes under his control would likely also have a different (If similarly crude) dictionary. But the orders were relayed. None of his crew of the crews of the nearby fleets appeared to notice, and they opened fire. He sent a contingent of raiders to land on the planet these aliens seemd to be defending. It seemed habitable enough, and if not it would be fun to watch the raider's crews die trying to inhabit it.

Orders
Mikios had gotten lucky. He had escaped with minimal injuries, and half of his crew intact. After severl minutes taking count of the remaining Eranian forces, he had discovered that he had lost half of his "Fleet", including the science ship he had been tasked with protecting, which had taken heavy damage from the initial Drodoian salvo, lost all life support which resulted in the death of the crew, then crashed on the planet below. He took stock of his situation. He had half of a millitary escort squadron, trapped in an area with no access to the Collective's main territories save for a single wormhole held by a considerably large Mag'heli fleet. The other species in the area were neutral towards him... How to survive this mission, he wondered. The ship's second in capacity turned from his discussion with a female corporal to give his report to Mikios. "Sir, we have analysed the data from the ring and discovered how they made the wormhole. The native empires used a resource called "Drodoian gold" to power the wormhole ring. This gold is available on the planet we are currently orbiting. Your orders?".

Teros, a week ago

Mikios stood before the antique computer. A large, black calligraphed "K" on a white background filled the screen. A voice could be heard from it's ancient speakers, terrible in quality but well disguised. "Mikios, i have a task i require you to perform". His response was predictable. "Yeah, i gathered. What task?". The voice proceeded to fill him in on the job, but one phrase stuck in his mind more than any of the others. The voice, Kerrata, put emphasis on that phrase, which stood out extremely given her usual voice was monotonous. That phrase was "Protect the science ship's contents at all cost, you can sacrifice the crew and vessel if neccessary, but the contents must remain intact".

The Milky way galaxy, Now

Mikios recalled those words as he was asked for intructions. He paused a moment, contemplating. Then he gave his orders. "Get retrieval teams onto the planet and retrieve the science vessel. Our mission was to protect it, we failed. We may as well salvage what we can". His second in capacity paused, again struggling to puzzle out Mikios's unusual speech patterns, and then nodded and began relaying those orders throught the "Fleet".

Sequestered in plain sight, Kerrata watched as Mikios gave the exact orders she had wished and anticipated. He had seemed hesitent, she might almost have had to push him in the right direction. That might have compromised her status. It was imperative that the mission go forward, and that required that nobody realised the true identity of the quiet woman who was assigned to monitoring the sensors.

Shadow
The Senate of the federation was in commotion, every one of the senators had been aware of the situation, an unknown race had left the Wormhole and destroyed his command post. This was an outrage, an affront to the military power of the federation, but the Senate preferred not enter a war, especially now that was not Vankalian position to help. -We can't afford it, we must declare war on those foreigners- said the Chibar senator -Without Vankalian?- quipped the Uzcar senator -We must to do something -What about Mask?- said Aranalia -Me?- said a figure out of nowhere, appeared in the center of the Senate -Sir Mask, leader of the Shadow Regiment, you shouldn't be here, after the incident before the Great Ring War- said a Kalixtus senator -I know, my lord, but I couldn't avoid hearing, do you need my help? -Yes, we need you direct an operation to retrieve the Wormhole -I would be pleased- said Mask with a smile

Mask was the leader of the Shadow Regiment, anybody knows his identity, even his specie. He always wore a cloak over the body down to his ankles, a steel mask and armor biomechanics.

Defense
The entire ship shook as Cesterity got lifted out of his chair, and almost fell to the floor;

"They are opening fire sir!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" The Captain quipped as he got back in his seat. Another crewmember reported;

"They are dropping pods and transports down to the surface, sir!"

"Get as many battalions as you can on the ground! I want reinforcements at the forts on the front lines!"

With that, he ran off the bridge, and armed up. They needed a good commander on the ground.

It didn't take long for the dropship to land, Cesterity cautiously stepped off of the transport, before a large explosion landed nearby and threw him, along with a few other Drodoian Marines, like a ragdoll.

He screamed as he ripped through the air for a few seconds, before rolling down a steep hill and crashing into a rock.

"OWW!" He cried as he hit the boulder, he quickly got up, and scrambled for his rifle, only to have it kicked away by a lightly armored alien, about 6 or 7 feet tall, looking him down. He rolled out of the way of a stomp, and quickly got up. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he pulled out his pistol, and shot the enemy in the face.

A marine ran to the exhausted captain;

"You okay, sir?" He asked as he handed him an auto-shotgun.

"I'm alright, where's the nearest base?"

"Firebase Omega, about four kilometres away from here." The marine responded.

"That's walking distance, lets gather up the squad, and mobilize."

Cesterity saw a squadron of enemy troops coming in behind them,

"Come on, lets go, lets go!"

The two Drodo started to sprint away from the hostile squad, and to Firebase Omega.

In his battleship, M'kras almost laughed. These aliens had done exactly as he had expected them to. Focused the battle onto land. In space, it is exceedingly difficult to take captives, and a Mag'heli fleet's morale is entirely reliant on the number of captives acquired. He did not even need to order his troops to take as many captives as possible, as he knew they would do so regardless. He idly had a brute excruciatingly torment then excecute a crewmember who was talking too quietly for his liking, as he plotted his next move. He was once again outnumbered, and this time the enemy had been prepared for him. He had to be cautious or he would likely be killed. He needed to discover what ship was the enemy flagship, and destroy that. Most other alien races were heavily reliant on their command structure, or at least most ones he had encountered before. So that was his first priority

Squad leader Gr'mar was ecstatic. Not only had he been among the first squads to get into combat, but it was with a alien who matched the description of the enemy leader. He wondered how they had discovered his appearance, but it mattered little. They had killed M'nar, but he would have died anyway for running as he did. The commander, he saw, was fleeing. This Gr'mar felt was odd. He issued a single, bellowing order. "KILL THEM!"

"Crap, their firing on- AAH!" The other marine suffered a clean shot in the back, Cesterity ran back to check the soldier's pulse, he swore under his breath when there was nothing. There was no time to mourn or bury his body as the enemies sprinted towards him in a reckless, ecstatic charge, firing their weapons as they ran. A shot narrowly missed his head as he took cover behind a tree.

