Bolts of metal, propelled at amazing speeds, fired through the starry void, some impacting on a great void shield, others cleaving the shield apart and causing great boughs of fire to extend outwards and rapidly pull backwards, extinguished by the sheer cold of the great vacuum. But these shots, while deadly, were a few among the hundreds fired outwards into the stars, each going off into the stars to ruin some poor sentient beings first attempts into space flight.
Two ships hung together in the void, one being a horrific shamble of a machine, with hundreds of weapons sprouting out from every conceivable angle, the main body appearing to be a repurposed, or looted, ship body, combined with the remains of what appeared to be the remnants of a scrapyard. Despite the inclusion of shoddy void barriers, each originally designed to prevent other ships from doing significant damage but now repurposed to prevent atmosphere from leaking out of numerous gaps in the ships armor, some of the pirates had begun sticking their heads out of these 'airlocks', clad in primitive space suits, each desperate to board the ship they were firing upon.
And what a ship they were firing upon!
A great obelisk of a ship, being made from a strange combination of common ship grade metal plating, something seen throughout both the Empire and Alliance, and great chunks of Stone and Obsidian, either launched into space or carved out of many an asteroid found floating in the void, with great carvings detailing many tales of heroism and the both the past and future history of its home world and the universe itself. A multitude of cannons spun on great turrets, each shifting and changing, in an attempt to eliminate the cannon shots that would end the ships life with great bolts of light. Along the spine of the ship, decorated in elaborate golden engraving and covered in Obsidian slabs, a spinal cannon barrel vented itself, preparing to fire another shot at its attacker.
This was but one insignificant fight out of hundreds in the grand space of the Alliance.
For it is the 4th Millennium and piracy rages across Alliance space, with a multitude of Greenskins and Skaven, Men and Elves, Dwarves and Ogres, each acting as pirates searching for riches and raiding those with no defense against their attacks.
But for all their violence, there are forces that act against them.
A great Alliance of the Dwarven Holds, the many Nations of Men, the Noble Houses of the Elves along with the strength of the Great Lizardmen Temples and the Ogre Kingdoms. Even among the Greenskin tribes, some have come to join the great allied Waaagh!, along with those in the East of the World, the great empires of Nippion, Ind and Cathy. But for all the races that have joined, there are those who have refused, such as the Dark Elf Kingdom, who still remain infighting and raiding themselves, following the death of the Witch King centuries ago. Or the great Pirate city-states, hidden in the dark regions of space, outside of the control of the Alliance.
But all of this is inconsequential at this moment, for it is irrelevant to the story at hand.
For during this simple fight, the beginnings of a brand new story had begun, much to its author's annoyance and frustration.
Within the belly of the great Obsidian ship, many a scaled crewman rushed from station to station, each attempting to defend against the pirates.
'Ach, Manling! What is going on!'
A short figure, wrinkled from weathering thousands of years, stepped on to the ships central deck, a towering crimson Mohawk betraying his identity.
Gotrek Gurnisson, the Galaxy's Worst Slayer ever to exist, stepped forward, his massive axe slung over his shoulder, and a nasty look in his one remaining eye. The many bangles of ancient Dwarven gold were clamped around his wrists, each inscribed with art from an older age, and which would not be out of place in the personal hold of the High King of Dwarves, along with a great length of golden chain, which hooked from the Dwarf's nose to his cauliflowered left ear.
His head twisted left and right, his one remaining eye glaring at the numerous Skinks and few Saurus' darting around the CIC, each manning one of the many runic stations that projected a harsh, burnt orange glow beneath each of the keys and from the screens, lighting up the CIC into some hellish scene from a nightmare. The few Saurus that were standing inside the room where clad in thick gear that covered their, admittedly, few weak spots, such as their senses and central bodies. Each of them held a heavily engraved metal staff tipped with a jagged blade, which reminded those either well versed in history, or old enough to remember, of the traditional weapons of the Slann Temple Guard. What wasn't used by the old guard was the heavy cannons that were strapped to the arms of each of the Saurus, with long belts locked into their armor and extending to an ammo drum built into the back of their armor.
