Magnus Academy for the Extranormal, Tyramin City, Planet Sverabog, Olgram Syste, Redzan's Nebula, Yramithi Omnipragmatist Council Republic, Antennae Galaxy, Omdyn of Democratic Omnipragmatist Council Republics
Arne was not quite sure where it was that Agafya wanted to take him, but based on the urgency of her movements it definitely seemed to be important. She moved with purpose and a sense of hurrying, but didn't quite have that bounce to her step that Samus did. More a somewhat surly "get out of my way or I'll beat your face in" temperament to her steps as they wandered down the halls after the conclusion of the introductory classes. Though for his part, Arne was somewhat dubious that Agafya cared all that much about what she dismissed as "pointless fluff" given that she just played games in her suit the entire time. Fair play he supposed, it wasn't the most interesting of material and outside of meeting the rest of her friend group such as Solveig's other close friend Floki, it didn't really have much that Arne felt like he needed to know.
Solveig kept pace, her purple hair bouncing with each step while Illarion, Taellarja and the notably also deep purple haired Floki followed suit; his own armoursuit relatively similar to Solveig's due to what Arne figured was shared clan affiliation, the somewhat messy haired boy's rather prominent augmented reality glasses absorbing in all the information they could while he and Solveig chattered away like siblings. Though from what you heard; they were more cousins than anything else. Small world then.
Agafya poked a door and looked both directions before crossing it, taking a step to the left and then swatting her hand through the air to send a bucket that was about to fall over flying before it could land on anyone's head; turning around and then pointing an accusatory finger towards an Ice Blue haired and purple eyed boy with rather pointed hair that had a somewhat avian look to it from some angles; though still cut in a boyish manner. He was tall, of asian features, and his turquoise and ultramarine armour gave a very aquatic feel to it, from its hydrodynamic fins to the piscean curvatures of its plating or the scale like textures of its soft plating.
"Yujin, did you think you could get me twice with the same bucket of water prank?" She growled, staring him down as he offered his hands out in surprise and tried to get her to back off a bit.
"It was just a joke Agafya...no need to get yourself worked up about it." He said before turning to look at you and blinking a few times.
"Huh...so that's the Alimbic Inheritor here then?" He said as the white haired youth took another look at his form...yes that was Hyldraen armour alright. Arne wasn't all that familiar with the aqueous lords but all he could think about beyond that was how Yujin could keep his hair so..fluffy if he was spending most of his time in the water. Sure any of them could breathe underwater and through sheer power swim at incredible speeds, but that didn't entail wanting to live perpetually beneath the surface of the waves. Still, Yujin seemed to have taken good care of himself all the same.
"Yes...now...please tell me Yumiko isn't trying her spooky shit?" Agafya said while Solveig eagerly slid into the space she could to grab at Yujin's hand and start shaking with an almost manic grin.
"Oh Ynshen; you're really quite ah quite eager, and here I am without a prank for you." He said before Agafya paused and pinched something to her left, iliciting a weak "ow" as another young figure of asian descent decloaked, her own hair clipped somewhat short with a small side-tail a slightly different she of blue from Yujin's and her nose crinkling a bit as she rubbed it, her expression clearly unimpressed with the display while she made a huff and looked over Arne. The two gazed over each other; the black, grey, white armour of the girl somewhat heavy set, clearly meant to be armour, clearly meant to be a bit morose; with a heavy duty Gorget covering her lower mouth and heavy pointed pauldrons that reminded Arne of Svihaly's design...N'kren tech then.
"Hey uh...Arne Skjoldr. Wow there are a lot more inheritors here than I thought there would be." He said, almost blinking in surprise before scratching at the back of his head and effecting a smile.
"Probably not for great reasons. But since we are here, we can put our heads together, work on a plan to deal with the Krikens, Weavel, and whomever else is in on this." She said, pacing slightly while Solveig made a bit of a face and then harrumphed.
"But uh, Arne is here to study and integrate with his own species and don't you think it might be a bit premature to just ask him to fly off on heavy duty combat missions when he hasn't even really gotten through his classes yet?" She managed, clearing her throat, adjusting her glasses and trying her best to not log this onto her social media site presences while flinching slightly at Sokolova's hard glare in her direction.
"Inheritors are made for battle. Not sitting in school." She said curtly.
"Technically, we are made to integrate comfortably with progenitors and to help our own species progress." Yumiko said flatly, matter of factly before Agafya made a rather...expressive series of gestures at her as if she was trying to find what to say and her brain just got too caught up in finding the right gesticulation and just got stuck on it before she threw her hands down and grunted.
"Look look look. We're kids! We should do kid stuff. Like...gossip or hang out or maybe practice or study or just get together and watch movies and play games or I don't know, go outside see the world and climb a mountain or something but taking on Trace and Weavel? You can't be serious. We're...where would we even begin?" Solveig exhaled, tension escaping her lungs.
"Well, if there's one Imperial Hitman here there has to be more right? We could maybe set up a trap for them?" Floki said, scratching at his chin before poking his fingers together and then turning to see where yujin placed the bucket before.
"How'd you balance the buck-" He said quietly before Yujin smirked and made a "shh" gesture.
"Secret." He said a bit playfully.
"Okay if we want a trap we need bait. They know Arne doesn't even need his suit to handle one so we'll need to lure them in. I suggest going to a community shower alone with one of us cloaked to keep watch." Agafya said before Arne's thought processes crashed to a halt before he just...stared at Agafya.
"Ehhhhhh?" He said, his face scrunching up.
"No I'd...rather not put myself at that kind of a disadvantage or have people watch me like that." Arne said, less out of shame and more from "I don't need them to know me that closely and even cloaked; a shower is full of environmental conditions that would make a bystander stand out...also changing my showering schedule would be too obvious a trap." Arne finished.
"The Kriken Empire's special forces don't take failure all that well. They'll be back. We just need to be ready. A trap is unnecessary." Yumiko said, almost boredly, seeming to be flatly unimpressed by the theorycrafting going on all around her while she checked her gauntlet for a moment and then cracked her neck.
"...So...sleepover?" Solveig said, eyes bright and full of hope.