"They've probably got me surrounded if there's any brains in their skulls,"

He thought to himself. The Captain looked down to his belt, there was two frag granades;

"Oh yeah..." He said out loud. He took one off of his belt, pressed a button and threw it a good 25 metres, it made a small explosion that thrown dirt, shrapnel, and gibbed corpses flying everywhere. Their wasn't enough time to throw the other granade, when he was knocked over by a projectile. He grunted as he fell into the dirt, but relieved when it pinged off of his neosteel shoulder plate. Cesterity quickly scrambled to his feet as a few of his opponents ran closer, he whipped around and ripped one to pieces with a shot from his auto-shotgun. The other, from what he could tell their commander, blasted his hat from his head. The Captain shot at his legs, and caught a glimpse of the enemy soldier fall to his knees. Cesterity ran the opposite way, and over a knoll.

Undercover
-Sadioch we go out from here!- Vankalian shouted from the door Sadioch took from the desk a small crystal size of a grain of rice, placed in a capsule and slung belt. -What is it?- asked Vanklian -The answer to our problems, general Suddenly the ground shook and the door was blocked by a shower of rocks -Heck! They're here, we must find a safe escape route Sadioch pressed a device on his wrist and was projected a hologram of the secret base -The base is Firebase Dordo Omega closest we can get help there -Right, but how we leave? -There is a tunnel complex that would leave us one kilometer of it They toured several tunnels as rocks fell from the ceiling -Sadioch, how far to the exit!? -Fifty metres, turn right and twenty meters more, the gate is above us! Following the directions of the map, surfaced for the worse. Drodo and Mag'heli forces fighting there. Lasers and plasma bullets flying in all directions, and Vankalian Sadioch had to cross enemy territory at the moment. -Well, general, how we attack them? -We don't- said Vankalian to the astonishment of Sadioch -we pass unnoticed among Mag'heli -Alright, general, but how? Vankalian saw a box of ammunition, perfect for cover, and a Mag'heli standing before her, wearing an armor that covered his entire body. -Follow me- murmured Vankalian They approached the box squat, and a movement Vankalian took by the throat and slammed Mag'heli his knife. In seconds he took the armor and put it on, it was almost perfect. -Follow me play- said he to Sadioch while his hands bandaged and covered with dust They crossed the field Mag'heli without problems, the enemy thought he had captured a hostage. -Stop!- said a voice -Heck! we are so close- murmured Vankalian- Yes sir -What are you doing? -I was taking this future slave to the ship -Yes? It is funny because the ship is to the other side -Well... -Ha, don't worry, I do the same thing, is good have a private slave, but if someone discover you, I don't know you Vankalian sighed -It was too close- and retook the way to the Firebase Omega

Persuits
Gr'mar was furious. He had just lost half of his squad in under a minute, along with use of his legs. Only four injured slave troops and a brute remained. The brute was buisy occupying itself by flaying a Drodo marine who had been unfortunate enough to catch the Brutes eye, but Gr'mar was determined to attain retribution on the man who had shot him. After a moments thought he decided the best way to do so was to persue that man, sending the brute in charging over the knoll recklessly the other four Mag'heli circled around to surround the foe. He was hasty regarding this, as he knew that his men would turn on him were his injury to be discovered. He would run, attempt to recover, and at some point in the future attempt to bluff the brutes into thinking he had heroically killed some major commander. Yes, that sounded like a good plan... He would do so. He fled as fast as he could with his injured leg, hobbling away while carrying a unconcious drodo marine over his shoulder, for later entertainment.

Mikios was bored already. His drop pod had landed in the absolute center of a desert, with no buildings, or science vessel for that matter, anywhere in the visible vacinity. After extensively questioning his second in capacity as to the reason for this, he decided the ship must have been moved by another group, most likely those aliens, the "Drodo" as the data retrieved from the ring called them. After having his men in orbit scan the area he discovered that the nearest building they inhabited was to the west. He took up his rifle, briefly proceeded so empty his shoes of sand (Which had managed to already find its way into every gap in his uniform), and ordered his men westward. He would have that science vessel, by force if neccessary.

Controller Tu'rak had remained behind at the wormhole to command the fleet in it's defense. He had done so as he was inconvinced the wormhole was stable and that position gave him the best chance of return to the Dominion should it collapse. He had been told by Controller M'kras that the wormhole was fully secured. Why then were there a dozen Eranian vessels orbiting the same planet as he was? He would not stand for this, and he had to remove them. He ordered no less than twenty raiders to do just that.

Now one of the few remaining crewmembers, Kerrata Terstan had taken the ship she was in out of orbit of the planet the ring had once orbited and now hid upon the planet's moon. She knew the Mag'heli would detect the main "Fleet" of the collective, and knew that said fleet would be destroyed. She had to survive in order to complete her mission, all other objectives were irrelivant. None of the crew knew what had occured, all they knew was that they had detected an odd energy reading on the moon, and had gone to investigate just minutes before their comrades were wiped out by Mag'heli raiders. This was as it shood be. She did her best to make the ship's sensors as finely tunes as possible, and monitored Mikios's movements as best she could. All had gone as was planned, so far. She might not even need to intervene at all.

Finally, entertainment had arrived. Not only entertainment, potential slaves and potential subjects for torture. Not only that, but distinct signs of more to come. The crew of the proxy had happened upon a grey and pale green drop pod of incredibly sophisticated technology. It was clearly Eranian. Footsteps led off to the west. Three thoroughly dissapointed Mag'heli were forced to remain behind to scavenge from the drop-pod as the rest of the crew went to kill the Eranians who had dared to set foot upon their new world

Surrounded
Cesterity thought he was in the clear, that was before he heard footsteps, and bushes rustling;

"Oh crap."

He raised his auto-shotgun, only to be grabbed from the ruff of his furry neck by a brute;

"Hey! Let me friggin' go!"

The opponent had come up from behind, he saw a few others emerge from the bushes and aim their guns at him.

He shot one, only to feel a extreme pain in his tail;

"AAAH!"