A man, clad in common cloths of the age but with few defining historic pieces that identified him, including numerous straps, pockets and patches along with a flowing red cloak, stepped out of the mess, a uniquely shaped sword, almost reminiscent of a dragon headed hilt, strapped to his leg. A set of books dangled together at along his right leg, each linked together by a set of leather straps and bound with old golden clasps. Felix, despite numerous advancements in technology and the widespread adoption of literacy, still copied his thoughts into a set of paperback journals which, thanks to remaining as one of the oldest continuing action series/historical textbooks for both his families publishing company and the many Universities around the world, had afforded him the luxury of doing so.
'Ah Gotrek, we...we think they Orks are going to attempt to board us.'
Felix Jaeger's, one of the oldest men alive, and still maintaining the world's oldest criminal conviction, voice was slightly weak, with a weary tone of acceptance, as if he knew the universe was deliberately going out of its way to ruin his life.
Gotrek smiled viciously, and ran his finger down the long single blade of his Rune Forged Axe, a single red drop forming on his thumb.
'Finally, something to do in this damn tub. Come on then Manling.
Felix winced. He'd have to say this carefully.
"Actually, the Captain is preparing to jump us out of here as soon as we can. He doesn't want the cargo being taken.'
Gotrek scowled.
'Look, we nearly got eaten down there, by those giant worm things. You even got to try your blade against them.'
The scowl deepened further.
'If we jump now, we can secure the treasure, and the Captain will bring us back to hunt down the Pirates.'
Felix was certain he could actually hear Gotrek's teeth grinding.
Luckily enough, the Captain stepped in to save him from having to deal with Gotrek's anger.
A small Skink stepped forward, dressed in a slim bodysuit covering his lower body and chest, decorated with a number of small fetishes and golden rings depicting various religious scenes. Small sets of colourful feathers were jabbed into his orange tinted fin, denoting his seniority as a Captain.
'Yes-yes, we will return, my honor we will. Filthy Greenskin think they can attack us, while carrying a relic of the Old Ones? Yes, we return, we kill all.'
Unfortunately for Felix, nearly a thousand years of continued contact and trade had revealed a few similarities between the Lizardmen and the Dwarves in regards to how they deal with those that attack them, specifically, how they treated Grudges.
And it appeared that Captain Py'qird subscribed to the same philosophy as Gotrek.
As the ship began to wind up its powerful Jump drives, and the various Slink priests began their chanting to ensure safe travel through the peaceful tides back unto the chaotic waves surrounding their home, the pirates continued firing upon it, and thanks to the ever amazing luck of the Orkz, one of their shots hit the tail end of the ships engines, causing the ship to alter its course ever so slightly.
As it is with such tales, and following the traditional luck of both Gotrek and Felix, something went very, very wrong.
Garrus' face slipped from his claw and landed beak first on the table, jamming a speaker inside his left mandible. His current co-worker and previous partner in crime, who was previously throwing crude paper darts at a collection of the Citadel's most wanted, had currently fallen out of her seat, laughing the blue off her arse.
Roughly detangling himself from the mess, Garrus turned to his compatriot.
'Ha ha ha. Very funny Sharaia. Maybe next time you fall asleep doing this job, I'm going to draw all over your face.
Garrus and Sharaia had both been relegated to communications duty within Citadel Security, following a shared prank going wrong, one that left a few hundreds of credits worth of damage in the Executor's office following a surprise cake and a holograph of Sharaia naked, Asari ass. Really, who would have expected Palin to go for a Carnifex stashed under his desk in case of emergency? And that he would react so violently?
In any case, his subsequent retaliation against the two practical jokers had been harsh to say the least. Six months of work behind a desk working the Citadel sky car communication system, with no street beats.
As the two officers continued to bicker, a simple set of warning lights began to flash, slowly picking up electronic signals and passing them through a basic V.I. which in turn passed them through to more advanced routines and so on and so forth, till it passed it up to the coms control booth for appraisal by sentient controllers.
