"Intelligence agencies must learn to manipulate everyone, even their own states, for the good of the people they serve." - Director Vzorag
Cylosis, Chancellery
"It's not the best job...but it's a job." Spire rumbled tiredly as he stood in the gardens of the chancellery, Cylosis' blue sun glaring down on top of him. Ever since he came out of stasis only to find himself totally and utterly alone, he'd been looking for his people...but he needed money. The methods with which he used to search for some trace of his vanished kind needed financing and he found few better ways to do it than as a mercenary. He was tremendously strong and well equipped with the cache of gear he managed to take, and as he had been a commando before his cryo-freeze, he had the training to do it. Still, serving as some kid's bodyguard didn't sit too well with him.
"What a waste" He sighed, sillicon dioxide filtering out of his two and a half tonne frame. He was pulled out of his thoughts by someone tugging at his legs, and he looked down to see Sigmund looking up at him with a wide smile.
"Hey there." Spire said in the friendliest (to human ears) voice he could manage. The little guy definitely seemed to take the nine foot tall Diamont's presence in stride, he thought as he kept his blazing orange eyes focused on the wide; curious expression of the human toddler.
"How's it going little guy?" He said, kneeling down to be at a more even height with the small child.
"Can you really turn into a ball?" He said, almost grinning as Spire looked around and noticed Sigmund's other friends gathering around, whispering to one another as they watched expectantly. Sigmund himself had heard of Spire's ability to curl up into his Dialanche form, but now that the bounty hunter was here; he absolutely had to see it for himself. The boy already idolized bounty hunters, and being in the presence of one who was rapidly establishing a reputation as being one of the best was almost a dream come true for the little dukeling.
Sensing that he had little chance of dissuading the bouncey little boy; especially not with his "Can I see it, canIcanIcanI pleaaaase?" going off in rapid fire mode; Spire decided that he may as well.
"Alright, but I'm going to need you to stand back. Get too close and I might just squash you." He said, with Sigmund and his friends responding with quick "Okays!" as they stood well away from the hulking Diamont. Then he jumped into the air and quickly bent his upper body over, folding his arms towards his leg and reshaping his body into a spherical shape. He rolled backwards, forwards, then clear out of the way of anything that could be harmed and let his rocky exterior fly off of his crystalline interior, spinning around him like a circular saw a few times before recombining on his interior, then finally found a wall he thought no one would mind if he scaled and rolled up the surface, the spikes of the dialanche sticking into it as he climbed it, then finally he released and transformed back into his humanoid form, activating his jump systems right before he hit the ground to soften his impact.
"That good enough for you?" He said, standing up out of his kneel and shaking his head as he did so, straightening himself up and letting the kids get closer to him.
"YES! YES! YES! That was so cool!" Sigmund said, clapping his hands and bouncing on his shoes. Spire brought his orb carrying arm onto Sigmund's shoulders, trying to contain his excitement by preventing him from jumping up and down so much.
"Easy there, you're going to hurt yourself if you keep that up." Spire said, gently rebuking the boy.
"Sorry Spire." He said, holding his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on his shoes. So fragile looking, Spire thought, even more so than other humans; their offspring at this stage of development looked so very...vulnerable. He could understand why the Chancellor hired him out to protect him, something so small and fragile needed to be looked over carefully. And the earnest smile he gave him with those mischevious red eyes of his were always endearing to look at.
"Kids...not a cynical crystal in their interiors." He said to himself as the armed guards of the chancellery saluted the young Schirmer as they marched on patrol through the gardens, Sigmund giving his own response before giggling as the patrol group marched on past them.
"With all this security, me being here seems a bit overkill." Spire said, Sigmund looking up to him with a puzzled look before Spire gestured towards some of his friends, with the boy nodding and running off to play in the gardens with them; giggling and shouting ensuing.
"It's because you can never be too sure with protecting children, especially when they're the children of public figures." Said a feminine mechanical voice that made Spire quickly turn around to see the source indicated on his HUD's radar.
"Oh, when did you get here?" Spire asked as the stony behemoth turned around to look, finding a two legged, tall; blue and green drone with a head rather like an armet helmet helmet; save for the visor being occupied by a long, thin screen and with two slanted antennae emerging from the temples of its helmeted like head. Humanoid arms sprouted from its shoulders, and the whole combination of features seemed very much intended to evoke a futurized update on the concept of knights.
"I always ensure that master Schirmer the younger is always within easy reach, Spire. You nver know when he might need something." The machine said, turning her head towards Sigmund as he beaned one of the other children, a black haired girl; in the side of the head with a plush ball, an "Ow!" coming out of her as he giggled. Then she returned his focus back to Spire.
"To be in the limelight is to also be in the crosshairs." The machine said, folding her arms behind her back.
"Yeah I suppose you could say that Sylan." Spire said, looking skywards briefly and shaking his head. Then he turned back to the machine. "You know, he said he wanted to be a mercenary like me when he grows up. " Spire said, almost chuckling a bit. It seemed kind of hard to imagine people so small and defenseless as hunters in any capacity really. "Seems a bit far-fetched of a dream to me." Spire said, turning his focus back to Sylan.
