For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for war and a time for peace. When humanity is threatened, when alien culture is threatened, when the universe as a whole is threatened, unlikely candidates gather their arms and defend something that could possibly be conceived as "The Greater Good". Often times the Devil dances that dark, sinful waltz upon the face of the physical world, and even though shackled by God, his influence spreads. Corrupts. Deceives. Destroys. What happens when beings of the Devil, beings made only to bring the world to ruin, toy with their food. What happens when events reach their climax and the known world is bent on a crisis so catastrophic it threatens the very balance of the universe, itself?

When mankind idly stands back and watches as the outsiders wage war against each other, will they be forced to pull into the fray. When a man is pitted up against his old friend, will there be a time for him to throw away that friendship, will it be time for him to hate. Somewhere within this universe there lies two forces, neither of which may consider their actions for the greater good, neither of which may even be fighting for anything other than survival and consumption. Those who stray too close may find themselves unable to escape. Be weary, the night here is long and bitter, and the time is a...

Time for War.

The purpose of a paradox is to inextricably link two opposing forces into a synthetic bond that equates to one simple word. Balance. Such an ideology is maintained by mankind's will to evolve; to overcome trepidation and to interlace itself into a premature web of entropy. An entropy that festers within these two tyrants. And not just these two, but countless others, and even their counter-parts who dwell in the skies above them.

This web, so intricately woven..that even its creators cannot undo the tangles that bound them together. Restrained by emotions, overwhelmed by their own egotistical ways; they wage war against one another.

Earth is now on the brink of utter annihilation as these two fiends continue to wage war on the sands of time. A mile long beast that almost resembles a whale in appearance, its skin a rough gray texture that emphasizes its sheer strength, wings that bare reminiscence to both a dragons and a fish. It's massive girth casts a shadow over crater chunk in the earth, produced by a sea-green beam of energy known as bio-force.

It's opponent, a shape-shifting golem that anchors itself to the earth, by absorbing the minerals around it and focusing them into coherent form. The two gargantuans batter one another ruthlessly, bringing the battle to an unforeseen conclusion. Yet little do they know, that the book has yet to be even removed from the shelf that holds it.

The time is 13:00 hours. Location: Africa - The Ravaged Womb for Life - coordinates - The Sahara Desert - Just West of The Red Sea - The River of Blood.

Time: 13:45
Location: Approximately 1/4th a lightyears distance from the anti-planetary fleet. In a fabricated dimension created by Idea, Colossus, within Behemoth.

A gargly voice spoke to the newly-mutated Jack Theomen, "Morbidia shifts restlessly, and one of the agronians have engaged with Dreadnaught of the Herd 0023. Restless chaos strikes, and Sal-Chazzar must feed. Herald Anathema, you must now carry out the task for which you exist. Lead the children of Idea into battle and commence the harvest."

What Anathema currently stood in was like the hollow of a massive tree, twisting spires and wooded stalagtites sprinkled the area, and mostly, with the exception of a few glowing orbs of the passive bio-force. The sea-green aura created ambient light that was just enough to allow Anathema's eyes to adjust to the dim view without having to dip into his Biokinetic abilities. The room he was currently in was large, with many other corridors leading into other areas of the massive trunk, but moreso tall than it was wide. Throughout the rotunda, multiple openings were seen, but they were all the same, they led of into a dark shadowy veil. Anathema hadn't explored the entirety of any of the Behemoths, but he knew that the entire construct was voluminous, but also somewhat sacred, not many of the lesser Val'Gara set foot into the Behemoths.

He responded, it was much deeper and smoother than his human vocal chords produced - when he was still human - many things were different. "Understood, for the might of Sal'Chazzar, the enemy will be assimilated." He said, pressing a closed fist against his chest, bending slightly.

"You shall be deployed through Herd 0026, while 0023 will be immediately recalled, your board, upon Dreadnaught." Heard 0026 consisted of a few Dreadnaughts, so his human intelligence, reluctantly so, assumed he was upon one of those. The data of 0026 was directly uploaded through a Leviathan psi-link to his brain, three Dreadnaughts, two Leviathans, and one Sentinel. "You are dismissed, Herald, take your leave and begin your preparations." Anathema obeyed, however badly his human conciousness was against it.

After some few fifteen minutes or so of twisting corridors and flights of primitive stairs, Anathema had exited the Behemoth, onto Colossus. There he would begin and enter into Herd 0026, his herd.

Location: Anti-Planetary cluster, orbiting a-Jupiter.
Time: 13:45

A massive explosion and a massive war had happened, and after a few frays with it's allies, Xelas was recuperating, simply drifting on the outside of the orbit of Titan, Jupiter's moon. But what was seen surrounding the satellite was not Xelas, but Gennosuke. He was frozen, his eyes closed, almost as if he had been dead for a while. Apparently the vacuum of space was too much for him. His skin was cold and frosted and all his joints were stiff. B-thump, it seems that Xelas had jump started his organs, the blood that had literally frozen in his veins had somewhat melted, and thinned, and everything seemed to begin to work properly, it was as if Xelas had brought him back from the dead. Gennosuke's eyes frantically saccaded, and he placed a hand to his chest, slowly, his joints, apparently loosening up.

My tribe, Magnus, where...!? He turned his head to view the anti-planet, it was massive, taking up all his vision. I'm... in space? He brought his hand up to his face, and actually saw the crystallized vapor that came from his lungs. How can I breathe? It seems Xelas had provided the necessities to all his organs until it had completely recuperated.

Magnus.. Gennosuke thought, a tinge of malice to it. He couldn't wait till he saw that demon once again, he would remove him from existence. Even though that senseless war was over, Gennosuke felt like starting and entire new one, to fulfill his personal vendetta.

OOC: One Vs. One, or shall we be accepting Space Soviets?

Location: Fifteen AU from SOLCOMM/SOL-APZ borders.
Time: 14:35

Decoding - XD3F13G - PKVCP

To :: Battle-Group Flag-Ship "Admiral Gerasimovich" - Fleet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov
From :: WSATSC (Western-Spiral-Arm Technocrat-Space-Command)

MAJOR ANSIBLE TRAFFIC INCREASE : SOLCOMM-001 SALCHA--DEFPROT SUSPECT

Engage SOLDEF-001A Protocal : Planet-Sun Free : Omega-One Free

Vladimir Stalinslav - Technocrat Field Command

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Sergei Gorshkov gazed out at the glowing pinpoint of a Terran sun in the vast distance through the polarized transparent Plasteel windows of the Admiral Gerasimovich. He folded his hands in front of him, and imagined the pitch black sky burning pure white with the Fusion weapons to come. There was nothing to do until more information was to come in from the SOLCOMM; He was to wait here with his Battle-Group until something, anything, happened on the surface of Sol, or whatever was massing in the shadows on the Admiral Gerasimovich's subspace sensors revealed itself to him. He would complete his mission, even if nothing was there.

The Battle-Group was a massive fleet this time. Due to the Trantorian-Skelekusion(?) Forces escalation, the Red Technocracy had been upgrading and bulking up their routine wartime fleet complements. The entire Battle-Group appeared to be a cloud of Crimson and Grey, as cutters and fighters swarmed around the larger Battleships and Destroyers in A.I. controlled precision; It was an old tactic, giving yourself an umbrella of fighters and cutters, and as proven in classic planetfall combat, it worked.

Standing at the center of the fleet was the massive Strike Carrier Admiral Gerasimovich; It held both a massive complement of fighters, and strategically placed missile batteries for offensive firepower to match any battleship. It was also the second ship of it's class. Trailing beside it were two battleship fireteams of two battleships each, escorted by a trio of missile cruisers. Behind there were the five carriers of the fleet, each holding roughly 210 A.I. controlled fighters working in groups of 5. And positioned through the fleet were Twenty-Five missile destroyers in a hexagonal fire-support position, and sixteen Strike Cruisers in an arrow formation. Finally, there was a complement of three Cutter-Carriers, dedicated space "frames" with engines and quarters for heavy cutter craft armed with anti-capital ship weaponry. With this fleet, as with all others, there was an AM fuel tanker and Command-and-Control vessel trailing the back, safely out of combat range.

The time is 14:50: Location - The Planet Soran

Cold harsh winds batter what seems to be an isolated forest underneath an ominous sky of onyx with an unusual yellow tint; the propellant from a legion of space-ships soaring through outer-space is easily enough to catch the attention of a semi-primitive group of creatures currently on a hunt. Their pitch-black eyes hold depths that would make the creators of Hades bow their heads in shame; skin-tone - a dirty gray dust-like color, almost grimey in its liquidy hue. Their physical appearance is by no means minuscule, but in fact, just the opposite; muscles harder than titanium allow them to bend even the toughest of steels, exemplified when one of them literally creates an archway by placing his fleshy hands on the smooth surface and pushing outwards, providing a clear path through an otherwise tangled mess of vines which leak into a murky swamp.