Sharaia turned and looked down at the information she was receiving, most of it coming up as incomprehensible gibberish.
'What th- ?'
The subtle lights began to escalate into a shrill whistling accompanied by bright, blaring lights, much to the surprise of the booths current controllers. The more readings that came in, the more warnings began to blare, considering the readings they were receiving were completely contradictory to what they usually received.
Garrus' mandibles flared outward and his nostrils flared.
'Sharaia...I think we should sent this up to the Executor. Now.'
Out in the space above the Citadel's arms, specifically the Zakera arm, a strange glowing ball was forming, with bolts of lightning spearing outwards. Multifaceted and with a multitude of bizarre colors, it was slowly growing larger and larger.
Soon, the bolts began to strike at any vehicles and ships that neared it, prompting the Citadel to move various ships near to blockade the area and redirect any traffic in the area.
Of course, this didn't stop the ship from flying out of the rapidly closing portal, clipping a smaller Salarian frigate and crashing into the central lake within the ward, before settling within the district. To be honest, in review, it was amazing that so little damage was done to the ward, and so few people were injured, but that can mainly be attributed to the ship simply landing in the central water supply on the Ward, instead of bulldozing through the multiple occupied buildings.
A crew of Citadel Security rescue units were sent in by Airship in an attempt to provide additional rescue support for the crashed ship, but due to rapid re-identification of the ship, they were called back and a secondary unit of Citadel Rapid Response moved in aboard a trio of Gunships to secure the site, supported by SPECTRE Tela Vasir. However, in the time needed to move them into the site, the majority of its crewmembers had evacuated from the ship into the surrounding water supply.
This did not, however, include the two passengers that were not able to move in the water as their counterparts could.
Vasir hooked herself into the drop cable and quickly slid down, landing amid a group of soldiers moving across the parts of this new ship that had not been submerged beneath the lake. A dour looking Turian nodded to her before motioning his squad to move out and secure any possible entrance points, the various soldiers rapidly moving forward across the strange stone surface towards a thick door. Looking upwards, he moved his claw in a different motion, signaling the Gunships to back off.
Striding forward, she moved forwards and lightly hitting the captain on the shoulder to grab his attention. As he swept his hands in a circle motion to call his crew back together around the entrance, Vasir detached her M-15 from her back and turned to the now assembled Response Team.
'Alright, listen up. We've confirmed that this ship doesn't match any of the ones we've got catalogued in our databases nor does it match any profiles or components that make up the usual shambles that exist out in the Terminus.'
She paused for a second, eying each member of the team.
Doesn't match anything I could get out of the Broker in those five minutes anyway.
'But I guess you already knew that. So what we have here is probably a new species that has no idea what they've just gotten themselves into, so keep your weapons checked and your safeties on. We don't want to scare these poor bastards anymore than they probably ar-'
A loud booming sound, coupled by a shudder across the entire hull of the ship cut her words out.
Both she and the squad turned as one towards a strange sight. A massive chunk of metal was currently flying upwards, launched up by some kind of explosive, and was now careering down into the lake beside the ship's hull.
A grunting sound was heard, causing every member to raise his or her guns towards the now open breach.
Two stubby pink hands reached up to the lip, followed by a tangled mess of blond hairs, similar to an unsuited Volus, and a bright red piece of clothing, wrapped around the creatures rising shoulders.
They watched as it, uncaring of its watchers, rolled on to what Tela suspected was its back, till a strange red flag began protruding from the limp the being had just emerged.
As it rolled back over and stuck what she suspected was its head and arms back down the breach, Tela took a moment to evaluate it.
It was tall, that much was certain, appearing to be the same height as an average Krogan, or a particularly tall Turian, but where a Krogan was made up of pure bulk and had the muscle to go with it, this creature looked wiry and thin. Its clothing also presented a strange sight.
