Elisha Whitcomb's Story

Kept watching the man before he suddenly lurched to his feet, this caused the woman to stumble back a few steps and withdraw the small weapon which let out a high pitched whine.

"How the hell did you..." She said. Staring at the man. "You're on Highway 30 East to Caprica City..." She said cars slowly driving by, onlookers seeing the spectacle. "We should get off the road before we get hit." She said, trying to assess the man's threat. Whitcomb's wrecked car strewn across the highroad, and both of them likely soaked by rain.

The Sirens grew slightly louder.

Elisha lowered the weapon slightly, engaging the safety but not completely lowering it. "The question is who are you." She said, narrowing her eyes. "You're on Langara, Capital of the Aschen Empire. How you got here is a mystery, but it's not every day someone runs in front of a car." She said, surveying him a moment.

"Who are you and maybe we'll talk about who I am." She said, a rumble of thunder echoing in the distance as she gestured to a sign written in Anquietas, and in Common it read. 'Caprica City 320km'

"System? Pan'Chek, Aschen Core sector."

"Whitcomb, Elisha... Admiral of the Aschen Second fleet of Homogenous Clarity." She said, tilting her head.

"You suddenly appeared in front of me, I couldn't avoid hitting you." She said, frowning. "Regardless, how did you get here?" She said, looking down the highroad. "Because i'm sure whatever Cops are with the Ambulance will wonder how you came in here."

Spoke up. "Hey!" She called out, following after him. "The Cops here are nothing like the ones on Terra, those cops are children compared to what the CPF Fields. You're on the Aschen Home world! Does that not mean anything to you? If you've been to Terra than surely you've heard of us!" She called out, withdrawing her weapon.

"What is your intention!?" She called out, the weapon whining once more. "Why did you come here!? It's not every day someone goes out of their way to come to Langara!"

Whitcomb still followed. "You won't find it here, this world's on Lockdown. There's a Taiyou invasion imminent and the Divine Shadow has ordered all Civilians into the bunkers." She said, pointing to the massive traffic jam in the other lane.

"At the very least you shouldn't traverse this world without an escort!" She said, looking back to her wrecked car. "The LDA Doesn't like it when people move about here without an escort."

Elisha followed. "No you're a foreigner and a National Security threat. And leaving the scene of an accident is a felony!" She called out, crossing her arms and turning back to her wrecked car. "You're just going to leave like that? After you destroyed my car!?" She shouted. "I promise you won't find what you're looking for there, you will only find death or imprisonment!" The rain started to come down harder, a cold rain, thunder drowned out by the sound of a passing Reverence, which floated through the clouds without fear of being shot at.

"This is Langara, not Terra, you can't just trapse around here you'll attract attention, especially with your Magic! Magic is Heresy!"

Whitcomb scowled, then she shook her head as the flashing lights of the CPF could be seen in the distance, as well as their sirens echoed. She didn't make an effort to run after him, rather she waited for the CPF Vehicles to stop, and two officers step from the vehicle.

"What happened?" He asked, and Whitcomb pointed to the man in the distance. "He ran in front of my car and I hit him, and then he healed himself with some kind of magic, and he took off towards Caprica City." She said, and the Officer nodded. "Very well, are you alright?"

Whitcomb nodded. "I am fine." She said, looking to the tow truck as it rolled up.

"We need to find that man."

Somewhere in the Pan'chek system.
The Espérance, Godr, Varden Fortress Class Capital Ship, FCV-001.

The ship ran silent, cloaked, and avoiding detection by advanced sensors and pitfalls both varied and numerous. Some were expected, some were not, but all were avoided or countered with varying degrees of difficulty. The only visible and exposed portion of the fourteen kilometer ship was a small portion of an antenna acting like the ship's para-scope. It was the pilot's, Fleet Admiral Haldis's only window to the outside. Many countermeasures were being implemented.

Probes or the use of the ship's sensors to actually scan the system in an attempt to find what they were looking for would result in the risk of being exposed. As such she was preparing the Espérance to make the jump out of Pan'chek and back to Sol. A corvette would remain in system and keep a watch out for the stolen frigate that they had traced to Langara. "Ship Board Broadcast: Prepare to jump. Action stations. Prepare to jump.", said Haldis's voice across the on board communication system. "Fleet link is engaged. Detecting covert cynosural field at coordinates...", EGO rambled off a long list of numbers that drummed on and on, eventually fading and being drowned out by other noises. Fleet Admiral Haldis issued the order. "Jump, jump."

Space itself bubbled causing gravitational lensing of the starlight behind the Espérance before the invisible ship actually was gone from Pan'chek. The observable effect was similar in nature to a collapsing wormhole.