"Thane, flank it on the right-hand side, and intercept it where the channels change!" A creature of similar construct gladly obeyed the order, his demonoid wings flapping rapidly, as the shape-shifter began to alter its anatomical structure along the arms. Flesh began to rend itself apart, as the fibers of his epidermis began to expand in length before tying together once more, granting him a unique form of flexibility that would serve him well in chasing down its food. With his new-found momentum, Thane kicked up off the ground and sent himself soaring ten feet above the canopy, his acute vision allowing to maintain a lock on his designated target. "He's veering your way, brother!"

"THEN LET HIM COME MY WAY!" Morbid - leader of the Niraans, a group of beasts whom had acquired their names due to the violent reputation, and rather...morbid way of both not only hunting, but healing as well as combat. Everything around him was starting to become a blurr as his incredible speed carried him through the ever-changing environment, making it shin-deep into a now muddy swamp, where he finally managed to get a bead on just where Thane was trying to direct him in. "Fly up ahead and cut off its escape routes. This bitch is mine." Morbid opened up his arms, grabbed onto the leg of what appeared to be an insectoid, viciously digging his claws deep inbetween its exoskeleton and heaving the entire thing up out of the water and impaling it on some jagged rocks along the bank.

After the carnage was over, Thane swooped down and landed about a few feet away from his brother was busy separating the mutilating the creature into separate pieces for each member of the clan to take for themselves. "Another successful hunt brother.." "As if he stood a chance. The last person who tried running from me, got their eyes raked out with their own teeth.."

For now the two brothers simply turned around headed back to their cave, yet before they could cover even thirty feet, a midnight blue fog began to rise up out of the water, swelling into a massive plume that shrouded the area in complete and utter darkness, red electricity jumping up and giving the skies above an orange tinge. "So..you say this creature wasn't a challenge?" Morbid remained calm and composed, unaffected by the sudden change in atmosphere, but this didn't mean it hadn't caught his interest. "What..do you mean not a challenge?" "This!" Suddenly, one of the insect's bones exploded right in the face of one of Morbid's comrades, stabbing him directly in the eyes and the rest of his upper-body."

"I suggest we get out of here, brother..."

"You dare run away when one of our own have fallen, Thane?"

"If it means the rest of us get to survive, then most definitely."

"Soranians never run away from a threat, Thane! You know this as well as I do.."

"Yes, but does that mean we need to sacrifice our own lives out of sheer pride?"

"This is not sacrifice, brother. This is called avenging our brother.."

"So you accept this challenge?"

"Yes. And when I win, I'll have your head on a pike..whoever you are.."

"My name...is Singar. Let the games begin."

As soon as the words were spoken, the entire forest became engulfed in a thick yellow blight, teleporting the beasts onto what appeared to be a technologically advanced ship, composed of some unknown element that was apparently alive. The ship had a strangely arcane look to it, rigid all over as a set of lights began to flicker on down the length of a narrow corridor which seemed to stretch for miles on end. There were mechanical drones patrolling the ship as well as what appeared to be living statues made up entirely of rock, embedded in their bodies were blue and red runes, lightly tinged in some type of dark substance that governed their movements.

"Tage...give our guests a warm welcome." Thane flinched the second he heard the remark, beating his tail against the ground in preparation before letting out an abrupt: "Hugh!" "Hugh! Hugh! Hugh! Hugh! Hugh!" One by one each Morbidian fell flat on their face, having been caught off guard from behind, injected with a type of sedative that at first made them rapidly twitch as if having a seizure. The process lasted for about a minute until each of them got back up onto their feet. "What...the hell have you done to us?" "Oh, just a little something to make sure you'd be able to survive in space. It's awfully cold out there, you know."

"What!?"

--

"Preparations are complete, Corruptor."

"Send a message back to the board of Dis that I will be taking a temporary..."

"A temporary...?"

"I'll be taking a temporary leave to investigate Magnus' new creation."

Singar sat down in his ornately decorated throne, and twiddling his fingers.

"I've made it to the check-point, Deceiver. Commence the operation."

--

The time is 15:12: Location - Sahara Desert

The weather was anything but pleasant, and the war that had been raging in the desert multiplied that loathsome atmosphere tenfold. Thomas Balvice - a former Lieutenant of the Monterey, CA police department, now nothing more than a slave to his own body. A slave that was now over three thousand feet up in the air, having been thrown up by the immense shock wave produced by that whale-like creature known as Dreadnaught. "OOMPH!" Apparently he landed right on the things back, and it was infested with an array of crustaceous monsters, snapping their pincers at him and just waiting for an opportunity to rip him apart like they did to Johnson no less than a few months ago. Since the attack, Earth had transformed into a war-zone; all the world's militaries proving futile against the might of the beast.

Thomas managed to get a quick glimpse at what was happening down on land, spotting other creatures that looked similar to the ones currently persuing him. A glowing red maze!? A rock serpent!? A living pillar on steroids!? And these...creatures..I'm gettin' the fuck out of here... Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen, as his legs seemed to move on their own kicking himself out of the way of a pincer that nearly decapitated him right there on the spot, instead grazing his neck. "Son of a bit-ERRAGH!" His eyes began to take on a gritty stone-like color, while his skin tore open at the forearm and a blade composed entirely of bone protruded outwards, covered in blood which was quickly evaporating, evidenced the now searing red blade.

"I supPOSE I should be USED TO THIS by nnnno-uhh--owww..." It was now or never, charging the creatures head on, spikes protruding along the length of that very same arm, driving that blade straight through the throats of several crustaceans before getting dog-piled and snapped at. Thomas was barely managing to keep himself from being completely annihilated, before the serpent - Sarach began to act rather strangely; runes manifesting themselves along the length of Thomas' left arm, emitting a luminescent red that suddenly exploded outwards, annihilating a good fifty or so of those things. Yet, there were still more coming at him, hundreds if not thousands rushing at him like a swarm of ants.

"Gotta find a way out of here...or at least hold 'em off." Thomas immediately reached down to his leg and pulled out a .45 caliber socom gun, completely unloading the clip before slipping in another, and another, and another. They just don't quit! He nearly fumbled the gun as he ran away, spotting what appeared to be an archway made up entirely of an organic compound. Everything was dark inside, activating the flashlight mounted beneath the muzzle. What he saw was NOT pleasant, there was a cess-pool filled with the type of medical waste you'd find after child-birth, veins twisting around one another, like the convoluted mess of a South American jungle. Truly a sight to behold, and one that made him wish he was still outside being attacked by crustaceans.

For now, he'd merely explore this fleshy maze, seeing no point in stepping back outside. Earth had just been blown to shit, his best friend was dead, Jessica was dead, and if he didn't do something about the situation, he'd be next on the execution list.

Location: 410,785 Kilometers above the Saharah
Time: 16:05 TST

Earth had been blown to shit. The key words there were 'blown to shit'. In the event of the earth being 'blown to shit' by an alien power other than the Red Technocracy or something of Terran doing, the Red Technocracy was fully permitted to swoop down on the Solas Administrative District of space, and 'blow the shit out of' whoever was attacking that strange blue-green plant that was the homeworld of humanity.

"Something" had crashed on earth, something really big when it came to a Biological imprint; From their lofty position outside the solar system, the fleet had managed to detect this staggeringly massive "thing". Things like that were not good, especially when they just happened to run into the sensor imprint of a planet. It was time to move in. This thing was messing with Sol! Nothing did that, except them! NOTHING.

The fleet had preformed a small Tactical FTL warp, engaging their drives for just under a second, and only missed the target location by a palty +10,000 Kilometers. A massive cloud of radiation had been created because of the jump, serving to give away the prior position of the fleet to anyone looking hard enough and possesing the requesite knowledge of FTL mechanics.

Bright orange flares still sparkled and fizzed in the jump zone, where random exotic particles collided with the normal ones and anhilated themselves in bright displays of energy and heat. More orange flares crackled in the path of the jump, as the sparse clouds of exotic particles annihilated whatever they touched in a maelstrom of even more exotic energy; This was one of the many reasons FTL was never used in Atmosphere.

The Admiral Gerasimovich was now orbiting at roughly the same distance as the moon above the Earth. Below it was the Sarah, and the withering organic form of a Dreadnought. Behind and around it was the rest of the fleet, moving into a semi-spherical offensive position, with the battleships floating on both sides for purposes of Orbital Bombardment.

