"What the... Where'd they go?" Tarna wondered, echoing her surprise. "Cloaked, retreating, or just regrouping?"
"Unknown, Commander," Vicky responded, searching through the network of sensory arrays available to her from onboard to military-emplaced ones throughout the sphere. "No evidence of their gravitic anomaly usage was detected, nor any hint of faint traces which might indicate cloaking technology even through the use of Elorai'isin arrays. To all appearances, they simply... ceased to exist."
"That's really weird..."
Tarna tried to see about using her unskilled Seeking to detect any traces of magic use, as she recalled that sort of thing to be possible only through Void Magic. There were traces of... something, though Tarna wasn't sure exactly what it was. Her attempt was sufficient, however, to determine that the fleet was neither cloaked nor fled to another location... it no longer existed.
Tarna tepped to Melaran, "Did you see that? Can you get a better reading on what happened to them? You're better at Seeking than me..."
"I'll try," Melaran replied, reaching out for some sign of what happened and clearly confused by the sudden strange occurrence as well. Surprise resounded as he replied after a few long moments, "The taste of it is Elorai'isin... Somehow, they're responsible for the fleet vanishing. It wasn't that they were destroyed, it's like... they never existed."
"Void Magic," Tarna replied. "Had to be. That's the only thing that could do that, that I know of. Are you alright over there?"
"Yeah, just more than a little confused," Melaran replied, "though I should have expected something when we left that... whatever it was back in the command center. At least the defense and repair systems look to be well-able to handle what was dished out."
Embarrassment colors the gestalt, and Vicky meekly offered an apology for the incident.
"It's not your fault," Tarna addressed primarily to Vicky. "Wish we'd had time to secure the area properly, but I don't think it would have helped much anyway. What about you? Will you be okay?"
"My internal repair systems will return me to within easily acceptable combat parameters in a reasonable timeframe, Commander," Vicky replied, 'acceptable' apparently meaning 90+% as the gestalt shows her estimations.
Tarna relaxed somewhat as it seems nobody else was about to shoot at them immediately, and tepped, "Well, if the Elorai'isin helped us, perhaps we should go thank them... or at least figure out what the hell is going on." Her thoughts betrayed a tinge of distrust. She still didn't really trust the Elorai'isin.
"Barring extra-orbital transit," Vicky replied, "I estimate a two point three four six month transit to their sector. While I am capable of performing such maneuvers, I am unsure as to our ally." There were still a great many questions which lurk in the depths of the Bolo's mind, but she shielded them away for the moment.
Tarna smirked mentally. "I'm surprised they haven't said anything else by now, either..." Tarna quietly wished she were away from here, away from these crazy elves, and back with the crazy Elkandu who she could at least trust to do stupid things on a regular basis. She nonetheless relaxed somewhat and thought, "If you want to ask something, please do so, I will answer, and the immediate danger seems passed."
The Bolo seemed unsure and uncertain, the reasons for questioning ones acknowledged, accepted, and, with the command center gone, unchangeable, Commander were few. The Mark XL had been endowed with a greater capacity than any of its predecessors, however, and she finally asked simply, "Who and, as importantly, what are you, Commander?"
"I am a psychically capable human from the planet of Khizsalr in the Elkandu Universe," Tarna replied. '"I am capable of changing between human and Eldar forms at will, as is Melaran, but I was not born that race. I am an Elkandu, a term in my home universe for a being of any race capable of a certain level of psychic/magical abilities. In Elkandu terms, my talents are Mind, Dream, and Motion."
"I see," Vicky replied thoughtfully. "Which would imply that you are indeed not from this universe at all, and the originally assumed status was, if perhaps not deliberately, false." She fell silent for a few seconds, a span of time incredibly long for the mind that Tarna could feel at work, then continued quietly, "However, as humanity appears to have fallen, I can find no reason to refute or refuse your authority, Commander."
"As I said before, I'm not really from around here. Another place, another timeline, where different things happened, perhaps things turned out better there. Melaran is from another timeline as well, a different one than I, one apparently designated the 'Warhammer' universe by the Elkandu for unknown reasons."
"It does not matter, Commander," Vicky replied. "The matter is resolved within acceptable parameters. What are your orders for proceeding from this point?"
"I'd very much like to be back there at this point," Tarna replied honestly. "But first, one way or another, the Elorai'isin..." She tepped over to Melaran about that.
