Chapter 1: The Unexpected Find
Captain Trevor Ghalt was hard at work or should have been, but that was the problem...
...He had no work to complete...
With Rendain's death and the Imperium now in the hands of more capable members, the Varelsi have been trying to darken Solus in vain and their surge had started to slow, Kleese even said that their fluxes have lessened even for a bit with the Heliophage's destruction, Solus slowly returned and the Battleborn continued their fight to preserve the Last Star. He continued to go through any reports that came to his attention when the door to his room was knocked and Oscar Mike, one of the clones in the Battleborn, entered and spoke. "Captain Ghalt, I report that everything is under control, sir!"
"That's good, Mike, but all this quiet is getting on my nerves, I just want some action right now, agreed?" Mike nodded as Ghalt continued to talk. "Still, this is casual, I am hoping that I am not jinxing it..."
"CAPTAIN!" Ghalt sighed as Kleese spoke over the intercom of the Nova as the former LLC chairman seemed to be shouting. "You need to get up here NOW!"
"Alright, Kleese, I'm on my way." Oscar left as Ghalt headed up to the helm and spoke. "Alright, Kleese, I'm here, so what the heck is..." The Captain stopped short as he entered the helm, Kleese sharply turning as a location on the star grid, a part close by Solus, but had suffered the Darkening before any could touch it...
...The star of Aronn was clearing up from the dark and revealing more planets needing to be liberated from the power of the monsters...
The Nova soared in with several other ships as they scouted into the star's sector, the discovery of this clearing star lead the factions to expand out and get a piece from the Varelsi, for the UPR, it is another few bases, the LLC sees the profit from the whole endeavor, the Eldrid a new world to claim as their own, but the Jennerit Imperium and the Rogues are both content with standing idle and seeing what will come up from the feuds. Ghalt was beyond speechless as he saw the wide expense of the Aronn Star and its planets. "How the hell did this system get freed without anyone coming to this place?!"
"Well, it is completely improbable, but it is possible that the UPR or some other faction may have set some things up before all this whole thing had gone to hell." Kleese said as he worked across the board for any data on Aronn. "Nothing is coming up about this star, if it is real or fake as all hell, but it does appear to be home to six planets, suitable for life among the factions, which is odd as the Vaselsi consume the stars within the darkness, but this one is perfectly fine, pristine to say the very least, Captain." Kleese hovered over to another terminal and continued. "There seems to be a repeating call for aid on the nearest planet, a arid looking landscape from the initial scans of the planets."
"People could be alive down there..." Ghalt hummed to himself in thought before he called it. "Let's get a team down there to see what could be going on." He looked up and spoke. "Nova?"
"Yes, Captain Ghalt?"
"Get Alani, Ambra, Oscar Mike, Whiskey Foxtrot, and Reyna ready, they will be the team checking it out." The ship Magnus agreed as Ghalt looked at the planet that Kleese pointed out, the very surface a sight of sprawling desert and few moving sources of waters as the pods descended to the planet...
Impact was harsh, but no better than riding in a bucket of bolts that the Rogues often needed to cobble together, but Reyna had to endure it as she kicked off the hatch and breathed in the arid air, barren and hot, but she could get through it as she pulled herself out and looked about as sand was kicked up with Whiskey's pod and the soldier pulled himself out as he scoffed at the place. "And here I thought that Ekkunar's hot zones were hot, this puts them at shame." He rested his Tactical Rifle on his shoulder as Reyna spoke in turn.
"Well, Ghalt said that there were no structure readings on the planet, so we are going to have to deal with it as it stands." Foxtrot shrugged as Oscar Mike soon joined them, Reyna smirking at the UPR clone as she commented. "I didn't think that Ghalt was so into me to send his faithful soldier-boy into my company."
"The Captain has full trust in me, but he felt that I could help you out, that and he... was overcoming a cold, he didn't act or look sick to me." Reyna laughed heartily as the clone brother shook his head in amusement as well at Mike's cluelessness at times. The company gathered as Ambra and Alani quickly found them, Alani's posture quieted anger while Ambra was conflicted, not even making her usual quote of 'being superior' as she remained silent in the presence of Alani, Reyna picking up on it, but called for command.
"Alright, guys, we have to investigate a distress signal that is emitting from somewhere in this sector, so let's get our asses into gear and haul through this desert." All nodded, the clones more displayed while the other girls were merely out of null agreement. They started to run through the dunes as Kleese filled in the chatter.
"Not that I need to tell you lot what to do, but the mission is to locate an ancient, at best, UPR beacon that is broadcasting across these dunes and be quick about it as the planet seems to be susceptible to heat waves that will severely take you all out if you are not careful!"
