- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Which part? *Insert cheeky grin here*
Victory Through Unity! (Planetary Annihiliation Self Insert Multicross)
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Externally, not telling, since that would reveal her true form and nature a bit too much.
Internally, she's human enough that she could have fertile children with Flame, since you all really seem to view their interactions with shipping goggles
. Of course, Flame is not entirely human anymore due to the E-DNA and gene mods in his body, so that isn't necessarily a high bar.
135. The Yor
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
While I did want to examine the videos in more detail, both in the hopes of learning what exactly Melissa was and why she had been so friendly to Tau and Zeta, other matters soon appeared that needed to be solved.
Namely, dealing with the Yor.
While extremely isolationist by nature, the Yor were not ones to be caught off guard by the actions of others. They had spies and scout drones hidden all across known space, giving them tabs on the organic races of the galaxy, as well as a small offshoot of their kind who had just decided to try and wipe out every else because they could. Even the other Yor thought those Dark Yor were crazy, and according to transmissions I had hacked, were planning to off them if their actions endangered the main collective. They really hopped things would not require them to intervene, but if they must, so be it.
Now, though, the transmissions I had intercepted from the Yor were....well, nervous. The Yor knew that my forces were taking actions against the Dread Lords. They also knew that I was helping the human led coalition that opposed the Dread Lords, which includes the arch enemy of the Yor, the Iconians. Said coalition was, obviously, performing very well in the field, and showed no signs of slowing down. Needless to say, the Yor were getting worried about this, as once the Dread Lords were dealt with, the Iconians were probably going to want their home planet back.
Well, time to deal with that. Even if I personally disliked what the Yor has done, I did not feel they deserved to be wiped out to the last.
I had no plans to convince the Inconians to spare the Yor - that hatred was too deep-seated to ever be let go. Rather, I intended to come nvince the Yor to join up with me and evacuate Iconia peacefully, so that no blood would be shed when the Iconians returned home. Absorbing the Yor into my own forces also had the added benefit of giving me several experienced subordinates to work with, who could probably handle many problems without my guidance.
Of course, that all hinges on me being able to get the Yor to join me. Luckily, I had a good idea on how to do that.
XXXXXXX
A few days and some negotiating later, I was on Iconia and found myself before the Yor's leader, N-1. I'd expected to have to jump through tons of diplomatic hoops to get this far, but then again, the Yor knew that I had trounced the Dread Lords in all engagements I'd had with them. I guess they didn't want to waste their time fighting a battle they could not win.
"So, to what do I owe you the pleasure of this meeting, organic control unit of the Infernum Federation?"
The line sounded somewhat forced, but assumed this was more out of fear than disdain - the Yor were a very pragmatic race and were perfectly willing to make alliances with organics if those alliances suited their interests.
"The pleasure is all mine. As for why I am here, well, you are aware of my people's actions against the Dread Lords, yes?"
"I am. All Yor are aware of this."
"Well, then you know that, sooner or later, the Dread Lords will be beaten, and without them, the Coalition may seek other foes to fight. Potentially you, given the Iconians presence in the coalition.
"We are aware of this. Preparations are already being made to oppose them."
"I see. Well, what if I could offer you an easy way out of any fighting."
".....Elaborate."
"My people are very accepting of artificial beings, and were you to join us, we could insure that the Iconians would not seem vengeance on your kind....Of course, I understand if you would like time to think this over."
"Your suggestion is....admirable, but unlikely to succeed. What reason have we to ally with you? You have proven to be an excellent trading partner, but what else have you done for us?"
"You make an excellent point. I really haven't done anything beneficial to you except be a good trading partner. I'd like to change that, though."
"How do?"
".....Have you ever heard of something called the light of Iconia? Some pirates I captured mentioned it, said it was a machine that made AIs out of normal computers."
"......"
"So those rumors are true? Is that why your kind is sapient?"
"............"
"....May I see this light?"
"....Very well, follow me."
Too easy. Though, I did have enough firepower on my flagship to torch Iconia, so feared probably helped put N-1 in a more negotiable mood.
Anyway, N-1 lead me to some secret underground bunker, which housed some kind of weird, glowing crystal - what I assumed was the light of Iconia.
"So, this is how you become so much more than computer programs, is it not?"
"Yes, it is."
"I see......what if I told you that I could make a crystal just like this, down to its ability to make AI?"
"......Could you prove it?"
I merely snapped my fingers in response. A moment later, a crystal emerged from it, completely indistinguishable from the one in the room.
I'd modified my new body's eyes to include scanners that could examine anything I saw, while also adding in some implants to let me create portals using psionic. So far, so good.
N-1, for his part, merely stared at the crystal, trying to find something that made it different from the one already in room. He found none.
"So," I asked,"would this convince you to join with me?"
"......It helps."
XXXXXXXX
Being a Progenitor Commander is awesome, sometimes.
XXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! Chapter will be edited when I am not sleep deprived! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
Namely, dealing with the Yor.
While extremely isolationist by nature, the Yor were not ones to be caught off guard by the actions of others. They had spies and scout drones hidden all across known space, giving them tabs on the organic races of the galaxy, as well as a small offshoot of their kind who had just decided to try and wipe out every else because they could. Even the other Yor thought those Dark Yor were crazy, and according to transmissions I had hacked, were planning to off them if their actions endangered the main collective. They really hopped things would not require them to intervene, but if they must, so be it.
Now, though, the transmissions I had intercepted from the Yor were....well, nervous. The Yor knew that my forces were taking actions against the Dread Lords. They also knew that I was helping the human led coalition that opposed the Dread Lords, which includes the arch enemy of the Yor, the Iconians. Said coalition was, obviously, performing very well in the field, and showed no signs of slowing down. Needless to say, the Yor were getting worried about this, as once the Dread Lords were dealt with, the Iconians were probably going to want their home planet back.
Well, time to deal with that. Even if I personally disliked what the Yor has done, I did not feel they deserved to be wiped out to the last.
I had no plans to convince the Inconians to spare the Yor - that hatred was too deep-seated to ever be let go. Rather, I intended to come nvince the Yor to join up with me and evacuate Iconia peacefully, so that no blood would be shed when the Iconians returned home. Absorbing the Yor into my own forces also had the added benefit of giving me several experienced subordinates to work with, who could probably handle many problems without my guidance.
Of course, that all hinges on me being able to get the Yor to join me. Luckily, I had a good idea on how to do that.
XXXXXXX
A few days and some negotiating later, I was on Iconia and found myself before the Yor's leader, N-1. I'd expected to have to jump through tons of diplomatic hoops to get this far, but then again, the Yor knew that I had trounced the Dread Lords in all engagements I'd had with them. I guess they didn't want to waste their time fighting a battle they could not win.
"So, to what do I owe you the pleasure of this meeting, organic control unit of the Infernum Federation?"
The line sounded somewhat forced, but assumed this was more out of fear than disdain - the Yor were a very pragmatic race and were perfectly willing to make alliances with organics if those alliances suited their interests.
"The pleasure is all mine. As for why I am here, well, you are aware of my people's actions against the Dread Lords, yes?"
"I am. All Yor are aware of this."
"Well, then you know that, sooner or later, the Dread Lords will be beaten, and without them, the Coalition may seek other foes to fight. Potentially you, given the Iconians presence in the coalition.
"We are aware of this. Preparations are already being made to oppose them."
"I see. Well, what if I could offer you an easy way out of any fighting."
".....Elaborate."
"My people are very accepting of artificial beings, and were you to join us, we could insure that the Iconians would not seem vengeance on your kind....Of course, I understand if you would like time to think this over."
"Your suggestion is....admirable, but unlikely to succeed. What reason have we to ally with you? You have proven to be an excellent trading partner, but what else have you done for us?"
"You make an excellent point. I really haven't done anything beneficial to you except be a good trading partner. I'd like to change that, though."
"How do?"
".....Have you ever heard of something called the light of Iconia? Some pirates I captured mentioned it, said it was a machine that made AIs out of normal computers."
"......"
"So those rumors are true? Is that why your kind is sapient?"
"............"
"....May I see this light?"
"....Very well, follow me."
Too easy. Though, I did have enough firepower on my flagship to torch Iconia, so feared probably helped put N-1 in a more negotiable mood.
Anyway, N-1 lead me to some secret underground bunker, which housed some kind of weird, glowing crystal - what I assumed was the light of Iconia.
"So, this is how you become so much more than computer programs, is it not?"
"Yes, it is."
"I see......what if I told you that I could make a crystal just like this, down to its ability to make AI?"
"......Could you prove it?"
I merely snapped my fingers in response. A moment later, a crystal emerged from it, completely indistinguishable from the one in the room.
I'd modified my new body's eyes to include scanners that could examine anything I saw, while also adding in some implants to let me create portals using psionic. So far, so good.
N-1, for his part, merely stared at the crystal, trying to find something that made it different from the one already in room. He found none.
"So," I asked,"would this convince you to join with me?"
"......It helps."
XXXXXXXX
Being a Progenitor Commander is awesome, sometimes.
XXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! Chapter will be edited when I am not sleep deprived! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
White Lantern
A really overpowered Mary Sue self insert
- Location
- Sector 2184
Could you go to aldnoah zero? Wait how are you gonna handle magic/are you gonna include magic? If you are what about overlord
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
If I went to Overlord (and I'm not planning to), Nazarick would probably not exist for very much longer - even though I like the series, attempting to fix that world is essentially a lost cause.
Edit: Aldnoah.zero is a uninteresting I plan to go to, just wait.
136. Dread Lords on the Retreat
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
With my offer made to the Yor, I departed Iconia. While N-1 had said that there would still need to be a discussion held to determine what they would do now, I had no doubt what its outcome would be. The Yor were woefully outmatched against me and knew it. Given that they operated almost entirely on logic, they would almost certainly ally with me and join the Federation - even if they did not go to war with me, they did not really stand a chance of holding back the Iconians, who had not only received a fair amount of technological assistance from me, but also a considerable amount of aid from the rest of the Coalition. Additionally, the ability to synthesize the Light of Iconia meant that the Yor did not need to stay on that planet anymore, as there was nothing left to tether them there.
Consequently, I was not surprised one week later when I was informed that the Yor had decided to unite with my forces. As a token of my gratitude, I allowed them to, for the most part, maintain their independence, though I did suggest that they evacuate any of the systems they occupied that the Iconians knew of, lest their creators continue to pursue them indefinitely and bring about much unnecessary bloodshed. No, I did not approve of the Yor enacting a purge of the Iconians under the Dread Lords' orders, but I would not condone the Iconinas repaying the Yor in kind. Someone has to stop the cycle of revenge before it gets out of hand.
With that out of the way, I decided to et back to work dealing with the Dread Lords. The sooner they were dealt with, the sooner I could rest easy, find the last Artifact in this universe, and get moving - whatever those artifacts were trying to tell me, I got the feeling that the sooner I found out what those visions meant, the better prepared I would be if I ever encountered those ... things I saw in them.
My renewal of the offensive on the Dread Lords coincided with Melissa launching another big push on the Drengin, who were now starting to fragment under stress. The Korath were among the first to break off, but they didn't get far - a Torian fleet just happened to find them and beat them into the ground, leaving them alive, but spent as an effective fighting force. As I later found out, this particular chain of events had been the result of some subtle manipulations of my ROB, who had decided that the Korath becoming a major fighting force was not acceptable. While, at the time, I did not know this, I had my suspicions, and either way, I was fine with the outcome - less work for me, and the elimination of a splinter group of the Drengin going down meant that there was less a chance that they would rise up to oppose me (or anyone else) in the future.
Some of those splinter groups saw the writing on the wall, though, and surrendered to the coalition. A few actually surrendered to me and Melissa. I was surprised by this development, especially given that I had publicly stated my opposition to their practice of slavery and all but outright stated I would not rest until it was abolished. Apparently, those who were surrendering considered it an acceptable loss for the sake of survival. According to my telepaths, these Drengin weren't lying.
The capitulation of some of the Drengin was apparently enough to force a decision among the Yor. With their allies clearly on the fall, they decided to get out while the going was good and join up with me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it only took them a week to unite all of their people and arrive in my borders, asking for asylum. A request I allowed without any fuss, for I did not want to allow the machine race to die. I did, however, inform Emperor Iso the Wise of the Iconians exactly what I was doing, and politely telling him that if his people attempted to pruge the Yor, I would side with the machines. I also made it clear that if the Yor tried to finish of their creators, the Iconians had my support - I would NOT allow my newfound protectorates to commit genocide. That action was unforgivable, regardless of who it was committed on.
As for the Dread Lords, well, they were getting their asses kicked.
XXXXXXXXX
As the sounds of battle raged around him, Jegudiel fired his lasers, sending another Dread Lord fighter down in flames. Below, Sigurd and Hearth had just taken out an enemy bunker, paving the way for the rest of the Infernum forces they were leading to advance. The Commander had been impressed by their skills during the war game with the Illuminate and had ekpt his word, promoting them to command positions. As they had already gained the ability to give orders simply by becoming self aware, their promotion had amounted to them simply having their status within the Federation's mechanized forces modified so that any orders they gave were to be followed by other machines. It was a simple modification, but important all the same.
Briefly, the quartet of promoted machines had briefly considered doing something to differentiate themselves from their fellows, but ultimately vetoed it - it made them obvious targets, and besides, they didn't really have any good ideas (yet) as to what to decorate their mechanical bodies with. One day, maybe, they might put some modifications on their chassis, but not today.
After downing a few more targets, Jegudiel finally laid eyes -er, optics- on his target: a massive artillery nest, which was busy pounding away at the rest of the Infernum forces. A few disruptor bombs quickly reduced it to rubble, at which point the seraph fell back - heavy flak AA was being moved in to mop up the rest of the Dread Lord's aircraft, but those were indiscriminate weapons, and any planes shot down by friendly fire were not only major annoyances, but a potential way for the Dread Lords to reverse engineer their technology. That, above all other things, was unacceptable.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
All in all, it only took a few weeks to put the Dread Lords onto their last legs, with only a fraction of the territory and forces they had started with. That was still a very powerful force, but utterly pitiful when compared to my completely overpowered armies. Their overall threat level had receded to the point that I could easily smash them to pulp if I wanted to, but by that point, I had new issues that had to be addressed.
With the Dread Lords no longer the existential threats they once were, the Coalition was starting to fracture. Old rivalries started to tear their heads, grudges that had been put on hold were now resumed, and ideological differences were becoming more apparent. Only the Terrans, Altarians, and Iconians were able to overcome their grievances and work to hold the Coalition together, but all evidence I had pointed toward fragmentation within two months of the Dread Lord's downfall.
So, obviously, I had to intervene. Using several false identities, I anonymously began setting up bank accounts and shoving in huge amounts of money for my plan. See, one of the big contributors for my projections was that, a month after the Dread Lord's defeat (which would probably be in two weeks, maybe one), a new set of elections would take place for the ruling bodies of the various members of the Coalition. I used my shell accounts to help fund the people who wanted to uphold the Coalition, while my hacking systems were put to work locating every major group that supported breaking it for reasons that weren't exactly rational (namely, species supremacy and the like) and expose any dark secrets they had, which practically annihilated their support. I did support a few candidates in the elections who had legitimate reasons for wanting to break the Coalition, though - needed to throw people off my trail, plus many of those politicians still wanted to remain close to the other Coaltion members, for reasons both moral and pragmatic.
All of this ended up finishing at eight days before October 13, meaning I had one week left to figure out why this day was so important to Melissa's followers. I considered broaching the subject with my ROB, but she might grow defensive if I did so without tact. Additionally, if the Dread Lords were still active, they might screw up things on that day and deny me a chance to learn why it was important.
So, on that day, October 5, after locating the last major production hub of the Dread Lords, i mustered up all of my forces, prepared my greatest weapons, and readied for battle. As for Melissa, I invited her to watch the fight, and participate if she so desired, so that I might have an opportunity to learn what I desired.
It seemed that nothing could go wrong. I made a point of bringing extra forces because of that - something probably was going to go wrong.
XXXXXXXXXX
PLANET DRENGI, THREE DAYS PRIOR
"So, have we learned anything more about this machine?" Asked Lord Kona.
"No, but we did manage to divulge a blueprint from it, one which we could easily build."
"What is it, exactly?"
"A star base. A very powerful starbase, and a mobile one at that."
"....Useful indeed. Make sure it is ready before the next Infernum offensive. I want those interlopers take out soon."
"Yes sir."
XXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
Consequently, I was not surprised one week later when I was informed that the Yor had decided to unite with my forces. As a token of my gratitude, I allowed them to, for the most part, maintain their independence, though I did suggest that they evacuate any of the systems they occupied that the Iconians knew of, lest their creators continue to pursue them indefinitely and bring about much unnecessary bloodshed. No, I did not approve of the Yor enacting a purge of the Iconians under the Dread Lords' orders, but I would not condone the Iconinas repaying the Yor in kind. Someone has to stop the cycle of revenge before it gets out of hand.
