Cynar star system, Cyrus' Rift, Ensryn Galaxy
The "Hell" class Super-Dreadnought Nifelheim translated out of N-Space as part of a substantial fleet. Forty-two and one-third kilometres at its longest point, twelve kilometres wide, and more than four and a half kilometres deep; twice that if one included the downward pointing prow spire, the Niflheim was a behemoth of the interstellar battlefields. Shaped like a broadheaded arrow, the Niflheim was built around a "hellstorm" cannon, a stupendously massive fusion cannon that would give the target the gift of a targeted supernova in miniature.
The 39th Black Fleet included six of these super-dreadnoughts that formed the core of the fleet together with a trio of "Orneg" class supercarriers that were about 20% larger than their mainline combatant counterparts. But they were also being joined by the hundred and forty-four kilometre long, twenty-three kilometre wide, and nine kilometre tall "Reckoning" class Star Juggernaut "White King" and its escort. A fleet of hundreds of ships from the large to the small, the sort of armada usually committed to large scale campaigns or the assailing of worlds of extreme importance.
Ordinarily, even one superdreadnought and its combat group would be considered overkill against Cylosis, but the RAID was taking no chances. Enormous swarms of strike craft streamed out of the fleet, and a truly vicious bombardment of the identified defensive points began. The system lit up with the glow of weapons whose discharges could be measured by sufficiently sophisticated instruments the next system over whenever the light would eventually reach them.
The White King's gamma cannon remained silent, waiting for the emergence of something worthy of its firepower as the rapidly overwhelmed Cylosian defence fleet was reduced to shrapnel one by one. Flickering pulses of light gloomily lit the black void of space as cooling gas drifted through space and gradually lost the heat it had been infused with by the bombardment. Fighters, bombers, interceptors, and gunships flowed around their targets like packs of Pihranas, taking bites out of everything they could.
But the fleet was not here for the meagre offerings of a picket fleet outnumbered almost fifty to one. Landing craft was disgorged like a school of fish-bearing seeds that would sprout into army-sized formations in a matter of moments upon contact with the ground. Their orders were clear from the moment they departed. Viper wanted the planet cleared of any and all possible complications that might interfere with their work. And they were eager to follow the directives of the many-headedmaster in their lair.
Bridge of the Niflheim
Viper sat at the centre of a command podium, their three heads, Adder, Cobra, and Mamba, all busy with separate tasks. Their wings were currently folded against their forearms, the tips extending past their shoulders while their primary fingers tapped their claws against the ground, hooves shuffling ever so slightly to adjust their vantage points while their twin tails jerked around and tended to screens that needed their attention, light sensor pods within the tails allowing them to feed data to the heads while secondary brains in the tails conferred with the primary brains in the heads. A secret that they had kept even from most of the R. so as to have a little ace in the hole; Jararaca and Taipan.
The room was one of a mixture of colours, though primarily chrome and feldgrau with a number of display feeds offering information to any who scanned them. With its panoramic view of the battlefield ahead, the bridge "window" was an excellent composite of images gathered from thousands of cameras, seamlessly melded onto the screens on the wall ahead.
And from their perch on the third level, elevated onto a circular platform, Viper could see everything while their three primary and two secondary minds worked together constantly to form commands and judgements. It was this more than anything that made Viper such a valuable asset, they were their own command staff. Commands were issued from the cybernetic comm uplinks fitted into Viper's body, orchestrating the battle effort with ease.
The crew aboard the bridge were concealed in the concealing technician armour. Their mechandrite-equipped suits were topped with their distinctive "duocle" helms whose protruding eyepieces were made for maximum zoom. Similarly, faceless military personnel chatted amongst each other in their command pods, their instant message comms pulsed to one another wordlessly.
Speaking vocally would have been a waste, and this way the Aurora Units loaned out to the force to serve as Minders were able to issue their judgements as quickly as possible. Judgements that of course, the marvelous minds of Viper always wished to review.
Just below Viper's podium were their most valued assets, Dead Hand Alpha patiently waiting a chance to end this long stretch of sitting around and doing little of import. They would need to be attended to swiftly; and be given a reminder of why Viper valued them. The heads conferred in silence, thoughts being shared between all five brains and examined, debated, and modified as needed. Cobra flicked their gaze to Quietus and then to Veil, their two most trusted agents who weren't part of their gestalt. They would
"An excellent start to our operation." Mamba said, her throat making a small but noticeable bell-like cackling vocalization. Not a laugh, more of a briefly sustained bark as they read the sensor data while Adder watched from multiple camera feeds at once, his head swaying from left to right to pick out anything of interest. Cobra looked forward through the bridge screen and remained focused on the bigger picture.
"The space operation is the easy part. Our fleet outmasses and outnumbers theirs. It was never going to be a challenge. One of you, give me a report on the planet's shielding, now." Cobra said, their jaw snapping for emphasis. They were factual, and focused, and their words were economically spoken.
"It won't be holding for much longer, how do you want us to play the orbital bombardment?" Quietus asked.
"As much time as simply annihilating the planet would save. We are to limit orbital attacks to strictly tactical usage. Give them a little hope and keep us out of the Alimbic fleet's target list, we must ensure their noninterference or they will invent new fields of physics to study what is left of us." Adder hissed, his tail rattling behind them. His voice was unsettlingly friendly, chipper even as he seemed to relish the thought.
"What of the civilians?" Cyrus asked, twisting his moustache as he thought. He looked at the display of the planet below and sighed. He was troubled by what had to be done, but closed his eyes and let himself get absorbed into his duties and reminded himself that it had to be done.
"No witnesses. All inhabitants are to be either relocated to black sites or terminated. Should you be too weak to carry out these orders, we have many who will show no hesitation." Mamba said harshly, leering at Cyrus and smelling his doubt. She was clearly less than pleased that Cyrus would even raise the question.
"Are you having doubts, operator?" Mamba asked. It wasn't a pleasantly intoned question. It was cold, hostile, mean, she was looking for an excuse. Viper smelled doubt and disloyalty, and Mamba was set on punishing all such weaknesses of faith. Their tongue sniffed at Cyrus whose blue eyes opened and looked at the wendigo, and he stood firm to show that he had no fear, and thus no doubt. Such also made Quietus and Veil stand down, to his relief as Cyrus backed down from open confrontation.
