PSO: Days before
Prologue
Just days before the explosion on Ragol, all was going well for the inhabitants of the Central Dome Colony 01. Head of the R&D department, Rico "Red Ring" Sophomore was assigned to communications after her completion of directing the terra-forming project. Meanwhile, Gen. Healthcliff Flowen was assigned a secret mission, the capture of an ancient creature in the ruins of an old spaceship. These two people will have a profound impact on the following events to come. In three days, all will be shown.
Day one
Rico Sophomore is just assigned to communications and is made head of the department. Fresh from her current accomplishment, she feels that is up to the challenge.
"Miss Sophomore," an official calls, "You're wanted by the head administration." "Really?" asks Rico, "(Wonder what it could be?)" Rico made her way to the office of the administration. "Rico Sophomore," Head administrator Lawrence Stain says, " your excellent work at terra-forming has lead me to give you a new position...considering that your terra-forming work is finished. You will be given the head position of communications, it's a new department that we just developed, they are in charge of comm. link between incoming ships to the planet." "Like Pioneer 2," said Rico. "Yes, we need someone with your leadership skills to be at the helm of this department. Consider it an honor that we chose you to be the vanguard of this."
Rico answers, "It is an honor, thank you sir, I won't let you down." Rico leaves the office. "Miss Sophomore," the official from before says, "Now that you have gotten word from Mr. Stain himself, I'll take you to the communication department." The two walked down the corridors of Central Dome...
Excuse me as I'll take the time describe the Central Dome. It's a giant dome that serves as the headquarters of the crew of Pioneer 1. The Central Dome is actually made up of the recycled material of Pioneer 1. The dome is made up of diamond fibers; the doors are made of Nü steelte, one of the toughest metals known. The floors are made of marble calcilate, the Central Dome the newly developed comm. link laser. The finest transistors were used in the making of this machine to ensure maximum efficiently. The insides are nothing spectacular, nothing short of white walls, floors and ceilings twirling in an endless cycle. Enough of that, lets go back to matter at hand.
"These are the people who you'll be working with," says the official. Rico waives hi to the people, they waive back. "Come now Miss Sophomore, we'll need to get affiliated with the controls of these machines." The official directs a communicator to help Rico with get familiar the controls. He slowly cycles though the controls of the machine, "And this switch manages the wave regulator." One by one, Rico would learn all the functions of the mechanism; it only took her a half an hour to learn the controls. Soon a call would be received over the intercom. "This is Pioneer 2, we request safe passage to Ragol, over." Rico answers, "You'll have to wait for authorization from the head admin., over" "Roger that, we'll wait for further instructions." Rico says, "We can't allow them to enter orbital field until Lawrence is told about this. Take care of this situation for me while I inform him." "Okay, Rico" says a communicator. Rico leaves her post to check with Stain, Head administrator and current overseer of the Central Dome.
Rico walks into the room, "Mr. Stain, Pioneer 2 wishes..." but he isn't there. "Ah Miss Sophomore," the same official from before says, "Mr. Stain wishes me to inform you that he'll be out for the rest of the day." Rico responds, "Oh, thanks (I'll guess I have to tell him tomorrow.)" Rico runs back to the comm. department and tells them the news. "Pioneer 2," begins the communicator, "we regret to inform you that you'll have wait for at least twenty-four hours before the overseer can come up with a decision, over." "Roger that." Pioneer 2 responds.
Later on, at night Rico could be seen in her room playing with her pet, a Rappy (it'd s bird-like creature that resembles a penguin with yellow fur) named Rapi. "Rapi, do you want a treat?" "Pi, pi" The Rappy responded. Rico gives Rapi a treat, "Pi, pi," Rapi is delighted. "Good girl, good girl." Rico loves the animals on this planet, how little does she know that a plan underway will disrupt everything natural in this world.