Smoke and flame continued to plume high above the wreckage, and upon closer investigation. The hulking three mile long mass of warship lay dead, beaten and bloodied with a marred hull and towering flames. The stench of charred bodies filled the area, as charred bodies actually littered the area. Almost everyone was dead, save for a handful of pained moans from what unlucky survivors dotted the area.

One of the main emergency escape hatches moved after a moment, with the crumbling of fatigued metal it swung open and a battered, bloodied but alive woman stumbled out from the wreckage of the massive ship.

She stared into the sky for a moment, wiping blood soot and sweat from her brow. Clenched in her right hand was a strange weapon, being in the right place at the right time, this unfortunate woman was the only survivor.

She didn't say anything, she only let out a pained moan before she collapsed face first into the charred soil.

Draven Feeling stupid for being so rude earlier rushed up to the collapsed women shaking her while saying" Are you alive? Here I bring you to my buddies" Draven carried this mystery women back to their little hang out, and put her on a makeshift blanket. " do any of you know basic first aid?"

Nanites in the woman's blood were already hard at work repairing the damage done to her by the crash. Wounds would visibly be closing back up, and bleeding came to a stop rather quickly with minimal pressure applied. However despite this rapid healing, the woman was out cold. Once her dark blue jacket was removed, a brown tank and hexagonal dog tags could be made out.

"E. Whitcomb"
"21-233-AHSC"

Her eyes opened a moment and she looked up to the sky, reaching up to the people surrounding her, she shook and then her arm fell back down as her body spasmed and she coughed up a bit of blood.

The woman opened her eyes again, batting the rag away from her face as she focused on the people surrounding her, suddenly situational awareness took hold and she quickly moved to a sitting position. "Get away from me." She managed to get out, coughing up some more blood and reaching into her cargo pant pocket and withdrawing a vial with a large needle filled with a blue liquid.

She took the syringe and she jabbed it into her chest, howling in pain for a moment as the contents were injected, and she spasmed and coughed up a blue liquid from her lungs. But suddenly her breathing became less labored as she pulled the syringe from her chest and then she discarded it.

"Much better... my strength returns." She said, looking to the people around her. "Where.. am I?"

Whitcomb seemed visibly perturbed that she was so close to Wing City. "It won't be long before the Terrans or the Coalition come knocking... I need to get out of here." She said quietly to herself. Her eyes on Draven. "I'm guessing you're new here. Since an Aschen ship is pretty trademark in these parts." She said, grabbing her jacket as her wounds had largely healed up. Any survivors would be in the same situation, but so far no one had emerged from the ship.

"I'm Admiral Whitcomb, of the Aschen Second Fleet of Homogenous Clarity. First thing you need to do is get us out of here, because it won't be long before Coalition or Taiyou forces show up, and they will kill everyone here."

There was movement in the brush and then the sound of footsteps. Quite suddenly a squad sized element uncloaked about twenty meters away from the general gathering of people. A VTOL shortly followed over the carnage caused by the Reverence's emergency landing. One of the soldiers, their organization clearly marked on their right shoulder removed his PDS helmet. He looked over to Whitcomb and then back to the heavily armed squad. "Get those that can be saved medical treatment. Use nanite injectors if you must. If you are assaulted shrug it off or take cover." The squad dispersed and attempted to provide medical assistance to those not buried in the wreckage. Aaric moved in Whitcomb's direction. It turns out neither the Taiyou or the Coalition were the first on the scene.

The Admiral saw the initial newcomers, and had stared rather aggressively at them. "Too late... we've been tracked." She said, backing towards the access port of the downed ship. She knew there had to be more survivors, especially in the CIC and other fortified areas of the ship. Flickering lights inside also denoted the ship had power, so a fight could be had from the ship if need be. "Back off!" She demanded, backing more towards the ship, before reaching down and grabbing a disruptor rifle from a dead soldier, the weapon caked in grime and blood.

She backed up more, pointing the weapon at him before she turned to a full run into the ship itself, stumbling over wrecked support beams and wounded.

"AI Initiate Shaw Protocol article two at once!" The Admiral screamed as she moved through the darkened hallway of the downed ship.

The AI voice replied. "Please input command code."

Stopping at a terminal, the Admiral spoke. "Nebula, Three Niner Seven One One Constellation." She said. "One millicenton."

A Timer flickered on in a holographic terminal. "10:00, 09:59, 09:58" And so fourth as it counted down second by second. Rounding a corner she waited for the man to enter the ship, but her weapon was jammed, all while the shouts of wounded crew filled the halls of the ship.

