Zuki was pacing back and four biting her claws as she did so. The proto-feather quills that lined her back had once been vibrant purple were now starting to go grey with age. And why should they her life had been one stressful event after another . Born into slavery under the Dominatus, the attacks of the void and their servants, the fiasco that was the Great Xonexi Schism, and now some foolish younglings sought to harness the void for themselves. Another day, another crisis and no end to it all insight. She collapsed into a nearby chair, a big cushy purple padded thing, and sat there rubbing her brows in frustration.
Zuki - I need to relax, read a book or something. Yeah book and tea.
Opening up her desk she began to rifle through until she found what she was looking for. An old Vanara spy novel that had been long out of print. Zuki gave a much happier sigh now and was just beginning to get ready to order her tea when a communication's alert came in. Zuki looked up, squinting with annoyance at the disruption and growled.
Zuki - This had better be damn well important.
She hit the button and much to her chagrin the face of a jet black Vanara appeared, rippling with muscles and with strange cybernetic veins running through his face. Zuki hissed and narrowed her eyes with suspicion as she stood up and set the book down. However, when she spoke her voice took on a false honeyed tone.
Zuki - President Armist, what a... er... plasure? Is that the word? Yes. What a pleasure it is to see you.
Armist for his part merely scoffed and slammed his fists down upon his desk table.
Armist - Spare me your false pleasantries Ipsissimus, we have matters of business to discuss!
Zuki gave the much larger Vanara a tired and baleful look before all artificial sweetness evaporated from her tone.
Zuki - As you wish, what is this business you wish to discuss with me?
Armist - A mutual issue of ours as a matter of fact. The Void Eye and their allies hunt for their little void artifacts.
Zuki - It may have escaped your notice but it's no longer a hunt but a war.
She said this in a voice that was about as dry as autumn leaves. To her surprise and apprehension though a smile slowly crept across Armist's face. She let none of it show though, keeping her face a dispassionate mask.
Armist - Exactly! A war, and I want in!
Zuki - No doubt to keep the Claxe's war economy fueled, keep your election numbers up.
Armist shrugged happily, completely unperturbed by the accusation.
Armist - Not my fault war creates jobs, a sense of national identity, etc. You should give it a chance more often!
Zuki - Thanks, but no thanks. We won't be needing your kind of help to deal with these up starts.
She expected the president of the Claxe to be enraged at her rejection, but instead nothing seemed to dent his still rather pleasant mood. He merely shrugged again and gave her a knowing smile.
Armist - You say that now, but give it time. Regardless my offer is still open until the end of this all.
Zuki - Goodbye.
Zuki snarled and slammed down upon the communications her fury dancing across her eyes like flames. After a few moments of heavy breathing she sank into her chair again. She had let his words get to her and provoke her, a mistake, but his confidence that she would accept his offer sooner or latter was unnerving. Shaking her head she decided to try distracting herself again. She picked up the book and reordered her tea. But as the minutes turned into an hour she was brought no relaxation. The tea was unappealing and the book was uninteresting.
Buzzt
groan
Buzzt
Go away!
BUZZZT!
Seerkar groaned and opened his eyes to start somewhat the balefully at the beetle that sat on his pillow making noise at him. Looking at the little arthropod now he could see it was doing a tiny little dance across his pillow. He sighed as he knew what that meant. Insects didn't really speak but they did talk in their own way, and possessing the ability to understand them he knew what this particular insect was trying to say.
Seerkar - She's coming isn't she?
Buzzt
Seerkar - And she'll be made at me if I'm not up and ready by the time she gets here.
Buzzt
Seerkar sighed and hulled himself up and out of bed groaning as he did so. Checking in his mother's room he saw she wasn't there. She never was, being the leader of the entire UPD meant she was very rarely around. She provided for his needs alright and everything, but her presences in his life was rather lacking. He then proceeded to go through his usual morning routine. Cloths, brush teeth, prepare food, wash the morning dishes. He had just finished up when he heard someone come into the house and a familiar voice call out.
Akanri - Yo Seerkar ya there.
Seerkar - Yeah Akanri, in the kitchen.
The red Vanara Demonica hybrid with a cybernetic right eye and left arm walked into the kitchen, confidently striding in as if she owned the place. She might as well have since she came and when as she pleased. The house was electronically locked as part of security protection but Akanri had long since fingered how to hack that lock so he couldn't keep her out, not that he wanted to, he hadn't changed the code after all (though he also doubted that would have stopped her anyway).
Akanri - Ya got my breakfast ready?
Seerkar - Yeah, on the table.
He motioned over to the table in question where a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich sat on a plate with a glass of milk next to it. She nodded her appreciation and sat down at the table scarfing down the food and drink.
Akanri - AH! That hits the spot!
Seerkar - So where's your sister?
Akanri - Surathi? Oh you known ran off with two boys last night, knowing her she's probably getting spit roasted by the two of em right now. She'll meet us over at school.
Seerkar - Right, speaking off do you think we should get going?
Akanri looked down at her watch and swore.
Akanri - Shit yeah your right.
She stood up grabbed his hand began to drag him out the door.
Akanri - Come on buddy boy, mush!
Seerkar - I'm coming, I'm coming! Come on Twitch.
The beetle that had been watching the two of them this entire time scurried over, hopped onto Seerkar's arm and scurried up to sit on his shoulder. Akanri looked at her friend's little pet in disgust but didn't say anything. As far as creepy crawlies went the beetle was relatively unoffensive and her friend liked it. She could put with the cross little critter for him. As the two walked out the door though something hit Seerkar's foot, puzzled he stopped and a looked down to see it was the morning paper. Picking it up he unfurled it and read, KING BRYGON DECLARES WAR ON VOID EYE EMPIRE.
Seerkar cringed noticeably at the title, the Void, the Void was nothing he liked hearing about even on the best of days. It was a painful reminder of what he could if he ever lost control. Akanri noticed his distress.
Akanri - What's wrong?
Seerkar wordlessly showed her the paper. She scowled at it in anger, knowing full well none of this would brighten her friend's day. She didn't know much about Seerkar's relation with his father, but as he was Brygon's bastard she knew it was strained. Also she knew that while he could command the birds, beasts, and fishes of the earth, sea, and sky (with a proclivity for the creepy crawly kind) he could also command the Void under times of distress. And the power terrified him to no end.
She wasn't sure what made her say what she did at the moment, but she whispered it in a voice so quite that Seerkar couldn't hear her, so concentrated was he on his own tumultuous thoughts.
Akanri - You don't need to worry about any of that. Because I'll protect you from it.
The Void Eye Meeting[]
''They will be coming anytime soon now. The Volver are not known for their patience. Especially not the Valishar.''
Iloburaas sighed, looking to the two Void Eyes seated opposite to him. ''How goes the integration of the Relics?''
"Good until now, there are 3 supposed connections in the Gate remaining, that means we have to find 3 more. The Gate to the Abyss is stronger than ever before, the Void Energy seems to be leaking out of it at a faster rate," replied Overmind.
