Prologue: Untitled
(Well, I know the title is technically "Prologue: Untitled", but come on, let me have some fun.)
Reggie Owens sighed, and looked dejectedly into the clear night sky, as he walked along the sidewalks of his suburban neighborhood, hands in the pockets of his white hoodie. His latest girlfriend had just broken up with him, leaving him to walk home alone. Why must everything bad happen to him? Reggie was a good guy, he had treated her right, volunteered at the local Veterinary Hospital, had a steady job as a caretaker in the old folks' home... He couldn't see why she had dumped him.
"Hey there, mopeypants. What's wrong now?" Reggie's miserable reverie was broken by the familiar drawl of his favorite gal from Alabama, his best friend, Alex Tanner. She sat on the top of her car, a '97 Charger, parked at the end of the block, staring into the night sky.
Reggie sighed. "Ollie broke up with me."
Gesturing to the parked car, Reggie sighed again, features getting even more morose. "Although I guess you knew she would."
Alex shrugged, brushing her long bangs out of her face. "Reggie... it was kind of no secret that 'Livvy just wanted a piece of that fine, sculpted booty."
Her eyes following the curve of his backside, she nodded appreciatively. "Rawr."
Reggie just rolled his eyes, his best friend easily bringing him out of his funk. The redhead had that effect on everyone, although Reggie and her were some of the closest friends anyone would ever see.
Hopping down from the hood, brown leather bomber jacket flapping about, Alex looked at Reggie, and said, "Midnight Road?"
Reggie nodded, an actual smile breaking across his face. "Midnight Road."
The Midnight Road was an old, overgrown dirt path, barely wide enough for her Charger, found by Reggie and Alex years back, when Reggie was chased by Mrs. Doff's big mastiff, Frank, who thought he was a trespasser.
Alex bailed him out by letting him in the car, just in time, but by then, they had gotten too much forward momentum to stop. Crashing through the underbrush, they had found a small open path in the woods around the community. Following the trail through the thick brush, they stumbled upon a clearing, where there were no trees above nor bushes below, where the stars seemed to be closer to the earth than anywhere else. It was their own little refuge from the craziness of the world, and they liked it that way.
The two sat on the hood of the Charger, side by side, looking at the stars. They were both drinking from cans of some crappy beer, laughing at bad jokes, and generally having a good time. However, even though they were both getting buzzed, their conversation sobered up, as Reggie vented to his best friend about the travails of his love life, frustration at his seeming helplessness to keep a stable relationship building, and showing on his face.
"It's just... it seems no matter what I do, nothing goes right for me. Ollie cheated on me, Sophia dumped me, and Tiffany moved to go to UCAF. What am I doing wrong, Alex? Why does nothing work out for me?"
Alex thought it over for a second, then looked at him, winking. "I think... it might have to do with your terrible taste in women."
Reggie, grossly offended, began to say, "Hey, at least I'm dating-," but Alex cut him off by throwing an empty can at his head, laughing at the doink sound it made when it bounced off.
"First: Ow. That hurts. Second: Hey, you could be doing waaaaay worse. At least you're getting hella laid." Laughing a bit, Alex brushed her hair behind her ear and looked at Reggie, saying, "Reggie... It's really not your taste in women. Really. It's more that... you open your heart to everyone, and you overlook their flaws, so you're constantly hurt." Pulling another beer from the plastic six-pack-ring, she opened it with a ssssss, and took a sip of it, the foam tickling her upper lip.
"You just need to learn when to take a break, Reggie. You don't always need to be in a relationship. Try it. Take some time. Live your own life, not one focused on another person."
Reggie just stared. When had his friend become so... wise? Alex winked at her longtime friend. "Marvel before my Koan-like knowledge." Reggie smiled, shaking his head. Alex would be Alex, he supposed. Finishing off his drink, and cracking open another beer, he looked at the night sky, and gasped. There was a giant three-fingered hand, long talons at the end of each finger, wrapping around the moon. What came next, though, neither hapless Reggie nor world-wise Alex could begin to explain.
A long ribbed body coalesced out of the stars, and the taloned hand tossed the moon, the freaking moon, to where a head should be on the serpentine being. Once on its' 'shoulders', the moon shifted to become the head of an Eastern Dragon, which looked altogether too smug for a moon-turned-face. Slithering towards them, the dragon made of stars and moondust examined them closely, the Aitken Basin turned into a single, ebony eye. Stunned, all Alex and Reggie could do was stare at it in shock. When it spoke, its' voice boomed, in a great baritone, rattling the car's windows.
"Hmmm, yes, you should do nicely. I'll save you the trouble of signing the contract. Now be on your way, you two, and no shagging in the portal."
Before they could even cry out, the dragon snapped his fingers, and they suddenly weren't on top of the Charger, rather, they were now in a hell of whirling colors, clouds, and lightning. Neither one could stay awake for more than two seconds of getting buffeted about like that, and the hell of colors disappeared into the peaceful darkness of unconsciousness.
Lord Regonas woke up with a start, rubbing his eyes. It appeared that he had fallen asleep on his throne, a massive obsidian number, with skulls, spikes, and jets of flame decorating it. Regonas was quite proud of it.
Standing up, he stretched, and then strode forward, dressed in a long black trenchcoat, which admittedly did add to the general aestetic of the room, then walked towards the single door of the throne room, a giant metal gate, which opened upon his mental command. Really, the whole throne room in general was pretty badass, no question. Stepping through the gate, he found himself in a brightly lit, functionalist corridoor, with several black-uniformed guards standing at doors, each of which had a rifle slung over their shoulder and a large pistol as their sidearm.