It appeared to be clad in a mix of fashions, with a body suit covering what she could she of its upper body, which in turn had a thick chest piece of what she suspected was armour wrapping around its flat chest, complete with numerous containers and an oversized pistol strapped to it, while a long red cloak, something that wouldn't be out of place among Salarian culture, was strapped over its shoulders, including a large hood.
The lower body had a pair of baggy pants, which stretched down, to what Tela suspected was its knees, and connected to a pair of thick armour plated boots, similar to her own. Finally, numerous pockets and devices hanging off its lower body, including the two most interesting features of this being.
Firstly, it appeared to have a set of strangely colored books dangling down its back legs, each appearing to be dated old things, complete with what was most likely burnished golden clasps.
Why would a space faring species still use something as outdated as hidebound books?
Secondly, and more importantly, was a unique blade strapped to the other leg of the being.
It appeared longer than Vasir's full arm, complete with a multitude of strange and probably significant inscriptions along the length of the blade, and contained a massive handle that would probably take both of her hands to hold. It was this part that was the most notable, as a strange beast had been designed into the handle, similar to some of the ancient beasts that inhabited the Elcor home world and were reputed to carry off younger Elcor in old times.
A blade? Nobody but the Krogan are insane or strong enough to use those in a serious combat situation.
Whatever this thing was, it was undoubtedly dangerous.
Of course, that opinion was quickly revised in threat levels following the massive blade that sunk into the metal rim surrounding the breach the being was reaching down into. A massive hand clasped the arm of the first being, hauling out what appeared to be a red furred, lightly clad creature covered in a truly obscene amount of what she suspected were valuable metals, some embedded into its skin, others dangling from various hooks.
The scariest part about it however, wasn't the thick armour that covered its stubby lower half, nor was it its sheer mass. Not even its horrific face scared her, as those tended to be par for the course in her work.
The thing it had used to pull itself upwards, was.
The weapon it was carrying was truly massive, roughly similar to the size Tela's torso, and looked thick with chips and chains covering it. The blade itself was massive, covered in strange engravings, but the scariest part was the fact that, as it had been stuck into the rim of the breach, it had actually cut a groove.
As it tumbled outwards, before rolling upwards, the two beings began conferring in their own language, before the orange furred one with the great crest turned and began gesturing to the taller one, towards were both she and the Response Crew were standing. Both of them turned towards the crew, each unsheathing their weapons, with the smaller one running its hand down the length of its blade and the taller one pulling a pistol that looked surprisingly similar to Citadel ware off its chest and readying its long blade.
Okay, this could go badly, especially if that short one gets in close.
Tela stepped forward slowly, attaching her M-15 to her back and waving her hand towards the crew, she slowly stepped forwards and began to speak slowly and deliberately in what she hoped was a calm tone.
Felix maintained his pistol on what he hoped was not a gods damn daemonette.
Sure it was clad in what eerily appeared to be similar to standard dress for female Human soldiers, but the proportions all seemed subtle off, with its arms swinging just to low and its legs being way to high on its body. Its face though, its face was exactly like a humans.
More interestingly, was the weapons it was carrying. It appeared to have attached a gun of some kind to its back, causing it to fold up like some bizarre dwarven toy.
He'd fought with Demons more times than he cared to admit, which in his long history, had often ended in him requiring rescuing from there horrific mind altering presence. Thankfully, over the years, he had become surprisingly resistant to their 'charms' so to speak.
What was preventing him from pulling the trigger was the fact that there appeared to be a number of heavily armed soldiers standing behind it. That and he knew if he did, both him and Gotrek would be stranded out in the middle of this lake with no way off. Sure, the Lizardmen could swim bu-
He almost kicked himself, and if it wasn't for the slowly approaching Non-Daemonette he would have.
While Gotrek maintained eye contact with the slowly approaching wom- thing, he glanced around the lake, attempting to see if any of the crew where attempting to rescue him and Gotrek. He hoped that the Captain wouldn't abandon them to the mercies of these beings in order to flee himself.