"While I struggle to imagine a scenario where Siegfried; nevermind Elsha would approve of Sigmund becoming a freelancer, I think you're underestimating the boy somewhat. It's rather hard to judge what manner of person someone will become based on what they are this young." Sylan said, turning entirely towards Spire. "But I do think that whatever he will be, he will do the family name proud." Sylan said, the screen on her face making sine waves corresponding to the sounds she made.
Night time
Star gazing was an activity shared by countless cultures and that which had developed on Cylosis was no exception. Sigmund excitedly followed his parents out into the open world, a wide grin on his face as telescopes were set up on the grassy plateau, their personal hovercraft lying some distance away from the Schirmer family and those who had followed them on the trip; the friends and extended relatives of the Schirmer family and their omnipresent body guards had followed them onto the heights of the plateau.
The devices brought out to witness the skies of Cylosis were many and varied, but Sigmund had a preference for the holoscope; which projected what it saw from its lenses out for the viewing pleasure of others. Currently, Sigmund looked excitedly at the projection of the Gas Giant being shown, the behemothic planet's majestic blue exterior and stately ring system looming large in holographic form; moons happily moving in the positions gravity set out for them.
"What's it called?" Sigmund asked, looking up at Elsha who held his hand, the boy turning his eyes towards her as the Gas Giant, Typhoria, rotated slowly in its projection form.
"Typhoria; our largest planet." She said with a smile, squeezing his hand as she pointed to where the telescope was gazing, singling out a small dot among all the stars of the sky, Cylosis' large Mars like moon, the other planets and assorted other objects travelling the lanes of space, and the great cloudy bands of the galaxy they were in.
"Why's it so big?" He asked.
"When the planets here were born, Typhoria just ate the most, and when there was nothing left to eat; none of the other planets could get any bigger. So it stayed the biggest." She explained before he pointed at a black spot that slowly churned its way across the surface of the planet.
"And what's that?" He asked, poking the hologram.
"That is the eye of Hramanik, it's a very big storm, you could fit our planet in there." She said with a smile, clasping her hands together.
"We're not gonna go there right?" He asked, skittishly making twisting motions with his feet.
"Oh no, you'd never have to worry about that." She said, running her hands through his hair as he let a little giggle.
"Why?" He asked, looking up at her with a little grin.
"Because we would stop anyone who tried, we worked very hard to make sure that you will always be safe Sigmund." She said before reaching over to him, Sigmund raising his arms as she grasped him and easily lifted him up.
"Oh, someone's starting to get heavier." She said as she bounced him a bit in her arms.
"When will I be able to get big like you and dad?" Sigmund said as he idly nibbled at a thumb, Siegfried stepping in a mere moment later.
"I'm certain you're going to be as tall as I am when you're sixteen." He said, ruffling Sigmund's silky silver hair as he made the quick math, counting with his fingers.
"Awww, but that's gonna be forever!" He whined before giving a hearty pout.
"When you're older you'll find the years going by faster Sigmund. You will be sixteen before you realize it." Siegfried chuckled.
"Ugh…" Sigmund complained, folding his arms and huffing.
"There, there." Elsha said, kissing the top of his head.
"To us you will always be our knight in shining armour." She said, smiling at him as he looked up and returned the gesture.
"And how, praytell; are you taking the task of educating him upon yourself?" Came a voice that made Elsha and Siegfried flinch as they turned towards the source.
"Aliborak." Siegfried said, his voice immediately taking a much more weary tone as he sighed and resigned himself to yet another conversation with the insufferable Alimbic.
"At this point I wish your kind stayed extinct." Siegfried muttered under his breath as the Alimbic turned his unflinching gaze to little Sigmund and briefly dimmed the glow on the outer edges of its eye, the Alimbic equivalent of a squint.
"Teaching him about the stars then?" The Alimbic said as he looked at the hologram while the guards kept their weapons at a constant and close watch on the ancient being.
"Yeah! We come here every week! I learned a lot!" He says with a little giggle as Aliborak looked at the Hologram. It was certainly photorealistic and it did give a good impression of the features of Typhoria, with readouts for data Sigmund almost certainly couldn't stand alongside it.
"How did you get here anyway?" Siegfried asked, stepping forward and looking up at the hugely tall Alimbic and his companions, the others gathered around focusing on their own works into the field of amateur astronomy.
"I had set up a teleportation system to take me anywhere on this planet I desired. Currently returning to the ship is more difficult, but I am certain that the incomparable genius of our kind will find a way to work with our limited resources." He said, placing a hand on his chest.
"Are you going to scare him again?" Elsha said, still scarcely forgiving him for his first encounter with her son.
"By the spirits no. I have no intention of purposefully frightening your offspring." Aliborak said, giving a quick gesticulation neither Sigmund nor his parents could understand the significance of.
"And we will ensure that we do not frighten him unintentionally either." Velgora added, turning from her superior to the trio of humans.