The plan for this mission was rather simple: Bomb the creature below the fleet to hell, without taking out too much of a Terran dessert. A little glass would be fine, and a boon for tourism, but turning the landscape into a giant plate for the charred and irradiated chunks of Dreadnought meat was out of the picture.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Commence Bombardment, over/

The first guns to fire were the battleships lance cannons. These 3-Meter guns fired off with computerized precision, raining about Thirty 3-Meter shells made of pure Iridium inside a Carbon-Nanocell shell laced with Anti-Matter explosive charges. These were sure to shred the behemoth from the sheer force implied when something is propelled at nearly 280 kilometers per second and designed to crack planet-killer asteroids and rival battleships in the same way that a baseball bat cracks an eggshell.

The next rain of death from from the Carrier Itself, which fired off volley after volley of 10 foot long Anti-Matter tipped tungsten 'telephone poles' at 250 Kilometers Per Second from it's Primary rail guns, while smaller 3 foot long tungsten 'needles' peppered the area. This hail of white metal was highly inaccurate, but the sheer tonnage of these made up from the sparsity of distribution.

In lower orbit over the earth, a trio of Destroyers fired barrages of multi-Kilojoule energy beams at the Dreadnaught, glassing the surface of the Saharah as they impacting with the ground and disrupting wind patterns from their sheer heat.

The barrage stopped, and the bridge of the Carrier was silent as the crew anxiously waited from the smoke to clear and the remains of the creature to become evident.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Time: 15:38
Location: Located on anti-Titan, orbiting a-Jupiter

Gennosuke had managed to make it to the satellite moon orbiting a-Jupiter with some help from the nearly-inactive Xelas. He was breathing somehow, in the vacuum of space. Somehow he had also made it to the satellite, and was just setting foot on its surface, mulling over the events of the war, that hasty betrayal and treacherous response that Magnus had given him. He threatened my clan, Gennosuke thought, bitterly.

He said he would destroy all of them. He's probably already half way back in time to ravage my village, also. I will destroy him, I will destroy anything affiliated with him. I will CONSUME him. Wait, what?

Gennosuke had an urge to devour, to devour anything sentient.

Magnus will be devoured, he will be destroyed.

He could just picture the chaos Magnus would cause within his domicile. Iba wasn't able to take it from him, so he damn well wont let some vampiric-caped freak take it. Xelas finally began to reboot itself within his system, and was circulating through his blood stream. That reminds me... last thing I remember happening was being eaten by that weird ship of his... then I just completely blacked out. The war is over? Who won? Obviously i'm still alive so - Wait, no, I wasn't alive... Was I? Does that mean we lost? What happened to his ship? Come to think of it, this setting looks awfully familiar, the temporal patterns seem much like the universe Magnus created... Is this that new dimension he created? If so i'm in a load of shit... Or am I? I had quite a bit of control over some aspects, maybe I could use them against him... Well, if that [i]is the case let's start raising hell.[/i]

Gennosuke dipped deep into all the information he had learned while aboard the Xelas, and his temporal magicks, and all the abilities his doujutsu allowed him. His arms spread out commandingly fingers arched like fearsome claws. His hair, suspended in near-zero gravity, and his lips curled back into a snarl. LET ALL THE COSMOS FOLLOW AT MY COMMAND!!! His eyes took on that yellow/greenish hue, respectively, it was unnatural. A yellow orb surrounded Gennosuke and then spread out dissipating, nearly undetectable. His hakama and haori were somewhat in suspended animation, as he let out a fearsome roar.

Gennosuke stood there for a while in the face of the massive gas giant, arms spread in a demanding commanding position. There was a long, awkward pause, and his shoulders relaxed slightly, only to tensen again "OBEY!" It was a great thing he was alone, because this felt pretty embarassing. Nothing was happening. Gennosuke's arms lowered as he paused, this isn't working, why did it work before and not now? Just then an explosion of energy traced the circumference of Gennosuke's body, this massive amount of golden energy cracked another crater into the moon. This energy seemed to flow through his body involuntarily, Xelas was signaling it's return, and perhaps would take control of his conciousness if he let it.

Gah... what is this?! Gennosuke wavered as his eyes began to turn over to a completely scarlet hue.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time: 16:05
Location: Sahara

An inky screen had surrounded Dreadnaught in its fight against the rock golem, the anti-matter shells passed through the almost-liquid veil, exploding, the ink acted like a shield and diluted the radioactivity through unknown means. However the massive amount of tungsten poles that showered the desert was more than threatening to the temporarily-deactivated Val'Gara carrier. Once the tungsten rods penetrated the sleek nebula a somber wail was heard one which echoed, indicating the attack had been successful. Luckily, dreadnaught had just began to regain power within it's bio-reserves. Just as Dreadnaught had powered back up it released a cloud of energized bio-force into the nebula, which would effectively counteract the energy barrage thrown down at it. The toxicity levels of the ink shroud had just about reached hazardous levels, and with that it dissipated, revealing the massive creature once again.

Unfortunately, Dreadnaught was heavily damaged, already, and both Sentinel and Leviathan had already warped away, leaving the carrier defenseless. The Avatar on board left discretion to basic Dreadnaught instinct, and that was to flee. Dreadnaught focused a heavy radiation of bioforce whilest still in the troposphere, which was already extremely dangerous to the planets well-being, to escape from the fire from above. The gateway, once opened would ravage the entirety of the sahara, almost completely unearthing the entirety of a few square miles. Dreadnaught was attempting to escape, and that is precisely what it would do, but before it moved towards the gateway, it released a multitude of small pod-like larvae which exited the stratosphere at a rate comparable to the tungsten rods fired down on Dreadnaught, these were highly corrosive, extremely radioactive, highly explosive pods that could have been any number of units created by Dreadnaught, but instead prematurely they were ripped from the creation chamber and fired through pore-like exits on dreadnaught's body, and were fired at the fleet as a countermeasure.

Location: 410,785 Kilometers above the Saharah
Time: 16:05 TST

As the Dreadnaught proceeded it's frantic escape run, another hail of weaponry met it. The battleships had fired again, this time with Faster-Than-Light weaponry. Usually reserved for anti-ship use, these weapons were Relativistic Kill Vehicles that operated by shifted an object into superluminal speeds for less than a few Miliseconds, allowed the projectile to exit at nearly the speed of light. In this case, Anti-Planetary FTL weapons would be deployed for the Dreadnaught. In order to prevent the shell from simply bursting right through the planet, a 60 Megaton shaped charge facing downwards was mounted to the end of the shell, and in the the Nanoseconds it would take from the charge to explode and counteract the forward motion, the shell would enter and exist hyperspace, creating an almost instantly delivered weapon. The molten metal from the shell would still have Kinetic force, enough to piece through most shields and explode inside the ship, or Val'Gara, in this case. The effect of piercing through half a mile of organic flesh would also slow the shell, and leave massive gaping wounds throughout the Dreadnaught's body.

The pods soared through the stratosphere and towards the Trio of Destroyers in orbit, which began their own counter-barrage. The main Beam Cannons of the Destroyers worked overtime to shot down swaths of the pods as they spread farther and farther apart; A cloud of explosions was the result of this as pods were downed left and right, first by the Beam Cannons, and then the Point-Defense guns of the Destroyers and the Anti-Ship Railguns. The radiation from the pods was easily compensated for by the nature of the space ships, and the corrosive acid would float idly in space, scattering beyond any point of usefulness. And well, the pods had already exploded. To avoid any more of these attacks, a field of Anti-Matter charges were dispersed below the destroyers (Standard Countermeasures!) that would explode on contact with Bio-Force or matter!

Location: 200 Kilometers North of the Dreadnaught
Time: 16:15 TST

A group of Ka-72 VTOL transports soared through the atmosphere, making a quick loop above the Dreadnaught before heading towards their designated landing location. They were Combat OSNAZ units, sent to preform recon and make sure none of the Dreadnaught's unit's survived to reproduce on earth.

((Go! Go! Go! Azrican!))

Location: 180 Kilometers North of the Dreadnaught
Time: 16:25 TST



The Ka-72 swung low, it's payload nestled safely within it's mechanical bowels as the group of aircraft approached their mission objective. Feet shifted in their seat place as the Ka-72 banked to the right; a course correction that would bring it in lower as the pilots prepared to touch down and disembark their payload.
"Up and Adam; We're drpping." Havok heard a Lieutenant prepare; with a deep voice, the group of twenty soldiers responded with a crisp response; obviously a celebrated form of Military pride. Havok had little of it, and Lieutenant took his seat once more, he felt a soft tug and push at his arm. Tilting his head Benjamin looked directly toward the helmeted form of a Technocratic soldier.
"Hey, Azrik. You're ona' them UCON Mercenaries, aren't you?" The soldier questioned, his voice was dulled and rebuffed; the helmet didn't serve specifically well for one on one communication. Yet Havok could easily understand it.