The brute threw him down, and laughed slightly, Cesterity pulled out his pistol, and fired;

''K-CRACK! K-CRACK!''

That distracted the brute long enough for him to get away, he quickly dispatched the other two, and ran for his life.

He sat against a tree, he knew it was safe. He pulled out whatever that super-soldier shoved into his tail, it was a knife of some sort, obvieously designed to inflict pain. It was then he realized what kind of monsters he was dealing with;

"I was wrong, these people thrive on pain and suffering, on... on..."

"on torture..."

He stared at the knife with fear, sadness, and anger.

"These people have definatly captured some of my men, I won't let it happen again."

He heard a scream from far away, one of his men, he thought of going back, but that would lead to failure and one less Drodo commander, their will be another time. For now, he had to get to firebase Omega.

Losing pride
Mask left the hyperspace, proud, had at his disposal all a destroyer, a whole fleet. Observed on his radar as enemy ships appeared, were fifty? not a hundred, no matter their technological disadvantage was evident, would be a breeze. Just heard his soldiers asking, screaming, begging, some casualties were not hurt, just win, but a blow was so hard you back to reality, the Mag'heli were too many to them. -Captain, we are bombing the Mag'heli not resist much- said a soldier -Eh ... deviate the energy to shields in front, formation of defense ... prepare the guns. -Capitan, hide behind the rubble of the ring, our shooting fail -Send an expulsion bomb, clean the debris -But sir, they can hurt our ships -Right, deviate the shields in the direction of the explosion -Yes sir! The battle lasted longer than expected, Mag'heli made ​​a lot of resistance but could not withstand the force of federal ships. Mask was proud, finally be more than unfortunate Vankalian, the federation finally forget the mistakes he made in the past, at last. But something was wrong, one of his men froze, something bothered him. -Captain, Mag'heli reinforcements arrive- said weakly The next few seconds went by in slow motion, one by one federal ships were demolished, Mask barely had time to escape into hyperspace with the six ships that had ample. -Dagmage report- said Mask -We lost ninety-four percent of our fleet... and we grasp another ship signal, is similar to that of Drodo sent us Eranian -Send a brigade to inspect It took minutes or hours before they returned the brigade -There aren't supervivents, the ship is abandoned- informed a soldier -but we think it was an investigation ship, there are full of information, I am sending you it. Mask, carefully observed data and smiled: -Interesting... -Captain, get more ships out of hyperspace -Mag'heli? -No, it isn't, I've never seen anything like it -Right, send a diplomatic vessel, may be we will have a new ally

Consistency
The Drakodominatus Fleet exited hyperspace in perfect synchronization, with the giant hyper laser of the Subjugator Class Dreadnought, the super lasers on board, transuranic lances, and the missile weaponry fired all at once. Mag'heli Dreadnoughts were turned into steaming piles of metal while raiders were obliterated. Return fire from the Mag'Heli, accustomed to mostly breaching kinetic barriers, had a tough time penetrating the heavy shields of the Drakodominatus, a demoralizing sight. The admiral of the Drakodominatus fleet simply smiled, and gave the order to completely destroy the enemy fleet. The Mag'heli weapons almost shook themselves loose of the ships as they repeatedly fired upon the Drakodominatus fleet. Yet another species had attempted to encroach upon the Dominions dominance over the wormhole, and Tu'rak wondered exactly how many species wanted the wormhole. Drakodominatus ships were repeatedly pounded by kinetic weapons fire, along with projected energy weapons and even some guns which just projected lethal levels of radiation at it's target. At the same time, nanobots tore apart Mag'heli ships, crewmembers and brutes alike, and many a crewmember or captain died in writhing agony as their skin was slowly torn away by tiny mechanical droids. Dreadnoughts were obliderated in antimatter explosions and simple rockets destroyed raiders at an incredible pace. These foes were much stronger than any faced before. Tu'rak would not stand for it, and gave the order for a tactical retreat in order to lay a minefield that would cripple the Drakodominatus.

In the few minutes that fighting had gone along, the Drakodominatus had destroyed a large part of the enemy fleet with no losses of ships yet for themselves, and saw the enemy fleet retreating. The admiral gave the order for one Baal Class carrier to follow them, and the Baal Class Carrier soon stumbled into the minefield, however sensors were not able to pick the mines up. Then, right as several mines were incredibly near to the engine, they blew up in perfect unison. The mines broke the hyper matter engines of the ship and left it crippled and without shielding, and without the ability to fire back or release any of its fighters.

The Mag'heli fleet swooped in, at full force, and though the neutronium shell held off the attacks at the hull, raiders fired more at the engines along with the dreadnoughts, and started a cataclysmic chain reaction that consumed the entire Drakodominatus ship. What came as a giant morale boost to the Mag'heli fleet, came as a blow to the Drakodominatus fleet. Enraged, the admiral of the Drakodominatus fleet commanded the rest of it to stay in position at the planet and not to move to the wormhole, as the Mag'Heli did not possess anything of need to them, and gave orders to commence orbital bombardment, followed soon after by invasion

Counterattack
Cesterity basically threw himself at the massive, steel gate;

"Let me in!"

A Marine called down in a satire tone;

"What's the password?"

"Just let me in you moron!" Cesterity yelled back, not amused.

"*sighs* Alrighty then."

He pressed a button, and the massive doors swung open, and the Captain ran straight for the command structure, the door opened in front of him as a aged Drodo, easily fifty or sixty years old, came through;

"I heard of your arrival, Fleet Captain Cesterity."

An exhausted Cesterity looked up;

"General Torus?"

"The one and only." The General responded, he added;

"What happened? You look terrible!"

It was only now that Cesterity realized that he was covered in dirt, blood, and scraches.

"Oh, uh, my apologies, but we have bigger things to worry about. Those aliens, did they attack?"

Torus responded quickly;

"In force, but we pushed them back quickly. They have been identified as the 'Mag'heli'."

Cesterity thought for a moment, then said;

"How are the troops?"

"They are doing well," the General responded;

"why?"

"I propose a counterattack, seeing that they probably used everything in this sector to take us down." Cesterity responded quickly;

"Few of them where left when they retreated," the General said off-hand;

"They'd be little more than target practice."