''There is a leak?'' Iloburaas cocked his head slightly. ''This is intentional?''
"Yes, a small hole to the Abyss has opened some time ago. I think that it is intentional, as it should open as soon as we collect all the relics, though, I can hear strange distortions from there... It seems like it isn't very quiet in the Abyss," said Overmind looking at Iloburaas.
''Then be careful. Last I heard, the Dark One was still in control there. I don't know how much or how... but the plane has changed. The entities there serve a master other than Ada now.''
"Let's hope that none of his "pawns" will find a way outside, or we'll have to deal with them too." Overmind opened a large hologramm of the Gate to the Abyss in the centre of the table. "Everything should be fine if my calculations are correct," he said.
''Everything...for what?'' Iloburaas asked. ''I see the schedule has been moved.''
Overlord went into the discussion: "We planned a tactical repositioning for our base of operations to a relatively safe location in Mirus."
Iloburaas' single eye widened in surprise.
"...It can be done. It has been done. By far more advanced civilizations, nevertheless, but... Yes, using the Abyss, and given the small territory you hold, it should be possible.''
''Where is this base of operations you want to reposition Great Eye to? I hope it is not in western Mirus?''
"The opposite of it, near Reaper's Grasp in a small isolated sector of the galaxy," Overlord replied showing the exact location on the hologram.
''Ah. Safe indeed...'' Iloburaas nodded thoughtfully. ''But we must proceed with haste. The Valishar will not listen to any explanation you give him. Already, his vision is narrowed to only see imperfection. To only see threats to what he seeks. The Void blinds him to so much already, and will blind him to more.''
"That would be our advantage," Overmind agreed. "The reason of this whole reposition would also be that we need a place for our allies, but also that we will need much more resources."
"What do you think?" he turned his head to his other allies.
"We have already colonized the main area in that sector, we have not yet found any races that would pose a threat to us. But you will need to build your own war colonies there yourselves," said Overmind.
''With our base of operations secure on Great Eye, there is no need for the Crimson Splinter to do that,'' Iloburaas replied. ''Now then, I shall prepare myself and my units for the transition... and whoever comes to stop us.''
Overmind turned his head to his other allies, "So, what do you think of this plan?"
"I like the plan, however we do not need to take part in using the Gate to the Abyss. I hope that your journey will be safe," Sin'tak Fissos spoke.
Then, Tuarlomok chimed in: "Well, we were planning to go there ourselves, but this right here is a great opportunity! I shall talk to Solosartok about this as soon as I can."
Xartok Xik then said, "Wow, eastern Mirus? I haven't heard much of this place, but from what I do know, it sure does seem like a good hideout. I'm in!"
The Dulinket Representative took a moment to think before simply saying, "I'm In."
Finally, Overmind replied, "Then we have an agreement, we two have already prepared everything and we are ready to use the Gate to the Abyss if you are ready."
Tuarlomok looked up from the Device on his Wrist and said, "Full Permission to go through with the plan. We're all set."
Sin'tak Fissos said, "I guess I'm not needed anymore." before standing up and leaving the room.
"Goodbye Sin'Tak Fissos, we're ready", said Overmind and typed a code into a monitor that appeared right before him.
Suddenly, the whole room started to shake and went up some metres, the table in the centre disappeared and a huge window opened in the wall behind Overmind. Everyone could feel a gravity field binding them to their chairs.
"Here it is", Overmind muttered to himself, and as he spoke, a giant black object could be seen in the window flying up and starting to levitate over everyone's heads.
Then, both he and Overlord started to levitate while a black aura encircled them. They opened their arms and a black shadow started to flow out of them to the Gate to the Abyss. "Ushmenskmar, derakh dur sok oshensakh rak nef salok durlenai ominarr esqueral AU'LEI!!!", they shouted simultaneously and their voices were heard in everyone's minds.
The Gate to the Abyss began to crumble and expand in all directions, as it disassembled into 10 pieces, one central, four others closely surrounding it and 5 giant pyramid-like pieces floating around them. Then they began to rotate as the central part opened more and more, revealing it's dark core.
After a few seconds, the Gate to the Abyss expanded more than 1000 times before going out of sight and a black sphere surrounded the whole star system.
Sin'tak Fissos was in his personal Bug-ship. He looked behind him and saw the massive black sphere. He went pale and thought "Goodness Gracious me..."
Then, it all happened in one instant, everything lost its gravity and disappeared from sight, only the black Abyss was seen from inside the sphere.
Iloburaas has clearly lost his otherwise perfect calm at this point, sweating profusely and making an ancient Volver sign of warding.
Overmind held a black crystal up and a small white light came from inside of it that illuminated the room. "Is everyone allright?", he said and looked around the room.
Iloburaas - As alright as I can be, given the circumstances.
Xartok Xik looked up, and he was terrified and extremely pale. Otherwise, he seemed fine.
Tuarlomok said: "I think I'm ok, but... what just happened?"
The Dulinket Representative just... stared at the darkness. He said nothing.
"We're in the Abyss right now, the darkest place you can find in this whole galaxy and the heart of the Void, but we should be leaving it any time," replied Overmind.
Overlord just stared at something beyond the bubble, and felt it staring back.
Then the sphere slowly vanished and everything returned to it's position, even the Gate to the Abyss compressed itself again and landed on the hangar.
But something has changed around there, the sky was completely different.
The Dulinket stopped staring blankly and started staring with amazement.
"We've arrived." finally said Overmind, revealing the new location on the hologram.
Color slowly started to return to Xartok Xik's face. He looked at the Hologram and said: "Wow... We did it. We actually did it."
Tuarlomok was just as amazed as him. He then looked down at his Wrist Device and started communicating his success to Solosartok. Surprisingly, the connection somehow held up.
The Dulinket Representative stopped staring, looked at Overmind and asked: "So, what do we do now?"
Ovemind said with a bit of pleasure in his voice: "Now we will prepare our defenses for Brygon's arrival at our past homeworld location and set up a "small" ambush for him so that he'll know the consequences for nearly cutting my eye in half." He looked at his brother, "Overlord, now it's your turn."
Overlord nodded and started speaking: "Well, we will have to put all of our current forces surrounding the region where the homeworld was. Our scientist have engineered an advanced cloaking device that can hide us all while our ships aren't moving. Then, when Brygon arrives, I will reveal myself and ask him if he is really sure of what he is trying to do. After that, if he will still be aggressive towards us, we will uncloak ourselves entirely and completely obliterate him!"
Iloburaas - Yes. Isolate and obilterate. That should work. I have a condition however. If our ambush fails, I want to confront the Valishar.
"We will have this opportunity in any scenario," Overlord replied.
Suddenly, a quiet buzzing sound could be heard from the window, slowly getting louder.
Overmind shouted to somebody behind the scenes, "Open the eye, our ally has arrived!"
Then the protective field in the window instantly disappeared.
