Aschen Marine's Story

While Gabrielle was cleaning, a light blue-suited man had entered the bar. He looked around in bewilderment as to how anything can get so destroyed. He saw everything from broken furniture to holes burnt into the walls, presumably through some sort of plasma weaponry. What happened here? The steely looking man asked himself. He strolled over to the bar before sitting on one of the stools.

"Excuse me, I do hope I'm not bothering you but do you happen to know where the manager is?" The white-haired man asked the woman behind the bar, drinking what appears to be some sort of pop. His tone polite, but his voice devoid of any emotion. "I'm a bit down on my luck, and I'm hoping to find a job here."

Slowly, the skies above Wing City spaceport began to clear, ships coming and going began to do so with less, and less frequency until the skies were clear for just a moment. Special dispensation had to be garnered to prevent collisions, and maximize the safety of the ships coming and going.

High in the sky, a massive, bulbous starship was noticed glinting in the sunlight, it's sheer size nearly blotting out the sun. Though it was in high orbit, it's shape, and details could be made out. There were hundreds of smaller ships, relative to the large one of course that were surrounding it in tight formation.

The road leading to the spaceport was filled with a motorcade that thrummed with activity as it made it's approach, several black SUVs, a limousine, and roughly a dozen of olive drab military APCs, all of them displaying the stylized phoenix symbol and anquietas writing of the United Aschen Empire.

Inside the spaceport terminal; security was rushing about, moving between their posts, and cordoning off a large area of the spaceport with rope, and barricades, making a path that lead through security, and towards one of the large landing pads outside.

The main doors to the terminal opened up, and the sounds of marching footsteps filled the Spaceport, a column of Aschen Marines in full parade dress began to march into the terminal. They were marching in a formation of three to the side, and seven deep, their feet kicked up high, and clicking on the ground in a high goose-stepped march.

They marched quickly, approaching another formation of Aschen Soldiers that were marching in from the landing pad. They met in the middle of the terminal, and then, they split up, moving to form an aisle of soldiers, standing roughly five feet apart, at attention, with their weapons on their shoulder.

Admiral Hanley, and about a dozen officers in full regalia moved through the doors towards the landing terminals, their posture stiff, their eyes forward. They were approaching another Aschen officer who came in from the landing pads, this officer clicked his heels and brought his fist across his chest at Hanley in a peacocking show of military might.

"Ad Victoriam!" The male officer called out, his voice bellowing through the spaceport terminal.

Hanley returned the salute, bringing her fist across her chest. "Ad Victoriam, Colonel."

"Et cantavit de Esteem paratus est accipere vexillum suum." The man called out.

The two started to walk side-by-side towards the door to the landing pads, when Hanley paused, her eyes flitting over, across the sea of Aschen soldiers to two individuals in particular. She narrowed her eyes briefly, before she huffed slightly.

"I made contact with a new species today, Colonel Ronson. We should make every effort to capture this individual for study, and to learn the location of his home world." Hanley whispered in Anquietas.

"Notify our privateers, our patrols in this sector, and Imperial Intelligence..." Hanley added, walking with the man towards the doors. "Have them seize any vessels that look unusual. I'll have Admiral Steele double his efforts at the Cordon."

"Very good, Admiral." The man replied, as they moved through the doors, and out towards one of the landing pads, where three Aschen Condor VTOLs were landed. With the two officers through the terminals, the parade guard returned to their formation, and began to march out after them, towards the landed transport crafts.

"What?! Where?" Spyri pulled out her phone and did a quick scan for language. Her device was programmed with every language of the known universe, like most sold on Terra. After three error codes she gave up. Something was very off about that.

"I can't...see any...?" She looked from the gold sheet, to Niku, and back again. She flipped to another program on her device, one made for map tranlation. The coordinates registered, but...strange. Spyri turned it so Niku could see what was happening. Every five seconds, the coordinates scrambled and a different planet popped up. After a minute she realized the planets kept repeating, and every time it cycled around there was one less planet on the list.

