Penarch System

UPR Frigate: The Nova

Former UPR Cpt. Trevor Ghalt watched from the bridge of his appropriated ship as Penarch's sun was being consumed by the varelsi. If it wasn't for the fact that the star's demise was going to render several planets completely uninhabitable and kill-off whatever life is still remaining on this part of the universe, it would have been quite a spectacle to watch.

A massive tear in the fabric of reality opened right next to the sun. And several gigantic pitch-black tendrils began to wrap themselves around its surface. At the same time, the sun's very essence seemed to be sucked right into the portal as the tendrils squeezed the life out of it, like a snake crushing its prey.

It just kept crushing the surface of the star and pulling it straight into the portal. Until, in a blinding flash of light, the star ceased to exist. And at that moment…every planet that it sustained was now doomed to die in the dark.

To make matters worse, the planet that Trevor was just standing on was also getting destroyed by the varelsi. Evidently, they didn't want to wait for this one to freeze-up like a soda left in the back of the fridge for too long. Instead, another huge portal opened up. More tendrils came to crush the planet. And then, in a matter of minutes, the entire planet was crushed into millions of pieces, which were all sucked right into the portal before it closed.

Once both of these celestial bodies were completely gone, Trevor couldn't help but let out a sigh that was filled with both defeat and anger. He didn't even want to think about how many lives, sentient or otherwise, were now going to die because their only star was now totally destroyed. He also couldn't help but briefly wonder how long it will take before they even notice their star is gone, given how long it takes for its light to reach a planet.

Ghalt shook his head and banished these thoughts from his mind. He needed to stay focused on the bigger picture, here. There was now only one start left. And his recent actions on Penarch made it more than clear that he was no longer a member of the Peace-Keepers.

He made it a point to drop-off any UPR personal he rescued prior to this event. At least, those that don't want to be a part of the team he was trying to build. "Nova, set a course for Bliss. And make sure you take us somewhere that isn't too close to a major UPR military base. Take us to one of the refugee camps, instead," he ordered the ship's AI.

"You know, technically, I don't take orders from you anymore. Since you're….you know…..AWOL," Nova pointed out as her hologram appeared on a nearby terminal. She had a shit-eating smirk on her face as well.

"Well, go ahead and quit, if you want. Not like there is anything stopping you. Except, you know…..your 'off' switch," Ghalt pointed out casually. "Besides, it's not like you have legs and can walk yourself out."

"Your right. I don't have legs. But what I do have is access to the ship's guidance and life-support systems," Nova reminded Ghalt with a somewhat evil tone, unnerving Ghalt a bit. He hoped like hell that she was joking. He trusted her, sure. But even he had to be cautious with her. AI's are supposed to be tied to the Magnus System set up by the LLC. And with that gone, that means any AI in the galaxy can go bat-shit crazy in a heartbeat.

"Ha! I'm kidding. Don't worry. I like you too much to kill you, former Cpt. Trevor Ghalt," Nova spoke with a reassuring tone and an amused smile. Then, she merely disappeared from sight before stated over the intercom, "Setting course for Bliss."

Now with that out of the way, Ghalt walked away from the command terminal and went over to the two Jennerit combatants that were hanging out in the farthest corner of the bridge. He rescued them from being torn apart by a massive horde of varelsi and let them stay on the ship. Of course, since they were Jennerit, they didn't exactly say 'thank you'.

One of them was a male with an angular face, possessing three large glowing red swords and wearing a simple yet sturdy looking combat armor that covered his entire body, save for his grey-skinned face. The other was a rather tall woman with pure white skin, wielding a large staff, sporting an elaborate head-dress on her smooth black hair that went down to her back, and she was also wearing elegant red robes. Strangely enough, she was also floating in mid-air, just a few inches off the ground. And like any Jennerit, both of them had bright red eyes.

The male warrior was the first to speak as the UPR engineer approached them. "Once again, Rendain's actions have cost countless lives. And he still roams around the galaxy without consequence," he spoke with heavy disgust in his voice. "Though…..I suppose without your help, we would have suffered a same fate."

"Hey, don't mention it," Trevor replied warmly. "So…..you know who I am. But I never got your names."

The swordsman frowned as he leaned against the wall behind him and crossed his arms. "My name is Verod Rath. I was a member of the Jennerit Royal Guard."

Then, the woman spoke up, with her voice containing a heavy noblewoman's accent. "And you shall address me as Claudia Ambralla Divia," she told him. And by the way she said that, it was clear that she thought of herself as being superior to him. Although, many Jennerit thought they were better than everyone else.

"You can just call her Ambra. That's what everyone else does," Rath spoke up, earning a scowl from her.