A massive insect came flying towards the window, unmistakably the personal Spacecraft of Sin'tak Fissos. He stopped it near the window, and a little tunnel made contact with the Window Frame. Sin'tak Fissos then came over into the room.
He said: "Hello again! I saw that black sphere and though something went horribly wrong, but it looks like I was the mistaken one."
Overlord replied: "Yes, everything went as well as it could go. So, as I was saying, now that you are here, we will make an ambush in the place where our homeworld was located."
Sin'tak Fissos replied: "I'd be happy to help with the setup of the Ambush, I have some reliable travel methods in between Mirus and Andromeda."
Xartok Xit chimed in: "And we could supply some more ships!"
Iloburaas - We shall give it our all. Then the ghosts of those Volver who became before the Splinter may finally rest.
Overlord said: "So be it, but there is no need for a long travel, we will set all the needed wormholes from here to all of your homeworld so that the whole military would be supplied with the cloaking devices. If here are any questions, now is the time."
The Dulinket Representative looked like he wanted to say something, but then forgot what it was.
After a short silence, Overlord responded: "Well, then we are ready to set up the ambush. The meeting is over, goodbye for now."
Iloburaas nodded and left for the Crimson Splinter barracks.
Sin'tak Fissos went back through the Tunnel. Before detaching it, he asked the other three representatives if they wanted to come with, they agreed, and after some fiddling with the controls, the Spacecraft flew away, the Insect visibly struggling with the weight of the Passengers.
Then Overmind said: "The only positive thing about this situation is seeing Brygon's face when he will be caught in our little trap." He looked at Overlord: "How's the relic search going, did you find anything interesting?"
Overlord replied: "No, but while we were travelling through the Abyss, I sensed a trail of Void Energy leading somewhere here, near the Reaper's Grasp. That could be our sixth relic."
Overmind said: "Good, I will take care of it, but your job is to deal with Brygon. Your officer Eyekarus will lead the expedition there, should we encounter something dangerous."
A short nod came from Overlord and soon he left the room.
Brygon's Assault[]
The Volver fleet, led by one of King Brygon's flagships, approached the center of Void Eye territory. He only noticed a few ships defending what appeared to be the Great Eye, the homeworld of their empire. Brygon looked to Seerkar and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"See son?" Brygon said, "Only a small fraction of our fleet was needed. If things go my way, we won't even have to fire a single shot. They'll be surrendering soon enough." In his excitement, he did not notice the slight distortions in the space around the "Great Eye".
Seerkar frown, for two reasons. One he did not share his father's confidence in this, the size of the defending fleet was unreasonably small. Two he had been interrupted while in the middle of something and was annoyed, also his back hurt (he probably had a few new scars there).
Akanri sat off to the side checking on her ax to make sure it was well oiled and functioning properly. She also bore a rather annoyed look on her own face.
Brygon studied the opposing fleet and noticed that one of them must have been a flagship. He walked over to his communications console and attempted to open communications with it.
Once the screen opened, he saw Overlord sitting comfortably in his chair.
"So, Overlord...we meet on the field of battle. " Brygon said, studying the Overlord's demeanor.
"Ah, greetings, King Brygon, yes we finally meet in a battle, we surely didn't want this, but I guess there was no other way." Overlord said, his face looking quite mischievous.
"Well there may be another way. After careful consideration, I have decided that I can indeed show your people mercy." Brygon gestured to his ship. "You are out-gunned and outnumbered. However, I am willing to spare all of you if you simply surrender Iloburaas into Volver custody."
Seerkar glared at the alien standing before trying to read his face. It wasn't proving to be exactly hard. A feeling of dread clench his stomach. This was wrong, this was very wrong.
"Father," he hissed, "I think this maybe a trap, he's far too confident."
Brygon paused and looked at Seerkar. "A trap?", he said, looking out into space. His eye squinted behind his helm, studying the fleet and the space around it.
"How about... no," came from Overlord. "Outweaponed... outnumbered... yes, you can say this about the situation, but still, we will fight to our death to defend our sacred home."
Brygon nodded respectfully to the Overlord. "My people and I can respect that. But, as my son suggests...you seem to be quite confident for someone in your current position."
"True, I am, but you put me in a corner, for us, there is no other choice now than to fight now. We won't transfer Iloburaas to you as we do not betray our friends and allies." replied Overlord.
While the two traded word shives Seerkar began probing with his mind, the Void Energy around them made it like trying to push through tar but he kept going trying to find if any other minds were awaiting out in the darkness.
"So there is no chance of your surrender then? There is no need for bloodshed if you just hand the traitors over to me", the king said, looking over the Splinter ships. "To any Volver in over there who can hear me, know that you have been fighting a pointless battle against me."
Brygon gestured to his ship again "You know full well that this is only a fraction of my might. I am your rightful Valishar by combat, tradition, and blood. Know that death by my hand will not carry you to Callambea.
Seerkar glared at his father for that one. Though he had Volver genes and a degree of the upbring those genes came with he had been mainly raised Vanara. And Vanara in general weren't to bi on the die gloriously. Far better to live and fight another day, to avoid hurting the people that mattered to you. He made a mental note to keep close to Akanri in case they needed to hop into Accel Space and hoof it home.
Iloburaas - I hear you, my Valishar. However, I have to ask...What makes you so certain that Callambea even exists? The Kvistaa Clan certainly did not believe so. Though they were reprehensible, perhaps we should not throw out the tadpole with the pondwater. We know with certainty that the Abyssal Domain exists. We also know Arcana exists. We know Marrow exists. Even the upper reaches of Accel Space have been documented. But below that? Callambea? Perhaps you did forget to ask your father, when Ada returned him?
Brygon growled at Iloburaas. "You would do well not to associate my father with that false God. You know full well what happened. You were there."
"If you surrender yourself Iloburaas, perhaps I will-" He stopped cold, looking out into space again.
He snapped back to the Overlord, anger in his voice. "I sense a distortion in real-space! What have you done!?"
Without waiting, Overlord replied smiling: "Oh, ooooh, I guess that you are realizing something after you have brought such a huge fleet. Actually, you make me wonder how much of your self-confidence you could fit in the Abyss since you are so sure of your victory. I think you misunderstood me a bit, do you really think that I meant our fleet when saying outweaponed and outnumbered? Brygon, Brygon... you undererstimate us. But no matter, we need none of your mercy and we will protect our allies to our death. The only thing I want right now is seeing your face when you lose all of your precious fleet after what you had nearly done to my brother..." Overlord surpressed a light chuckle: "Let us see who of us really is outweaponed and outnumbered as you call it. Of course, considering the circumstances, I will give you the option to surrender right now, but I doubt you will ever use it, no, you are too proud for that."
"What are you on about?" Brygon questioned.
And so Overlord continued: "Well, Brygon, I'd like to announce that you already lost, this is your last chance to surrender without any bloodshed, I hope that you will be reasonable and we will end this nonsense right now. But... somehow I doubt that you will listen to my advice."
