The Grimore System

The OOC for sign ups and discussions
Three Billion miles from the Grimore System-


Deep in the bowels of the mothership a tall being rose slowly from a pool of briny water. As the glistening flesh reflected the dull lights, several tentacles moved and coiled as the being wiped water off the sleek limbs. Turning large black eyes towards the smaller Qua that waited patiently, Har'ath'sha dressed slowly, as he did so he nodded for the smaller being to speak. “We have found another system with life and resources that can benefit the Qua.” The thoughts rapidly transmitted to the larger being, who nodded as the ornate robes shifted and draped over his form.

Glancing at the smaller Qua, Har'ath'sha's thoughts flowed easily, “Has the King been informed of this?” The smaller being nodded then after a moment hissed before speaking, “Our sister ship has encountered life forms willing to fight. It seems that they found a small system of hominids. When our brothers attacked, other fleets of ships appeared to defend the planet.” The high-lord pondered this as he moved with an elegant grace towards the lifts that would lead to the command center of the vast world ship. “Do we need to assist our sisters then?” He queried. The smaller Qua shook his head, “No, the sister-captain merely said it was a delay to the harvest, nothing more.”

Stepping on the vast command deck, the high-lord peered at the sister-captain of his own world ship and allowed his thoughts to flow to her, “This system. Tell me of it's potential.” Rising from her chair that was submerged in a warm brine, the sister-captain bowed slightly as she pointed towards the massive screens, “This system has life and many materials we require. It appears easily harvestable, however we have noted an oddity that seems to surround the system.”

Gliding towards a smaller screen, the sister-captain tapped it and a pulled out a multidimensional map was displayed. “They have this...cloud. It seems to be inherent to the system itself but we are having trouble isolating and identifying the exact nature of it.” Har'ath'sha peered close to the screen allowing the data to scroll as he took it in, after a long moment he nodded and thought, “Send a single harvester, if makes it with little effect we shall proceed.”

The sister-captain nodded and began a series of thoughts to several officers on the command deck, who promptly began their own thought orders until on one of the harvest ships that hung along the vast superstructures began alive with activity as thousands of Qua prepared the ship for launch. On the command deck, the high-lord moved to his large chair and sat down slowly, as he did so, a warm flood of water swirled and flooded the area around his feet, giving him a feeling of comfort as he expanded his mind's energy to encompass the thought waves of the various captains of the harvesters and the commanders on the deck.

Aboard the harvest ship the sister-captain watched the reports appear on her screen as the ships company quickly and efficiently prepared their ship for launch, as she did so she noticed that none of the other harvest ships were preparing for launch. An oddity perhaps, but being Qua it surprised her little, perhaps this was an event that only her ship could handle. A tingle of pride washed through her and by virtue through her thoughts to the others who also swelled with pride.

A little over an hour later the harvester dropped away from the superstructure and whipped around on stabilizing fields. It's course was the main planet of this system. Moving at incredible speeds the ship skipped and wobbled along magnetic fields, as it entered the anomaly it began to buffet and shake. What ever the cloud was it was affecting the magnetic fields of the ship, not greatly but enough that the ship had to slow slightly to maintain it's forward momentum. The large eyes of the sister-captain peered at the screens, her fingers drumming on the chair's arm as she felt the shudders in the ship and understood that the magnetic fields were stable but something was affecting them in a way that caused the ship to have to adjust more than normal. “Prepare for our arrival.” Thought the sister-captain with certainty as she sank back into her command chair, the roiling salt water sloshed against her legs.

---

"General Iratel!"

The slightly pudgy man at the indecipherable control panel span around on his leather chair with a scowl. "What now?!" he yelled irately, clearly not appreciating the use of his last name as such. "And I'm General Earth to you!"

Whoever had called him by that name was obviously quite used to the treatment. "General Iratel," the voice cooed again, shrugging off the glare (oh, if looks could kill...) "Would you mind sending out a scanner? We're supposed to be running a Galactic Protection order here, we don't want the fiasco from a couple days ago..."

"Shut it!" Alphaeus lashed out, and smashed his fist on the nearest available flat surface.

Said available flat surface was the control panel.

"Distress beacon activated."

