A soldiers boots click the floor as the walk through the somewhat endless corridors. The feet quicken and the clicks of the boots speed up a bit. The sound reverberates off the halls, and echoes throughout the corridors. Click, click, click. The corridors are crowded as usual with the other ranks that guard the armada. His face is cold, distance, and pale. His armor has evidence of baroque influence; elaborated decorated in a number of etches and symbols. His demeanor and his armor signifies a soldier of high rank, his rank is the title of third degree lord. He is the soldier known as the Lord Vaako. His expression carries that of resentment and professionalism and wrath. He continues to stride through the endless armada, and finally reaches the main conferring room. Walking up a flight of stairs he reaches two guards at the entry way. He walks towards the door and the guards step aside creating a path. Pushing the enormous doors open he steps inside solemnly. The doors close and the guards assume their positions.
He is met by old souls as well as revived souls that have been retrieved from the underverse. He is also met by eyes made of silver pools, and a man with a large build,....the new lord. He comes closer and so do his followers; an elderly woman, a purifier, and a young woman, as well as others that are dismissed. The three all of which a close companies to the new lord. Two of which that received a second chance at life. Vaako approaches closer, uneasily, and is very wary of his every action. Seeing first hand that the lord is able and willing to kill any man, even a holy half dead. The position which could have been taken by the third in line; Lord Vaako. It could have been easily carried out if not for Riddick. The reason for his resentment is somewhat comprehensible at this point. Although he envies Riddick he still obeys relentlessly, mostly out of fear. The largely built lord moves forward, effortlessly, and with out concern. He carries a calm yet stern look on his face, as always. Vaako bows first and addresses the lord, but he does not care to return the curtsy.
"Your excellency." he bows.
"Vaako." Lord Riddick says unconcerned. A silence drags on for a few seconds.
"What's today's report?" still unmoved by his presence.
"Well, its about those frigates that were ordered to salvage supplies..." he states impersonally.
"And...what's the problem now?"
"The fact of the matter is that 50 were sent out, and only 49 reported back."
Kyra walks towards the two men, hoping to join the conversation. She eagerly, yet smoothly steps in.
"We're talkin' bout an AWOL vessel. Could've mean mercs or a detour, you never know..." she says confidently. Suddenly cut off by Vaako's sarcastic voice, because it turns out that he likes her just as much as he likes Riddick.
"Sorry, no civilians, during conferring." he says to her, and Riddick just gives him a cold as ice look. He waits for the rest of the lovely, lovely story.
"As I was saying: 50 sent out, and only 49 reported back. Ergo, one is missing."
"AWOL. Like I said before." she says.
"Can you locate the missing frigate?"
"My men are trying as speak, sir."
"Well, try harder." she says, resentfully.
They head to the communication room, or the com unit. They are met by a lanky com tech, who leads them to the holographic image of the frigates location. The room is filled with only the tech, Vaako, Riddick, and Kyra. The light of the hologram dances along their faces.
"We know the location, and we've made contact. We're just having difficulty communicating with it." says the communication soldier.
"Difficulty?..."
"All systems go on frigate, but no reply..."
"Maybe they're in cryo; maybe they're out."
"They'd be notified of the message, sweety. They've got coms on their equipment too. So unless you've got some useful information...." Vaako says sarcastically only to be met once again by Riddick's stare. He makes way for Kyra. Since the crash of HG and Crematoria he's found that she's pretty good with computers. She moves to the image.
"What are we looking at here?" she asks, hitting some buttons that change the image.
"Well, the message was sent successfully. But the system reads no reply; no stats...the hell?"
"What do you mean 'no stats.' Even if they aren't there the motherboard on the ship is supposed to read stats no matter what. You know what just show the stats to me." She demands confused and frustrated. The tech sets the image to stats.
"Well, there's still stats. But they're all flat line." says the tech scratching his head, the rest just listen and wait quietly.
"The fuck is going on? I mean even if the system was down it would still monitor stats. I mean the ship is there, but the system shows them as ghosts...." she stops and thinks for a while.
"The frigates there; they're read as absent; so it leaves us with AWOL soldiers, even deserters; traitors. And it's my job to get those bastards back to HQ." Vaako starts off.
"They didn't leave."Vaako hesitates and keeps walking. Riddick solemnly, recalling a similar situation. The same feeling he felt after the crash of HG, maybe even the same words, who knows. He had a slight idea that he was dealing with the same problem. Missing people, ships still intact, shit killing people. Yeah, definitely deja vu. Thought Riddick, cleaning his goggles off with his shirt. Once finished he replaces the goggles over his eyes before looking up. Kyra senses the same.
"Am I right, or am I right?" Riddick asks.
"Well, where I come flat line means what it means. Plain and simple. I'm not sure Riddick."
"Come on, those soldiers didn't leave. They're dead." he says impersonally, but still carries the same feeling. He walks to his chambers and the tech leaves. Leaving only Kyra to bask in the glow of the hologram. She examines it, moving in the light it gives of. She stares at the red flash that blinks near a familiar, yet desolate planet. A dead planet. Staring at the frigate lost on a desolate alien planet. She reads stats on the planet and no human activity is recorded. Is this whole planet dead?, her mind asks. She walks away slowly, then turns to make a cursory glance at the image. She starts off again, the images remains as she walks off out of the room. Leaving dressed in deja vu and smothered by the darkness.