It was then an Aschen parade of sorts arrived. Spotting the uniforms coming in from across the terminal, Spyri shoved Niku around the corner before anyone bothered to look through the crowd.

"You better hide your-" Spyri guestured at the hoverbike and checked the device again. It only displayed one planet at that point. A quick glance at the departure board told her where they needed to go- and fast! There was a routine shuttle headed to a distant planet, famed for it's economic prowess and thus, it's shopping. She had heard of it and knew for a fact the Aschen had no influence there. To be honest, nobody did. It was commerce through and through. Spyri leaned in to whisper where they were going, then started off, doing her best to blend in.

Spyri grumbled under her breath about the Aschen being out of their jurisdiction. Once they reached space, though...

Oh, ok. She couldn't help but raise a brow as Niku whipped out a red cape. Once he wrapped himself in it, she understood what he was getting at. It wasn't the best disguise but it would certainly do. Spyri nodded that they needed to move along, but luckily enough their terminal wasn't far off.

Now Boarding; the sign flipped on just as they arrived. The crowd began to move a little quicker. Something a little odd that Spyri noticed was that nearly everyone had a luggage case. The way they were handling them indicated that nobody was actually bringing anything with them.

"...shoes on net, and they swore they put them...""...whatever you do, don't let anyone know you have...""...stones are worth so much money on Aberash, so I go every...""...gonna kill that...""...so I slipped it up my sleeve before the fool even...

Wherever they were going, Spyri couldn't figure it out for the life of her. As they approached the gate her gut dropped. She would have no problem boarding but Niku might. He was, after all, a refuge. Maybe she had some sway as a member of the Patronus. And, he did say he arrived through here. Watching closely, it appeared that nobody was bothering to verify anything. That was weird.

A smiling stewardess greeted Spyri and Niku when it was their turn. She welcomed Spyri and Niku aboard, handed her a pamphlet, and looked beyond them to greet the next passenger. Flicking it open, it all made sense. They were going to a shopping center. She sighed and passed it to Niku. What was a Chi master doing at, for lack of a better word, a mall?

Alighieri evaporated into existence with a foul hum emanating from what seemed to be the very walls themselves. After what felt like nearly an aeon, all sound was annihilated from existence as he manifested his corporeal form.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh~

he exhaled, extending his claw-rife hand towards the center of the room as a faint red glow began to illuminate the mysteriously-darkening Bar.

Yashuman II
Primary airlock bay

There was a deep audible clunk as the docking clamps engaged with the Yahuman II's airlock system, the airlocks cycled with an audible hiss, and the doors began to unlock.

Behind the armored airlock door on the Aschen side was a single squad of sixteen Aschen marines. Each one of them were wearing their dark blue, and black BDU uniforms, adorned with black ceramite vests, knee and elbow pads. Their disruptor rifles, while bearing the same design hallmarks of the Type 03 PDWs carried by Aschen personnel, they were a sleek black, allowing them to somewhat blend in with their uniforms.

The airlocks cycled, and the doors opened. The Aschen sergeant was the first to step forward. He looked to his left, and to his right, as sixteen armed men followed in almost lock step.

Their heavy boots clacked on the metal floor as they stepped forward, the sergeant, a young man by the name of Anton Valerian was in charge of this particular marine platoon.

He checked the charge on his Type 03 PDW, and stepped forward. "Alright, let's move." He said, in Anquietas, as he started down into the bay, the rhythmic footfalls echoing behind him.

Bluuna ignored the shriek, despite it shrilling her perimeter membrane. Her kind were used to this kind of reaction. She didn't even bother offering a correction on the ooze (she was goo, thank you very much)- it was no bother. Again, Bluuna was used to it. Her whole species was for the most part! They had realized a long time ago just what it was about them that others found so unsettling, and really who could blame them?