Healthcliff Flowen, an established officer who fought in the Great War, is assigned to capture and retrieve a sample or the whole of an ancient creature found in the ruins of the spacecraft. Flowen's a man in his early seventies; he has gray hair and blue eyes. He always wears a blue army combat suit with his family's trademark sword (a sword made of crystalline material with a hilt made of carbonate filling and iron bearing.) He's of the Greek-Italian descent and he is a human. Today, his men will finally make way into the ruins after long weeks of preparation.
"Flowen, it's official," says a soldier, "We're going in." "Is that so," says Flowen, "all right then. It's important that we stay together, although intelligence reveals that most of the alien forces inside aren't very intelligent, we all know how wrong intelligence been recently...let's go." "All right you heard him men," says another soldier, "let's go." With that the men storm the gate to the spaceship. Inside of the space lies otherworldly creatures with a murderous intent and destructive nature; these creatures fight in awe-inspiring fury never seen before. They act as if they are protecting the ancient force within.
The walls of the spaceship are lined with glass tubes filled with organic matter (possibly used to create the creatures) and it appears as if the vines on the metallic red-ish brown walls are thriving with life. The men move inward through the corridors of the spaceship, they move steady, with arms in hand they charge further down into the abyss. It isn't long until they encounter one of the beasts. A wave of ten, maybe twenty, of small savages with pricing appendages at the helm of the body approached the crew. They moved slowly and stayed close (they must realize that strength comes from numbers.) Flowen says, "All right, all the Rangers line up in a row..." the Rangers do as they are told, "...ready, aim, fire!" The Rangers discharge a volley of fire into the group of monsters. One by one the monsters are slain. Soon, a mass of dead bodies lay across the floor.
Flowen says, "Good work, let's proceed." The party moves further into the spaceship. A low rumble can be heard in the distance. "Did you hear that?" A soldier asks. Then out of nowhere, he is encased in a capsule. "help me." His screams are barley audible, a soldier turns around and sees the capsule and hears the cry. The Ranger readies his photon rifle and shoots into the caplet. It falls apart and crumbles into dust, the soldier is released. Flowen is told about that incident and advises the group to remain close. Their march into the ship slows down. Later on they encounter more monsters. A strange bunch of monstrosities that look similar to the altered beasts in the underground passageway, their appendages are clever-like, the heads spike into an upward position and they give off a strange glow of light, similar to photonic light.
The monsters group together in packs of three and scatter across the room. They begin to rush in from all directions and attack. Flowen commands, "All Hunters move to the front line, Ranger with the shotguns, move out into the open field and hold your ground...All other Rangers stand behind the Hunters and fire at will. All Forces provide back up to the Rangers with the shotguns. Move out!" With that a battle begins. Rangers with the shotguns are in the open field, in this position they can attack all enemies in any direction but they are left exposed. The Rangers fire of their own violation at the enemy party, but a few manages to break through the barrage and move in closer towards the Rangers. Due to the weak power of photonic shotguns up close, they can't push them back.
Then out of the blue, a giant fireball appears out of nowhere and incinerates the enemies. Two Forces provided back up for the Rangers, they move into the open field with the Rangers; one provides defense with strength inducing spells and a barrier while the other strikes down opposition with a volley of lightning bolts. Meanwhile, the other Ranger provides back up the Hunters in the front line. The Hunters (including Flowen himself) go toe to toe with the monster. Flowen is fighting two of the beasts himself, one strikes at Flowen and he blocks the attack with his sword. The other sees an opportunity and strike at Flowen. Flowen frees one hand from his sword to make a quick attack with his palm. A flame resonates from his hand and he attacks the thing with a foie blast (Foie is a fire based technique that shoots a ball of fire towards foe.) Because he let his hand slip from the guard of his sword the creature breaks though the ward. The sword goes down to the ground, the degenerate lashes at Flowen and he dodges the blow. He rolls across the floor and picks up the sword then leaps into the air, delivering the crushing blow to immoral creature. It splits down to the middle; a spray of purple residue emerges from the body. Of course Flowen jumps back in order to avoid being drenched in the substance.