"Serves them right." Cesterity said darkly to himself. Before leaving the war room table.

Cesterity jumped out of the beetle and executed a perfect roll. A larger dropship released a large, two-legged walker, about ten metres tall, it had a somewhat large cockpit with two massive rotary autocannons on either side, Cesterity was surprised by this new vehicle;

"What is that?"

A marine came up to him;

"That, commander, is a Goliath."

Right afterwards, a Mag'heli shot the walker with a rocket launcher, it harmlessly exploded off of its hull. The Goliath continued to unleash its fury on that poor trooper. It fired a burst in the general vicinity of that soldier, after the smoke cleared, there was nothing but a massive crater, and no trace of the Mag'heli.

Cesterity gave one order;

"Take no prisoners."

The Drodoian Marines did just that. They systematically killed every Mag'heli on sight.

Cesterity saw a scarred, injured Drodo limp away from the battle ground;

"A survivor!" He thought,

He sprinted towards him, and gunned down a Mag'heli along the way. He ran up to the Drodo, and roughly put him behind cover;

"Are you alright?"

"What the - Captain, I'm glad your here *coughs* just get me out of here."

Cesterity looked at him;

"Of course."

He got the injured Marine behind enemy lines, and continued to overrun the Mag'heli. After the battle, Cesterity got a transmission from his ship, the Impaler 2;

"Sir, we need you up here! Its a losing battle here in orbit. I repea-"

The transmission ended in static, Cesterity contacted General Torus;

"General,"

"What is it, Cesterity?"

"You can handle the efforts on the ground, I'm needed in space."

Ceasefire
The crude monitors showed multiple blood red dots scattered throught the surface of the planet, and one by one they were dissapearing. Mag'heli forces on the ground were being slaughtered, but at least things were going better in space. The enemy flagship was being brutally assaulted by no less than half a dozen raiders, and the opposing fleet was taking heavy casualties. Nontheless, the ship in which controller M'kras shook violently as it was peppered by Drodoian weapons fire. Monitors exploded and coolant systems leaked as the energy weapons sent massive charges of electricity through the system. The "Dining hall" was torn wide open and it's contents emptied into space. The surviving crew staggered about attempting to maintain their balance and not be crushed by toppling Brutes (Many of whom attempted to grab on to crewmembers for support and crushed them as they fell). The moment he saw both an Eranian vessel and more unidentified ships entering the system, he paniced, fearing death had come to him. He realised immediately after opening his mouth he should have had a brute give the command, but nontheless he gave it. "ORDER A CEASE FIRE AND OPEN A CHANNEL TO THE ENEMY COMMANDER" he bellowed at the top of his voice.

A ghost class scoutship entered orbit around the contested planet, and initiated a tap into all communications throught the system immediately, as was protocol. Immediately they were confronted with something that boded poorly. A Mag'heli requesting to talk with an enemy commander. This meant the battle was already lost, as in their experience Mag'heli only "Talk" in order to brag about their victories. They decided to stay out of the conversation, but listen in to discover the nearest planet inhabited by these "Drodo" so that they might work together to find a way back to the collective. Of course, Kerrata had no intention of returning just yet, but the rest of the crew did.

Vitaze Nasdtzectht stood attentively, as he was contacted by the Drodo known as Ceserity and the Mag'Heli known as M'kras. He figured that he could have an easier time acquiring the Drodian Gold assuming he had the information, and the Drodo could give that to him. He was assured in the fact that if a battle broke out again that he would be able to completely exterminate the enemy, and thus told all the ships to stand down. However, weapons were locked on the remaining Drodo and Mag'Heli ships, meaning utter destruction for them assuming they stepped out of line. With that ,he opened up the communications channel with Ceserity and M'kras

Cesterity looked up at his viewscreen, from the moment he first heard M'kras' voice, he reminded him of Tor Kah. Everything was the same. From that, he knew it was only a matter of time before he begged for his life. That arrived quicker than he expected. He said slowly under his breath;

"Coward."

Tensions
Vitaze Nasdtzectht: I am admiral Vitaze Nasdtzecht of the Drakodominatus Tyranny, commander of the (15km) Dreadnaught "Accuser". If you are of the race named the Drodian Empire, state your name, rank, and the amount of personell under your command. In addition state your current diplomatic relations with the Mag' Heli race, as well as the properties and locations of Drodian Gold, failure to comply will result in the outbreak of combat, and as you can see from what remains of the Mag'Heli fleet, it will not be pretty for you, and a cakewalk for us, as we have only lost one ship to a freak accident in the minefield. Do not try anything sneaky or your fleet, this world, and your race will pay the price. Cesterity looked up with contempt, he has been threatened by a lot of aliens lately, and he does not enjoy it;

"Its Drodo Empire for your information, and I am Fleet Captain Cesterity. Now, I don't want another fight but we aren't idiots, we aren't just going to hand over everything on a whim from someone who threatened to kill me, my crew, and my people." He responded, he quickly added;

"I'm certain we can figure something out." He hoped he made the right desision. He had already killed many aliens in the past two days, he didn't need the blood of his own crew on his hands. Vitaze Nasdtzectht smirked at the arrogance of the Drodo and gestured at one of his crew members to fire at a massive asteroid nearby with a hyperlaser, and it was vaporized on impact.

"Our scans have found large amounts of a substance that is distinct from anything that we have ever found, engineered, or traded for, and that is saying a lot. This is probably the fabled Drodian Gold, and if somebody like you is deserving of your pompous attitude, you will be wise to tell us where every known deposit of Drodian Gold is, or you will evacuate this planet and turn over all it's reserves of Drodian Gold." Vitaze Nasdtzecht frankly stated, he added "Our guns are trained on every fleet within this system, identified or not, and battle will begin if you do not reach a decision" Cesterity was surprised by the captain of the ship;

"You call us pompous, your the one demanding that I basically hand my own ass to you! We can discuss a compromise, just be thankful I am being patient."

He was starting to get angry at the other commander, he called General Torus;

"General,"

"Yes?"

"Get everyone off of that planet, now."