He was an Azrik, but he wasn't a UCON Mercenary. To maintain face, he would have to look like he was; both to get paid, and to not get his ass thrown back to UCON by the Red Tech.
"Yeah, yeah. Born in AlncFord, y'know, Azrica." Havok responded, his head-gear was much less suitable for the current mission. A deep black toque hiding mottled hair in small spouts from atop his head, Havok quietly looked over the soldier and his armament; obviously the Red Technocracy out-powered common UCON weaponry in the form of much more powerful railguns and advanced armor systems. Havok could never excuse Scatterran fighting tenacity, though.
"Damn. You're a long way from home, Azrik. What the hell is bringing you all the way here?" Another soldier asked, one sitting across from him; Havok pivoted his head upward and directed his eyes forward as he looked at another Osnaz.


The drop was quick and clean, the Ka-72 touched down, and the groups filed out of the vehicles, quickly assuming an echelon formation roughly 13 meters from the Ka-72. Havok and one Lieutenant Katushyavich were the last occupants out of the transport, the Azrik following closely behind his Technocratic counterpart.
"Azrik, I want you on point. We're roughing it to the Dreadnaught." The Lieutenant commanded; stopping momentarily to wave a hand about to signal the group of Technocratic soldiers to reform and prepare for their attack on the Dreadnaught.

Movement was quick and hasty; the group of twenty soldiers rushed quickly through the desolate plains of the Saharah toward their intended target, grass swaying beneath boot and plate as platoon worth of men began their weave into the Area of Operation. Havok was at point; with weapon slung in front.
"This is Osnaz-One to Command, the Dreadnaught is in sight. Repeat, Dreadnight in sight." He heard the Lieutenant bark; the mans voice rumbling over the communication link as the group of soldiers neared within the 1 Kilometer range.

Location: Anti-Planetary cluster aboard an unknown ship.
Time: 16:30

Aboard the unknown ship, Singar sat in his throne thoroughly satisfied with the results of his ploy thus - far. A balled fist came up underneath his chin, elbow resting on the armrest next to it, and pressing a few buttons located on the side, relaying a message to his robotic servant: "Tage, see what you can do about...that one." Thousands of tiny, blue neurons cascaded in front of his ocular receptors, saturating his scarlet lenses in an ultra-violet hue; naturally captivating yet fearsome and sick to the true viewers.

Metallic vertebrates protrude out from the spinal column, revealing a set of turning cranks, releasing a crimson plume of what almost appears to be a sort of ethereal dust; readying just one of many functions that these microscopic machines hold. They slowly descend down onto Thane's fleshy back, burrowing into his nervous system and forming a link-up to his genetic code, overwriting his entire genetic code, leaving the already existing traits in-tact and simply augmenting them while adding on a few...new features.

Morbid turned around, letting out a raspy bellow before he charged Tage head on, viciously spinning around and swinging the back of his forearm towards the metal beast's neck, only to be ensnared by cables that were attached to his fingers. "JP-7 Liquid oxygen thrusters online.." A metallic plate slid back into his humerus, and out popped a rail-blade locked to his ulna, buzzing with electric current that he thrust towards Morbid's neck, unable to find a viable reason to keep him alive. But before he could deliver the coup de grace he found his cables wrapped around Morbid's arm, and then himself being swung all the way across the room.

He had little time to react - the soles of his feet opening up and propelling the fuel he had stored inside his shins out behind him in a narrow cone, rocketing himself right back at what logistics now confirmed to be more of a threat than an ally. Tage channeled the electricity through his cables, giving Morbid just enough shock to singe his skin which sadly didn't have much effect on him; he'd have to take him out with sheer brute force which seemed to be Morbid's strong-suit.

Black claws dug into the wires that kept Tage's right arm mobile and completely disabled it, though he still had control over the cables due to the way they were built into his anatomy. A sickening bang followed by twisting metal was heard as the two exchanged headbutts while Morbid bent his arm; both crashing head-on into a wall that wasn't as durable as it seemed. After all, looks could be deceiving and this Morbid...here definitely embodied that phrase's meaning all too well.

"Enough, Tage. As..entertaining as that was I think it'd be best if we let him live."

The mechanical dragon quickly freed himself from the rubble and exited through a tunnel; his work here had been finished and getting into a fight with something less than himself simply wasn't worth the effort. He returned to the main-room, Morbid trying to follow him but had been quickly cut-off by a sliding metal door closing right in his face. Singar simply sat patiently in his throne as Tage quickly began repairing itself with the help of his nanomachines.

"I want you to go investigate something for me."

"What?"

"There's a spatial anomaly occurring near Anti-Jupiter. It's more than likely one of Magnus' creations - an enemy or something even greater."

"Capture? Kill? Or should I use the stealth method?"

"When you have acquired enough data, send it back to me and we'll decide where to go from there."

--
Location: Inside the Dreadnaught.
Time: 16:35

On board the Dreadnaught Thomas spotted an unusual phenomenon occurring along the walls: Lambent balls of green light over a red surface...He merely arched a brow at this and carried on, the hammer on his socom pulled back and ready to fire should he run into anymore crap. Last I checked Christmas was in December not March.. This place really did have some interesting features, not to mention a plethora of tiny insects running around inside him. A few were gnawing on barely visible bones while others were stupid enough to fall into a scratch; a scratch that looked more like a underground river if anything else.

He managed to find a hole in one of the walls, covered in a gooey, yellow liquid that strangely enough reminded him of butterscotch. Might as well get a move on before one of those bugs comes and rapes me with one of its pinc- "Oh, what the fu-ugh" Thomas immediately fell onto one knee, his other leg giving out for a moment; unused to the stress that was induced whenever the shape-shifter living inside him decided that it was alright to puppeteer him - literally.

Thankfully being a former lieutenant made him somewhat durable. Not like he was some average joe that could be pushed around like the scientists back in Monterey. He pushed as hard as he could, finger-nails filling up with the disgusting liquid covering the flesh and scampering over to the hole where he'd crawl in and hopefully make his way over to the other side, 'less something go w- "Awgh FFFFTTTTFFF. I don't know why this tastes so damn good, but it'll probably kill me if I swal- OGHFF" Yeah, he swallowed it.

Strangely enough as the substance began to move around through his veins he suddenly began to feel replenished, almost as if he had taken an energy drink but without the seizure-part sending him into cardiac arrest. Evidently he was inside one of the tunnels that lead to the Dreadnaught's pancreas which explained that yellow color and why both its viscosity and taste reminded him of butterscotch. Hell, he almost wanted to gobble some of it up, but he wasn't that stupid. If working in the narcotics department had taught him anything, it that just because cocaine and sugar look alike, that doesn't make it sweet...although this was an exception.

Unfortunately, by the time he was finished reminiscing with himself, Thomas had already made it through the end of the tunnel, his clothes were soaked as he stepped out, spotting the stomach located just six hundred goddamn feet away. "I might as well make a business while I'm in here. Maybe I could call it something like...hmm I don't know 'Tom's whale-shack?' Perhaps something a little less frightening like Minno's Delight?' Hehehe.. I got it. 'Free Willy's all you can eat buff- HOLY SHIT!"

Thomas got sent flying into a wall, and was nearly pancaked like he just got hit by a nuclear warhead, his face covered in nasty looking parasitic worms. "And I thought those crustaceans were ugly.." He didn't hesitate for a second to rip those annoying little shits off his body. One had bitten him in the leg and was trying to burrow in but immediately split in half, leaving Thomas flabbergasted momentarily. "What the fuck just OW! OW! OW! SON OF A BITCH OW! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" That bastard Agron must've thought it was a good idea to roast the fucker to death using Thomas' bone as heat-rod.

Then came the epic roar of the beast, screaming in agony as its massive body started to fall, leaving Thomas to the cruel whims of gravity. "FUCKOGH!" All the air in his lungs rushed out at once as he hit his back smacked against the ceiling. Bigger they are, the harder they fall, my ass... He squinted and just barely reacted in time to see one of those fucking crustaceans go flying out the opening and into the over-sized oven that was the Saharah.

"Hagh! Hagh! Stupid bug. Go swallow some melted sand!" At least a couple things went well, because just a few seconds later he was back on his face, this time falling into a puddle that was like a pool in comparison to himself. He hadn't crushed his his face due to the substance being so soft and gelatinous, but getting out of it was a different story altogether. He had to practically let off a couple rounds from his socom just to get the propulsion he needed to make it back up to the surface. "Oh god...what the fuck is this shit!?"