The entire ship suddenly began to resonate with a distinctly feminine voice repeating several stock cautionary phrases over and over again, and the entire ship took on a rather reddish cast, due to the fact that each of the lights, once a pleasant whitish colour, had suddenly taken on an unattractive mauve shade.
The fact that someone had, in their surprise and fear, effused several bodily fluids all over themselves and surrounding objects was not helping the situation.
At all.

And why was everybody running around with their hands flailing in every direction?

---

"Why is there suddenly a giant red circle in the middle of space?"

"Orienda, did you divide by zero again? You know what happened last time."

The brown-haired woman gave her attendant a glassy stare, and he took it as his cue to suddenly need to use the lavatory.

After Rigel's 'fun' encounter with the bathrooms regarding having to stay there for a period of time much longer than five minutes (an unspecified span of time which, incidentally, was punctuated by several awkward groans, moans, and high-pitched yeeps) he suddenly found himself dragged from one of the comfier armchairs by the Magiton-powered campfire (who said spaceships couldn't have useless creature comforts?) over to the crude radar system, which was beeping unpleasantly.

"Explain this," Orienda breathed.

Grimore system-

Sister-captain Ahur'meh stared at the scrollinhg information on the three massive projected screens above the command console, her large eyes reflecting the blue-green images. The mass of face tentacles writhed and roiled as she tapped the arm of her large chair. “It seems this system holds life forms of some sort...” she mused as the deep space scans came back, there were settlements of unknown origins on the planet she was headed for. Standing easily in the nearly foot of briny water she allowed the neural interface to connect with her mind, “We are approaching an oddity of a world, one that resides within the strange cosmic anomaly. What this means is unknown at this time, however we are the point of the spear and as such we shall make our presence known to these beings.” Pausing as she stepped out of the pool, she waved a hand switching the screens to display the massed warriors in the staging area, “Soon my brothers you will be unleashed upon this world.”

Pod-leader F'hra nodded as he listened to the words of the sister-captain, when she was finished he turned to his pod and allowed his thoughts to flow to them all, “We shall ravage another world for the Qua, let us be the glorious weapon that strikes fear in the hearts of this world.” The pod began raising their heavy weapons and cheering by clicking their beaks, their facile tentacles roiling and reaching, in excitement, the colors that each warrior displayed under their skins ran the gamut of reds, blues, yellows and greens.

Slowly the fighter pilots made their way to the ships, the assault troops began filing into the large cylindrical drop ships. They would be entering the planetary gravitational pull, once they did so the computers would begin expelling the drop cylinders over the planet towards the nearest settlements. Thousands of swarming warriors would descend on the world while hundreds of fighters would launch from the harvester to attack any defense that might rise to face the large disk shaped craft.

---

In the probe, everything continued to be chaos. The Aeromancer in charge of propelling the spacecraft had somehow regained her senses amidst the general pandaemonium and had begun to push the wind inside the probe in the direction of Grimore I.
Despite his misgivings, General Iratel really had to hand it to her. Not only was she able to annoy him without making him knock her out with a well-placed boulder to the face, she had somehow acquired an aversion to making stupid decisions along the way.

Now, if only the rest of this stupid crew (no, seriously, what were they here for? The only two people needed in a space probe such as the one he had been tasked with 'piloting' would be him and his pet wind magician) could do the same.

Alphaeus sighed as the person officially in charge of keeping the one lavatory they had on ship collided face-first with the walls of the ship, and went over to offer the man a hand.

---

"What is wrong with this radar? I knew we shouldn't have imported it from the Xindhi... bunch of thick-faced skelet--"

"Orienda, look out at the windows."

Orienda gave her Sub-General that look, and Rigel suddenly felt the urgent need to use the bathrooms.
Again.

With that being said, she turned her spinny away from the control panel and calmly glanced out the curved window, expecting to see only the faint glimmer of the millions of stars in the Milky Way.

She let out a shocked squeal and turned to the buttons, feverishly jabbing at the more red-tinted buttons.
A couple seconds later, a veritable crowd had formed around her chair, wondering what the source of that vile ticking sound was.
Rigel had somehow made his way into the crowd, despite the fact that he was normally aversive to large groups of people ("That's bad for the soul, you know"), and cupped his hands over his mouth.
"There are no pipe bombs on deck. Carry on."