Vitaze Nasdtzectht was aggravated by the pomposity of the Drodo Captain, and in a more enraged voice said "Fool the Drakodominatus Tyranny has crushed empires far larger and far more advanced than yours in both Mirus and Kraw. We have intercepted your orders and have already seeded the planet with weapons that will burn the atmosphere and turn everything into inorganic mush on our command. All your escape craft are in the targeting reticules of our fighters, and if you know what is good for you, you will rescind the order and make the decision quite soon, otherwise the might of the Tyranny will descend upon you, and your world will be no more, be civilized Drodo, think." He looked up;

"Your bluffing, asshole."

"If you can, do it, I dare you."

Tipping Point
Vitaze Nasdtzectht simply smiled and said" It has been a pleasure doing business with you", and ended the comm. "Order all ships to fire, and activate the bioweapons(guys unexposed to the organic stuff won't suffer), in addition send the nanoswarm to finish of the Drodian fleet as well." He ordered.

Wave after wave of Drakodominatus weapons fire saturated the Drodo fleet, leaving only a few surviving, with even Ceserity's flagship being damaged severely by antimatter blasts. Ships that were trying to leave the planet were blasted to oblivion, and the bioweapon was taking effect, turning what was once a beautiful planet into primordial stew

Cesterity yelled out loud;

"Shit!"

"Get us out of here!"

The ship stalled;

"What the heck is happening!?"

"The Jumpdrives are stalling, sir!" A crewmember reported.

Cesterity looked up than got from his chair as his entire ship was falling apart;

"Hail them"

The viewscreen lit up as the Drakodominatus captain came onto the screen;

"Alright, you defeated us, I surrender."

All of the bridge crew looked up, they could not believe what their commander was saying;

"Do whatever you want to me, just return my crew safely to Drodo space."

"You will comply."

Vitaze Nasdtzectht grinned and replied "Very Well, the holds are ready for you, the Harvester Class Prison Drones are picking you up as we speak, and returning you to our special prisoner holds. Beware, that these holds can be opened to the vaccum of space at any time in case you try to escape, not a problem for people in full power armor, but you will be required to surrender all your weapons and armor, meaning if it happens, well decompression is a rather entertaining spectacle."

Contemplation
There was nothing to do but think in the dark hold of the drone.

Cesterity could not stop thinking about the mistakes he made in the last two days;

"Had I of listened to that crewman, and not of fired on those Eranians, I could of avoided the deaths of many of my crew..." He thought, he continued;

"Could of ended this damned war before it freaking started"

"I have to stop dwelling on the past, what's in store in the future..."

"Interrogation? Definatly, seeing that they call themselves the Drakodominatus Tyranny is a good indicator that it won't be pretty."

He looked at the other Drodo, it was cramped, and no one was very exeited for obvious reasons;

"They won't honor my demands, these people are going to become slaves, for all I know..."

"...despicable"

The drone started to shake, they've landed. The pod's door opened and everyone inside was hauled out, he looked around in the large hangar;

"Well, this is it."

Vitaze Nasdtzectht cursed the fact that he had ordered his ship to be equipped with the mind uploading apparatus, but the volume of the prototype intergalactic drive prevented him from getting the apparatus without sacrificing some weapons. He reflected to himself on the current affairs, and saw that his nanoswarm had already consumed the planets crust and were coming back with large amounts of unidentified material, the Drodian gold. However, when he tried powering a fighter with it, nothing happened

"This is madness" he screamed

"We need to find a way to implement this power source, and a way to get more of it, the materials engineering guys back in Mirus need more" the admiral pondered

The admiral commanded "Commence interrogations of all Drodo on board, call up the most sadistic and amoral Haemocoli Schaden, divide the prisoners into groups of 100, and if they do not speak immediately..."

And with a smile he added "Cratzhen ahtzevs xeewashtz vacht drigen schaditz dest drigen Xhodocto (These ones prove worthy, make them wish for the torture of the Xhodocto)"

Futility
Cesterity finally got the cuffs off, but only to see more guards coming his way;

"I don't know where their taking me, but best I put these back on," He reasoned;

"At least I know how to get them off now."

They roughly grabbed him, Cesterity struggled for a minute, before asking;

"Where are you taking me?"

"None of your concern." A Drakodominatus honor guard replied sternly.

"Uh oh, that's not good." He thought, He tried to get out of the two honor guards' grip;

"How 'bout you two asswipes let me go!" He demanded, one of the guards tightened his grip, Cesterity started to cringe. He looked the Captain in the eyes;

"If you think that's painful, than you will not survive what's going to happen to you in that room." He pointed to a door, Cesterity started to panic;

"Oh shit, not torture, anything but that!" He said in his mind, he widened his eyes, he was thrown in;

"Have fun." The honor guard said with sadistic joy.

The room was dark, he barily make out any features, Cesterity got up, and took a look around;

"I guess this is well and truly it." Cesterity said with fear.

Abyss
Vitaze Nasdtzectht stared blankly at the monitors, cursing how he could still not implement the Drodo Gold he already had, and that the people on Demogorgon Prime were requesting more. Militarily, this operation had gone along incredibly well with only the loss of a carrier to a freak accident and the combined efforts of the Mag'Heli. He commanded "Get Ceserity to the interrogation chamber, i'll be there, also bring along the Drachon and the most sadistic Haemocolus Schaden on this ship Vitaze Nasdtzectht said "Hello Ceserity, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person" he calmly said. "Now back to the original question, where is the Drodian Gold, and do not worry, you will not be tortured" he sadistically said, noting in the back of his mind he had something far worse in his sleeve. Cesterity glared, and said;

"The Drodoian Gold is on the planets near and around here, dumb-ass. I didn't know you needed a Fleet Captain to confirm that little piece of knowledge." He than added;

"I got a little question of my own, if your not going to torture me, than who else are you going to torture? My first officer? Why don't you just honor my demands, and let them go. I'm all you need!" Vitaze Nasdtzectht snarled with indignity, never before had he seen a species that was still so arrogant even in the face of certain defeat. Instantly however, he gave a smile, and returned to his monotone "Well if it is a name calling you want, failure, we want the exact coordinates of every single planet with Drodian Gold, and you will transmit to them that they will ship all the Drodian Gold to this planet. In addition, you eagerly ask who will be tortured, and if you are the dumbass i think you are, you will find out very soon. In addition, do not bother trying to escape, as either of the honor guards, and the Drachon are used to taking on Epic creatures head on, and have thousands of years of experience. You will be all i need if you comply with my demands" he said with trademark monotone "I have no intention of escaping, I simply want to...

