Tidus Khaine's Story

The commander felt the tingle, and it prompted a fairly quick reaction.

The spike in energies were pinpointed by the Iconoclast's sensors, and with a location fix, the War Adepts could be deployed, to secure whatever it was that was going down on the surface.

Gray gestured slightly, and the Iconoclast shifted once more.

"Looks like the prison is having some issues. I've got adepts to investigate the anomaly on the surface." He said, before he sent a message to the facility.

"This is the Inomine Veritas, We were dispatched to investigate some unsual activity going on in this part of the system." Gray said aloud into the communication system.


----

Above the strange eldritch ship, a deafening roar could be heard as a single drop pod began it's descent through Chiron-Delta's harsh atmosphere. A long fiery streak came about as the roar grew even louder, and the drop pod impacted the ground with a deafening crash several meters away from the strange ship.

The door to the pod popped open, and a towering, hulking power armored figure emerged wielding a heavy magnetron rifle. His enhancements and the self contained power armored suit protected him from Chiron Delta's harsh environment. With a grunt he switched on the suit's wide-range scanners, searching for life signs as he racked the heavy Magnetron rifle, a powerful weapon that fired 20mm self propelled explosive slugs at high velocities.

With another grunt, Tidus took a step forward, his helmet obscuring his face as he looked around. Heavy footsteps forward, the massive 6 ton hulk moved towards the ship.

With all this insanity going on, Colleen felt intense pressure, but Helga had been a friend and well it should not be too hard to hide the ship. Restarting intercom to the base she patched through, "Mac, I know you wanna yell at me, but bigger issues, Aschen are coming and the ship from Mars Corp, hide it." there was silence before the reply almost seeming like it was glaring at her, "Colleen, when all this bullshit is over, you and Helga owe me explanation, but we had assumed ship would need to hide, we placed it in the underground hanger, it's never used but still functional." nodding she acknowledged, "Okay, well I got things handled I think, something big is going on and this dude flying a ship in our airspace he had no idea this was Penal Colony. I don't know the deal, but as soon as I get more, you will be first I tell. Now I gotta cut the feed and talk to others."

Doing so she quick patched into the Aschen ship, "You are now clear to land, our automative air defenses are shut down so you can land outside the prison. We also gathered everyone out of the prison ready for inspection, in case this is a transfer to move some of the individuals to Hadante." awaiting a response she would continue to watch the ship through the dust storm, while sighing in frustration. After a bit a reply would come and Colleen would reply, "Roger, I'll give you codec for Warden's line so you can speak directly to him. I am merely a soldier/guard so I can't handle anymore." transferring the codes she immediately opted to end the transmission.

Moving on to Helga she spoke up, "Your ship is in the disused Underground Hanger, it's still functioning, but rarely used except when we have guests who are not popular with our lords and masters. I realize this is huge Helga, but well the other thing is guy in ship, claims he had no idea this was a penal colony. There is something amiss and I intend to find out what. I'll keep you in the know, I ain't very popular right now with how I keep blowing off Mac. May need to use some of your considerable influence to make sure I keep my job. Anyway, your ship is hidden and Aschen shall be landing in roughly half an hour. So everything is fantastic." rolling her eyes she awaited response patientely and replied back, "Just be careful Helga, the Aschen being here I doubt they are here to investigate the Prison, more likely they are interested in this anomaly, that suggests bad tidings for all."

Finally she once more restarted feed to the mystery ship, "Okay fuck politeness here. Get the fuck off this planet before we train the Anti-Air defenses to your signature and completely blow your ship apart. I am done being courteous, shit has hit the fans and I ain't dealing with this, if you don't comply I shall send the Aschen your signature and have them deal with it. You have ten minutes if you don't comply then you will be stuck here and I ain't going to help you." yeah Colleen had utterly had enough of this whole thing, she just wanted normality.

The interior of the vessel seemed old, dusty, and yet exuded an unmistakable sentience. The closder Tidus came to it, the more this impression of sentience came to him. A wordless whispering emanated from the vessel, beckoning to him, promising him power and freedom. No sound came from the vessel, rather the whisperings were only heard within the minds of those nearest to it. Further out, one could not hear the mutterings, but would feel the dread that comes with being in the presence of something unwholesome.