With sounds of disappointment and more than several "Fuck you, Marinda!"s, the crowd dissipated, until it was only Rigel looking over his superior's shoulder at what the radar had said.

Both of them really wanted to know how you could make a red that was that red without breaking the monitor.

Thirty seconds later, with Rigel's help, the Gunship suddenly flew off towards Grimore in a burst of speed.
And no one on board could say that they'd kept standing through the whole ordeal. After all, staying standing on a curved surface was pretty damn tough.
Orienda didn't quite feel like facing off against several hundred unidentified spaceships with her tired old wreck.

---

The drop cylinders began to fall at night.

They turned red-hot as the fell through the heavens, illuminating the pitch-blackness of the night sky otherwise only broken by the Twin Moons. Children in the Castle and surrounding woodland looked up at the sounds of burning, and their faces were filled with amazement.
"Look, momma!" one of them cried, in the accent characteristic of a Glade child -- that is, a child raised in the woodlands, rather than the Castle. "Shooting stars!"

Imperial Taiyou Navy
Naginata Class Cruiser - Haguro
CPT - Kenji Nakayama
Long range patrol

"Update." The Captain said as the ship drifted through the blackness of space, approaching what was uncharted space. Commonly known as the Grimore system. The Naginata was charged with long range patrol, to map and chart star systems in this galaxy for the Imperial Navy. And so the captain sat, awaiting a response to his request. But that response would be a little more then the captain bargained for.

"Sir! We have tens of thousands of unidentified contacts! Coming in hot on the planet, IFF Unconfirmed!" He shouted as the Captain faced the screen. "What!? Identify them!" Of course there would be additional pings as the Naginata tracked a small Space Probe sailing through the blackness, but unfortunately, the Qua ships ahead had drawn the attention of the Taiyou crew. "We need to prime weapons and prepare to engage, we'll also need to report this back to the Empire." The Captain said as he watched in awe at the approaching ships, they seemed to enumerate and dwarf the single Taiyou ship in the area.

"Lieutenant Tashi, I want torpedoes in the tubes and the main guns prepared and readied to fire if this gets ugly, prime missile tubes alpha through echo... and let's get ready to roll." Captain Nakayama said aboard the sterile white bridge of the Nagainata, and so it turned on it's keel to face the nearby Qua invasion.

"Supercool the hull and engage the optical refraction system." With that the Lieutenant flipped several switches and the hull of the ship super-cooled to match the blackness of space, while the ship shimmered for a moment, and vanished in the velvet black backdrop of space.

Grimore System-

Aboard the large harvester ship, the sister-captain and her officers watched with cold indifference as the fighters left the ship, followed by the drop ships. Turning large expressionless eyes towards a wide flat panel she pressed a button. After precious nanoseconds another image appeared.

“Greetings Sister-captain Ahur'meh “, flashed the figure as a myriad of reds, blues and brilliant greens raced along its body in fascinating patterns. “What have you to report?”

Sister-captain Ahur'meh stood ramrod stiff as her body flashed a scintillating and rapid series of colors, “We have contacted the planet. Thus far we have encountered no opposition. Drop ships are beginning their landing procedures and within the next few minutes we shall be establishing landing points on the surface.”

Aboard the vast mothership, Har'ath'sha pondered what the sister-captain reported. His large eyes shimmering back the green lights that flowed on the console before him, his tentacles roiling about, his beaked mouth clacked a few times before he thought, “Keep us away of the situation.”

After the contact was broken he stood and paced back and forth in the shallow pool of salty water, his long fingered hands folded behind him, his head bowed slightly.

Planet fall-

Back on the planet, a small wing of Qua fighters raced tree-top height, their boomerang shapes causing sonic booms to follow behind them as they searched for enemy aircraft. Aboard one of the drop ships, Pod-leader F'hra, felt the under carriage extend, then a heavy hum as the magnetic fields shifted and lessened allowing the ship to gently touch down on a rocky out cropping of rocks. As soon as it touched down the back opened up, disgorging dozens of Qua warriors in pods. F'hra grabbed his command staff and scrambled quickly off the large cylindrical ship, behind him his squad of command warriors.