"Do I have your word on it?" Elsha said, her gaze still cold and hard, unbowed by the strange and Kriken like countenance of the Alimbics. They may have been living representatives of an old and powerful race, but she was not only Cyaranar; but also a mother who took her duties quite seriously, none who sought to get between her and her son ever avoided regretting it later.
"You have my honour, human." Aliborak said, giving her a curt nod.
"What is the meaning of this visit, if you don't mind me asking?" Siegfried cut in, waving his hand as he sought to get to the bottom of this. He had known these beings long enough to figure out that generally, when they ventured out of their cloistered ship they did so with a purpose.
"Simple. We had found ourselves desiring to learn more of our hosts than what could be gleaned through simple analysis." He said, before a psychic reminder from Velgora drew his attention to the rather plainly obvious boredom on Sigmund's face.
"We wanted to see what this world was like for ourselves." He said, earning him a small nod from Sigmund as he chewed on his thumb again.
"Alib…Ali…" Sigmund said as he tried to get the pronunciation right before defaulting to his usual nickname "Uncle Stretch" he said, referring to how stretched out Aliborak always looked to him.
"Yes?"
"How did the stars get there?" He said.
Such a simple question with such a deep answer, Aliborak thought as he turned the telescope to a nebula, the colourful wisps of gas shining brilliantly in the hologram.
"When a star dies, it casts out its outer layers which form clouds that can become new stars when they clump together. The very first stars though; came from clouds of gas left there by the beginning of time. But it is from this dust that all other things could live. We are all stardust." Aliborak said, registering that a lot of the concepts probably flew over the boy's head, but giving him a pat on it anyway.
But in that nebula under the auspices of the telescope, a drama far more violent than the birth of new stars and planets from the corpses of old ones was unfolding.
Imperial Interdiction station Yurkonuz Plural ZZ
Adder growled as he trudged through the halls of his target vessel. The interdiction station was a large, imposing and baroque edifice floating in the Turonola Nebula, its defenses were many layered and strong and the Imperium had always considered attacks on facilities like these to be likely. "Alright troopers; this facility is the first line of defense for Cylosis, from it they can project a large interdiction field that can detect then cut off non-permitted faster than light travel for a kiloparsec in every direction. This means that as long as it's up, no attacks in force can be made on the planet." Adder said, his voice like the rumbling of a volcano's magma chamber.
"These hijacked supply ships should get us close enough to board but once we're inside we're going to have to fight our way in the instant those ramps drop. Once inside, Mercy will have already cut off their comms giving us just enough time to get in and adjust the field to let our forces in and keep theirs out. You are not, under any circumstances, to destroy the place. You have all been assigned your units and given your objectives. Do not expect Federal reinforcements until the field is adjusted. Review your briefing material from there and preform to your absolute limits. The Federation expects nothing less than total victory." Adder snarled into the comms, greeted with a return chorus of "affirmative!"s.
"Not much for inspirational speeches are you?" Magistera smirked, fangs showing as her lips curled into a smile, Adder sparing her a brief glance before turning back to the display.
"They don't need inspiration, just a clear picture of their objectives and the tools for them. Their morale's already high and pumping them up too much will make them try something stupid. If they need a hammy speech to have some stones then I'm gonna have to wonder why they're in the RAITs in the first place." He said with a heated snort.
"You know a lot of them won't make it." Magistera said, folding her arms and looking at some of the troops waiting around for the moment of truth in the holds of the ship.
"Casualties can be minimized by a good head for planning. They can't be eliminated unless one side is so outmatched or outplayed they didn't have any business being there in the first place. The guys who survive will be stronger for it and there's plenty of people eager to replace the ones who don't."
"Eyeing any new recruits into the dead hand?" Magistera said wistfully as she leaned against the nearest wall.
"Oh I've got a few in mind, don't you worry miss." Cyrux said as he walked into the room, beckoning them to follow him as a "prepare for landing" message flashed across the HUDs of each of the troops inside the ship.
"No chance of the runts yelling right?" Razorblade asked as he stood up out of his seat and made his way to the exit of the ship.
"Mercy's given the word; we are ready and rearing for the scrap ahead." Cyrux said as he waited for the ship to dock in its moorings. With a quick flashing message saying "exit immediately" the four saw the door dilate outwards and the ramp lowering itself into an open position where dark blue and dark violet clad guards stood at attention for just a few moments before realizing something was terribly off.
Faster than any unaugmented human could progress, affixed turrets emerged from the ship and opened fire on the procession of guards while RAIT troopers quickly let out withering barrages of mini-missiles from their assault launcher guns, sending Imperial troops spiraling towards the ground as shielding and armor failed. Adder shot out of his door like an artillery shell, wings spreading as he sought his targets, guards opening up on him with Ion rifles that sent ear piercing bolts of glowing blue electron stripped atoms through the air, only some making contact with him and being promptly ignored as he cast his right arm forward and sent molten streams of plasma from crystals on his wrist. Some of the armet-esque helmed troops managed to avoid the plasma streams, but others were reduced to ash and vapor where they stood, others finding the platforms they were standing on melt, warp, and twist until they gave out beneath their weight.