Prodigal Program, Zellemite City, Planet Gyldaine, Suramil System, Andromeda Galaxy, Popular Republican Union of Esdemir, Galactic Federation: 17th of September, 50,013.
Samus was swift and deadly as one might expect; the swarms of drones around her barely even getting a chance to respond before she took out each one in turn. She limited herself to the basic essentials of her equipment, finding that there wouldn't be enough challenge in simply bringing the entirety of her arsenal. Even then, it was more than enough for the Varia suit clad young woman to make a fool out of the other team. Right, team, she was doing power-sports to get her used to working with her dorm-mates. And so far well, she was enjoying herself, feeling that competetive spirit soar as she tensed herself, analysing the field.
This was her first game, and she had to show everyone what she was made of. While a private person who didn't like the limelight, she didn't want people to think she wasn't capable or was weak. She had her honour as a champion and her pride as an explorer at stake, she couldn't and wouldn't half-ass it even if she was playing with a handicap. And now...yes, she had the ball right now; her twists bringing her out of the way of the tachyon form of Glesgik; senses alerting her to his retro-chronal movement and letting her adjust herself to not be where he was trying to tackle her. He was fast of course, she knew how to deal with fast; and she dodged each of his thirty seven attempted tackles easily before throwing her hand right where his neck would be next.
Glesgik choked as he collapsed back into baryons, the ammonia drinking mantid like silicate's suit clicking as his rebreather worked. "Not fast enough." Samus said before slamming her boots into him and firing off the thrusters to throw him back to the ground and once again into the air, vaulting over a drone swarm with her limbs tucked in for her backflip, bouncing off of ten more with her suit and supernatural senses translating the displaced air's movements into more conventional sound while she bounded across the stadium.
"Samus, come on, I'm open!" Ian said, trying to shove his way past Ssregil; an Amiliak whose Natuloid like form extended tentacles in an effort to grab him; green limbs wrapped in flexible protective gear of a sea-green hue held at bay by a wall of telekinetic force. But Ssregil's three tonne form began to shimmer with lightning, attempting to press through the barrier.
She took a look in Ian's direction, seeing Kreatz dive below Gralim; threading himself between the thicket of limbs the spidery youth had below their body's vertically held abdomen and then throwing a rune to shift probability so that he could make just the right movement to end up going through Gralim's barriers. She ran the numbers in her head, Kreatz would have an easier time passing it to Ian than herself; and so less time than it took for a tachyon computer to translate a key input into text, she calculated exactly where to throw.
Samus grabbed at one of the Ciclytor drones controlled by Aktor and spun it with her grapple beam, throwing it away from the mechanical being and then flung the orb in her hand towards the Aelvan boy who snagged it in his light-lash, flinging it towards Ian. A quick telekinetic grab and it was in his hands, Yramil forming a rune of flame beneath Ssregil to push them back with a sheet of plasma so that he could break off.
Ian shunted himself from one point to the next, throwing up a curtain wall of force to block off Glesgik before he could blitz him and then wrapping it around the Skentil so that his tachyon tackles wound just bounce around in the orb, sprinting towards the end-line on the other side of the arena; Montauk tackling into the massive form of the mechanical Aktor before its pincers could swing around and catch him.
Ian knew Adam was watching, and couldn't help but flick his eyes towards the observer booth where his brother sat, and that seemed to make him redouble his efforts, pushing himself harder and using his telekinesis like rocket thrusters to shoot past the duplicates of Hasgaduk; letting the multiples of the Reptilian crash into each other head on.
Samus landed next to him, keeping pace with him virtually without effort with her left hand offered to him. "Come on, pass it to me, I'll get it over!" She said, locking eyes with Ian briefly before he shook his head and jumped over Mitsuki and Uldransi before either of them could snag the sphere out of his hands while he looked towards the rapidly moving goal circle.
"Ian come on! What are you doing?!" Samus shouted, temper flaring briefly as Malkovich stubbornly blink-jumped away from her to prevent her from interfering in his shot while Samus was forced to hold back Selene; the human girl's pyrokinetics sweeping over the field with heat to surpass stars and forcing Aran to step in the way, absorb the blow and then yank Selene in for a headbutt to toss her back to the ground.
"Sorry Sammy but gotta do this myself." Ian said as he shot the ball like a projectile with a TK throw, Samus pulling up Selene and checking her over before telling her she was fine.
Ssregil slid through a crack in space and engulfed the ball in their tendrils, pulling it closer towards their body and then hovering away quickly while Samus let out a groan of frustration.
"Ian what were you thinking?!" She protested loudly about ready to start launching into an explosive rant until she felt every hair on the back of her neck stand on its end, her eyes widening while she got that raptaptap sensation of imminent danger crawling up her spinal cord. Her grapple beam launched from her left hand and then tagged Ian's suit; pulling him back as he was about ready to respond, right before a crackling invisible scythe blade swept over where his head would have been had he not been moved out of the way.
The whole of the arena's onlookers took a moment to process what had happened before a distinctive phrase in a familiar language hit Samus' ears, her heart almost seeming to stop while all other sounds faded into the distance, all other concerns melting away while that fire in her chest began to roar to life, her teeth grinding and her bones aching with hate and fear. "Suntor Ghrak, Ivat!"
Space Pirate tongue.
Samus felt something hotter than the jets of a quasar pulse through her veins. A potent mix of emotions, fear, disgust, confusion, sadness, hate, worry, but above all else was rage. Anger burned in her in a way that somewhat increased the temperature around her, despite her lack of skill with such esoteric arts; she was so mad that reality itself was starting to warp beneath it slightly so as to produce heat from nothing. It was poison, her veins constricting, her pupils shrinking, her mouth opened in a feral snarl and her heart shifting into a strange flow.
Fire was around her vision, curls and tendrils of heat and smoke. She could smell that pork stink in the air, and hear the faint screams of the dying in the distance. Not of the people here and now, but there and then. Gore curled along her periphery vision, her trembling hands feeling the sensation of the damned trying to drag at it, to plead for help that could not arrive. Because she wasn't strong enough, because she couldn't help them. Because she wasn't there.