The guards, who had been chatting amicably before now, stopped talking, and snapped to attention as soon as they saw him. Smiling, he waved them off, letting them return to the 'ready' position. He would admit, being saluted did give him a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Walking down the hallway, he found his destination at the end, behind a large bulkhead, which opened with a pnumatic hiss as he approached, revealing a spacious command room, a large window taking up most of the wall, showing him the black void of space, broken only by pinpricks of light, the numerous stars that dotted the entirety of space.
On the floor in front of him was a large holographic display that switched through several statistics and status reports from all over the ship, but finally came to rest on the damage report, a massive holographic model of the dreadnaught, which had several flashing red dots to represent areas of severe damage to the Andromeda. The display revealed that decks 30-50 had quite a few issues to deal with; from boarders, to fires, to venting atmosphere; the ship was a bit of a fixer-upper. Considering they had only taken the gargantuan capital ship from this... Galactic Republic a few hours ago, he was pleased and fairly impressed with his troops' progress. Another day and it would be completely secure. However, it was not the time to focus on the future, for there were more pressing matters on hand. Such as the Republic Fleet that jumped in about twelve kilometers out, and began closing on the Andromeda.
As soon as they jumped in, the Fleet Captain had previously ordered that they fire upon the captive dreadnaught, the Andromeda. Which suited Commander Var'ryk of the Spiral Arm just fine. His bridge a professional bustle of officers rushing about their duty stations, he grit his teeth as he gave the order.
"All hands, fire." While he had initially felt guilt over the thought of engaging his sister ship, it was clear, judging from the corpses that floated among the debris of the Andromeda's guardian cruisers, bloated and iced over, it was not a Republic vessel anymore. It was an enemy.
With a tremendous roar of the guns, the rumble of which could be felt on all decks, the Spiral Arm opened fire upon the Andromeda seconds before the rest of the fleet followed suit.
Millions of mutitions flew through space towards his ship. Regonas merely smirked. Missiles, torpedoes, railguns, those wouldn't do anything. He had an ace up his sleeve. Looking down at his First Officer, Regonas asked, "Has the Hekate been installed?"
Loking through a list of active ship's systems, the bespectacled man nodded. "Yes sir, we have placed it near the reactor core, and shunted the power for life support for some of the unoccupied decks to it. It was fully charged two hours after takover, sir."
Regonas nodded, and looked at the wall of veritable death. As it neared the Andromeda, Regonas watched, only acting when it came within two kilometers of the ship. Sending a psychic message to all hands, Regonas' eyes glowed a bright silver with eldritch power.
All hands, brace for Hekate use. Commencing in 3...2...1... Activate. His voice resonating in their minds like the booming of a drum, countless crew clapped their hands over their ears, and braced themselves against walls, chairs and terminals; whatever they could find. Regonas, however, did not, simply standing on the viewing platform, arms clasped behind his back, eyes glowing silver with power.
He blinked.
Commander Var'ryk was confused. Their opening salvo elicited no response from the Andromeda. Was everyone on the ship dead? You'd think that they'd at least move to perform evasive manuvers, even though there was no way anyone could dodge the attacks of the Fleet- Var'ryk got his answer a split-second later.
"Sir! Massive power surge on the Andromeda!" The sensors were blaring wildly as the ensign at the Tactical Sensors station on the bridge before him. "It's of a strength unlike anything I've ever seen before!"
Commander Var'ryk blanched when he saw the difference in intensity compared to their own systems. It was over an eight hundred percent increase, rating higher than the fusion cores that the ships had. "How is this possible? The reactors on the Andromeda shouldn't produce that much-" The Commander was cut off by the sight of the enemy ship being shrouded in a bubble of silver flame, and promptly vanishing from view. Just like that.
Shocked, the crew and their commander both gaped at the empty space, watching their salvo fly harmlessly through nothing.
"Cease fire! Battle stations, cease fire!" Channels opened up between the ships, the commanders reasonably frightened, trying to make sense of what happened. Unfortunately, they would never get that chance.
Appearing in a flash of silver behind the assembled fleet, about a kilometer away, was the Andromeda. The ship, although battered, with debris flying from the various breaches that pockmarked the ship, still had enough weaponry to level a small continent.
After almost a full second of silence from the ship, all guns, launchers, and beams fired, each turret, gun deck, missile launcher, and beam bank firing on a different target. The fleet never had a chance. The engines and reactors of the larger ships went first, triggering an explosive meltdown, throwing what was left of the capital ships into the smaller vessels, tearing into them with a savage force. After that, the guns were brought to bear on the ships that had escaped the explosions unscathed, causing the cruisers and frigates to get shredded like paper, when fired upon by a dreadnaught.
With an orgy of steel, energy, and fire, the Republic Fleet was no more.
Smiling as he saw the explosions through the viewport, Regonas stepped back. Waving for the bridge crew to continue with their duties, he said, "Good job men. Plot a course for the Nebula Portal. As soon as we hit the portal, you get to go off-duty. Spend time with your families, relax, stuff like that." The professionals nodded, simply looking at their various consoles, holodisplays, and stations, but there was not a face that wasn't smiling when he left.
Regonas stepped back out into the white hallway, where he was greeted by two saluting guards. Saluting, and motioning for them to be at ease, he moved past, doing the same for each guard that saluted him. It never hurt to be nice to your employees. It made them more loyal to you, and everything ran smoother. Surprisingly, people didn't have a problem with you trying to take over the multiverse if you let them take their families and gave them free medical coverage.
At the end of the hallway, he reached the elevator, which had two guards in black body armor standing at attention by the door. Pushing the button, Regonas got inside the small, featureless room, and said, "Deck 30." The door closing, he shot downwards in his elevator.
It was time to evict the previous owners of the ship.