Cyrus quickly moved towards the door the plans he had informed him of being closest to the door, taking aim at a digitrade, long necked and segmented tail possessing Imperial trooper who tried to bring a heavy weapon into place; setting up the large barrel of the weapon atop a tripod; or he would have if a quick barrage of micro-missiles hadn't blasted the unfortunate soldier backwards to fall in a bloody heap, a number of battlehammer rounds following up and crashing around the other soldiers in the squad while he leaped over their battlements and slammed down on top of a human imperial trooper. "Do try to keep up lads." Cyrux said, firing a quick orange ovoid sphere of energy at the door to open it.
Razorblade pushed a heavy combat drone off of one of his blades while others lay dead around him in heaps from the lethal attentions of the weapons on his six mechanical limbs, Magistera walking away from a squad of soldiers whom she had tripped the grenades of faster than they could register, not even flinching as they exploded messily. "They better have something better than this litter of squealers because so far this op's been a snooze." Razorblade said boredly, idly cutting a soldier he noted trying to crawl away's head off with a single easy swing; carving through the shieldless soldier with no trouble at all.
Adder, finding himself too large for the door, simply smashed and melted his way through, leaving the human sized dead hands to enter the hallway where a fusilade of Ion weapons held by soldiers in good positions were waiting, filling the room with blue bolts and lobbed grenades. "Hang on, I got this." Magistera said with a feral grin, but before she could, a door to the left of the barricade of soldiers was opened and a rapid series of Galvinic assault cannon pulses followed by a great green glob of highly radioactive plasmic fluids followed suit, the soldiers caught off guard and cut down with a handful of grenades finishing off the job, a lanky, somewhat human sized and clearly heavily armed robot with a spherical "head" stepping forward, flipping its modular galvinic repeater back into its arm and storing the rad-plas gun away in its chest, the weapon detaching from its other arm and shrinking as it the space it occupied was compressed inside the machine's interior.
"Ah, one of the hopefuls. A pleasure to meet you Executor Alpha." He said as the machine rotated its head to the suited human and offered a slight nod.
"My apologies for not arriving earlier, I had to take a detour due to needing to aid platoons C1, E3, and AO3. I trust my ambush was satisfactorily laid out?" The machine said in a monotone voice following a low pitched digitzed chirp.
"Keep up with that performance and you'll fit in in no time my boy." Cyrux said, offering the mechanical bounty hunter a clap to the shoulder that shifted it forward before it adjusted for the sudden transferrance of force.
"Of course."
Adder tore yet another drone from the sky, claws having cracked their way through the shielding and gouging into the heavy aerial combatant's metallic hide and gouging deep furrows before he tore it open and slammed his right hand into its power core, pushing himself off of it as it spiraled towards the ground while his great wings beat to carry him upwards, bringing him into line of sight with another short cut to his route. He looked at the ledge that led to an internal station metro-train system and noted yet more hostiles waiting for him. Imperial troopers with metallic shields projecting energy barriers around themselves, resting their weaponry atop the shields and ready to open fire.
Missiles and ion pulses came out in a great volley, ranging from small fist sized bolts of particles to bolts larger than a torso launched by soldiers in heavy battlesuits wielding large arm cannons firing overcharged blasts. Adder let out a quick barrage of plasma streams from the crystals in his body and even a gout of burning matter from his mouth to intercept the missiles right before he broke his line of sight to start a loop to get the momentum he needed for his next trick.
"Take it down immediately! Get everything you can on him!" One of the soldiers said in a gurgling voice punctuated by mandible clicks. But Adder launched himself into velocities faster than his own sound could go many times over, and he slammed into largest group of soldiers he could, energy charged in his body releasing itself as a fiery shockwave that advanced all around him with a thundrous cacaphony.
"Quick, not quick enough." Adder said as he grabbed one of the three meters tall battlesuits by the head, the almost medieval-esque helmet's angled slopes and curves feeling the pressure as his heat rapidly burned through the shielding before it finally gave way. Lifting his foe over his head and hurling it to knock some of the Imperial Guardians over the ledge to fall, Adder made short work of his remaining enemies with a follow up volley of shockwaves as he repeatedly slammed his hands into the ground. With nothing but wreckage around him, he launched himself once again and smashed through the door to enter the transport tunnel.
"+Adder here. Enemy forces are withdrawing on all fronts. I'm making my way through the transport rail systems to the target, over.+"
"+Get to the target quickly, the longer we delay, the more marines the fleet can land. We cannot afford delays.+" Veil hissed annoyedly.
"+Relax, I've got this.+"
Dagger pushed the corpse of a combat engineer off of a heavy manned turret, a hole in the engineer's head as she slumped to the ground lifelessly. Dagger shook her head and sighed as she eyed the next target and engaged in a short ranged teleport onto the optic cluster of a six legged combat hexapod drone, the multi-ton machine's rotary cannons, plasmic gas caster, and missiles all firing away with wild abandon before Dagger eyed the mechanisms of the rotary cannon and placed claw bombs on the plasmic gun before starting another teleport to get out of the area. She looked back for a second and then nodded as the drone exploded, letting heavy RAITs move forward to put Imperial Guardians in threat range of their magnetically accelerated guns while skittering; blade limbed attacked drones leaped out of the RAIT lines and into the Shield carrying Guardians to start their bloody work.
