Arganti, Aurelarch System, Argent Nebula, Black Eye Galaxy, Inheritor Metaverse
Re-Sekh had long been a friend of Elmorni. The red and gold armoured Chozo sitting across from the Blue and Cyan clad Alimbic as they played a game of moving miniatures brought to life by ancient technologies and woven into being by well-practised magics.
Games of strategy were complicated when they involved two who could see differing possibilities and their probabilities. Every diverging parallel, every likelihood, how likely they were, what futures lead to them. Samus and Arne were novices at the art, but the two had mastered it for longer than humanity had existed.
They sat across from each other on a table that was as large as they two needed it to be, altering space to accommodate the needs of their game while still allowing them to remain at arm's length from each other. Outside was the artificial sun of the artificial world, shining more stably and beautifully than any natural star ever could.
Plants and animals waved in the breeze beyond, and a few of the other Progenitors gathered around as they continued their match, testing wits like they did fifty thousand years ago; before nearly the totality of Elmorni's species vanished as if overnight.
"-I missed this you know.-" Elmorni said as she directed some pieces into a position and encouraged plant life to grow to represent her development of the area, establishing her control over the area. "-Eleven Earth years is much too short to catch up on all the missed time.-" The Mystromagus' telepathic voice was gentle, motherly, her Chozo counterpart observing her move and making his own command to begin the growth of cities in response; their real time commands coordinating a bewildering thicket of pieces and board set ups as they played their game of civilisation.
"Fifty thousand earth years were a long time to go without these games, Elmorni." He said with a hearty chuckle as he made his next set of moves, seeking to assist her development in the face of the game's environmental challenges, leading to an exchange between the two born of gratitude.
"-Eleven years and all I know about why the Order disappeared is that they sacrificed the totality of their people to stop a monster known as Gorea from destroying the rest of creation.-" She said, solemn for a moment until she brightened up at the sight of a good play to make, an approving coo coming from Re-Sekh as he shifted his pieces elsewhere to try and bolster her movements.
"From what I know of the end of the Order, it was a decision they took after all else had failed. They did not perish in vain at least. Though it would seem that Gorea was of the order of beings worshipped by the Old Foe. How it entered our realm is something we are unsure of." He said, clasping his hands together and taking a moment to study her followup play, seeing a chance to achieve one of their shared objectives and seizing it as she set up the victory; pieces in harmony isolating and eliminating one of the mutual threats.
"-Perhaps that is how the Sunstalker and Moonhunter managed to escape. Cracks left in the great seal that imprisoned the Old Foe by the passage of one of their deities?-" She said, looking satisfied at her work as she refocused priorities towards strengthening her southern front.
"Unlikely, more would have come than just two of their lower scouts." He said, murmuring a bit before refocusing his priorities northwards.
"But enough of prophecy and doomsaying among friends for once..." He shook his head, getting a flash of affirmation from Elmorni in response.
"How have the days been since Zurvduat was excised from Arne's life?" He asked, seeking to bring the conversation to the matter of their children.
"-The Chevalier-General has been...secretive. He and the Military Triumvirate have secluded themselves in their projects to resusticate the Order. And he hardly listens when I tell him to let go.-" She said with a shake of her neckless, floating head, her single red eye turning towards Old Bird as he gave a nod and a chirp of disapproval.
"Keep an eye on him, just as I monitor Mother Brain. There are not many paths to restoring the Tetrarchy that I can foresee that are not fraught with destruction." He said with a prolonged sigh.
"And I fear that he will take his castigation and loss of custody poorly. Vengeance is surely on his mind. Against you, against Arne, against Samus." He added.
"-He was about to strike him in front of you, in front of me, in front of Samus and so many others. We do not need to be able to prognosticate to know that he will not take his setback without some form of recompense. But we have many other issues to worry about. The mysterious raiders who attacked Cylosis and the Space Pirates. And let's not forget Trace. The Kriken Prince...-" She said before Grey Voice stepped in, the grey and silver armoured chozo, of a more warrior like figure and clad in more martial robes over his armour than Old Bird.