With that out of the way, I decided to et back to work dealing with the Dread Lords. The sooner they were dealt with, the sooner I could rest easy, find the last Artifact in this universe, and get moving - whatever those artifacts were trying to tell me, I got the feeling that the sooner I found out what those visions meant, the better prepared I would be if I ever encountered those ... things I saw in them.
My renewal of the offensive on the Dread Lords coincided with Melissa launching another big push on the Drengin, who were now starting to fragment under stress. The Korath were among the first to break off, but they didn't get far - a Torian fleet just happened to find them and beat them into the ground, leaving them alive, but spent as an effective fighting force. As I later found out, this particular chain of events had been the result of some subtle manipulations of my ROB, who had decided that the Korath becoming a major fighting force was not acceptable. While, at the time, I did not know this, I had my suspicions, and either way, I was fine with the outcome - less work for me, and the elimination of a splinter group of the Drengin going down meant that there was less a chance that they would rise up to oppose me (or anyone else) in the future.
Some of those splinter groups saw the writing on the wall, though, and surrendered to the coalition. A few actually surrendered to me and Melissa. I was surprised by this development, especially given that I had publicly stated my opposition to their practice of slavery and all but outright stated I would not rest until it was abolished. Apparently, those who were surrendering considered it an acceptable loss for the sake of survival. According to my telepaths, these Drengin weren't lying.
The capitulation of some of the Drengin was apparently enough to force a decision among the Yor. With their allies clearly on the fall, they decided to get out while the going was good and join up with me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it only took them a week to unite all of their people and arrive in my borders, asking for asylum. A request I allowed without any fuss, for I did not want to allow the machine race to die. I did, however, inform Emperor Iso the Wise of the Iconians exactly what I was doing, and politely telling him that if his people attempted to pruge the Yor, I would side with the machines. I also made it clear that if the Yor tried to finish of their creators, the Iconians had my support - I would NOT allow my newfound protectorates to commit genocide. That action was unforgivable, regardless of who it was committed on.
As for the Dread Lords, well, they were getting their asses kicked.
XXXXXXXXX
As the sounds of battle raged around him, Jegudiel fired his lasers, sending another Dread Lord fighter down in flames. Below, Sigurd and Hearth had just taken out an enemy bunker, paving the way for the rest of the Infernum forces they were leading to advance. The Commander had been impressed by their skills during the war game with the Illuminate and had ekpt his word, promoting them to command positions. As they had already gained the ability to give orders simply by becoming self aware, their promotion had amounted to them simply having their status within the Federation's mechanized forces modified so that any orders they gave were to be followed by other machines. It was a simple modification, but important all the same.
Briefly, the quartet of promoted machines had briefly considered doing something to differentiate themselves from their fellows, but ultimately vetoed it - it made them obvious targets, and besides, they didn't really have any good ideas (yet) as to what to decorate their mechanical bodies with. One day, maybe, they might put some modifications on their chassis, but not today.
After downing a few more targets, Jegudiel finally laid eyes -er, optics- on his target: a massive artillery nest, which was busy pounding away at the rest of the Infernum forces. A few disruptor bombs quickly reduced it to rubble, at which point the seraph fell back - heavy flak AA was being moved in to mop up the rest of the Dread Lord's aircraft, but those were indiscriminate weapons, and any planes shot down by friendly fire were not only major annoyances, but a potential way for the Dread Lords to reverse engineer their technology. That, above all other things, was unacceptable.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
All in all, it only took a few weeks to put the Dread Lords onto their last legs, with only a fraction of the territory and forces they had started with. That was still a very powerful force, but utterly pitiful when compared to my completely overpowered armies. Their overall threat level had receded to the point that I could easily smash them to pulp if I wanted to, but by that point, I had new issues that had to be addressed.
With the Dread Lords no longer the existential threats they once were, the Coalition was starting to fracture. Old rivalries started to tear their heads, grudges that had been put on hold were now resumed, and ideological differences were becoming more apparent. Only the Terrans, Altarians, and Iconians were able to overcome their grievances and work to hold the Coalition together, but all evidence I had pointed toward fragmentation within two months of the Dread Lord's downfall.
So, obviously, I had to intervene. Using several false identities, I anonymously began setting up bank accounts and shoving in huge amounts of money for my plan. See, one of the big contributors for my projections was that, a month after the Dread Lord's defeat (which would probably be in two weeks, maybe one), a new set of elections would take place for the ruling bodies of the various members of the Coalition. I used my shell accounts to help fund the people who wanted to uphold the Coalition, while my hacking systems were put to work locating every major group that supported breaking it for reasons that weren't exactly rational (namely, species supremacy and the like) and expose any dark secrets they had, which practically annihilated their support. I did support a few candidates in the elections who had legitimate reasons for wanting to break the Coalition, though - needed to throw people off my trail, plus many of those politicians still wanted to remain close to the other Coaltion members, for reasons both moral and pragmatic.
All of this ended up finishing at eight days before October 13, meaning I had one week left to figure out why this day was so important to Melissa's followers. I considered broaching the subject with my ROB, but she might grow defensive if I did so without tact. Additionally, if the Dread Lords were still active, they might screw up things on that day and deny me a chance to learn why it was important.
So, on that day, October 5, after locating the last major production hub of the Dread Lords, i mustered up all of my forces, prepared my greatest weapons, and readied for battle. As for Melissa, I invited her to watch the fight, and participate if she so desired, so that I might have an opportunity to learn what I desired.
It seemed that nothing could go wrong. I made a point of bringing extra forces because of that - something probably was going to go wrong.
XXXXXXXXXX
PLANET DRENGI, THREE DAYS PRIOR
"So, have we learned anything more about this machine?" Asked Lord Kona.
"No, but we did manage to divulge a blueprint from it, one which we could easily build."
"What is it, exactly?"
"A star base. A very powerful starbase, and a mobile one at that."
"....Useful indeed. Make sure it is ready before the next Infernum offensive. I want those interlopers take out soon."
"Yes sir."
XXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Why do I foresee a spherical starship that's no moon nor a space station?
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
It's regular star base sized - the Drengin simply won't have the time to get it any larger before then. You need to build several starbase builder ships for every upgrade to make it super huge.
The thing is, the Terror Star was a Human creation. Like so many other things in the Galactic Civ verse. Hell even the first shields were suppose to be a human creation that was later stolen by the Drengin according to the more official short stories.
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Yeah, but they didn't get that technology from the Arnor, did they? The source of this weapon was from one of the artifacts.
Also, good to see a fellow fan of Gal Civ here.
137. Thrown for a Loop
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
My forces arrived in Thea system approximately half an hour after their departure. Melissa's arrived five minutes later. Our total force was about as large as two largest fleets of the Coalition combined, giving us a 3-1 advantage against the Dread Lords. Rather humorously, despite the size of our fleets, the Dread Lords had no idea we had entered the system, thanks to advanced stealth systems...at least, for me. Melissa might have been using ROB powers to mask her fleet's presence.
With our foes unaware that we were about to attack, and likely to remain that way for some time, I decided to pay my ROB a visit. While it was mainly because I wanted answers on what exactly was happening on the thirteenth (which, funnily enough, was a Friday, meaning that I was wondering what would happen on Friday the thirteenth), I also wanted clarification from her on something else : I'd been receiving a lot of requests from her servants to be able to look at or perhaps purchase an Aurorous titanus, and while those requests had dried up as of late, I still wanted to know why they were asking.
Boarding her flagship, the Foundation, was a simple affair - as soon as I broached the topic to her, my ROB did something that allowed me to teleport into her ship using my existing teleporter network. After that, I was directed to her personal quarters aboard the ship, which, while grand in size, were more modest than I had expected. It appeared I had underestimated her humility.
"Eh, you probably would," responded a distinctively male voice. Turning toward its source, I found myself staring at a purple haired teen, about a head taller than me, wearing an admiral's uniform.
"Oh, hello. Who are you?" I asked, privately wondering where Melissa was.
"I don't think that is something you need to know."
....That was an odd response.
"Ok. So, do you know where Melissa is? I asked to meet with her."
"I apologize, but all that I know about her location is that she is nearby."
Well, that was unhelpful.
"There is only so much that I can do to help you."
...What?!
"Do you think you are the only one who has psychic powers in this room? Surely, you would expect a Random Omnipotent Being and her creations to have that power, would you not?"
.......Touché.
"Hmph. Apparently you aren't as smart as I thought you were when I started you on this adventure."
yeah, yeah.....what, stated me on this adventure?
"....Melissa?"
The purple haired teen grinned like their was no tomorrow.
"Hi."
".....................At this point, I don't think I have any room left to be surprised."
"True. A pity, I thought you would be more surprised to see me as a boy. The shock you do exude is...underwhelming."
"The shock of the mind reading numbed me to any further surprises."
"Oh well. Now could you please turn around, or close your eyes?"
"Why?"
"Well, I would prefer not to have a conversation with you while I am in a masculine form."
"And how does that....oh."
I could tell that I was faintly blushing, especially given how Melissa's smile only grew at whatever my expression was.
"Now you get it. So, please, be a gentleman and look away. Or else."
Obliging, I turned away and focused my attention on observing the room, trying to see if I could determine anything about my host from the interior. A moment later, a bright light flashed behind me.
"There, all done. You can turn around now. In fact, I would encourage you to do so."
After a moment of internal debate, I did just that. Sure enough, where the purple-headed boy had once been was where Melissa now stood.
"Thank you for your courtesy."
"You're welcome. Not that you really took all that long to change."
"Eh, I saw no need to take time changing when more pressing matters are on hand."
"Fair enough. So, what do you want to talk about.?"
"Oh, nothing big. So, I hear you are doing well against the Drengin?"
"Indeed. They are in a state not too dissimilar to what the Dread Lords are - a shadow of what they once were, unable to offer true resilience against my forces. Soon, they will no longer be a major galactic power."
"I see... do you mind if I explore this room for a little bit?"
"You are permitted to explore my quarters, but I implore you, don't touch anything except the floor."
I think the temperature in the room just dropped a few degrees after she said that.
"...Okay."
With that, I set about exploring. Perhaps if I looked around, I could find some hint about what was happening on the 13th.
The first part of the room I examined was, of all things, a bookshelf. Here, unsurprisingly, were a large number of books, of various titles and genres. On one shelf lay A Series of Unforunate Events, directly above them A Song of Ice and Fire, while the entirety of Tolkein's Legendarium occupied the lowest shelf. The second highest row was home to the collected works of Ray Bradbury, with Something Wicked This Way Comes appearing to be slightly out of sync with the rest of its siblings; evidently, it had been read recently. The highest shelf was filled with encyclopedias, some familiar, others truly alien to me. A second bookshelf was filled with other books that seemed ti belong in works of fiction, including what appeared to be a spell book for a destruction spell in the Elder Scrolls series.
"Well, you are certainly a bibliophile."
That was barely a whisper from me, but I knew Melissa would be able to hear it.
"Thank you for the compliment. Though I bet you would certainly like to read some of my library."
She wasn't wrong - I was also a lover of books, though in recent years I'd found myself playing video games more often than I was reading books.
"True....would you be willing to let me borrow some of these?"
"Yes, but only if you can't make the book yourself from all of he cultural knowledge you've acquired on your travels."
"Fair enough."
Having examined all I could from the bookshelf, I moved on, trying to put together some picture of what was so important to the Illuminate that would happen in roughly a week.
I soon found myself staring at a multimedia system, filled with computers, television screens, and gaming systems. Many headsets and controllers were scattered about, though honestly, this wasn't the worst layout of a gaming system I'd ever seen.
"So, you're a big gamer?"
"Eh, yeah. I enjoy gaming. Plus I want to see what kind of places might make good challenges for you."
"Interesting."
Note to self: play more games in free time and examine internet copy my ROB gave me - the more I knew, the better prepared I would be wherever my ROB sent me.
Also, why did I think that trying to examine Melissa's room would explain why the thirteenth was so important for her forces? The details I was most likely to learn from this plan would be her likes and dislikes, not any major plans or operations.
Eh, I've still got some time to kill before I deal with the Dread Lords, no reason to stop now. Plus maybe I could find a way to eliminate the rest of her antagonism toward me - I might not whish to kill her anymore, or cause great harm to her, but seriously, she could be annoying when she wanted to.
Speaking of things Melissa might like, my eyes had just upon a desk, of all things, sitting on the edge of the room. It was modest in size, apparently made of mahogany, but what really had my attention were the objects on it. Several were things that I did not recognize, but there were a few I had some familiarity with: an Ayatan sculpture from Warframe, what appeared to be a Tiberium crystal from the Command and Conquer series of the same name, albeit this one safely enclosed in a TCN ring, and......was that Jumanji?!?
"Yeah, that's Jumanji. Never really ended up being a challenge for me."
Wow. Melissa really did have interesting tastes.
"I do, so what?"
That wasn't an insult, nor a compliment, just a statement.
"Oh. Nevermind."
With that conversation over, I took one last look around the room, and finally noticed something that had, initially, eluded my attention: imbeeded into one of the walls was a set of terrariums, each filled with plants. A few also contained animals, but most were home to flowers, tubers, fruits, even small trees.
"That is a lot of plants."
"I know. Some of them are over a hundred years old."
"....Like saguaros?"
"Of course that is the first thing you'd think of, little boy from the grand canyon state. Still, you are correct."
"I suppose you took up a hobby of growing long lived plants since you may outlive many other ones."
"That's the gist of things, yes. I've collected these plants from all over creation, though I've far from done gathering the vegetation I wish to cultivate."
"I see.....Would one of those happen to be the Arborous titanus?"
"....Yes, actually. They're.....well, spectacular would be the best word. Tree's of such size are common across all universes, as are bioluminescent plants, but gigantic, glowing trees are, across all creation, surprisingly rare. The Aurorous, in particular, is the only genus I've seen to have an eve3r changing rainbow of colors on it, rather than just sticking with one particular pattern. You could say it is the cuttlefish or, since you are familiar with it, the rainbow squid* of bioluminescent trees."
"....You a fan of that series?"
"No,, but the creatures they envisioned are impressive. I have seen a great many universes where their predictions ultimately turned out accurate to the most minute detail."
"I see..... may I-"
Before I could finish my attempt to question Melissa further (on what I have long forgotten, though I assume it had to do with what happened on the thirteenth), I received an alert from one of my ships - and, if Melissa's sudden shock and distant look was any indication, she had received a notification of her own. Examining it, I found that a new starship had just exited FTL, and its desgins matched up with those of the....Drengin?
That was odd.
"Did you just get a notice that a Drengin vessel popped out of FTL in this system?" questioned my ROB. Looks like I was right about her receiving a similar notification to me.
"Yeah, I did-," at which point a new series of notifications promptly starting flying my way,"-and it seems that more are coming in as we speak."
"Ugh, what the hell are they doing here?"
"Beats me."
"Well, I have no love for them, so if you'll excuse me, I have some Drengin to kill."
Wow. That was vindictive.
"I'll deal with the Dread Lords, then - try not toget in the way."
"Me get in your way? I think that you should be more worried about getting in my way."
".....Good point. Well, farewell."
One teleport late, I was back on the Extinction and gave the word for my forces to attack.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The minute the order was given, Jegudiel burst out of his hangar, followed by his wing-bots. He, as well as his sibling AIs, had all been brought along to participate in the invasion of the Thea System, but this time, unlike all other true battles they had been in before, they would be leading the assault. First, though, they had to take down the enemy fleet.
With surprise on their side, this was much easier than expected - two Dread Lord cruisers, five frigates, and ten corvettes were knocked out before the enemy knew what was happeing, and twice that amount, along with a battleship, had been crippled to the point they were dead in the water. The battleship had had the misfortune of beign isolated from its allies, which meant they had easily been able to surround the vessel. While destroying that vessel would have been relatively simple, the Commander had decided to try and capture it, oping htat maybe, he could learn a few more of the Dread Lords' secrets, and perhaps find some way to force them to surrender - he did not wish them to be wiped out to the last.
Right now, Jegudiel was busy commanding his squadron to repel the enemy fighters attempting to destroy the transports carrying boarding forces toward the battleship. After three waves, the enemy began to deploy bombers in an effort to scuttle the ship before it could be taken, but that was wishful thinking at best. Already, fabbers were being ferried to the battleship, which they would capture from the inside. All that remained was to subdue the crew and prevent them from blowing the sabotaging the ship from within.
That, of course, would be Hearth's mission.
XXXXXXXXX
A sound of discharging electricity filled the air, followed by a Dread Lord falling to the ground, unconscious. Hearth quickly disarmed him, then tied him up and sent him toward one of the bio-trans the Commander has acquired from his time with XCOM. All over the ship, similar seems we're playibg out. With the bridge, engines, and engineering center taken, the ship was as good as theirs, so now all that remained was to capture the rest of the crew. The commander had made it clear that they could use lethal force if required, but Hearth had the feeling he would prefer taking the Dread Lords alive - it would provide more than they could hope to obtain merely from stealing the data aboard the ship.