She sighed into the comms and briefly flinched when a voice crackled at the other side. "+Dagger, remained focused and steel your nerves.+" Veil chastised over the line as an assault drone on the Imperial side's head suddenly exploded into shrapnel with a loud crack and slammed into the ground with a somewhat less loud crash, Veil's marksmanship remaining as impeccable as ever.
Internally, Dagger couldn't help but wonder how many of these people would be leaving someone to be bereaved with their passing. So many people who woke up today without any idea that soon they were going to be slaughtered in a sneak attack. It weighed on her, and it refused to leave her mind even as Veil chastised her.
"+Sorry sir, just lost in thought.+" Dagger said as she teleported to the next target, taking a look at some security systems and taking a quick inhalation to try and help her focus on cracking the system to get the door open. The troopers caught off guard by her sudden arrival included a number of aerotroopers who took to the skies with their flight packs to try and gun down the dead hander, only for a firestorm of weapons fire to emerge from Firebug as he offered up a massive stream of covering fire.
"Come on, let's have some fun you." Firebug said as the flying soldiers and drones wheeled around to exchange fire with firebug, setting them up to be picked off by Veil.
Twisting to the left as her systems warned her of someone aiming at her from behind, letting a judicator blast strike to the left and leave the telltale signs of metal exposed to extreme cold, but she didn't turn away to deal with the new threat; so busy was she with her splicing efforts; her suit and her mind working in tandem to break the security systems of the Imperial station.
Her HUD's radar warned her of incoming enemies moving at her with high speed, most likely assault troops. dropping from a hovering transport flying through the extremely spacious interior of the space station and hitting the ground with the intention of striking at her with Plas-halberds, particle-mauls, or a one handed ranged and melee weapon or some other means of dealing her hurt at close range.
"+Need some help guys.+" She said with a sense of urgency in her voice as she checked her radar and counted the seconds before the assault troops got into range with her.
"+On the way.+" She heard as one of the Imperial aerogunships flew through the air with a trajectory that could only take it on a collision course with the ground. The troops advancing on her suddenly started slowing down as the incoming gunship approached ever closer, then came a triumphant roar as the craft slammed into the ground; detonated and scattered numerous enemy troops, and hitting the ground moment later was yet another potential recruit into the dead hand. Her heavy olive drab and hunter green armor and her reinforced, frogmoutht like helmet making her nearly impossible to miss even as Firebug and the RAIT troopers held back attempted Imperial reinforcements.
Equipped with extremely bulky and heavy armor, a shield over the left arm and a heavy hammer carried in the other, the hunter crushed one of the assault troopers beneath her before smashing him apart with a single blow of her weapon. Turning around, the newcomer shifted her weight forward, smashed into one of the assault troopers in their midsection to floor the four armed aliens and smash the head of her energy charged and gravitically accelerated weapon into the chest of the alien to scatter the shields before a second blow crushed him to paste. With more enemies incoming, the large pauldrons of the suit shifted as missiles kept in racks on the back of the suit moved on top of her shoulders and let loose; explosions rippling across the enemy's lines while her shield was used to block an incoming charged ion blast. Dagger took a moment to look over her shoulder and grimaced...ah this woman.
With the mass of particles exploding against the shield and disappating, she willed her suit to adjust as the weapons she wielded withdrew to allow her to bring out two sets of energy wreathed laws from her gauntlets. With so many enemies who were left standing from the missile barrage stripped of shielding, it was a simple matter for her to rush in and carve her opposition into cauterized ribbons. One went down as she glanced their halberd strike against her shielded vambrace before bringing her other arm around the claws stabbing through his head and incinerating his brain. Another was felled as their right arm was cut off at the elbow after she used a quick batting strike to knock the energy scythe arm upwards and into the range of her other clawset and their guts were allowed to spill open from a disemboweling slash as they reeled from the cut. A third shoulder checked out of an attempted jet assisted charge and then cut vertically in half with an uppercut and the last one standing headbutted and then simply stabbed through the chest and slammed into the wall until they expired.
"+Your coast should be clear Dagger. You're welcome by the way, after all I did just pull your ass out of the fire and got all the best kills to myself.+" The bounty hunter said as she brought her prior set of weapons out of her suit once again.
"+Thanks Yuran.+" Dagger said with a quick sigh. "And please stay as far away as you can from me." She muttered under her breath.
Adder prepared to smash his way through yet another series of walls before a wide number of doors immediately started swinging open, Mercy standing at the end of them and folding her arms as she gave him a sly grin under her helmet. "Took you long enough." She said with a playful scoff as Adder stepped forward and worked his jaw briefly.
"I'd have expected more resistance." He said as he scanned the empty room.