"Hmm," Melaran replied, thinking it over. "The titan does appear to be able to attain orbit, though I have no clue what its capabilities are beyond that. Hate to leave it here, and barring any intervention by outside forces..." he began, someone clearly being of at least partial jester nature as the universe twisted around them and they found themselves suddenly standing among the fields at the foot of the Elorai'isin mountains.
Their ship was nearby, apparently undisturbed, but Tarna could sense that Vicky had gone into furiously analytical mode at the sudden change of location. Location, vector of change, a variety of other variables were being assessed at a blinding speed.
"Well, that's convenient," Tarna observed.
"Naturally," replied Melaran with clear exasperation, the sheer amount of power needed to transport them this distance in short order after eliminating that fleet leaving him annoyingly questioning regarding just why they needed their assistance in this at all.
Tarna didn't bother questioning it, herself, being far too used to powerful people being flaky and eccentric about various things. If anything, that at least felt normal out of all of this, if annoying.
"Are you prepared for your final journey?" asked the Eldest. "A long road have you followed, and nearly to its end have you stepped. What may await you, whether despair or enlightenment, is wholly left within the domain of your own souls."
Perhaps it was the multiple links involved, or maybe just something that was slipping through, but the contact seemed tired and edged with dark hints of sorrow.
"I do hope that isn't a euphemism for death," Tarna replied, wholly wanting to be out of here and home again, assuming that involves being alive while she does so.
"In some measure, yes," the Eldest replied, a flicker of amusement lighting and then dying as suddenly away. "Yet not in the sense that you may fear. Your purpose here is complete, children, and I would show you the whole of it before ending the game which was laid out, calculated, and found in the end to be wanting."
"Oh no, not more games," Tarna replied with a touch of a mental groan. "Sigh. What is it?"
"You have already played, dear girl," the Eldest replied softly. "There is no more reason to pursue it further, as the flame was insufficient to rekindle that which was shadowed ages ago and descended inevitably into darkness. I had surely hoped that else might transpire, yet even my Sight could find no better prospect than that which had presented itself."
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" Tarna wondered. "What's going on here?"
"I have used you poorly," the Eldest replied gently, "and for this are you owed more than apology, yet such is all which may be offered to atone for that which has passed. You came to this universe through random chance, and were seized upon as an avenue by which purpose might well be re-kindled... too little, too late," she mourned.
"I don't understand," Tarna replied. "What's wrong? What purpose?"
"Come," the Eldest replied simply, once again the universe bending to her whim as they found themselves somewhere else entirely. The chamber was massive and clearly of human design, a command center on a far grander scale than the one that they'd seen on the military base. Myriad screens looked out on the various sectors across the sphere, data regarding status and requests flashing on many of them...
Yet it would seem that they would go unheeded and unseen, as the command couch at the center was occupied by a form clothed in the tattered remnants of a Hegemony Survey command uniform, its sky blue as faded as the bleached bone which inhabited it. That was not all, however, as the Eldest stood silently gazing at the assembled group of four humanoids, Tarna and Melaran of course, but they were not alone.
A fair-complected elven male clad in brilliant and elegant armor stood beside Melaran, while a human woman with rich red hair and startling green eyes stood near Tarna, both looking around with expressions of shock.
Tarna looked over in surprise at the others, extremely confused on the matter. Just when things were starting to make sense... "I'd prefer an explanation to an apology..."
"And so you shall have one," the Eldest replied in a gentle voice for the benefit of all those present so as to add as little confusion beyond what they already experienced. "See before you the last of man's follies in this place, for the alien and merciless Xichee had hunted those who remained throughout the universe to extinction thousands of years ago.
"You..." She motioned toward the other woman and inclines her head. "You have served your duty and honor well, having vanquished the race which had brought the slender reed standing against the maelstrom of time to annihilation. Your creators would have risen once more, as you surmised, but they were swept before the locusts of death without pity or hesitation.
"Humanity, in its way, shall be mourned in its passing," she finished quietly, gently touching the shoulder of the skeleton. "This one found a great Sphere and claimed it as his own, those who had once reveled in the light of its star having dimmed in their own way and departed wholly into the twilight realms. His motivations were petty, but not without merit, a fair representation of what humankind had managed to achieve over the ages."
Tarna looked oddly at the other woman for a moment, then back to the Eldest, not really understanding what she's saying. Had she missed something here? She figured she probably missed quite a lot of things here, and wasn't surprised at that assessment.
"Your part," the Eldest turned to look at Tarna directly, "Was born of fate and chance, the rogue winds of the ethereal bringing you within the sphere which I call my own. To see such a flame, a gift beyond price which had been bestowed and then foolishly rejected by distant kin... it gave birth to a song of hope and joy which I had not heard in a great many years."