"I need to get to the CIC and get ready to defend this ship until it blows."

"WAIT!!!!!!" "You Admiral you want to Fuck with me fine, but you crossed the line, Fight me 1 on 1 if you have the balls!" Draven drew his sword again and got in his battle stance, as he gritted his teeth, and gave the out the biggest killing intent he could muster!

Elisha Whitcomb managed to reach the command terminal and give the command and then Aaric lashed out with his left hand while walking forward. “Stål luft.” The air would solidify around Whitcomb as if by an invisible lasso and then drag her off the ground and in his direction unless she or someone else stopped the action. Despite the speed of the action Whitcomb would not be physically injured even if she somehow forcibly resisted the lasso. It still left her hands free to act. This meant she was welcome to level the disruptor at the Aaric as he dragged her to him. Still she would be unbalanced, in the air, and flying in his direction as if she were being picked up by a rather large pair of tongs.

Other Varden personnel were assisting, being shot at, and reviving Aschen personal in equal measure. Chaos started to surge about the field as other forces closed in on the downed Aschen ship.

Despite being pulled away from the console, the Verbal command was still given, and the AI Acted accordingly even as the officer was drawn out of the ship towards the Varden. "You'll never take me alive!" She screamed, and then she bit down as hard as she could, a click sounding from her mouth, she then tried to bite down again to pop the cyanide capsule in her mouth and release the poison.

Meanwhile, in the CIC, the ship's Commander, was watching the events unfold outside. "AI, Override the Admiral's protocol, Command Override code following." He said, tapping in several commands into the console as power began to slowly restore through the ship.

"This is Commander Bentley, all hands action stations, Emergency ground side defense initiative. Damage control and engineering, get this ship flying again!" He said, grabbing his Disruptor rifle from the emergency armor locker. He then pulled on his combat armor from the emergency lockers, before going back to the CIC.

"AI, Standby for data purge." He commanded once more, before he grabbed the railing, while Aschen soldiers lined up the corridors of the ship to prepare for defense.

"Red stripes to repel boarders!" He called out racking his weapon as the ship came to life, an entire bank of Turbo-disruptor emplacements came to life, and then they swiveled to life while bearing aim at the Varden soldiers, and powering up.

"AI, Do we have weapons?" He asked, and the AI Nodded. "We've diverted power to weapons, Shields are also functional." Suddenly, behind Aaric, a wall of blue light suddenly formed, in a polygonal shape around the ship itself, trapping them near the ship.

"Open a channel to the Coalition forces..." He said, and the AI Nodded.

"Attention Coalition forces, this is the Reverence I 'Thunderous Song' We will not surrender ourselves to death or a backwater Coalition Prison, Approaching our vessel will be construed as an act of hostility-- We will defend ourselves."

Whitcomb was yanked and the moment she screamed that she would not be taken alive Aaric spoke, clenching his teeth and attempting to maintain clarity despite the chaos going on all around him. “Blóð sofa.” Pressure would be applied to either side of Admiral Whitcomb’s neck effectively choking the blood to her brain long enough to cause her to pass into unconsciousness. Most would last two to three seconds before passing into unconsciousness. The pressure on her neck, chin, and jaw would also prevent her from swallowing.

Meanwhile Aschen soldiers were being dragged or carried to cover behind pieces of wreckage. If Whitcomb went unconscious she would land in Aaric’s left hand and he would carry her by the waist as if she were a young babe. Briefly he would turn to look as the Reverent shield collapsed behind him and between him and the Coalition. He would then walk in Commander Bentley’s direction. If allowed to approach he would lower Whitcomb to the ground near Bentley’s location.

Commander Bentley weighed his options, a single wounded ship couldn't do much against the approaching military strike force.

"This is the Commander, what assurances do we have that we won't be outright killed for surrendering?" He said, while DRADIS had come online, and was showing the encroaching force from all sides. Though the ship had the weapons capability to completely neutralize the approaching Carrier, it couldn't sustain an assault for long.

"Do we have FTL?" He asked the AI, and the AI Nodded. "Good, spool it up." He said, and the AI Finally spoke. "This ship will not be able to sustain a jump, it will tear it to pieces, there's severe structural damage throughout the lateral structural members." The AI reported, and the Commander sighed. "Very well... Open the channel and initiate data purge per the Shaw Protocol." He said, and then he sat down, patting the console.

"Attention Coalition Military personnel, we accept your demands and....." The AI cut out.

"...condition......urender..."

The AI Comm would suddenly cut out, and the Ship would rapidly lose power.