“I want that tree line secured!” his thoughts washed over his officers in a tremendous blast of excited psionic energy. The roar of several fighters over head caused him to look skyward, in the dark night, the sight of fighters made him feel better. Hefting his staff skyward he started flashing out a series of orders to his commanders.

Slowly the pod-leader and his troops began making their way towards a small settlement they had targeted on the way in. Across the planet thousands of warriors were doing the same thing, moving toward what they believed to be the habitats of the planets population.

---

"All residents of Castle Cadremus and surrounding areas please report to the gates immediately! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!" yelled a teenager's voice, echoing through the woods with the distinct sound of magical acoustics enhancement.

Rigel had literally jumped out of the Magiton Gunship as soon as it had landed in the landing spot marked crudely with a giant 'L' surrounded by a circle. The marking had been made with chalk, and was soon scuffed over as the crews of both the Gunship and the space probe Alphaeus Iratel (the Irritator, Rigel would have to note with a certain fierce satisfaction) had been charged with piloting ran out from their respective spaceships.
Truth be told, he hadn't tried that hard to keep the gunship moving after the initial burst of speed. It was only the fact that he was a prodigy at Aeromancy that kept his ship ahead of Alphaeus'.
He really had to give a hand to that Aeromancer on his ship, by the way. What was her name? Laetitia? Adonais? He couldn't be effed to remember, and left the matter of names alone as he regained his thoughts and starting to organise things.

"All Magick-users, please report to the Tower of Subterranean Magicks or the Tower of Infernal Magicks posthaste!" Orienda screamed, using the same technique that he had to enormi-largi-cafy his voice just fifteen seconds earlier to come out with another announcement.
He had to hand it to her too. He'd never heard the word 'posthaste' used correctly up until this point.

With that, the crews of both ships vacated the landing space, leaving the ships in the middle of the landing point. Any spaceship wishing to land would have to land in the forest.

By the time Alphaeus, Rigel, and Orienda made their way to the gates (someone intelligent had left the drawbridge down), a veritable crowd of forlorn-looking adults, children, and assorted pets had assembled, looking rather like the inhabitants of Gambit's Bar; that is, assuming their apparently unlimited coffers had suddenly run dry.
The three of them set out immediately to push the crowd through the ever-so-slightly-open gates, as per Emergency Code XIa:

Emergency Code XIa: In the case of a necessary evacuation, relocate all forest inhabitants into the closest, most densely packed town, city, or castle available. This will result in better defences in the case of direct attack.

They were joined within a couple minutes by the likes of Balinda Wright and Ellana Normane, which aided immensely; Balinda's large frame, rather reminiscent of a particularly vicious gym teacher, and Ellana's particularly bothersome squeals of annoyance whenever someone took too long squeezing through the gates ensured that no one wanted to linger in front of the gate for more than was really, really necessary.
Finally, it was just them five.
"What're you waiting for?" Ellana enquired in a bubblish, girly voice. Rigel stifled a snicker, attempting to stay any thoughts involving the reader's mom. "Let's go!"

On the way to the Tower of Infernal Magicks, Orienda and Alphaeus each brifed their equals about what was going on, after ordering the crowd towards the farmers' quarter. Evidently, a large fleet of spaceships had been seen heading over to Grimore, and Grimore could expect either massive invasion or a giant gift of trash metals.
Balinda tripped over herself as they wound about the spiral staircase leading up to, and Rigel coughed a hacking cough. Orienda was not amused.

---

Three minutes later, the five of them found themselves joined by the other three Sub-Generals, Tyrelio, Gyrel, and Rish. Rigel sidled over to the former, but was stopped in his tracks by a look from Orienda. Clearly, this wasn't the time for romance.
With that said, Orienda began an impropmtu speech.

"As the Generals have been informed, we are to be possibly invaded. Us Generals will be heading the situation from the two Towers closest to the entrance; this one and the Tower of Subterranean Magicks, as you very well know. Now, you Sub-Generals will be overseeing the situation from the main gates of the Castle." She ignored a clap and a gasp from Rish and Gyrel's direction. "Rigel, you'll be establishing a wind current over the entire Castle, correct?" With a nod from the mentioned, Orienda went on. "Gyrel and Rish, keep track of the moat. Freeze it if you have to." The twins nodded as well. "And finally, Tyrelio..." The man stood up just a teensy bit higher. "Keep Rigel safe. We don't want to be losing anyone if we go to battle today, especially your boyfriend."