...buy time." He continued;

"As for the exact coordinates, your going to have to try better than that."

He was trying not to show his fear, but he knew he couldn't last forever. They took is wristpad, it would eventually emit a distress signal on a encrypted frequency, one that, he therorised, they couldn't pick up.

"I just have to keep this idiot talking" He thought, which was somewhat reassuring given the situation. Vitaze Nasdtzectht laughed "Oh silly Ceserity, we have already tampered with your distress signal sending device, and instead sent a request to send the entire fleet to a certain coordinate that is in the middle of a black hole for the distress signal as well as to transmit the planetary archive to us" In addition to this, our biological sensors and our friendly Schaden over here have detected fluctuations in your life signals." he calmly said, "now comes the fun part he continued", he continued "as the locations of Drodo Gold are probably confidential and not even on your archives, and the fact that you are not talking means we must move onto ... harsher tactics, the 10 Drodo we have identified as most loyal to you through interviews with them will be tortured slowly in front of your eyes by our Schaden, unrivaled masters of pain for a long period of time, in addition their screams will be sent to all other Drodo prisoners on this ship" he said with some schadenfreude.'

The Drodo began singing in a chorus of unnatural and unrivaled pain for what seemed to be countless amounts of time, and were kept alive by life support that pumped in chemicals that enhanced the pain.

"Please Captain, help us", some cried "Just tell them the damn locations" others lamented "I want my mommy" another said The final one, with tears in his eyes and looked up at Ceserity and said "Why?" Cesterity's eyes darted around, he started hyperventlating, he said quickly;

"The- the locations are the Mutara System e-eight light years from here, th- the Beta centauris system, and the..." he couldn't remember;

"the- no! I- I can't remember! Damn it! Damn you! AAAAH!" He fell to his knees;

"Just let them go, please!" His complexion went blank for a moment, before saying calmly;

"The- the Toranis system..."

"That's it. Now let them go you sick, sonofabitch!" He got up, and added;

"My people aren't that stupid, either, they now there's a black hole their, they know its a fake, and they are after you, Vitaze!"

His expression softed, when he said;

"Now, let them go." Vitaze Nasdtzectht smirked and stated "That wasn't so hard, was it, in addition if we find out that these locations are false, all imprisoned Drodo will suffer a fate far worse than these 10, who are still very much alive, and i am afraid that i am not done yet with my questioning. "What are the military strengths of each of those systems, and where can i find a reactor that can process Drodo Gold, in addition, Haemocolus call up the next 90 Drodo prisoners to share in the fate of these 10, in addition you do know what will happen when we let your fleet catches up with us, as none of the Drodian military aside from you has any experience fighting us, and it will be as one sided as before". He was secretly furious at his lack of foresight at not knowing that the Drodo knew it would be a trap. "I... said... LET THEM ALL GO!!!" He screamed, he did not want to give away locations, but he did not want to lose his crew, his friends, his...

family.

"Alright, you sick bastard, those systems are well defended, enough to blow your mongrel hides back to where they came from, and reactors? We barily even found the damn stuff, there aren't reactors for it yet!"

"Now, I've got one question for you, do you feel anything? When you send those people to what could very well be their deaths, do you feel anything? Anything at all. Guilt, sadness, or do you enjoy watching people, watching me, suffer?" He asked, he hopes this will make him realise something,

"It won't do anything" He thought. Its not optumistic, but its realistic, given the scenario. Vitaze Nasdtzectht smiled at the situation and said "We do not violate your codes, we reject them, I do not take much pleasure in this situation, i am indifferent as i merely want the job done. Had you spoken up earlier this would not have happened, however you have made the Haemocoli Schaden very happy, they take pleasure in this. You want freedom so much, we will let this ordeal stop and give you freedom with how to stop it. You want me to let them go? You will spin this wheel of execution which demonstrates the way in which these 100 will die, and they will receive the corresponding execution(the descriptions of which made Ceserity question if there was any good in the universe) but if you do not spin we will take the rest of the Drodo and put them in this state until the biological end of their life times. Your choice." Cesterity looked down to the ground;

"What have I done?" He thought, completly confused;

"Are you telling me I have to choose how my crew, my friends, my family die?"

"Please, just... just...."

His vision darkened, he tried to grab on to something, but to no avail, the last thing he remembered was a massive explosion rocking the ship and feeling his two hearts stop beating. Vitaze screamed "he will not die, life support him so he can complete this task", and at this the Haemocoli brought him back from the brink He woke up with a jolt of energy;

"Wha- where am I?"

He looked around;

"No... no I thought I was dead, just kill me, please."

He looked down, he was being kept alive by some sort of life-support device.

"You're sick!"

He cocked his head slightly to see a wheel;

"No... no I refuse to touch that friggin' wheel!"

"It can't be. Now they are just doing it for enjoyment!" He thought, he looked up to see his ten closest friends;

"You can't do this!!!" He screamed. Vitaze merely shook his head and said "hmm, if you want to play this game, we will call up the rest of your crew, and it will be the job of these 100 to spin the wheel, you of course will watch, now spin the wheel" Cesterity looked down in despair, spun it slightly, than looked up;

"I... I'm sorry. I am so sorry." This process continued 97 times, each claiming a close friend of Ceserity until Ceserity fainted. Cesertiy could not be brought back, and with all mining operations done and the Drodian gold in the system secured, Ceserity and the three remaining where placed in special vaccum suits to remain as warnings to others in the system, the rest of the crew were killed, and their liquified remains spread across the system, and finally the Drakodominatus fleet entered hyperspace and went back to their Milky Way base to give the material to the tyranny in them mirus galaxy