The first of the pirate strike team did not have the time to register her movement. His tachyonic movement tracker had not finished its readout. She had already grabbed it by the head in a grip that would strain the coherency of anything resembling normal matter and she had already had a shot prepared. Fully charged, a sphere of death and multi-energy of many colours that pulsated, glowed, and released into the pirate as its polyshields were reeling from her impact. The burst popped multiple layers of the pirate's defences, and her wrist-blade did the rest in a clean motion; its quench field nullifying the most fundamentals of the pirate's binding structures which, when paired with her brute strength, allowed her to simply carve it apart.
The act of killing her very first sophontic being did not register with her. More needed to die. She needed to kill them. Demons could not be so incapable of good as these monsters who had dare bring themselves here of all places, where she was supposed to be safe. Where her friends lived. Where people she wanted to keep safe thought they could be at peace. Where the world's troubles were supposed to be checked at the door.
Why were they here? Why did they want to come here? It doesn't matter. It never mattered. They serve the Confederacy, they will die. That was all that mattered to Samus, that was all that would ever matter to her as she could feel her throat trembling. She was screaming?
It didn't matter. People were trying to talk to her, she heard them, she knew what they were saying, she could remember it all. But none of it took in because her mind had shut out all distractions from her overriding goal. There would be no mercy, but there would be no cruelty. No excessively gruesome deaths, no drawn out demises, no torture. She just had to make them stop. Stop being alive, kill them in a way that their mediportation systems couldn't save them. Make them pay, make them all pay.
She wasn't saying anything. She was making sounds, but she wasn't saying anything. Words were not important, death and violence were important, fury and blood were important, vengeance and justice were important. Words and reason? They didn't matter, they couldn't matter. Not with them, never with them.
She didn't even register when she stepped onto blood, what was some Space Pirate blood after all the blood they shed? After the oceans of blood she had to wade through?
Gore smeared off of the polyshielding of her suit, she didn't register it. She didn't care. She couldn't care.
The space pirates were saying things, surprise? They didn't expect this sort of violence? Why didn't they? Didn't they come here to inflict this sort of violence? Why be so surprised when it comes back for them? They had to know she was here. Did they just not believe in the might of an inheritor warrior burning with the fires of holy vengeance and quivering with the thirst for justice?
These questions didn't matter. Anymore than the last words of one of the pirates when her fist stopped hitting the scorched shadow below where its head used to be. She had killed it a punch ago, but she couldn't stop.
She could hear her name being called for. With fear? With worry? Why would they be afraid for her? She was supposed to be scared for them. They were all so fragile, they needed her. They all needed her. She had to be strong enough, for each and every one of them. They didn't have to cry, they didn't have to be afraid. She was here, she would keep them safe. Every last one of them.
The dead piled up, things were happening, she paid them no heed. The world may as well have been tunnel visioned and completely silent. All she saw were ghosts, pleading for help, for justice, for vengeance. Ghosts of the past and the future. Of the victims of yesterday and of tomorrow. Of here and countless other places.
The fire was everywhere in her vision. The screaming wouldn't stop. The pig stink of burnt flesh and the metallic scent of blood wouldn't leave her nostrils. She wasn't sure if she was breathing. She didn't care.
Slick with blood, everything was so bloody. So much gore, so much pain, so much suffering. No, no more. She would make it stop. Nobody would cry anymore. No more ravenous teeth would sink into the flesh of the weak and the helpless. No more slaughters, no more massacres. No more K-2Ls.
She could see the Dragon in the corner of her eye, its hideous shriek laugh loud in her ears, mocking words ringing in the distance. The slayer of her mother, the beast who made her father pay the ultimate price. The cunning god of death, the burning talon of high command, and demon marshal of a trillion trillion spirals. Ridley, where was he? Why didn't he show himself? Why won't he fight her?
Why why why why. Why did he have to be such a coward? She hated him, she had to kill him, to hear him scream the same way he made everyone scream. To feel his bones break beneath her fingers, to see his flesh mangled and ruined. Why did papa have to die to kill him? To deny Samus a chance to avenge mama?
...She was...getting mad at papa...she realised faintly, then felt something holding her arm back, strong. She blinked, saw one of the monsters sprawled, arms aloft, begging. Pleading.
She could hear voices.
"STOP! SAMUS! HOLY SHIT STOP!" Ian?
She was about to drive her cannon through the head of the pirate even as it was begging for its life. And three armoured figures in inheritor armour were forced to try and hold her back. One she recognised as Sevrin, the other two were new.
One in primarily white armour, another in primarily red armour; straining with Sevrin to stop her from dealing the death blow to the pirate and its injured comrades who were surrendering.
...Surrendering...she was about to kill...
She remembered the one space pirate penal legionary, who refused to shoot her on K-2L, who looked at her and took pity on her...they were why she was alive now. And she was about to...
No...no...she couldn't...
The world's sounds rushed to the forefront again, the crimson mist of painful yesteryears brought to her mind's eye faded away. She was back in a gymnasium, there was carnage everywhere, people were scared, taking cover, and there were some weapons pointed at her too. Federation Police forces in their distinctive blue-yellow power suits accompanied by Marines in Chrome; all of them looking as afraid of her as they were of the pirates.
She shuddered, looking to one of the police officers who let out a yelp of terror and accidentally gave the mental command to fire. The RKKV projectile spat out from the arm-carbine incinerating harmlessly as it expended itself on her defences. She wouldn't need her armour to take shots like that anyway. But she looked at where she was shot regardless, having not bothered to avoid it.
...She scared them.
Everyone was scared of her.
"Samus...it's okay...please...you can stop...God please stop..." Ian was crying, like he had just seen a nightmare. The crack in his voice made her feel bad.
"I..." She managed, pulling back her cannon as the other two inheritors let out sighs of relief when she stopped.
She paused, looked around. This wasn't...she didn't mean...she...
"I'm sorry..." She croaked, shame filling her heart. Worse than anything before this point.
Some hours passed, words were exchanged with authority figures. Concerned ones, some fearful ones, Samus was just kind of numb to it all. She flinched at the jaundiced colours of fear radiating from the people who looked at her like a monster. And the azure tinge of admiration was sullied darker tones in the colours of emotion that regarded the sheer violence of her attack as something to uphold that she could see with her mind's eye. She wasn't as experienced with it as her elders, but it was still there.
