Kelly Ciar's Story

The man who let out the flash was quickly disposed of by the undercover operators lurking about in plains clothes in the lobby. The team of 5 were on the man like white on rye. The soldiers all apart of the Developmental Operations groups tackles the man and then stunned him into a state of semi unconsciousness. they wrist wrapped his hands together before dragging him outside to a waiting black SUV (stolen of course) with an Australian in the drivers seat and an Irishmen in the passenger seat.

"Load the package quickly lads. We ain't go all day I need to get back to the whiskey." Kelly responded with his heavy accent.

"Aye Mate's this is suppose to be in and out not some dinner party now." Aiden chimed in.

The group tossed DeathsDisciple in the trunk dazed, confused and pants just a tad bit wet as Aiden hit the gas tearing off from the street and out to FOB Olympus for interrogating.

The space in the area of the camp warped momentarily before letting out a sickly cracking sound as if Thor himself had hit the area with his hammer. The area that just warped and hissed with energy left four men standing their in a full tactical load out. Each of them in some form of desert camo and all looking around bewilderingly.

"Shit mate. Where in the ever lovin outback did we end up lasses?!" The distinct Aussie tongue of Aiden Martin was the first to shout.

"No idea lad. Doesn't seemt hospitable. Sure ain't Oiland" Kelly Ciar the Irishman chimed in as he took a swig from a flask marked with a Jameson logo.

"Ze weather ist very dry here, reminds me of Afghan......." The German known as Dierk Jung was quickly cut off as Aiden chimed in to finish it.

"The gas chambers right mate or were you going to say your sense of humor?" Aiden was already snickering at his own joke.

The four highly skilled men didn't come off as highly skilled minus the large imposing Norway man that stood quiet and threatening with his axe tucked in his belt and rifle in hand.

Jack was about to ask a question to Cinder, but it would have to wait. His radio went off. "Mister president, this is lion team 4, do you copy? Sorry to wake you, but we have movement. I repeat we have movement!" Jack stared at the radio. Movement equaled life. He grabbed his radio. "Get a squads of rangers to check I out, and don't attack unless attacked. Be friendly. Im Tired here, haven't slept since we got here" Jacob lead Cinder to his tent. "You can sleep here, just don't touch the armor. Its expensive." Jack said as he lead her to a guest bed, and he took his place on the king sized bed.

The scene changed to a Power Trooper ranger wearing a lighter model of the T-96g power armor. He didn't like the X-08 Tesla armor because of the heavier weight. His name was Kevin Brand. He had his radio up to his helmet, overlooking 4 new men, or at least, humanoids, since he couldn't see clearly. He said to the radio. "Roger that, sending in ranger squad delta." Well, he already took the liberty of gathering the troops, all wearing black X-08 Tesla power armor, and Wheelock assault rifles. Kevin turned to the group. "Ok, here's our orders, we greet the new 'guest', tell them our names, ask them there, treat it like a party. And keep guns holstered. No need for a intergalactic war." He said. The group of 4 powered armor men, stared at him, wondering if he was serious. Kevin gave them the dumbs up. Yeah, he was serious. The group holstered there weapons, and walked down to the 4 strange men.

"Thank you, sir. Of course, sir" Cinder nodded quickly, sitting down on the bed. She laid down and pulled the covers over herself, feeling warm for once.

"Oi mate it looks like we found a robot army." Aiden point out to the group approaching them.

"Lad, we're in the desert. There taint no way robots would be out here. I'd wager sand people over robots." Ciar broke in with his thick Irish accent.

"Nein, it must be ze Aschen. We're likely on one of their planets." Dierks voice broke in as well, the internal comms were off at the moment seeing as the group was close together.

"Let's see what they want before we start shooting this time." Torgers heavy voice made Ciar broke. None of the group was use to Torger speaking at all.

"Very well lad. No need to scare me like that. I still haven't had enough whiskey this morning." Ciar said.