Thomas scrambled to get out of the cess-pool and flipped over only to start mumbling random curse words under his breath as he made his way over to the hole and threw himself out, not realizing that there was still a thirty foot drop ontop of one of the many sandy-hills scattered throughout the desert. "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, ANUBIS, POSEIDON, WHATEVER THE FUCK GOD LIVES HERE. If I EVER HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN I WILL PERSONALLY MURDER EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" Thomas looked like something straight out of a horror film, covered in blood, liquid sugar, a few dead parasites and a giant chunk of flesh sticking to his back that he hadn't noticed.

"Oh, and just for good measure!" He immediately ran back up to the hole and began unloading his entire clip, watching as a few lucky shots hit Dreadnaught's stomach, releasing a few drops of digestive acid that almost hit him in the face. "Oh shit!"
--
Location: Anti-Jupiter. Time: 17:40

Tage had been moving through space for about an hour now and finally spotted just exactly what Singar had wanted him to track. Two panels on his shoulders opened up and released a volley of missiles, blowing up whatever chunks of moon had gotten in his way. "Temporal fluctuations are interlacing themselves an unknown spiritual energy. Trace amounts of Arcane Project AF364j5 are resonating from this being." Though, he did look human, he had his suspicions.

"Corruptor, I've found what you were looking for."

"What is it Tage?"

"All I can find is that he's a ninja, and he's giving off an energy that contains trace amount of Xelas' own."

"He..must've been one of those slaves unfortunate enough to be forced into that war with The Crimson Knights. Magnus told me about how amusing it was to watch them squirm..."

"What are my orders."

"Stay out of his sights but continue to scan him. Besides, Deceiver won't be here for a few more hours."

Tage simply hitched a ride on a floating chunk of rock and remained there for the time being, masking himself in the energy resonance that Gennosuke had given off by running it through his ley lines - camouflaging himself.

"Move up! Up!" The Lieutenant yelled angrily, Ben huffed calmly as he bolted from his cover behind a group of rocks that lay scattered across the landscape and rushed headlong toward their intended objective. Quickly, Ben made his move as a team of two Technocracy soldiers took the lead ahead of him, the horizon rumbled with the booming explosions of artillery as the Platoon moved in on the Dreadnaught.
"Lieutenant, we have a visual on the target." Ben offered, stopping momentarily as the two Technocracy soldiers ceased their movement as well.

"Understood, Azrik. We're moving to your position." He heard the voice return; the Technocracy soldiers heard this over their link as well, and as quickly as the trio of men had stopped their charge toward the Dreadnaught, they had once again began their rush. The tall grass swayed and pushed around the moving torso's of the three. Havok held the rear, his MR-17 leveled and prepared to fire on anything should the need arise for him to do so, yet the two other soldiers ran silently, Ben strained himself to keep in-toe with the group of soldiers, obviously their mechanically enhanced armor gave them a distinct advantage over his own type of equipment.


"Azrik, the three of you are the closest to the target. You are to move immediately to engage the target. You're our eyes." He heard the Lieutenant bark, the trio slowed to a stop as the Technocracy soldiers sent a quick glance back toward Havok.
"Fuck man, you guys are running fast." He offered as he stopped to take a breath, the two soldiers nodded slightly, their helmets pressing against their clothing slightly as they readied their weapons. Havok followed suit and chambered a fresh round into the barrel of the MR-17.
"You heard the Lieutenant, we're gonna' go bust some shit up now."


Outside the parameters of the Sol System

Exit of Slipstream was a risky and always evident danger, yet it aided UCON greatly in the projection of it's influence across the stars. The blazing "White Globe" of the UCON Confederated Navy Light Cruiser, the CS "Armara" exited Slipstream with relative ease. The present bridge crew, a group of somewhere near 15 Resident Navy Personnel, or RNP, would have felt the exit from Slipstream much as they did a drop on a roller coaster. The feeling of a deep pit within the bowels of the men and women at the bridge as the Light Cruiser exited Slipstream.

"We're in the Norm, Captain." A young Junior Lieutenant responded, a hand tracing upward to a slender piece of equipment mounted on the woman's ear; monitoring numerous amounts of radio chatter through many evident entities identified on the sensors. Obviously, the parties present in this system would notice the looming vessel on the edge of the system.

Dreadnaught was down, but not out, it was well aware of the ground forces and heavy resistance was sent in response heavy Demolisher units, capable of taking artillery to the chest and keep on tickin' met the advancing troops, accompaning the Demolishers were Drones whom were half the size of their counterparts. Both of which came pouring out of the wounds of Dreadnaught, they came to cause carnage, had they reached range of the troops the drones would begin firing digestive phelgm accompanied by organic spines that were made of super-enhanced durable marrow, capable of piercing through even steel had they hit them at a particular range. Demolishers lumbered across the scene, roaring as a few of them slammed their large hands into the ground, uprooting a large patch of terra where they then hurled the large rock at some of the artillery.

It was more like Dreadnaught was attempting to cover itself while it regenerated it's wounds, while dreadnaught had these gaping holes in its body, if one watched carefully they could see the flesh begin to close and sinew begin to narrow, as well as drones around the orofice beginning to spray a horrible fluid onto the sinews which aided the recovery process. If the platoon were to enter dreadnaught they would have to act fast and they would have to be decisive to enter the mile-long monstrosity before the wounds closed.

At this point support units within Dreadnaught began to erect psionic barriers above it to prevent an aerial assault on the downed beast.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A-Jupiter, Titan, orbitting the anti-planet. Anti-planetary cluster. 16:40

Gennosuke clutches at his chest as he doubles over on Titan's surface. What is this... his eyes take a crimson color as his view of things become askewed throughout his mind he begins to feel voracious hunger and views things from a cold statistical viewpoint. Gennosuke attempts to hold control while he mentally battles with his inner demon. He has felt so much rage since being ripped from his home that he nearly feels void such an emotion, but that could easily change - with but one word, with one name Gennosuke could become an inquellable maelstrom of anger once again.

In his strange internal battle he felt fluctuation of some sort of disturbance peak for a second, like an explosion, then it was gone - the signal of energy, the power fluctuation, everything. He did sense where it was coming from, however, and for a moment both began to act in unison for a minute to attempt to detect whatever was there, he couldn't see it, but he knew that it was there. His eyes saccaded throughout the space-debris orbitting titan and against his better judgment, xelas raised his hand and channeled a jaundice glow into the palm of his hand where he then released it, firing it into one of the chunks of rock within his viscinity - he didn't know whether or not this was whatever caused that energy spike, but he had assumed it better that whatever it was hiding realized that he was there.

The bridge of the Admiral Gerasimovich was a cramped, stuffy place, glowing brightly in the backwash from holotank projectors. The crew were seated in fighter-cockpit type arrangements, with the holotank projections surrounding them and a slew of emergency controls on either side of them. They were linked into critical systems of the ship, by non-invasive neural uplinks placed in the rear of bridge seats.

"Kaptain, incoming UCON contacts, bearing North-West, SeciSouth-SeciEast!""

A midshipman shouted, as the UCON contacts flared into view; creating a slew of bright orange targeting reticules in the bridge holotanks. These moved with the UCON vessel and the Red Technocracy Strike Carrier, providing as real-time a sense of perspective as the sensors of the Admiral Gerasimovich could provide. The midshipman opened the targeting controls for the bridge with a thought, and shifted them from inactive to stand-by; several point-defense turrets swung to life across the conning tower, their A.I. targeting the machine equivalent of jittery.

The captain, not expecting UCON ships to be operating this far from home, stared blankly at the incoming contacts for a moment before responding. UCON has never even left it's home system, apart from a few probes and exploratory ships, so why now? This probably wasn't going to end well. The captain sent a general message across the fleet with his neural interface, with the command to 'prepare for possible UCON hostilities but [i]DO NOT FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON.'

"Hail them, and figure out what the hell UCON is doing this far out; and just who they are!"

The bridge communications officer complied, and typed out a message to the unidentified UCON vessel; he was one of the few crewmen on the bridge to still use manual controls, just in case the neural relays fucked up. The communications office confirmed the message, and then confirmed the target, and sent it. The hail was broadcast along a tight-beam maser, of the kind used for short-range inter-ship communication.

SRT Admiral Gerasimovich wrote:- SRT Admiral Gerasimovich - To - UNIDENTIFIED [UCON] SHIP -

- UCON VESSEL - PLEASE IDENTIFY -

Possible retaliations with Technocratic vehicles was always evident, of course, it was easy to see that the Tek's were jittery with their trigger fingers. This spooked the Captain somewhat; minutes, no, seconds, they had been in-system and suddenly the Threat Identification Software, better known as TIS, was ringing in a midshipman's ear-piece. The Junior Lieutenant did quick work to relay this information to the Captain. A stark, pale man who was doing his own form of work on his command module.