She was curled into the Morph Ball, a way to distance herself from the problems of the world in its disembodied third person point of view. Here she could just think to herself, wonder in her mind what had gone wrong and when. They were space Pirates right? She wasn't upset that she killed them...but she couldn't find joy in how she did it.
She would remain in that curled up form, letting people mingle around, speak to others, try to ignore her or keep their distance from her. She didn't really bother committing the conversations the police had with her to her thoughts, she just went on autopilot then. Nothing to worry about, nothing to concern herself with.
But her thoughts would be interrupted when one of them sat next to her, the boy in the predominantly white armour of the Faeran. Another inheritor, one whose presence gave a viridian glow of life to her more spiritual senses, but he mostly just seemed set to try and be comfortable to be around despite seating himself close by without asking. She rolled slightly away, and he didn't make any effort to get farther from her, but he did turn his helmeted head towards her.
"Hey, sorry...Samus right? You looked like you were having some not great thoughts so I wanted to check on you." He said, his voice trying to be cheerful despite everything while he turned his eyes towards her through the visor of his helmet.
"Uh...uhuh." She murmured, uncurling from her alternate form and hugging her knees to her chest, still craving the security she felt in her shell.
"Yong Tohyon. Heard about you heh...thought the Chozo were keeping more to themselves but..." He said, perking up beneath his helmet before stopping himself and shaking his head.
"Sorry, irrelevant I know. But well, I was taught that we're a social species so you know, we should probably make friends while we're here and all right?" He asked, gesturing towards her and then the room in general.
"Yeah I was...taught that too." She responded, still not quite ready for feeling more cheerful at the moment.
"Heh well, Chozo huh. Can't believe some people thought they were extinct but well, probably same group as those who thought the Ylla had gone off or the N'kren were completely asleep..." He said, trying to make light with an only tangentially related conversation that got a long stare from the blonde next to him.
"...Sorry that was stupid." He said, clearing his throat.
"Well, it's funny at least." Samus responded, trying a little smile beneath her helm that got a small laugh out of Tohyon.
"That is so much of a relief wow I was scared you thought I was an insensitive dummy." He exhaled with a sharp wheeze followed by a loud laugh, pounding at his chest and letting the stress out all at once in a one handed gesture that earned him a look of curiosity from young Aran.
"So uh, you want to talk about the pirates or?" He said. A lot of people tended to just look at her and decide whether or not she wanted to talk to them based on how she moved herself around, the fact that he felt the need to ask at least made him feel more relatable to her.
She gave it a bit of thought. Did she want to speak of it? It was shameful yet...if she just kept quiet would it not come back later? But could he really offer help? Especially when she was supposed to be the one offering people that help. What would they say if they saw her needing to be vulnerable like this, after doing what she did. Would they think she was crazy, defective?
No...she wasn't crazy. She wasn't defective. She was strong, she could hold the world on her shoulders and hold her head up high. She wouldn't back down from this, not like a coward.
The words didn't want to leave her throat, she could feel muscles in her neck wanting to squeeze shut to block them. She could sense the desire of her brain to forget what she wanted to say, to distract itself with passing stray thoughts. She could feel her mouth threatening to dry itself, to make saying it more uncomfortable.
Her body was clamming up, but she wouldn't let it hold her back. She needed to get this out, and she let the air flow through her naturally, imagining the world becoming a quieter, stiller place to see only what she needed to. To control her sensory inputs so that she wasn't overwhelmed with all the noise and bedlam of the world, just her and Tohyon for now.
"Yeah...I'm ready." She said, letting the words come out with her medititative exhale while he gave a strange one hand clapping and fist pump motion that she figured was a celebration of success. Maybe the Faerans he was raised by did that? She'd have to find out more.
"Okay, well. Might not be super legal or allowed for a student but I managed to slice into the interrogation records and I think I might have some juicy leads if you wanna hear them." He said, wriggling his fingers and grinning beneath his helmet while Sevrin and the Red clad girl slipped in near him, Sevrin resting himself on the bleachers while the girl simply stood.
"I...yes. I'd like to hear you out." Samus responded, figuring that this would probably be her best bet to at least put some names to the senseless violence that had just happened.
"How did you get it?" She asked, only for Tohyon to wriggle his fingers around and shrug.
"Not going to reveal my secrets here where people can hear. But if we get somewhere a bit more...hidden I think I can tell you." He said, looking around, noting all the people around and fully aware that equipment could easily pick out the tiniest whisper from any of the ongoing conversations.
Samus thought about it, and then sent a few quick empathic packets of information, the idea of a place, the sensations associated with it. Tohyon paused at that, and then smirked.
"Alright." He clapped his hands together as they peeled off those they could from the ongoing investigation to find this hidden place, or rather, her bedroom which she had carefully screened for any means of monitoring and ensured was soundproofed. There wouldn't be anything going on in class, not for a while after this incident, so she could bounce out of the gymnasium with a clear conscience.
Tohyon quirked his brow a bit, clearly surprised at simply being allowed into someone's bedroom, but seemed to quickly accept it based on the shift in his expressions to that typical easy smile.
"So what's the scoop?" Ian asked, prompting myriad eyes to flick to him and stare at him in confusion.
"You know, the deets?" He continued, only continuing to get blank looks before sighing in defeat.
"Ugh, what have you got Tohyon?" He amended.
"Well, the space pirates were leaked info that some pretty important people would be coming here shortly. Someone who's been chatting with the Krikens too." He said, folding his arms and taking on a more serious tone of voice.
Samus' blood ran cold and then hot, surprise and anger mixed in her gut for a powerful concoction of negative emotion as she leaned in more closely, staring into Tohyon's visor as he removed his helmet. He was young, about her age, with a bit of roundness to his cheeks and a cherubic sort of little smirk on his face, scarlet coloured hair in a swirl cut fluffing a bit with his head movements. He gave her a look of sympathy, while Sevrin and the Red girl followed suit.
The girl also had scarlet hair and emerald eyes, but seemed to be of a more stern and noble cut, if she didn't know better she'd figure her for being somewhat older than Tohyon despite both being of the same age group. Her hair seemed to curl somewhat on itself, like the tongues of an open flame, and spilled well past her shoulder blades once freed of her helm.
