Legacy of Deceit

Legacy of Deceit

Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

Chapter 1

Two years after the events of Darkening Skies…

Despite the retreat of most Cyclonian forces and the lack of a Dark Ace to prey upon the Sky Knights, it had taken a year for the Sky Knights to liberate the vast swaths of conquered land, primarily due to the widespread use of psionic crystals that had been a hallmark of the Cyclonian occupation. Piper's blocker bombs had been vital to undoing the effects of the infernal crystals, but in order to deploy the special bombs, they had to actually battle over the brainwashed terras until the psionic cores were found. At that point they needed to occupy the core until the bombs were armed and detonated, finally freeing the terra. Predictably it had been an incredibly time-consuming process, particularly with tensions building between the Ancients and Rex Guardians. While they had been fighting to reclaim their homes this tension had been subdued, but for nearly a year now the Sky Knights had been a peace, their offensive halted by the massive defense perimeter the Cyclonians had established to defend their traditional holdings, built using resources stolen from the Atmosian terras. To further amplify the problem, nearly every squadron had taken a side, favoring either the Ancients or the Rex Guardians. Peace, oddly enough, had fostered conflict. While the two groups remained respectful of each other, with the exception of the leading groups of each faction, and continued to work together for the common defense; many of the neutral squadrons feared it was only a matter of time before actual hostilities began.

Only one notable squadron had refused to take a side, the Storm Hawks. This put them in an awkward position whenever they had to negotiate or interact with another Sky Knight squadron and this difficulty of communication had caused the Storm Hawks to become increasingly isolated and independent of the other squadrons. As it was, this suited them just fine as it made their current mission that much easier. It was a mission that they had been planning for over two years now; the quest to find out information about the mysterious spymaster of Cyclonia. Unfortunately, they only had two bits of information to go on: the man was called Marrshal and the Merbs might have information regarding him. The Merbs were infamous for their paranoia and only recently had allowed the Storm Hawks permission to land on their terra. In fact, that was where the Storm Hawks were headed right now, their goal was simple: to uncover everything they could about the spymaster of Cyclonia.

"How are you Stork? Holding up okay?" Aerrow asked as the Condor shook due to the violent storm outside.

"I should be good until we reach Terra Merb, provided the storm doesn't get any worse… Which it will." Stork answered his eye twitching slightly as he added the last sentence. "Otherwise, we're about twenty minutes out from the terra, give or take a wind gust."

"Sounds good, I'll go inform Starling and Piper, they should be happy that we are so close, particularly since they want answers on this spymaster issue more than anyone else." Aerrow commented before he turned to leave.

"What about you Aerrow?" Stork asked suddenly, "After all, he was the one who set you up to become Night Aerrow…" In the two years since he had been rescued, Aerrow had slowly regained his memories of the battle over Terra Neon and the events that had led to his transformation into Night Aerrow. He still woke up in the night every so often, nightmares of that horrible time tearing through any chance for a peaceful night's rest. The nightmares had greatly lessened in their frequency thankfully… As for the spymaster…

"I honestly don't know what to think, there is no question that the man is dangerous, but I don't think that finding out more about his past will help us counter him any more than simply defeating him in combat." Aerrow said hesitantly.

"Actually, it will help a lot Aerrow." Piper said as she suddenly walked onto the Condor's bridge. "See, we really need to know where he came from because we need to see if there is a pro-Cyclonian conspiracy in Atmosia and he might be our only lead. In addition, we can find out more about him, which should allow us to counter his schemes and lure him into a trap where we can capture him when we learn what he watches for in his spying."

"I see, well, I hope we can accomplish all that, but we still don't know what kind of information the Merbs will have." Aerrow said.

"I'm sure they will have everything they could observe plus some conjecture." Piper said, prompting a small chuckle from Stork.

The throne room of Cyclonia was a dark and chilling place, particularly so after the recent string of defeats Cyclonia had suffered. The commanders rarely were called in anymore as Master Cyclonis spent most of her time brooding on her throne and hated any distractions that roused her out of her contemplations. Today was an exception however as today all the commanders had been called into a meeting with Master Cyclonis.

"It is time to take stock of the situation, everyone report on your recent activities and status of your holdings." Master Cyclonis said icily.

"Everything's good." Snipe said, earning him several looks from the other commanders.

"I am currently working on a new form of anti-air defense to protect our territories from attack. My current territories are once again firmly under the control of Cyclonia." Ravess said primly.

"I continue to work on getting back into prime fighting form; already I have been able to take out several Sky Knight Squadrons who were foolish enough to test our defenses." The Dark Ace said idly, leaving only Marrshal to present his report.