The operators waited as the group approached they kept their rifles slung on the one point slings the weapons hanging out their sides. They stayed on the alert though as they waited for initial contact which they perceived as enemies but they would wait. Ciar continued drinking while Dierk pulled out a pair of binoculars to get a closer look at the group. All armored up exactly like various Aschen they fought in the past.

As the power troopers got closer to the group of people, they could see the group. Kevin looked torwd his comrades. "Keep you weapon's holstered. No need for a fight." He looked at the....soldiers? They had little armor on, but they had weapons. Maybe this place was like Dread, and blew it self up. He looked at the strange weapons. Nothing like the Flintlocks, Wheelock's, and Volcanics back on Dread. They were big though. They finally were about 10 feet away from the rag tag group. There armor wasn't much. Just old outdated Kevlar, or at least, Kevin thought it was Kevlar. Kevin walked up to the front of thee group. Sighed, and started talking. "Hi there. Greetings from the republic of the United Columbian Nation. Im Power Trooper Ranger Kevin Smith, this is my team, Jack, Blake, Helios, and Tank." He pointed too the 4 other troopers. "You see, were from the planet Dread. A world devastated by nuclear war, you see. We haven't seen any other civilization, and your the first we seen. In fact, this is the first time we left our home world. Being that rockets are expensive you see." Kevin was being as nice as he could. Never upset new people, or they get dangerous. Although, there weapons have thinner clips then what there used too. Kevin put out his hand for one of them to shake it. The other rangers looked at him weirdly through there helmets. Was he being too nice?

Mean while, back at the mining 'town', Jacob was woke to yet another nightmare. One that involved his assassination. By brutal dismembering. Brutally slow dismembering. He sighed. He walked to the guest bed were Cinder was sleeping, and gently woke her. He remembered when his wife would comfort him when he had those nightmares, back when he was first elected president, about a year ago. He had one more year left before he was out of office, but, he didn't mind. Beng president was stressful. He gently woke up Cinder. "I know this is a....um...odd request, but, would you sleep with me? Just sleep, of course, no funny business. I just had a...heart stopping nightmare, ok. It was fucking awful. Ill sleep on the opposite side of the bed, too." He said sheepishly, and quickly. Another day in paradise.

Cinder woke up, eyes full of terror. Her heart raced. She's just been dreaming that Carissa was coming after her, covered in blood. Again. Then Jacob was standing over her, asking to sleep. "I just had a...heart stopping nightmare" "Me too. Okay. Yeah. I could use that as well..." Cinder let her voice falter, still trembling in horror. She slowly got up and walked to his bed. "Are you sure this is okay? I wont be beheaded from getting soot on your satin sheets?"

Jacob looked at cinder "Are you sure this is okay? I wont be beheaded from getting soot on your satin sheets?"She asked. Jacob was a little offended at that. They only beheaded murderers, rapist, and people who hire murderers. Not for getting soot in a sheet. He waved off the question. "You know, this is a free society. As long as you aren't stealing or giving away national secrets, murdering, or hiring someone to murder someone for you, you wont be beheaded. Thievery, is charged with jail, or a fine. Depending on the cause. I'm no king. Just a president. More or less a figure head and a diplomat for the real council." He said seriously as he climbed in the bed. On the opposite side of the bed. Giving Cinder room to lay down. He disliked the idea of being a king. Kings ruled with a iron fist. That's no way to govern a nation. A nation would be govern by the people who live in it. He laid there, still not able to sleep. Maybe conversation would help that?

"I must really smell if you want to lie down on the back of the bed" Cinder murmured half to herself before taking off her jacket and revealing her torn tanktop. She put her jacket on the floor with her two handguns and lied down on the bed. Woah. It felt like a cloud, soft and cushiony.