They didn't have most physical features typically associated with sentient beings, such as eyes for example. That tended to weird the other sentients out. Also, they were see through and had no discernible organs. It was a gelatin thing. Their limbs were sporadic and their forms weren't solid. They could grow and extend to an extent, they were tacky to the touch (but not moist), and depending on the surface they had a tendency to either track things around or leave the floor looking better than when they got there.

Most unsettling, however, was that they had a cousin in the gene tree who was notoriously nefarious. Usually liked to hang out in dark and dank places, too. They were carnivorous. She shuddered at the thought of ingesting flesh. Merging proteins. Absorbing another animal's ingestion choices. Fats. Yick!

Bluuna was almost at the door to the corridor, where there was light security. They weren't doing much more than random identification checks. If she got pulled, they'd stick her with a little needle to verify her base composition and call it a day. Most other species didn't bother sorting her kind beyond acknowledging that they existed as they did. Most other species couldn't tell her apart from her uncle! This was always a fun game for them - trading places.

She felt the footsteps before she ever saw them coming - and whoah did they keep a good beat! Bluuna paused by an official who gave her a half smile before looking up at the approaching squad.

Peter sighed. What total crap. He had only been on shift twenty minutes and it looks like the last schmucks let in someone that was wanted by someone. Not just anyone, either. He swore under his breath and gave Bluuna a stern look. She blobbed her way happily along through clearance and started off towards the convention center.

Halena made a face typical of a grossed out teen before shaking her head and patting at her cheek. "Oh dear, I hope theres no more of those things." She said to her Guardian who, you guessed it, opted not to respond.

Although in a way he did respond. He reached over and simultaneously stepped in front of Halena, placing himself between her and the Aschen troops on their way. At the same time his hand went to the hilt of a sword on his waist. The look on his face, which was admittedly a normally stern expression, could now be considered almost angry.

"Tolend? What is it? There shouldn't be any threats here, this is a public station after all... well I suppose that means there could be lots of threats actually" The girl whispered, ducking under one of his arms to look around. At the sight of the Aschen she blinked "Oh... That's why is it? Well Tolend please, relax, I'm sure they're not so foolish as to try anything here in a public place. Besides, they likely don't even know who we are, unless their high ranking officials, but even then I doubt they have any orders regarding us. Just let them be and we can get on with things."

"besides, it's our turn." She said, stepping up to Peter and waiting for his instructions on how to proceed. Generally she never had to go through such checkpoints, her status as royalty usually granted her free passage. A part of her was actively curious how things would go.

Peter glanced at the Aschen and rolled his eyes, forcing what he hoped was a kind smile onto his face at the Royalty before him. He respectfully bobbed his bead.

"We've never had a casualty at their hand- just a lot of complaints, as you, er," Peter flushed and bowed again. He hoped his words settled them, though he doubt it.

"Enjoy your stay," He stepped aside with a third awkward bow to let them through.

The group of soldiers paid little attention to the group. But that all changed the moment Tolend moved to the sword on his waist.

The Sergeant put his hand on his disruptor pistol, which was securely holstered on his hip, and the whole formation of Aschen soldiers stopped, while two almost raised their weapons.

"Hand off your weapon, now!" Sergeant Valerian ordered, pointing aggressively at Tolend.

Generally all it took was a stern order for those who would otherwise think about getting any ideas to back down, but the sergeant came ready for a fight, after receiving word that the people who attacked the fleet was present, at this station. He had orders to perform an inspection, which occurred regularly given the stations position within Aschen stellar claims, despite being a neutral station.

It took hefty shipping tolls to keep the local Aschen governor largely out of the space station's business, and he often looked the other way.

Peter would likely notice these weren't the Proivincial defense force that normally came to rough things up, and collect tolls, rather these were Imperial uniforms, which meant something had attracted the attention of the wider Aschen high command.

The Sergeant moved forward first, holding up what looked like a warrant of some kind.

"We have a lawful order from the Ministry of Law to perform a search of this facility for enemy insurgents. Step aside." Valerian moved to the side, and gestured for his men to move through the checkpoint, bystanders stepping aside, and giving the men a wide berth.