Far above in his Capital ship, the captain would continue to here that half whispered thought in the back of his mind. "Do you trust another to wield this power.... Can you trust any to wield this power." The whispering would say to him, raising doubts and questions to him.

Helga would find, after sealing her suit, that the strange influence of the vessel was no longer present in her mind. Indeed it would seem that the vessel had begun to ignore her, to see her as unworthy. This thought, though not quite her own, would present itself to her. What is it about her that was inferior. What is it about her that doesn't deserve that greatness?

Colleen would find a distinct thought intruding itself upon her mind. "Can I really let the aschen have something like this? What would the consequences be? What horrors would they unleash, tampering with things they don't understand?" The thoughts in her head would swirl and turn, questioning and testing her loyalties and decisions.

The Russian would feel a tingle in his spine, as something crossed his mind that seemed to have crossed it every day for all his life, and yet he would not be able to recall having ever thought so before. "Am I free? What am I doing here, isn't there something more I could be doing?" These words would form in his mind, as would an image of the entombed vessel currently under perusal by the others. "Why shouldn't I have that power? Why shouldn't I take it?" He would ask himself, or so it would seem to him, as under those thoughts an observations, a subtle, yet unmistakable laughter was present.

Indeed this laughter seemed to saturate everything surrounding the vessel, and yet it would be hidden, all but imperceptible, as though it were only imagined by those present. And once again that single unspoken word echoed in the minds of the mortal races throughout the galaxy. "Soon..."

Helga smiled at the swiftness that Colleen and her comrades.

"Thanks. Hopefully this won't take long. I just need....." Suddenly a loud thunderous crash could be heard as Tidus landed just several meters away sending debris in all direction and causing Helga to flinch slightly even though her shields and wards protected her from the oncoming chunks of earth and dust.

"Colleen I seem to have come in contact with the party. This might be a bit." Helga frowned only to turn herself fully towards the lumbering figure that stepped out of the landing pod only to first initially begin a full scan of the armored hulk and its weaponry. Once her initial scans did their job she would dematerialize her weapons and fold her arms across her chest.

"So the Aschens are interested in whatever this construct is!" Helga spoke up only take a single step forward towards the soldier in what appeared to be rather bulky power armor. "I have no intentions of standing in your way. Obviously I am outclassed and outgunned, nice firepower by the way, I only ask that I am allowed to take a closer look?" The Witch Hunter of Terra awaited any kind of response while simalaniously keeping up her wards and shields just in case what she received was something along the lines of deadly intent.

As the threat of having his ship blown up, Russian spoke into his radio in the most sarcastic tone he could muster. "Oh man! Don't go and destroy my ship! That thing was seriously expensive!" He soon chuckled a bit before getting serious, or at the very least non-sarcastic. "I would very much ask you to reconsider the whole blowing up my ship and sending some people after me. You see I have had people, squads, battalion, even nations think they could threaten me...or threaten to blow up the place I live at. Anyways that's besides the point, point is that every person that has threatened me is now dead and those nations are now smoldering craters, albeit I had some help from a couple of pals and large military figures...but I did most of the work so technically I did it myself. So if you think I am just blowing smoke up my ass, be my guest and shoot down my ship and send these "Aschen" forces to find me, but don't blame me when I come knocking on your doorstep to wreck the place and free every single prisoner I see just because you made me mad." He finished replying before snagging a chocolate bar from a glove compartment and began to chow down.

As Russian began to eat his candy bar, he began to look through his ships cameras in case the person on the radio decided to actually start destroying his ship which in that case he was prepared to fly that thing back to orbit. While he did this he felt a small tingle in his spine as something crossed his mind. "Am I free? What am I doing here, isn't there something more I could be doing?" Those words forming in his find which seemed familiar but not familiar at the same time. He soon had images of an entombed vessel followed by some people already on their way to it. "And to think all I had to deal with were regular military personal and planetary guards, now I have to deal with some type of psychic entity which is transmitting words in my head. Whats next? An entity coming out from below the surface which then begins to destroy everything in sight...I might be overthinking it a bit..." He spoke to himself before continuing to walk across the planets surface.

The Commander was slowly growing perturbed at the whispered thoughts, the temptations offered by this strange entity below. But the Commander did what any good officer of the Empire would do.