Brygon thought it over. He knew his fleet outgunned them and outnumbered them. But somehow that didnt sound like a bluff. "You claim that I've already lost. Yet I see no reason to surrender."
"Then think about it," came from Overlord.
Brygon sighed, "If you won't tell me, I'll just reach into the Abyss myself."
That was when Overlord clicked his fingers and revealed his and his allies whole fleet all around Brygon's fleet, hundreds and hundreds of starships bursted out of what was supposed to be Great Eye and the other planets, all ready to fire. Then Great Eye and the whole system disappeared as well, as it was just a huge Void-distortion left from the transferring of their homeworld to Mirus, leaving the Overlord's fleet and Brygon's fleet alone.
Brygon's eye widened, but he retained his composure. "That's...a lot more than what I expected. I figured you were crafty enough to hide forces from me, but not...this many."
"We have many connections... So, what are we going to do, will we end this war right now once and for all before we need to harm your fleet, or do we fight to the death?" asked Overlord.
Brygon grumbled, but didn't see any reason to get his men killed over something they could walk away from.
"What are your terms, Overlord?"
"We would like to stop this war where it stands and to sign a peace ensuring pact for now," said Overlord writing something down.
Brygon nodded, but raised a single finger in objection. "I'll agree to those terms, if you agree go stop meddling with the Abyss and the Void."
"Otherwise, there will be no peace," he added.
Overlord declined his statement. "You are in no position to say that and we don't agree with your terms, but fine, let's just say that you leave and we do not attack each other, at least for now."
Suddenly, the sun also disappeared into a black looking rift like all the other planets in the system did.
Brygon tilted his head "What the..."
"What is the meaning of this!?" Brygon demanded.
"What? You mean the sun and all the other planets? I mean, we needed some place to put all of our fleet in and make it undetected..." Overlord muttered.
Real space twisting, riving and crackling with energy, as tendrils of force tore the blanket of stars apart, a hole seeping unknown energies, as 4 ships emerged from the tare. Most of them covered in strange growths and spikes. Two ships marked with a strange eye that spread tendrils like a surreal sun and the other of a beast biting down on a skull. Heavily armed and armored the ships headed right for the fleet of Overlord.
Iloburaas - Overlord? These do not seem to be the reinforcements we were looking for!
With loud sounds the first ship collided with the flagship.
Brygon gasped at the sudden arrivals, "What the... I couldn't even sense those coming."
Overlord was stunned: "WHAT?! How do these come in, they don't seem like Dark's Void spawn, this isn't Void Energy, who are they?!"
A Volver pilot looked up to his king from his console. "Valishar, they seem to be attacking the Void Eye fleet!"
Brygon crossed his arms, mulling things over for a moment. "Tell our forces to retreat. We'll stay behind and provide cover fire for our ships." The pilot saluted and began sending messages to the other Volver ships.
Brygon's flagship began opening fire on the enemy fleet as his remaining ships began to turn around to make the jump to hyperspace.
Iloburaas frowned at this development.
The ship was filled with Demonic howls and gunshots, while a sentence could be heard after each shot "All is dead.... All is ash... No Soul... Only hate."
Iloburaas - "To the second shard - the plan has been amended. Follow the retreat. Relay the verified Volver Empire codes, blend in, lay low and report back in the appropriate solar cycles."
"TRAITORS!!!", shouted Overlord with his telepathy, he looked at his other ships and his allies ships. "What are you waiting for, release the black holes! Shoot them with the Annihilation Ray, oh my Ada, do at least something about it!" He clearly wasn't prepared for this.
Now, crazed scrams could be heard upon it, as the sound of flesh rendering and blood filled the air. The screams became louder as more howling filled the rooms: "NO MERCY FOR THE WEAK... KILL THEM ALL."
Brygon had a bit of a smug grin behind his helm as the last of his ships were starting to make the jump. "Well Overlord, this has been fun. But I'll leave these kind folks to you."
Overlord quickly became serious and commanded 10 of his squadrons each containing at least one capital ship armed with black hole devices to pursuit Brygon trying to escape, then he called everyone in his ship to enter the Abyss to avoid the attackers. "I will deal with them myself." He rapidly jumped out of the eye of his ship and rushed to the place where the demons came from.
The howls and heavy steps came closer to the room Overlord was located in, whatever approaching them was large. The door was clawed open, revealing what looked like 10 large blue and gold armored individuals with several hundred demonic beings. The lifeless gaze of the armored individuals as they looked around the room.
Brygon grimaced at the oncoming attacks and pushed his arms forward. The incoming projectiles grazed the ship's shielding, though some manages to slam into the hull, doing some visible damage. The king fell to his knees, breathing heavily. "We need to go now! I don't plan on using that any more than I need to!"
His flagship began to turn, charging its hyperdrive.
Suddenly, a bright green flash of light, and everything stopped. Brygon, Overlord, the unknown Assailants... They all felt like they were glued in place.
Brygon grunted "What is the meaning of this!? Make the jump!" A pilot responded "we can't jump, Valishar! Something is wrong. It's like the jump was paused!"
A voice sounded in the minds of everyone present: "CEASE."
But the bloodshed didn't cease, only the remaining 3 large ships rotated all their weapons towards the new arrival.
"You've got some nerve giving me orders!" Brygon growled.
A large, glowing, green crack in spacetime appeared. Everything was covered in bright green light. Then, Ships emerged. Conglomerations of Cubes, Guns & Thrusters.
"The Iar'ota..." Overlord whispered to himself.
Somewhere else in the galaxy, Admiral Ste'norl got the notification of Traitor activity near the Void Eye territory and dispatches a small fleet of legion and clockwork Mechanicus ships.
The personnel of the Volver fleet looked on in awe. Brygon studied the new arrivals, but was not intending on sticking around to find out what was going to happen next. After a struggle, he powered his way through the mysterious power that was holding him back. "We aren't dying to some light show. I've had enough of this."
The ships immediately split up, most assaulting the Traitor ships, some attempting to curb the bloodshed on the flagship, and the remaining ones latching on to Brygon's Ship as he was fleeing.
The Volver flagship's hyperdrive sequence had started up again, preparing the ship for a jump. Whatever Brygon did, it was working, albeit slowly.
Overlord stood in the centre of the room where the traitors came in, heavily pulsating with Void Energy and some kind of cyan-ish sphere around him. "Let us finish the business." He proceeded to do some kind of ritual that opened a giant black watery maw of a beast from the Abyss right below the demons and rushed into the battle with the help of the Iar'ota.
"Well then... let it commence. Not Victory, nor defeat will be gained from this, as our masters have foreseen this." As the speaking hulk of armor lifted his hand crackling with Aberric Energy, the nine others did the same, like they where all controlled by the same force, they uttered, "All... is... ash."
The Volver flagship propelled itself forward, picking up tremendous speed. In an instant, the ship was gone. However, a few of the Iar'ota ships seem to have attached to the Flagship successfully. They looked like tumors on the outer hull.