Yesuntei Taghai, child of the fiery Vuldran. She hadn't heard much of her, but she was supposed to have done pretty great things in her rite of passage.
Sevrin though, seemed genuinely upset. He wasn't as prone to fiery anger as Samus, not by a long shot, but that hard, scornful expression at the mention of the Krikens was unmistakable. He scowled as if there was something vile in his mouth, and then tried to resume his more dependable cheer shortly afterwards, forcing himself to smile, though Samus knew from the rancorous aura he had around himself that it was a fake one.
"Krikens..." He breathed in a whisper of contempt.
"What could they want with the Space Pirates? The Empire and the Confederacy hate each other." He snarled.
"I don't know. " Tohyon said.
"Do you even know if they're co-conspirators?" Sevrin asked, cold as ice in tone.
"I...look no, yeah it's not what you want to hear but I don't. All I know is that there were data packets sent earlier that let the Pirates know we were here. Just, let me finish, please?" Tohyon said, raising his hands defensively while the non-inheritor children murmured among themselves, Ian looking back at Samus repeatedly before speaking to his sister some more. Samus could hear that they were talking about his concerns for her, but he seemed aware of Samus' eavesdropping and switched tracks to telepathy to make it harder for her to listen in. She could have found a way around that but...if that was what he wanted.
"Arne at the Magnus Academy was recently attacked by a Kriken hitman." Samus murmured, letting the projectors in the room conjure up a hardlight board for her to start illustrating out her point, drawing Arne and his friends at one school, while her and the others were at this one; then drawing out the symbols for the Confederacy of Dismor and the Imperial State of Arkatika; then lines of connection linked by a question mark.
"A connection would make sense...there's inheritors present at both places." Taghai said, leaning in and taking only a moment to analyse the data before coming to her conclusion.
"Yumiko's there...yeah." Tohyon said, chewing on his lower lip and getting a pat on his shoulder from Taghai.
"Arne said that he encountered Trace in the dreamscape, we have evidence that Weavel's forces are involved in this..." Samus let her thoughts run wild for a bit, running through possibilities and murmuring them aloud until Montauk harrumphed after Ian spat out his drink all over Yramil's face to the Aelva's loud displeasure at the mention of Trace and Weavel; coughing and gagging for a bit while Lydia tried to backpat the fluid out of his lungs.
"I really need to ask, are you suggesting we do something about this...ourselves? Because that's insane." Montauk interrupted.
"Do you think the police can handle this?" Taghai asked pointedly, scepticism and scorn for law enforcement positively dripping in her voice.
"It's their job, and if they can't there's the military or freelancers. What are we going to do? Charter a ship and fly up to Trace's throneroom?" He said, straightening himself further and then folding his arms.
"No, we're not stupid...of course not." Samus said, unsure if that was a rhetorical question but not willing to let such an insinuation that she'd be so foolish just slide.
The thoughts of the room were quickly interrupted by the entrance of one more unexpected guest, clad in dress uniform and a quick look of relief towards Ian and Lydia and then concern towards Samus before duty reasserted itself and he straightened himself out.
"Adam? What are you doing here?" Samus asked.
"You are planning to take this into your own hands, aren't you?" He asked, though one glance told her that he already knew the answer.
"I won't let people die finding the truth when we can get the answers without anyone being hurt!" Samus responded, puffing out her chest, after what she had seen, no she couldn't let other people just walk into that sort of meatgrinder.
"Hey, uh, you're here to talk sense into everyone right?" Kreatz asked hopefully, a small smile on his face.
"I know it's not going to work. And that I couldn't really stop you if you wanted to go. So that's not why I'm here." Adam said, looking back down at a conflicted appearing Ian whose gaze couldn't stop bouncing between Samus and his elder brother.
"Well, why are you here then? In full uniform too? That's...kind of weird for this place I think? Is it weird? I dunno, I think it should be but..." Tohyon started before realising people were tuning out his rambling and gulping a bit.
"I can't let thirteen year olds, no matter how well equipped, just shoot off half-cocked into foreign countries. But I've had my own suspicions and I'd like to ask if you could help me find some answers." Adam offered, his hands going behind his back in a general's pose.
"I know that once you set yourself on a course you commit, but I also know you mean well." He said to Samus in particular before his attention shifted.
"All of you." He added.
"But before we do anything, I think we need to establish a more coherent picture of what happened. And I believe I may have leads that might narrow down some possibilities. Most of you aren't under my authority, and I'm not deputising you, but I am asking for your cooperation if you are willing to give it." He said, calm, but with just the littlest bit of concern in his voice.
"Ordinarily, I would never countenance involving people your age, no matter the ability level, in something like this. But these aren't normal circumstances. Tohyon, you told me earlier that there were links between the Pirates here and the Krikens at Magnus, yes?" He said, briskly moving conversational tracks to direct his focus to the red-haired lad whose angular eyes sparked with sudden realisation that he was being spoken to.
"Uh yeah. At least two other parties are involved. Rantik signals and a fourth party I can't really...well...I've tried but huh...yeah sorry still haven't gotten anywhere with decryption." He said, his confidence ebbing and flowing like waves at a beach as he chewed his lower lip and shook his head.
"Ahahahah did you say the Rantik? As in the Swarm?" Mizuki's laugh was painfully forced even to Samus' ears, the grimace on their face twisted and their eyes wide in shock.
"Uh yeah...bad news yeah yeah but I think all three are being played here. Can't tell by who though. Rantik activity is heaviest in the uh, Domain" He said, shrugging.
"Another school attack?" Ian asked, a sheepish nod coming from Tohyon in response while he rubbed at his face and cursed to himself.
"It'd have to be someone with Progenitor encryption." Samus murmured as she added to her diagram, the symbol used to represent Rantik occupied space finding its way onto her drawing and a link flowing into the unknown figure.
"Which means that the Police and Armed Forces aren't equipped to deal with this, especially not across blocs. This conspiracy, whatever it is, crosses too many national boundaries between countries not on ideal speaking terms with each other for normal authority to deal with." Adam concluded, taking only a moment to study Samus' diagram before forming his thesis.
He paced a bit, something Samus determined was likely a habit of his based on how little thought he seemed to give to his leg movements, his focus entirely absorbed into his ruminations while he stroked his chin.