"Will likely seek his revenge for the defeat the Aira-Sekh and Sarxyl Avar dealt them last year. To lose so much standing before his father after failing to acquire the Reliquary key will leave the young Prince furious. His fleets and soldiers are already on the move." Somek-Ka said, Grey Voice's sterner tone and more hawkish head lending a certain graveness to his tone.
Ygrak, the Red Alimbic, bulkier of figure than Elmorni and with a five-part crest, hovered into the discussion, offering Old Bird some snacks she had conjured up herself.
"-Elder Re-Sekh, please, have something to enjoy.-" She said, the Biologist laying out some chocolate chip cookies, a recipe Samus' mother used to make, with some chocolate treats derived from recipes Arne's father created. Something she had picked up from raising Arne and her interactions with Samus over the years.
"Many thanks." He said, taking one and allowing enough of his helm to dissolve for his beak to snap up the chocolate delights and one of the cookies, drowning it with some milk afterwards and letting out a hoot of approval; his head somewhere between that of a Parrot and an Owl with a bit of pillbug and saurian.
He turned his head towards the entrance shortly, anticipating someone coming shortly and beckoning them in. Someone with important news no doubt.
Spire, a craggy behemoth of seemingly roughly hewn stony power armour over a more crystalline body, brown and grey in frame mixed with orange and yellow crystals, his helm like a crushed bucket with two eyepieces from which his molten hot body stared out through the world, stepped into the room, his heavy footfalls clear as day. The last known living Diamont and thus de facto representative of his species in the meetings of the dwindling ranks of the Progenitors. It was a miserable existence, and Old Bird's pity for him was immeasurable. At times, he wondered why Spire even wanted to continue to live or cling to the material world instead of subliming into a higher plane. But the silicate was as stubborn as he was compassionate, and Old Bird sensed that he would hold onto his hope that he found find where his kind had disappeared to some day.
Accompanying him was Armaud; one of only a handful known N'Kren to be awake and active. Her kind had transferred their essences into bodies of living metal long ago, even by Old Bird's reckoning. Most however, had chosen to slumber after the end of the Forbidden Wars, and she remained their final sentinel. Some two and a half meters tall and primarily green, white, and purple in colour, the sentinel of the N'kren's twin regarded her peers through a pair of lenses that gave the impression of angular purple robotic eyes fitted atop the recesses of the somewhat barbute like "helm" that encased the chassis of her head. The upward curvature of her pauldrons and the somewhat pronounced gorget of her suit gave the uppermost part of her body a distinctly powerfully armoured appearance. Her frame was built for power and endurance, the curves of the plating fitted atop it suggesting stylised musculature interspersed with more rigid plates fitting for someone of great strength even though her body was all metal. On her right arm was cannon, with a grilled base below her elbow giving way to a glowing green tube-like structure fitted with struts and ending in what almost seemed to be claws arranged like a compass, just barely avoiding obstructing the cannon. Her boots gave the impression of insectile feet, while her chest bore three strikes markings on each pectoral.
She was relatively young for her kind; one of the very last organic children of the N'Kren to be born before transferring. Re-Sekh and Elmorni both even remembered what she was like when she still was a being of flesh, how enthusiastic and noble she was; and the solemness that she took the vow of eternal custodianship. To watch over the universe while her people faded from it.
She gave a nod, followed by Spire, who stood notably taller than she did.
"You bring news I'm guessing?" August Wings asked, the female Chozo turning her more stork-like head towards the pair and giving a gracious bow in exchange for their nods.
"Arne and Samus disappeared out of our universe after dealing with the Space Pirate and Raider wormhole junction. But they've activated some of the relics left on the other side. From the old colonies." Armaud said, curt and professional as always.
"I think it developed into one of those earths with a high proclivity of ultrasophonts, lots of extradimensional activity there. Symbiosis off the charts." Spire said, tensing slightly out of concern for the two kids he treated like niece and nephew.
"Ah. That world. It was known by another nation of Chozo they would arrive there at some point. But, so soon? They aren't even..." Old Bird said with concern before steepling his fingers and looking towards Young War Hawk, whose red and black armour shifted silently as she turned her falcon like head towards her elder.