"No...I'll be fine." He insisted.
"Good man. There can be no room for doubt in our work. We protect the cosmos from what it must never know." Cobra hissed, flicking their forked tongue out of his skull-like mouth and tasting the air as if to detect any duplicity. With a satisfied barking sound, they turned away from the potential doubter and towards their business.
Mercy was pacing endlessly back and forth, her legs restless as she muttered to herself, carrying on an imagined conversation entirely through sarcastic whispers and mumbles. All five of Viper's brains found the behaviour somewhat odd for someone with only one mind in a body to be carrying out, but Mamba coiled her head towards Mercy shortly afterwards and let loose a commanding growl.
"Sorry, I just hate waiting here I'm sick of waiting!" Mercy threw her hands down and stamped her foot.
"You will be patient or you will have a problem with us. Is that understood?" She snarled, baring her teeth and extending her venomous fangs in clear threat. She had no intention of acting on the threat, but the menace behind it was very clear.
Veil snorted and let out a cawing sound. "Let her build some frustration. She'll be all the fiercer for unleashing it." He said, manually polishing the barrel of his gun all the while.
"For once I will agree with her...when can we be done with this?" Dagger said.
"Yeah! I want to unwind! Not watch dots on holograms explode!" Mercy gesticulated for emphasis, getting an eye-roll from Dagger.
"Oh no need to wait...we've found our target." Quietus said as their screen flickered to show an all too pleased face while all five of Viper's minds focused on the new task.
"Excellent...go forth at once, I will join you shortly." Cobra cackled as they spread their wings and began to beat them to take flight.
Stygna Evacuation Zone playground, Cylosis.
Auroran lights danced with frightful intensity across Cylosis' skies as what would have been civilization-ending amounts of EMP to more primitive civilizations streaked to the ground from the storm of charged particles in the atmosphere.
Cynar's light was drowned out by the brilliance of the detonations in the highest reaches of Cylosis' atmosphere and the sky danced with a rainbow of colours while the longer-ranged weapons on Cylosis' surface stabbed their fury into the sky at foes he could not see.
Arne looked upwards at the sky at the dance of light in the sky, not quite understanding the significance but feeling some sort of...nervous anticipation at the sight. It was like waiting for something he didn't want.
Perhaps comparable to knowing he was about to be punched in the face later and being able to think of nothing else besides the inevitable impact. He bit his lower lip and looked down, trying to think of something to get his mind off of the anxiety, holding his stuffed dinosaur a little more tightly and chewing slightly on its tail.
The strange roof of dancing light over the sky concealed something else. What looked like shooting stars to him as he tried to look at them with the aid of binoculars he kept in his pockets to see far away things but he soon saw that they were made of metal, and they soon grew wings once they passed into the atmosphere.
Grey and olive, the forward-swept wings of the craft let them level out as they split their formations to find targets. Swarms of flying wings descended towards the ground, many carrying large vehicles on hooks; others ladened with heavy ordnance they were clearly looking for targets to unleash upon.
He cocked his head. They looked strange...why were they moving so fast? Weren't they worried about hitting the shields? Why weren't they stopping? And why were the Akaram towers starting to glow? He looked away, it wasn't good to look at the sword-like towers when they were about to fire, especially not with red eyes like his.
In these last few moments of peace, questions were swirling around his brain; curiosity was almost overwhelming in his young mind. But he felt something else, something far more unpleasant, gnawing at the pit of his stomach—a cold sensation like when he was face to face with one of Cylosis' saber-tyrants last year.
Fear.
Sickening, disquieting, like something wanted to leap out of his throat and like his heart wanted to burst. His lungs felt like they were made of metal as they expanded into a chest that felt too tight. His legs felt too light, his arms too heavy.
The mournful wail of air raid sirens tore through the relative quiet he had been experiencing while playing with his toys and pets, and Hugin and Munin immediately cawed in unmitigated alarm. Geri and Freki pushed themselves up and growled with anticipation. They were expect
The crack of railguns, the keening howl of lasers, the screams of missiles, the thrum of particle projector cannons, the roar of countless other varieties of weapons designed to either defend or kill Cylosis and the piercing screams of panicked and terrified people consumed the world with noise as he looked around in confusion. He needed to find some direction to turn, some avenue to get away from the current commotion. But nothing seemed clear to him, all routes seemed to fuzzy in his minnd's eye.
It was so loud, why was it so loud? He covered his ears as his Ravens screamed "RUN! RUN!" He wanted to pick himself up but there was so much noise in all directions he didn't know where to go until Gyda's hand clasped around his shirt and pulled him forward.
She dragged him along with her until he started walking along with him as she made her way out of the children's area and towards the nearest designated hangar. "Arne, we need to get going. Now." She said firmly but not harshly as her helmet closed around her face and sealed itself with the hiss of air being sequestered within the helm.
"What's going on?" Thelis asked.
"Who are these guys?" Another said.
"How'd they waste the fleet that fast?" A third said.
"Sterlak station's down!" A fourth said.
"Where's the Navy?" A fifth asked.
"Alright, alright. Everyone needs to get moving. How are we on evacuation?" Erik asked, Sylan pausing as she brought forth her mechandrites to project a number of display feeds to present some data to him. His brow furrowed. Nowhere near enough to save more than a small portion of Cylosis' population, civilian N-Space or Warp drives couldn't possibly get through the interdiction fields. Most military-grade drives wouldn't be able to manage either.
"Where's Spire?" Morr asked, slamming home a fresh power core into his rifle. However much he had complained before, he was ready to do whatever duty he was asked of as the horizon started to be dominated by brilliant blast waves and flickering colours, the defences of Cylosis growing ever more feeble with every passing moment.
"Right here, what'd ya need?" The mammoth diamont asked, his five-meter tall bulk unfurling from the spiked spherical form of the Dialanche that he had curled into for meditative reasons. Standing up on his two crystalline feet, he reared himself up to his full height and extended fingers from the orb like structure on his left arm, looking at the ground and giving a nod of affirmation.
"I need you to evacuate as soon as possible. Worst comes to worst, you take my son and the alimbic machines with you," Gyda said as she performed one last check-up on her arm cannon while Arne hugged his father's leg. Whimpering and bawling at the volume overwhelming his sensitive ears, the white-haired boy received a few pats on the head from his father, concerned glances coming down from him before he looked back to his wife.