Rescue
Vankalian and Sadioch take long to reach the Firebase Omega, after eluding several platoons Mag'heli were tired. Yet. strangely, did not capture a few hours another Mag'heli, the ground was deserted. When he finally reached the Firebase were disappointed not to find any Drodo, and most importantly, not finding Ceserity. -Are there someone here?- shouted Vankalian Silence -What we do now?- ask Sadioch -I don't know... Sadioch! But Sadioch dematerialized in a beam of light, while in a computer of the Firebase appeared the image of five battleships "Conqueror" and the destroyer "Justice" of the USF. -Mask... he teleported Sadioch, but how? are underground, and why? Immediately after his communicator went on -General Vankalian, here Afnai and the others Steels Soldiers, we come to help you -Thanks guys, but you could arrive before

In the Justice Sadioch was escorted by members of the Shadow Regiment towards the cockpit, where Mask expected him. -Sadioch, how lucky you arrived safe and sound!- said with pomposity Mask -I was waiting you -Why do you need, commander? -The code -Yes, I have it- and Sadioch gived to Mask the code of the wormhole -The other code -Do you know about it? -Of course, give me it! Sadioch gived the cristal which take of the base in the planet to Mask -Well... what about Vankalian? -I sended him a brigade of the Steels -What do we do now? -You... anything- and Mask hit with his brass knuckles to Sadioch in the face. -Why...?- said Sadioch while bleeding from his face -Your services are not longer necessary for the Federation anymore- said Mask while brandished his laser gun -was a pleasure to meet you, Sadioch, good night, and shooted the gun.

While, in the planet, Afnai and the others Steels met with Vankalian in the Firebase. -General, the Federation is coming, Mask want to see you in the Justice now- said Afnai -Yes, I want to see him too, he must to give me some explications- said Vankalian with a smile.

Sadness
Cesterity was given a syringe to revive him, he awoke with three simple words;

"Where... is... he."

"I said, WHERE IS HE!!!"

He jumped up and started to violently push away tables, chairs, and other people.

"Uh oh." Dr. Serus muttered, he quickly grabbed a clean syringe, put in a few milligrams of seditive, and injected it into the furious captain's neck before he could cause anymore chaos. Cesterity flopped into his arms;

"I won't have someone running around in my office trying to kill!" He exclaimed, before setting him on to a chair;

"At least we know you can walk." He said offhandedly.

Cesterity responded;

"I'm sorry Doc, its just he killed all of my men, butchered them like animals!" He explained in a sedate, not at all sober tone.

"The seditive works, too." He said cynically.

"Listen, I hate to see a captain like you in such drunken sorrow. So, what if I told you that a few of 'our fine boys' made it back safely." He said again, in a more serious, but still very sarcastic, tone.

Cesterity stood up in his seat;

"Who?"

Serus was quick to respond;

"They have been identitfied as Lieutenant Commander Torix, Chief Security Officer Sornas, and one only identitfied as Sirius."

Cesterity knew he saved nothing in comparison to what he lost today, but he thought he'd make the best out of a bad situation;

"Can I meet them?" He asked;

The Doctor was walking around the room typing data on to a pad;

"Unfortunatly, they still need to rest a little after their ordeal, you can come back tomorrow at nine." He said quickly.

"I advise you get some rest as well." He added.

Cesterity tried to sleep, but was constantly woken up by what happened. He had made too many bad desisions, had the blood of one-thousand five-hundred of his own people on his hands.

"I can't take it anymore!" He screamed in his mind, he quickly got out of his bed, and walked towards his pistol, he loaded it with one bullet, sat down, and put it up to his head, he shut his eyes, and slowly squeezed the trigger;

"one quarter..."

"two quarters..."

"Three..."

He heard someone behind him;

"STOP!"

K-CRACK!

Cesterity opened his eyes, he was alive, he saw his gun on the floor, and a bullet hole through the wall. He turned around to the marksman who shot his pistol out of his hand, it was his First Officer, he had a pale, white tinge, and was translucent. He said;

"Now what in god's name do you think your doing captain?"

Vendetta
Cesterity was incredibly surprised at his late First Officer's timely arrival;

"I... I thought you where dead! Butchered by those monsters."

"I was, err, I mean, I am." He responded, as he put his pistol away;

"Than... your a ghost?" Cesterity guessed;

"Unfortunatly, no. I'm a figment of your imagination." He clairified, before continuing;

"Sir, you've got to be strong. You told me that. Heed your own advice, its not over. He'll pay for what he's done, and I'll be by your side..." He assured.

"uh, technically be by your side. Just, captain, I can trust you won't go overkill, or you'll be as evil as he is." He warned;

"I'll give him what he deserves, that's all." He said with some anger.

With that, First Officer Garus dematerializd into thin air.

Straggling
Mikios Jertar was absolutely stuck. He was trapped, alone on a planet in another galaxy on a mission only one other person, besides those he was with, knows about. His sole hope of escape was a ship which had likely been disintergrated in atmospheric entry. Just like in Castria III, he supposed. He had escaped that one by sheer luck, he doubted he would be this lucky a second time. Regardless, he continuted his trek through the desert, following the footsteps of those who most likely took his ship. After many hours, he could see a building on the horizon. That must be them.

Reflections
Vitaze Nasdtzectht disembarked on Maginordunried, the Drakodominatus base in the MIlky Way. Here, he left his ship as it docked on one of the many orbital drydocks and took the elevator from orbit down to the planet itself. With the help of the mysterious Mask, his science teams figured out how to properly implement the Drodian Gold into energy systems, and settled down into his office on the planet. He sent home on a ship with the intergalactic drive, along with several Drodo for experimentation as well as a lot of Drodian Gold, the plans for code to make the Gold more efficient. He was about to begin his letter to his family, but before he could begin writing, he was interrupted by his adjutant who reminded him that Grand Admiral Daiztrancriven Aloftractis needed his report.

Vitaze greeted"Greetings Grand Admiral, the colonization efforts in the Milky Way are going along splendidly, in addition we have captured a planet's worth of a powerful energy source which produces much more energy than a hypermatter core of the same volume. In addition we have annihilated two enemy fleets that we came in contact with, with the loss of only one Baal Class to a freak accident, but the fighters were not damaged as they were away from the fighter, though with the Nanoswarm we have rebuilt it, permission to invade more enemy systems?"