A few systems over, the flagship came to a halt, seemingly recovering from the battle. The ships that escaped before hand were ready enroute to Volver territory. The flagship was damaged a bit too much to make such a large jump, and would need to make multiple jumps to make it back.
Suddenly, in the room where Overlord was standing, the ground became liquefied and a giant maw bursting from it consumed most demons, leaving only a few behind with their master.
A bulkhead was ripped apart with explosive force, with Iloburaas jumping from the smoke.
Iloburaas - Overlord. My apologies for heaving boarded without much notice...You seemed to be in trouble. Shall I assist you in battle?
"That would be very helpful right now," he replied.
Iloburaas pressed a few plasma voxels projected by the femtosecond lasers on his gauntlets. The lasers rotated forwards, creating a plasma blade a centimeter away from his clenched fist.
"You are strong, Overlord, but as stated, victory was never yours." Voices were echoing all around Overlord, as black tendrils bursts from walls and ground, "You see I am a viewer of many possibilities I may change fate in my own favor if I want to... but, you know what, no... your impending demise is far beyond what you think." The hulk of armor fell to its knees, terror in its voice, "M-master are you free take my corporeal form for I am still flesh where my brothers are of ash"
Iloburaas - Speak clearly, wraith! What are your designs? Why do you meddle with us!?
??? - I can make reality change, my tendrils and eyes have already done what we needed to, all is going just as planned.
And like that all was gone, the only thing left was piles of ash, empty carcasses of demons and a foul odor of blood and death.
One of the Iar'ota said: "What was that creep on about?"
Overlord replied with hatred towards the demons: "The only thing I know is that he came here specifically in the right moment to ruin all of our plans! He must have been told somewhere about it." Then he shook his head, "I need to talk to Overmind. Eyekarus, who has been sent to recover the sixth relic may have caused something that lead to those demons coming."
He proceeded to announce to everyone here that the battle was over and they need to return to Great Eye for another meeting to find out what Eyekarus did during the search of the sixth relic.
The Sixth Relic[]
Some time before, in the Reaper's Grasp...[]
Location: Koalian Mining colony
Time: 1900hours
Deep inside the asteroids of an unnamed system, a Koalian mining colony's operation continued with the progress of digging out the materials for the massive planet-spanning forge planets thousands of light years away. The Koalians working ranged from half augmented workers, to the lobotomized criminals of the empire, to the average worker. In the hangar bays ships of the Clockwork Mechanicus waited. Warships with the purpose of transporting the raw ore and materials to the forges.
Time: 2000 hours
The workday was long when the large drill used to dig longer tunnels came to a sudden stop, from the cracks one could see a smooth black surface.
On the communications one could hear, "Get the High Adept down here to take a look at what has been found. I think we are looking at a 709-b find."
"Confirmed, Drill7 message relayed to the High Adept, he should be down there in a minute."
One minute later, a augmented red robed figure came, moving on what looked like the body of a insect with mechanical tentacles, climbing down the hole.
High Adept - So what is this find you speak of...
Koalian miner - Well, it's further down there.
High Adept - Interesting, my personal crew shall take over from now.
Large mechanical machines came down and started excavating the strange object.
In the deep void of space a fleet sailed though the Reaper's Grasp, it was Eyekarus' Void Eye fleet sent by Overmind to find and recover the sixth relic.
Eyekarus gestured at a Void Eye captain, "Are we still on the trail of the relic?"
"Yes, but... I also sense this strange essence that makes the Void Energy uncalm nearby, it also distracts our sensors and interrupts the void trail.", he answered.
Eyekarus growled a bit, "Where does it come from?"
"From a small ship, but there are more in this region," the reply came.
Eyekarus closed his eye and said, "We need to destroy the interloper or make him leave this place while we are on the trail."
The captain nodded and changed the path of the ship to the origin of the disturbance. When they approached the small ship harvesting an asteroid with some blinding ray, a message flickered on the captain's monitor.
"Eyekarus, they want to open the communication channel, requesting permission to do so."
"Permission given," said Eyekarus.
Once the screen opened, a strange looking cyan-ish crystal appeared on the monitor, white pieces of metal attached to it. It started speaking:
"GREETINGS UNKNOWN ALIEN VESSEL, PURITY PROBE 78964-H SPEAKING. PLEASE TRANSFER DAT-
PRIORITY OVER-RIDE. NEW BEHAVIOR DICTATED. MUST BREAK TARGET INTO PURE ENERGY."
Suddenly the probe rushed to attack and deconstruct Eyekarus' vessel, but once the beam hit the surface of the ship, nothing happened and the probe stopped for a second.
"ENGAGING PROTOCOL E-0578: CONTACT WITH UNDECONSTRUCTABLE MATERIAL, SENDING COORDINATES TO SECURITY PROBE AK-1000. . ."
"Engage the weapons," said Eyekarus with cold patience.
The Probe was instantly damaged and destroyed by an singularity missile launched from Eyekarus' ship. Eyekarus looked at the captain. "Now continue on the set path and destroy every such interloper that you see, it is useless to talk to them."
The captain nodded and the ship continued on the trail, destroying every probe on it's path. After a half an hour of following the trail and killing probes, Eyekarus met another unfortunate traveler.
"Eyekarus, look, there is another one of those insane probes," said the captain.
"What are you waiting for, I gave my orders, shoot it already and be done with it," harshly replied Eyekarus.
"Yes, but..."
Eyekarus became annoyed, "What again?!"
"It doesn't have that disrupting field that all the other probes have, we can just go by," the captain looked at Eyekarus.
"It is still clearly an ally of those, and it will still attack us without any reason if we go by," said Eyekarus and aimed ship's weapon system at the newcomer.
It raised its arms up to its central eye in an attempt to defend itself.
The captain raised his hand, "Wait, Eyekarus, don't you see it's trying to protect itself, that could mean that it isn't completely insane like all those other probes."
"Well then, attempt to set up communication with it," Eyekarus looked back at the captain.
The captain opened the communications screen and attempted to speak with the strange probe. It seems a little confused before making hand signs indicating it can't interface with communications systems by itself.
"Let me talk to him using my telepathy then," Eyekarus said to the captain and connected to the mind of the strange visitor.
Past the ships in high speeds flied unfamiliar ships, marked with mechanical skulls and cogs. Out of what looks like a tearing in the blanket of stars, similar to where those who will later attack Overlord's flagship came from.
With such speeds, it was hard to catch a glimpse of what empire they belonged to, only the markings of cogs and the weapons were clearly visible, as the Aberric Tentacles of the rift began grasping at the ships and just like that, the ships where gone, swallowed by the gaping maw of the rift.
"What is this?!" said Eyekarus after it interrupted his telepathic link.
"We do not know yet, but this may well be one of the ships of the lonely colonies we've been finding on our way," said the captain.
So Eyekarus proceeded to reconstruct the telepathic link with the alien.