Even beneath her helmet, he could tell she was consumed with far more doubt than she was letting on. Her movements were underconfident, and her breathing was shallow and hurried. "Can you do this for me, Spire?" she asked.
He looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "What about you two? I was tasked with ensuring the safety of all of you. I can't just leave you to die and trust me, you are going to die if you stay here."
She gave him a sad but steady smile beneath her helmet as she looked back at the devastation falling upon the world from the heavens before she turned onto the last scion of Mondreus. "If you die, the diamonts die with you. And we can't let the Federation have access to the Ithrakoids. Besides...I've had a full life already. I'm ready to pass onto Slauganth[1] if it comes to that."
Spire seemed to pause, unsure of what to say before he turned his attention to Arne who was clearly shaking in the knees. He was scared and confused. His eyes widened as they tried to drink in every possible scrap of information to piece together even the most basic sort of understanding of the fires already starting to claim his home. But he looked at his Mother and Spire and gave a little smile while Erik stroked his cheek with a free hand. Spire looked back to Gyda and gave her an understanding nod.
Skies above Stygna, Cylosis
The heavy beat of leathery wings carried a nightmare aloft on them. Shaggy golden fur surrounded a wiry but muscular body as five sets of eyes looked upon the world. High-pitched reverberating cackles and bellows pulsed from their many throats as they raced ahead of the other attacking R.A.I.D assets. At the speeds they were flying at, sound was a useless judge of where to head, and scent was even worse off. But their thermal and visual senses were peerless, and they zeroed in on the shielded city of Stygna. Ordinarily, such defences would require prolonged bombardment to penetrate between the planetary shields and the city's theatre screens, but Viper came prepared.
The Chozo made intrapolator flickered to life and struck at the shield guarding the city of Stygna, a warping purple beam ghosting through the bubble field and spreading it wide open with an eerie violet flame that seemed to almost burn the shielding away to allow Viper and their flight straight through. Useless against the differing shield tech used for personal defence, but theatre screens such as what the EVA used easily fell prey to such technologies as the intrapolator. And that gap was all Viper needed to start their grisly work.
High-pitched shrieks heralded the emergence of gouts of the most bitter sort of cold that flash froze the air it passed through, streams of anti-energy produced frost pouring from all three mouths. As the air collapsed into solid forms, a deadly thunderclap followed suit from the still gaseous oxygen and nitrogen rushing to fill the void left by its liquified and solidified counterparts, producing the distinctive howl-clap of each gout of frost as they consumed city blocks at a time in each sweep of their heads while rippling detonations from the strike craft following behind them carved open a wider front for the landing troops to seize.
Though there were certainly more graceful fliers in the sky, Viper still had the manoeuvrability to dodge around a rave's worth of pulsing lights being thrown his way, including the deadly killing glow of the Akram towers' fusion lasers; so named for their ability to induce nuclear fusion in even superdense targets they struck from the sheer heat they generated. Swerving away from one of the beams with a roll and dodging beneath the shorter ranged lasers as they threaded through the air like needles stitching lines of killing light, Viper flew straight at one of the towers and simply knocked into the planted sword-like haft of the defence.
The impact's shockwave was fierce, but Viper didn't stop until the kilometre and a half tall tower's blade broke and the power cut to its primary emitter, bioshelding regenerating through the energy damage being caused by the searing fields while their sheer strength rewarded them with the sound of tearing metal and stone creaking apart.
Sensing fatal weakness, Viper pulled back briefly and then shoved the whole thing clean apart and onto the ground with a second ram; violating the Tower's own shielding and catching the self-defence emitters in sweeps of cold from their tails and other two heads that froze and imploded what they had struck; single-handedly taking out a defence meant to be the match of a warship.
Viper's heads scanned the area once again, beating their wings regularly to carry their great bulk forward until at last Mamba caught sight of something and alerted the other brains to the sight of their target. Gyda, Erik, and of course little Arne. Obviously, they had other escorts with them, but the soldiers landing now should be able to handle them. Especially with drop pod troopers en route. That should give Viper a straight shot at the Skjoldrs they figured, discussing a course of action amongst themselves in a silent conference.
The decision was made in a split second, they would go all-in to ensure success. Nothing was to be held back lest their target slipped their grasp. "+All Dead Hand Alpha assets, we have located the primary target. Engage them at will and give me support.+" Cobra commanded as they ordered the wings to start whipping into motion once again. The thunderclap of their wings snapping to bring them to ever greater speeds trailed behind them as they prepared to dive bomb their target, sneers written upon each of their faces.
Stygna, Cylosis, 3 minutes before Viper's arrival.
Grey coloured objects shaped somewhat like eggs approached the earthen ground of Cylosisi in a meteoric descent, with some erupting in flame as they were shot down by the defences. But the seemingly suicidal descent could not be stopped as they slid through the gaps opened by the intrapolator, a whistling sound only becoming obvious once they made token efforts to slow down to ensure accurate impact.
In the time it took for the human eye to close and reopen, the objects had made contact with a deafening crack and a deep rumble of the tortured earth. The somewhat fist shaped objects sprouted spidery stabilization legs as they righted themselves and hissed with pressurised air.
Then they threw themselves open and Grey and Olive coloured troopers bearing no insignia poured out. He only got glimpses of them, but he shuddered at the sight of their cold, thin glowing blue eyepieces. Guns clicked to life and safeties were thrown off on both sides as they made the last preparations before all-out battle. But the invaders had the superior numbers and the element of surprise, and had no compulsions when it came to firing into crowded areas full of civilians.
Explosions ripped through the crowd, streaking contrails coming from the large barreled guns wielded by the massive armoured men and women. Arne felt something wet on his face and wiped it, then looked to see hot crimson blood covering his hands.
He looked around and his mouth opened in horror as he looked upon a person already blown into small pieces by the streaming relativistic micro-missiles; the broken skull of the victim leaking grey matter while a jaw ripped almost clean off the decapitated head hung by a few sinews, three-meter tall RAID troopers swatting aside EVA militants with sound barrier violating and bone-shattering force.
He couldn't handle it, he vomited and screamed. His stomach quivered and regurgitated what he ate as his body responded to the sight of such violent death in the most natural way it could manage. Rejection, of what he ate, of what he saw, and of the thought of anything happy ever being able to come from this place that his young mind was quickly starting to associate with nauseating horror.