In a few hours the party is defeated. Flowen and the crew are exhausted, "We should rest here before continuing," Flowen says, "We'll rotate shifts, while one sleeps the other guards and restocks the rounds in our arms. All right, at ease." The 1st army of Ragol set-up camp due the fact that night is approaching and the army can't continue fatigued, after all a war can't be won with tired warriors...one needs rest and fuel to produce efficiently.
Unbeknownst to the group, they are being watched. "What should we do? Should we attack while they asleep?" "No, wait till dawn...they be drowsy from the effects of sleep and besides they leader won't fall sleep until second shift. That's when we'll attack, they won't survive an attack from us...Delsabers!"
Day two
Rico is asleep in her room. As she lies on the bed the covers are halfway on her body, her snores can be her though her door. "ZZZZZ." All of a sudden, a knock can be heard on the door. Rico slowly awakes from her slumber, "Ah, oomph! Who could knocking on my door so early in the morning." "Why hello," says the official from yesterday "Mr. Stain wishes to see you. Come with me." Rico says, "Wait a minute...let me change first!" "Oh, my stars," says the official, "why a didn't even notice that you had your nighties on. By all means do change."
Rico says, "Thanks" and closes the door. In a matter of minutes she changes into her uniform and leaves with the official. The official leads her to the Head administrator's office. Stain greets Rico and advises her to take a seat. "Rico," he begins to state, "in the days ahead, I will absent from my post. I had been called over to Gal Da Val island to help them develop a new Al system called...Olga as I believe. Anyway, I need a reliable person to takeover in the event of my absence. So I have request for you to take over in my place until I come back. Will accept this immense responsibly?" Rico says, "Well this is kind of sudden..." Stain says, "Don't worry about how you'll perform, I'm sure that you'll perform well." If you need any kind of help, the official over will assist you with your duties." Rico says, "Well then, I guess I try to do the best of my ability to perform as Head administrator."
Stain says, "Glad to hear that, now I can rest with ease." Rico says, "Wait a minute, who is going to be the head of the communication department?" Stain says, "That's apart of your job now. You'll have to decide that on your own." Rico says, "You're right...I do have decide on that as a part of my job... I understand now." Stain says, "You see, this job won't be so hard, now will it?" Stain then proceeds to leave the room, "I have to get going, I can't waste time taking. I wish you luck Rico." Stain exits. Rico spends time with the official going over the responsibilities of the job and the consequences that go in hand."
Rico patches a call though to the communication department. "This is the acting Head admin. Gen. Rico Sophomore, I wish to speak with Paul (the communicator from yesterday.)" "This is Paul, what is it that I can do for you Miss?" says he. "Because I am filling in for Mr. Stain, in my absent from my post I am making you Head of communications in my stead." Paul responds to this, "I'll try to perform to the best of my ability." Rico says, "Glad to hear that, now for your first task, as Head of administration I give Pioneer 2 the permission to enter orbital space; relay this message to Pioneer 2" Paul answers, "Yes Ma'am." Moments later... "Miss Sophomore, Pioneer 2 says they are having engine trouble, they won't be able to descend into orbital space until tomorrow." Rico answers, "That fine, tomorrow it is."
Thought out the day, Rico handled paperwork to be filed and is told of many problems around the Dome that needs her utmost attention. "Geez, this is what Stain has to deal with? All this time I'd envisioned him sitting hear doing nothing but eating doughnuts!" Finally night falls, Rico is too tired to reach her room, she falls asleep at her desk...
