Erik Mendez's Story

As soon as the Prison ship was knocked out of hyperspace, an eerie laugh would echo throughout the halls, rooms, cells, and everything else that had a shadow in it. As soon as the Pirate Spaceship rammed into the belly of the Prison ship, great tendrils made of shadow lurched forward from the goopy shadow masses on the ground, tables, chairs, beds, people, appliances, whatever. If there was a goopy shadow mass, a shadow tendril lurched from it, heading towards the closest life form it could find and coiling around whatever it could grab onto: whether it be an arm, foot, hand, wrist, ankle, waist, neck, head, or anything else on the human or otherwise anatomy.

Any projectiles or physical attacks would either pass through or do nothing to the tendrils as they sought out their prey. One tendril in particular sprouted in Erik's cell, and wrapped around whatever was closest, which happened to be Erik's ankle. The tendril(s), once wrapped around their target, would either pull them into the shadowy goop, pick them up and hold them in the air, or pick them up and swing them around, slamming them into walls and other things as if angered.

All Storm-Shadow did was watch as Draco unleashed the shadowy tendrils upon the unsuspecting passengers of the ship. "Must you really do this, Draco?" the super soldier asked.

The Dragon of Death said nothing, but continued with his small little rampage with the tendrils. Through the shadows, Storm-Shadow would see a small Dragon the size of a large dog walking through the corridors of the Prison Ship. The Dragon was made of pure shadow, and any attempt to hit it would fail as it passed through the body. Lightning coursed throughout the body as if it were blood running through veins.

The Dragon of Death was heading to once place: The cell block where Subject 72 was being held. Now it's true that he could just portal himself into the cell using his Shadow powers, but where would the fun in that be? No. He wanted to scare as many lowlife prisoners as he could. And what better month to do it than October?

Erik's eyes widened as the figure entered his cell, and he looked at the ring and started laughing. He shook his head slowly, "I appreciate your so called salvation, but I do not have that which could make me truly terrible. I am a man who did a stupid thing, and I will not escape from being some big criminal's bitch, to being some weird being's servant, which in actuality is just being your bitch, so find someone else for that" he said and he looked at the tendril coming out from the mass and his eyes softened. He didn't know how he was going to get out of here now.........

The tendril wrapped around his ankle, and lifted him up, slamming him into the wall. He let out a howl of pain as an audible snap was heard. The tendril continued to swing him around, the snapping was that of his hand slamming into the wall very hard, breaking the wrist, and fingers. His vision getting blurry as the tendril continued to swing him into walls, hitting his head hard.

Now it was just to see how long he would last with the constant bashing against the walls, and other objects. His body was not very strong, but was not weak either.

“Damage report!” Nathans barked as he climbed back into his char.

“Three fatalities on deck three. Injuries throughout the ship. Hull is still holding, sir.”

“Great…” he grumbled. “and I was having such a good day…”

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.” He called on the intercom. “We are under attack. I repeat. We are under attack. All security personnel report to the armory. We are on red alert. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill!”

“Heller, send out a distress beacon!”

”Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” hissed a sinister voice from the shadows.

Sparks snapped and sputtered from the consoles as the air grew frigid. Smoke poured from between the panels in front of the technician. A sinister growl rumbled through the room. The smoke thickened and engulfed the technician as he clenched his throat protectively. Blood flowed over his fingers as he fell to the ground.

An ear-splitting banshee scream pierced through the air, shattering glass screens and eardrums alike. The fog squirmed with the demonic wail as a writhing mass of dark tendrils, smoke, and shadows shot out like murderous hands. Three officers fell with an explosion of gore and splatter of blood. Entrails and warm blood spewed across the floor as a line of technicians were shredded, flayed, and cleaved like butter against a glowing hot knife.

A man sailed through the air and into a console like a toy tossed by an enraged child. Another was hoisted several feet in the air at an awkward angle. The smoke and smoldering shadows churned and solidified. Long arms and hands with clawed fingers materialized from the mass. A monstrous demonic face formed from the smoke, revealing a sadistic grin filled with several rows of razor sharp teeth that sank deeply into the man’s neck. Glowing crimson eyes glared, unblinking, at the captain. They hungered for spilled blood – for violence, murder, and to rend asunder every living thing in sight.