"Heresy!" He shouted, catching the attention of his entire bridge crew as he rubbed his brow. "Position main batteries alpha through gamma onto the planet, full salvo fire, enter targeting coordinates three nine seven carom one two eight!" He ordered, still trying to dismiss the whispering in his mind.

The massive battleship shuddered and rolled slightly, exposing it's complement of massive deck guns towards the moon below. With a thunk that shuddered throughout the entire Iconoclast battleship, three massive tri-barreled gun turrets elevated and swiveled to life, their targeting systems calibrating and locking onto the planet below.

One of the Bridge officers turned to face the Commander, before he spoke up. "Batteries are calibrated and ready to fire on your command. Be advised we have an adept on the surface who may be caught in the salvo."

The Commander nodded, before he turned to his executive officer.

"We must report this to the Confessor Cabal. Keep the gun batteries armed but do not fire. Open a channel to the surface." He ordered. At that moment, the Iconoclast began to broadcast a wide-frequency transmission.

"Attention all those who can recieve this message. This is the Inomine Veritas, of the United Aschen Empire's Fleet of Righteous Vigilance. We've come here because we've detected several strange anomalies. I require further information before I decide what course of action to take." He said, awaiting a reply.

On the surface the lone Adept approached the strange vessel, growling to himself as the suit's psionic and magical defense systems engaged, with the intention of isolating the Adept's mind from the strange influence that seemed to permeate the area.

The hulking figure took yet another step forward, his heavy Magnetron rifle raised up.

Suddenly, a silence fell over everything. The laughing ceased, the whispering stopped, everything was quiet. The only sound to be heard were no more psionic than the sighing of the wind...

For whatever reason, this would seem even more frightening than anything else. The vessel stood there, empty and foreboding. The single pilots seat beckoning and at once terrifying. The vessel itself did nothing.

High in orbit, the captain would seem to have won a small victory, for not only did the whisperings stop, but all influence from the vessel ceased. At the same time though... The impression that something was grinning at him, that whatever entity had been attempting to play with his mind had a smug smile directed towards him.

The silence was broken then, as the entity spoke clearly and directly for the first time, and everything, living or not, artificial or natural, reverbrated with it's voice, as though the very fabric of reality was it's vocal cord. "Despair.... There is... Nothing.... That you can do.... To stop... me..."

Hearing the voice speak in her mind she did sensible thing, she did not want the Aschen getting the power surely, but she also did not want powers promised, she was honestly happy where she was, despite all the complaining well she could accept this place, strange as it was, since she did not seem to hate it outright. It more was just a job to her, she checked in, did her work then went to sleep in the barracks. Thus why her reaction was to switch suit to mp3 module and start listening to music saying, "Try talk over my metal strange voice, because I ain't falling for it." although that was swiftly interrupted by a fresh voice being patched through, "I figured as much Captain, and yes two strange anomalies, I think it just spoke to us. The other just some guy calling himself "The Russian" our base can be shielded so you are welcome to blow that thing up, no skin off my nose."

Chuckling she awaited a reply before ending transmission and letting music resume, although even if the voice had ceased, she did not immediately notice, instead she figured music had drowned it out, but now it appeared to be echoing some disturbing waves that without the suit would have crippled her emotionally, thankfully the suit prevented the voice being heard, largely because these were created by Mars Corp and this was sort of thing they were meant to protect against, unwelcome influence. Still she had to check the base, "Mac, whatever you do don't shoot yourself... just listen use the special gift given to us by Mars Corp you know the one, it's meant to cut out waves and place the base in some sort of stasis." there was no reply, but she had no time to check, instead she now had to address Helga, "That device is sending out some sort of waves, your cybernetic skin suits are protecting me, but the prison is being effected if this continues we could well have a riot, do something please."

Finally she patched through the strange ship, "I'll say this once right, LEAVE NOW, YOU DON'T WANT TO BE HERE, THINGS ARE GOING TO SHIT AND OVERALL---." ending patch she decided now to quit being nice, "Patch through to The Facility controls, enter code 895610, bypass the security and now fire all batteries on the base. I repeat, this is not a drill the Facility is going on high alert, fire all batteries on targets marked." the message was transmitted via her cybernetic interface which was far more advanced than the security of the facility, the original protective suits were not connected to the base interface.