The idea that justice was being obstructed by such petty politics rubbed Samus the wrong way. Why were they at such odds when there were bigger problems to deal with? These things were everyone's enemies right?
"If you can't do anything, why are you here?" Samus asked, puffing out her chest and looking pointedly at Adam with a gaze that refused to be satisfied with half answers or partial truths.
"Because I know you can do something. But you'll need someone to help you navigate through the system. Not only are you capable in a way few are, you have connections that will be vital to finding out the truth. And I'm not just referring to the Chozo." He said, looking at her with a knowing glance .
"Arne?" She asked.
"He was another target and is doubtlessly making his own investigations. I can't speak to him directly, not in any official capacity. You, however? Coordinating efforts will be important, as will supporting one another." Adam responded.
He looked to Ian and Lydia for a moment, the twins flinching a bit at his attentions before straightening themselves a bit, Lydia trying to stand at attention while Ian attempted to triple down on a new slouch.
"What? Going to lecture me bro?" Ian said, the contraction of brother striking Samus as a bit odd for someone from a military family.
"No, I am however, asking you to stay safe. and for once take things seriously." Adam replied.
"Hey, maybe I am and you just don't know how I cope?!" Ian snapped somewhat angrily, lashing an arm out and almost starting a build up of telekinetic power before stopping himself and gritting his teeth before balling his fist.
"Ian, is this re-" Adam started before Ian scoffed, Samus recoiling at the rancour she sensed rolling off the boy.
"Hey, you want to talk about something right Adam? How about how it's never the time to talk about how I feel bro. How about that gravity god damn lensing sized war wasp nest in the building huh?" He interrupted, pushing his sunglasses up and maintaining a cold but hard demeanour.
"You come here, unload all..." he said before gesticulating across the room "THIS! On us, on Samus, on Lydia, on ME! And you didn't so much as ask "hey Ian, are you okay?" Huh? Is that your take away from what Mom and Dad taught us?" He continued, not shouting, but snappy all the same, making sure Adam didn't get any room to talk and seething through his teeth.
"Like, cool, you found a way to maverick your way out of regs for all your lectures about proper procedure. Fine, whatever spools your N-drive.." He said, about ready to keep talking before Samus let out a harrumph that would have taken the wind out of the sails of a herd of elephants.
"STOP!" She barked, grinding her teeth and pushing air through them, in and out as she breathed with tensed irritation.
"Both of you just...stop arguing!" She just about screamed her reply, all eyes and optics in the room dead focused on her, even Uldrasi replicating a blink with their optics as a pregnant silence fell across the room and the bubbling cauldron of emotions stilled to an uneasy flattened anticipation.
"If you're worried about them, I'll keep them safe! There, done! No more!" She said, swiping her arms in frustration as she made her point, not about to let Adam or Ian get in a say.
"Just...give me what you know and I'll figure it out. I do that! I 'm good at that! Please just, trust me to do what's right." She said, perhaps unaware of how conceited that may come across to some people, but then she hardly knew better anyway.
She huffed and puffed a bit before shaking her head and sucking in a deep breath before exhaling to try and induce some meditative calm to still her boiling temper. In, out, in, out...finally, she could think more clearly.
"Samus, we are going to have to have a talk about outbursts like that." Adam said before Samus shot a glare at him that briefly made him flinch a finger before he regained his composure, well used to Lydia and Ian's death glares and knowing that while she could snap him like a toothpick, she wouldn't.
"But what I can say is that the teaching staff isn't involved, or any of the local officers. I've checked incoming and outgoing data transfers, and the only suspicious ones besides what you uncovered with the probe were going on freelancer channels. I can't break the encryption, nor can the police or army intelligence, but I think you can." He said, looking down at her and resuming his professional but not overbearing pose.
"Do you have the data packets?" She asked, getting a nod from him as smartweaves in his uniform transmitted the information to her armour which in turn transferred it to her memory.
Data weaved through her like the sensation of a small breeze, her mind picking apart what the computers were working on out of her refusal to wait for the analysis to be done. The raptaptap sensation, minuscule and almost unnoticeable, but there because she enjoyed a bit of tactility to learning, built up a bit and then levelled out as she saw and exploited the gaps in the defences and stepped through just as she would in the heat of battle.
Freelancers were habitually very careful with their data. It was not a profession for those who were careless about their secrets with how many enemies one could make in the job. But it did not mean they were beyond her reach. Not even close. The data was carefully routed through proxies and dummy accounts yes, but there were always traces to follow, information to compare and contrast.
Whomever this was though, was good at covering tracks. Dead ends, leads that didn't actually go anywhere, information that just stopped. It was annoying, but she figured this means that they had to use alternative, less traceable means of information transfer, face to face conversations, long-distance telepathy, quantum entanglement packets. So she looked through any data that might fit those parameters. There was a lot, countless hours of security footage, piles upon piles of psionic or mystic signals, records of Morph disturbances, subatomic fluctuation data. It would have driven supercomputers to insanity trying to process all of this as quickly as she did.
But she crunched it down to what she needed, sifting out all the junk data, narrowing down possibilities guided by her education, raw brainpower, and the subtle guidance of her distant sight. A galaxy of data condensed down to an ocean, and then to a puddle, and then finally to a drop of information.
She saw a Freelancer that she didn't quite recognise; but her armour quickly identified as Malegon. A horned thing that had the visage of a devil beast with armour clad leathery wings and a helm like a skull with bladed horns emerging from the sides of a vaguely humanoid head. Armour the colour of drying human blood, bone, and onyx wrapped around a frame that must have been at least eight and a half meters tall. They had finished up a communique she wasn't privy to, at least not yet, likely with someone higher up on the hierarchy than them.
It seemed innocuous enough, but she caught a mention of "Skjoldr" in the final phases of the conversation. Not something that would have been caught by the Academy's aurora unit but...
"We need to find Malegon." Samus said, emerging from her brief trance like she was pulling her head out of the water, inhaling air in lungfuls she didn't need and turning her attention to Adam.
"Malegon? Are you certain?" Adam said, seemingly stunned by the news, though the significance of the name was lost to the young girl.