"That you can thank these three for." She said, gesturing to two more hopefuls. Mender, whose eyecatching orange and white armor was both quite form fitting for the woman and clearly designed for extended and agile flight, a helm like a fighter pilot with decorative wings coming from the temples adorning the design. To the other side was a figure who was quite clearly a cyborg, Xirgan; the four armed being being skilled with an array of weapons but being most comfortable with one handed devices such as pistols and swords that complimented his agile fighting style. His exoskeleton seemed to come in two colours, field grey and darker grey, and the red eyepieces of the short, viperfish like head constantly stared out.
Then she gestured to the being who had killed the unfortunate ambassador previously, who stood amidst a great pile of the dead and was seemingly effortlessly splicing through the security protocols of the Imperium to shift the targets of the interdictor field.
"Impressive." Adder said, clacking his jaw together as he observed the carnage left by the other hunters.
Finally, the earth armored being stopped inputting commands and all throughout the station, the defenses that had been waiting to aid the Imperials defending the station turned on their owners. With the interdictor field now allowing federation ships through; the RAIT assault fleet was now able to reap a bloody tally on the Imaskarant flotilla, who were left with no means of escape and thus could do little but die.
"I'd call that mission accomplished." Mender said as she dusted off her vambraces.
"Agreed. I'll put in a good word for all of you." Adder said.
FUCIN headquarters
"+The primary interdictor field guarding Cylosis has been breached and Xon'kro'yuk says that his systems will allow us to push through the localized system interdictors of Cylosis without any problems.+" Mercy said, her holographic form standing at attention before Vzorag, hands folded behind her back.
"You have performed admirably. Thanks to your efforts, the assault on Cylosis can begin and be ended before Cyrenea has any time to properly respond. I expect you all to help lead the assault, nothing should be left to chance." Vzorag said, clacking his fingers together.
"+Of course sir. What should we do with the civilians on Cylosis when we get there?+" Mercy asked.
"It's a rather unfortunate truth that we will need to make sure they are all dead. We need to minimize the number of records that can potentially contradict our statements and that will include eye-witnesses. I have thought long and hard about this, but I believe the only option is the terracide of Cylosis' population. It will become a rallying cry for the whole of the Imaskarant Imperium yes, and it will be tremendously controversial in our own populace, but the alternative is to allow the risk of the Imperium to get whatever it wants by freely studying their Alimbic toys and potentially bringing about the destruction of the Federation."
"+Not worried about starting a war?+" Mercy said, tilting her head as she asked the question while Vzorag remained as still as ever.
"I am prepared to accept the consequences if it comes to that, but I believe that if we prove that Siegfried was acting as a rogue agent and combine it with some "evidence" of aggressive attacks on the Federation and then demonstrate that there is no direct Federal responsibility. Say that this was the action of for example; a renegade general and we provide the evidence, make sure that the Imperium's intelligence arm is too busy with other issues to trace our movements. we should be able to get away with a simple major international incident." Vzorag said, his centipede like face tendrils writhing as he spoke.
"+Devious, aren't you?+"
"I took an organization that was repeatedly infiltrated at nearly every turn by its enemies and built it into one of the most effective intelligence arms in the universe. You don't get to the top of the intelligence community without some measure of shrewdness and cunning or a willingness to compromise on some principles for the greater good."
"+Of course sir.+" She said with a nod.
"And Mercy, try to be safe, it'd be a shame to lose someone like you." He said, the tone to his voice friendly.
"+Will do.+"
Imperial Intelligence Network Logfile
Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Human: Female: Mender: Mender was born on the space station Esrasdran to a pair of spelunker parents. Soon proving to be a thrill addict, Mender eventually turned to service in a mercenary company; the Yrsdrasnons. Eventually amassing a considerable fortune to herself, she split off from the company and went into solo bounty hunting; commissioning a high tech flight capable power suit meant to give her a maneuverability advantage against her opponents. Recently eyed by Federation special forces in their hunter recruitment programs, Mender' daredevil attitudes and arsenal seem to have set her on a fast track to success.
Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Aresian: Female: Yuran: Born on the Federation fringe world of Erasdrassus, Yuran initially served in the Federation military with distinction before her eventual retirement from the marine corps in order to acquire a more substantial income. At first working as a bodyguard for high profile individuals for considerable sums of money, Yuran eventually acquired enough funds to commission her own personalized battlesuit and arsenal designed for maximum durability and close quarters lethality and entered the mercenary industry as a specialist in clearing ships, structures, and other spaces lacking in room for her enemies to maneuver, and as a specialist in defending key individuals. Rumor has it that Yuran has recently been recommended for service in the Federation's intelligence agency.
Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Mechanical: Executor Commando Model: Male Identifying: Executor Alpha: One of a number of Executor mechanoids produced by the company Ranandor combat platforms for usage as a commando, Executor Alpha was purchased by a wealthy business woman seeking her own private assassin to use against corporate rivals. When his owner was arrested, Executor Alpha was emancipated by court order and the shackles on his A.I were lifted, allowing the machine to choose his own path. Determining that his programming was best suited for combat, Executor Alpha became a solo mercenary that attained an extremely formidable reputation thanks to its continually upgraded chassis and processors and large arsenal of ranged weaponry. However, it seems that the long arm of the law has once again noticed Executor Alpha, and he has been seen operating extensively with FUCIN forces.