She sighed softly and smiled. "There were yet those of my children who remained here, and it was to rekindle their flame which I turned your own, shaping your destiny to that purpose in all things. Their awakening and rise to vengeance was heartening indeed, and yet..." She lifted a hand before her, palm cupped, and then turned it over as though pouring water from it. "Their spirit dimmed once more once purpose was achieved.
"Great hope did I have that you might inspire them, to return a flicker of life which you have lent to others along your path knowing or unknown. It was not to be, however, and the last of my children has turned their back and departed for the darkness, leaving only the one who brought them forth in the beginning to mourn what was and shall never again be."
"I don't understand. I was hardly even there for a few hours..." Tarna said in confusion. "What was I supposed to do?" She sighed.
"Shhh, child," the Eldest soothed gently. "You did all and more that I had any right to ask or place you in the path of. Your passage in this universe was orchestrated from the beginning, to bring you within contact with elements which I considered useful to the intended purpose. You reacted admirably and acted with great bravery and honor, and it was that which I hoped to refresh the spirits of my own retreating children.
"Their fate is not at your hand, nor is it rightly at mine though I will question that eternally in the shadows of a desolate and lifeless husk where many races ones strode among the stars. I did not mislead you when I spoke of your Chaos gods, for their number were indeed known here, but were absorbed into myself and distilled, purified to ease their burden upon those who would else have fallen to their lusts."
Tarna sighed softly and looked to the floor, but at least she wasn't complaining or demanding explanations now. "So... now what, then? What will become of them? What of... us?" she glanced uncertainly to the others there, still wondering absently just what that might mean.
"I will return you wherever you wish," the Eldest replied, grinning faintly. "Somehow I doubt that the gods of your own universe will object too greatly to a brief intrusion, certainly not one which returns such valued members to their fold unharmed. The two who are suspected as known shall have their own decision to make as well, legacies of both departed races should be given that much at the least."
Tarna gave a slight nod, thinking she understood finally, at least in part. She said quietly, "It would be Torn Elkandu, then, I believe. We could find our way from there to... wherever." She thought of Khizsalr, and tried to remember when the last time she was even there, that they were traveling to when thrown so wildly off course.
"Consider it for a time," the Eldest replied gently, waving the remnants in the command chair from existence. "I have yet to decide the fate of those who reside within this sphere and will need ponder it further. Be certain, and when you are prepared then you need only speak it... as you should know by now." She chuckled softly, walking away from the chair and taking the Elven man by the arm, "We have a few things to discuss."
He looked confused, but the Eldest didn't seem inclined to hesitation in anything that she did and they vanish after a brief nod to Tarna and Melaran.
Tarna sighed and said to nobody in particular, "Just when things were starting to make sense..." She glanced over toward her company again and said, "Well..."
"What a waste," Melaran snorted lightly, walking over to take a look at the command couch thoughtfully. "If what she said is right, and I have no reason to doubt it, all that's left in this whole universe is right here on this sphere, and even the Elorai'isin are gone..." He shook his head and repeated himself, "What a waste."
Vicky, as the human woman might have been identified as by now, had remained thoughtfully silent throughout and only know looked puzzled as she reached up to touch the streak of crystalline tears at her cheek. To suspect, even to have it confirmed, was nothing beside the absolute and indisputable knowledge that all which had been known was gone. Thousands upon thousands of years of history for nothing...
"There's nothing you could have done," Tarna said gently to her. "There's countless universes out there, it had to happen in some of them..." She sighed a bit. "Nothing to be done about it but to move on, I guess. I miss Khizsalr, and Edron, even Torn Elkandu..."
"Where does one move to," Vicky asked softly, the familiar voice sealing it, "when all that you have known is gone? You speak of distant places and longing for them, but where does one go when memory fails and they are forsaken by the sands of time? I have been given a choice, silently spoken by this... god, I have to assume, and I cannot say that I would remain thus rather than returning to the form to which I was made."
"Well, that's up to you," Tarna said with a bit of a shrug. "There's all the universe out there, what's a home but a place to call your own? I left Khizsalr when I was still a girl, to go learn from the Elkandu... and I've barely been back there since. For all I know, they're all dead and gone by now. But I don't regret it."
"Think about it," Melaran added. "You heard her, she's willing to wait as long as it takes to make up your mind. Me..." He grinned and shrugged, glancing over at Tarna. "Guess I'm stuck with wherever she decides to go. Not like there's a huge reason to go rushing here or there anymore. Out of curiosity, though," he lifted a brow, "Why Torn Elkandu again? Didn't we just get out of there before this crazy detour?"