"Uhh -- Captain, we've got TIS on an hissy-fit -- " The Junior Lieutenant offered calmly, one hand pressed against his ear as the other played across the keys.
"TIS is running a storm, I got that Lieutenant." He snapped bitterly, in an instant, the main CPU bustled to life and displayed the reluctant AI core of the ship. In it's infancy, the newly refurbished technology used in UCON Artificial Intelligence cores were mind boggling to say the least; the ship possessed two main cores to the AI, the ships hardcore intelligence, and the auxiliary systems that powered it's control of the most minute aspects of the vessel.

"Well, Captain, there's Tek vehicles targeting us after only two minutes of our exit from Slipstream. Had I been operating during the Jump, I could have possibly pulled off a better exit." The AI responded with a scoff, the Captain bit his lip at the arrogance of the machine; yet held his tongue.
"There's time for that later. Get us on a conduit with the Tek vessel."
"Already accomplished, sir. There's a message, linking up to your prompt now."

SRT Admiral Gerasimovich wrote:- SRT Admiral Gerasimovich - To - UNIDENTIFIED [UCON] SHIP -

- UCON VESSEL - PLEASE IDENTIFY -

"Alright. Identify us, we're here for something more important, not the support of the Tek's. Tell them we're looking for someone."





Planet Side; Benjamin Havok


The brutish beast quickly thrust forward into his attack, striking the startled Technocrat soldier mid-torso with it's powerful, cumbersome fists. A distinct crack and crunch of bone filled the ears of Havok and the remaining Marine as the useless corpse was flung sideways by the force of the blow. As fire pinged and reflected off the beasts brutal carapace. It's sheer size proved it's prowess on the battlefield; the beast was covered head to toe in what appeared to be a malicious, organic attempt at armor. This "artificial shield" fulfilled it's duty, Havok stepped to the side as the beast charged forward toward the remaining Technocratic soldier; his weapon still blazing as the monstrosity let out a violent roar and brought it's clenched fist down onto the mans shoulders. The resounding crunch was brutal as a hail of armor chunks stained red spattered outward from the clenching, wrecking-ball fists.

"Holy shit!" Havok managed before the beast set it's sights on it's final target. Both eyes met, one filled with virulent anger toward it's attacker, the other filled with speechlessness at the hands of this beast. With the click of a thought, the RADOS system powered online. This process required a small amount of time; not long enough to keep that thing at bay.
"The process is beginning, Master Sergeant." He heard a faint voice within the domain of his head. At least it was working this time.
"Valentina, we've got this big problem here. I suggest you take a look." Havok ushered quietly, the beast easing into it's stance as it prepared for it's attack. It regarded the Mercenary with a powerful snort, massive nostrils flaring, chunks of mucus and matter falling from the confines of it's nasal cavity while fists clenched angrily.

"Oh dear, that does look like a rather big problem." Valentina quietly offered, Havok gave a sort thought of affirmation before the beast took to it's offensive. With a valiant roar, it's jaw gaping in distinguishable hatred, it charged forward. Feet stomping on the ground, vibrations jolting through Havok as he raised his weapon to bear. The MR-17 barked repeatedly as it closed the distance between him and his enemy, the weapon proved ill effective, subsequently bouncing off the points where is struck the beasts would be armor. Blood spattered outward from the beast as a few select bullets happened to penetrate the fleshy patches that spanned small distances between the beasts natural armor.

"Motherfucker -- Won't fucking die!" Havok griped angrily as he rolled sideways the last minute, the beast just barely missing crushing him beneath it's mass as it charged by.
"Master Sergeant, I'd advise you to keep yourself from being injured." Valentina stated bluntly, Havok barely regaining himself as he heard the distinct crack of a tree being torn apart by the monstrosity. Suddenly, the ear piece within Havok's covered lobes crackled to life. The Teks.

"Azrik, where the hell are you?"
"Aww fuck." Havok yelled, standing up to see his opponent pull itself from atop the tree, brushing off a select amount of wood and splinters before fixing its gaze upon him.
"Lieutenant Katushyavich, there's something from the Dreadnaught out here -- " Havok managed before being forced to turn on the Demolisher and fire a distinct burst from his assault rifle. Another batch of rounds flying sideways uselessly as they were refracted by his automatic fire.
"Fuck this shit!" Havok barked as he side stepped the attack once again, as before, narrowly escaping and stumbling halfway through his evasion. He made an attempt to catch himself as a winking light flickered in the back of his mind, with it, came the activation of the RADOS.
"Master Sergeant, the RIAD-Gloves are operating at 20 percent capability."
"Good job, Valentina." He offered, suddenly, a writhing pain flowed through Havok's leg as he felt the beast wrap its powerful fist about his leg. In an instant, Havok had dropped his weapon and sent out stretched hands forward, as he turned his body, the beast began it's swing.


By shifting it's weight, the monstrosity was lifting Havok by one leg into the air. As this happened, Havok did his best to concentrate as best his could; with a whine, the focal points of the RIAD began to collect energy for an attack. Havok let loose with a small barrage of soft, burning white needles of energy. The bolts struck home on the beasts head; harming it slightly, but mostly providing Havok time to escape. The beast dropped Havok where he was; the Azrik landed with a distinct thud as he rolled out from the Demolishers path, it's feet stomped bitterly on the ground as cumbersome hands moved to wipe away the burning matter from it's face. The distinct sizzle of carapace and hardened flesh bursting into the air with the beasts yells of anger and pain as Havok rolled backwards and leaned to face the beast.


Matter in the form of a deep auburn swell had accumulated at the points of the RIAD, with a simple flick, Havok had prepared the final catalyst to send his attack home. Pressing his hands forward, a beam of condensed liquid energy erupted from his palms. In an instant, the area darkened as light magnified around the beam, scorching plant-life and shrubbery through it's trajectory as the beam smashed into it's opponent; with a horrified yell, the beast was brought down with a gaping hole in it's shoulder. The burnt, crisp smell of smoldering flesh and cartilage filled the air as the beam dissipated after striking it's target, in an instant the innards of the creature were fried; it's once bullet resistant armor was turned into melting flesh and bone, skin fell from bone singed and burning as the beast was literally cooked alive over the course of seconds.

As the possible engagement between the far-out UCON cruiser and the Red Technocracy fleet was in progress, three fighter wings slipped out to investigate some really funky sensor readings, coming from what appeared to be a mirror Sol. Three distinct groups of fighters composed the scouting mission, a Leninsky 894th, Antongrad 1st, and aIki-Burulsky 6th Defenders Wing, each one with it's make of fighter and unique outlook on things.

They were under order of the Fleet Commander, the Admiral, who has really freaking out about these readings, to gather every single smidgen of information on the mirror Sol system.

"Ya, Command wants up to ID some funky contacts outside this system, right in the middle of a mirror system about 300 Astru from here." The Antongrad 1st Wing Command piped up over the radio, informing his comrades about the mission as they scrambled; this had came as much a shock to them, as it had the Admiral. Just five minutes ago, they were relaxing under a peaceful Yellow-Alert status. "'Command is really sure this matters, eh? I heard the admiral was flipping out when he got the news." Replied a Leninsky Airman over the radio, in the trademark cocky tone of the Leninsky Garrison. ""Well boys, let's get ready to jump, ten seconds.""

The pilots hastily prepared for a jump into the FTL, measuring about five nanoseconds at this range; Roza, a twenty-something Antongrad pilot, was the prime example of this. (OOC Note - Sudden switch to one character.) Roza scrambled to prepared for the jump, strapping in his flight harness and flicking a long row of switches down his console. The Holo-Display suddenly outlined in organe, indicating that FTL was live; Roza flipped a small red-edged cap on his console and pressed down on the botton below it. Outside him, the stars blurred for what seemed to be a miniscule fraction of a second, and he was in the alternate Sol system.

Roza was in awe. Massive chunks of debris were floating in space, the remains of planets blasted with massive energies. He switched to the thermal and HSI imaging on his fighter-craft, and discovered to his horror that the chunks were still hot with the heat of a recent explosion. And adding to that, there was the massive life-sign coming from... something.

"Shit! This doesn't look good. All units, switch to stealth operating, now! Commence radio silence." The Antongrad 1st Wing Command was having much the same reaction as Roza, and was apparently just as shocked as he was by the sheer carnage of the place.

Roza flipped another section of controls on his console, engaging defensive counter-measures on his fighters. The adaptive camouflage panels along the dart-shaped craft displayed the stars, using a networked systems of optical feeds from the fighters - and the ion drive exhaust was forced into a spiral as it left, greatly diluting the possible sensor tags.