Colleen may have been insulated but the strange anomaly had seeped into her fractured fatigued mental state and she literally had had enough, meaning now her state had been reduce to utter reckless endangerment and breaking rules. Helga's suit would get a beeping announcing that her partner's heart-rate had accelerated and she had hacked the batteries in the base. The suit had deafened some of the waves, but one got in and with all the chaos and Colleen frustration she had lost control.

As if on cue the anti-aircraft batteries began to fire, although the way the targets been set meant they were firing everywhere, just out of control.

Helga grimaced at the hulking warrior seemed to have zero response or care for what was truly before him. What made matters worse was not only did the Aschens have every gun they could muster pointed down in one spot but Colleen took matters into her own hands. As anti-aircraft batteries fired creating even more unwanted destruction the Witch Hunter was sure that this would give the Aschens all the provocation they would need to open fire upon the strange eldritch craft.

"Colleen, you moronic piece of shit, what the Hell are you thinking!" Helga shouted into her coms link only to then raise her left hand high into the air creating a visible distortion as she asserted her will upon arcane forces under her control. Her suit would begin to shimmer as runes of unknown origin began to come to life upon the odd material that made up her eva suit.

"I challenge the laws of nature and reason..." Several runic rings began to form around her raised hand as she looked at the alien craft only to direct her full rage upon the ship at a point blank range. "......by summoning the power of destruction" Her voice would almost seem to echo across the vast plane that she and others like herself stood upon while the runic circle above her head turned as to look directly down upon herself and the ship. The air around Helga would drastically drop to almost freezing temperatures as she continued to hold her spell.

As Russian continued to creep along the planets surface, his modified sonar soon picked up multiple objects hidden underground. He stopped by the closest one and opening a port in his mech suit, he grabbed a digger hidden inside the port and began to mine clear the area of earth. While he was busy diggin up the earth, he retrieved a transmition by the Aschen fleet that seemed to be broadcasting in multiple frequencies. The message was telling them that they were here after detecting a strange anomaly and we're waiting on what course of action to take.

Russian soon dug far enough into the earth and pulled out a rusty piece of metal, presumably from one of the terraforming equipment long since broken. "Well so much for having an easy assignment..." he soon took note that there was little to no sound going on, all he could hear was the wind up above the hole he had just made but he soon heard something which set of a few alarm bells. The same disembodied voice spoke again, speaking through everything including the sand next to him. "Why do I always get the difficult assignments...I should do more research on a planet before I land on it." He spoke to himself and began to climb out of the hole.

As Russian began to climb out of the hole he made, he heard a familiar voice talking to him yet again but this time the person on the other side seemed to be at their limit and yelled into the radio causing him to reach for his own radio to turn it off in fear for having his eardrums blow out. "Jeeze! Someone is pissed off." He spoke to no one in particular before he heard a particular sound, and that sound was anti-aircraft fire.

Climbing out of the hole Russian patched into his ships systems half expecting to see it under attack but what he instead saw was anti-aircraft fire hitting random things with no clear target. "Either their targeting systems are damaged, or its malfunctioned...either was its not my problem this time." He shrugged and began to walk of to the next object on his modified sonar.

"I'll kill her..."

Several questions flooded his mind at once. Why was one of his men shutting him out intentionally? Why was nobody keeping him updated on the incoming ships, and WHY in the HELL were the anti-aircraft guns in full assault, blasting at whatever may be lurking in that empty bit of nothingness?!

He began rubbing at his temples, his eyes tightly shut as he thought. He stood alone in his quarters, dressed in his usual gear, a light flickering above his head as it swiveled relentlessly on its chain. Impatiently, he jammed his finger into the intercom. "Colleen, if you have any fuckin' sense left in that head of yours, I need you to get it out of your ASS, and give me and update!"

Something hit him. Not physically, mentally. He could feel some ominous presence, looming over him, as though he were being blanketed by a thin layer of snow. Shaking his head dismissively, he patched through to a separate line, ordering the immediate lock down of the prison. Alarms began to sound and metal doors could be heard, echoing through the corridors as they slammed shut, one after the other.

