Mae Dawkins's Story

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.

Kyrian Vox

While Mae and Lukas were dealing with the enraged escapee, Kyrian went to Zypherus and stood in front of the construct. "Alright, let us see what makes this thing tick." Little did the others know Kyrian had purchased the Voltaic Key with Zephyrus specifically in mind. He brought it out now and held the small sparking object levitated in his palm. The key sent a spark of electricity to Zephyrus and rebooted his system, giving him full charge and sending him into self diagnostic mode. Kyrian scanned and copied the diagnostic to his neural HUD and looked over the system specifics. "It seems you are unique my friend, I have never seen this kind of system before."

While Kyrian was not familiar with the most modern technology, Zephyrus was something different entirely. Kyrian was now more interested than ever, and as Zephyrus came back into working order Kyrian input his system specs into Arkvaes' archives. He set a search for anything similar and left the program to do it's work as he turned back to Zephyrus.

"You are an interesting one, I will admit that. The others are dealing with a small problem so we have a moment to speak privately. Tell me.. Zephyrus, what is it you want from joining my crew?"

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.

The Iconoclast Battleship continued to gain altitude as Commander Magus surveyed the DRADIS Array. Two of the bridge officers were inspecting the console closely, before the Underlundian ships pinged on the console.

"DRADIS Contact! Three nine seven carom one two eight!" Lieutenant Godfrey shouted, while Magus scowled. "They haven't detected us yet, bring forward batteries online, we're going to give these invaders a warm welcome." He said, as the lights dimmed to a dull red.

"Verified targeting solutions, we'll have to come about, our guns can't traverse that high." Lieutenant Quinn reported, going over the weapons console as Magus nodded.

"Whoever these people are, is going to have to wait. I want thunderbolts hot in their tubes, nominal spread, target the larger ships first." Magus ordered.

The Aschen Thunderbolt class anti-ship missile was a large interstellar capable ballistic missile, with a self contained FTL Drive, AI Guided targeting systems, and a powerful warhead that could be equipped to the specific needs of the battlefield.

"Tricobalt warheads." Magus ordered.

---

On the ground, there was a massive thunderous roar, and the 5km long Iconoclast Class Battleship soared over the range that was once obscuring it.

"Lieutenant Siler, contact the IDF, we might have a possible invasion on our hands, Lieutenant Quinn! Get us into orbit, get shields and weapons ready for a fight."

Quinn nodded.

"Signalling the fleet now, but it may reveal our location to the invaders." He protested, but Magus nodded.

"Do it." He said.

---

It was likely at that moment the Underlundian ships would detect a Subspace spike on frequencies typically used by the Aschen Empire. Highly encrypted Aschen superluminal communications originating from the planet would only mean one thing.

The Aschen Empire was on the planet, and they too were calling for help.

Mae walked over to Lukas and punched him in the shoulder, harder than she had expected. "How are we supposed to get him into the chamber when he's covered in super-cold ice which more than likely will freeze us on contact?" She walked around the icy being and examined his arm. A tattoo covered his left shoulder. It was of a poorly drawn skull with an upside-down nasal cavity, with what appeared to be "ñø RåGrętš" underneath it. the ice was fairly glass-like, os it was easy to see it. Whoever had done the job obviously wasn't qualified to be performing cosmetics. She laughed at the tattoo and walked back to Lukas.

Then her demeanor changed as she saw the strange device in his hand. Curiously, she snatched it from his shivering fingers and looked at it. It appeared to be a window, but it held her face inside! Was this some sort of soul posessor? It was not a mirror, because it was glowing. She tapped her "reflection", and a blinding light overtook her vision. She tossed the device to the floor, rubbing her eyes and blinking. She pulled out her small Kunai knife and crouched near the strange machine, preparing to destroy it.

(Time to resurrect this old RP, it seems.)

Mae probably had a point. Then again, he could make something on the fly with some stuff he had on him.

Taking a glass shard and chipping off a tiny bit of the ice trapping the beast to drop into a vial, he quickly continued working on his microbrew; taking some silver chips, a bit of rune powder and heat catalysts to bring it all to a boil. Shaking the vial vigorously, he ended up with a dark-blue mixture, that if he was right, would render someone immune to temperature.