The alien thought: "Oh, had a sudden change of heart or something?"
"Greetings, I am Eyekarus, a high-ranking officer of the Void Eye Empire, I beg you pardon for the inconvenience, we nearly mistook you for one of those white probes flying around that are hostile to everyone they see."
"Ah, those. They were starting to go on my nerves, almost compromised Orbital III. Say, why are you here?"
"We are here on a trail of an ancient Void relic, it should be located somewhere near in the Reaper's Grasp," he answered.
"Void Relic... that rings a bell, I'm not quite sure in what context though, the memories are barely recognizable as such. I think my neural contextualizer needs a replacement..."
"Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your empire?" asked Eyekarus showing some interest.
"Sure thing... I'm an Oculeen, basically just a brain in a Machine like the one you see here." It pointed toward itself. "My name is [adding name later], I'm a Scavenger. The Empire I'm part of is called 'The Oculus', rather small and insignificant. We are planning to expand once our infrastructure is improved, but for now, we are just stockpiling whatever we can find. One of our Bases, Orbital III, should be somewhere near here."
Eyekarus nodded, "It would be an honor to visit it, but sadly we are in a hurry to recover that relic before someone else finds it, for you see, many empires dislike us and we are already in a war at the moment. Speaking of it, do you know anything about those ships that passed here 2 minutes ago?"
"You mean those with the Gear Symbol on them? Not much really, though I do know that they are from somewhere in Mirus. Don't know exactly where, but I think it's also somewhere in Reaper's Grasp."
Eyekarus stood up and said: "Could be. Anyways, I think it is time that we leave, as I have a bad feeling about all those ships passing and flying in the direction of the relic..."
"Makes sense. Was a pleasure to meet you, despite the accidental weapon threat. Perhaps once you are in less danger, you could consider a visit to Orbital III?"
"Yes, I will tell Overmind, our leader, about it, we will definitely make a visit there when the war stops for a moment. Goodbye [adding name later], it was also a pleasure to meet you." And with that, Eyekarus commanded something to his captain, the ship opened another wormhole and the fleet vanished from sight.
More ships arrived at the colony, as the find had been dug out and the large triangular object had begun to be transported out of the tunnel, the escort team were met by the armored soldiers of the forge planets and Automatas, but also a large Koalian dressed in robes. There was a shock on the High Adept's face as he saw him.
High Adept - F- Fabricator general, what are you doing here?
Clydrmn - I got news of a 709-b find, so like the natural, I am bringing it back to a secure location for deep storage and study. We have no clue what purpose this item has, but it shall be kept safe till we know its use.
High Adept - I see.
Clydrmn - Well then, now return to work.
High Adept - Understood.
And with skillful efficiency, the tech guard and Automatas escorted the relic to sealed containers, that where loaded upon the large ships of the Clockwork Mechanicus and prepared to depart.
The captain looked worryingly at Eyekarus, "I think the trail is moving."
"What!? NO! This can't be true, somebody must have found it, probably those ships that we've seen before. Open a wormhole to the location of the movement, we need to get there before they leave this place!" came the reply from Eyekarus.
The main ship proceeded to open a wormhole for the other ships in his fleet and disappeared into it. The trail lead to a lone Koalian mining colony, where the relic was found and being transported to one of the Koalian ships to leave the planet. Like slipping through the stars again, the 3rd ship was the one letting out the signal.
"There can be only one choice now, I will send out the swarm, but only to recover the relic, no civilian damage is allowed," said Eyekarus and typed something in the console.
Exactly one hundred one-crewed Watcher Eyes flew out of Eyekarus' capital ship, all set to follow the 3rd ship, where the relic was held.
As the 3rd ship was swallowed by the maws of the rift, the Watcher Eyes flew right behind them into it before the rift had closed itself. As they tried to reach the ship, they appeared in a plane where little made sense and madness ruled. As they went through, they targeted that ship without hesitation and 10 of them used their Gravity Beams to hold it in place, while the rest tried to recover the relic from it.
The captain of the last ship suddenly noticed a decrease in the speed of the ship, and looking out of the large Gothic windows of the ship, he could see what was pulling him back. Panic spread across his face as he ran up to the engine coms, as he yelled, "Increase the engine power!"
As the power of the engines increased, the engine started to glow and the speed increased. But as the ship started moving slowly, the captain noticed that they have been encircled from all directions by those tiny ships and a communications request appeared.
The captain felt a mechanical hand on his shoulder, the look of Clydrmn's face was of worry as he pressed accept.
Clydrmn - What do you want? We are well armed for this and you are on our home ground now
A Void Eye appeared on the screen, "Please, consider giving us the relic before it's too late and you can go unscathed, as 100 of our compressed matter bolts would leave nothing of your ship, and even if you would out power us we could just sacrifice ourselves to the void and the outcome would be the same."
The look on what could be seen in Clydrmn's face was in a general disgust.
Clydrmn - No, I know your kind is greedy. Claims you know the purpose of the purpose of this so called relic.
He hit down the his staff into the floor as the 2 other ships joined in by the sides, smaller automated ships released as the bigger ships cannons took aim.
As Clydrmn's eyes narrowed, he said, "I shall repeat once more the chance of you winning this is less than 0 and you are on our home ground within seconds you will be in a place where you are completely powerless."
The Void Eye closed his eye for a second, "No, we are not greedy. Yes, we do know the exact purpose of it and it is to no use to you as you aren't connected to the Void Energy in the slightest. But I think we may have been a little impolite to you and we beg you pardon for that. Yet, even if you decide to deliver it to your homeworld, know that you won't ever unravel anything about it."
The half face of Clydrmn snarled even further.
Clydrmn - It seems you lack the knowledge of who I... AM.
Clydrmn rose to his full height with the sound of pistons extending and contracting.
Clydrmn - I AM FABRICATOR GENERAL CLYDRMN!
Clydrmn - If we find the find as useless, we shall do what we do with the rest of the ores we are transporting.
His eyes gleamed and the wrinkles of the face could almost show of a smile.
Clydrmn - We will simply melt it down.
"You can't," the Void Eye simply stated, "It's impossible to melt it down or even cut if it has pure Void Energy in it and is so compressed like that relic is."
"The only real benefit you can practically get out of it is selling it to us for a big amount of resources."
Clydrmn - Impossible you say, they said the same when I constructed the hammer, the Star Splitter.
"You can't destroy what is already half nonexistent," came from the Void Eye.
Clydrmn - You have a point, but you lack the information of where we are.
"Probably in some kind of your 'hyperspace', it does really look like it," he answered.
Clydrmn - I have a feeling that something bad might happen to you in the future, but I can't tell when...
The chat continued for several minutes before the sickly green and shifting atmosphere of the rift was interrupted by other ships like flying cathedrals these where more armed.
Clydrmn - And would you look at that, speaking of my designs, the flagship of my favorite creation carried by Order himself.