"I must really smell if you want to lie down on the back of the bed" Jacob heard. He was only laying on the other side to be curtsies. He laid on the front of the bed. Facing her. "You don't smell. Not really anyway. But, excuse me. I forgot to get out of my tuxedo....I guess I was tired." Jacob pulled off his jacket, revealing a plain white shirt. He, as not to strip in front of the lady, he walked over to his dressing curtain, pulled off his pants, and put on some black, nano cloth shorts. They were very comfy. He went back to the bed facing her. "that's better. Also, you sell better than me, anyway. I wear a tuxedo under power armor every day." he half groaned. "So, im curious. Why did you, not specifically, ask me to lay on the right side of the bed. Also, how does the bed feel?" He asked.

Mean while, the Rangers were waiting on a response from the group.

"The bed feels like a cloud. Oh...nevermind that. I had a nightmare as well" Cinder said softly, not bothering to brush her hair out of her face. She could barely notice, nowadays, because she had no other clothes, let alone a hairbrush.

Jacob contemplated that. Well, she had a nightmare too. That was different. He rowed over his bed table, and activated his radio. Couldn't be uninformed if something were too happen, now would he? He turned back to Cinder. "So, what was it about? Standard 'Im dyeing a slow painful death at the hands of my worst fear' Night mare, or something more?" He asked, legitimately curious. He wondered how the meeting was going with the new people they met. Maybe they were friendly. Maybe they were going to share technological secrets. Jacob mind went to dark places. Maybe they were a nation hell bent on destroying or enslaving others. Maybe the would trick them by giving them a forbidden technology, and make there country criminals. His face went grim at that. "Do you think the....people we found....are friendly? We really cant afford a planetary war...you know. We don't have the recourses. Or the man power. They probably have millions of soldiers, while we have....well, just above 30,000 accounted for soldiers. Maybe more, if he counted the vigilantes, and of course the 'Rebel confederacy' From the slaver country back on dread. There goal was to join the UCN, after they took down the slaver country. Jacob really didn't remember what the country's name was. Though, he knew they we an authoritarian government, that was very brutal with punishment.

*Holtz when your on, post pease*

"My older sister. A vampire forever the age of 19. She's the one who gave me these bullet scars." Cinder said to his first question. "Hmm. I personally don't tend to trust anyone, Jacob."

"Aye, I'm Kelly, that's Aiden, Dierk and Torger. No idea how we got here. The German over got us here with his little device. Now we're from the greatest god damn planet ever, Earth. The lot of us are currently on Terra as a surveying and intelligence presence though we tend to end up in more firefights then protocol dictates." Ciar went on intermittently taking drinks from the flask without missing a beat.

"Oi mate you can't just claim Earth is the greatest god damn planet in front of these blokes. It's quite disrespectful even if their home planet is called Dread." Aiden chimed in.

Torger and Dierk looked on from the back as the two buffoons turned foreign ambassadors began arguing with each other in front of the group of other men.

"Well at least the boss didn't send Renegade with us. This would of been a firefight otherwise." Torger said looking at the two grown men squabble in their rather rueful accents.

Out of nowhere, the skies above Blackrock were filled with a faint, but noticeable rumbling sound. It was deep, reverberating, and distinguishable as the sound of massive starship engines.

The source of this deep reverberating rumbling sound would likely remain a mystery; for now.


----

The Iconoclast Class Battleship Vigilanti Eternas

Commander Bryn Magus was surveying the DRADIS tests as his command crew checked over the ship's systems. The Commander frowned at having to land at such a backwater planet to find a Naquadah reactor to power the ignition systems for the ship's main deuterium fusion core. But sometimes detours had to be taken from the main patrol routs.

"Sir, we have primary engine ignition." A lieutenant turned, while Magus nodded.

"Acknowledged, commence secondary ignition and prepare to take us up."

At that moment a second lieutenant turned from his console.

"Sir; I'm detecting some unusual anomalies about a kilometron south of our position." He reported, while the Commander frowned. "Plot an escape course that will take us over, get a couple drop pods prepped and ready, see if McGregor wants to take a node and ride." Magus said calmly.

----

The dull rumbling suddenly increased in intensity and volume, a concussive shockwave of sound rattling the ground, and any furniture in the area. It seemed to come from the north.