Speaking of the bridge, Hearth had made her way there following her most recent catch and was busy directing the ship toward the Infernum fleet. A sudden explosion coming from one of her escorts turned her attention toward the Drengin fleet, who had apparently opened fire on the Dread Lords....as well as the Infernum fleet. The situation quickly devolved into a three way battle as the Dread Lords began assaulting the Drengin in retaliation, while the fleet's of the Federation and Illuminate, still nominally allies, quickly united against their common foes.
Hearth, though, only payed this a moment of attention, before returning her attention to getting the Dread Lord vessel back to the safety of the extinction.
XXXXXXXX
While the surprise arrival of the Dread Lords and subsequent melee a trois that followed was unexpected, I just rolled with it. In fact, the chaos actually worked to my advantage, as it allowed to capture several ships from both sides that would likely have been scuttled before I could steal them if only one of my foes had been facing me. Additionally, Melissa's assistance meant that this fight had rapidly devolved into a stomp in our favor. As only ten minutes had passed since the Drengin has first arrived, this was a laughably easy victory in my book, and from something that had seemed like it would be a curveball when it had first appeared.
That didn't change the fact that I already had a fleet headed in to reinforce me /"- you can never be to safe-
"Warning: new contact detected. IFF indicates it is a Drengin vessel. Size does not match any known Drengin ship."
And there's the real curve ball.
The ship in question resembled a star base, and I would be surprised if it was one. Given what I knew about starbases, this was most likely a....terror star? How the hell did the Drengin get one? The Terran's only invented one with the help of the Arnor. Welp, no time to ponder that, the starbase is here, so just open fire on it and deal with it.
A moment later, the space station flowed as a huge amount of ordnance slammed into it, resulting in an explosion of such magnitude that my sensors need a few seconds to reboot. When they came back online, which coincided with visibility returning to normal, I found that....the station was still here?
And it hadn't even been scratched?!?!
AND IT WAS CHARGING ITS WEAPONS?!?!?!
......This was gonna suck.....
Then the station returned fire. Immediately, ten omegas and fifteen Artermi just ceased to exist, being utterly annihilated by what appeared to be antimatter missiles. A volley of shots from smaller weapons decimated my fighter craft, after which the terror star stopped attacking and appeared to begin reloading.
Apparently, everyone had been affected by the two barrages, as there were a lot more wrecks on the Dread Lords' side, and even Melissa had taken some losses. Fortunately, as I had just received a truce request from the Dread Lords, it seems the Drengin had made themselves everyone's enemy, as all non-Drengin ships immediately opened fire on the Terror Star. This time, we did manage to damage it.
Then it fired again. Only this time, it fires off a couple of missile sand a giant laser beam.
Neither of those were aimed at us.
Instead, the missiles flew into all of the fleets that opposed the Drengin, dodging all attempts to shoot them down, while the laser flew....right into the sun.
Oh shit.
The laser impacted the sun.
"Warning: stellar lifecycle disruption detected, Star has destabilized. Catastrophic red supergiant star death occurring in fifteen minutes."
Crap. Time to bail.
Suddenly, all of the missiles that were sitting inside our fleets activated. Instantly, beams of light shot out, slamming into any non-Drengin vessel they encountered. One of them hit the Extinction, and I almost fell over as my ship instantly came to a halt. Confused to notice that we weren't moving, I ordered the engines to fire up, but apparently, they were already online. Then I ordered them to go to overdrive - no response.
Looks like those missiles were actually just meant to trap people. Oh, and the Drengin had just exited the battlefield.
So, now I was stuck in proximity of a star about to go supernova via missiles that completely immobilized me-a flash of light briefly appeared inside of my fleet-and was immune to antimatter weapons.
Oh dear........
XXXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
With our foes unaware that we were about to attack, and likely to remain that way for some time, I decided to pay my ROB a visit. While it was mainly because I wanted answers on what exactly was happening on the thirteenth (which, funnily enough, was a Friday, meaning that I was wondering what would happen on Friday the thirteenth), I also wanted clarification from her on something else : I'd been receiving a lot of requests from her servants to be able to look at or perhaps purchase an Aurorous titanus, and while those requests had dried up as of late, I still wanted to know why they were asking.
Boarding her flagship, the Foundation, was a simple affair - as soon as I broached the topic to her, my ROB did something that allowed me to teleport into her ship using my existing teleporter network. After that, I was directed to her personal quarters aboard the ship, which, while grand in size, were more modest than I had expected. It appeared I had underestimated her humility.
"Eh, you probably would," responded a distinctively male voice. Turning toward its source, I found myself staring at a purple haired teen, about a head taller than me, wearing an admiral's uniform.
"Oh, hello. Who are you?" I asked, privately wondering where Melissa was.
"I don't think that is something you need to know."
....That was an odd response.
"Ok. So, do you know where Melissa is? I asked to meet with her."
"I apologize, but all that I know about her location is that she is nearby."
Well, that was unhelpful.
"There is only so much that I can do to help you."
...What?!
"Do you think you are the only one who has psychic powers in this room? Surely, you would expect a Random Omnipotent Being and her creations to have that power, would you not?"
.......Touché.
"Hmph. Apparently you aren't as smart as I thought you were when I started you on this adventure."
yeah, yeah.....what, stated me on this adventure?
"....Melissa?"
The purple haired teen grinned like their was no tomorrow.
"Hi."
".....................At this point, I don't think I have any room left to be surprised."
"True. A pity, I thought you would be more surprised to see me as a boy. The shock you do exude is...underwhelming."
"The shock of the mind reading numbed me to any further surprises."
"Oh well. Now could you please turn around, or close your eyes?"
"Why?"
"Well, I would prefer not to have a conversation with you while I am in a masculine form."
"And how does that....oh."
I could tell that I was faintly blushing, especially given how Melissa's smile only grew at whatever my expression was.
"Now you get it. So, please, be a gentleman and look away. Or else."
Obliging, I turned away and focused my attention on observing the room, trying to see if I could determine anything about my host from the interior. A moment later, a bright light flashed behind me.
"There, all done. You can turn around now. In fact, I would encourage you to do so."
After a moment of internal debate, I did just that. Sure enough, where the purple-headed boy had once been was where Melissa now stood.
"Thank you for your courtesy."
"You're welcome. Not that you really took all that long to change."
"Eh, I saw no need to take time changing when more pressing matters are on hand."
"Fair enough. So, what do you want to talk about.?"
"Oh, nothing big. So, I hear you are doing well against the Drengin?"
"Indeed. They are in a state not too dissimilar to what the Dread Lords are - a shadow of what they once were, unable to offer true resilience against my forces. Soon, they will no longer be a major galactic power."
"I see... do you mind if I explore this room for a little bit?"
"You are permitted to explore my quarters, but I implore you, don't touch anything except the floor."
I think the temperature in the room just dropped a few degrees after she said that.
"...Okay."
With that, I set about exploring. Perhaps if I looked around, I could find some hint about what was happening on the 13th.
The first part of the room I examined was, of all things, a bookshelf. Here, unsurprisingly, were a large number of books, of various titles and genres. On one shelf lay A Series of Unforunate Events, directly above them A Song of Ice and Fire, while the entirety of Tolkein's Legendarium occupied the lowest shelf. The second highest row was home to the collected works of Ray Bradbury, with Something Wicked This Way Comes appearing to be slightly out of sync with the rest of its siblings; evidently, it had been read recently. The highest shelf was filled with encyclopedias, some familiar, others truly alien to me. A second bookshelf was filled with other books that seemed ti belong in works of fiction, including what appeared to be a spell book for a destruction spell in the Elder Scrolls series.
"Well, you are certainly a bibliophile."
That was barely a whisper from me, but I knew Melissa would be able to hear it.
"Thank you for the compliment. Though I bet you would certainly like to read some of my library."
She wasn't wrong - I was also a lover of books, though in recent years I'd found myself playing video games more often than I was reading books.
"True....would you be willing to let me borrow some of these?"
"Yes, but only if you can't make the book yourself from all of he cultural knowledge you've acquired on your travels."
"Fair enough."
Having examined all I could from the bookshelf, I moved on, trying to put together some picture of what was so important to the Illuminate that would happen in roughly a week.
I soon found myself staring at a multimedia system, filled with computers, television screens, and gaming systems. Many headsets and controllers were scattered about, though honestly, this wasn't the worst layout of a gaming system I'd ever seen.
"So, you're a big gamer?"
"Eh, yeah. I enjoy gaming. Plus I want to see what kind of places might make good challenges for you."
"Interesting."
Note to self: play more games in free time and examine internet copy my ROB gave me - the more I knew, the better prepared I would be wherever my ROB sent me.
Also, why did I think that trying to examine Melissa's room would explain why the thirteenth was so important for her forces? The details I was most likely to learn from this plan would be her likes and dislikes, not any major plans or operations.
Eh, I've still got some time to kill before I deal with the Dread Lords, no reason to stop now. Plus maybe I could find a way to eliminate the rest of her antagonism toward me - I might not whish to kill her anymore, or cause great harm to her, but seriously, she could be annoying when she wanted to.
Speaking of things Melissa might like, my eyes had just upon a desk, of all things, sitting on the edge of the room. It was modest in size, apparently made of mahogany, but what really had my attention were the objects on it. Several were things that I did not recognize, but there were a few I had some familiarity with: an Ayatan sculpture from Warframe, what appeared to be a Tiberium crystal from the Command and Conquer series of the same name, albeit this one safely enclosed in a TCN ring, and......was that Jumanji?!?
"Yeah, that's Jumanji. Never really ended up being a challenge for me."
Wow. Melissa really did have interesting tastes.
"I do, so what?"
That wasn't an insult, nor a compliment, just a statement.
"Oh. Nevermind."
With that conversation over, I took one last look around the room, and finally noticed something that had, initially, eluded my attention: imbeeded into one of the walls was a set of terrariums, each filled with plants. A few also contained animals, but most were home to flowers, tubers, fruits, even small trees.
"That is a lot of plants."
"I know. Some of them are over a hundred years old."
"....Like saguaros?"
"Of course that is the first thing you'd think of, little boy from the grand canyon state. Still, you are correct."
"I suppose you took up a hobby of growing long lived plants since you may outlive many other ones."
"That's the gist of things, yes. I've collected these plants from all over creation, though I've far from done gathering the vegetation I wish to cultivate."
"I see.....Would one of those happen to be the Arborous titanus?"
"....Yes, actually. They're.....well, spectacular would be the best word. Tree's of such size are common across all universes, as are bioluminescent plants, but gigantic, glowing trees are, across all creation, surprisingly rare. The Aurorous, in particular, is the only genus I've seen to have an eve3r changing rainbow of colors on it, rather than just sticking with one particular pattern. You could say it is the cuttlefish or, since you are familiar with it, the rainbow squid* of bioluminescent trees."
"....You a fan of that series?"
"No,, but the creatures they envisioned are impressive. I have seen a great many universes where their predictions ultimately turned out accurate to the most minute detail."
"I see..... may I-"
Before I could finish my attempt to question Melissa further (on what I have long forgotten, though I assume it had to do with what happened on the thirteenth), I received an alert from one of my ships - and, if Melissa's sudden shock and distant look was any indication, she had received a notification of her own. Examining it, I found that a new starship had just exited FTL, and its desgins matched up with those of the....Drengin?
That was odd.
"Did you just get a notice that a Drengin vessel popped out of FTL in this system?" questioned my ROB. Looks like I was right about her receiving a similar notification to me.
"Yeah, I did-," at which point a new series of notifications promptly starting flying my way,"-and it seems that more are coming in as we speak."
"Ugh, what the hell are they doing here?"
"Beats me."
"Well, I have no love for them, so if you'll excuse me, I have some Drengin to kill."
Wow. That was vindictive.
"I'll deal with the Dread Lords, then - try not toget in the way."
"Me get in your way? I think that you should be more worried about getting in my way."
".....Good point. Well, farewell."
One teleport late, I was back on the Extinction and gave the word for my forces to attack.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The minute the order was given, Jegudiel burst out of his hangar, followed by his wing-bots. He, as well as his sibling AIs, had all been brought along to participate in the invasion of the Thea System, but this time, unlike all other true battles they had been in before, they would be leading the assault. First, though, they had to take down the enemy fleet.
With surprise on their side, this was much easier than expected - two Dread Lord cruisers, five frigates, and ten corvettes were knocked out before the enemy knew what was happeing, and twice that amount, along with a battleship, had been crippled to the point they were dead in the water. The battleship had had the misfortune of beign isolated from its allies, which meant they had easily been able to surround the vessel. While destroying that vessel would have been relatively simple, the Commander had decided to try and capture it, oping htat maybe, he could learn a few more of the Dread Lords' secrets, and perhaps find some way to force them to surrender - he did not wish them to be wiped out to the last.
Right now, Jegudiel was busy commanding his squadron to repel the enemy fighters attempting to destroy the transports carrying boarding forces toward the battleship. After three waves, the enemy began to deploy bombers in an effort to scuttle the ship before it could be taken, but that was wishful thinking at best. Already, fabbers were being ferried to the battleship, which they would capture from the inside. All that remained was to subdue the crew and prevent them from blowing the sabotaging the ship from within.
That, of course, would be Hearth's mission.
XXXXXXXXX
A sound of discharging electricity filled the air, followed by a Dread Lord falling to the ground, unconscious. Hearth quickly disarmed him, then tied him up and sent him toward one of the bio-trans the Commander has acquired from his time with XCOM. All over the ship, similar seems we're playibg out. With the bridge, engines, and engineering center taken, the ship was as good as theirs, so now all that remained was to capture the rest of the crew. The commander had made it clear that they could use lethal force if required, but Hearth had the feeling he would prefer taking the Dread Lords alive - it would provide more than they could hope to obtain merely from stealing the data aboard the ship.
Speaking of the bridge, Hearth had made her way there following her most recent catch and was busy directing the ship toward the Infernum fleet. A sudden explosion coming from one of her escorts turned her attention toward the Drengin fleet, who had apparently opened fire on the Dread Lords....as well as the Infernum fleet. The situation quickly devolved into a three way battle as the Dread Lords began assaulting the Drengin in retaliation, while the fleet's of the Federation and Illuminate, still nominally allies, quickly united against their common foes.
Hearth, though, only payed this a moment of attention, before returning her attention to getting the Dread Lord vessel back to the safety of the extinction.
XXXXXXXX
While the surprise arrival of the Dread Lords and subsequent melee a trois that followed was unexpected, I just rolled with it. In fact, the chaos actually worked to my advantage, as it allowed to capture several ships from both sides that would likely have been scuttled before I could steal them if only one of my foes had been facing me. Additionally, Melissa's assistance meant that this fight had rapidly devolved into a stomp in our favor. As only ten minutes had passed since the Drengin has first arrived, this was a laughably easy victory in my book, and from something that had seemed like it would be a curveball when it had first appeared.
That didn't change the fact that I already had a fleet headed in to reinforce me /"- you can never be to safe-
"Warning: new contact detected. IFF indicates it is a Drengin vessel. Size does not match any known Drengin ship."
And there's the real curve ball.
The ship in question resembled a star base, and I would be surprised if it was one. Given what I knew about starbases, this was most likely a....terror star? How the hell did the Drengin get one? The Terran's only invented one with the help of the Arnor. Welp, no time to ponder that, the starbase is here, so just open fire on it and deal with it.
A moment later, the space station flowed as a huge amount of ordnance slammed into it, resulting in an explosion of such magnitude that my sensors need a few seconds to reboot. When they came back online, which coincided with visibility returning to normal, I found that....the station was still here?
And it hadn't even been scratched?!?!
AND IT WAS CHARGING ITS WEAPONS?!?!?!
......This was gonna suck.....
Then the station returned fire. Immediately, ten omegas and fifteen Artermi just ceased to exist, being utterly annihilated by what appeared to be antimatter missiles. A volley of shots from smaller weapons decimated my fighter craft, after which the terror star stopped attacking and appeared to begin reloading.
Apparently, everyone had been affected by the two barrages, as there were a lot more wrecks on the Dread Lords' side, and even Melissa had taken some losses. Fortunately, as I had just received a truce request from the Dread Lords, it seems the Drengin had made themselves everyone's enemy, as all non-Drengin ships immediately opened fire on the Terror Star. This time, we did manage to damage it.
Then it fired again. Only this time, it fires off a couple of missile sand a giant laser beam.
Neither of those were aimed at us.
Instead, the missiles flew into all of the fleets that opposed the Drengin, dodging all attempts to shoot them down, while the laser flew....right into the sun.
Oh shit.
The laser impacted the sun.
"Warning: stellar lifecycle disruption detected, Star has destabilized. Catastrophic red supergiant star death occurring in fifteen minutes."
Crap. Time to bail.
Suddenly, all of the missiles that were sitting inside our fleets activated. Instantly, beams of light shot out, slamming into any non-Drengin vessel they encountered. One of them hit the Extinction, and I almost fell over as my ship instantly came to a halt. Confused to notice that we weren't moving, I ordered the engines to fire up, but apparently, they were already online. Then I ordered them to go to overdrive - no response.