"Just get data from here, get out, and hope to god the Milipsnaz can handle this!" The Wing Commander broadcast, breaking radio silence; this was to be the last transmission until they were attacked or until they got back.

Roza nodded, and brought his fighter into a steep dive into the gravity well of Saturn. At it's currently speeds of roughly 700 Kilometers per second, a single error could lead to him crashing into the planet and burning up. He exhaled deeply as his fighter stabilized in the gravity well, and let the flight avionics take care of the mission. They would take sensor readings and pictures of the scene for about fifteen minutes, and then Roza could leave this nightmare system. Chunks of the ring flew by beside him, almost scoring hits on the fighter wings. His comrades had fanned out across the system, and were doing the same thing he was; at different planets and points in space.

(Alucroas; you respond to this - blaring sensor contacts and three fighter wings)

Location: Sahara Desert, less than thirty feet from the downed Dreadnaught: Time: 18:00:

So, he had finally managed to get the fuck out of Free Willy's belly, and now it was teaming with a horde of crustaceans that walked on six legs, their pincers clacking together as a few of them spotted Thomas and immediately charged him without the slightest bit of hesitation. He sure as shit wasn't going to stick around this time, though he was sort of reluctant to do so, seeing as how running through a blazing, hot desert with the gooey insides of Dreadnaught acting as the only form of suntan.

Despite all that, Thomas took off at speeds that would put any Olympic sprinter to shame, barely managing to avoid the army of drones pouring out of Dreadnaught's body. One managed to nip him in the leg, producing nothing more than a scratch, though the fact that he hadn't seen it coming scared the ever-livin' shit out of him and caused him to fall forwards in multiple somersaults.

And they instantly took advantage of it, leaping up into the air and attempting to crush him under their weight, only to be painfully impaled by spikes, made up entirely of bone and protruding from Thomas' spine. He scrambled to get up, and immediately fell back down, considering the fucking thing was literally stuck to him now, and that sure as shit wasn't fun, not to mention the fact the spikes coming out of Thomas' feet were now starting to merge with the sand, now acting like a fast moving conveyor belt which brought him dangerously close to the location of the Demolisher.

Then as if out of nowhere, a giant column of rock shot up from underneath his feet and sent him flying head first into the direction of a nearby Demolisher, one that was literally within twenty feet of Havoc. A relatively small spear like object bursted out of his skull, and went directly into the bastard's head, though it didn't kill it, but rather send it into a frenzy. They were literally conjoined at the heads, and Thomas was starting to lose it as he saw the guy who had just annihilated the first Demolisher. "SHOOT IT, YOU ASSHOLE! SHOOT THE SON OF A BITCH!"

--

Location: Directly above Titan: Time 17:50

"Another 25% percent increase in ethereal energy." Tage's sensors must've been on the fringe; energy readings weren't supposed skyrocket like that, and so he could only draw one conclusion from it. Someone had caught onto what he was doing, and it was time for him to get the hell out of there or join mech-heaven. He activated the fuel stored in his shins and took off, narrowly avoiding a burst of energy erupting from the palm of Xelas. He sure didn't expect to be getting into fight this early, but that was just how things worked in the multiverse.

Tage was about to enter Titan's atmosphere, before getting hit by a stray radio-wave that nearly knocked out his drives for a moment. When he recovered, there was no one in sight to blame for his pain except for that thing occupying the same rock as Gennosuke.

"Corruptor."

"What is it, Tage?"

"I've located Arcane Project Af364j5."

"Good work."

"What are my orders?"

"Go and attempt to communicate with it. You are related to it after all."

"What do you mean "related to it"?"

"It means exactly what I said. Now go."

With that, Tage immediately activated the thrusters stored just above the normal fuel he utilized and made his descent down to Titan, extremely displeased with the fact that he was being told to try and communicate with something that had just attacked it. But that was just the way the multiverse worked.

Captain Ambrosse held his hands to his chin quietly, his knee's up on the small embankments of the commanders chair as he ran his tongue through his teeth. Several images played across him. The Technocratic vessel millions of kilometers away with weapons charged. Of course, Ambrosse knew the Tek's would respond like this. It had been years since any UCON vessels had set forth into space outside UCON borders.
"Is the message prepared?" The Captain questioned politely; his gaze focusing on the pale blue image of a womanly figure, the AI-core was naturally selected to the shape, voice, and personality of a distinctly female prototype.
"Affirmative, Captain. Prepared and encrypted." The AI responded.
"Run it by me, on my Nav-Link." He commanded; with a wave of a hand, the AI digitally organized the text message and filed onto the Nav-Link pull-away. Wrapping his hand around the chunk of holographic metal, he pulled it from his chair calmly and viewed the message that was displayed on the screen.

UCON Confederated Armed Forces (UCON CAF) Captain Jonathan Ambrosse; ATTENTION RED TECHNOCRACY VESSELS, the following UCON ship [CN Armara] is on a clandestine scouting mission regarding the UCON Coalition Command. We ask for the cooperation of Red Technocracy vessels in the area to inform us of the situation; and wish it to be known that the full power of this UCON vessel will be at the disposal of our Red Technocracy Allies.

Delta Armory, CN Armara

"You heard 'em, get your asses ready." The Sergeant commanded idly, the group of eight CAF Marines quickly set about pulling their weaponry from lockers and storage facilities in Delta Armory. The section which was devoted to that specific group of soldiers.
"We're goin' in with Tek's? Any Tranto's about?" A Marine questioned, the Sergeant huffed and set his hands on his hips; caring not for the logistics of the specific scenario.
"We don't know yet, and you shouldn't really give a shit, Marine. You'll fight when told to fight." He responded; the Marine snapped a salute as he pulled a compact MR-17C from the locker.
"Understood sir."


Sitting across the Armory floor stood a tall, brazened man. With close, slicked back hair, he offered a soft noise to the Sergeant as he attended the group of Marines.
"Sergeant, you say we're in the Sol System." He questioned, the Sergeant gave a salute, knowing his superior.
"Yes sir. The vessel is trailing a UCON Mercenary who went rogue -- "
"I know who we're going after, Sergeant." He stopped him, waving a hand as he cleared the distance between him and the Marines with a slow walk.
"Understood sir." The Sergeant nodded, then went back to barking out several quick orders to the Marines.
"TIA, Havok. TIA -- and you'll never get away from it."






Planet-side, Havok.


"SHOOT IT, YOU ASSHOLE! SHOOT THE SON OF A BITCH!"
"The fuck did you say to me? Who the fuck -- " Benjamin managed, the sudden introduction of another person quickly startled him as he ushered a small sigh as the useless corpse of the beast fell to the ground.
"Shit! There's more!" Ben managed as his hands wrenched around the floating grip of the MR-17, a deep hissing noise became distinctly audible as the scorching heat of the focal-points came in contact with the charred metal grip of the assault rifle. In an instant, it was at bear once again, and with a single depression of the trigger, a hail of bullets tore into a nearby six-legged beast. Although this one was much smaller than the opponent he had just destroyed, it equally intimidated him.


It was obvious that none of these beasts were native to the planet, due to the sheer size of the things. What resembled a common head-louse many CAF Marines found hiding in their helmets, yet on a massive scale. The thing dwarfed Havok, who stood at six foot one. With what appeared to be powerful jaws, however, Havok did not want to journey close enough to see how the two combatants measured in height.
"Fuck! There's no way I'm going to kill all of those things! Hey, Tek, we better get the fuck out of here!" He yelled. To Havok, the man looked like he was another Technocratic soldier, minus the helm and the armor. Perhaps he was the soldier that survived being thrown by the beast that had initially attacked him.

Suddenly, with the addition of a second bumbling beast onto the field of battle, things changed. Dramatically.
"I'd keep eyes open, Master Sergeant. It appears another enemy contact is moving to enga -- "
"I fuckin' see him, Valentina. I fuckin' see 'im!" Havok yelled, realizing that his common weapons are useless against a beast of that proportions, Benjamin quickly held the rifle by one hand as he set his sights on the other Demolisher. Only to see a strange sight.
"What the fuck?" Benjamin questioned, his gaze occupied by seeing a man protruding from the rear of the Demolisher's skull.
"That seems very detrimental. Perhaps he shouldn't be that close to the enemy, Master Sergeant." Valentina offered slowly, it was obvious from her tone that the scene she was witnessing boggled her as well.
"I would advise you to use a low-energy output, Master Sergeant. Lest we harm the Technocratic soldier -- "
"Valentina, those things are pretty dangerous." Havok said, offering a smile, and a soft chuckle as he raised his hand. Lining the gap between his index finger and thumb up with the corresponding eye. The battle seemed far off, and it was obvious that the majority of creatures hadn't converged on his location yet.