Heaving a sigh, he made for the rest of his gear. Slipping his helmet over his head, strapping his boots on tight, systems came online. The helmet gave him an easier access to Colleen's line, and he tried her once more. "I've locked down the prison. If I don't hear back from you soon I am coming out there, and god help you you'll be shoveling shit for peanuts by the time I'm done with you!"

A sudden stillness came down over this place. It would take a moment to notice, but the first thing those located outside would notice would be that the anti aircraft munitions flying about the air were frozen in place. The second thing to be noticed would be how everything, literally everything, seemed to vibrate. Utter Silence pervaded the fabric of reality in this section of existence.

It was peaceful.... Until she woke up. Her first words, the first time the voice of the vessel ever had a definitive presence, the first time it could be acknowledged as an actual entity speaking was heard throughout the area. Where as before, the whispers and voices sounded soothing and soft, Her voice was cold, metalic, and gave the impression of a knife sliding through the air. "Chaos Threshold reached, initiating second phase protocols" She said, and the planet itself shuddered as with fear.

The material surrounding the vessel on the surface dissolved away as tendrils of raw energy snaked through them. No... that's not quite right. Rather, it was like the roots of a plant. The matter itself turned into energy, which then rushed to the ship. Rivers of energy pouring into that vessel quickly exposed it fully, and as it did the ship lifted free of the ground. A simple looking craft, about the 27 feet long from nose to tail, and around 18 feet from wing to wing. It was not adorned or decorated, aside from the gold tracing that gilded it's parts here and there.

The vessel lifted free of the ground, and then began to glow, as parts of the ship shifted into a state of energy themselves. These sections shifted and morphed. The front of the seat lifted to form a masked face, the wings shifted positions and morphed to become like humanoid arms, The tail extended and split, becoming clawed legs that slammed into the earth, drawing more rivers of energy from the physical matter. "Transition Complete, beginning search" She said as she turned towards the prison, utterly ignoring those near her. With every step, crater formed as more and more matter was absorbed for her power. A chamber in the center of the new entities chest opened up, and an orb of gyrating energy was revealed. Tendrils of raw power snaked out from this chamber and reached forward, grasping at any matter it found, breaking it down and absorbing it.

The moment that chamber was revealed, an indescribable fear echoed through the fabric of reality. It felt as though the very air was terrified and wanted to flee from this thing that had appeared. In the hearts of the mortals nearby, in the very thrums of their blood, a primal, instinctive fear would settle into their very flesh. It was a fear not born of a spell or outside influence, it was the simple instinctive reaction to danger. The very cells of their body would shiver in terror, though they might try to deny it. One simple fact could not be denied by anyone present. The creature that had made it's presence known was surely the doom of all that was.

A lone figure stood silently on a distant dune overlooking the chaos of the region. It was like a phantom or a mirage that passed unseen beneath all but the most advanced scanners and perceptive senses. The figure was clad in a dark brown cloak that blended with the scourged earth of the planet's surface. Two glowing yellow eyes focused coldly on the awakened vessel with calculating indifference.

The Agent of Wrath felt the Power radiating from the ship like the gravitational force of a black hole. It was darkness and malice, and yet cold and emotionless. However, even though the Agent sensed the vessel's power and heard its voice as clearly as any other, it simply ignored its alluring call.

<< Priority One Artifact detected. Unit Beta-34 requesting reinforcements for extraction. Informing the Repository. >>

Beta-34 ran a quick calculation on the ship's trajectory after ending the communication. It took a single step before its form dissolved into the background.

"Sir... I'm detecting weapons fire from the surface, doesn't appear to be firing at anything in particular." A deck officer informed the Commander as he looked to the planet below.

The deck guns remained primed as the crew tried to sort out everything going out.

"We're going to lock this whole thing down." Gray reported. "Do we have enough troops for a planetside assault?" He asked, as his Executive officer shook their head.

"I'll signal the nearest available Reverence to lead an assault to secure the prison."

Gray nodded slightly, before the executive officer replied. "Sir, I've recieved a response. The Bloodied Spirit is changing course to intercept. They'll arrive in half a millicenton." The XO Reported.

The Reverence II Bloodied Spirit promptly recieved the call from the Iconoclast over Chiron-Delta, and with a shift, it jumped from Blackrock, and appeared in low orbit over Chiron Delta.