Looks like those missiles were actually just meant to trap people. Oh, and the Drengin had just exited the battlefield.
So, now I was stuck in proximity of a star about to go supernova via missiles that completely immobilized me-a flash of light briefly appeared inside of my fleet-and was immune to antimatter weapons.
Oh dear........
XXXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Typos
too safe.
missiles and
ever
playing
Possibly curb stomp?
me. You
too safe.
Terrans
Perhaps flashed
fired
missiles and
Last edited:
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Will fix those when I have time, thanks.
138. Tenuous Solution
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Okay, okay, think: how do I stop a star from going supernova with the technology I have?
Maybe I could freeze it? No, I don't have a big enough weapon or the fabrication equipment on hand to build one before it goes boom.
Teleport it? No ranged teleporters and contact based ones would be obliterated by the star's heat and gravitic pull, as assembly those gravity cancelers, once again, take too long.
....Age it backwards? I DIDN'T KNOW HOW! I mean, I theoretically had the ability to do so using quantum genesis powers, but I'd need to figure out how to apply this on a stellar scale, and without causing other celestial issues.
.............Crap, this was going nowhere really fast. What was I supposed to doWHY IS EVERYTHING SHAKING!?
.....Did the Foundation just start shooting at me?
'No, I shot at the thing tethering your ship in place, kid.'
....Kid? I thought I was your pawn?
'Consider this a promotion.'
Not really funny.
'I'm not trying to be funny.'
Then what are you doing?
'Trying to save you. I can just teleport out of here, and frankly, I'm sure you can, but I doubt you want to leave your forces behind, especially since you've started to grow attached to some of them. And yes, I know some of them are now sapient. I'm always watching you.'
Well, your help is appreciated. Though, since you haven't mentioned any way to deal with the supernova, I'm guessing you don't have one? At least, not a method you can implement correct?
'Right on the money. I could turn back the clock on this thing a billion years if I could cut loose with my full might, but Celm would rather I didn't.'
"Warning: thirteen minutes until stellar life cycle termination."
Yeah, I don't need your help there, timer. No hard feelings, though.
'That was polite of you.'
NOT THE TIME.
'Fine, fine, fine!'
Argh, what could I do now? Try and plead with Celm to let Melissa cut loose just this once?
'You'd have better luck convincing a stream to flow straight up.'
Why does he want you to hold back so much?
'As I believe a famous Marvel Superhero's relative once said, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.'
.....Good point. By the way, what powers do you have?
'Um, omnipotence? Among others, weather manipulation, black hole creation, mind control, multiversal travel, multiversal time dilation-'
Wait, what was that last one?
'The ability to alter the flow of time in one universe relative to another. Why are you...oh. Yeah, that might work......And Celm says I can help you with that, although he'll only let me give you an hour per minute dilation.'
Well, hopefully, my attempts to find a solution in the time slowed universe will take less than eleven and a half hours.
'Hopefully. Ready?'
YES!
Then a portal opened up in front of my commander (which was very far away form the battle, not like I was going to risk it here) and deposited both the robot and my mind in another universe.
Okay, time to work!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As soon as the robot jumped through the portal, the machine began hastily setting up a facility to let it examine the Quantum Genesis powers. Meanwhile, the Infernum, Illuminate and Dread Lord fleets all continued to attempt to escape from their traps, firing everything they had at their tethers - all in vain. Desperation began to kick in as time ticked down.
In her chambers, Melissa grew more and more agitated as time began to run out. While her powers were not taking any major drain from her personal reserves to keep the boy operating at accelerated efficiency, that was not the source of her annoyance. That was actually worry over whether or not the boy would be able to succeed. Internally, she knew that there was no reason she had to help him like this - she could just pull him, his own fleet, and her own out of the battle, away from this screw you the Drengin had offered. Yet, at the same time, she knew that her pawn would never accept that kind of help if it meant leaving the Dread Lord civilians in this system to die. He'd likely call her out on it, and attempt to negotiate with Celm to, at the very least, prevent her from enjoying his hospitality. Additionally, though she was reluctant to admit it, the ROB knew that she didn't want her pawn to fail at saving these innocents - she liked his idealism, and did not wish to see it die.
As the timer ticked down to one minute and thirty seconds, though, she was really getting worried he wasn't going to find a solution.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Okay, okay, calibrate the systems, charge the device, turn gravity back on, mount the machine on a ship, save the research for later, and DONE!
I sent a mental message to Melissa, and a moment later, she responded. A portal opened before me, leading directly toward the dying star. And through said portal was my solution to this mess: a sphere shaped vessel, with three pylons on one side, all aimed at the same point. Not very attractive looking, but I was trying to stop imminent death, not win a beauty pageant.
As the ship exited the portal, time normalized, leaving me with one minute and twenty seconds to avert disaster. Plenty of time, especially since the device had activated as soon as it had entered the portal. And by activated, I meant shot a glowing light at the star, which, much to everyone's surprise, was changing. Where it had once been red, not, slowly, it was turning blue, and getting smaller. In fact, ten seconds after it had fired my device had finished its mission, and where there had once been a red supergiant, there was now a newborn blue giant, several hundred million years away from stellar collapse.
All in a day's work.
XXXXXXXXXX
AN: I HAVE RETURNED!
I just finished finals, so expect more chapters up this week and less delays.
Also, I've decided on the next arc.
LET THE SPACE NINJA ACTION BEGIN!
So, Read and Review! This isFlameal15k, signing off!
Maybe I could freeze it? No, I don't have a big enough weapon or the fabrication equipment on hand to build one before it goes boom.
Teleport it? No ranged teleporters and contact based ones would be obliterated by the star's heat and gravitic pull, as assembly those gravity cancelers, once again, take too long.
....Age it backwards? I DIDN'T KNOW HOW! I mean, I theoretically had the ability to do so using quantum genesis powers, but I'd need to figure out how to apply this on a stellar scale, and without causing other celestial issues.
.............Crap, this was going nowhere really fast. What was I supposed to doWHY IS EVERYTHING SHAKING!?
.....Did the Foundation just start shooting at me?
'No, I shot at the thing tethering your ship in place, kid.'
....Kid? I thought I was your pawn?
'Consider this a promotion.'
Not really funny.
'I'm not trying to be funny.'
Then what are you doing?
'Trying to save you. I can just teleport out of here, and frankly, I'm sure you can, but I doubt you want to leave your forces behind, especially since you've started to grow attached to some of them. And yes, I know some of them are now sapient. I'm always watching you.'
Well, your help is appreciated. Though, since you haven't mentioned any way to deal with the supernova, I'm guessing you don't have one? At least, not a method you can implement correct?
'Right on the money. I could turn back the clock on this thing a billion years if I could cut loose with my full might, but Celm would rather I didn't.'
"Warning: thirteen minutes until stellar life cycle termination."
Yeah, I don't need your help there, timer. No hard feelings, though.
'That was polite of you.'
NOT THE TIME.
'Fine, fine, fine!'
Argh, what could I do now? Try and plead with Celm to let Melissa cut loose just this once?
'You'd have better luck convincing a stream to flow straight up.'
Why does he want you to hold back so much?
'As I believe a famous Marvel Superhero's relative once said, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.'
.....Good point. By the way, what powers do you have?
'Um, omnipotence? Among others, weather manipulation, black hole creation, mind control, multiversal travel, multiversal time dilation-'
Wait, what was that last one?
'The ability to alter the flow of time in one universe relative to another. Why are you...oh. Yeah, that might work......And Celm says I can help you with that, although he'll only let me give you an hour per minute dilation.'
Well, hopefully, my attempts to find a solution in the time slowed universe will take less than eleven and a half hours.
'Hopefully. Ready?'
YES!
Then a portal opened up in front of my commander (which was very far away form the battle, not like I was going to risk it here) and deposited both the robot and my mind in another universe.
Okay, time to work!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As soon as the robot jumped through the portal, the machine began hastily setting up a facility to let it examine the Quantum Genesis powers. Meanwhile, the Infernum, Illuminate and Dread Lord fleets all continued to attempt to escape from their traps, firing everything they had at their tethers - all in vain. Desperation began to kick in as time ticked down.
In her chambers, Melissa grew more and more agitated as time began to run out. While her powers were not taking any major drain from her personal reserves to keep the boy operating at accelerated efficiency, that was not the source of her annoyance. That was actually worry over whether or not the boy would be able to succeed. Internally, she knew that there was no reason she had to help him like this - she could just pull him, his own fleet, and her own out of the battle, away from this screw you the Drengin had offered. Yet, at the same time, she knew that her pawn would never accept that kind of help if it meant leaving the Dread Lord civilians in this system to die. He'd likely call her out on it, and attempt to negotiate with Celm to, at the very least, prevent her from enjoying his hospitality. Additionally, though she was reluctant to admit it, the ROB knew that she didn't want her pawn to fail at saving these innocents - she liked his idealism, and did not wish to see it die.
As the timer ticked down to one minute and thirty seconds, though, she was really getting worried he wasn't going to find a solution.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Okay, okay, calibrate the systems, charge the device, turn gravity back on, mount the machine on a ship, save the research for later, and DONE!
I sent a mental message to Melissa, and a moment later, she responded. A portal opened before me, leading directly toward the dying star. And through said portal was my solution to this mess: a sphere shaped vessel, with three pylons on one side, all aimed at the same point. Not very attractive looking, but I was trying to stop imminent death, not win a beauty pageant.
As the ship exited the portal, time normalized, leaving me with one minute and twenty seconds to avert disaster. Plenty of time, especially since the device had activated as soon as it had entered the portal. And by activated, I meant shot a glowing light at the star, which, much to everyone's surprise, was changing. Where it had once been red, not, slowly, it was turning blue, and getting smaller. In fact, ten seconds after it had fired my device had finished its mission, and where there had once been a red supergiant, there was now a newborn blue giant, several hundred million years away from stellar collapse.
All in a day's work.
XXXXXXXXXX
AN: I HAVE RETURNED!
I just finished finals, so expect more chapters up this week and less delays.
Also, I've decided on the next arc.
LET THE SPACE NINJA ACTION BEGIN!
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
The Drengin need a good spanking now.
dragonhollow
Lurker and all time hider
- Location
- singapore
Hail Surah, I'm sure you will find all sort of thing that you will like.
139. A Few More Odd Turns
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
"Impressive," remarked Melissa.
"I know. Thank you for the help."
"Think nothing of it. So long as you provide me spectacle, I will continue to assist you if you absolutely require my help."
"....you say that, but from how you act, I wouldn't be surprised if you I really just like helping people and are just making excuses."
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Guess you'll just have to find out."
"Challenge accepted."
"Good luck. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to, so I must depart from the field."
"Okay, bye."
"I wasn't finished: Cassidy asked if she could spend some time with your children. She's grown quite fond of them."
"I'm fine with that, just give me about.... an hour and a half to sort things out here and get ready for her arrival."
"Of course. Farewell."
XXXXX
Once Melissa departed, I turned my attention back to the Dread Lords, weapon's armed, ready to fight. I doubted they would be willing to extend the truce they had offered now that the immediate threat had passed. Oddly enough, though, they weren't making any aggressive actions. In fact, they weren't doing anything, period.
Well, the last part of that statement was wrong. They were trying to do something - hail me. Since I didn't exactly know what to do next, I obliged their request. A few moments later, I found myself staring at the image of a female Dread Lord.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of Thai conversation?"
"There is...no need...for formalities."
"Okay. Then what do you wish to talk about."
"It is in....regards to.....your most recent actions."
She sounded fatigued and confused. What was going on?
"Did you just.....completely reverse the collapse of a star....using a fighter sized vessel?"
".....Yes?"
"And, in theory, you could build more?"
"Already building a dozen more."
Well, just started the production of a dozen more would be more like it, but that wasn't something she had to know.
I think I heard a shriek on her end of the conversation.
"I....see."
Then, a new holographic acreen appeared in front of her, at an angle that I cpuldn't read, although I could make out the picture of the male Dread Lord ramming his face into a table/desk just find.
"Well, then, I have one last question to ask: do you accept surrenders?"
".....yes?"
"Then, on behalf of Lord Dread and the rest of my people, I surrender the entirety of my empire to you unconditionally. Do you accept?"
..........what? Seriously? They were surrendering? Was this some kind of trick?
"Um, okay, I accept."
I promptly heard several loud sighs of relief from the other end of the conversation, as well as the thuds one would expect from several heavy bodies slamming into the ground.
"Then I have no need to continue this conversation. Have a pleasant day."
Then the line went dead.
......Wow. That was unexpected.
XXXXXXXX
Twenty minutes of hacking later, and I had confirmed that the Dread Lords really were sincere about surrendering to me. Apparently, me reversing the Supernova with a fighter sized vessel had been enough to cowl them into giving up. Also, in unrelated news, Lord Dread had soiled himself when he saw that happen, while the captain I had been chatting with had spiked herself when she had been told to contact me.
There was something darkly amusing about that.
Anyway, the surrender had come with the inclusion of all locations the Dread Lords occupies, and they had informed everyone else that they were formally surrendering to me, so that was that. I still sent forces in to make sure no one tried anything stupid.
With that out of the way, I called Melissa and told her that assist could come over early. A moment later, a portal appeared in Rory's room and Cassidy flew through it (quite literally) a second later. Much hugging and friendly wrestling ensued - hey, that isn't unique to boys!
A few minutes later, Rory was showing Cassidy some new additions to my tower - a zoo, a smuggler pen, a gigantic pool, and more. Oddly, she seemed focused on the Aurorus Arboretum I'd added in.
....maybe I could ask her about them and what was happening on the 13th?
XXXXXXXX
"You want to know what's happening on the 13th?" Asked Cassidy.
"Yes, please....if you're okay with telling me."
Cassidy stared at me for a moment, before, to my surprise, taking an envelope out of her sleeve (which were far too long for casual clothes) and handing it to me.
"Don't tell Mom I gave you this."
"Okay."
Then I opened and read the envelope.
"To whom this may concern, you are hearty invited to the celebration of the birth of our most beloved Sovereign of the Illuminate...oh."
"Yeah. My mom never made an invitation for you, but you are one of the only people I know of that she friendly with that isn't one of her followers, so....."
"I get it."
XXXXXXXXX
Of all things, that invitation was the LAST thing I ever expected to get as a commander.
Though it did explain why the Illuminate wanted those glowing trees.
....now what was I supposed to do?
...Eh, screw it, she'd shown me courtesy on my special day, might as well give her them same.
XXXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
"I know. Thank you for the help."
"Think nothing of it. So long as you provide me spectacle, I will continue to assist you if you absolutely require my help."
"....you say that, but from how you act, I wouldn't be surprised if you I really just like helping people and are just making excuses."
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Guess you'll just have to find out."
"Challenge accepted."
"Good luck. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to, so I must depart from the field."
"Okay, bye."
"I wasn't finished: Cassidy asked if she could spend some time with your children. She's grown quite fond of them."
"I'm fine with that, just give me about.... an hour and a half to sort things out here and get ready for her arrival."
"Of course. Farewell."
XXXXX
Once Melissa departed, I turned my attention back to the Dread Lords, weapon's armed, ready to fight. I doubted they would be willing to extend the truce they had offered now that the immediate threat had passed. Oddly enough, though, they weren't making any aggressive actions. In fact, they weren't doing anything, period.
Well, the last part of that statement was wrong. They were trying to do something - hail me. Since I didn't exactly know what to do next, I obliged their request. A few moments later, I found myself staring at the image of a female Dread Lord.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of Thai conversation?"
"There is...no need...for formalities."
"Okay. Then what do you wish to talk about."
"It is in....regards to.....your most recent actions."
She sounded fatigued and confused. What was going on?
"Did you just.....completely reverse the collapse of a star....using a fighter sized vessel?"
".....Yes?"
"And, in theory, you could build more?"
"Already building a dozen more."
Well, just started the production of a dozen more would be more like it, but that wasn't something she had to know.
I think I heard a shriek on her end of the conversation.
"I....see."
Then, a new holographic acreen appeared in front of her, at an angle that I cpuldn't read, although I could make out the picture of the male Dread Lord ramming his face into a table/desk just find.
"Well, then, I have one last question to ask: do you accept surrenders?"
".....yes?"
"Then, on behalf of Lord Dread and the rest of my people, I surrender the entirety of my empire to you unconditionally. Do you accept?"
..........what? Seriously? They were surrendering? Was this some kind of trick?
"Um, okay, I accept."
I promptly heard several loud sighs of relief from the other end of the conversation, as well as the thuds one would expect from several heavy bodies slamming into the ground.
"Then I have no need to continue this conversation. Have a pleasant day."
Then the line went dead.
......Wow. That was unexpected.