The high pitched whines of PPR streams raced over his head and some of the grey men fell to the ground after taking shots to tear through lower-tech hab-blocks, holes steaming in their armour while EVA militants and turrets popped up to give the defence their best.
Two of the troopers fell in seconds when Gyda burst their shields and cored straight through their heads with her arm cannon's hydrodynamic attachment; molten metal flinging itself at just a hair's breadth under lightspeed and streaming through them with enough force to make their heads explode once the armour had been weakened with preliminary barrages.
Arne looked at his hands and his heart almost seemed to stop with relief when he saw that no fresh blood was covering them. But he was quickly pushed towards the ground as Spire interposed himself between the incoming missile fire, a grunt coming from the diamont as he absorbed what were meant to be maiming shots.
But he would only take so much abuse before he retaliated; a wave and star beam-enhanced magmaul shot scorched its way out of his arm cannon and exploded amidst the masses of RAID troopers simply calmly stalking forward. Arne was unlikely to forget as the superheated plasmafied magma clung to their bodies and burned.
His stacked beam leapt forth in orange piercing splendour, hot steam rising from the remains of the fallen soldiers who almost seemed to collapse upon themselves as their armour suits melted and their flesh cooked into oblivion.
The lucky one who approached him simply being grabbed by the Diamont and crushed like a soda can, a wet squelch heard as he crumpled the collapsing armour upon the ruined body and tossed it to the side, his weapons fire barking out repeatedly while he cut a path for the group, each heavy step heralding the fall of another enemy, shots pinging off his shielded frame.
"Come on! Let's go!" Gyda shouted as she quickly pivoted on her heels to turn and grab the incoming power knife from another RAID Trooper; a powerful Commando with superior weapons and enhancements to the standard.
She moved like lightning that not even Arne's eyes could follow, hand clenching at the three-meter superhuman's wrist and then wrenching it in a way to force him to let go so that she could quickly grab at the falling blade and then shove it into his chest and abdomen a few times at speeds faster than those of a bullet to break his shielding before feinting towards the arm for a mobility kill; only to then push upwards and dig into the neck slicing his throat wide open before stabbing the knife into his brain to make him fall.
His bioborg organ implants and gene therapy made him a transhuman terror, but as clan champion of Grendakal, her augments were both more compact and superlative in quality, while her custom-designed armour outmatched his factory standard gear.
"Look sharp, up top!" Morr said, popping a quadrupedal turreted drone that rose from its landing position. Two shots, one for the shield pop and the second to clip its ammo storage to set the missile ferrier off in a fireball.
A massive vehicle thrown like a softball by Sylan's mechandrites as they flipped over and tossed every vehicle in sight slammed into two unbraced RAID troops, but the remaining one shoulder-checked the incoming vehicle, bringing it to a halt and rattling her as she loaded up her shock cannon, the backpack she wore humming to life as she stepped forward once more.
But the shock blast never came, its would-be firer received a starburst blast from Erik that promptly reduced most of her upper body and most of her lower body too for that matter; as well as her squadron; to steaming offal in a bright incandescent flash of unstable fusion products while scattering the rest of her to the seven winds, his gun humming as it prepared another shot, one that annihilated a light tank that rolled into view, vaporising much of its frontal portion.
Another threat flashed before Arne's eyes, descending from the heavens. He squealed as he pointed above until Lydyl's psionics reached out and enwrapped the descending tank formation in the air, their treads spinning furiously without something to bite into. She rotated the tank to form a screen of cover, letting the metal hull of the vehicle shield them as they rushed towards the port.
It didn't last long. The R.A.I.D. had little compunction in having their aircraft blast apart the intervening tank to open a straighter shot. But by that point, they had already passed through the Gyndraf arch and had advanced to a deeper part of the city. Shields conjured by Geri and Freki blocked off attempted kill shots from behind them with translucent bubbles that absorbed the skittering impacts that struck them.
The already brutal bedlam in the city was worsened by the sound of the Akram tower "Excalibur" falling following terrible, ear-grating cackling sounds. The collapse of the the mighty guardian of Stygna was almost dreamlike, almost as unreal as the horrific many-headed creature that was rapidly swerving around to meet them, a beast of such cold that frosty mists were trailing their body from condensed vapours and frozen droplets that had transformed into snow.
Arctic Blue eyes gleamed as Viper approached, slowing enough for their wingbeats to be audible, snake-like hissing underscored by the discordant trilling like a choir gone mad with a collection of bells.
"Gods protect us." Morr said as Arne froze in fear and even Spire seemed to briefly stop at the sight of the Many-Headed King of Winter and their contemptuous sneers, their body undulating through the air like a horrible whale of some sort, going up and down in a wave motion with each flap of their mighty wings. But despite the shaggy fur of the hydra, all Arne could think of was a snake with forked tongues and fangs full of poison eager to devour him. A monstrous demon fresh from his nightmares and born into a terrible material reality.
"You are coming with me. Make this easy upon yourselves and give up now. Or we will have no choice but to make a mess of this situation." A simple declaration of fact from the mouth of Cobra as they began to hover nearby, their wingbeats blowing wind that felt like their chill was crawling straight down Arne's skin and into every nerve fiber in his body.
Their wing beats were rhythmic, carefully timed in tandem with their deleterious effects on the local temperature to keep their body in one place without having to stroke them furiously like a hummingbird or insect. A swing of their legs brought them into a more upright position, hooved hind feet dangling below while the tails flicked back and forth, giving Arne the impression that they were looking at him. He swore that they even blinked.
"Spire, give him our reply." Gyda said, the Diamont Freelancer nodding as his cannon charged, and then clicked as missiles were fed into the Starbeam. A star was born, and if that weren't enough, the craggy giant began to walk, then run, then sprint.
Rippling energies surrounded him as his Diamont armour surrounded him in the crackling fields of the Speed booster and a sudden stop and shoulder angling was all he needed to launch himself in a time dilating shinespark. The impact caught Viper in a Double Whammy to bowl them out of the sky, roars of protest bellowing forth from their throats while the bellowing howls of the Magmaul were heard in the distance, the two disappearing for now; wrestling with a fury to shake the whole world.