--

”Good…” Gro’chal whispered through the spiritual realm. ”Now to deal with my brothers and sisters in chains.”

The pirate lord’s consciousness spread out through the ship like a thick fog. It embraced and filled every unprotected mind like water to an empty vessel. His presence was that of death, chaos, rage, hatred, sorrow, and suffering. He clenched his hand and every door of every cell began to shake violently. They rattled, quaked, and buckled before being wrenched from their hinges and cast into the darkness. Gro’chal’s powerful mind and will then latched onto theirs like long icy talons.

None can imprison me!

A deathly wail filled every mind. It was the outcry of ten thousand souls writhing in agony – crying out for vengeance. Every nightmare and fear bubbled from within their subconscious, becoming all but reality. Madness churned within them like a violent storm, echoing a single command that filled their entire being.

Kill.

Shabot-Urn watched as the chosen refused his offer and smiled beneath his helm as a rogue shadow forced its way into the cell just to take hold of the man and cause him a rather painful amount of harm. Slowly the Lord of Shadow turned away from the man and his misery only to shake his head and chuckle slightly.

"This is only a fair punishment for those who defy the will of Shabot-Urn."

It was that said and nothing more that the cosmic being left the cell in the same manner as he came forcing the shadows around him to bend to his will as he stepped free from the isolated chamber and began to look around at the forming chaos that was flowing freely through the ship. If this were his domain none of this nonsense would have been happening and the rogue who was behind it all would have paid dearly with his life.

'Through me the gates shall be open.'

Shabot-Urn would suddenly become ethereal again as he strode down the corridor before him just to watch as murder and violence was being played out before him like hounds on fresh meat. It was pleasing to say the least but filled with unnecessary ends and a waste of time and resources. Every step the being made would suddenly leave dark crystal masses that began to grow and expand cutting off the hall behind him and ruining every chance for those who were still stuck behind certain closed doors for the time being.

Draco continued to walk through the corridors, but as the chaos began, the pulled what shadows he could to him, and vanished within them. Even Storm-Shadow, who normally knew where the Dragon was, didn't know where he went.

"Paia..." he started. "Remind me again why I'm out here?"

<< It's because you wanted to be out here and you "had nothing better to do today" >> the AI repsonded sarcastically.

The super soldier rolled his eyes and sighed, watching the chaos unfold in the corridors. The shadowy tendrils that had grabbed a hold of people would vanish as well, leaving them to drop to the floor if they hadn't been pulled into the shadow realm to be eaten by shadow demons.

Storm-Shadow stood still in the shadow realm, thinking a bit. He came up with nothing, and turned around, vanishing from the realm and appearing at some other place.

Two pirate ships lumbered across the broadsides of the transport while the frenzied prisoners rioted. Massive drill-tipped harpoons launched from the ships and bit deeply into the durasteel hull. The transport groaned to a halt, anchored by the tension of the expanding cords. They inflated to the diameter of half a man, giving passage to the beings that crawled within.

The harpoons punched through the hull, raining sparks and shrapnel into the raving mobs. Their tips were mounted with large drill bits that snapped open like the jaws of soulless skulls. Blood-curdling screams of war rumbled from the maws like the galloping charge of a hundred demons. A flood of dark shapes poured from the drills. They were like skittering spiders clinging to the walls and ceiling with bony hands. Empty eyes on skinless faces glared at the prisoners with murderous calculating rage. Tongues of eerie blue flames burned in their pitted sockets. Black blast armor clung to skeletal figures as they dropped into the mobs by the dozens. Razor sharp vibroblades flashed in clattering hands. Hot blood misted the air, soaked jumpsuits, and slicked the floor.

Screams of horror and carnage echoed through the ship.

“Yes!” thundered a voice into every mind. “Cleave their flesh! Strip them of their corrupting life-blood! Send them into the Abyss! Let none escape your fury!”

Boom.

A distant crash resonated through the cell blocks. The hair-raising crunch of metal being ripped apart like tissue paper ran up every spine.

Boom.

The sound grew stronger, fiercer, and more urgent. It was like a ravenous lion shattering its chains. A new wave of vigor washed through the swarm of undead as they carved their way towards Solitary Confinement with blade and blaster.

Crash!