A slight blue shape rose from beneath the water, and Felix suddenly felt much, much better about this entire situation. If anyone knew how to kill Demons as efficiently as Gotrek, it was the Lizardmen.
Lowering his gun, he began talking to Gotrek in a low voice.
'Gotrek...'
Not moving an inch, Gotrek responded.
'Aye Manling, I see them.
His hand reached up, and he ran his thumb down the edge of his blade, producing a single drop of bright red drop of blood.
With a massive splash, a multitude of Skink crewmen, along with each of the Saurus warriors and a few of the Kroxigor workers who helped move the Old One artifacts aboard the ship previously, jumped upwards, each armed with heavy grade weaponry, or in the case of the Kroxigor, a massive section of metal piping. The crew opposing Gotrek and Felix, along with the Non-Daemonette, attempted to turn to face the surrounding forces, but two Saurus warriors had moved in behind them and were currently holding their weapons up against them, both their long spears and arm cannons.
Captain Py'qird raised himself up, his fin proudly raised and his blood pumping into it, brightening the previous dull orange coloring into a bright, burnt orange reminiscent of his now crashed ship. Quickly scuttling forward, he made his way past their now surrounded foe and past the frozen Not-Daemonette before stopping before Felix.
'Safe, Men and Dwarves? Yes, worried that Blessed passengers not live.'
He continued to chatter before turning towards the figure standing before them, the equivalent of a smirk on his face.
What happened next, Felix had no idea.
A brightly colored skink, wrapped in a cloak of many exotic feathers, clambered up on to the hull of the ship, shouting what Felix's basic understanding of Saurian equivocated to 'No stop, you don't know!' Which was disheartening to say the least. A smaller skink quickly followed him, wearing the normal outfit of a Skink researcher, one that he had spent a few moments with, eyes glazed over as it attempted to educate him of the device they had uncovered.
A few brief moments of conversation at a rapid pace, culminating in the Captain turning back towards both him and Gotrek.
'Ah, Blessed Man, we have data on this beings. Come with, help talk and stop violence, yes?'
Felix began walking towards the Non-Daemonette, lightly conversing with the Captain, as Gotrek sullenly trotted on behind them.
'What do you mean information? Is this to do with that machine we dug up on that planet?
'Yes-yes, see-see? '
To illustrate his point, the Captain scampered up to the figure before them, nodding to the Kroxigor leaning over her, before pulling on her limbs and pointing at various features.
'Its like what we found. Information is the same, but they are now Void farers, like us.'
He turned back to Felix.
'Old Ones says many things. Creature does mind magic yes? But won't work on Skinks, must be Manlings.'
Felix sighed, bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
'Oh gods dammit. Look, I don't want this thing inside my head Captain. But if it'll get us out of this situation... it still won't be the worst thing I've gone through with. Tell me, how do we get this over with?'
The smaller skink scientist, who was preoccupied with the frills on the Non-Daemonette head, was kicked slightly by the Captain and turned towards Felix.
'Yes-yes, we know much. Must take arms from being, Species number 3010654 on records, and place at Manling head.'
Felix stepped forward, and lightly grabbed each of the beings, the Non-Daemonette's, arms.
Oh I am going to regret this.
Lifting the arms up he placed them at his forehead, as the being raised he-it's own arms and positioned them where it was most comfortable.
At least its co-operating.
A feeling of weightlessness overtook his body, and he could feel his mind opening to the being before him. Unfortunately, it had unpleasant implications of feeling exactly like the numerous attempts that had previously occurred to penetrate his mind. Specifically Demonic attempts.
Suddenly, the feeling decreased and eventually petered off, with the Being lowering her arms.
A husky voice spoke up.
'Well, now that thats over, can you get your buddies to drop your guns?'
Felix stared at the being before him.
Did she just speak?
The surrounding Lizardmen all turned and began chattering among each other, while the Saurus maintained their positions.
Gotrek muscled his way past the Captain and the Priest, making his way next to Felix.