Flowen is awaken by gunshots. Flowen says to himself "what the hell?" He and the rest of the crew exit their tents. They find the second shift fighting strange monsters. That look like mutated humans; one arm has a sword for a hand, other is a claw that emits strange engery to shield from attacks. These critters happen to talk as well "Kill the intruders!" (As you can see their grasp on speech is profound.) Flowen says, "I want all the Hunters to go the front lines, all Rangers and Forces supply back up from behind." One of the "Delsabers" makes orders as well. "Call for the Chaos Sorcerers and Bringers, release the Claws. Delsabers, hold your positions until then. Flowen thinks to himself, "It looks as if these creature are intelligent enough to communicate." Flowen calls for the lieutenant, "Look spread word though the ranks that we'll need to speak in code, we can't let the creatures understand our plans." The lieutenant agrees, he spreads word that commands we be spread via code.
Now the army is fighting both the Delsabers and the "Claws" (paper-thin creatures with piercing beaks and no limbs of any sort. They are slow moving but have the ability to float above ground.) The battle moves into the engine room of the ship. The giant turbines spin producing electricity that fills the room's ceiling. A Delsaber is fighting against a Hunter, the Delsaber swings his sword and it clashes with the Hunters sword while his other sword stabs into the creature's side. The creature staggers backwards in pain, appearing to be defeated, the Hunter goes for the kill. As he moves in another Delsaber jumps over the wounded Delsaber and strikes at the Hunter. Just as it seems that the Hunter is done for, a bazooka round is fired in the creature's side...effectively doing it in. The Ranger discharges another volley, this one aimed at the wounded Delsaber.
All through out the fight, shots are fired, spontaneous explosions erupt and dead bodies are lain on the floor...both human and non-human. Finally, the back up the Delsabers requested arrives. Five cloaked creature and two centaurs arrive, the battle is about to be taken to a higher level. The cloaked creatures (of whom the Delsabers call 'Chaos Sorcerers') begin to cast spells all over the battlefield. They strike at Flowen's men with giant fireballs, lightning bolts, icicles, arrow of light and a dark energy ball. The centaurs (those would be the Chaos Bringers) charge though the crowd of fighters hitting anything in the way, regardless of it being friend or foe. One of the Bringers charged at Flowen, the thing readied its huge sword-arm and ran at full speed. It knocks over a Delsaber and sliced in half a Claw...but missed Flowen. Flowen jump into the air, thus leaping over the range of the sword. He is at eye level with the beast Flowen readies for an attack but pauses when he notices the smile on the creature's face. "Prefect!" The Bringer taunts as he shifts his arm upward in the air. Apparently his sword-arm doubles as a gun-arm as shoots into the air.
Flowen quickly shifts his photonic shield into defense position and deflects the shot. The shot travels into the air until it hits one of the turbines, the turbine collapses due to the stress the shot has caused it. This causes a temporary blackout in the room. Amidst the chaos, the Bringer is distracted...bad move. Flowen pulls out his Yasminkov 2000H (An older style gun, uses ballistic technology, very powerful and rare) and fires into the scalp at the helm of the monster. The monster falls backwards, crushing a Claw. Elsewhere in the battle, among the darkness a Force is dueling a Chaos Sorcerer. The Chaos Sorcerer is chanting an archaic spell, while the Force is preparing his attack. The Chaos Sorcerer finishes his chant and unleashes his attack, the Force does likewise. The dark energy orb from the Sorcerer and the blast of light from the Force clash together in a blinding flash. The resulting explosion blows away most of the Claws blocking passage way to the elevator that lead to the main chamber.
Flowen directs a small portion of the army to enter the elevator, the rest of the crew slowly fights off the onslaught of enemies and enters the elevator. The crew is exhausted after their fight in the engine room. Flowen knew that he had to find a safe haven to rest, at this point rest was important due to the fact that he lost one-forth of his infantry in that conflict. Flowen found a place, a storage room near the main chamber. Flowen directed his battalion into the room and placed a force field around the entrance of the room. The barrier was strong enough to make it thought the night. Flowen and the infantry made a makeshift healing rig and used it to heal their wounds...