"That's not going to keep him down for long, Urglik Gyda, and we're a thousand times more exposed without our best fighter. No offense to you," Sylan said, her optics pulling back out of zoom mode while she coddled Arne in some of her mechandrites. Some of her other vocoders were busy trying to sing a lullaby to him as he bawled and heaved; Hugin and Munin flapping nearby and letting out stressed caws as they perched upon Erik and Gyda's shoulders.
Erik looked at Geri and Freki and then at Arne. His eyes were full of intense resentment. "Why are you two just sitting there? What's the big deal with all of you hiding in your ship? Come on! Do something!" He shouted at the machines. He wagered that there was a link between them and their mothership. They had to have loaned these accursed things to monitor them. So he felt entirely justified in letting them have it.
"We're dying out here! Where's the mighty Order if you can't save a single one of these people huh? Maybe that's why you all died out. Because nothing you stood for meant a damn thing! Order, protection, what a crock! So I hope you're happy Zurvduat. I'd say this is all on your head, but some Imperialist glory hound like you probably doesn't give half a damn!" He shouted at the machines before he shook his head irritably, Gyda patting him on the shoulder and clinking her helmet to his.
"We'll get out of this. Don't worry," she said, a sad sigh coming from Erik as a skittering sound could be heard in the distance. Something with many legs was close by, and Morr pinged an instant message to get the group moving as fast as possible, not liking the sound of what he was hearing.
Morr stopped and shot at the incoming shape, making it skitter away from him as if a fire were lit under them. But his cybernetic optics zoomed in shortly afterwards, unwilling to let the target go without confirming that they were dead. "Come on you son of a bitch, get on out from there!" Morr shouted as he shot once again, aiming for where they were going rather than where they were, getting the satisfying sound of a round slamming home against the pursuer's shielding. And for a time, the skittering stopped and there was quiet. Arne, having already slipped on some earmuffs to protect his eardrums, shook slightly from the sensation of the projectile's sonic wake. He whimpered slightly but calmed when he was pat by his father.
Erik's fingers laced themselves through Arne's hair reassuringly, his kind gaze making his fear subside, even if only for a bit. The noise and heat of the outside world faded, even the fact that he was holding a star cannon seemed irrelevant. He was here, and he loved him, and that made everything seem unimportant "Shh...it'll be alright little eagle." He was assured as he clung to his father's leg.
He looked to his father with questioning eyes, gulping somewhat. He wasn't as scared anymore, but a question rumbled around in the inside of his skull. He had a moment now, and he wanted something answered. "W...why are they here Dad?" He asked. It was a fair question, a question to put his mind at peace in the brief moments of quiet that they had.
Erik had no answer, nothing he could explain to a three year old at least. How did they know to send such overwhelming force here already? Why were they set on killing even the civilians? He had heard rumours that the Federation had a secret paramilitary unit, the pet attack dogs of the Central Intelligence Network.
Wraithlike Raiders who would come and go without warning whom even the military was kept intentionally in the dark about. It was clear they were here for the Alimbic artifacts, and that they intended to leave no witnesses, but beyond that, he couldn't offer a good answer, and that was outright painful for him.
The quiet was short-lived, however. she came back, a twisting tendril with a sharp end stabbing towards Morr, who only barely ducked to the side and swore out loud as it dug into the side of the wall. Ferrocrete cracked away from the silvery tendril even before it wormed back to its progenitor.
Inhuman snarling rang loudly in ears as a thicket of legs scrambled for purchase to bring her closer into view, a volley of telekinetically launched projectiles only barely being stopped by a screen wall of telekine energy. The purplish energy field was soon dropped after having forced the projectiles to expend themselves against it, and its creator clenched her fist into a ball.
"Oh fun, a psychic. Why don't you and I play with each other for a bit hrm? Give little old Mercy a bit of enjoyment while she's on the job." A feminine voice said, making Arne's skin crawl with revulsion. It was far too friendly sounding for the clear menace behind the words. Lydl seemed ready to have a go, her muscles tensed beneath her suit as she adjusted her stance, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice until Morr brought his hand in front of her.
"Nah, I've got this. You go on ahead."
Gyda snapped her head towards him in concern. "You're going to die if you take her alone Morr."
"Yeah, probably painfully too. But you've got a kid. We stick around and that hydra thing is going to come back for us while we fight. Look, honour serving with you and all, but we all knew most of us weren't getting off this rock. And Arne, when you grow up, please send this asshole's ashes to my gravesite." He said, giving a thumbs up to Arne as Gyda directed a sad nod in his direction; a quick snap of his arms sending thrown explosives from the sharpshooter cutting off Mercy's path towards the group as he looked at his foe and sighed.
Arne didn't see what happened as he was pulled away, his eyes shielded from the flash of the explosions and the sound of gunfire. He looked to his mother and saw her sink her head slightly and mutter something in the Uskarling language, a farewell and a thank you for the time they had together.
But the bellowing menace of Viper hot on their heels jolted them into motion, the crows dutifully taking flight to search around for an avenue out. A quick glance outside the nearest window only confirmed what the stench of fire and death was telling him; everything was burning and what resistance there was left was slowly but surely diminishing.
The bellowing grew louder and urged them to go faster until it suddenly stopped, a pregnant silence casting its shadow over the group until one of Viper's heads exploded through the ceiling in a spray of rock, screaming coming from Arne while Hugin and Munin cawed in panic; Geri and Freki firing up a shield to block a deadly burst of frost spat forth from Cobra's jaws at the group, letting the blue-white wave of winter crash against the hemisphere and wash into the sides of the building.
"GIVE ME THE BOY!" Cobra snarled as they snapped their jaw at them, teeth crashing into the field reinforced by Lydyl's telekinetics and forcing them to back their head off. Sylan's mechandrites fired up with laser weaponry, pulsing explosions rippling across Cobra's head and making him flinch and cry out in frustration.
An eyeblink later, a shot rushed down their throat from both Gyda and Erik, white flashes of light burning inside the Hydra's mouth as they pulled their head back, roaring in imperious fury. Just long enough for Spire to crash into Viper's side hard enough with the crackling orange and yellow buzzsaw of energy of the screw attack.
The Diamont's chainsaw-like wheel of energy had enough force to slice open Viper's side through a weakness in their bioshielding and still-healing damage-induced weakness in their living armour; steaming offal wassuing from the rapidly regenerating wound while the impact threw them off the building, the two rolling off the roof and onto the side with a heavy crash.
