Through the portal came two humanoid beings, both clad in armor similar to the one worn by Samus Aran. The first one was human, but the second… ah, that was a problem.
(So. They send the new recruit to do business. The piggies will not be pleased.) For this other Eidolon was Voidwalker, a "piggy" from Luisitania, a planet in one of the universes of grand Author Orson Scott Card.
Justin Shade now had come up the ramp, and had a clear view of the mass of workers. He did an underhanded throw, and out came a shadow being, with white eyes and a female shape. She bounded through the air gracefully, and pulled a dark javelin from its own essence. This javelin was thrown at Lucas with beautiful accuracy, who was still channeling his powers. The Palkia gijinka was forced to break concentration and duck hastily to the side to avoid being skewered. This canceled the portal and any further reinforcements until it could be reopened. The shadow then took up a warrior's stance, and pulled out a war glaive, a staff with two bladed ends.
(She seems well conversed with that weapon. We may need to be careful in how we approach this.) That was Sierra's alternate personality, Malcolm; an Aura Guardian turned mercenary.
[Never mind physical aspect, that being bleeds psychic energy –likely because it is a construct. I advise caution on the psionic battlefield as well.] Sierra 7 replied. The two were snapped out of their reverie when Justin began speaking.
"Meet Emma. Think of her as my second in command; remove me and you still have to deal with her." The two gave a brief gesture. "But enough about my alternate personality disorder. Let's get to the main point." The mercenary leader took a deep, clam breath, although his aura rippled with a powerful rage Sierra could barely think a human could hold.
"This. Is. NOT. A base world. It has not been, nor will it ever be. You will leave it out of our businesses, and keep our disputes away from it. When you will leave, you will act like it never existed. Am I understood?"
(So, he's making us do an oath of silence? Does he even know us?)
[Perhaps he has good reason. But if we can't set up a base here, then we lose a valuable listening post. Attempt to barter; this is what you are best at, yes?]
Apparently Justin was incredibly impatient, for while the two assassins were conversing, he said something and threw out a dagger attached to a chain. This simple but elegant device was then launched into the chestplate of Voidwalker, the Luisitanian recruit. Surprising, as the armor is supposed to be knife and ballistics proof. R&D have some questions to be answered. The rope dart-like weapon then sucked the soldier back, onto the ground in front of Shade. He then proceeded to place a foot on the piggy's chest and draw a combat knife to point at the downed warrior's head.
As the mercenary began giving a lecture, the piggy spoke to Sierra 7. Not vocally, but psionically, as the Sierra Nevada had figured out how to unlock the powerful abilities of the piggies in their second life.
"Let me go to the third life, Conduit of Ascension, that I may grow into the first of a mighty forest for all of Ascendant's warriors! If my tree would be cut down, Ascendant would claim my soul for His glorious purposes! " Ah, yes, the Eidolon Corps. They were fanatical soldiers that came from diverse places. The warriors followed a religion of the Ascendant One, a god Sierra 7 was bonded with. This god had a nasty habit of soul-stealing and meddling in other's affairs; although this did not happen often or would last for very much longer- it was only a teething phase, after all. His soldiers in the Eidolon Corps saw Sierra as a direct pipeline to Ascendant, and practically worshiped the assassin as well.
[Fool. You are worth more to Ascendant in your second life than in your third. To be able to act is of the highest priority to a warrior, and to go to the third life would be a failure.] That really got to the Eidolon. Nothing horrified them more than failure to do His will. As Shade finished his rant, Sierra merely replied with,
"You have made yourself clear." This satisfied him, who then removed the weapon from the Eidolon's body and stepped back.
"Thank you. Now, did you REALLY think that you were the FIRST one to try and put a base here?" a few of the workers and foolish Lucas nodded.
"Well, you're wrong. There have been FIVE documented attempts, yours being the sixth. All have failed."
Malcom bubbled up. "And I assume you were here to stop them?" he said bluntly.
He snorted. "Who did you think was the second one?" Pause for effect. "I tried! Hell, I worked my ass off just to even get as far as YOU got. Trust me; I was only accelerating the inevitable on this one. I did you guys a FAVOR." Pause for a breath. "Now step off befo-" He never got the chance to finish.
The winged human that was Emily began to go under some kind of psychic trauma. Sierra sensed a powerful spring of energy and purest rage flow through her body, causing her to mutter to herself. The assassins knew that her body would have to morph to contain it. That much hatred was overwhelming, even at a distance to an experienced aura user.
She stood, muttering, "Maim. Hunt. Destroy. Seek. Consume. Devour. Break. Cripple. End. Eat. Slash. Murder. KILL."
(Here we go.) Her body began its changes. Her feathered wings became bat-like and leathery. The fore- and middle fingers grew together in a not-so-comfortable way, as did the ring fingers and pinkies; making a three fingered hand. Her head became tubular, and the hair stuck to the head like it was painted on. And then, the coloration. Her normally pale skin grew patches of brown, orange, and tan, covering the surface in a camo pattern. Her limbs elongated and thinned out, and her shoes were replaced with three-digit clawed feet. The hands sprouted claws as well. Any human features on the face were flattened and absorbed, and the eyes changed to a deep red. Her mouth was an opening on the top end of the cylindrical head, and it was ringed with sharp teeth. Overall, Sierra noticed, it followed conservation of mass.
The new monstrosity began to pant, and searched the environment with the predator's eye. It then shoved Justin aside, and leapt onto, of all things, one of the Protoss probes that the Nevada had brought. The former Emily began drooling powerful acid that smoked in the air. The slobber burst the plasma shield of the tiny robot and made short work of it. All that remained of the probe was a greenish-yellow puddle. The creature screeched with victory, just as Zeratul, who had returned from his errand, came from behind and sliced the monster in half.
The cut was a beautiful one, and it took a while for it even to bleed. When it did, though, the torso slid forward off of the legs and thmped on the ground. The legs stayed up for a little while longer before they, too, fell backwards.
The being known as Psych teleported up onto the mesa, and simply gave Zeratul a look.
"I did what was necessary." Said the Dark Prelate, as that was all that was necessary to say.
"And I commend you for that." said Psych, who kicked the corpse into the pool of acid, which was apparently still volatile. It quickly dissolved the flesh and bones. "It'll clear itself out."
(That corpse would have been useful. An untainted sample of the acid would not be remiss as well.)
[That is precisely why the cadaver was destroyed. It contained valuable research that we cannot have.]
The being then warped space using his psychic abilities, and made a little pocket dimension.
[Cut him off.] Sierra said to Lucas. The boy had the ability to control space; he was usually able to cancel teleports and dimensional rifts.
"I can't. I am too tired; plus, he's got a psi lock on it- something I don't have power over."
In any case, the ShadowLight psionic created a window to his dimension.
"See this? This is a window into a pocket dimension." The assembled company looked at him warily. "What's IN that pocket dimension, you may ask? It's simple: a basic resource, nothing too complex, though they DO have an interesting crystal structure. You simply call them Minerals."
(Yup. Here we go again.) The assembled probes all turned to look at Shade at the mention of their primary job in life. A devilish smile grew onto the mercenary's face.
"These are ALL of yours. I'll only be taking them for analysis, but in the meantime, you won't Have Enough Minerals." Psych then gave a loud and sustained laugh as he teleported away.
[Lucas?]
"Still psionic. And quite elegant, too."
During the monologue, Justin had been sneaking up from behind. But when Psych teleported away, the mercenary's jaw dropped. He then turned his head to look at Sierra 7.
(3)
[2]
([1])
"It's going to be one of THOSE days, isn't it?" the leaders said in unison.