Tarna smirked faintly. "Well, for starters, nobody was shooting at us there. Which is as good a reason as any, eh? Plus it's an easy stopping-off point to Khizsalr, or Lezaria, or any number of other planets."
"Well yeah, the whole not getting shot at thing is a definite bonus," Melaran replied, then smirked. "Though I wouldn't lay bets on that holding true any time in the near future the way things have been lately. Anyway, why not just skip over to Khizsalr and avoid the possibility of yet another freak Warp storm to throw us who knows where?"
Tarna gave a shrug. "That works too, I suppose." Not that she realized it at the moment, but their chances of avoiding being shot at there were pretty low too.
Melaran chuckled quietly and shrugged. "Whatever you desire, m'lady, I'm merely along to provide the occasional bit of target practice and interpretation when it comes to the Eldar and their mindset... disturbing as that might be." He snorted.
Tarna snickered softly. "Yeah, I'll just say, no more vacations. And absolutely no more games with people's lives." Tarna sighed. "They're not fun and they're not funny." She shook her head a bit and glanced over toward Vicky pensively.
"Yeah," Melaran agreed quietly, and shook his head. "If only we could get some kind of guarantee from the powers that be that we wouldn't end up being tossed that way again. Riiiight."
Vicky was walking slowly around the room, stopping here and there to examine the displays and instruments that were humming quietly to themselves or the few that have blackened for lack of repair. She didn't know what the last hours had been like for the man who had founded this place. Would his name even be on record somewhere? She didn't know, and was uncertain as to how best she might honor all that had gone before.
"Divine intervention?" Tarna gave a shrug. "Meh. I don't care. I'm just sick of being toyed with. Enough is enough already. At least with Bob I'd agreed to it. But maybe some good might have come of it some way or another..."
"Maybe." Melaran shrugged. "Damned if I know what it could be though, other than maybe freeing our friend over there and the Elorai'isin titan... didn't have a chance to catch his name. Ah well, perhaps she'll do something with the ones who got trapped here. Kinda be surprised if she doesn't."
"I hope so... but at least they're alive and more or less safe, right?" Tarna said dubiously. "Not much more we could do for them..."
"Like she said, we did all that we could and then some," Melaran replied. "Getting sick of all the games, all the little mysteries, and really think it's time to just go. So, what's your call, m'lady. I live to serve." He grinned crookedly and bowed.
Tarna sniggered at him. "Well, I guess that depends. What does our friend over there want to do?" She looked over toward Vicky again expectantly, and a little hopefully.
Vicky blinked and looked back over at them, realizing she was being addressed. "To be honest, I do not know," she replied. "Though I think perhaps it would be interesting to see something of what humanity has accomplished in other realms, perhaps set myself once more to their service and defense. The long line of honorable service pursued by the Brigade would seem to recommend that course of action."
"Well, if you're looking for humans, I could certainly help there. I know of a good number of places where they're yet alive and well, some of which might not even shoot us on sight!"
"And I think I might borrow a trick from another place," the Eldest said, walking from the shadows and grinning faintly. "Though not quite to such an unlimited degree as a prankster considered prudent. Thrice may you change and decide, wending your way across the worlds to see that which you seek, until at last you recognize what at heart is your home."
Vicky just looked at her for a moment and blinks, "What?"
Tarna chuckled softly. "Be careful, at this rate I might just end up becoming fluent in vaguese. I might be wrong, of course, but I do believe she means whether you wish to be a human or a machine."
"I see," Vicky replied thoughtfully, carefully considering the idea and the potential merits of being able to shift forms if even on a limited basis. "That would allow for ease of travel and examination of the societies which are present, a most useful ability. My thanks."
"That gift has already been given the other," the Eldest replied, "and hence has he wended to domains and places unknown and most dire. Ever the whim of fate and the gods to turn the calmest of waters to a raging sea." She chuckles softly, then sighs, looking back to Tarna, "Where then shall you go. What destination draws your heart unto it as though a flame to the wick?"
"I believe it'll be back to Khizsalr for the moment for me, then," Tarna replied. "For whatever might greet me there..."
"As you wish," the Eldest replied quietly and smiled. "Do not remember this journey with bitterness, I pray, as soon enough shall the fates call upon you to pursue matters of import and dire deeds. Such is the way of life and its pursuit for the flame, remain ever unquenched..." she finished softly.