RAID troopers who sought to get in their way were quickly met with Geri and Freiki's jaws as the mechanoids lead the diminished fireteam; snapping their petal mouths onto the helmets of the troopers designated by Gyda before they could get their heavy weapons going.
Pained grunts came out of the dying federal soldiers, two knocked to the ground with steaming holes in them from Gyda's weapon before she casually extended her armour's powered wrist blade and thrusted it into the head of a shield popped heavy trooper, punching through her armour with some resistance before slicing downwards to bisect her to clear the way forward.
"Come on!" She shouted, Arne whimpering at the violence surrounding him as his legs tried to carry him fast enough to keep up. The windows exploded shortly afterwards, making him squeal as he dropped to the ground. The surprisingly light boots of Cyrus and Dagger clacked onto the ground, their frames rising from their buckled knee position with weapons loaded to bear. An arm cannon from the huntsman and a pair of power blades from the assassin.
"Turn yourselves in, and let's not make this messier than it already is," Dagger said plainly and without flourish. Her gaze flicked towards a quivering Arne for a second, and a sigh was produced from beneath her helmet while Cyrus paced back and forth, cannon pointed at the handfuls of survivors.
"My apologies that it had to come to this, but we have jobs to do." Cyrus said.
Sylan said nothing, explosively leaping behind the group with a teleportation device that gave off a red flash of light before her laser cutters fired up to collapse part of the ceiling. Operating entirely on her programming, she gave only a small nod to the Skjoldrs and Lydyl before the crumbling facade of ferrocrete separated them, her mechandrites spinning to life and extending their claws before she pounced at her foes to keep them occupied.
Arne yelped before he was tossed onto the back of Geri by Freiki, the machines quickly calling the two crows to them to ride on the other's back while they smashed through the walls to give the group an exit.
But such offered only temporary reprieve as they spilled onto the streets, Lydyl only barely yanking the group back to avoid a gout of frost from Viper's outer heads as the many-headed beast galloped towards them, the middle head headbutting a kneeling Spire out of the way and sending him into the ground with a heavy crash, rolling on his sides before he curled into the Dialanche to arrest his momentum with the crystalline spikes of his alternative form.
"What use is there in running? Where can you hide? Where can you run? Why not just give up now?" Adder hissed.
"There is nowhere you can flee to that we cannot follow. Bow before us and we may show you mercy." Mamba growled.
"I am as inevitable as time itself. You cannot hope to best us, spare yourselves the wasted effort of resistance." Cobra barked, their claws crushing down on the corpses of fallen soldiers while their forked tongue flicked out of their mouths and a reverberating growl issued forth from their throat.
Erupting fireballs from exploding SAM sites elicited a frightened shriek from Arne as he clung even more tightly to Geri. A frightened apology escaped his lips and tears began to flow from his face as the hellish chorus of Viper rang louder and louder in his ears.
But the sounds of heavy metal objects thundering towards them drew his attention. Quietus emerged from above a building held aloft by long tentacles of metal sprouting from their back, and the flickering form of Veil's mech released a spread of missiles and a pair of cannon bolts, only barely stopped in time by Lydyl, who shielded the group in a dome of energy as Spire wearily pulled himself to his feet.
Quietus dropped a number of corpses impaled to the claw hands of their tentacles while their screen displayed a simple, stylised, and disturbingly beatific expression while Veil's mech flickered out of visibility entirely, even the sounds it made being muffled into silence to allow them the element of surprise. Lydyl fell to a knee, hands on the ground before she looked at Erik and Gyda as they pointed their weapons at the encroaching Dead Handers.
"I do enjoy it when they resist." Quietus chuckled as they moved to flank the group with Veil and Viper as they had so many times before.
"Keep focused, command wants a clean, quickly done op." Veil scolded.
"Nowhere to run now, is there?" Cobra said mockingly as they approached.
"We'll see about that," Spire said, looking towards the sky and giving the closest approximation of a smile as a streaking shape raced above. A look of wonder coming from Arne and a sense of relief ever so briefly washed over him like there might just be relief from this dreadful nightmare.
His gunship; a craggy tear drop shaped thing made of rock-like substances and crystalline composites; swooped overhead to shower Viper in bombs, prompting the hateful serpent to roar in fury as their body was engulfed in vaporising flames.
They responded in kind however, lancing beams of cold death spraying out of their mouths to try and catch the accursed thing as it sweeped towards its landing zone, missiles rippling out of side pods to shower the foe in explosives while the top entry hatch opened up; the click and clink of its release inaudible in the indecipherable maelstrom of noise engulfing Cylosis, the craft increasingly hard to distinguish from the great pillars of flame rising ever higher from the burning ruin of Stygna.
But a second wave of attacks from the Dead Hand lashed out of the fire left by the gunship; impacting Lydyl's shields and making her fall to her knees as she extended her arms and cried out. She groggily pushed herself up, breathing heavily beneath her armoursuit and straining to resist the wave of fire being thrown into her from two opponents at once.
"I can take care of myself...get to Spire's gunship. I'll catch up with you. I promise." She said wearily.
Gyda gave her a sad look, already realising that this was not a promise Lydyl could, or even had any intention of keeping. "It's not nice to lie like that to us Lydyl."
"I'm sorry I couldn't do better." She said gently before a telekinetic push shoved the group away from her as another wave of fire engulfed her position. Arne cried out for her, but Geri turned around to take her out of his field of view while the heavy sounds of thunderous footfalls boomed not so far away, the sounds of angered roars and weapons fire quickly filling his eardrums as the nightmarish vision of Viper, crackling bio shielding seemingly inviolable as they stepped ever close, hissing and shifting heads letting loose more and more deadly fountains of anti-energy.
Everything touched by the pillars of blue-white death froze to sculptures that shattered with their passing, every soldier who did not yet fall to the blur like motions of the RAID troopers who dared to raise their hands against the nightmare was reduced to dust by its awful voice.
An artillery barrage erupted around Viper with the drumroll of heavy munitions volley firing. Containment fields tried to focus the blast's powers on Viper, but they emerged from geography, rearranging firepower with a hateful sneer.