Halena rolled her eyes and grabbed Tolends arm. "Stop it, your being rude." She said, forcefully pulling the mans arm from his weapon. For his own part, Tolends eyes never ceased their glare at the Sergeant. There was something artistic about his poise, like a tiger in the moments before it struck.

To Peter Halena smiled and thanked the man, moving across the check point and, rather forcefully for a child, pulling Tolend, who despite having to move backwards to follow her, never once took his eyes from the Aschen soldiers.

"I think we should see if there is an open market first, and then search for individual shops. Some new dresses, perhaps an actual suit for you to wear to formal occasions would be nice. No offence Tolend but your armor is garish at best." She prattled off, oblivious to the Aschen and her guardians staring match with them "At the very least some ornaments to make it less of an eyesore at the gala."

Tolends movements remained smooth as he followed his charge further into the station, but he kept his eyes on the Soldiers until they were out of sight. His hand likewise returned to and remained on his weapon until the two had rounded the corner.

Peter Rovontea moved his hand to his own immobilizer but didn't draw. He watched with one brow cocked as the two groups spat at each other like cats. Typical shit day, he thought to himself.

"Alright, triggerhappy, is the threat a threat?" He asked Valerian, tapping a button on his vest. Of course Valerian knew the rules, so he didn't bother repeating them.

Nobody but the target.

Alpha opened up a secondary channel so that he could communicate with the Space station's A.I freely if needed, leaving the docking platform and entering into the outgoing and incoming centre of the station, well this set of docks.

the Artificial Soldier stopped some thirty yards from the commotion at the gates, between the three parties there it was something of a roadblock and not just for the artificial Intelligence though one of the parties were heading to another region of the station. leaving the Aschen Marines and a security officer native to the station.

the Robot approached the gate. Largely ignoring the pissing contest between the aschen marines and security, but listening in and recording what was said.

enemy insurgents? probability of association with assault on aschen patrol fleet 84%

the other commotion of the gelatinous slime and their crew unloading a ship towards the cargo gates caught the attention of the robot for a brief moment. proceed with designated objectives, tertiary Objective added; the capture of hostile alien technology.

Alpha understood that this new Objective wasn't important but if he got the chance he wouldn't hesitate. and finally seeing a space to move through and past the Aschen and security Alpha moved on, to once again to collect the shopping list of the eggheads back at Homebase.

Valerian narrowed his eyes towards Peter, a scowl forming on his lips. "Within the territorial jurisdictions of the United Aschen Empire. You are it's subjects. If the administration of this facility cannot get it through their thick heads, perhaps a more appropriate trade embargo, blockade, or outright seizure, would calm their minds." The Aschen sergeant said cooly.

"You operate as you do..." He said, reaching into a satchel on his vest, pulling out what looked like a bright red notepad, which was in triplicate. He jotted a few details down, allowing EVE to make an attempt to access his personnel file.

If Successful, information would display on the small HUD mounted across his left eye. He jotted down several notations on the pad, before handing it off to Peter.

"You operate as you do, by the grace of the Governor of the Provincia Yellowstone, and it would be terrible for business if the governor were... forced to do something about the rampant insurgency being harbored by the staff of this facility." Valerian said with a nod. "You're being fined one thousand, five hundred cubits for a violation of a lawful Imperial Decree of Search, and Seizure. Don't like it? Have this rust bucket towed somewhere else."

"Sign at the bottom." He said flatly.

The red piece of paper was a one-thousand five hundred cubit fine, imposed for obstructing a lawful Imperial search, with relevant Aschen laws cited.

There was little to be found on Peter Rovontea. Name, age, birth-planet. He shrugged and folded his arms at the piece of paper.

"I'm not of authority to sign that, you know that. You'll have to refer to my higher ups. About all I can do is uh, relay the message," Peter was of private agency hired out by the station and would continue to follow his contract. Regardless of whatever bullshit it was today.