The massive Reverence II was large enough to easily obscure the skies over the maximum security prison complex. It's massive engines thundered on the surface as it began it's descent. To those versed in Aschen tactics, this Reverence II was situating itself to lead an assault on the planet, in addition to landing troops.

---

Khaine paused as he looked up, the brilliant white flash of light followed by the appearance of the Bloodied Spirit had quickly caught his attention for a moment. But it was Helga's spell casting that was the most concerning. Raising his Magnetron rifle, he opened fire, with an audible thunk his weapon sent a single 20mm self propelled projectile towards the casting mage, hoping to swiftly remove her from the picture.

Being yelled at can do many things, but in this case it did knock Colleen out of whatever she had been in, let's say frustrated anger combined with utter stupidity. Still Mac had broken through whatever hold had been on her and immediately she replied, "Okay here's long and short of it Mac, there is Helga and I, Helga fighting an Aschen, I am monitoring a ship from a dude calling himself the Russian he is according to the scans on my suit drilling into the ground near the base. There is other stuff but gist of it is that anomaly is causing strange shit to occur... I can define what it is entirely, but it made me hack the anti-aircraft defences which is why they started firing, thankfully the orbital platforms were not activated, although with how things are you may want too..." with that she awaited the yelling and screaming, while sighing, "Actually can we shoot down that ship, I can paint a target on it with my electronics if you wish."

Once more waiting, she would patch through to Helga, "Look if worse comes to the worse, we have orbital cannons they could be used on the Aschen ship, it could well take it down... damn the consequences... also that thing, anomaly, it appears able to alter or influence people... thus why what happened, happened... thing is I am in control again. I am likely going to paint big red target on this ship, and shoot it down, leaving the Russian without any means to escape... after that I shall head to where you are."

With that she switched off her intercom and began to input coordinates from her scan of 'The Russian's' ship, basing it on the information and sending the data to Mac, "There is the information, input it to some of our defences and blow thing out of the sky."

Helga grimaced as the monster rose from the earth bellow. She held her spell as the arcane and eldritched energies that flowed from her hand and the surrounding areas continued to form more complex spellwork. It was with every intention that she wanted to destroy such an abomination on life and as it made its way towards Colleen and Mac's location. The Witch Hunter was not focused on anything else other than the destruction of such a thing before her and as Tidus took his shot there might have been an end to her chapter.

"Helga, snap out of it, you stupid witch!" Her shadow jumped out from underneath of her and in an instant cast its own spell enforcing the barriers that protected Helga thus far. Ghast smirked like the devil as the 20mm broke through the initial barriers only to stop as Ghast raised his left hand enforcing the slowing of the projectile to a sudden halt.

The gunfire broke Helga's concentration causing the spell to fizzle and distort the space around her changing the land into a fertile green field that extended outwards several meters only to then freeze in an instant causing no harm to anyone or anything.

"Not today soldier." Ghast taunted as it shrunk back into Helga taking on her shadow once more. Helga herself looked over to Tidus and grimaced. "We need to take that thing down!" Fully turning herself towards the soldier and making her way over to the armored hulk with little fear her in soul.

"I don't care if your xenophobic nature is telling you to shoot me again! Fuck it all if you do but I assure you Ghast would hate for his vessel to be damaged beyond all repair!" Helga raised her voice as she continued to make her way over to the soldier. "Tell whoever you have that is incharge to blow that thing back to fucking Hell if they so wish. Obviously it is a danger and I can examine the remains later!"

It was then that she heard the transmission from Colleen only to feel even angrier at the notion of turning on such a super power. A poor move on any souls part that thought they could withstand such a military might especially when they were on a rock that was not all that important. "Colleen! You know I have grown attached to my fucking body! Turn those damned weapons towards the fucking behemoth that is making its way towards your prison!"

Hearing back from Colleen was nothing short of a miracle. He listened through his helmet now, being fully prepared at this point to disembark from the confines of the prison. Patching his voice to Colleen, he spoke calmly. "Alright, now that you're actually paying attention, we can do something about this. I'm staying inside as long as I can to run the defenses, as well as making sure we don't have a full blown riot in here. I need you to focus your attention on whatever the hell that thing is making it's way toward the prison, we don't have time to fight this many battles at once. For god's sake woman who taught you how to prioritize? I'm deploying assistance, try not to let it get ruined."