"He mentioned Arne's surname...he has to be involved." Samus said, feeling that certainty coiled around her guts and wriggling its way into her soul. This had to be it, if he wasn't behind it, he could at least point them to the one who was.
"Who is Malegon, why does he matter?" Sevrin blurted, confused by what was unfolding around him.
"Devil-Warden, super loyal to his contracts but only as long as the contract lasts. Gets amazing results from his magitech expertise and assets, but wouldn't help a dying child on the street if he wasn't paid to." Kreatz said, noting that he was getting some odd looks from the inheritors and that Taghai was on the verge of asking "how do you know that?" before he pre-empted the question, scratching at the back of his neck. "I uh..used to collect his action figures." He said a little nervously.
"Well, I'm going to question him." Samus said, letting her helmet manifest over her head and starting to walk towards the door. Taghai and Sevrin followed suit, though Tohyon seemed to be baffled by the decision, doubly so when Yramil also started to slip into the formation.
She could feel a mix of rushed thoughts going through Ian's head, an internal debate waged in a matter of seconds before he let out some self directed anger and moved in with them in an effort to not look like a coward, conscious of his image as a rebel no doubt and doing his best like he had always meant to do that, and to stand next to Samus of course.
Adam was briefly at a loss for words before Lydia decided to speak up for him.
"Hey, hey. Samus. Where do you think you're going? Are you just going to chase down a high grade freelancer for question time?" She said, quickly and hurriedly, as if afraid that if she didn't blurt her words out as fast as possible she wouldn't listen.
"If we don't go quickly, he'll get away. He has no reason to stay here and he's our best lead!" Samus hissed with mild irritation, mentally counting every tiny fraction of a moment she felt was being wasted.
"Yramil, you too?" Kreatz asked, the red-haired Aelva looking back at Kreatz for just a moment.
"If she's this confident about it, then I think she's probably right. I trust her, do you?" She asked.
"I mean, yeah but you don't just go after someone like Malegon that's nuts." Kreatz shot back while Samus felt that irritation bubble up inside of her in all of its crimson majesty at the fact that she was being held back and delayed while time was slipping through her fingers.
"We don't have time for this!" Samus shouted, unwilling to let another second pass by without grabbing this opportunity with both hands.
"Samus, I can't let you run into a fight with a high grade freelancer blind." Adam cautioned.
"I will be fine!" She snapped.
"Maybe, but there are other risks involved, to others who can't handle the kind of punishment you and others like you can. But what I can do is give you more time. Malegon hasn't departed yet, and it is in my authority to delay him. Not indefinitely, but long enough to see if you can find something to pin to him and for us to set up a rendezvous that keep civilian presence to a minimum. I want to know what he does as much as you but we should make sure we have as much set up as possible." He replied, trying to not rise to her anger which made her feel briefly guilty at snapping at him, and then again for failing to consider...yes she didn't want people to fear her, not good people anyway.
"Once I have him delayed, you'll have twelve hours to find what we can, and if it's enough; we can set up everything needed to take him down. I'm not going to micromanage you, because your on the field planning will probably be better than my judgement, but we should try to work together on this, to make sure as little hassle falls on any of us." He added, taking look at the group and then at Samus in particular.
"I'm not going to mandate anything of any of you, if you don't want to be involved, you're free to step out. I am not your commander, or your supervisor, and by all rights this shouldn't be your fight, but it doesn't seem you have a choice about it. This will likely be dangerous and put you in the sights of those you might not want the attention of, but if you're prepared to accept the risks, we'll go ahead. Any objections, lady?" He finished, looking at Samus in particular, sensing that she was probably the most willful of the bunch. Not an inaccurate assumption, but Samus did need to mull it over just briefly.
She then nodded. "Alright, I'm ready."
Consolidated Logbook Entries
Individuals: Mercenaries: Active: No Appreciable Political Affiliation: Devil's Fire Company: Male: Corvargal: Malegon
Malegon, also known as Devil-Warden, is a Corvargal Mercenary well known for their fondness for weapons of variable length such as whips, chains, meteor hammers, and flails that allow him to control the terms of melee engagements. Though their early career is generally obscure, and few details on his early life are of public record, Malegon is known for ruthless professionalism, a lack of scruples so long as his code of honour remains unviolated, and a great deal of skill and experience when it comes to the management of his detachment of the infamous Devil's Fire company. Most of which shares his ethos and whose Hell-Lancers are well known for their fondness for extremely heavy armour, fanatic discipline, and enthusiasm for destroying dissent or agents of disruption as well as very few qualms about taking work to crush political foes of various unpleasant regimes. Malegon's personality is noted to be severe and efficiency obsessed, and while generous to success is scornful of failure.
Samus' Notes: Malegon's involvement here doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense...why come here? This isn't the sort of work Hell-Lancers normally do. But if they're hiring Devil's Fire troopers then...they definitely want whatever they're planning accomplished in a hurry.
Arne's Notes: Malegon has a file in my mother's notes. Most of it notes that the two of them had a vicious rivalry due to their opposing lines of work. She got the better of him most of the time but...am I even at my mother's level right now?
Mercenary Companies: No Appreciable Political Affiliation: Enforcement and Warfare: Devil's Fire Company
The Devil's Fire Company is part of a supraorganisation known as Hell-Lancers who live by an ethos of professionalism, extreme discipline, a need to enforce order upon the cosmos by assisting proper authority in crushing agents of rebellion and disharmony, and a belief in the righteousness of hierarchy and the rule of the better over the lesser. Like all Hell-Lancers, the Devil's Fire Company accepts only skilled volunteers who are able to pass their rigorous exams and tests, culminating in battling entities conjured from the Morph by Magi and Espers to see if recruits can really take the worst the cosmos has to offer. The Devil's Fire Company is despised by many for its enthusiasm in "skull-cracking" missions and its preference for counter-insurgency or enforcement duties as well as its openness to the usage of terror tactics to weaken enemies in preparation for shock assaults meant to shatter an enemy's lines with hard-hitting schwerpunkt concentrations of force. The Devil's Fire is also particularly known for its employment of scorched Earth tactics and its specialty in incendiary weapons and high concentration of incendiary esoterics as well as its particular focus on punishment of those it believes have spread disruption and disarray and need to be reminded of the duties of the law. Their high success rate however, ensures that they continue to find employment regardless of how distasteful their methods are to many. Especially as they are well known for their confidentiality regarding clients who do not wish to be named.