"Our plans proceed as expected…" the spymaster said in an unfocused tone, his mind not really on the meeting.

"Very well, Snipe and Ravess, return to your terras and start working on ways to expand Cyclonia once more. Marrshal and Dark Ace, you remain behind.

"As you wish Master Cyclonis." Ravess said as she and Snipe left. As the sibling commanders left, Master Cyclonis turned to face the remaining two commanders. Before she could say anything however, she faded away, leaving only the Dark Ace and Marrshal in the throne room.

"So Marrshal how is she?" the Dark Ace asked seriously as he turned to his fellow commander.

"She and the other two still remain in their comas, nothing I have been able to do has brought them back to consciousness. Whatever she did to retrieve those two must have been impossibly taxing on her body, she nearly died and the other two almost seem to be out of phase with our world. I cannot even begin to give you an estimate of when they all might regain consciousness." Marrshal said as he tucked away the illusion crystal he had used to project the image of Master Cyclonis.

"Let us hope it is soon, your charade has bought us a lot of time, but people are becoming suspicious, you cannot correctly duplicate her voice even if your ventriloquism is able to keep up the appearance of her speaking. You know better than anyone what will happen if the Talons find out the truth; Cyclonia cannot exist without Master Cyclonis."

"I know, I am working as fast as possible to find a solution, but her affliction is so unnatural I am not sure what I really can do to help her recover." Marrshal said, true dismay tinting his voice.

"May I see them again?" the Dark Ace asked quietly, realizing that such a request was actually an imposition on Marrshal. It required him to lead the Dark Ace through the secret passages of Cyclonia to a hidden medical facility, a super-sterile environment intended to treat unknown illnesses and peculiar medical conditions. By entering, the Dark Ace invariably had to go through an entire regimen of sanitation procedures meant to ensure that no contaminates escaped or entered. Overall, his visits meant nearly two hours of work for the staff of the facility. However, Marrshal had commented before that familiar people could possibly speed a patient's recovery and, given the lack of helpful medical knowledge in this situation, anything that might help was welcome.

So, after a twenty minute trek through the dark secret passages of Cyclonia, the pair arrived at the secret medical facility located at the peak of one of the sub-terras around Cyclonia. How they crossed from the main tower to the sub-terras without crossing a bridge or descending below the Wastelands was a mystery to the Dark Ace, particularly since he had no seen any portal gates or teleport stones. He would have asked Marrshal about it, but the spymaster was understandably reticent when it came to discussing his operations and so the Dark Ace held his peace.

In comparison to the rest of Cyclonia which was dark and industrialized, the medical center was brightly light and had a very high-tech, streamlined appearance. Whitewashed walls, floors and ceilings framed a room filled with a variety of chemistry equipment and crystal engineering apparatuses which surrounded a series of ten fluid filled columns, each column had its own semi-circle of equipment surrounding it and were designed to be isolated from the other columns and workstations. Right now only five of the columns were occupied, three for Master Cyclonis and the two others Marrshal had found with her and the other two occupied by a pair of Talon guards from the Great Expanse research site. The Talons had been attacked by a sky siren and Marrshal had wanted their nervous systems to be studied to see if there was some way to develop immunity to their illusion powers. The remaining three were in much more critical condition and had been for some time, their lives sustained only by the nutrient fluids they floated in and the breathing masks they wore.

"Master…" the Dark Ace said quietly as he looked at the tube where Master Cyclonis floated in her comatose state, so completely helpless despite the immense power she must have commanded. Especially considering that she had been able to bring back those two… "Any progress on discovering what happened to her exactly?"

"Sorry sir, the black substance which has consumed her body defies analysis and appears to have replaced even her normal organic body so we cannot operate to extricate her from the material." One of the medical technicians working at the tube's workstation answered hesitantly.

"What about Night Aerrow and Dark Piper?"

"They appear to be frozen in time somehow, they have not moved at all nor can we actually touch them without some kind of reactionary pain on our part… Whenever we transport them onto one of the medical beds for a checkup we have to use levitation crystals. Speaking of which, we need more levitation crystals, they shatter after only one use thanks to whatever field surrounds them."

"This conclusion is new, how did you determine they are frozen in time?" the spymaster interrupted suddenly in a harsh tone, clearly displeased that he had not received a report on this earlier.