Shifting his attention to his main control area, he input the codes necessary to reroute the exterior defenses so they weren't blindly firing at god knows what. Instead he focused them on the incoming vessel, the one marching it's way toward the prison, the one emitting the...fear.

All the anti aircraft defenses ceased fire momentarily, swiveling on their bases to the new coordinates, a low hum emanating from within before they opened fire. The collective force of the assault would me much more effective now that it was actually aimed at something!

Flicking to a different program on the controls, he input the codes for his own personal side project, The W4RD3N. Initiating the auto pilot he locked it on to Colleen's position. "You've got incoming Colleen, it's a friendly, the thing I mentioned to not let get ruined."

With that he made his way for the main prison chambers, to ensure security was still acting accordingly, and things in his prison hadn't gone completely to hell.

---

---

From within a sealed surface outside the prison walls, a launch sequence began. The doors slid open, revealing a some thirty foot gap in the prison wall. It also reveled a fifteen foot mechanical being with no pilot. From within it's sealed dome cockpit, the machines beeped to life, prompting the machine to move forward. A bulk of faded crimson emerged, it's legs moving fluidly on their own, prompting little lag time between steps. "creating energy field..." a robotic voice echoed from within the construct as it lurched forward, a glisten of light manifesting in a ten foot radius centered on the construct before disappearing. "primary combat functions...ready.."

As the weapons throughout its being hummed to life, it made it's way quicker to Colleen's location. "detection grid...activated" Picking up on her exact coordinates, it paused for a moment. "gravity fluctuation systems...ready"

Suddenly, the construct was slightly airborne, lingering for no more than a moment before soaring higher, further away from the prison toward his target. Traveling a short distance before coming to it's mark, settling down surprisingly precariously next to it's ally, a low hiss projecting from it's various limbs, it almost appeared to be looking down at her. "ally...confirmed. begin protection protocol 8-4-1...initiated."

Although the threats of demons and blood crazed maniacs were very much present in facility 104, Russian was interrupted by an alarm going off in his mech suit, warning him that there was something locking onto his ship. "Now I have more things to worry about, very fantastic." He grumbled as he fumbled with multiple monitors inside his mech suit and began patching into his ships controls. "Password: GEZdaf80outaere, Initiate program intermediate evacuation." With that the ship began to lift into the air, bringing the landing gear back into the ship before activating shields and self defense weaponry before making its way back to space. Hopefully the ship would hold on long enough to get out of range of the anti-aircraft weapons.

Russian now annoyed that they were indeed planning to blow up his ship, decided to curse the people, especially that woman talking to him. Pulling out his radio, he began to talk on the local frequency so most people would hear him. "Oh cool, go ahead and target my ship with your weapon systems. You know what missy, I could care less about what happens to the planet. Have fun with the demons, blood crazed marauders, and whatever the hell is moving around on the planet. Oh by the way I am inside your supposedly maximum security prison, facility 104 was it? And I am currently busting the prisoners out. I wonder what your bosses would say and do I wonder? Maybe they would dock everyone's pay and send you all janitor duty. Anyways screw you all and screw all of your organizations. This is Russian, not wishing any of you luck. Also great security, it sucks."

The Vessel continued it's approach to the prison, taking no more notice of Helga or Tidus as a man would a seed planted at his foot. It did however take notice of the new Ship signature warping in directly over it's head. A cold voice issued from the vessel, echoing across the landscape. "Analyzing new signature... Threat Level minimal, Pilot potential Moderate."

The Reverence and Bloodied Spirit would both then recieve a transmission. "Attention life forms, for your own safety, you are to remain at distance from this planet. You have potential, and must not be harmed. If you do not comply, your safety cannot be garunteed." The image which would display on the appropriate screens and panels would be that of a raid haired woman with four ice blue eyes, which hold no warmth. There would be no mouth on this entities face, nor nose, only the four eyes positioned around a Green marking in the middle of it's face. How it achieved speech could not be discerned.