"I am a Silent Sister of the Eternal Mother's royal court! I will not have my name be shorten like…like…like some horrible short-film or a male sex part that's been in the pool for too long!"

Trevor couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at that last part. "Well, that's a lovely image. Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly where you two doing on that planet? And how come you already know me?"

Rath looked rather bored by the question, letting out an annoyed sigh and staring towards the center of the bridge before he answered. "Well, human, if you must know, we came to Penarch because we heard ahead of time that Rendain was going to attack the system. I came here to do battle with him. But by the time we arrived, it was too late. He was already darkening the planet and we were left trapped on the surface by his dark minions." It was then that a sneer graced his face, showing off the set of sharp fangs that were in his mouth.

Jennerit weren't called 'space vampires' for nothing.

"That sniveling coward. Always hiding behind his worthless soldiers and monsters," he stated with heavy resentment and hatred in his voice. But then, he quickly reassumed his more calm composure and looked back at Ghalt. "Anyway, I heard of you, Ghalt. Long before all this madness. You're the only non-Jennerit that's ever escaped from our maximum security prison on Tempest. Impressive, I suppose…..anyway, our mutual friend, Deande, told us all about you and your plan to assemble a team to fight Rendain. A very bold plan, indeed."

"Ahem!" Ambra emitted with a frown. "Now that introductions are out of the way, how about you tell us what you plan on doing with us, Cpt. Ghalt?" she questioned with very clear distrust in her voice. "Your machine stated that we are heading for Bliss, which I know for a fact is the UPR central planet. Am I correct in assuming that you are planning to hand us over to your superiors?"

Ghalt couldn't help but laugh at that question. He raised his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat before he responded. "Sorry…..heh…..anyway, to be honest, I'm not exactly on the UPR military's good graces right now. Saving you two pretty much caused me to lose my job," he explained before he gave a casual shrug. "Not that I care, though. I've been planning on leaving for quite a while, now. I support what the UPR is doing. But, they are more concerned about trying to survive the end of the universe instead of trying to prevent it."

He then motioned for the two Jennerit rebels to follow him over to the command console at the center of the room. He typed in a few buttons on the display and then a holo-map of the galaxy was shown to them. It displayed Solus, the last start in the known universe, and the planets that still remained. It also showed which planet and section of the galaxy was controlled by which faction.

"It's a problem that I've seen a lot of the factions having. Everyone is more concerned about saving themselves and trying to grab as much territory from the rest as possible, without even trying to do something to save what's left of the universe." With that said, he then turned back around to Rath and Ambra. "I'm not arrogant to the situation. I know that Rendain has everyone out-numbered and out-gunned. But I'm not going to give up. I'm going to fight back. Even if I have to do it alone. Luckily, I don't have too. I've been contacting some friends of mine, here and there, trying to build up a team of people that want to save Solus like I do."

He gave a brief pause as both Rath and Ambra looked at each other. They seemed rather intrigued by this.

"I'm not sure if Deande has told you all about this already or not. However, I would still like to ask you two to join-up. I'm not blind to the fact that your people and mine have a lot of differences. But all I care about is saving the last star and kicking Rendain's ass. So, will you join me?"

Rath and Ambra both studied the large human for a long moment as they considered this proposition. But once again, Rath was the first to speak. "I shall lend you my sword in this endeavor, Trevor Ghalt. Your mission shall no doubt have you facing very dangerous enemies. And I shall relish in killing every last one of them. However, I shall only do this on one condition." He paused as he stepped up to Trevor until he was right in front of the man.

"I shall be the one to kill Rendain. No one else shall take this honor from me. Not you. Not Deande. Not anyone. I will the one that disembowels his body and cuts off his stupid smug head, so that I can feel the warm blood from his corpse drench my armor and skin. I shall build an effigy from his broken body, to remind all what happens to those who betray our once great Imperium."

Ghalt had to admit, he was slightly creeped out by this guy. Rath clearly seemed obsessed with killing Rendain. He couldn't help but wonder why, but he would save those questions for later. "Um…sure. Why not? I'll let you have the 'honor of the kill' I guess."

"Excellent!" Rath spoke with an almost insane grin on his face. "I cannot wait until we face him! Together, we shall destroy everything he has built! And then, I shall be the one that has him on the ground, bloodied and broken, begging me to end his wretched life!"

"And as for me," Ambra stated, maintaining her aura of superiority. "I suppose I can lend you my assistance, if it means ending Rendian's ghastly rule and restoring the royal court to its former glory."

Ghalt looked quite pleased by this. Things were finally starting to move forward. Now, all he ahd to do was start putting out his 'call to action' transmission, to see who else he could recruit to his team.

"However," Ambra spoke up, interrupting Ghalt's thought process. "I would like to know who else shall be on this team. Surely, you don't plan on recruiting the gutter-trash from every planet left?"