"Alright man, I'm gonna' hit it." Havok smiled, turning his body to provide him maximum stability to prepare for the attack. With a distinct sound, the expanded focal-point on the base of his palm shined with a distinct ambient color; it soon became an awe-inspiring swirl as energy was gathered from nearby sources. The writhing beast, which had been formally busy with attempting to wrench the thing from it's skull suddenly noticed the man preparing for his attack. Putting two and two together, it let out a powerful roar and threw it's arms about the air.

Benjamin would strike first, however. As his mind clicked, a wave of energy released from the mans hand, in an instant, the massive amount of energy that had collected at it's dedicated mark discharged; with a powerful scream the beast was struck by the blade of energy which sawed through it's plate armor and skin like a knife through butter. The recoil from the blast sent Havok's arm sideways, which brought the beam of energy slicing upwards and cutting through the beasts shoulder; a massive piece of flesh was suddenly evaporated and became nothing but scorched furrowing matter as the beast fell sideways. A distinct, thick, choking amount of dust was kicked up by the blast, a copious cloud of dust covered Havok's vision of the destroyed Demolisher.
"That wasn't low-energy, Master Sergeant." He heard Valentina protest; a clear amount of distaste in hear automatic yet strangely natural voice.
"I know, just thought I'd make sure it's dead."

Location: Sahara Desert: Time: 18:30

That thing wouldn't stop shaking which made it damn near impossible for that soldier to draw a proper bead on him, but somehow he did. Thomas nearly screamed when he saw the sparks jumping from the man's arms as he aimed it directly at the Demolisher, scaring the hell out of him. The last thing he needed right now was being grilled by that searing hot energy; he could imagine how much it must've stung when it impacted that malevolent creature's arm and severed it clean off. But hey, he managed to decapitate it without getting a hair on his head.

"OOMPH!"

The next thing Thomas knew was on the ground, the wind knocked out of him and his mouth somewhat full of sand with quite a few grains sticking to his face, partially because of the gooey insides of Dreadnaught that he had accumulated all over his body earlier on. Pressing both hands against the ground, Thomas barely managed to stand up onto his feet; what with the wind being knocked out of him from landing flat on his stomach and all. Either way, he was grateful that whoever this man was had been kind enough to save his ass from just one of many creatures still heading towards him.

"Th-thanks, man..but they're still headed our way. Name's Thomas Balvice, by the way!" He exclaimed, immediately pointing his Socom at one of the weaker crab-like monsters and unloading a full clip and ejecting it before sliding in another cartridge and repeating the process. On the forth try, he finally came to realize that his attempts at holding off the crustaceans was in vain, but he kept on firing anyway, growing more and more frustrated before his head suddenly began to throb painfully.

"AAAGGGHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK IS IT DOING THIS TIME!?"

His left arm began to move on its own almost as if it were possessed, the jagged spikes that had protruded from before radiate an indigo aura. Evidently, the thing that was in possession of his body didn't release all of its infected energy earlier on when inadvertently blasted all those crustaceans to shit when he was still ontop of Dreadnaught's back. Instead of simply fading away, it multiplied greatly, circumventing within the runes on his left arm, before being siphoned off to Thomas' now bladed knuckles that were now apparently lined up in front of the barrel of his gun.

Thomas didn't even get a chance to aim his weapon, but rather that creature dwelling inside his exoskeleton aimed for him, and fired for him as well. The metallic compounds that composed his bullets instantly changed when they were scratched by the bladed runes protruding from his knuckles. The bullets had essentially become infected with the very same energy that his runic arm had been, passing through the air in a shimmering streak of red energy. These super-charged bullets not only stopped those monsters dead in their tracks, but they were completely annihilated, leaving quite the large blood-stain on the battlefield.

After the chaos was over, Thomas fell down onto his hands and knees, covered in sweat and trying to figure out what the hell just happened. This thing is something else.. Staring at his arm which was still radiating power, though not nearly as intense as it was just a minute ago. "Can I get a hand here?" He blurted out, struggling to push himself back up onto his feet.

--

Location: Directly above anti-Titan's atmosphere. Time: 18:20

Tage was just about to enter anti-Titan's atmosphere when suddenly he felt something jerk on his ley-lines and pull him back just enough to keep him from entering the atmosphere. I knew there was a rise in ethereal energy...but I guess it was closer than I thought. Taking a split second to contemplate the situation, Tage decided it would be alright to defy orders just this once; it wasn't like he was going to disobey an order or anything like that, just put it on hold.

The engines in his leg rotated just enough for Tage to turn around and view the entity that had just appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Scarlett lenses projected a cobalt wave of neutrons that allowed him to gauge just how much positive and negative energy this creature was giving off. That weapon that he held in his hand caught Tage's attention almost immediately, though he had an electrified rail-blade attached to his ulna, so it may have just been a precaution taken by the thing before him.

"Corruptor."

"Yes, Tage?"

"I have an unexpected visitor."

"A visitor..you say?"

"Not a visitor per se, but he's less than 3,000 feet from my current position. Subject is armed, but is showing no signs of hostility whatsoever, though, it's giving off some massive power-readings."

"How much power exactly?"

"Enough to pose a threat to Arcane Project Xelas."

"Well, despite how much of a threat it could be, there is no evidence to support that it will be. Anyway, we need to retrieve Xelas and Gennosuke alive. As of right now, see if you can get it to follow you onto anti-Titan. We may just be able to kill two birds with one stone."

"Tage out."

With his orders received Tage extended the length of his ley-lines out to the entity, and dove into the hell-storm that was the anti-moon's atmosphere. The ley-lines merely acting as the ball of yarn that would guide him to Tage who now appeared to be a flaming, metal ball. Gennosuke's form quickly coming into view as he instantly detected another type of energy emanating from his body.

The transmission from the CN Armara was displayed on the holo-display in the front of the communications officer (who was seated on the right side of the bridge). The officer, Pyotr, tapped out a command on the holo-screen, which was picked up by the motion responsive sensors to either side; the message instantly transferred to the captain through his neural link.

After several seconds of thinking about it, the captain composed a message back on his own holo-screen, purely by thinking about it. Then he began a quick caucus with the other ship captains. Thanks to the neural uplinks connecting the general staff of the fleet together, divisional making and tactical maneuvers could be decided on and critiqued in a matter of seconds -- not minutes, unlike other fleets. The network still had it's problems, but the basic uplink-downlink & virtual interfacing between officers worked without a hitch.

He sent it back to the communications officer, who transferred the message from it's cached intranet packet, into the holding Que for messages. Pyotr approved the message and sent it, attached to the original communique from the CN Armara. He smiled as the green SUI (Ship-User-Interface) bar filled in a matter of seconds, vertically tamped with the worlds "NBRT" in black Lucidia Unicode font. (for narrow band radio transmission)

KKT Admiral Gerasimovich wrote:

CN Armara wrote:UCON Confederated Armed Forces (UCON CAF) Captain Jonathan Ambrosse; ATTENTION RED TECHNOCRACY VESSELS, the following UCON ship [CN Armara] is on a clandestine scouting mission regarding the UCON Coalition Command. We ask for the cooperation of Red Technocracy vessels in the area to inform us of the situation; and wish it to be known that the full power of this UCON vessel will be at the disposal of our Red Technocracy Allies

UNDERSTOOD. [Admiral Gerasimovich] & [55th Battlegroup] will comply with your request and and possibly utilize the CN Armara. The current situation is confusing to us -- a large bio-organic creature, roughly 6 kilos in length, is under fire from the fleet -- several more OSNAZ regiments are dealing with it on the surface. We have no idea of the creatures origin or motives -- but we do know it is highly dangerous and capable of resisting our ship-to-ship munitions (BE ALERT).

---

Nearing Anti-Saturn

The Leninsky 894th, Antongrad 1st, and Iki-Burulsky 6th Defenders Wing had finished their scouting missions and left the system. With the exception of three stealthed fighters moving in for a closer look at the huge techno-organic ship that floated near anti-Jupiter.

These three fighters, designed for stealth operation, and all from the Antongrad 1st's, approached Tage's ship at roughly 654 kilometers per second; enough to make the inertial dampeners strain and outpace the rotation of the earth. Once they had reached within 15,000 kilometers of the ship, they disengaged their engines and let Newtonian physics take over. With nothing to stop their constant glide through space, they approached the ship at a constant speed, and with the help of maneuvering thrusters, entered into a oval shaped orbit around it at a range of 8,000 kilometers. The pilots sat back and let their limited sensor arrays do the work, taking in as much data about the ship as possible.