'Now that it's all done, where the hell are we witch?'
Felix winced.
Oh this was going to be bad.
'We are on the Citadel. And all of you are in a lot of trouble.'
A loud thumping was heard, and numerous gunships descended from above, many cannons focused on the various Saurus and Kroxigor blearily turning and raising their weapons skywards, a few still remaining focused on their new prisoners, to dense to react to this new event.
One of the larger gunships, larger than the rest, spun around, revealing a back entrance containing a number of heavily armoured soldiers and what appeared to be a mounted cannon.
As Tela stepped forward, she couldn't help but feel apprehensive towards the two beings standing before her.
The smaller red furred one looked like it could take a hit from a Krogan and return with twice the power, while the taller, lankier one appeared to be equipped with a set of customized armor, along with an oversized pistol, complete with three separate barrels, each looking capable of blowing her shield out in one hit. Whether they could was another question, and one she wasn't willing to risk.
As she stepped forward, she could feel her Vindicator folding itself into standby mod, ready if she needed it. Although, the way that shorter one was, she suspected, glaring at her, she doubted she would be able to get it out before it got in close.
Thank the gods for Biotics then.
Raising her arms up in what she hoped was a peaceful fashion, she began to slowly speak to the pair of beings standing in front of her.
'Ok, I doubt you can understand me but we're just going to play this calm and relaxed ok?'
She lowered a finger down her palm and tapped at her interface, trying to connect to the squad network. A few taps, followed by continued eye contact with the two beings before her, and she was connected.
'Captain, I'm taking this slow, and I want to try and get up close, but I'm going to need you to lower your weapons. Judging by the way these things are standing, they're already frightened or looking for a fight, and we are not going to be the ones to start this.'
A blip of acknowledgement echoed through her suit, as the Captain and the Response Crew lowered their weapons and spread out outward, attempting to spread themselves apart in case things did go wrong.
'Its ok, you and me and all the people around us, we're all going to be fine. No shooting, no killing, no forced reports to the council, no nothing ok? You are just going to keep you weapons down, and not try to cut me up like an angry Krogan would.'
Tela watched as the taller one began to move its head from side to side, lowering its gun in what was hopefully a friendly manner, while the shorter one continued to stare at her, blade in hand. Quietly, they began to speak again in low tone.
What is it doing? Some kind of cultur-
A dark blue shape, almost invisible to the naked eye, slowly glided throughout the water surrounding the crashed ship, a strange ridge raised, causing the water to rise with it, betraying its position. Tela almost didn't see it, and if she hadn't been trained to deal with such situations, she probably wouldn't have. Unfortunately, the Response team weren't trained as she was, and still maintained a loose stance, all still focused on the two figures ahead of them.
Oh no.
A great splash, followed by numerous massive shapes rising upwards, shocked the entire Response team, with Vasir bracing herself to stop her from reacting suddenly.
As the water rained down, slowly dissipating into a thin mist, hulking blue shapes surrounded the Response team. Great things, reminiscent of something similar to an abomination of a bastard offspring of an alpha Varren, a Yagh and an angry Krogan all towered over the Response crew, each armored strangely, clad in tight jumpsuits covering what appeared to be their lower limbs and central body, with numerous plates of armor interlocked across them, all colored in what was a mixture of dark blue and a mixture of grays, with minuscule symbols and signs in a muted orange.
The things heads however, was their most terrifying aspect. Colored in a strange Hexagonal scheme of various shades of Gray and Blue, they covered the entire head of the beasts, leaving simple, featureless metal behind, the only major features being the horrific burnt orange light emitted from the seams of the helmet and the disturbingly industrialized symbols printed along a single side of each.
The weapons leveled against the response crew appeared to be strapped to the arms of the creatures, forming a massive gauntlet on the lower arm of each of them, connected by some metal band wired to their flesh, all the way across their shoulders and to a possible ammo source behind them. Each of them also held a bladed weapon like the two Tela originally faced, but different in shape. Similar in shape to the traditional weapons of the Krogan, the consisted of a long metal pole, some having numerous strange items tied to them, connected to a truly massive blade, complete with strange, golden inscriptions along its length.