"Sorry sir… As for how we reached this conclusion, we accidentally brought a watch too close to Dark Piper during one of her exams. The device promptly stopped functioning whenever it came within three inches of her then restarted when removed from that area. The clock in question is sitting on the desk over there, as you can see it is nearly an hour behind our own time." The technician continued, indicating a crystal powered clock on the workstation near the Dark Ace. As the man had said, the clock was fifty three minutes behind the current time.

"I see you tested this hypothesis several times…" Marrshal observed dryly. "What about the health of the three? Aside from the comas…"

"They appear to be in perfect health. Even though Master Cyclonis no longer seems to have any internal organs, based on our scans with scanning binoculars, she still apparently has a heartbeat. We don't know how."

"Fascinating to be sure…" The Dark Ace said in an irritated tone, annoyed that these men could talk about Master Cyclonis as if she were simply some typical patient rather than the leader of Cyclonia whose life was still in danger.

"Be at peace commander," Marrshal said soothingly, "We understand the direness of the situation but you must understand that there is nothing we can do. You cannot expect these men to operate as though each day was a crisis, they have to settle into a routine or they will go mad from the stress. This is simply their routine; you should be relieved that they are not worried about any of their health."

"Good point…" Dark Ace conceded as he turned back to look at Master Cyclonis, "I just wish there was some way to rouse them from their slumber."

"There may be one way sir." One of the medics commented as he looked up from his work. "As we reported to our commander, the source of the material consuming Master Cyclonis is the crystal imbedded in her Cyclonian Seal. This crystal appears to be breaking down the order of her body into a chaotic form. Our commander theorized that if we expose it to a similar source of chaos energy, it might stop what it is doing to her in the same way a virus will not attack itself since there would be nothing gained as a result."

"Or we could accelerate her condition." Marrshal said, cutting off anything further the man had to say, "I will not take that risk with her health, particularly if something goes wrong, besides, the only source of such energy we have is the Dying Light crystals according to the notes Piper left us. We only have two left and we may need them to defend ourselves."

"Nevertheless, take my Dying Light crystal Marrshal; use it to treat Master Cyclonis however you see fit." The Dark Ace said as he pulled out his Dying Light crystal and handed it to the spymaster. "If there is any chance of reviving her, we must take it."

"Very well, but only as a last resort." Marrshal said as he tucked the Dying Light crystal away, hiding it in the hidden pockets of his cloak. "Now, I must ask you to leave Dark Ace, I have a very important meeting I must attend and I would hate for you to get lost in the tunnels."

Thirty minutes later, Marrshal walked into one of the many spy chambers hidden throughout Cyclonia, acknowledging the spies who were working at their stations as he made his way to the coordinators office. Rather than the captains that typically commanded the regiments of Talons, Marrshal had termed his officers coordinators since it accurately described their function. In this case, the coordinator of this chamber was Kale, the Talon he had recruited over two years ago. The man had an incredible aptitude for spy work and had risen quickly through the ranks and his most recent feat would earn him the title of Marrshal's right hand man, replacing Tenmos, who had unfortunately passed on during an escape attempt from one of the Atmosian terras during the resurgence of the Sky Knights. An unfortunate occurrence, Marrshal had come to rely on the dependability Tenmos displayed… but life was change and Kale would be a worthy replacement.

"Greetings Kale." Marrshal said as he entered the coordinator's office. "You have something interesting for me?"

"Yes spymaster, we have found you an inroad to the oldest knowledge on Atmos." Kale said no pride evident in his voice despite the impressiveness of his accomplishment.

"A meeting with the Loremaster of Terra Rex?" Marrshal said; keeping his tone neutral despite the happiness he felt. Finally, some answers to an old riddle…

"Yes sir, we presented a history student from Atmosia with the idea to interview the Loremaster in order to create a permanent account of their history. We then kidnapped the student after he sent in his request and had it approved. He is in Terra Nocturne now."

"Excellent work Kale; that should prevent anyone from tracking this directly back to us." Marrshal said, handing out one of his rare compliments. Atmosian investigators might eventually track the events to come back to the poor hapless student, but there would be nothing concrete to warrant further investigation. "I will leave immediately. In the meantime Kale, I promote you to director. Here is your badge of office." Marrshal continued as he handed over a Cyclonian crest that had a thin ring of navy blue crystal ringing it.

"Thank you sire." Kale responded as he took the badge and replaced his previous insignia, which had a violet ring of crystal.

"Now then, head for Terra Nocturne and move our operations there to Alternate Nocturne 4, where you will await the arrival of the Storm Hawks. When they arrive, make a fight of it before telling them they can find me on Terra Polis. Afterward, pack up everything in Nocturne and move our operations back to the primary location for Nocturne."

"As you command sir."