"Fine," the Void Eye said to Clydrmn, "We're not completely insane, we are leaving. But know that you've taken what was rightfully ours." And with that he commanded the fleet to leave.
Clydrmn - Now then, you are still stuck here.
"There must be a gate that will lead to the real space nearby in any case," the Void Eye muttered to himself.
The large Koalian ships increased the power and proceeded to their destination, unknown to the Void Eyes.
Back at the mining station, Eyekarus looked on his monitor worryingly, "Where are they so long, was it that difficult to disintegrate 3 vessels with 100 ships?"
He turned his head to the captain, "Scan for the nearest signal close to an opening to the rift."
"There is one, but it's a little far away, the nearby empires call it 'gate Beta', should I create a wormhole to it?" the captain responded.
"Do that," he agreed.
Once the Void Eyes on the inside of the rift got the signal of Eyekarus of the location of the gate, they also turned their ships to fly there.
Somewhere near the gate Beta, edge of the Koalian Empire...[]
In strange times the Dead Man fleet patrolled. Onboard the capital ship in the Red Baron's bridge sat the Commander, a tall Banshee, skin pale as ice, a great scar ran over her face, though her face showed severe levels of boredom.
Mumbling to herself between yawns, "Why is nothing happening... I signed up for this position to destroy idiots that tried to use the gates. And yet here I, the great Elarye Ralathor, sit and have my years wasted away at some gate that is rarely used." She was sitting there in boredom, not knowing what waited her.
The black ships approached the gate from both sides of the rift at the same time.
As the mass of black started to emerge from the gate, a panic started to grip the crew of the Dead Man fleet, as Ralathor rose from her seat to see the armada emerge, utter in shock, all she could say was, "By the lord I'll be damned."
After having a few seconds to collect herself, she screamed out of over the fleet, "EVERYONE BATTLESTATIONS NOW!" And beneath her breath one could make out, "Oh, now it is on."
The black swarm then proceeded to fly directly to the Eyekarus' ship approaching from the other side.
With the large ship cornered, the Dead Man fleet approached, heavy weapons charging up and gun batteries taking aim. Smaller ships were deployed from the carriers and soon the fleet's number had increased from one thousand to 1500.
The fleet approached closer and closer by the second, heavier weapons coming online with an eerie glow, some could probably even tare entire starships in half.
When Eyekarus saw his forces being in a rather terrible situation, he transmitted something over his telepathic link to the Void Eye captain, who nodded back. After that Eyekarus sent a communications request to the growing fleet of the enemy.
Onboard the Red Baron the message came in as it was accepted, but the charge was still moving forward.
"Please, do not attack us, our ships were sucked into the rift and there was no way out other than this gate," Eyekarus said hastily.
Elarye Ralathor - Give us a reason why.
"Because we have a thing that is very important to your empire," Eyekarus responded.
Elarye Ralathor - I am no scientist but that sounds like a lie.
"It isn't, let me show it to you, how about this small thing," Eyekarus said and the captain pushed a button.
Out of nowhere, a small point appeared right before the black ship, that expanded into a Void-wormhole in an instant, sucking the black ship into it.
Before the black ship disappeared several of the Koalians ships started opening fire. The weapons made lasting contact with the Great Eye-ship, but not enough to damage it. As it disappeared, Elarye Ralathor was left cursing at the bridge of the Red Baron.
The Return of Eyekarus[]
In his residence, Overmind was meditating in some kind of cocoon, when he was struck by a strange feeling. He became nervous, then a thought occurred to him, "Something has gone wrong, something has gone terribly wrong", he stood up and left the black metal cocoon. He rushed into the meeting room and checked the radar to see if somebody has come back from their mission. Later, a flickering light appeared on the hologram indicating the return of Overlord and the allies. He sat down and said to himself, "Well, let's see if my intuition was correct."
The ships began landing and Overlord left his vessel to go into the direction of the citadel where Overmind was waiting for him.
He rushed into the meeting room and declared the bad news, "Brygon, he has escaped, me managed to encircle him but some kind of demons appeared out of nowhere and interrupted us to let him escape, the only good thing is that we didn't lose anyone aside from a few warriors on my ship that battled with those demons."
Iloburaas entered as well, seemingly in less of a hurry.
Iloburaas - "On the other hand, I am pleased to report that some of my men have successfully mingled with Brygon's retreating troops. They will give us insight on what our opponents are doing before long. Though I must admit, those demons were...worrying. How the Valishar gained them as allies is beyond me. We will be doing the Volver a great service the sooner we remove Brygon from power."
Overmind stood up, "Good, at least they won't attack us in the very near future, yet I am wondering what could cause those demons to appear... As it may cause us trouble in the future."
Overlord went into the discussion, "I don't think it was Brygon who had sent or hired them as he was also confused about them appearing and couldn't have known anything about the ambush."
Iloburaas - "Their interests seem to partially correlate, given how they went after us and not them. Even if Brygon was not behind the appearance of these "demons", what is to say he will not seek to strike a bargain with them in the future? The Void is quite clearly eating away at him. We must be prepared for the possibility of him going rogue, if that hasn't happened already. Though luckily, that would isolate him and aid us."
"That is a very worrying thing indeed, but if it wasn't him, who could have caused it all? Wait... No, that can't be true...", Overmind opened his eye even more, "Eyekarus still hasn't returned... Could it be that those "demons" were after him too? If that is the case then we might have lost a relic."
Overlord sat down at the desk, "I guess we'll have to wait and see-" He was interrupted by Overmind, who ran up to the hologram and yelled at someone who was in control of the hangar, "Open the gate to the location of the vessel number 37."
The voice replied, "Fine, huge problems?"
A short yes came from Overmind.
The voice continued, "Found it, the ship seems to be half-full with Watcher Eyes, what could indicate an ensuring battle, now 75%, 100%, opening the gate to him."
The Gate to the Abyss flew up, opened itself and expanded, then a black wormhole appeared inside of it, ready to release someone. After around 5 seconds a damaged black ship flew out of it and landed near the citadel.
After a long moment, Eyekarus and a Void Eye captain entered the room.
They sat down and Eyekarus finally started talking, "The mission was unsuccessful, the relic was found by another big empire and the only thing I could do was to send in the Watcher Eyes, the ships that were carrying the relic entered an unknown rift, the Watcher Eyes did manage to go behind them but were trapped inside the rift, we barely managed to escape."
"What did you do!?", yelled Overmind, but then calmed down, "I guess it was to be expected, the relic is probably being delivered to their homeworld where it will be researched. We will have to prioritize the search and the recovery of those relics, did you find anything new?"
Eyekarus nodded, "I met two new races, one being composed of some kind of a nearly uncountable number of missprogrammed probes that use Autogenetic Energy to decompose materials, good thing it didn't hurt our ship. The other one is an empire called the Oculus, they seem to be friendly and even invited us to visit their homeworld."
"Probes that use Autogenetic Energy... It would be best to ignore them for now, as for the Oculus, we might visit them in the near future, but not while we are in constant danger," replied Overmind.