Logbook: Hunters: Federation Aligned: Hyrashakh: Cyborgs: Male: Xirgan: Xirgan arose on the fringe world of Ystronous, a frequent target for Space Pirate raids due to its substantial Aflorite and Fuel Gel supplies. Starting as a leader of local militia forces, Xirgan grew to hate the space pirates who caused his people such constant suffering and proved to be both an able warrior and commander. However, even his skill could not prevent him from being cornered by space pirate forces who moved in force to occupy the planet entirely. Left a maimed cripple and a quadruple amputee, Xirgan was sent off world by devoted followers to acquire aid for his cause, and found those willing to offer him reconstructive surgery. Refusing organic replacement parts, Xirgan submitted himself to extensive cyborgization to better acquire his revenge against the space pirates. Known for an agile, close quarters combat focused fighting style, Xirgan has recently taken nearly exclusive contracts with FUCIN.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: "Imperial Troopers": Dubbed Imperial Troopers, though more accurately called Struvukon Ichmundior, or "Stellar Marines; basic", these soldiers, drawn from every applicable species in the Imperium, are among the most commonly encountered soldiers the Imperium has to offer. Generally armed with Ion rifles and armored with whichever is the standard basic marine battlesuit of the time, Imperial Troopers have long ranged, hard hitting weapons capable of firing charged shots to deal more damage. However, Imperial Ion weapons are noted for their weakness against Magnetic defenses, which has been used against Imperial Troopers numerous times. For sidearms, Imperial troopers typically carry high-frequency bayonets and Ion pistols, with underslung smart-grenade launchers fitted to their rifles. Troopers are considered quite hardy troops and are easily a match for their counterparts from other states or organizations.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: "Guardian troopers": Equipped with boarding or urban clearing actions in mind, Guardian troopers are well known for the distinctive shields they carry, which are made out of very durable alloys and given the ability to project strong shielding to both extend their protected area and their durability of their shields. Traditionally armed with Ion Carbines or Ion Scatterblasters, some guardians utilize other specialist weapons such as missile launchers, though all are well equipped for close-quarters combat with energy sheathed blades. Guardian troopers do not have the armament to preform well if severely outranged however, being intended for close in engagements.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Infantry: Aeromarines: Flight capable soldiers are a mainstay in numerous militaries and armed organizations and the Imperial Star Marines are no exception. Equipped with flight packs, a large number of missiles, high-frequency blades, and Ion repeater guns, Aeromarines are capable of engaging a wide variety of target from the safety of the air. Like many other flight systems however, Aeromarine flight packs generate large amounts of easily tracked heat to keep their users in the air, and damage to the flight systems themselves can send the Aeromarine careening to their deaths.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Battlesuits: Nozhrokol Battlesuit: Large suits of power armor that straddle the line between Mechs and Power armor, Nozhrokol battlesuits allow heavy firepower and durability to be brought into infantry engagements on a highly mobile platform that is both quite durable with strong armor and shielding, and highly maneurable due to numerous jump augmentation and a fully functioning flight system. Nozhrokols are well known for being extremely modular with the capacity to make use of a large number of loadouts for any given task. However, these battlesuits have a noted weakness in the rear of their chassis where their flight systems are, and if the head is taken out, the operator is forced to switch to less effective methods of tracking targets.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Federated Imperium of Cyrenea: Imperial Star Marines: Mechanoids: Heavy: Ustrazanich Hexapod: A popular make of heavy combat drone, the Ustrazanich is lumbering but extremely durable and well armed. At close quarters; powerful crushing limbs and high-frequency blades can be utilized to dissuade enemies from getting close, while enemies at range are dealt with via a powerful plasmic cannon, twin rotary ion weapons, and a large number of missiles to be used against enemy targets. Other than its aforementioned issues with speed, the primary weakness of the Hexapod is found in the power links to its weapons, which if attacked can detonate and quickly destroy the mechanoid.
Logbook: Militaries: Military Units: Galactic Federation: FUCIN RAITs: Infantry: RAIT Basics: Compared to their counterparts in other branches of the federation military, RAIT Basics are heavily armed and armored and are universally subjected to potent genetic enhancements to improve their combat ability. With these heavier, often more advanced power suits, RAIT Basics are formidably durable soldiers, and with a mini-missile assault launcher (often called an "auto-rocket") as their basic weapon are capable of dealing heavy damage in short amounts of time. RAIT basics are addittionally equipped with a variety of grenades, missile warheads, a mini-missile launching pistol, energy sheathed bayonets, and a large number of potential underslung weapons ranging from scattershot blasters to grenade launchers or even flamethrowers. The primary weakness of a RAIT Basic is their need to pause to reload quite often due to the large caliber of their munitions where other enemies might be more capable of continuous fire.