"Well, assuming you're the one more able of moving this statue around, you should take this."

(Finally. I was worried this RP was dead.)
Mae stepped slowly away from the strange device on the ground, taking the potion from Lukas's hand. She swirled the contents of the bottle around and peered into the glass. "This better not kill me." She pulled the cap off with her teeth downing the contents immediately.
With somewhat of a choking gag, she finished it practically in a single swig. The flavor was similar to that of rotten fruit, and she shook her head hoping the taste would fade soon. You would think this guy could at least think of some way to make these things taste better for once...
Mae stepped over to the statue, examining its features once more, she shakily reached her hand out and touched the smooth, glass-like Ice. It was cold, but not deathly cold. She clutched her dagger between her teeth and wrapped her arms around the creature's midsection, grunting as she attempted to lift it. With quite some effort, she was finally able to lift the statue about a half-inch from the ground, and she managed to almost drag it towards the broken cryo-chamber. Setting heavily on the ground, she looked around thoughtfully. Approaching the back of the creature, she attempted to push it towards the destination, but that didn't seem to be going any faster.
This was tough.
But not impossible.
Mae grunted again as she shoved her shoulder into the back of the statue, moving it a good distance. The ice finally lost some of its friction and the frozen figure slid jarringly across the floor suddenly, almost making her trip. She looked towards the broken chamber. It was still quite a ways away, and there were fallen crates toppled around it. She went to wipe the sweat from her brow, but realized the droplets had frozen from the temperature of the statue. She had forgotten how cold this thing actually was, and that the effects of the potion were protecting her. Her palms were covered with a layer of ice crystals, but she could hardly feel it. Noticing that her dagger was covered in a layer of frost as well, Mae sheathed it. She braced the statue with her back, and dug her heels into the grated metal floor. With an exasperated push, she finally was able to push it past most of the crates. She was now about three feet from the cryo-chamber.

"That was harder than expected."

Mae dusted off her pants. Here she was, back on this desolate rock of a planet, searching in vain for a lost cause. It had been six years since she was last on Blackrock searching for her sister. The wind whipped through her hair, bringing up sand that bit at her skin. Mae pulled her scarf up over her face and walked across the dead ground. There used to be a bar here, but it was now reduced to little more than a dilapidated shack. Climbing through what used to be a window, she huddled behind the decrepit walls of the structure, listening to the wind whistle through the beams. Dusting off a barstool and picking up an over turned table, she began to set everything up again. She didn't have a particular reason for doing this, but it just felt right. Mae had memories here, and it was almost like arranging the grave of a lost loved-one. She swept up broken glass, rearranged the rotted table decor, and even smoothed out the moth-eaten table cloth on the bar counter. It was hard to describe the emotions Mae might have been feeling. Perhaps nostalgia, or remorse, or even resentfulness. But she showed no sign of anything; her face was blank. She plopped down at one of the tables, tracing the grain in the wood with her fingers. It was totally silent except for the harsh winds outside. (Or...inside. The building no longer had a roof.)
Her eyes closed, and she leaned her head back towards the sky. Her fingers tapped against the table in a rhythmical fashion as she hummed a tune that she didn't know the name of. Her eyes flicked open and she stood up. If she was lucky, she might be able to find alcohol that had fermented to the point of being raw whiskey. She walked over to the bar-counter and slid over the top of it. The cupboards where stuck shut, and she had to pull quite hard to open them. She wasn't disappointed with what was inside. There were several bottles that looked promising, some stale food, and interestingly, a variety of personal belongings. She pried the cork off of a bottle of wine, and drank to her heart's content. Then, she fell asleep to the sounds of Blackrock.

There was a flutter of feathers from the rafters or perhaps a scraping of delicate metal simulacra of such. The faint pitter patter of a larger bird hopping along a shattered rafter. Ophaniel watched, placidly, the spyglass among what seemed a junkpile for a chest glinted from there without a word as Mae worked. The creature hadn't a heat to it even if it had life and its occasional staring at the sky seemed to indicate only a passing interest as Mae drank herself to sleep.

"And still they persist so well.", said a voice with a mixture of mirth and sarcasm.

The bird bonked Mae on the forehead with its metal spyglass.

"And still they persist so well.", the metal bird repeated.