XXXXXXXX
Twenty minutes of hacking later, and I had confirmed that the Dread Lords really were sincere about surrendering to me. Apparently, me reversing the Supernova with a fighter sized vessel had been enough to cowl them into giving up. Also, in unrelated news, Lord Dread had soiled himself when he saw that happen, while the captain I had been chatting with had spiked herself when she had been told to contact me.
There was something darkly amusing about that.
Anyway, the surrender had come with the inclusion of all locations the Dread Lords occupies, and they had informed everyone else that they were formally surrendering to me, so that was that. I still sent forces in to make sure no one tried anything stupid.
With that out of the way, I called Melissa and told her that assist could come over early. A moment later, a portal appeared in Rory's room and Cassidy flew through it (quite literally) a second later. Much hugging and friendly wrestling ensued - hey, that isn't unique to boys!
A few minutes later, Rory was showing Cassidy some new additions to my tower - a zoo, a smuggler pen, a gigantic pool, and more. Oddly, she seemed focused on the Aurorus Arboretum I'd added in.
....maybe I could ask her about them and what was happening on the 13th?
XXXXXXXX
"You want to know what's happening on the 13th?" Asked Cassidy.
"Yes, please....if you're okay with telling me."
Cassidy stared at me for a moment, before, to my surprise, taking an envelope out of her sleeve (which were far too long for casual clothes) and handing it to me.
"Don't tell Mom I gave you this."
"Okay."
Then I opened and read the envelope.
"To whom this may concern, you are hearty invited to the celebration of the birth of our most beloved Sovereign of the Illuminate...oh."
"Yeah. My mom never made an invitation for you, but you are one of the only people I know of that she friendly with that isn't one of her followers, so....."
"I get it."
XXXXXXXXX
Of all things, that invitation was the LAST thing I ever expected to get as a commander.
Though it did explain why the Illuminate wanted those glowing trees.
....now what was I supposed to do?
...Eh, screw it, she'd shown me courtesy on my special day, might as well give her them same.
XXXXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
Interlude: The Most Personal of Days
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
As the clocked ticked ever onwards, Melissa couldn't help but grow more agitated.
Soon, it would be time.
Today was her birthday, and as it was her first one following her promotion to the head of the Commander Project, her subordinates had insisted on making it a grand affair, more so than normal. This meant a bigger cake, a grander feast, a more massive celebration, and so on, to the point that this party, when compared to all before it, could be described as more everything. All of that grandiosity only made the female ROB even more nervous, for the simple reason that this would be one of the few times her 'friends', if she could even say she had any at this point, would see her for a protracted length of time. That might not seem a big thing, but if she did something embarrassing, well, everyone would know about it.
As the time for the party drew ever closer, the guests began to trickle in. First came Celm and his wife, for once dressed in casual clothes. Following them were the closest of their followers, Iacturos and his hundred plus siblings, all bringing gifts, some large, some small. Following them was Queneeria and her underlings, whom she always felt oddly familiar with (well, more so than she already was), but never knew why.
As the time for the festivities grew ever closer, one more pair of guests arrived, ones that Melissa could not believe.
"....Tau.....Zeta...you came?"
"Yes," replies the female operative, "we were invited. By you, if our invitations didn't mislead us."
"Additionally, even though we no longer see eye to eye, you have always come to our days of nativity with gifts that show great amounts of thought put into them. In the face of that, we are......unable....to refuse your invitation. Our.....pride......refuses to let us do that."
Tau had claimed that they had refused out of pride, but he'd struggled to say the word. In fact, he'd looked disgusted saying that.
Did the duo still think she was their......friend?
....That was preposterous. They couldn't believe that. That bridge had been torched long ago.c
Sadly, Melissa was well aware that said torching was entirely on her head. All actions carried a price, even well intentioned ones.
Putting her thoughts aside, Melissa invited them in, then turned her attention back to the clock. Only a minute remained. It appeared all of the guests had arrived, plus some extras. Cassidy, who had taken it upon herself to make sure all of the guests had arrived, confirmed this.
Well, time to get to bus-
"Hello?"
Melissa froze up for a moment, then turned around. There, standing just outside the main door, was her pawn, Commander Flameal15k.
"....What are you doing here?" She asked, incredulous.
"I invited him."
That was Cassidy who said that. Turning toward her daughter, Melissa could not help but look somewhat betrayed, even if she was actually grateful the Commander had arrived.
"Why?"
"Because, Mom, he's really nice to you, and I think he deserves to be here more than some of the other guests."
"I brought a gift," intoned the Commander, apparently trying to back up her diaghter's claim.
"...I'm not going to send you any. Just come in and....please don't embarrass yourself."
"I'll try."
XXXXXXXXXX
With all of the guests having at last arrived, the festivities had commenced. Games were played, movies were watched, music was enjoyed, the like. Melissa wondered why she could see people who were supposedly so much more mature than she was enjoying things that might have seemed childish, but ultimately, she saw no reason to complain. Besides, the company was nice.
Idly, the female ROB noticed her pawn taking the time to enjoy himself, occasionally trying to chat with the other guests, though whatever he chose to talk about only left him unsatisied with what he heard. Occasionally, he would steal a glance at her, though oddly, the glance would only last a moment before he soon ocused on something else, often appearing behind her. Additionally, he made the effort to try and eat at least one fo every snack she had provided. Now, most people would find it out if you thought someone eating everything they could fit in their mouth was a nice thing, but considering how finicky her commander had been prior to his journey, and the fact that, according to what she had gleaned from his mind, he was refusing to maintain his finicky diet out of respect for her, she couldn't help but smile.
Then came the best part of the day: the cake and the gifts. The cake itself was absolutely huge, big enough that she could fit 713 individual candles on it. It was a strawberry ice cream cake, mixed in with mint chocolate chip in some parts - her two favorite flavors of ice cream. It'd taken Mortarax a week to make it, and he had exceeded all expectations.
After the singing of happy birthday (something her father had taught to her, divinities bless him), she'd took a deep breath and blown, using aerokinesis to ensure she blew out all of the candles. Then, at last, came the gift unwrapping.
First off we're the gifts of Celm and his wife, which took the form of a variety of bees and other insects - creatures she'd wanted to help her with her gardening, ones that she was worried she would be unable to recreate with her powers - at lest, not to the level of beauty they possessed in nature.
Next came the gifts of Iacturos and his kin . They had many gifts to offer, from art, to books, to movies, to games and toys. Among the more notable gifts was a collection of rock music Iacturos himself had recently acquired. She preferred the classics, but rock was good, too.
Queneeria and her followers had gone next, offerif an assortment of gifts of their own. The ship in the bottle Queneeria had offered herself was especially nice.
Cassidy had followed them with a beautiful vase, one she had forged with her own hands...which were currently still slightly covered in clay, as she hadn't made one that had satisfied her until just hours before the party.
Third to last were her closest subordinates gifts, a set of hand made jewelry commemorating their servitude to her and her devotion to them.
Second to last was Tau and Zeta, who had surprised her with their choices. Tau has offered her sheet music for the full score of Peter and the Wolf, specifically for the violin. As for Zeta, she had gone with something Humber, and purchased her an album of metal music. That Swedish band her Commander seemed to enjoy listening to, given what his ship had started playing it when she had rescued him in the previous universe he had visited. He had good taste.
Speaking of which, the last gift she opened was the one that Flame had given her. Careful to avoid damaging it, for he'd explicitly marked it as fragile, she removed the gift wrapping from he )somewhat smelly) present.....
And froze.
There, right in front of her, were four Aurorous titanis saplings. Despite being no taller than she was, they were already magnificent in appearance.
This wasn't the best gift she'd ever received.
It wasn't even the best one she'd received at this birthday.
But it was the most spectacular looking.
And for that, she couldn't help but smile at her pawn....who seemed to be staring at her hair.
....Oh crap. Her glamor was failing. Quick, back to normal, back to normal!
XXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
Soon, it would be time.
Today was her birthday, and as it was her first one following her promotion to the head of the Commander Project, her subordinates had insisted on making it a grand affair, more so than normal. This meant a bigger cake, a grander feast, a more massive celebration, and so on, to the point that this party, when compared to all before it, could be described as more everything. All of that grandiosity only made the female ROB even more nervous, for the simple reason that this would be one of the few times her 'friends', if she could even say she had any at this point, would see her for a protracted length of time. That might not seem a big thing, but if she did something embarrassing, well, everyone would know about it.
As the time for the party drew ever closer, the guests began to trickle in. First came Celm and his wife, for once dressed in casual clothes. Following them were the closest of their followers, Iacturos and his hundred plus siblings, all bringing gifts, some large, some small. Following them was Queneeria and her underlings, whom she always felt oddly familiar with (well, more so than she already was), but never knew why.
As the time for the festivities grew ever closer, one more pair of guests arrived, ones that Melissa could not believe.
"....Tau.....Zeta...you came?"
"Yes," replies the female operative, "we were invited. By you, if our invitations didn't mislead us."
"Additionally, even though we no longer see eye to eye, you have always come to our days of nativity with gifts that show great amounts of thought put into them. In the face of that, we are......unable....to refuse your invitation. Our.....pride......refuses to let us do that."
Tau had claimed that they had refused out of pride, but he'd struggled to say the word. In fact, he'd looked disgusted saying that.
Did the duo still think she was their......friend?
....That was preposterous. They couldn't believe that. That bridge had been torched long ago.c
Sadly, Melissa was well aware that said torching was entirely on her head. All actions carried a price, even well intentioned ones.
Putting her thoughts aside, Melissa invited them in, then turned her attention back to the clock. Only a minute remained. It appeared all of the guests had arrived, plus some extras. Cassidy, who had taken it upon herself to make sure all of the guests had arrived, confirmed this.
Well, time to get to bus-
"Hello?"
Melissa froze up for a moment, then turned around. There, standing just outside the main door, was her pawn, Commander Flameal15k.
"....What are you doing here?" She asked, incredulous.
"I invited him."
That was Cassidy who said that. Turning toward her daughter, Melissa could not help but look somewhat betrayed, even if she was actually grateful the Commander had arrived.
"Why?"
"Because, Mom, he's really nice to you, and I think he deserves to be here more than some of the other guests."
"I brought a gift," intoned the Commander, apparently trying to back up her diaghter's claim.
"...I'm not going to send you any. Just come in and....please don't embarrass yourself."
"I'll try."
XXXXXXXXXX
With all of the guests having at last arrived, the festivities had commenced. Games were played, movies were watched, music was enjoyed, the like. Melissa wondered why she could see people who were supposedly so much more mature than she was enjoying things that might have seemed childish, but ultimately, she saw no reason to complain. Besides, the company was nice.
Idly, the female ROB noticed her pawn taking the time to enjoy himself, occasionally trying to chat with the other guests, though whatever he chose to talk about only left him unsatisied with what he heard. Occasionally, he would steal a glance at her, though oddly, the glance would only last a moment before he soon ocused on something else, often appearing behind her. Additionally, he made the effort to try and eat at least one fo every snack she had provided. Now, most people would find it out if you thought someone eating everything they could fit in their mouth was a nice thing, but considering how finicky her commander had been prior to his journey, and the fact that, according to what she had gleaned from his mind, he was refusing to maintain his finicky diet out of respect for her, she couldn't help but smile.
Then came the best part of the day: the cake and the gifts. The cake itself was absolutely huge, big enough that she could fit 713 individual candles on it. It was a strawberry ice cream cake, mixed in with mint chocolate chip in some parts - her two favorite flavors of ice cream. It'd taken Mortarax a week to make it, and he had exceeded all expectations.
After the singing of happy birthday (something her father had taught to her, divinities bless him), she'd took a deep breath and blown, using aerokinesis to ensure she blew out all of the candles. Then, at last, came the gift unwrapping.
First off we're the gifts of Celm and his wife, which took the form of a variety of bees and other insects - creatures she'd wanted to help her with her gardening, ones that she was worried she would be unable to recreate with her powers - at lest, not to the level of beauty they possessed in nature.
Next came the gifts of Iacturos and his kin . They had many gifts to offer, from art, to books, to movies, to games and toys. Among the more notable gifts was a collection of rock music Iacturos himself had recently acquired. She preferred the classics, but rock was good, too.
Queneeria and her followers had gone next, offerif an assortment of gifts of their own. The ship in the bottle Queneeria had offered herself was especially nice.
Cassidy had followed them with a beautiful vase, one she had forged with her own hands...which were currently still slightly covered in clay, as she hadn't made one that had satisfied her until just hours before the party.
Third to last were her closest subordinates gifts, a set of hand made jewelry commemorating their servitude to her and her devotion to them.
Second to last was Tau and Zeta, who had surprised her with their choices. Tau has offered her sheet music for the full score of Peter and the Wolf, specifically for the violin. As for Zeta, she had gone with something Humber, and purchased her an album of metal music. That Swedish band her Commander seemed to enjoy listening to, given what his ship had started playing it when she had rescued him in the previous universe he had visited. He had good taste.
Speaking of which, the last gift she opened was the one that Flame had given her. Careful to avoid damaging it, for he'd explicitly marked it as fragile, she removed the gift wrapping from he )somewhat smelly) present.....
And froze.
There, right in front of her, were four Aurorous titanis saplings. Despite being no taller than she was, they were already magnificent in appearance.
This wasn't the best gift she'd ever received.
It wasn't even the best one she'd received at this birthday.
But it was the most spectacular looking.
And for that, she couldn't help but smile at her pawn....who seemed to be staring at her hair.
....Oh crap. Her glamor was failing. Quick, back to normal, back to normal!
XXXXXXX
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
140. Melissa
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
It hadn't been hard to decide what I was going to offer to Melissa for her birthday - she'd made her desires all too obvious even though she hadn't intended to invite me. Why, I still wasn't sure - pride, lack of thought, maybe she thought I would have been offended by the invitation? All were possible reasons, but in the end, they meant nothing - I had been invited by Cassidy, and I think this was one kindness I did owe my ROB.
I was lucky that the Arborous titanis were bearing fruit when I went to look for specimens to use as my gift. It hadn't been hard to find the plumpest of the fruits, which I quickly planted and subjected to biogenesis E-DNA powers, so that they would go from fruit to sapling in a matter of minutes. I dialed back on them after that - no need to let them grow gigantic before I gave them to Melissa. They could grown mighty after she had planted them, but not before.
Once my gift was ready, I used some directions Cassidy had provided to build a modified dimension gate that could send me to Melissa's hub world, which deposited me right outside of my ROB's abode. It only took a few minutes to reach the designated entrance point, where my ROB was welcoming the last of her guests. My appearance provoked a good deal of shock from her, but before she could question me, Cassidy explained everything. That was somewhat odd, considering that she had asked me not to tell her mother about the invitation. Maybe she had wanted to explain things herself rather than have me do so?
Whatever the reason, Melissa had allowed me to join the festivities, and with surprisingly few stares from the rest of the party goers. What had followed was a period of eating and relaxing, all while final preparations were made for the eating of cake and the unwrapping of gifts for the focus of this day. Among the refreshments offered were some really weird foods, including some type of eel covered in spines. Normally, I'd turn down such offering, owing to having a rather narrow diet, but with all the kindness Melissa had shown me, I felt obligated to try the alien cuisine. Most of it actually tasted pretty good.
Among the faces I saw and recognized at the party were Iacturos, Celm, Queneeria, Tau and Zeta, the latter two coming as total surprised to me, since they seemed to despise my ROB. Perhaps they still had some lingering feelings of camaraderie toward her? Either way, seeing them here, actually making the effort to enjoy themselves, and NOT being total asses, was actually rather heartwarming. As for the others, I recounted a woman who spent the majority of the time with Celm, whom I eventually confirmed was his wife, though I missed her name. Queneeria was joined by several of her own subordinates, while Iacturos had over a hundred other guests with him, who were all, apparently, his siblings. Something told me that, even if egg laying was involved, Iacutros parents must have not only been fond of each other, but also very difficult to tire, but for now, that was besides the point.
Throughout the festivities, I attempted to make conversation with my fellow guests, if only to learn more about them, but was unsuccessful. At best I received answers that lead to more questions, at worst I was rebuffed before I could even offer a question. When that happened, I would steal a glance at my ROB, examining her (admittedly difficult to observe) physique, before turning my attention to her shadow. Here, with more time to examine said shadow, more details came into focus: it had large, membraneous wings, as well as numerous fins and tentacles in it. In fact, I could easily observe traits from many different sea creatures on it, including what appeared to be lured like those that angled fish used. Before long, though, Nelissa would notice my staring, forcing me to look away. Still, every sight counted here.
Eventually came the time for the singing of happy birthdau, followed by the eating of the cake and the unwrapping of gifts. Oddly, the sheer familiarity of this ritual was what surprised me the lost with this celebration- I guess I had expected things to be more different from what I knew, not more of the same. Still, the familiarity was not unwelcome, and it was only a few minutes before I was enjoying a slice of strawberry ice cream cake, while Melissa was tearing through her gifts. Eventually, she came to mine. The minute she saw it, she grew very still for a moment, before turning toward me and giving probably the cutest smile she had ever given me.