"Splendid, yes, i am impressed by the specifications of the Drodian Gold, is there anything that is needed in order to further help you with your plans, a performance record like yours could warrant the awarding of a Demogorgon Class Leviathan, however the rest of the Grand Admiralty could dispute that decision, and the decision making process might take more than one week, would you want one?" the Grand Admiral asked

Vitaze was dumbstruck by the thought of being in command of a Demogorgon Class, and displayed visible delight. However, he did not like the idea of paperwork as his plans could not wait for the red tape of even the efficient Drakodominatus. "Grand Admiral, I would not want a Demogorgon Class just yet, however, could you send me a prototype Kraken to test the powers of Drodian Gold?" he asked politely

"Yes, i would like to see the capabilities of such a powerful energy source, a Kraken is en route to your position and should arrive shortly, however it is all drives to make this faster so you will have to retrofit it when it comes to you in a week, anyways, i am satisfied with the mission, goodbye Admiral" replied the Grand Admiral, and with that the transmission ended.

Vitaze was happy beyond belief at the fact that he was going to be the first one to use a Kraken in action, however he then turned to a picture of his immediate family back home, of house Vitaze,and began writing a letter.

To: House Vitaze

''It has been an incredibly exhilarating experience here in the Milky Way. I have discovered and seen things that most people would have not thought possible, so beautiful, i wish you could all be there to see it. In addition, the Drakodominatus has been expanding well in this region, and i wish you could see some of the colonies here. I think of you every day, when i am commanding the ships, it is so our great Tyranny may survive, when i interrogate enemies, it is so Tyranny troopers do not have to die when they attack, as the morals of others apply not to us. You are all in my heart whenever i commit a certain action, and everyday i wish you were here, or i was with you, back in the embrace of Demogorgon. I promise though, i will see you soon''

Sincerely, Vitaze Nasdtzectht

He then sent the letter, awaiting the Kraken, but more importantly, his family's reply

Aboard the Impaler 2, five days ago

Cesterity walked down the corridor with a mug in his hand, and a datapad in the other. He passed it to a ensign;

"Could you verify this?"

"Of course, sir." She responded.

The Captain sat down in his chair when a familiar voice boasted;

"Looks like someone is going on leave soon." It was First Officer Garus, he and Cesterity where friends to the bitter end. When they first bumped into each other aboard the Indestructible 2, they where at each others throats, that was before the remnant Grox ship came after the ship. Cesterity assumed control of the ship after the original captain and first officer where killed, he appointed whoever was nearest, in this case Garus, as First Officer. Ever since, it had grown into a strong friendship, and, little did they both know, one that could be exploited...

"Ah, I don't need leave, that crap's for cowards!" Cesterity responded in a lively tone. They both laughed at the joke. For as long as Garus could remember, Cesterity always poked a little fun at him. He always had a comment, one of the things that made him a good friend in Garus' opinion.

Sirius simply rolled his eyes, and cracked a small, but sincere, smile.

"Torix, get this data down to engineering, please." He asked in a calm, restrained, almost robotic, tone. Sirius is a synth, which, in the Drodo Empire, was any AI in a Drodo's body. He was in a league of his own, seeing that he was the only mechanical life in the Drodo Empire that could emote, albeit, only to a degree. He looked back to the commanding officers, they where talking as usual. He simply rolled his eyes;

"Captains..."

Torix was in a rush, occasionally saying "Hello" to someone. It was almost his break, and he promised one of his friends they'd meet, because, apparently, he found some way to book a shuttlecraft so they could fly around a bit;

"Seems better than here" He thought, Torix was nearly Cesterity's age and not one for rules and regulations. He constantly met up with his friend, Raynis, and constantly made infractions for kicks. The lieutenant commander passed a datapad to one of the engineering crew;

"Get this over to the chief engie, got it?"

"Alright, and can you stop calling us 'engies'? It isn't funny." The lieutenant quipped;

"Whatever you say, engie." Torix responded over his shoulder, he laughed half of the way to the shuttlebay. He had a good enough service record while on duty, he would come with a crisp, clean uniform with boots shined, saved the crew more than once, and secretly had connections with the Drodo Mafia, much to the dismay of everyone who knew that fact. The thick doors slid open and came to a stop with a thud;

"So, Raynis, you got that shuttlecraft rented?"

He responded in a quick tone;

"Yup, right here, its a Sornisan T-550 series shuttle-"

Torix stopped him;

"I don't need the technical specs, I just need to know if the thing will work?"

"Uh, yeah, probably, I think." Raynis responded with hesitation.

Torix responded;

"What do you mean Raynis?"

"It'll work, trust me." Raynis responded;

"It better."

They boarded the shuttlecraft, and started doing circles around the ship, before branching out and weaving through a sparse asteroid field, that's when they started to regret their desision. There was a explosion from the starboard side;

"Torix, what was that?" Raynis asked nervously;

"Well, I don't know!" He responded in a paniced voice.

Cesterity was sitting in his chair when he heard a beeping noise come from a console, and Sirius's voice;

"Sir, this console says that we are firing at one of our shuttles."

"What do you mean?" Garus responded;

"What I mean is that their is a Drodo shuttle in our line of fire and we should discontinue immediatly." Sirius explained;

"Torix..." Cesterity said to no one in particular;

"What was that?" Garus asked;

"Lieutenant Commander Torix. This'll be the third time this year I have to put him in the brig for misconduct." He elaborated.

Torix was in a panic, their weren't any ship-to-ship weapons on board, so they couldn't fight back. That's when he remembered something;

"We where going to move to a new location, through this asteroid field..."

"Who's 'we'?" Raynis asked;

"The ship you moron!" Torix responded roughly;

"Now check the damn sensors!"

Raynis looked over to a screen;

"It was just the Impaler... clearing out asteroids." He said slowly;

""We're saved! We're saved! We're-"

The viewscreen came down;

"In some deep shit!" Cesterity interjected;

Torix decided to negotiate;

"Come on, captain, it was a...

Minor infraction, right?"

"No, it was a big infraction! You're both confined to the brig for today and tomorrow and confined to quarters for a week, got it?"

Torix sighed, and said;

"Alright, captain."

Cesterity was soon pulled out of his pleasent thoughts, and into the cold reality;

"Sir, your new ship is ready."

"Well, maybe not cold reality..."