Day three
Rico is awaken by a tremor. "What was that," she says. Rico receives a call from the geo observation department. "Rico, a rift in the underground plates of Ragol are opening under the Central Dome at an alarming rate. What should we do?" Rico says, "Dispatch a crew down there to analyze the problem and formulate a solution." "Right" then the transmission ends. Rico gets up from the desk and begins to walk out the room. She remembers that Pioneer 2 was due to land on Ragol, so she heads for the comm. department. Paul turns around in his seat. "Gen. Rico, Ma'am, #23 has arrived." Rico responds, "That's good, send out the signal." Paul asks, "Won't the tremors be a problem?" Rico says, "No, I don't think the tremors will interfere with the transmission to Pioneer 2." Paul says, "O.K..." The operator begins the transaction. "...All right Rico, now all you have to do give them the permission to enter Ragol." Rico says, "Okay," she steps up to the comm. link console and approach the intercom, "This Gen. Rico, by the power of the administration you will be given..." the link goes dead. "What's going on," Rico says.
Paul says, "Those tremors shook the needle off of it's original configuration. It will take a few hours to fix..." The tremors are getting worse. Rico says, "We can't wait that long, I'll go up to fix it." Rico leaves the room and heads up to the roof via elevator. At that moment...an explosion occurs...
Flowen and his infantry awake from slumber. They move out and head into the main chamber. The chamber is empty; a large oddly shaped pillar rest in the middle of the room, on the sides of walls three doors lay on the east, west and the north directions respectively. The north door reads, "forbidden." With the inscriptions "Mutts Dis Pounm" inside of a symbol. Flowen feels strange about the door, as if a great evil were behind it. The army made their way towards the door; it opens. Inside the door was a blinding light, it pulled all who gazed inside. The crew found themselves in the most unlikely of places. They stood in a lush garden filled with daffodils and roses. In the middle of the field stood a large monument with a stone tablet. Flowen stood over the tablet, it read "Inside this box is evil incarnate, only the pure can overcome it." Flowen decides to leave the box closed and was about call the army to retreat from this ship, but the box's lid bust open. With in an instant, the lush field of paradise turned into a horrible battlefield. The souls of the fallen scream in agony from the ground, the dead can be seen floating in the air. Needless to say, by this point...most of the troops were shaking in their boots.
A huge demon appears in the middle of the circular scaffold. It sat upon a dragon with three heads, no body and many legs; it wasted no time in attacking the group. Within a single attack he wipes out the entire army...expect Flowen. Flowen is startled by the horrific attack, the fiend mocks Flowen. "Don't be sad...they weren't worth the time to fight...you should feel honored to be the sole survivor worthy of fighting." The creature begins to laugh a sinister laugh. Flowen is filled with mixed emotions; fear rage and panic filled his soul. Opting to strike he begins to attack the creature; he chops off a head of the dragon on the bottom. The head just regenerates, "C'mon, you can do better than that," the monster taunts. Flowen shoots bullets at the head of the devil, but they are deflected. Flowen then decides to use the light arrow technique Grants. The monster sensed this and says, "I'm beginning to become bored," and strikes at Flowen, at the moment the creature's attack was close to Flowen he releases the attack. The clash of the two powers results in a huge explosion. "You fool," says the enraged monster and slashes into Flowen flesh. Flowen grabs onto the monster's arm amidst the raging inferno. He detonates an explosive he held on to...just in case. The monster releases an energy field in an effort to protect himself. The explosion exits the room and fills the main chamber. It shoots upward; it creates a hole through out the ship, the hole reaches outside to Ragol's forest.
Epilogue
Rico is spared from the explosion thanks to the extra protection of the elevator capsule. She begins a journey that will take her though out the depths of Ragol as she searches for survivors. The truth that she will discover behind the Pioneer project will shock her as she comes face to face with the demon responsible for the explosion.
Flowen survives thanks to the monster's force field. A research crew at Gal Da Val discovers him outside of the ship and takes him to the Central Control Center. He is introduced to Dr.Oslo who wants to examine Flowen's wounds. Flowen feels as if the monster may have left a part of it inside of himself. His wounds seems to give off a strange aura...
End