"I'll organize the next meeting."
After a few hours, the meeting was ready to begin and every representative was present.
Overmind stood up and took a look around the room, "We have bad news for everyone, we lost a relic. One of the remaining three, it is being currently delivered to the homeworld of a quite advanced and big empire. We do not know yet if the other 2 are already found, but the chances of it are rising. Do you have any suggestions of what is to be done?"
Tuarlomok said: "We must act faster and more exact. We should go over the main points again. Where have we not looked yet?"
"Well, the only place we haven't yet searched is the far west of Mirus, as it's nearly completely enemy territory.", Overlord answered. "Probably foolish of us to think that the relics couldn't be there."
"Agreed, there has to be at least one there. If an area is full of enemies, they must be hiding something!" Xartok Xik said.
Iloburaas rolled his one eye. "Truly flawless logic. If a pond is full of frogs, they must be hiding something. However, I agree with you in this instance. Based on probability alone, there likely is something"
"But still, how should we approach this situation? I think we should try pinpointing the location first, then send in our fleet using a wormhole to make it more unexpected, as we know how this could end of we aren't fast enough," Overmind turned his eye to Eyekarus.
Eyekarus looked down, but remained silent.
"There is little I can do in this situation," Iloburaas sighed, "but I will tell my infiltrators in the Volver Empire to notice me of any ideas our foes might have. I'm afraid I'll have to turn to Xartok Xik for this."
"Okay, but we still need to find the relic, and with it probably being in enemy territory, we need someone who can scan the west of Mirus undetected to pinpoint its location. After that, I'll send in my fleet and try to get it as soon as possible," Overmind said.
Iloburaas clasped his hands together. "The Splinter's infiltrators can do that if it happens to be in Alliance territory but not outside it. My forces are divided enough as they are."
Overmind went into a thinking position, "We might have to ask the Iar'ota and Sinistonsos for help if there isn't anyone besides them here with some good scouts."
"Are we certain they aren't already listening?" Iloburaas smirked.
Overlord agreed: "True, they are probably, and if so, please reveal yourselves."
The noise of hundreds of legs on Metal suddenly sounded from a nearby vent. Shortly afterwards, a cybernetically enhanced millipede crawled out of said vent, scuttled over to the Table and extended a little device from a hatch on its back. The voice of Sin-tak Fissos then came from the Device.
He said: "Starting to understand our little tricks, Iloburaas?"
"Would I be a bad spymaster if I did not." Iloburaas replied. "Well done."
"Thanks a lot. So, I heard we were needed?"
Iloburaas waved his hand across to Overlord and Overmind.
"Yes, we might need someone who is good at scouting while being undetected. The seventh relic is presumably in the enemy territory, the west of Mirus, and we need to pinpoint its location before someone else finds it," Overmind replied.
"Sounds good, I can organize a scout troop. Is there anything else I can do?"
"There is... Though scanning all the west of Mirus is already a pretty big task, if you can manage it, you could also spy on the empire that got the sixth relic to find out where they hid it," Overmind answered.
"And if not, I will disperse my infiltrators across the entire Alliance, not just the Volver Empire. There is more in western Mirus than just them." Iloburaas said.
"I'll see what I can do. Is that all?"
Overmind nodded, "I will prepare the fleet to get the relic as soon as possible once you find it, the Gate to the Abyss is likely to be involved."
"Well then I - or rather, this millipede here - will be on the way!"
The Millipede then crawled toward the vent and slid through the gaps, disappearing from sight.
"If everything is said, then this is it for the meeting. On a second note, we will continue to strengthen our position here and transfer most of our stuff from Andromeda to Mirus," Overmind said. "The time will soon come to open the Gate."
UAE Meeting[]
Meanwhile, the small Volver fleet managed to successfully evade their enemies. Brygon stood at his flagship's helm, swearing under his breath. It had been years since he had felt the sting of defeat, and even longer since he had to turn-tail and run. A soldier walked over to the king and saluted before speaking.
Knight - Valishar Brygon, a transmission form Alor Kyaan Desaa has been recieved. Would you like to answer it?
Brygon slowly turned to the knight, thinking about refusing the transmission, though he nodded to the Knight instead.
The transmission was patched through, and Kyaan's image appeared on the communications screen. The Knight Lord did not look very pleased with the king. His surroundings looked like a sector of Matrukoris, causing Brygon to tilt his head slightly in confusion.
Kyaan - I heard what happened out there. It's a miracle that you even survived that encounter.
Brygon - Perhaps. But I survived nonetheless. I need to regroup and gather the rest of our forces for a counter attack.
Kyaan - Valishar! Enough of this! As your advisor I have to say that your recent course of actions has put our empire in danger! I advise that you come to Matrukoris immediately
Brygon - What for?
A figure stepped from behind Kyaan, showing himself on the screen as well. It was Emperor Pulporious V, Emperor of the Soldarian Empire, and Brygon's great-uncle.
Pulporious - Boy, you've got some nerve you know that?
Brygon - Emperor Pulporious?
Pulporious - That's right. And it seems you've forgotten that the United Knights Alliance exists for a reason. What's gotten into you? You're supposed to tell me, Great-Khan Vaas, and Queen Si'Daal when you are taking military action against foreign entities such as this.
Brygon - The Void Eyes needed to be stopped now. I couldn't afford to wait around for you all to get your forces together. And from my recent battle with them I've learned that they are even more dangerous than I previously thought.
Kyaan - What do you mean?
Brygon - I told you before Kyaan, peace with these people isn't an option. They have figured out a way to enter the Abyss.
The two men took a moment of silence to grasp what Brygon had just said. No one was supposed to have access to the Abyss, at least not easily.
Pulporious - This is a lot more dire than you explained Kyaan.
Kyaan - It would appear so.
Brygon - I'll admit, my arrogance cost me a defeat today. But it is not a mistake I intend to repeat. I'll need the full support of the UKA to strike back. They have the aid of some species that has access to elder technology.
Pulporious - If these people are tampering with the Abyss, this is greater than the UKA's jurisdiction...
Brygon - What would you propose?
Pulporious - If we are dealing with people who can tamper with the Abyss, and have the aid of a so-called elder-race, we probably need to at least phone it in to the greater UAE. Though that's a bit annoying since they'll likely get the Grand Republic involved.
Kyaan - I think we should notify the rest of the UAE. Things could get messy...especially with those "demons" that masked your escape roaming about. We can't be sure they have the same intentions as us.
Brygon sighs and folds his arms.
Brygon - At this rate, the UKA could potentially handle this situation alone. But you're right, I'm not sure of the capabilities of that elder-race. Regardless of our relations with the Grand Republic I think they deserve to know what's going on too.
Kyaan - Then will you finally come to Matrukoris?
Brygon - I'll be there within the next few days...and sorry about before Kyaan.
Kyaan simply nodded, and the transmission ended. The Volver fleet changed course and began heading towards Matrukoris.
[]
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