The Miners of the UCN looked up to the sky. There were spaceships they haven't ever seen before. It was night time, but they could see the glowing lights clearly. Rangers in the mining town begun rallying the power troopers, arming them with flintlock assault rifles. The rangers activated there tesla armor. They were getting ready incase of attack. There were about a thousand troops guarding the perimeter of the base. They hadn't set up sentries yet, but they begun unloading the 6 100mm cannons from the RxG rockets. There was one on every side. The ranger grabbed there Wheelock assault rifles. The ground started to shake. Were they attacking? No one knew. A radio call came into Jacob tent. "Mister president, we have contact. Big contact! I repeat Big contact. Suit up, and get ready, just in case." The radio crackles. Jacob was just about to cantinplate about cinder, but, he needed to get outside. Now. Jacob got up, without a word, and suited up. The ground and e furniture was shacking. He suited up quickly as he can, turned to cinder and said "Stay right here" With that, Jacob went outside to panicking miners. Some were trying to hide, others, were grabbing weapons. He went to the microphone that was in front of his tent. He turned it on. Looks like the technicians got the broadcaster working. He sighed, and talked on the microphone, that was oddly shaped like a old 1920s microphone. "Citizens. Calm yourselves. We wanted to see new nations, new sets of people. Were not sure if the aliens are friendly or not. But if the need arises, we will send all civilians back to Dread, and our military here will fight for your escape. But, if they are friendly, we could have successful trade relations! It could be a dawn of a new and better age! Were we wont fear the wastelands of Dread any longer! No more scavenging to survive. Pease, calm yourselves, and stay in your tents. The military and I will handle this." There was some protest in the crowd. Some yelled out how would they be protected. Some were just scared. Well, all were scared. He turned to a group of power troopers, clad in T-97g power armor. The saluted the president.
The smallest one greeted him. "Sir. We are ready to fight sir, if needed." Jacob looked at him. "Very good. Lets get going." Jacob gripped his Special laser musket. It was a highly focused lens to go through most armors. It was called the Presidential veto.
Jacob and 6 the power troopers headed north, to see what was the racket going on. They all had there weapons ready.

Mean while at the camp, the soldiers were fortifying there perimeter. Making sure the civilians were save, and keeping the newly built gate shut, and under super vision. They trained the heavy artillery to the sky's, trying to make sure they didn't get to above the town without permission through via radio. This was not going to be fun.

The concussive wave made Kelly spit out his next drink of whiskey right into Martins face as the two attempted to retain their balance.

"Well I'll be fucked if it's not our old friends the Aschen. Looks like we're gonna get a fight today after all" Ciar said in a rather cheerful manner.

"Looks like it. Maybe we can steal their ship. That would give the boss something to gawk at if we brought it back to Terra." Aiden chimed in looking up at the large vessel in the air.

"Good luck with that. I'll be staying down here away from both of ze suicidal plans." Dierk said looking up at the vessel knowing very well the suicide mission it would be to steal that.

The group stood there momentarily staring up at the vessel a bit dumbfounded at the size but also harboring some ill will towards those that were going to be coming down to the ground soon.

"Probably for the best if I report back to Geist with this information." Torger spoke as he pulled out the Wire, a small ansible that the tech group at Olympus had come up with for interstellar communication. He reported to Geist the situation and simply signed off.

Kevin looked at the group of people. "Um...you guys alright?" Kevin just then received a radio message. "All units report to mining town. I repeat. All units." Then Kevin, for some reason unknown to him, looked up. There were fucking space ships! Ones that you would only dream about in science fiction Holotapes. He looked to his crew. "We may have a problem." He turn to rag-tag group. One of them had mention a place called Terra. Must be there home planet. Wonder if its far away or not. They were also talking about group called the Aschen. "What are the Aschen?" Kevin said seriously. " And were are you from, and better yet, why are you fighting this group?" Kevin asked to the people. One of them spoke to a....radio? It was different than the things he was used to. He wondered if it was a portable interstellar columniations? They had one, but, you couldn't carry it. Not without it overburden you, anyway. The Armored soldiers looked to Kevin. Tank asked " Should we report to the town?" Kevin nodded. "After our friends here answer these questions, we will go to the mining camp."