Tela mentally cursed at both herself and the rest of the Crew that were behind her.
Of course there were going to be more exits, especially on a ship this size. The crew it required must be upwards of a hundred, not including any possible cultural or design differences that encourage even larger numbers of crew members aboard. And the probability of some form of military unit onboard, similar to the crews aboard traditional ships used by Citadel forces.
Worse still was the fact that the species she that now trained weapons on both her and the Response Crew were radically different, considering one was more than twice both her own height and that of the crew, along with being horrifically scaled and armed, and the others looked like smooth skinned, hairy beings.
Two new species, possibly in an alliance, currently at spacefaring stages and with ships similar in size to our own. I have to fix this before we end up starting a new war all over again.
Before she could step forward again, a great claw wrapped around her shoulder, its massive talons reaching her waist from size alone. Resisting the urge to throw the offender away with a pure biotic blast, with a warp thrown in for good measure, she slowly tilted her head backwards. A gigantic maw, filled with a mouth of fangs that would make a Krogan envious, and probably out bite a Yagh, was a few inches from her own. The massive head turned slightly, revealing a single unblinking eye staring into her own, connected to a massive body towering over her, its length and height greater than any known Citadel species to date.
What ever it was, it was either a giant among the beings holding the Response Crew hostage, or some sort of genetically enhanced attack dog. And judging by the by the various similar creatures Tela could spy behind its massive bulk, it appeared to be the later.
She would have continued to look at this thing that was undoubtedly something out of a horror vid, if it wasn't for another large splashing noise, along with something much more relieving. The communications officers had called back into the gunships that she had sent away earlier, and were organizing additional ones to arrive in support, along with some properly armed reinforcements.
All she had to do know was keep these things from biting her head off and this could all be turned to her advantage.
A smaller creature, barely reaching her waist scuttled past her, numerous fetishistic items and what she suspected were medals of some sort, jangling and dangling off its person. Its body shape was radically different from the beings she had identified previously, with it crouching much lower and maintaining a much smaller target area than the other scaled creatures surrounding the Response Crew. And she had no doubt it was one of them, its general shape and features containing numerous semblance's to the larger ones, despite varying key features, such as the massive orange frill and its diminutive size. Of course, this opened a whole new problem for both Herself and the Citadel, especially if the two species were as related as their features presented them to be.
Its clothing was also interesting, consisting of a tight body suit, incredibly similar to the suits worn by the bigger soldiers, but lacking any specific armor beyond a tight chest piece covering what she suspected was its vital organs. Where the skin suit was primarily a tight fitting thing, colored as the other soldiers, its chest piece was decorated with intricate patterns and what appeared to be gold inlay. Numerous signs, most likely suggesting some form of importance, colored in the same muted orange as before, were imprinted over its chest.
Calming herself, she attempted to beginning speaking again, but the strange smaller being was in conversation with the two before her, conversing in what could only be described as an unholy combination of snarls and hisses, along with a few sharp screeches. Suddenly, two more creatures darted past her, similar in shape to the previous one, but each radically different in outfits. The first one appeared to be wrapped in the same skin suit as the others, but it had some bizarre cape of bright feathers, fluttering behind it, along with a strange golden staff clasped in one claw, shaped in a horrific snarling face.
The second, smaller figure, following behind the first was wrapped in the bare essentials, which mainly consisted of the recognizable skin suit like the others, but lacking in the many disturbing fetishistic items and bone charms that decorated the other two, along with a thinner chest piece.
Each added into the conversation before her, gesturing wildly at her, eventually culminating in the highly decorated one striding around her, despite the giant remaining both solid and silent behind her, jabbing at her and pulling her arms outwards for the others to expect.
While the two other lizard beings chittered excitedly before her, Tela noticed that the two beings that had pulled themselves out of the original breech did not seem interested in her person or participate in the conversation beyond single grunts and nods.