Three titanic durasteel hatches soared through the hallway of Solitary Confinement. They were riddled with dents and ripped apart at the hinges. A dark corridor lay beyond where the doors once stood. Icy mist flowed across the ground like a phantom.

Two hypnotic ghostly blue eyes illuminated the darkness with sinister malice.

The shadowy lord had many things in mind as he continued to stroll through the halls of the ship leaving a trail of ever growing crystals in his wake that seemed to push and fight their way through sections of the ship until suddenly Shabot-Urn looked up at the ceiling above him just to sink through the section of the ship he was on allowing the shadows to move him about unhindered. The cosmic being had been wrong to assume that such a weak piece of flesh could be so terrible when another was so easily molded just a few rooms away.

The Dragon moved from his shadowy corner and very slowly approached Zoe. "By the way..." The Dragon began, now circling the female human who name was Zoe slowly. You may want to find your way to an escape pod before it's too late. I don't think this ship is going to be...intact much longer." he finished. He then just sat in front of the door, blocking Zoe's path out as if he didn't care that he was doing so.

"I think it is you who should not linger for much longer." Shabot-Urn spoke as his form ascended between the shadow dragon and Zoe just to turn his attention to the girl and began to study her like a slab of meat. The Shadow Lord began to size the young girl up only to chuckle darkly and then turn his attention to the dragon that was in the room. A question was needed to be asked before he could leave the ship but would he need to deal with this other being from the shadow realm? Instead Shabot-Urn turned his attention back to Zoe and offered out to her a rather peculiar ring that gleamed when the light hit it.

'Do you have what it takes to truly be terrible?'

The Stjorndrekr would float effortlessly in unison beside the Stjornkona, also emerging from the Sirius star system parallel to the first Viking ship, an almost identical twin replica of the Stjornhestr, except that the bow of the Stjornkona had the figure of a sea maiden, while the Stjorndrekr had a dragon prow more similar to older classical Viking longships.

The Vikings had arrived from their long journey, which started on the Empyrean Sea Beach, a small island on planet Gaia, deep within the Sirius star system. But this is where they would part ways, for as the Stjornkona split ways through the Norma Arm, heading for Dedelion, its sister ship the Stjorndrekr headed deeper into the Milky Way, drifting silently towards deeper Space as it discreetly left the galaxy.

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SIRIUS COMPLICATIONS

Gaia

A planet within the Sirius System that orbits the dead star; Eras. However, Gaia is not lacking light. Two other stars orbit the planet itself; Atargatis and Sagittae. Three moons provide temporary night when eclipses take event, otherwise Gaia is always bathed in sunlight. It is only due to the magical nature of Mother Gaia which provides the necessities for fantastical life to grow, the planet always ever watching over her beloved children who roam her earth.

We are live, reporting to you from right outside the edges of what's known as the Sirius Star System, where an anomaly has been spotted: a native space-faring vessel, departing. This departure provokes a shocking question for those who are familiar with the Sirius Star System: How?

For the entirety of recorded history in the Milky Way Galaxy, the planet Gaia of the Sirius Star System has been considered to be untouchable. All who tried to land on it's surface found themselves crashed, each vessel's crew never heard from again. There was something about the planet Gaia that didn't allow technology to exist there, beyond a point. While the majority of the galaxy continue to wonder what happens on the surface of Gaia, one civilization has managed to gather first hand knowledge straight from the surface of the planet.

That's right, folks: Gaia is no longer untouchable.

This untouchable status was broken by none other than the Taiyou Empire. Galactic citizens may recall rumor of a terrorist attack against the city of Niihama by natives from the planet Gaia. This attack has been confirmed by sources within the Taiyou empire who wish to remain anonymous. While many sources dispute who exactly the attacker was, there's always one commonality: Vikings.

Iskjerne Vikings

Titans of the North, with a line of ancient kings going back for centuries to the time of the Trojan War.

Now, here, we witness the passing of not one, but two, Gaian-native vessels- Viking vessels, our sources have confirmed.

Just how did the natives of the planet Gaia, known throughout the Milky Way Galaxy for it's barrier of technology and lack there of, make it this far? Is this the direct result of contact with the Taiyou Empire? Will the Vikings terrorize the next civilization they come into contact with, or will they simply pass them by much as they did the Intergalactic News Network Cruiser we're reporting to you from?

Stay tuned and follow this story only onINN: NOW.