Ghalt wasn't sure how to respond to that. And unfortunately, he wouldn't be given the chance. Right when Ambra finished her sentence, the entry door to the bridge opened up. And three UPR soldiers walked out. Well, more like stumbled out.

Montana, the gigantic and over-muscled human lumber-jack. Oscar Mike, the crazy, combat-obsessed, clone trooper. And Benedict, the self-absorbed, arrogant, and very loud avian demolitions-man. They were all the first ones to join Ghalt's team. And they would have been inside of the bridge, by now, if it wasn't for the fact that Montana was currently stuck in the doorway.

"God dang it, Man-Mountain! I told you not to go first! Now your big fat ass is blocking the way!" Benedict shouted in rage as he strained to push Montana through the door.

"Hey! That's not very nice! My ass isn't fat! It's firm!" Montana argued as he struggled to push himself out. "Go on! Tell him I'm right, Mike!"

"Hell no! You will not pull me into an argument about your ass!" Oscar exclaimed in response. Then, at that point, they finally managed to push Montana out and they all feel out through the doorway at once. Then, they all picked themselves back up and dusted themselves off.

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Montana asked with his typical friendly smile.

"Ha! That's what she said!" Benedict exclaimed with an obnoxious tone before he raised his hand up to get a high five. "Come on! Come on! Don't leave me hanging now!"

"Shut-up, Benedict! You're stupid! And your name is stupid, too!" Oscar Mike exclaimed with an accusing finger pointed at the birdman. "You should change your name to SUCK! As in, YOU SUCK!"

"Oh yeah? Well, I would say that I enjoyed having your momma suck my dick, but…..oh wait…..you don't have one do you?" Benedict countered.

"Guys!" Ghalt finally exclaimed, deciding not to let this go any further. "What did I tell you? No fighting on the bridge! Now get over here and tell me what the hell you guys want."

With that said, each of the three went up to where Ghalt, Rath, and Ambra stood. And the two Jennerit looked rather unimpressed by them.

"Hey? Are these the space vampires we pulled out of Penarch?" Oscar Mike asked, earning a glare and an angry snarl from Rath.

"I. Am. Not. A. Fucking. Vampire!" Rath shouted as he reached for his swords.

"Alright! Will everyone just cool it down a bit? Sheesh," Ghalt spoke with a shake of his head before he looked over at his fellow UPR soldiers. "Now what's the deal?"

"It's about our team, sir," Montana replied. "We've been talking about it. And we think this team really needs a cool name so people can identify it."

Ghalt's eyes widened a bit in surprise. Mostly due to the fact that he wasn't really thought of that until now. "Huh. Your right. We do need a name. It's gotta be something short and catchy, though. Something that's clear and easily identifiable."

At that point, Benedict quickly cut in. "Oh! Oh! I know! Squadron Badass! Or maybe the S-Team! Like…the 'S' is for Solus. Or…..how about Benedict and his Amazing Friends?"

Montana then voiced his suggestion with enthusiasm in his voice, followed by Oscar Mike. "What if we called ourselves something with one word? Like the Defenders or the Crusaders or something? We could be like superheroes and fight crime!"

"All units. Be advised. Our unit shall be called the Dogs of War! Or how about the Badasses of War? No! Wait! I got it! We'll call ourselves xxxL337sQu4Dxxx!"

"Bah!" Rath exclaimed with his arms crossed in distaste. "Our name should inspire fear in our enemies! Perhaps the Blood-Hunters! Or even better, the People that Shall Help Rath Brutally Murder Rendain!"

Everyone was trying to suggest a team name. To the point where Ghalt was starting to get a headache. "Ok. Ok," he stated, stopping everyone. "We can deal with this later. Nova, show these guys where they are going to be sleeping."

"Acknowledged. Everyone please head straight to the elevator."

At this point, everyone finally left and gave Ghalt some peace and quiet. He gave a long sigh of relief as he went back over to the command terminal.

"Well, I never expected this to be easy. I better get used to this now," he thought to himself as he began to set up the comms array with some button presses. Now that he had everyone he needed from Penarch, it was time to put out the call to action. To relay a signal across the galaxy to let everyone know that if they want to help save the last star and stop Rendain, then they need to join up with Ghalt's little band of misfits.

So with that in mind, he accessed his personal log, hit the record button, and began to speak the message that he would be sending out to every corner of the galaxy.

"This is Trevor Ghalt of the Nova, formerly of the United Peacekeeping Republics. If your hearing this, you and I are acquainted in one form or another."

(I do not own Battleborn or its characters. They are both registered trademarks of Gearbox Software and any other respected companies involved with it.)