As the begins all inspected her, she could her the coms teams sending blips through out the entire Response Crew network, informing all of them that the Gunships were on route to their persons, all fully armed and loaded up with additional crews to help secure the area in case things took a turn for the worse.
However, the smaller scaled begins appeared to have other plans, grabbing and raising her arms, while appearing to be in what appeared to be a fierce debate with the taller of the originally two beings, encouraging him to tak-
The Melding. Of course! But how do these things know about that?
Despite the appearance of these creatures, Tela's weariness towards them had changed, especially in regards to what she expected of them, and how big a possible threat they could possibly posses to both her and the Citadel races. If they had information on her species, especially something like the Mind Melding, despite the lack of any official meeting between them, it hinted at something much more sinister.
Raising her arms in compliance with the smaller scaled creatures, she rested her hands on the head of the taller, furred creature. Despite acting as one of the Councils SPECTRE units, and primarily focusing on eliminating any major military threats, she understood how to use her abilities as an Asari to Mind Meld with other beings. However, she did lack the specific training that many Asari interpreters undergo to transfer anything beyond basic linguistic knowledge.
As she tensed her arms on what she assumed was the forehead of the taller creature, she spent a few brief seconds taking in its facial features in comparison to her own. Where the Asari were subtler scaled creatures, the flesh of this being was tanned and old, covered in numerous rough hairs that she could feel under her fingers. The most interesting feature was the sheer number of subtle scares, which she could barely feel beneath her hands, a bizarre crisscross that would be impossible to notice without contact.
Her eyes focused on the darker pair in front of hers, and with a silent statement of 'embrace eternity'; she melded with the creature before her.
A/N: THIS LINK DOES NOT WORK, DON'T GO TO IT.
TowerofHoeth/C!Dwarf/Industry/Space
Article:
Early attempts at space flight
The effects of experiments into rocketry and the advance of the Chaos Dwarves.
Following increased growth and funding within numerous Empire Universities, which is often attributed to the development of public education and the abolishment of Child workers, efforts in the Imperial year of 3293 lead to the creation of an entirely new department of study within the major colleges, including the Bright Wizard college of Magic, Atmospheric Chemistry as part of the overarching field of Engineering. Originally formed within the Engineering College of Nuln (Redirects from: Imperial Gunnery School), it received full funding from the Elector Count's Office following the famous experiment of 3292 (Redirect: Magnus Rocket) which resulted in the first Alliance based, non-magically assisted atmospheric flight.
Despite this early development of rocketry, that eventually developed into the Alliance Space Program, by 3218 the central Ziggurat of Zharr-Naggrund was developing the space craft,Kalab Belim (Translated: The Master's Victory) that resulted in the first sentient being launched into the outer atmosphere of Luto Pila.
The originally design centered around a central rocket, with the primary design philosophy behind it being focused on simply getting the rocket into space, development of other key systems could be designed later, at the cost of over a hundred Hobgoblin slaves. Recorded information consists of the first 'Cosmonaut', the Hobgoblin Gharkan, repeatedly screaming during take off, before attempting to perform EVA space walk to the check for any potential damage and suffocating due to mistakes made during initial spacesuit design. Records still indicate that his body is in orbit, frozen and, according to popular Chaos Dwarven rumor, still screaming.
Note, his corpse is checked on the eve of the celebration of the original successful launch. Commonly referred to as 'Got a Gobo watching over you' (Redirect: multi-species Popular sayings), it is often used as a statement referring to the averageness of whoever it is directed at.
Later launches and rocketry development, culminating in the development of the first Alliance Space Station, continued over the following centuries.
However, their are many opinions surrounding the development of space flight, with many blaming the unregulated launches of numerous Space Craft for the various 'Morrslieb Wars' and the eventual Morrslieb Warpstone crisis. Also noted for the universal condemnation of Skaven actions during this period, and the development of the first and only planetary Dwarven Grudge.
Wooo, finally uploading this to Fanfiction!