They could have gone much faster, but they clearly wanted to scare them, making their invincibility obvious as they obliterated the insolent militants trying to distract them before Arne's vision went blank temporarily and he found himself looking at a completely different angle of Viper. He took less than a second to realise that he had been teleported into Spire's vessel while Spire made the final sprint to the ship; joining him with a final heavy leap that brought him into a heavy landing within the stony and spartan interior of the vessel
His parents were running as fast as they could, cutting through the RAID troops who had moved to intercept them—from tanks to infantrymen—but Viper once again emerged from the fires of hell, stomping behind them. Serpentine heads cackled and called, the orange and black-tinged sky giving them a truly hellish appearance.
As the last mech in the Skjoldr's way fell face-first into the ground after Gyda had jumped upon it and lobbed a grenade down a hole in the cockpit she had shot open; the two were so close to Spire's ship that Arne could make out their eyes behind their transparent mode visors, strained but relieved. Gyda even laid her hand on the cockpit window of the gunship as Arne rushed forward, eyes full of hope as he placed his hand on the other side of the window, staring into his parents' eyes with a tearful smile.
"Mom...dad...can we go now?"
"Come on! We've got no time to lose!" Spire shouted over the din of battle. Hugin and Munin cried out in alarm as another of Viper's high-pitched calls drowned out all other noise. Their heavy footfalls called the elder Skjoldr's attention behind them shortly after the sonerous challenge. Every step closer and closer than the last. They had no intention of just letting them leave no matter how much Spire's ship fired into them, powering through whatever blows they could not dodge or intercept.
A wall of frost breath and cold streams from every orifice struck down anything that might seek to test their shielding or hide from their wrath. Their heads snaked and twisted continually to avoid incoming blows, and their sinister body almost seemed to slither while it sought to keep the Cragimoch occupied with frost breath from its tails. But their cold blue eyes stared with murderous intent, high-pitched death rattles reverberating out.
It looked more like a demon than anything that could possibly be real, as the firelight of raging infernos illuminated the winged hydra, seemingly invincible against any weapon used upon it so far. And the heads almost seemed to be smiling. Their victory was so close.
A quick calculation was made. Viper was a swift, if not supremely agile, flier. They'd be able to keep pace with the Cragimoch if they just fled together. And then all of them would die. But if some of them stayed behind and pulled Viper's attentions away... They looked again at Viper and then back to Spire and Arne.
"Mom...Dad..." Arne said quietly, while even the Ravens seemed to tense.
"What are you doing!? We have to go! Come on you idiots! What are you...no...you can't." Spire said, his words going from angry to distraught and then finally disbelieving as Viper approached implacably. The two looked to one another and then opened their face masks to give Arne a sad smile that let Spire know what they wanted to do immediately.
A sinking feeling dug into Arne's soul, his young mind realising that they were also going to leave themselves behind like everyone else. And even though he realised faintly that there was no way they were going to escape the three headed demon unless someone stayed behind, he didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to accept it.
"No..." Arne mouthed, tears welling in his eyes as he shook his head, his voice cracking heavily.
"I'm sorry, little eagle." Gyda said, choking back tears as she closed her visor and turned back to Viper; Erik giving his son one last pained smile and mouthing the words "goodbye" before he followed suit, the two hopping off of the nose of the ship as Arne screamed louder than he ever had in his life.
His heart shattered into a million, million pieces, dropping to his knees and wailing every word he could think of that he thought they might listen to, anything to make them listen, anything to make them come back, trying to reach for anything that looked like it could bring him to the exit before Spire pulled him back.
"Erik! Gyda!" Spire shouted, but it was too late. They fired off the flight packs on their suits and let loose with everything they had upon the wintery body of Viper while Spire's ship rose to the heavens; the earth behind it splintering apart as the Caesarian Lance and its escorts began to rise from the ground; millions of years worth of built-up earth falling away.
The dying embers of a doomed resistance lashed across the world, overwhelmed, outgunned, outnumbered, but never outcommitted. Some of the last soldiers cheered, happy to see that at least someone was going to get away.
But all Arne could see were the last flickers of light from his parents' weapons in a fight they couldn't win if they had a million attempts to try and all he could hear was that demonic cackling. He banged his fist again and again on the cockpit window until his hands were bloody, he was crying to the point of dehydration, and wailing until his throat burned while the hatch of the ship closed.
They fought like archangels, moving with superhuman flashes of grace and skill. Their bodies twisting, turning, firing everything they had in a duel to the death against a creature who could not die. They were valiant, the RAID troopers who cut down so much of the EVA around them falling in turn before them; transsophontic terrors crumpling in bloody heaps. But Viper never fell, even as the Cragimoch disappeared into space.
Viper was enraged by the sight of its prize getting away and turning its full attention to those who had made a fool of the creature.
One last transmission from the ground reached Spire's ship, a feed of what Gyda and Erik could see and say.
"Spire, please, witness our final hour and commend our passage to the next life. Tell Arne we love him." All their prior armour and implant recording data…and a live feed of what they could see now.
Viper was eternal, a nightmare without end. They were fast, far too fast for something of their size, able to move like a blur even on the ground. And they had firepower a plenty, enough to overwhelm even the clan champion and her husband, even as thousands of RAID corpses piled around them, Viper was wearing, beating them down. Taking their time. They had not secured Arne, but this would be where Gyda's legend ended.
Spire was too stunned to realise that Arne had turned his sight to the feed of the final battle, as Viper overcame every obstacle put in front of them, and while it sometimes reeled from the blows inflicted on it by Gyda, Erik and their troops; it just kept coming as they grew weaker and weaker.
At last, Gyda and Erik had no options left, their troops dead and save stations shattered, their armour failing in every section with multiple components outright destroyed, their munitions depleted.
"Any last words?" The middle head spoke, sensing the end was near.
"Arne…live for us." Gyda wheezed.
"As expected for a parent. Die, Skjoldr."
And with one, final flash of blue and white from all of Viper's heads and the deafening silence that followed as the feed cut, his pained, puffy eyes staring at the sensor feed in agonized despair; his heart utterly broken.
He had no more words left, and fell to the ground in wretched sobs, not even noticing the ship following the rising Caesarian Lance closely. Even Hugin and Munin cawed no more, simply hanging their heads in silence while Spire looked sadly at the boy and pat his shoulder. He knew not what to say, but he understood the pain of suddenly being alone in the universe.