"Thanks for the worry, Kleese, but it will be a quick check and head back before you know it!" Reyna said into the comms as they headed further into the desert, the heat bearing hard upon their frames that Reyna was sure that it was no measure of exhaust, but instead of the intense heat that none were quite ready for. They kept going until they stopped short and rested in a cave as Reyna shared her opinion of the desert and her newfound hate of it. "Okay, whose f**king idea was it to make a base, let alone live in this hellish wasteland!?" The commander of the Rogues seemed to snarl while Whiskey was more the calmer pair of heads as Mike just added input.
"The UPR, they are just sticklers for rules, duty, and valor, this isn't too far from the front to settle on this planet, especially with how Bliss can just freeze you solid if you're not careful." Reyna rolled her eyes, or one eye as the other was hidden behind an eyepatch, as Mike made the comment, of course, they were a bit too patched up with their headstrong duties. Alani and Ambra, though, haven't added a single thought through the early patch of adventure on the planet, the tension between them was VERY solid, enough that Whiskey could have taken it for target practice and it would NOT even dent from either the burst fire or the scrap cannon. "Should we tell them to forget... whatever they have against each other for the mission?"
"No, they have their baggage, but they could, at the VERY least, focus on the task on hand, I had to stop Miss Sister from hovering too far to the right while Mike here had to stop the monk girl from straying TOO far behind...!" Foxtrot's words cut both of them deep as the three noticed a shutter from them when they were mentioned, the Rogue soldier continuing as his revealed eye kept watch. "Any sightings of indigenous creatures are a bit hazy, this arid landscape is putting up illusions, I can barely catch sight of something moving before it disappears again." Unlike the Swarmers that they battled on Bliss and Ekkunar, the few sightings yielded to arachnid-type creatures, Whiskey personally grimacing that Oscar would lose his mind completely at the sight of those creatures, his fear of spiders too evident that Whiskey himself pitied the younger clone. "We should be on guard, whatever is out there either is hiding in the sands or moving about the dunes."
"Right, boys and girls, let's find us a UPR beacon." They set out once more into the arid realm before coming to a half-buried piece of outpost and Reyna crouched down as she examined it. "Old UPR tech, but where is the rest of the base?" They looked about for any sign of a large base as Reyna cleared the piece off and then it sparked, Reyna watched as the electric current leapt into her command gauntlet before the sands started to shift, the leader quickly back as the sand in front of them rose up to a UPR type of maintenance hatch for truck-scaled vehicles, the members looking about each other before the clones, hoisting their weapons, walked over and started to pull the way open, the metal yielding to them as Reyna lead the way in, her patch glowing in the dark of the chamber before Oscar and Whiskey activated their own lights and peered about the way, the inside still intact, but the workmanship to the place was not right to be proper as Reyna took it in before finding a switch and, gripping it with her left hand and giving a glance to her allies, she pulled it.
The walls and floor hummed to power as they all watched the whole place lit up to a massive compound and a garage filled with machines and devices as Oscar spoke first. "I know that the Peacekeepers have plenty of bases lost, this is the first time I, hell even the Captain, have ever seen something quite like this."
"That makes three of us, Mike." Reyna said as they pressed on through the way before the hiss of something was made and they quickly got into combat stances for attack as the hum started to die out to dimmed lighting. "Eyes open, we may be in trouble."
"Hardly, with my brightness, we will prevail!" Ambra spoke for the longest while, Alani giving a scowl as the Silent Sister continued. "We merely need to find this threat and destroy it before it causes us such issue, though it would be hardly a challenge for me!" She laughed heartily as, unbeknownst to them, something rose up and started to move toward them. "Now, we need not fear some creatures in this place, we merely need to..." All too late, Oscar Mike spotted the threat and readied his rifle as he shouted.
"WATCH OUT!" Ambra was swiftly slammed to the side, the snap of bone evident as she landed in a pile of rubble as Alani quickly turned to address the threat, only for her head to be grabbed by something, lifting her up in her struggle as the clones' lights quickly went to the attacker, something else entirely as its size was large, height matching up to either Montana or a Bulwark Minion, it's armor was the least of the problem as mounted on the underside of two, cylindered arms of four digits were old nozzles, but the sound and the glow was not old as Reyna shouted.
"Focus on my target!" She fired a lock-on shot from the gauntlet, lighting up a joint of the massive foe and the clones took the shot, barraging the piece before it shattered, releasing Alani and Whiskey dashing up to pull the girl over to their position, the pair still fighting as they brought time for Whiskey to get Alani back from shock.