Rigel blushed furiously and excused himself for the lavatories, earning him a badly-suppressed giggle from the twins.
He'd have to get them for that.

---

A minute later, the four Sub-Generals stood at the banks of the moat, careful not to touch anything into the water; despite Ellana's assertions that it was completely and totally safe to bathe in (she offered to drink the water herself, an offer that Rigel would have wholeheartedly accept it had it not been for Orienda again giving him the look), they were very much wary of anything that Ellana deemed safe.The drawbridge had been sunk surreptitiously below the water, and it now rested at the bottom of the moat. Rigel felt rather sorry for Gyrel and Rish -- they had appeared quite constipated during the entire process, and he shuddered to imagine what awkward noises and painful-looking faces they would make raising the bridge up.

Tyrelio suddenly stood up and walked a couple metres to the left. Rigel followed him almost instinctively, wanting his prescence -- even if the boy didn't want it back. For that really what he was; he might have been a year or two older than him, but he could hardly keep his alcohol down, let alone consider himself a grown-up. Plus, Rigel enjoyed fancying himself the more mature one in the on-and-off, love/hate thing they had going on.

"I really, really missed you," Tyrelio muttered softly, more to himself than to him.
Rigel cracked a smile, reluctantly.
"Romance while Rome burns, eh?"

---

---

Over a hundred kilometres from Castle Cadremus, the first shots of the first intergalactic war to reach the Grimore system were fired.

The populace of Gransfeld, a sleepy little place hardly fit to be called a town, were soon rudely awakened by the sounds of moving rocks.

A little girl, perhaps the age of ten, sat upright in her crude wooden bed fashioned from lumber that the last thunderstorm's bolts had felled. She glanced around timidly, then rolled off the piles of wool blankets and old clothes stitched together that made for a mattress. She sidled up to the window, as she always did when there were sounds keeping her up at night, and gasped.

Strange lights were flickering near the Rock Over By The Way. She and her friends were fond of playing near that particular outcrop of stones; she'd been a tomboy from birth, and her parents were seriously considering sending her off to perhaps Dyline, by the coast, to teach her the more 'masculine' trades. Her mother had been the same as her, a rowdy sailor's daughter, and her father, a woodsman and carpenter, had only been able to tame her in a duel that she had carelessly challenged her to.

Suddenly, the pattern of lights by the 'back' of the ship changed, and she could distinctly hear the sounds of footsteps. Not the usual light, gentle steps she had come to associate with her countryfolk.
Plodding stomps that she could hear from a long while away.

"Metra! Patre! Vos ostine! Vos ostine!" she yelled, ripping herself from the side of the window and barrelling out of her room.

---

Two minutes later, the alarm was sounded.
And another minute later, every male of age in the town had found themselves by the large pool of water in the centre of the town, outfitted with at least a copper sword or a shield. The girl gasped as she laid eyes on one of the oldest in her group, a male nearing fourteen or fifteen. He was one of the lucky few who had armour on.
He caught her staring and walked over, patting the girl's shoulder with a lacksadaisal grin. "Myrin, noxis tremulo. Vos joyeu, pare dun. Deux'll esh bren,"* he cooed. "Noxis tremulo."
Then, at the sound of a shrill whistle, he stood to arms immediately -- Myrin didn't quite know how he knew what to do, perhaps it had something to do with the 'private' classes that he'd been taking with that scary teacher lately? -- and hurried off to where a crowd of men with armaments was beginning to form, on the side of the town closest to where the queer lights had first flashed.
Now, if Myrin squinted, she could see the faint outline of vaguely humanoid shapes approaching her sleepy little village. She shivered.

"Noxis tremulo. Deux'll esh bren." Her mother appeared at her side suddenly, resting a hand on the slight girl's shoulder. Myrin looked up at her mother in the dark of night.
Myrin could swear her mother was smiling.

---

* - "Myrin, stop worrying. Be happy, for me. It'll be fine.