"If you'd like to try directly, you're likely to get through sooner than I. Godspeed, gentlemen," and then stepped aside so the group could proceed. Peter had absolutely no intention of even touching that red piece of paper if he could help it. As for the threat? Peter assumed it had to be something serious.

Anton nodded, and gestured for his men to follow, he left the piece of paper at the checkpoint, but didn’t really plan to pursue the matter further. The men followed in lock step, as Valerian proceeded deeper into the station.

Three Aschen Marines entered the main convention hall from one of the adjacent cooridors, their stark black uniforms contrasting with the various colors of the patrons, and other inhabitants within the convention center.

The trio of Marines brought their disruptor rifles across their shoulders, and their eyes surveyed their surroundings.

“Check everyone, don’t let anything slip by.” The Marine corporal ordered.

A pair of Aschen Marines step into the bar, their disruptor rifles held securely in their grip, and their boots making a heavy footfall on the floor.

“Alright, let’s see some papers! Submit for inspection!” One of them called out.

"Woah, woah, woah!"

A grizzly man behind the bar picked up a remo and cut all the music. There was a roar of upset from the crowd, for they were listening to that, followed by a series of gasps and grumblings. The grizzly man hefted himself around the bar and chucked the remo somewhere behind it as he made his way to the Marines.

"Peace tied. Ion care what clearance you have, this a liquor establishment n'those," He waggled a finger at the rifles, "Gotta stay in."

With his other hand he reached into a pocket for a photo ID and held it up for a few seconds to the marine who had demanded the papers. He then hollered over the grumpy din, "ERYONE GETCHEH ID'S OUT N' LETS GET THIS OVER WITH!" Before sidling back behind the bar to pour the marines glasses of water. Hey, hospitality was hospitality - and no gun waving loon was exempt from guest services. Not even these guys.

Aboard the Yashuman II...

Commander Vandione was quietly going over the ship's logs when his tactical officer approached from behind. "Sir." The Tactical officer said, as he handed the Commander a somewhat thick folder. The Commander nodded, and placed it on the console, opening it up, and perusing the contents.

EVE had finished her analysis of all the docked vessels at the space station, one vessel was flagged in particular, although it wasn't a confirmed match, power signatures, design parameters, and any applicable markings were a suspected match.

Vandione made a face, and then turned the page. "Kingdom of Asylia... carried out an attack against Molecay. No confirmed losses, but intelligence says there's a potential total war factor." His eyes widened. "By the gods, If this is correct... We've just been handed an Asylian ship on a silver platter. We have to notify fleet."

The commander snapped the folder closed, and then turned back to his tactical officer.

"What do we have?" Vandione asked.

"Two companies, sir, plus an Adepts company. Three in total. We could pull from reserves, but that could put our security in jeopardy." The Tactical officer replied.

Vandione shook his head.

"No, take the two companies, and the adepts company, and seize that ship. Identify it's passengers, and seize them at all costs. Intelligence will want them for interrogation. We need them alive!"

"Ad Victoriam, sir!" The Tactical officer called out.

Vandione sighed, and leaned against the console.

"All hands, action stations!" He called out, as lights dimmed, shifted to red.

"All hands, prepare damage control, Second platoon prepare to repel boarders!"


---

Like a well oiled machine, the Aschen cruiser began to go to high alert, alarms blaring across the board as it's Marine strike teams armed up. The first waves were ready in five minutes, suiting up, checking their gear, and arming themselves.

Quickly, they began to pour out of the Yahsuman II's airlocks at platoon strength. Their footfalls were overpowering, dozens, no Hundreds of Aschen marines were moving down the hallway to the security checkpoint, behind them, the deafening footfalls of the Aschen Adepts of War followed.

"Safeties off, weapons free!" A Marine lieutenant called out, as roughly six squads of Aschen Marines, and two squads of War Adepts moved towards the airlock where the Asylian vessel was docked.

The rest approached the checkpoint, they did not look like they intended to stop.