The Natuna would then proceed to ignore the new arriving ship, and continue on it's way to the prison. At the point the defenses activated and fired, the vessel would raise it's right hand and gesture, as if to grasp a doorknob or handle. The shells fired from the bases defenses would then flash bright green, before vaporizing into streams of energy, which then flow into the open hand of the Natuna. "Hostilities will not be allowed." The vessel spoke, before raising it's hand upward, bringing with it the energy. The cascade of power then split into mulitple streams, each one forming into a solid jagged shard, though of what could not be known. These shards would then fly forward, each one about 20 feet long and 5 wide along the bevel, and seven score of these there were, a veritible blizzard of blades. This 'storm of swords' would crash into the side of the base, striking the cannons and defenses from which first issued the matter what provided the energy for this retaliation. But then, if one were of the mind to take notice of it, a strange occurance happened. Each shard then flashed green, and in a 60 foot radius bubble around each flash, all the physical matter that had been contacted would also flash green, before it too vaporized and streamed towards the Natuna and the orb sitting within it's chest.

It is in this manner, that the Natuna would disable the presented defenses of it's target. The vessel continued along it's trajectory, each stride bringing it closer and closer to it's goal.

And still, that sense of dread would take hold of one's heart, should they chance to see that core again. The wiser, or perhaps more intelligent life forms would make the assumption that whatever was in that core must be a great and terrible thing, to instill the instinctual and primordial reaction it did.

Above the prison complex, the reverence II was finally in position. It's engines rocked the ground below, but what was to come next would spell doom for the prisoners below.

Commander Lionel Felghast, an older man that had been placed in charge of the Bloodied Spirit was eying a large combat map, a three-dimensional holographic projection of the prison, and the terrain surrounding it.

"Three strike teams will move in, three directions." He said, focusing in on the prison itself. "Whatever that thing is on the ground heading to the prison needs to be neutralized, and then we'll move in and secure the complex itself. I want artillery and ground support deployed in these zones here" Felghast said, turning to his executive officer.

"Colonel; execute." Felghast said, as he turned back to the holographic display.

The cacophony of the Reverence II's CIC echoed all around him, the words, the actions, the chime of the alarm, everything provided a beautiful orchestra to the old Commander's ears.

The massive vessel worked like a well oiled machine, landing plots were selected and tallied for gravity-lift deployment, while Marines and ground assault teams checked their weapons and armor systems, gathering at the designated ground deployment zones aboard the ship.

Back in the CIC, the Commander gave the final nod of approval, three zones, one about a mile north of the facility, one southwest, and one southeast were selected for deployment.

And the massive ship in the sky fired down three brilliant purple beams of light, that widened to about sixty meters in diameter. This was the first stage in a massive deployment that was soon to follow.

---

Khaine simply grinned. And then he withdrew a chainsword that was attatched magnetically to his back, revving it a couple times he shouted from behind his visor.

"Witch! There is only one thing to do with you, it's Purge!" He bellowed, before unleashing a powerful antimana pulse from his armor, that extended outwards in all directions, and with a rev of his Chainsword, he lunged at Helga.

As the Anti-Aircraft defenses began to fire erratically, the Commander aboard the Bloodied spirit was watching, the rounds that made it high enough impacted against the shields of the Reverence II, which flared angrily into a brilliant milky white.

"Arm ventral batteries alpha through epsilon. Take out those anti-aircraft batteries." Commander Felghast ordered.

The underside of the Reverence II sported roughly eight hundred individual dual-barreled turbodisruptor batteries, and seven hundred single barrel batteries running along the length of the vessel.

Five of these batteries swiveled to life, and took aim at the facility below.

Felghast watched as the Anti-Aircraft batteries were highlighted into a brilliant red, the Turbodisruptor batteries were calibrated for a staggered salvo fire, and would provide an intermittent stream of weapons fire to silence the batteries.

Once the batteries took aim, they charged up and fired, with a five-second cycling time; they would make short work of the AA batteries below.

The heralding of Aschen weapons fire was that of a series of deafening cracks not unlike thunder, brilliant green flashes that streaked down into the facility below, followed by brilliant plumes of flame as the impacts reduced the AA batteries, and everything immediately around them to molten slag. There was no doubt everyone inside Facility 104 would have heard the sudden weapons fire, which would continue until the last AA Battery fell silent.