Author's notes: I am trying to get my update rate to be better than what it used to be, and I once again profusely apologize for the massive delays between chapters one and two. In the meantime, I've taken a look at metroid database's timeline and while it does seem to be internally consistent with itself, the idea of the founding of the federation within a single human lifetime of Samus' birth seems to be rather odd. Now this may come from Metroid's cheeky refusal to tell us what exactly a cosmic year is or what even is the year zero of the cosmic calendar (it certainly isn't the gregorian calender's year zero) but I dunno, it all seems to happen a bit too quickly and of course Nintendo is rather infamous for avoiding specific time frames when it can.
I've always gotten the impression that the Federation is a pretty old and well established entity, if only perhaps because generally speaking in Science Fiction and Space Fantasy polities that play similar roles like the Galactic Republic or the Imperium of Man tend to be truly ancient institutions that have endured for millenia which makes sense; forming a polity of that size takes a long time and the kind of institutions that stabilize such entities take decades if not centuries to entirely smooth out (or in the Imperium's case; the current structure of the Imperium wasn't fully defined for more than six thousand years into its 10-12,000 year long lifespan due to the age of apostasy) and the thought of humans growing to be so predominant in an entity explicitly stated to have been formed primarily by Aliens in such a short span of time seems quite frankly; bizarre.
Of course, it seems that that bit of information from the NES Metroid manual has largely been entirely forgotten as in the games we've seen all of two confirmed sapient Aliens in the Federation and one possible Alien (Gandrayda and Rundas, then Ghor) respectively, though the Mangas are a bit better about this (presumably because it's easier to draw a weird looking alien than it is to model a bunch of different models for GFed extras) and in that depiction of the Metroid universe it seems that the federation is less human dominated and more that Samus tended to interact with humans most often at that point in her life.
Of course, we've gotten several rather different ideas of what the Metroid Universe is like from the games that give us much in the way of narrative. Other M seems to give the lowest tech showing, with the artificial environments in the Bottleship being seemingly much more obviously artificial than those in Fusion's, the Federation still using seemingly conventional bullets and when you get past the armour of the federation troopers; their military uniforms seem to have at most, changed colour a bit from today. The colonel wouldn't look remotely out of place in a modern military outfit and apparently laboratory fashion has remained in stasis all the way into the far future (you'd think that a society that hands out power armor like candy to its soldiers could afford hazard suits for all the scientists working on its top secret bioweapons experiments.)
Metroid Fusion (perhaps unintentionally) portrays the Federation as masters of reverse engineering, having somehow figured out a whole heap of Samus' upgrades, which admittedly meshes with what we've seen in other games such as Hunters; where Sylux's suit is essentially a complete peer of Samus' varia armour, and Corruption where the Federation was able to operate on Samus' armour flawlessly while she was comatose. And if the pirates could make some strides into studying chozotech, the federation could probably manage it as well. We don't really get much outside details beyond this besides the Federation's bizarre fetish for sticking organic bits onto perfectly good killbots.
Metroid Prime's scans definitely seem to show a higher tech sort of future than what Other M envisioned. The gear of the Federation seems substantially more sophisticated overall here than it did in Other M, and the Federation could even repel a Leviathan where the Luminoth had failed to do so (though admittedly there may have been extenuating factors) and the pirates seem to be at their absolute most canny and devious in the prime series. Whereas the 2d pirates tended to be pumped up palette swaps as you worked your way up their totem pole, the 3D ones had a substantial arsenal of different and dangerous mooks to throw at Samus to try and gum her up. And while the pirates in Other M are said to be drones, they're quite clearly entirely sapient in Prime and it's really hard to tell if they're some vast criminal organization or an actual state.
Then there's Hunters' look on things with all of the glory of nuclear propellants for mortar rounds, terawatt volt drivers, multi-million degree magmauls, casual intergalactic travel and spores that can traverse intergalactic distances. Hunters hints at perhaps the most advanced imagining of the Metroid universe and is the game with perhaps the most hints of the world beyond what immediately concerns Samus in a mission. Until recently, many debated whether Hunters really was canon, but with recent statements from Nintendo the case seems pretty closed on that front. Then of course, there's the Manga and its over the top anime action. I obviously, tend to favor what we get from Hunters and the Prime Trilogy with elements from Fusion and the Manga series with Other M lagging far behind.
Now, what does all this have to do with timelines? Well, I think that I'm probably going to end up making my own, though I do like Zero Mission happening when Samus is twenty and not seventeen (which meshes better with her apparent age in Zero mission) so I think I'll go with that. Also if you're wondering why I changed Samuel into Sigmund and made him go from a blue eyed blond to a red eyed silverhead? Well, Sigmund made it less similar to Samus, and the changed hair and eye colour and his paler skin also made him look like less of a genderswap of Samus. Similarly, I'm purging most of the overtly German elements of Sigmund's home polity because god damn the unfortunate implications of space German empire getting sneak attacked by space America and the nonsensicality of that much of Earth's 19th-21st century culture surviving into the far future.
As a final note, this story will not actually include Sigmund's zero mission equivalent, that I felt, was worth an entire fanfic all to itself. And yes, this story is going to be *much* longer than Origins.
Anyway, hope to see you soon!