"I don't care about your issues, but we have a threat, so focus on getting Ambra back up and ALIVE, I need to help my commander and brother out!" The Eldrid nodded as she glided over and pulled Ambra from the rubble as Foxtrot fired his grenades and scrap cannon at the behemoth, adding to the damage that the commander and the fellow clone have done to it, the bone mending and the Jennerit started to breath again as she slowly got up again, Alani relieved, but that also drew another to the Ambra's return as the mechanical goliath now brushed off the fire with a deployed riot shield and charged through the party, Alani quickly using her powers, her tattoos glowing in the dark as she surged it out against the machine as she struggled to hold it back. Before the machine could swing to bash Alani out of the way, Whiskey came to the rescue as he jumped and fired his cannon into the behemoth's remaining arm joint, it getting destroyed as the juggernaut toppled backward, the other two rushing over as Whiskey spoke. "Are you two okay?"
"I would have been dead if not for... Alani..." Ambra slowly got up with Reyna's help as the Sister looked at the monk. "I guess my arrogance got the best of me this time, correct?" Alani shook her head as she returned to healing.
"Not this time, we have our own issues, but I am not letting a Battleborn... a friend fall here, okay?" Both nodded as Reyna called.
"Ghalt, we found a UPR facility, but its design is older than any, we need a short pick-up, something here attacked us and may have severely harmed Ambra."
"Copy, I am coming down with the relief, standby." Soon, the sand started to get kicked up as the Nova settled for a short moment and the first Battleborn stepped on down as Ambra was carefully loaded onto Nova before Ghalt spoke, shouldering his shotgun. "Now, let's see what attacked our members." They walked over to the machine as the Captain gave a small whistle. "That is some old tech right there, I never did think one was even active."
"Captain Ghalt?" Oscar Mike asked as his superior continued, Reyna and Foxtrot listening as well while Alani was tending to Ambra, being field medic while Miko was full-time doctor, his position often switched with Beatrix who, despite her behavior during the post-war of Rendain's crusade, was actually a reliable doctor.
"It's an Drakmore Exo Chassis, a assault frame, much like Caldarius, but it was built to tank massive blows and counter with the same force, but the weapons are Phoenix-class Igniters, well capable of melting down the strongest of metals." Ghalt rubbed his jaw as he continued. "An odd combo of a machine, but these types of chassis were more of a LLC construct, back when they were still part of the Peacekeepers, what the hell is it doing here?"
"Only one way to find out, Ghalt." Reyna said as she walked over and crouched, reaching over to the faceplate and gripped, finding it tight on before Ghalt helped out and started to pull it off from the joint before it was removed and all quickly drew back as the face of a person, eyes closed, was breathing under a respirator, flakes of frost coating their face as both the commanders looked at each other. "We need to look into this more." Ghalt nodded as he spoke.
"Oscar, Foxtrot, get Montana and Toby in here and get this thing into the ship and keep an eye on this, Reyna and me will be investigating the rest of this place with Kleese, tell him to get his hover chair down here." Both soldiers saluted as they headed into the ship and soon, both heavy-lifters hauled the machine in with Kleese pausing for a moment and joining the two in the search, the base was somehow activated by remote presence of living beings, but the base were filled with the fallen of Thrall, Peacekeeper, and some Varelsi masks which meant one thing...
"Oh, a new patient, why was I not informed?" Beatrix walked or more like skipped over to the operating table as she grinned her fiendish smile as Miko returned the comment.
"The Captain didn't mention this one, we had taken it upon ourselves to tend to the being's life, despite their near-attempt to harm friend Ambra." Beatrix's smile slipped to scowl as she turned to the being, plans to harm already forming before she took a moment to address the figure, peeled out of an ancient assault frame with their body changed with metal and systems and a respirator exchanged with an oxygen mask to keep the figure breathing, but she could tell that it was not easing the discomfort one bit. Beatrix approached Miko and offered her hand, the Eldrid looking at it as she spoke.
"Let me do what I can, you have other duties for now." Miko hesitated as it looked between the being and the Jennerit before it gave a small sigh, giving the scalpel it had on hand to Beatrix.
"Very well, but we would not advise you how to approach this." The being walked out, the door sealing as Beatrix turned and started to work, working around the period to find the parts that didn't fit in and were harming the figure more than needed as she continued, peeling layers of parts and ruined flesh as she soon turned to the ship terminal and spoke.
"Nova, can you get a number of materials for me?"
"Sure thing, Physician Beatrix, what do you require?"
"A tri-applied respirator, pieces of a full kit, some flexible, but strong metal plates and sheets, several caches of components, and..." The list went on as Nova noted it all down and passed the order down to the armory and storage bays for the things as the creator of the Thralls worked her magic on this new being and to see if she could get them breathing again, a dead body would only fill up these rooms if it was left unattended and without the proper reasoning as to why the attack on her aunt...