Sylux's logbook
Planets: Ensryn Galaxy: Cyrus' Expanse: Human Habitable: Ensryn Volunteer Army Occupied: Visited: Cylosis (Part 2)
Following the uncovery of Alimbic technologies on the world of Cylosis, including the buried Battlecruiser Caesarian Lance and its still active crew; the Federation Central Intelligence Network dispatched the Mordred's 39th Black Fleet under the command of Operator 333; Viper; to neutralise all EVA assets and secure the planet for study. Viper pursued this task with the usual brutality and wiped out virtually all intelligent life on the planet within two hours. The death of General Taskaril signalled the final collapse of EVA resistance on the planet. However, the withdrawal of the Caesarian Lance lead to the Federation losing interest in the planet, especially as more ODOCR friendly assets were dispatched to investigate the sudden silence from Cylosis. Cylosis' ecology has suffered serious damage from the devastation and is currently in the throes of an ice age due to the long term effects of orbital bombardment winter. Recolonization efforts have prevented a mass extinction event,
but most former urban areas remain ruins.
Arne's notes: I still visit. I don't tell anyone who I am. I just look around and try to see if I can find anything left over from when I used to live there. I don't know how to feel about new people moving in. It feels almost profane, like they're walking on graveyards. But it's not fair to keep it a tomb either. I just hope they don't tear down our old apartment. I wouldn't be able to take losing it.
Individuals: Paramilitary: Leftist Revolutionary: ODOCR aligned: EVA: Human: Female: Deceased: Gyda Skjǫldr
Gyda Skjǫldr was born to the Grendakal clan of the Uskarling culture and chose the life of a warrior out of her own fascination with combat and a well developed sense of outrage against injustice. From then on, she would graduate as the valedictorian in her class at the military academy of Almok, demonstrating a particularly adept knack for irregular warfare, regime destruction, and personal combat. Joining the Ensryn Volunteer Army out of a desire to "fight the good fight", Gyda would achieve substantial fame and notoriety as the hero of the oppressed to some and an omnipragmatist terrorist to others. She was a continual presence on the wanted lists of many governments up until her demise during the scourging of Cylosis. Upon confirmation of her death, clan Grendakal arranged a funeral on her homeworld of Skolva, attended to by a number of prominent figures who offered eulogies. Noted as gentle but firm in command, a devoted wife, and an adoring mother, her death was widely mourned; not least of all by her family. She is survived by Arne Skjǫldr.
Arne's notes: There's nothing I wouldn't give for another day with her. She's everything I want to be, and she'll always be my hero. I think you've earned slauganth, and I hope you can see me from there. If there's anything I can do, please give me a sign. I miss you, mom, I always will.
Individuals: Paramilitary: Leftist Revolutionary: ODOCR aligned: EVA: Human: Female: Deceased: Erik Skjǫldr
Erik Skjǫldr was born to the Frybarg clan of the Uskarling culture and was drawn to the path of the insurgent by a well nurtured belief in the necessity to fight for freedom and the eventual hope for long term peace by transforming the world one currently lives in. Graduating as the salutorian in the same class as Gyda, and would fall in love with and marry her in short order. Though they held off on having a child for a number of years due to the necessities of long combat deployment, he would eventually father his only son Arne with her during their deployment to Cylosis. Known for nearly always being at his wife's side and heavily doting upon his son, Erik was often called Gyda's shadow for how close the two of them were to each other. Virtually all plans the two made were always reviewed by the other within moments of conception, and the two's fighting style came to be heavily dependent on cooperation with each other. He would die simultaneously with his wife on Cylosis, the two's remains locked in embrace before shattering into dust. He is survived by his son Arne Skjǫldr.
Arne's notes: I always wonder what he'd think of me now. Am I making him proud? Is he still watching me? Or has he already found his next life? I just hope, whatever the case; that he's still with mom. I think he'll have achieved slauganth, he did great things, and I hope I can do just as good.
Units: Paramilitary: Leftist Revolutionary: ODOCR aligned: EVA: Wiped Out: Fireteam Raptor Noir
Fireteam Raptor Noir was assembled by Gyda and Erik Skjǫldr to serve as a highly effective combat force comprised out of the couple, the extremely skilled Ivakti marksman and demolition expert Morr, the notable Aelrani Psion Lydyl, and the multi-purpose synthetic Sylan. Together, the five had accomplished hundreds of missions across hundreds of planets and had gained enough notoriety to be flagged for neutralization or recruitment by the R.A.I.D. However given their fervent devotion to the E.V.A's anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist endeavours, recruitment was always considered a long shot without captive reprogramming. The five considered one another to be akin to family, and so were picked off one by one in the fall of Cylosis; exploiting their willingness to die to ensure that Arne and Spire could survive to split the Fireteam and slaughter it piecemeal. All five members have been confirmed KIA.
Arne's notes: The name is kind of...goofy, but I like it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for silly stuff? Who can say really. I wish I got to know them better. But I know they all had to have been good people if they didn't even hesitate to do what they did. The monument to them is pretty cool too. Just wish it did more to recognise Spire.
Individuals: Civilian: ODOCR Citizen: Uskarling: Clan Grendakal: Human: Male: Arne Skjǫldr (Part 1)
The only son of Gyda and Erik Skjǫldr was only three years old when he was orphaned by the R.A.I.D's assault on Cylosis following being gifted by Alimbic mechanoids dispatched to examine humanity's potential as a species that the remaining Alimbics could use as a baseline for a new generation of warrior. He was regarded as precocious, bright, physically active, somewhat on the timid side but able to show courage if backed into a corner or if he feels a task is important. Arne Skjǫldr was initially presumed dead due to the extent of the devastation visited upon Cylosis, but was discovered to have been rescued by the Freelance Space Hunter Spire who had instead deposited him into the care of the Alimbic population of the Battlecruiser Caesarian Lance. In essence, adopted by the enigmatic aliens who had previously shown interest in human potential.
Arne's Notes: Despite everything else, it's still me. I feel like I'm trapped in a spider's web of secrets and I can barely sort through the deceit I deal with every day, and the universe seems set on showing me its worst face time after time again but I'll always be the Avenging Son. And my duty as that bringer of vengeance is to ensure that the people who live in this cosmos are safe, free, and comfortable. To be anything less is to let everyone else down.
[1]Uskarling afterlife for those who have lived a life worthy enough to break free of the cycle of reincarnation.