Samus' Notes: What kind of person would join a group that revels in punishment to this degree? Even for laws that aren't their own? Who could honestly believe the universe needs that much order that you have to go and help other countries enforce their laws? Is the pay really that good for a bunch of fascist jerks?
Arne's Notes: The Devil's Fire are well known among the Volunteer army for their willingness to do just about anything that countries don't want to be seen having their normal troops do if they pay is good enough and if it fits their totalitarian ideology. I think at least, they might have some information on Cylosis and why it was attacked.
Organisations: Mercenaries: Quasi-Religiously Motivated: Multi-Species: Politically Motivated: Fascistic: Hell-Lancers
Hell-Lancers are known for a number of things, their grueling rites of initiation and recruitment to see if a recruit has a body and soul that can "withstand the fires of Hell", their peculiar offshoot branch of Christianity that sees Hell as being a form of justice and the duties of its Devils as sacred, and their distinct preference for heavy armour. Hell-Lancers do not allow those they believe are unworthy to serve as anything more than "Squires" who attend to the proper Lancers who hold the real privileges within the organisations contained under the Umbrella of the Hell-Lancer religious order. While their philosophy originated from humans, they are known to accept membership from a wide variety of species so long as they are considered able to properly integrate with the harsh discipline and regimental culture of the Hell-Lancer sand their subsidiary organisations that typically serve as mercenaries hiring themselves out in the cause of punishing the rebellious and the disruptive and restoring peace, discipline, and order where it is needed.
Samus' Notes: I don't understand how they can claim to be believers of a religion of Mercy when they're so obsessed with punishment and torment for those who break the law. But I think I'm seeing where they're involved. If they're being hired by someone, they probably want someone plausibly deniable, and they probably think they can put down some anarchy while they're at it. I'll need to get some more data though, I shouldn't commit to a theory until I know what's going on.
Arne's Notes: From my parents' journals, Hell-Lancers ranked somewhere between Space Pirate Marauders and Vhozon Judges in terms of how soullessly they approached the matter of discipline and enforcement. They usually find more jobs from the Judiciary on Vho than anyone else though, so what they could be doing in something involving the Imperium or the Confederacy is definitely...interesting. Concerning, but interesting.
Topics: Military: Confederacy of Dismor: Organisational: Marauder Cells
The Confederacy of Dismor, or the Space Pirates as they are traditionally known as, are comprised of countless component organisations, nationalities, entities, and groups that operate under the treaty of Dismor under the authority of High Command. As such, their military while vast and lavishly funded is made out of many disparate elements forced together under the dictates of High Command to achieve its ends. Given the near constant war-footing of the Confederacy, a method of organising its armies quickly was necessary; resulting in the Marauder Cell structure. Marauder Cells are commanded by a Warlord who is approved by higher ups in the Confederal military based on their prior service record and given leeway over their operational area to achieve the ends given to them by High Command. Whereas the Confederal military is overseen by High Command's infamous enforcers, Marauder Cells are given considerably more freedom of action and discretion to acquire the resources needed to carry out their operations. As such, they are often trusted with deep-penetration raids and black operations against other countries that the standard military is considered too unsubtle to do.
Samus' Notes: I guess this is what most people think of when you say "Space Pirate", a Warlord with a leash from High Command told to go maul everything they can in a small stretch of space on their master's command. To think that they're so committed to causing destruction that they perfected a way to slip troops into other countries just to cause terror...We need to find the Warlord in charge of the Cell as quickly as possible.
Arne's Notes: Marauder Cells are one of the primary ways most societies interact with the space pirates. Self-sufficient nomad fleets able to set up hidden stations or bases on planets under localised command structures who get a lot of freedom to do whatever it is they're ordered to. Growing more troops, building machines, then unleashing themselves on targets of opportunity. If they're close enough to the Prodigy Program headquarters to attack, that means there's a large Marauder Cell nearby.
Consolidated Headlines and Articles
Regional Level News: Military: Engenoid: Daily Esquire: Hell-Lancer deployments in Styrmandin Galaxy used for Marketing
As the Rantik Swarmhood descends upon the Styrmandin galaxy, the beleaguered defenders call upon anything that can offer to help them against the overwhelming invasion force. This has, unfortunately, included massive contracts extended to the Hell-Lancers, particularly the Devil Fire, Godbrand, Warspite, Tyrant Hammer, and Morningstar companies. Thus inviting the religiously inclined mercenaries to the galaxy in large numbers to fill out the ranks of the defending forces in the hopes of preventing galactic sterilisation or destruction at the hands of the Swarm. While many welcome the arrival of the Hell-Lancers given their elite record and stellar history in combat, others point to the Hell Lancer's well-documented insistence on forcing the societies they assist along more authoritarian and hierarchal lines. However, protests at this stage are largely regarded as unable to enact meaningful changes as martial law is put in place to prepare for invasion.
Samus' Notes: The more I look into these Hell-Lancers, the more I'm convinced that I need to look into who's paying them.
Arne's Notes: If I had to guess, they're likely trying to set up a permanent resource base.
Universal Level News: Progenitor: International: Stellar Inquirer: Multinational Research Team Announces Discovery of Progenitor Map
The discovery of the "Codex Stellaris" announced by the Intrepidity team has the scientific community in unprecedented excitement as the locations of the sites of countless Progenitor reliquaries has been unveiled. Many are on already inhabited worlds, and others are on uncharted or even undiscovered planets within a ten megaparsec radius. Expeditions are already being planned by multiple countries, though analysts cite concerns that the wave of discoveries may result in increased friction in a time of deteriorating international relationships. The team has urged that this discovery be used to encourage internationalism and cooperation instead of sparking further flash points. Proposals for an international progenitor regulator body have once again been floated by the scientific community, though expectations for the success of this proposal are low.
Samus' Notes: People are really this excited about a map? It wasn't really secret or anything. But if the Space Pirates want it, I won't let them have it.
Arne's Notes: It's too bad that not even a source as optimistic as the Inquirer believes the call for cooperation will go anywhere.