It would have been really sweet, except that when she did that, her hair, which had been up until this point pure white, began to rapidly change between white, purple, orange, and green. Oddly, though, it never changed into anything else, be it a color, or into the tendrils/feathers I saw in her shadow. Was her shadow merely a 'red herring' as to her actual appearance?
Whatever the case, apparently I wasn't the only one staring, seeing how the room had just gone very, very quiet. Melissa had started to blush, though her hair quickly returned to its normal colors. For a moment, I thought something was going to happen, but then everything went back to normal, though there was still a feeling of unease in the room. I think everyone had mentally agreed to just ignore what they had seen, though that didn't erase the fact that they had seen it. Still, it seemed that even mentioning what I assumed was a glamor failure had become taboo, given that no one, myself included, chose to talk about it.
Eventually, as the festivities drew to a close, the guests filtered out, until, of the guests, only I remained.
I took one last look at my ROB, waved her off, then turned to leave.
"Wait."
I stopped.
"Could I have a word with you?"
"......Do you really have to ask? I more or less exist as I am now to sate your desire for amusement."
"True, but I still think it necessary for what I have to say."
"Fine. So, what do you want to say?"
"First off, thank you for coming. And I'm sorry I didn't invite you."
"You're welcome. WHy didn't you invite me, though? Just curious."
"I assumed my compatriots would think poorly of me if I did so. At least, the ones who are roughly equal in rank to me. Those who are higher on the totem pole than I am wouldn't really ba an Ieye to me inviting you over."
"I see. Do you have more to say?"
"Yes: Thank you for the gift. It's beautiful."
"Glad to hear you like it."
"It reminds me of home."
".....There are glowing plants where you come from?"
"Plenty. I used to cultivate dozens of them in the garden with my.....parents......"
The moment she said that word, Melissa became more morose and quiet. Something told me this was a touchy subject.
"You didn't have the best of parents?"
"No, they were good. I just had a.....falling out....with them."
"Oh." Time to let that topic lie.
"So, what else would you like to talk about?"
"Well, now htat that is out of the way, I would like to thank you for not making a big scene out of my....hair color issues."
"....That was rather odd to see, though it isn't the strangest thing I have witnessed."
"are you referring to my shadow?"
"...What?"
"I know you were looking at it throughout the party, and while it is impolite to stare, I will forgive you this time since my shadow is a....particularly interesting sight."
"....Well, thank you for that. So, anything else you want to tell or ask me about?"
"Just one, and it is a request. A 'birthday favor' if you may. IF you fulfill it, I will fulfill one for you at your next birthday."
"Okay, so what do you want me to do."
"....Could you...um.....sing...for me?"
...............Wat?
"Why?"
"I know for a fact that you are a ccpable singer - not enough to make a career out of it, and you would lakc the creativity to write your own songs, but nonetheless I would like to hear you sing."
"........Why?"
"....I just want you to."
"......Okay, but do you have any genre requests?"
"None at all. I do have a list of songs that I would like you to choose from, if you don't mind? You only have to sing one song."
"I don't mind much, so let me look at them."
Instantly, she produced a list of songs, which I began reading through in earnest. Some of them had actually been published after I had been taken from my home, so I decided not to sing those.
Except, for some reason, I feel like singing one of them, even though I didn't know the lyrics. For reasons even I couldn't understand, though, I could felt I could sing it well if I tried.
Melissa seemed to notice which song I was looking at.
"So, you're looking at that one. Good choice."
A moment later, a screen was projected onto a nearby wall, and on it were the lyrics of the song, which was beginning to play.
It only took me a moment to get in sync with the lyrics:
I believe kids oughta stay kids as long as they can
Turn off the screen, go climb a tree, get dirt on their hands
I believe we gotta forgive and make amends
'Cause nobody gets a second chance to make new old friends
I believe in working hard for what you've got
Even if it don't add up to a hell of a lot
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe them streets of gold are worth the work
But I still wanna go even if they were paved in dirt
I believe that youth is spent well on the young
'Cause wisdom in your teens would be a lot less fun
I believe if you just go by the nightly news
Your faith in all mankind would be the first thing you lose
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe that days go slow and years go fast
And every breath's a gift, the first one to the last
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe most people are good
I believe most people are good
Well, I do - and my travels had reinforced that. I'd seen plenty of horror on my journey so far, but I'd also seen so much beauty, and that had always kept my faith in the good of others alive. Who knows, maybe I'd one day mode that faith, but not today.
I was promptly pulled out of my post-song thoughts by the sound of clapping....from more than just Melissa. When I looked at her, I was surprised to not only see Cassidy, but also all of my children giving me an applause. Before I could question this, a flicker from the projected screen caught my attention, as new words replace the lyrics.
...oh, so that's what had happened - Cassidy had invited them over and not told me.
Well, a few people were going to go three days without any sweets.
"So," I began," do you desire more?"
"No, I'm good," was her response, after which she stood up and asked her companions (that is, her daughter and my kids), to get ready to leave, then began to walk toward me.
She promptly slipped on a discarded peace of paper and started falling.
One teleport later and I was holding her inches of the ground, one hand on her shoulder, another around her waist.
No, she didn't hit me when I righted.
As I righted her, though, I noticed that her sleeve had come lose from her shoulder. While she quickly fixed it, there were a precious few moments where I did get to see her exposed shoulder.
Well, I would have, except that said should was covered in bandages. Lots of bandages. In fact, the strips of cloth extended up to the base of her neck and beyond, all the way to her other shoulder, at least from what I could see.
XXXXXXXCX
Considering she taken down a skull crawler with barely a scratch, and that her papers more than likely included a healing ability, I was more than a little worried that something existed that could leave her with injuries that actually needed to be bandaged.
XXXXXXXXXXX
AN: Yes, I can sing, and yes, I like country music. So what?
Read and Review! This is Foameal15k, signing off.
I was lucky that the Arborous titanis were bearing fruit when I went to look for specimens to use as my gift. It hadn't been hard to find the plumpest of the fruits, which I quickly planted and subjected to biogenesis E-DNA powers, so that they would go from fruit to sapling in a matter of minutes. I dialed back on them after that - no need to let them grow gigantic before I gave them to Melissa. They could grown mighty after she had planted them, but not before.
Once my gift was ready, I used some directions Cassidy had provided to build a modified dimension gate that could send me to Melissa's hub world, which deposited me right outside of my ROB's abode. It only took a few minutes to reach the designated entrance point, where my ROB was welcoming the last of her guests. My appearance provoked a good deal of shock from her, but before she could question me, Cassidy explained everything. That was somewhat odd, considering that she had asked me not to tell her mother about the invitation. Maybe she had wanted to explain things herself rather than have me do so?
Whatever the reason, Melissa had allowed me to join the festivities, and with surprisingly few stares from the rest of the party goers. What had followed was a period of eating and relaxing, all while final preparations were made for the eating of cake and the unwrapping of gifts for the focus of this day. Among the refreshments offered were some really weird foods, including some type of eel covered in spines. Normally, I'd turn down such offering, owing to having a rather narrow diet, but with all the kindness Melissa had shown me, I felt obligated to try the alien cuisine. Most of it actually tasted pretty good.
Among the faces I saw and recognized at the party were Iacturos, Celm, Queneeria, Tau and Zeta, the latter two coming as total surprised to me, since they seemed to despise my ROB. Perhaps they still had some lingering feelings of camaraderie toward her? Either way, seeing them here, actually making the effort to enjoy themselves, and NOT being total asses, was actually rather heartwarming. As for the others, I recounted a woman who spent the majority of the time with Celm, whom I eventually confirmed was his wife, though I missed her name. Queneeria was joined by several of her own subordinates, while Iacturos had over a hundred other guests with him, who were all, apparently, his siblings. Something told me that, even if egg laying was involved, Iacutros parents must have not only been fond of each other, but also very difficult to tire, but for now, that was besides the point.
Throughout the festivities, I attempted to make conversation with my fellow guests, if only to learn more about them, but was unsuccessful. At best I received answers that lead to more questions, at worst I was rebuffed before I could even offer a question. When that happened, I would steal a glance at my ROB, examining her (admittedly difficult to observe) physique, before turning my attention to her shadow. Here, with more time to examine said shadow, more details came into focus: it had large, membraneous wings, as well as numerous fins and tentacles in it. In fact, I could easily observe traits from many different sea creatures on it, including what appeared to be lured like those that angled fish used. Before long, though, Nelissa would notice my staring, forcing me to look away. Still, every sight counted here.
Eventually came the time for the singing of happy birthdau, followed by the eating of the cake and the unwrapping of gifts. Oddly, the sheer familiarity of this ritual was what surprised me the lost with this celebration- I guess I had expected things to be more different from what I knew, not more of the same. Still, the familiarity was not unwelcome, and it was only a few minutes before I was enjoying a slice of strawberry ice cream cake, while Melissa was tearing through her gifts. Eventually, she came to mine. The minute she saw it, she grew very still for a moment, before turning toward me and giving probably the cutest smile she had ever given me.
It would have been really sweet, except that when she did that, her hair, which had been up until this point pure white, began to rapidly change between white, purple, orange, and green. Oddly, though, it never changed into anything else, be it a color, or into the tendrils/feathers I saw in her shadow. Was her shadow merely a 'red herring' as to her actual appearance?
Whatever the case, apparently I wasn't the only one staring, seeing how the room had just gone very, very quiet. Melissa had started to blush, though her hair quickly returned to its normal colors. For a moment, I thought something was going to happen, but then everything went back to normal, though there was still a feeling of unease in the room. I think everyone had mentally agreed to just ignore what they had seen, though that didn't erase the fact that they had seen it. Still, it seemed that even mentioning what I assumed was a glamor failure had become taboo, given that no one, myself included, chose to talk about it.
Eventually, as the festivities drew to a close, the guests filtered out, until, of the guests, only I remained.
I took one last look at my ROB, waved her off, then turned to leave.
"Wait."
I stopped.
"Could I have a word with you?"
"......Do you really have to ask? I more or less exist as I am now to sate your desire for amusement."
"True, but I still think it necessary for what I have to say."
"Fine. So, what do you want to say?"
"First off, thank you for coming. And I'm sorry I didn't invite you."
"You're welcome. WHy didn't you invite me, though? Just curious."
"I assumed my compatriots would think poorly of me if I did so. At least, the ones who are roughly equal in rank to me. Those who are higher on the totem pole than I am wouldn't really ba an Ieye to me inviting you over."
"I see. Do you have more to say?"
"Yes: Thank you for the gift. It's beautiful."
"Glad to hear you like it."
"It reminds me of home."
".....There are glowing plants where you come from?"
"Plenty. I used to cultivate dozens of them in the garden with my.....parents......"
The moment she said that word, Melissa became more morose and quiet. Something told me this was a touchy subject.
"You didn't have the best of parents?"
"No, they were good. I just had a.....falling out....with them."
"Oh." Time to let that topic lie.
"So, what else would you like to talk about?"
"Well, now htat that is out of the way, I would like to thank you for not making a big scene out of my....hair color issues."
"....That was rather odd to see, though it isn't the strangest thing I have witnessed."
"are you referring to my shadow?"
"...What?"
"I know you were looking at it throughout the party, and while it is impolite to stare, I will forgive you this time since my shadow is a....particularly interesting sight."
"....Well, thank you for that. So, anything else you want to tell or ask me about?"
"Just one, and it is a request. A 'birthday favor' if you may. IF you fulfill it, I will fulfill one for you at your next birthday."
"Okay, so what do you want me to do."
"....Could you...um.....sing...for me?"
...............Wat?
"Why?"
"I know for a fact that you are a ccpable singer - not enough to make a career out of it, and you would lakc the creativity to write your own songs, but nonetheless I would like to hear you sing."
"........Why?"
"....I just want you to."
"......Okay, but do you have any genre requests?"
"None at all. I do have a list of songs that I would like you to choose from, if you don't mind? You only have to sing one song."
"I don't mind much, so let me look at them."
Instantly, she produced a list of songs, which I began reading through in earnest. Some of them had actually been published after I had been taken from my home, so I decided not to sing those.
Except, for some reason, I feel like singing one of them, even though I didn't know the lyrics. For reasons even I couldn't understand, though, I could felt I could sing it well if I tried.
Melissa seemed to notice which song I was looking at.
"So, you're looking at that one. Good choice."
A moment later, a screen was projected onto a nearby wall, and on it were the lyrics of the song, which was beginning to play.
It only took me a moment to get in sync with the lyrics:
I believe kids oughta stay kids as long as they can
Turn off the screen, go climb a tree, get dirt on their hands
I believe we gotta forgive and make amends
'Cause nobody gets a second chance to make new old friends
I believe in working hard for what you've got
Even if it don't add up to a hell of a lot
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe them streets of gold are worth the work
But I still wanna go even if they were paved in dirt
I believe that youth is spent well on the young
'Cause wisdom in your teens would be a lot less fun
I believe if you just go by the nightly news
Your faith in all mankind would be the first thing you lose
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe that days go slow and years go fast
And every breath's a gift, the first one to the last
I believe most people are good
And most mama's oughta qualify for sainthood
I believe most Friday nights look better under neon or stadium lights
I believe you love who you love
Ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of
I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks
I believe most people are good
I believe most people are good
I believe most people are good
Well, I do - and my travels had reinforced that. I'd seen plenty of horror on my journey so far, but I'd also seen so much beauty, and that had always kept my faith in the good of others alive. Who knows, maybe I'd one day mode that faith, but not today.
I was promptly pulled out of my post-song thoughts by the sound of clapping....from more than just Melissa. When I looked at her, I was surprised to not only see Cassidy, but also all of my children giving me an applause. Before I could question this, a flicker from the projected screen caught my attention, as new words replace the lyrics.
...oh, so that's what had happened - Cassidy had invited them over and not told me.
Well, a few people were going to go three days without any sweets.
"So," I began," do you desire more?"
"No, I'm good," was her response, after which she stood up and asked her companions (that is, her daughter and my kids), to get ready to leave, then began to walk toward me.
She promptly slipped on a discarded peace of paper and started falling.
One teleport later and I was holding her inches of the ground, one hand on her shoulder, another around her waist.
No, she didn't hit me when I righted.
As I righted her, though, I noticed that her sleeve had come lose from her shoulder. While she quickly fixed it, there were a precious few moments where I did get to see her exposed shoulder.
Well, I would have, except that said should was covered in bandages. Lots of bandages. In fact, the strips of cloth extended up to the base of her neck and beyond, all the way to her other shoulder, at least from what I could see.
XXXXXXXCX
Considering she taken down a skull crawler with barely a scratch, and that her papers more than likely included a healing ability, I was more than a little worried that something existed that could leave her with injuries that actually needed to be bandaged.
XXXXXXXXXXX
AN: Yes, I can sing, and yes, I like country music. So what?
Read and Review! This is Foameal15k, signing off.
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
Are they truly bandaged injuries or does she simply prefer wrappings to more normal underwear?
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Those are bandages - she's a master shapeshifter WITHOUT her Omnipotence.
Last edited:
141. Preparations for the End
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
Once I left the party (and made it clear to my kids that they would not get to have any tomorrow as punishment for going somewhere without my permission), I quickly set about preparing for the final confrontation with the Drengin. With the Korx now displaced from their market dominance, the Yor, Dread Lords, and by extension the Snathi now under my control/protection, and the Korath flat out not existing as separate power due to Melissa, all that remained was to bring down those tyrants and recover the last artifact in this universe, which I presumed was in their possession, going off of what had happened in this universe and the previous one. The presence of an artifact would have also explained the Dread Lords having access to a Terror Star, seeing how the only source of such devices in canon was the Arnor. If the Drengin had pulled the designs for that machine out of the artifact, then the need to defeat them was even greater - if I didn't stop them now, they might get something that could actually let them face me and win.
First off, I began churning out several extra fleets to use for destroying the last of the Drengin's forces. Even after the absolutely epic smack-down she'd inflicted on them over the course of the last few months (as in, completely obliterated five different fleets with zero casualties and taken a hundred worlds from them simultaneously to destroying those fleets), they still had three fleets left to fight with, as well as a fourth one nearing completion. Even in the face of certain defeat, they refused to give up. Were they not a race so morally reprehensible that I got sick just thinking about them, that would be admirable, and as evil as they were, I still couldn't help but respect them.
My dislike of them aside, I was willing to be civil to them if they surrendered. While the empire as a whole refused to seek peace, some of their colonies saw reason (or at least the writing on the wall), and gave up without a fight. Part of me felt that they were only doing this to escape Melissa' fury, but I couldn't really blame them for that - hell hath no fury like a women scorned, especially if they had omnipotence and could exercise even a fraction of the power they possessed. If she scared them into my arms, so be it. The fact that she scared them enough to be willing to give up slavery forever to avoid her wrath was a nice bonus.