"They aren't even what?" She asked. Barely even two centuries old, she was considered scarcely less of a child than Arne or Samus were, barely into adulthood and so often left out of conversations that the more obstinate traditionalists felt she had not earned the right to listen to.
"They haven't even finished their socialisation training or their foray into the esoteric arts...I...hrm..." Old Bird said before stopping himself and shaking his head while Elmorni turned her head towards the pair, rotating the floating teardrop shape towards the duo.
"-Who else that they might know is there?-" Elmorni asked, her telepathic voice going from melodious to discordant with worry for her son.
"Kyrion, some section thirteen officials too." Spire said shaking his craggy head. "I could go there, when needed. I assume if they're there it's for a reason." Spire said, he was the one who had taken Arne from Cylosis to save his life from the raiders who scoured it looking for Elmorni and Zurvduat's battlecruiser, since then...a sense of responsibility was only natural.
"If they are there..." Old Bird paused.
"Elder...what is it?" Grey Voice asked.
"Spire, how much have you seen beings not of our collection of our realities?" He asked, Elmorni quickly grasping his point as the Alimbic matron turned to Armaud.
"Increasingly often. Freelance work against unknown and unheard of forms of enemies have been increasing dramatically, just as the armies of ravaging have only grown in strength and activity." The term for those like the Krikens, the War-Spores, the Zikrali Swarms, the Space Pirates, the mystery Raiders, or others who had turned their civilisation towards menacing much of the rest of the cosmos; threats who would be a grave challenge for the modern age even without the darkness cresting over the horizon.
"-Mystromagus, why the sudden concern?-" Ygrak was less wise to the ways of prophecy and lore than her lover Elmorni; behind even their shared lover Mortirk. But she knew that the recession of Elmorni's neckless head into the socket atop her torso meant that she was concerned to the point of being fearful. Something she maintained until she extracted her head and shifted the glow of her eyes between several colours.
"-Ygrak, sweet, contact the Faeran Ris; tell them to ask their youths to deal with the emergencies I am about to send to you.-" She said, quickly, hastily, with an uncharacteristic urge to get things done. "-We are still in the early stages, we can contain the worst of it for now, as we have...perhaps even roll it back in some places. But we need to act quickly.-"
"-...I understand Elmorni.-" Ygrak said, the red Alimbic giving a solemn nod.
"But if they are currently outside of our universe, what of their cadet programs? How will they be able to continue their ultrasophontic adjustment courses?" Warhawk asked.
"We may need to make...arrangements as best we can. It may take some time, but I think they will understand given the scale of the emergency." Grey Voice responded.
"-Should we alert the current polities?-" Ygrak asked.
"-It's already begun and will only continue to intensify, we can delay it, slow it down. But the twelvefold convergence is already underway. They'll know regardless of what we say...and I have my suspicions that many have been taking advantage of this beforehand.-" Elmorni replied.
"I will speak to the Wayfarers who monitor the colonies on that particular Earth. Warhawk, please, see what you can about how the current nations may be moving in response, prepare for measures to cut through deceit. I am willing to bet that there are efforts being made to cloud our vision." August Wings commanded before Armaud advanced a bit closer.
"The children, do you need us to retrieve them?" She asked.
"No...no...they are where they need to be. I just fear that...events will be happening in a greatly accelerated sequence. Menaces that they should be facing as adults will have to be bested by them as youths. As well as dangers thought to be far too remote..." Old Bird said before pausing again, gripping his staff and closing his eyes beneath his visor and exhaling sharply.
"I understand, what do you need us to do; elder ones?" She asked, looking between herself and Spire.
"Go to these coordinates. The Faera Ri there will be able to explain once you tell her that you have come to undo the eclipse. I must attend to other concerns. Please..." He said, standing himself out of his seat and looking forlornly at the game he was playing while Elmorni's three legs extended and straightened to let her stand with him; Armaud and Spire nodding while they backed away.
"-So much for our game I suppose?-" She said.
"We can play along the way, if you would like." He said, nodding at her and being nodded at in return.
"-To our work then?-" She asked.
"And how much there is to be done." He responded.