Back at the mining camp, people were still in there tents. Even if it was almost useless. But somewhere was better than nowhere.
The Soldiers of the camp were working on the Coms Array. It was a interstellar communication device, mostly made up of scrap metal, scrap electronics, and a Atom battery (Nuclear battery). It could not receive signals, but it could send one out. They were trying to change that. Technicians were working for about 2 hour. They knew most conflict could be avoided if the communication was right. Then, after painstaking work, the got it were they could receive signals from just about anywhere. The technicians and scientist wearing whit lab coats were cheering. The power armored soldiers were not. They simply loaded the 100mm canons, and there own guns, as the scientist sent a message. The message stated, in a deep Northern Dreadish accent (English accent.)
"Welcome, Aliens. Please, if you are hearing this, this is the Republic of the United Columbian Nation. Please note, we upgraded our coms device to receive messages. We are a peaceful nation, and would love to trade with you. We came from a planet called Dread. A dusty, hospitable planet, were we had the great war. A nuclear war that ended with over 6 billion of the 7 billion dead. But, that was many years ago, in fact, that was a hundred years ago. And even though our planet still feels it sting, we have rosen from those ashes, to give a free world. If you are here for trading, please send a message back, and we will direct your ship out of our no fly zone we put up. If you do not send a message, you'll be asked to leave, due to safety concerns for our citizens"

Jacob and the group of power troopers were walking further north. They needed to find what was causing all this trouble. Jacob had his hands gipping the presidential veto, or, his heavily modiyed laser musket. The group were tired, but they pressed on. There new home was at stake. Who knew if these people were friendly or not.

"Well mate we've been skirmishing with the Aschen for a bit now. Had to lay low for a bit after the last fight though. That royally fucked us right up." Martin answered the man.

"Blimey fucking assholes the Aschen are. The lot of them, I'll have them all in the cold hard ground of Oiland before I die. I want their damn space ship too. It'd be fun trying to steal that thing." Kelly replied to the soldiers as well.

He put away the flask as he pulled out a cigarette lit and began smoking it right there. He rarely smoked anymore except when something was going to start bothering him.

In orbit of Blackrock pinpoints of pink light appeared as suply vessels began to fill the system, a huge ring of blue light tore a hole in space and a swarm of starfighters swarmed from it followed by larger support craft, which in turn was quickly followed by even larger captial ships.

Within the largest vessel a voice, clearly disembodied and robotic spoke "Ma'am, a transmission from the planet. The sender requests our immediate assistance on ground. their location is now marked to the fleet. We await your orders"

"Lock onto the location where the transmission originates. Mark a seven kilometer radius of the transmision point of origin, tag all civilain and milita. We were requested first to form an alliance, but now, things changed in her time to travel here.

"Alert the fleet. We are taking them to safety. Ready the landing craft and prepare ground troops"

An alarm rang in the hold of one of the ships as soldiers and officers ran to their stations ot ready in the case of trouble. They came originally intending to form an alliance, but the plan changed and they were now to rescue those they were to ally with. What a day within the Underlundian Empire. Mirana wanted to form this allaince ever since receiving the first transmission, only to end up saving the men she was to ally with.

"Ma'am, energy reading indicate medial needs, sending to you now" A moment later and the full manifest of the medial needs of each person was scrolling across a data wall

"Get them all aboard the fleet vessels as quickly and safely as possible. This one" She highlighted Jacob Andersen "I want brought directly to me, be gentle, he appears to be the leader, prorect him at all costs"

"Yes ma'am"

The massive fleet neared the planet. exactly three dozen frigate style craft headed for the planet surface. All the soldiers aboard were ready in the case of battle, but all of them were there for one reason, to help those they came to ally with.