While I prepared my forces to smash the Drengin's teeth in and negotiated with the few of them willing to swallow their pride, I also decided to examine one last bit of new technology I'd acquired from this universe: the star gates. While nothing different from my teleporters, and they were , in fact, inferior to my progenitor tech base in many regards, the star gates has one clear advantage over my teleporters: they could transport star ships. Furthermore, by combining them with the warp nexus technology I had acquired from the Beyond Earth universe, which did roughly the same thing, albeit with higher energy consumption, I was able to create a superior interstellar gateway that could allow you to travel between any two points of the nexus instantly, at exceedingly high energy efficiency. Additionally, said increased energy efficiency allowed me to make the gate able to fit in fleets that would be unreasonable for either of the base gates to transport. All things that would be important for what I had planned.
With that finished, all of my preparations for the final fight were done. Yet though I knew that acting soon would be the best course of action, I decided to stay my hand for one more day. Melissa had claimed the Drengin as hers to defeat, and as she was still taking the day to rest after her party, I felt it best to wait, lest I incur her unstoppable fury.
So, with my final conquest on hold, I decided to take one last look into the memories stored aboard my commander.
XXXXXXXXXXX
As I peered through the memories dwelling within my Commander, my mind drifted back to what I had seen most recently in them - the battle against the skull crawler, where Melissa, Zeta, and Tau had stood united, with the most venom exchanged between the trio being a set of friendly verbal jabs. From what I had seen, it seemed the trio had been close, so what had caused them to become so vitriolic toward each other? What had turned such good friends into fierce foes?
.....Wait, why were all the videos rearranging themselves?!
Before I could get an answer, the first video began to play.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Tau and Zeta stared at Celm, as did their companions. Their superior had called a meeting to introduce their newest member, who would bear the title of Operative Omega. Now at that remained was to actually meet their new compatriot.
"So," Asked Tau, " where is our new coworker?"
"....Roght here," answered a soft l, diminutive voice from behind Celm. Then, cautiously, a pale skinned girl stepped out from behind their superior, wearing clothing that made her skin look as if it had been as dark as night. She seemed nervous, yet also curious.
"I'm...Operative Omega."
The group stared at her for some time, before, at last, Zeta broke the silence.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Operative Zeta. I look forward to working with you."
Then, like a torrent escaping a flood gate, more greatings followed, and slowly, Omega began to shed her fear and, after a while, offered a faint smile.
XXXXXXX
I wanted to see more, but then the feed cut out, and soon after, a new video took its place.
XXXXX
Deep within a crystalline cavern, the Operatives scoured the tunnels, each examining the crystals with eagle eyes.
"So, we need to find a blue white scarab beetle in a cavern full of blue and white crystals," remarked Zeta. "Could this be anymore difficult?"
"Don't jinx it, Zeta," remarked Tau.
Nearby, Omega had taken out a fruit and placed in on the ground, then, with a flick of her fingers, caused a breeze to blow through the cave, starting from the location of the fruit.
"Omega, what are you doing?" Asked Zeta.
"Baiting out our target."
"With a rotten fruit? That's not going to...work."
As the other female ROB had been saying her counter, a blue white beetle had promptly flown up to the fruit and started digging in.
"....I stand corrected."
XXXXXXX
Once again, the feed switched to a new video.
XXXXXXXX
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," moaned Zeta as she began desperately searching through a set of crystals, apparently trying to find just one.
"What's wrong?" Questioned Omega, who had just entered the room.
"I can't find the gem I was going to give my mom for her birthday. The party is in two hours, and I don't have enough time to find a new one."
".....Are you looking for the sapphire and ruby colored one?"
"Yes."
Upon receiving that answer, Omega moved her hand through her hair and pulled out a gem matching the description Zeta had provided.
"You dropped this a few hours ago. I tried to give it back, but you weren't exactly available."
For a moment, Zeta stared at Omega, before pulling her into an embrace, much to the pale skinned operative's embarrassment and physical discomfort.
XXXXXXXXXX
Yet again, another screen change.
(OOC: Assume that all XXXXXXX represent a scene change from here on out)
XXXXXXXXXXX
"I have need of one of you to help me oversee a new project," remarked Celm. "Any volunteers?"
Instantly, Omega's are shot up, as did a few others.
"Alright, well then, let's put it to a vote."
As each operative's designation was called out (at least of the ones who raised their hands), one or two hands would be raised in support of them. When Omega was called, though, five hands shot up to support her.
"Well, it seems Imega has the most support. Looks like you will be the lucky or to oversee this project."
Instantly, those who had supported her erupted into cheers.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hey, we're going to go snow boarding down a comet, want to join us?" Asked Tau.
"Sorry, but not tonight," replied Omega. "I have some things to finish up. More responsibilities now."
"We understand," responded Zeta. "I hope they aren't too hard."
XXXXXXXX
"Her, we're going to go watch an eclipse, you want to come?" Asked Zeta.
"No, I still need to clean up those giant worms Queneeria accidentally unleashed, maybe some other time," was Omega's answer.
"Okay. Well, call us if you finish early."
XXXXXXXXXXX
"We're going to go sky diving down to a hollow planet's core, can you come with us?" Asked Tau, who now seemed rather worn out and unsure to ask in the first place.
"Not this time - need to look after Celm's wife's eggs."
"......okay," replied Tau, though his tone of voice made it clear things were not okay.
XXXXXXXXX
"We're going to head over to Mithrenes VI and catch some sun............Can you come? Please?" Asked Zeta.
"I'm really sorry, but no. I already promised Celm that I would help him with something later."
"But tou've promised him so much already! Can't you just take one little break to spend some time with us?"
"I'm sorry, but no."
"Why? Ever since you were promoted, you prioritize helping him over spending time with us. I know you don5 like some of the things you have to do for hI'm, so why? Why do you do it all? What do you owe him?"
"....everything."
"First I've heard of it."
"Maybe I'll tell you that someday."
"Wouldn't Count on it."
XXXXXXXXX
With that, the last video ended.
....Somehow, that opened up more questions than it answered.
XXXXXXr
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
First off, I began churning out several extra fleets to use for destroying the last of the Drengin's forces. Even after the absolutely epic smack-down she'd inflicted on them over the course of the last few months (as in, completely obliterated five different fleets with zero casualties and taken a hundred worlds from them simultaneously to destroying those fleets), they still had three fleets left to fight with, as well as a fourth one nearing completion. Even in the face of certain defeat, they refused to give up. Were they not a race so morally reprehensible that I got sick just thinking about them, that would be admirable, and as evil as they were, I still couldn't help but respect them.
My dislike of them aside, I was willing to be civil to them if they surrendered. While the empire as a whole refused to seek peace, some of their colonies saw reason (or at least the writing on the wall), and gave up without a fight. Part of me felt that they were only doing this to escape Melissa' fury, but I couldn't really blame them for that - hell hath no fury like a women scorned, especially if they had omnipotence and could exercise even a fraction of the power they possessed. If she scared them into my arms, so be it. The fact that she scared them enough to be willing to give up slavery forever to avoid her wrath was a nice bonus.
While I prepared my forces to smash the Drengin's teeth in and negotiated with the few of them willing to swallow their pride, I also decided to examine one last bit of new technology I'd acquired from this universe: the star gates. While nothing different from my teleporters, and they were , in fact, inferior to my progenitor tech base in many regards, the star gates has one clear advantage over my teleporters: they could transport star ships. Furthermore, by combining them with the warp nexus technology I had acquired from the Beyond Earth universe, which did roughly the same thing, albeit with higher energy consumption, I was able to create a superior interstellar gateway that could allow you to travel between any two points of the nexus instantly, at exceedingly high energy efficiency. Additionally, said increased energy efficiency allowed me to make the gate able to fit in fleets that would be unreasonable for either of the base gates to transport. All things that would be important for what I had planned.
With that finished, all of my preparations for the final fight were done. Yet though I knew that acting soon would be the best course of action, I decided to stay my hand for one more day. Melissa had claimed the Drengin as hers to defeat, and as she was still taking the day to rest after her party, I felt it best to wait, lest I incur her unstoppable fury.
So, with my final conquest on hold, I decided to take one last look into the memories stored aboard my commander.
XXXXXXXXXXX
As I peered through the memories dwelling within my Commander, my mind drifted back to what I had seen most recently in them - the battle against the skull crawler, where Melissa, Zeta, and Tau had stood united, with the most venom exchanged between the trio being a set of friendly verbal jabs. From what I had seen, it seemed the trio had been close, so what had caused them to become so vitriolic toward each other? What had turned such good friends into fierce foes?
.....Wait, why were all the videos rearranging themselves?!
Before I could get an answer, the first video began to play.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Tau and Zeta stared at Celm, as did their companions. Their superior had called a meeting to introduce their newest member, who would bear the title of Operative Omega. Now at that remained was to actually meet their new compatriot.
"So," Asked Tau, " where is our new coworker?"
"....Roght here," answered a soft l, diminutive voice from behind Celm. Then, cautiously, a pale skinned girl stepped out from behind their superior, wearing clothing that made her skin look as if it had been as dark as night. She seemed nervous, yet also curious.
"I'm...Operative Omega."
The group stared at her for some time, before, at last, Zeta broke the silence.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Operative Zeta. I look forward to working with you."
Then, like a torrent escaping a flood gate, more greatings followed, and slowly, Omega began to shed her fear and, after a while, offered a faint smile.
XXXXXXX
I wanted to see more, but then the feed cut out, and soon after, a new video took its place.
XXXXX
Deep within a crystalline cavern, the Operatives scoured the tunnels, each examining the crystals with eagle eyes.
"So, we need to find a blue white scarab beetle in a cavern full of blue and white crystals," remarked Zeta. "Could this be anymore difficult?"
"Don't jinx it, Zeta," remarked Tau.
Nearby, Omega had taken out a fruit and placed in on the ground, then, with a flick of her fingers, caused a breeze to blow through the cave, starting from the location of the fruit.
"Omega, what are you doing?" Asked Zeta.
"Baiting out our target."
"With a rotten fruit? That's not going to...work."
As the other female ROB had been saying her counter, a blue white beetle had promptly flown up to the fruit and started digging in.
"....I stand corrected."
XXXXXXX
Once again, the feed switched to a new video.
XXXXXXXX
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," moaned Zeta as she began desperately searching through a set of crystals, apparently trying to find just one.
"What's wrong?" Questioned Omega, who had just entered the room.
"I can't find the gem I was going to give my mom for her birthday. The party is in two hours, and I don't have enough time to find a new one."
".....Are you looking for the sapphire and ruby colored one?"
"Yes."
Upon receiving that answer, Omega moved her hand through her hair and pulled out a gem matching the description Zeta had provided.
"You dropped this a few hours ago. I tried to give it back, but you weren't exactly available."
For a moment, Zeta stared at Omega, before pulling her into an embrace, much to the pale skinned operative's embarrassment and physical discomfort.
XXXXXXXXXX
Yet again, another screen change.
(OOC: Assume that all XXXXXXX represent a scene change from here on out)
XXXXXXXXXXX
"I have need of one of you to help me oversee a new project," remarked Celm. "Any volunteers?"
Instantly, Omega's are shot up, as did a few others.
"Alright, well then, let's put it to a vote."
As each operative's designation was called out (at least of the ones who raised their hands), one or two hands would be raised in support of them. When Omega was called, though, five hands shot up to support her.
"Well, it seems Imega has the most support. Looks like you will be the lucky or to oversee this project."
Instantly, those who had supported her erupted into cheers.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hey, we're going to go snow boarding down a comet, want to join us?" Asked Tau.
"Sorry, but not tonight," replied Omega. "I have some things to finish up. More responsibilities now."
"We understand," responded Zeta. "I hope they aren't too hard."
XXXXXXXX
"Her, we're going to go watch an eclipse, you want to come?" Asked Zeta.
"No, I still need to clean up those giant worms Queneeria accidentally unleashed, maybe some other time," was Omega's answer.
"Okay. Well, call us if you finish early."
XXXXXXXXXXX
"We're going to go sky diving down to a hollow planet's core, can you come with us?" Asked Tau, who now seemed rather worn out and unsure to ask in the first place.
"Not this time - need to look after Celm's wife's eggs."
"......okay," replied Tau, though his tone of voice made it clear things were not okay.
XXXXXXXXX
"We're going to head over to Mithrenes VI and catch some sun............Can you come? Please?" Asked Zeta.
"I'm really sorry, but no. I already promised Celm that I would help him with something later."
"But tou've promised him so much already! Can't you just take one little break to spend some time with us?"
"I'm sorry, but no."
"Why? Ever since you were promoted, you prioritize helping him over spending time with us. I know you don5 like some of the things you have to do for hI'm, so why? Why do you do it all? What do you owe him?"
"....everything."
"First I've heard of it."
"Maybe I'll tell you that someday."
"Wouldn't Count on it."
XXXXXXXXX
With that, the last video ended.
....Somehow, that opened up more questions than it answered.
XXXXXXr
AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
142. To Destroy Tyranny
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
With all preparations completed, I readied for the final battle with the Drengin. Today they would suffer vengeance for their actions.
Just who exacted that vengeance, though, wasn't what I think anyone was expecting.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
My forces arrived at one of the systems closest to the Drengi system, ready for battle. Mere minutes later, the Drengin responded with their own fleet, which quickly moved into the region, ready for their final stand.
Of course, unlike me, the Drengin had a relatively short maximum effective range on their weapons - enough that they needed to move very close (at least, astronomically speaking) to actually be within their effective range.
I was willing to let them do this unmolested. After all, it worked perfectly with what I had planned - I did have an ace up my sleeve on the way.
When the Drengin were halfway to my fleet, said ace arrived: an FTL capable star gate. A moment after it arrived, my newest fleet emerged from it, ready for battle.
Sandwiched between two fleets, the Drengin'sforces were swiftly cut down to the last, as they refused to surrender and, when defeat became obvious, attempted suicide attacks via ramming their ships into mine. It didn't work, but they didn't care. I guess they just wanted to have the satisfaction of knowing that I would not take them prisoner.
Oh well. I just hoped they realized their actions meant that I would have less forces to face when I attacked their homeworld.
I quickly messaged Melissa so that she would know I was going to take down the Drengin. She'd want to watch it happen. Seeing how it would take me ten minutes to get to the Drengia system, I assumed she would be able to reach it in time to enjoy their destruction.
I severely underestimated just how much she wanted them destroyed.
XXXXXXXX
When I arrived at Drengi, the first thing I noticed was the rubble surrounding the planet. I mean, you couldn't look anywhere without seeing the remains of a ship somewhere.
The second thing I noticed was Melissa's flagship, the Foundation, which was busy picking off a few Drengin corvettes.
.....Did she wipe the entire fleet out before I got here?
"Yes," exclaimed a familiar voice over the ship's intercom, "I did."
".......Wow. Didn't expect you to go this far."
"They made it personal. Now they get what they deserve."
I didn't really have a reply for that.
Idly, I could here music over the intercom. Apparently, Melissa was playing a song over her own ship's PA. One I liked, no less. She must have liked it too, since she was singing along.
"Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have Done.
Spend Your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun."
The rest of the Drengin fleet didn't last very long.
With her foes defeated, Melissa turned her attention back to me.
"While I wa beating up these stinking sacks of flesh, I found something you might like."
Before I could ask her what she meant, a gift wrapped box appeared right in front of me. Opening it, I was surprised to find an artifact inside of it. Oddly, this was seemed inert.
"I noticed a funny signal coming from the planet, so I thought it might be one of those artifacts you've been chasing. I teleported right up to where to was stored so I could save you the hassle of searching for it. I thought it might actually provide me with some challenge to fight, but as soon as I touched it, it went inert. Bit anti climatic, in my opinion."
Part of me felt that was important, but a bigger part of me didn't care. That was...rather worrisome.
"Okay......why did you give me the Artifact?"
"Because I don't want you to defeat the Drengin."
"What?! Why?!?!"
"Because I want to be the one to do it."
"...oh."
"You can assist me, if you are so inclined, but do not interfere with my vengeance. Or else!"
"Okay!"
"Good. Now let's get planetside."
XXXXXXXX
We landed just outside the planet's capital. All of the other cities were already under siege by Melissa's forces.
"So, are you ready to make them fall?" I asked my ROB, who, to my surprise, was wearing a gigantic orange cloak.
"No, there's one last thing I need to do."
Before I could ask what that was, she surprised me by taking off the cloak. I found myself rather flustered to find that, outside of wearing bandages over practically her entire body (excluding her hands, wrists, feet, and heels), she was without a hint of clothing. Also, that was a lot of bandages.
"...Why are you wearing so many bandages? Do you prefer those to normal underwear?"
I actually got growled at when I asked that question. I assumed that was a sore point for her until, much to my surprise, spines shot out of her shoulders, along with tentacles, while other strange growths began to appear all over her body. Soon, said gorwths turned into tentacles or, alternatively, bioluminescent patches. Her legs elongated and gained claws, as did her arms. As for her head, it transformed into a vaguely orca-like one that still seemed to short compared to her shadow-ohgodshe justhaanotherheadpopoutofhermouth!
As her form stabilized, I idly noticed it had milky white skin, even paler than her normal form.
Also, she had a really big tattoo on her back. Like, it went from he base of her neck all the way to the top of her butt. And it was glowing. And the flesh around the tattoo seemed raw and somewhat burned.
".......Have you always had that tattoo?"
"I've had it before I met you," was her reply, in her normal, human voice. That was probably thecreepiest thing about her so far, and she was really creepy. I won't lie, she scared the crap out of me.
The fact her form has recognizable human curves (albeit ones entirely made of muscle, like the wraith from Evolve) just unsettled me even more.
"Oh, and don't touch the tattoo. It's a...sensitive spot."
"Okay. Now are you ready?"
"No. We need one more thing."
"And that is?"
I got my answer in the form of someone shouting...no wait, they were singing.
Attero.....
Dominatus......
Berlin is Burning......
"Like it?" asked my ROB.
".....Yes."
"Good, now lets make them no fear. Try and keep up."
Denique....Interimo....
The Reich Has Fallen......
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
We Stand at the Gates of Berlin
With Two and a Half Million Men
With Six Hundred Tanks In Our Ranks
Use Them As Battering Rams!
It didn't take long for us to reach the gates of the capital city (called Drengari, for those who want to know). The Drengin fired at us, but all in vain - for every one of Melissa's monsters that they killed, millions more would take their place. My ROB would not allow them to win this fight. Not by a long shot. The lucky soldiers either surre3ndered or were killed by head shots and snapped necks. The rest, well, there wasn't anything to bury.
Artillery Leading the Way
A million Grenades has been Launched!
The Nazis must pay for their crimes
The Wings of the Eagle's Been Broken.
My own token contribution to this fight was a force consisting of a squad of bots under Hearth, a tank battalion under Sigurd, a small air wing under Jegudiel, with Lernea providing some logistics support. This was Melissa's fight, and there was no way in hell I would try and challenge her over that.
Marshall Zhukov's Orders
SERVE ME BERLIN ON A PLATE!
DISREGARD THE LOSSES
THE CITY IS OURS TO TAKE!
Once we broke through the gates, the Drengin fell apart.
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich has Fallen!
Melissa's forces weren't pulling any punches here - I saw a lot more mech's being deployed, including models I didn't recognize. Unsurprisingly, Elling was leading, because they couldn't bench their best pilot. As for the mech he was piloting.... was that a gundam?!
'The Age Gundam, to be exact. You think some armaments for Space Marines is the only thing I'd acquired on my travels?'
No, I hadn't, but I didn't think you'd have a Gundam.
'Why not? They're awesome.'
Good point.
The Price of a War Must Be Paid
Millions of Lives Have Been Lost.
The Price Must Be Paid by the Men
Who Started the War in the 30's!
The rest of Melissa's lieutenants weren't lazing around, either - Melissa had them busy totally dominating the enemy. Leal was ripping through the enemy lines, obliterating any defensive emplacements that stood in his way. Mortarax, meanwhile, was dealing with the enemy armor, either blowing it up, flattening it with a Warhammer, and in at least one instance, even tearing a tank apart with his bare hands.
As for Melissa's fourth subordinate, a woman named Adeline, was taking things slowly and methodically, smiping any foes should could find, using grenades, rifles, bayonents, knives, was that a lance?.... and any other weapon available, as well as pyrokinesis, which, considering her focus on using 'normal' equipment, was rather surprising. She also proved to be the medic of the team, healing any wounded she found using some kind of blue substance, and yes, this included any foes that surrendered or were too injured to fight. Those that did not, however, were spared no pain.
Comrade Stalin's Orders
Serve Me Its Head on a Plate
Disregard the Losses
The Eagle's Land are ours to Take!
Could such a one sided fight even be called a battle?
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich has Fallen!
As Melissa's forces increased their pressure on the Drengin, I decided to examine her forces to see which universes she had been too. Already, I could make out the space marine armor, a quick scan of which revealed that Melissa had lied to me on Iakesh - those suits weren't robotic, someone was in them, and they were really old. Looks like Melissa had actual space marines. Another things I noticed was a Drengin getting eaten by a giant lizard .....dinosaur.....was that a carnosaur?
'Ding, ding, ding.'
How'd you get the Lizardmen to help you?
'Long story, might tell you later, want to focus on the fighting.'
Fine.
Looking around, about the only thing I could notice so far that were from another universe (besides those already mentioned) were what appeared to e some stalkers from Pandora. How Melissa got them to fight for her was beyond me. Still, they were proving very effective.
......Were those Wraith Lords?
....Yes, yes they were. And the Space Marines were fighting side by side with them, as were some Imperial Guardsmen.
Okay, I definitely wanted to hear about that one.
That encompassed the entirety of the forces from other universes that Melissa had (that I could see, of course. She probably had more back at her home dimension). Yet all of it paled in destructive power to the woman herself. In her new, monstrous form - was it her true form? I wasn't really sure - she tore through the Drengin ranks like a blender, and occasionally stopped and ate some of her foes, a fraction of whom were still alive. She never went past the hips, though, and seemed to always spit up the intestines.
They're full of crap. Literally!
True....uh oh.
Before Melissa could question me on that, I put a hand on her back and pushed, just managing to exert enough force to shove her out of the way of a Drengin sniper, whose head I swiftly took off.
'OWOWOWOWOW! THAT HURT!'
Well, you would have taken a bullet to the back if I hadn't pushed you.
'....Thanks'
You're welcome.
Melissa responded by ramming a Drengin statue of Lord Kona, causing it to disintegrate. A moment later, several of her war beasts promptly used its head as a toilet.
Well that was funny. And humiliating.
But now, I believe it is time to end this.
With that, I had my avatar charge up its Psi-Amp. Time to clean the slate.
'My thoughts exactly, my pawn.'
March!
Fight!
Die!
In Berlin!
March!
Fight!
Conquer!
BERLIN!
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich Has Fallen!
ATTERO!
DOMINATUS!
BERLIN IS BURNING!
DENIQUE!
INTERIMO!
THE REICH HAS FALLEN!
Just who exacted that vengeance, though, wasn't what I think anyone was expecting.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
My forces arrived at one of the systems closest to the Drengi system, ready for battle. Mere minutes later, the Drengin responded with their own fleet, which quickly moved into the region, ready for their final stand.
Of course, unlike me, the Drengin had a relatively short maximum effective range on their weapons - enough that they needed to move very close (at least, astronomically speaking) to actually be within their effective range.
I was willing to let them do this unmolested. After all, it worked perfectly with what I had planned - I did have an ace up my sleeve on the way.
When the Drengin were halfway to my fleet, said ace arrived: an FTL capable star gate. A moment after it arrived, my newest fleet emerged from it, ready for battle.
Sandwiched between two fleets, the Drengin'sforces were swiftly cut down to the last, as they refused to surrender and, when defeat became obvious, attempted suicide attacks via ramming their ships into mine. It didn't work, but they didn't care. I guess they just wanted to have the satisfaction of knowing that I would not take them prisoner.
Oh well. I just hoped they realized their actions meant that I would have less forces to face when I attacked their homeworld.
I quickly messaged Melissa so that she would know I was going to take down the Drengin. She'd want to watch it happen. Seeing how it would take me ten minutes to get to the Drengia system, I assumed she would be able to reach it in time to enjoy their destruction.
I severely underestimated just how much she wanted them destroyed.
XXXXXXXX
When I arrived at Drengi, the first thing I noticed was the rubble surrounding the planet. I mean, you couldn't look anywhere without seeing the remains of a ship somewhere.
The second thing I noticed was Melissa's flagship, the Foundation, which was busy picking off a few Drengin corvettes.
.....Did she wipe the entire fleet out before I got here?
"Yes," exclaimed a familiar voice over the ship's intercom, "I did."
".......Wow. Didn't expect you to go this far."
"They made it personal. Now they get what they deserve."
I didn't really have a reply for that.
Idly, I could here music over the intercom. Apparently, Melissa was playing a song over her own ship's PA. One I liked, no less. She must have liked it too, since she was singing along.
"Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have Done.
Spend Your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun."
The rest of the Drengin fleet didn't last very long.
With her foes defeated, Melissa turned her attention back to me.
"While I wa beating up these stinking sacks of flesh, I found something you might like."
Before I could ask her what she meant, a gift wrapped box appeared right in front of me. Opening it, I was surprised to find an artifact inside of it. Oddly, this was seemed inert.
"I noticed a funny signal coming from the planet, so I thought it might be one of those artifacts you've been chasing. I teleported right up to where to was stored so I could save you the hassle of searching for it. I thought it might actually provide me with some challenge to fight, but as soon as I touched it, it went inert. Bit anti climatic, in my opinion."
Part of me felt that was important, but a bigger part of me didn't care. That was...rather worrisome.
"Okay......why did you give me the Artifact?"
"Because I don't want you to defeat the Drengin."
"What?! Why?!?!"
"Because I want to be the one to do it."
"...oh."
"You can assist me, if you are so inclined, but do not interfere with my vengeance. Or else!"
"Okay!"
"Good. Now let's get planetside."
XXXXXXXX
We landed just outside the planet's capital. All of the other cities were already under siege by Melissa's forces.
"So, are you ready to make them fall?" I asked my ROB, who, to my surprise, was wearing a gigantic orange cloak.
"No, there's one last thing I need to do."
Before I could ask what that was, she surprised me by taking off the cloak. I found myself rather flustered to find that, outside of wearing bandages over practically her entire body (excluding her hands, wrists, feet, and heels), she was without a hint of clothing. Also, that was a lot of bandages.
"...Why are you wearing so many bandages? Do you prefer those to normal underwear?"
I actually got growled at when I asked that question. I assumed that was a sore point for her until, much to my surprise, spines shot out of her shoulders, along with tentacles, while other strange growths began to appear all over her body. Soon, said gorwths turned into tentacles or, alternatively, bioluminescent patches. Her legs elongated and gained claws, as did her arms. As for her head, it transformed into a vaguely orca-like one that still seemed to short compared to her shadow-ohgodshe justhaanotherheadpopoutofhermouth!
As her form stabilized, I idly noticed it had milky white skin, even paler than her normal form.
Also, she had a really big tattoo on her back. Like, it went from he base of her neck all the way to the top of her butt. And it was glowing. And the flesh around the tattoo seemed raw and somewhat burned.
".......Have you always had that tattoo?"
"I've had it before I met you," was her reply, in her normal, human voice. That was probably thecreepiest thing about her so far, and she was really creepy. I won't lie, she scared the crap out of me.
The fact her form has recognizable human curves (albeit ones entirely made of muscle, like the wraith from Evolve) just unsettled me even more.
"Oh, and don't touch the tattoo. It's a...sensitive spot."
"Okay. Now are you ready?"
"No. We need one more thing."
"And that is?"
I got my answer in the form of someone shouting...no wait, they were singing.
Attero.....
Dominatus......
Berlin is Burning......
"Like it?" asked my ROB.
".....Yes."
"Good, now lets make them no fear. Try and keep up."
Denique....Interimo....
The Reich Has Fallen......
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
We Stand at the Gates of Berlin
With Two and a Half Million Men
With Six Hundred Tanks In Our Ranks
Use Them As Battering Rams!
It didn't take long for us to reach the gates of the capital city (called Drengari, for those who want to know). The Drengin fired at us, but all in vain - for every one of Melissa's monsters that they killed, millions more would take their place. My ROB would not allow them to win this fight. Not by a long shot. The lucky soldiers either surre3ndered or were killed by head shots and snapped necks. The rest, well, there wasn't anything to bury.
Artillery Leading the Way
A million Grenades has been Launched!
The Nazis must pay for their crimes
The Wings of the Eagle's Been Broken.
My own token contribution to this fight was a force consisting of a squad of bots under Hearth, a tank battalion under Sigurd, a small air wing under Jegudiel, with Lernea providing some logistics support. This was Melissa's fight, and there was no way in hell I would try and challenge her over that.
Marshall Zhukov's Orders
SERVE ME BERLIN ON A PLATE!
DISREGARD THE LOSSES
THE CITY IS OURS TO TAKE!
Once we broke through the gates, the Drengin fell apart.
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich has Fallen!
Melissa's forces weren't pulling any punches here - I saw a lot more mech's being deployed, including models I didn't recognize. Unsurprisingly, Elling was leading, because they couldn't bench their best pilot. As for the mech he was piloting.... was that a gundam?!
'The Age Gundam, to be exact. You think some armaments for Space Marines is the only thing I'd acquired on my travels?'
No, I hadn't, but I didn't think you'd have a Gundam.
'Why not? They're awesome.'
Good point.
The Price of a War Must Be Paid
Millions of Lives Have Been Lost.
The Price Must Be Paid by the Men
Who Started the War in the 30's!
The rest of Melissa's lieutenants weren't lazing around, either - Melissa had them busy totally dominating the enemy. Leal was ripping through the enemy lines, obliterating any defensive emplacements that stood in his way. Mortarax, meanwhile, was dealing with the enemy armor, either blowing it up, flattening it with a Warhammer, and in at least one instance, even tearing a tank apart with his bare hands.
As for Melissa's fourth subordinate, a woman named Adeline, was taking things slowly and methodically, smiping any foes should could find, using grenades, rifles, bayonents, knives, was that a lance?.... and any other weapon available, as well as pyrokinesis, which, considering her focus on using 'normal' equipment, was rather surprising. She also proved to be the medic of the team, healing any wounded she found using some kind of blue substance, and yes, this included any foes that surrendered or were too injured to fight. Those that did not, however, were spared no pain.
Comrade Stalin's Orders
Serve Me Its Head on a Plate
Disregard the Losses
The Eagle's Land are ours to Take!
Could such a one sided fight even be called a battle?
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich has Fallen!
As Melissa's forces increased their pressure on the Drengin, I decided to examine her forces to see which universes she had been too. Already, I could make out the space marine armor, a quick scan of which revealed that Melissa had lied to me on Iakesh - those suits weren't robotic, someone was in them, and they were really old. Looks like Melissa had actual space marines. Another things I noticed was a Drengin getting eaten by a giant lizard .....dinosaur.....was that a carnosaur?
'Ding, ding, ding.'
How'd you get the Lizardmen to help you?
'Long story, might tell you later, want to focus on the fighting.'
Fine.
Looking around, about the only thing I could notice so far that were from another universe (besides those already mentioned) were what appeared to e some stalkers from Pandora. How Melissa got them to fight for her was beyond me. Still, they were proving very effective.
......Were those Wraith Lords?
....Yes, yes they were. And the Space Marines were fighting side by side with them, as were some Imperial Guardsmen.
Okay, I definitely wanted to hear about that one.
That encompassed the entirety of the forces from other universes that Melissa had (that I could see, of course. She probably had more back at her home dimension). Yet all of it paled in destructive power to the woman herself. In her new, monstrous form - was it her true form? I wasn't really sure - she tore through the Drengin ranks like a blender, and occasionally stopped and ate some of her foes, a fraction of whom were still alive. She never went past the hips, though, and seemed to always spit up the intestines.
They're full of crap. Literally!
True....uh oh.
Before Melissa could question me on that, I put a hand on her back and pushed, just managing to exert enough force to shove her out of the way of a Drengin sniper, whose head I swiftly took off.
'OWOWOWOWOW! THAT HURT!'
Well, you would have taken a bullet to the back if I hadn't pushed you.
'....Thanks'
You're welcome.
Melissa responded by ramming a Drengin statue of Lord Kona, causing it to disintegrate. A moment later, several of her war beasts promptly used its head as a toilet.
Well that was funny. And humiliating.
But now, I believe it is time to end this.
With that, I had my avatar charge up its Psi-Amp. Time to clean the slate.
'My thoughts exactly, my pawn.'
March!
Fight!
Die!
In Berlin!
March!
Fight!
Conquer!
BERLIN!
Attero!
Dominatus!
Berlin is Burning!
Denique!
Interimo!
The Reich Has Fallen!
ATTERO!
DOMINATUS!
BERLIN IS BURNING!
DENIQUE!
INTERIMO!
THE REICH HAS FALLEN!
ATTERO!
XXXXXXXXXXXX
AN: A little late on this one, but such is the price of quality.
Also, I'm likely going to postpone the Warframe arc until the Venus Landscape comes out, because I do have special plans involving Solaris united, and I also want to see if they have flying Sentients. I will probably so filler stuff until then, as well as work on other stories.
Also, I hate to ask, but would anyone be3 willing to edit the tropes page for this story? I've got enough on my plate doing the page for Gatehammer Fantasy Battles, When In Doubt, Blame the Eldar, and some other stories on Fanfiction.net, and would appreciate help filling out the stuff for my own story. The link is in the signature.
With all that said, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!
- Location
- Beyond the Unknowable Veil
You are the author. Flying Sentients are your call. You want them, add them.
- Location
- Arizona
- Pronouns
- Him/His
I know.
Part of it is also because I just want to play some more of Warframe and do some more 'research' into other settings.
And get the rest of my stories all over the web back on track.