Sara Drake's Story

As others looked around wildly when the lights changed Flynn's reflective eyes reappear with her blue-veined irises. Her hackles raised taking a defensive position at the sudden casting of light but it seemed harmless enough. When the places began to emerge from the light she took note the images ferreted away in her memory to be inscribed on her note book. Though she extracted it from her green pack the small bloodwrit pen made blue scratches on tightly packed lime pages. She had a few notebooks and took pains to use them fully as difficult to replace as they were. Her sketches were rough but the memory remains firmly anchored. She'd fill out the sketches later this place was too likely for combat than she preferred.

As the light returned Flynn looked at the two groups that had pointed guns at each other. Freshblood Far and Deep, she decided. So busily preening than going about their duties. The other one, a tall human looking one of a sort she didn't really recognize, had a caste in her head that spoke as yet to be decided. Some part of her blood hadn't decided on him but intellectually found him more like the Thirteen. The warriors with so obstinate a path that it crossed back from their end into egg hosts with only rare failures that saw her triplets rise to power to fill the vacuum of power. Familiar loud ticking in her head declared the large armored surly creature a spiker. Her traveler within her blood didn't seem to like the creature though it had at least decided for that one.

Then the human-looking one with the pointed ears left his senses leaving an uncomfortable vacuum in her sense of safety. Her senses chirped and hummed tuned to detect where elder things left wakes much like the one this strange male had left. A ripple in the plane leaving that familiar taste of Losthome behind it. At least something like it she could follow. This one more bland indeterminate mass even less certain with time. Still a place her traveler was quite well accustomed that the reacher could squeeze through to get away from this place. Given so many unknowns with weapons of some kind she thought was the best solution. Her whelps certainly at least risk away from these angry sorts that had stopped chirping when hostilities appeared. Pen put away Flynn's feathered hand reaches to pet Kanto seeing what her limited understanding of canines saw as a talking pet dog. Considering to get him to safety too.

She whispers to him tongue glowing blue, "Good boy. I can follow the placid one to get away from here. I could take you too though the path sinks quickly so you must decide. The fray has not yet weaved enough to hide from a reacher."

Kanto, who had been focusing his attention back on Casren, was completely surprised by the feathery hand landing upon his head. He jumped about a food in the air and let out an involuntary sound of startlement as he quickly turned around to see the culprit.

"Good boy." Usually, Kanto would not like the unwelcome attention, but out of present company and the nice compliment, he let it slide. Watching the bird person as she spoke. He couldn't understand the words as they were spoken, at least not exactly. But the sentiment of her words shone through the him. He nodded to her, before asking, also in a whisper: "But how do we do such a thing?" He said, looking around the room once more, wringing his hands as he awaited the next leg of their journey.

Amid all the chaos, a large pallet of goods landed inside the chamber from above, it contained a powerful diamond-laser borer that the Aschen used to mine Kanvium precursors from meteroid impact craters, a rather large deuterium-tritium fusion reactors, some computer equipment, and a crate filled with antimatter charges.

One Archaeologist was fixated on the happenings within the chamber, her video recorder was out, and carefully recording everything so it could be sent back for analysis.

The second Archaeologist seemed to cow away from the Terra Nova ghost, leaving Solis to simply shake her head.

The Aschen could put these people down with minimal effort.

Moving to the Pallet, Erin unfastened the cables still attatching it to the ship above.

She cut the ties holding everything in place, positioning the laser towards the door.

Ruula

Ruula is a terrestrial planet. It is home to a race of pseudo-humans that form powerful bonds with the local wildlife, creatures referred to as Pokemon.

"All right. This is getting way too hot for my tastes. I gotta get out of here," Jennifer declared loudly over the roar of the dropship's engines. "Gun girl, on me. Same with the gentleman. I don't know if anyone else saw what I saw, but I have an idea as to where another one of the eyes might be located...and I'm going to need someone to watch my back. That, and I don't want you two to blow up the whole valley over who's got the bigger dick. Already had that shit happen once with the volcano."

Casren stood and brushed off his pants.

"That," He looked pointedly at the giant drill, "Seems to be a bad idea."

He thought long and hard about the vision, the map, they had been shown. Casren had never traveled space before. He wondered where it was that mountains rose and airships flew.

"I think we should figure out where that is, the rest of us I mean," for two had walked into thin air, and two more were conspiring to follow, and what was this with the Pokemon. He wasn't sure about stepping through the fabric of time himself, and considered his options.

Aberash

A planet that, at first sight, is simply barren. With closer inspection, however, one can observe a growing, developing planet and all its wonders.

Flynn sniffed at Kanto's head to get an idea of his scent. The reacher committed his face to memory in a long gaze so she had an idea of his shape, the feel of his fur, or the sound of his voice. A professional of her work she carried many a far and deep packing weapons and heavy armor into Losthome. Some times she took more practical ways of getting to know a body, hence her triplets, but discerning senses served just as well.

The feathered dinosaur offered her hand third eyelid blinking away her iris and eyeshine to flat black as hunter's sight returns, "I hold your wrist and drag you across reality. You just need to keep your mind. Focus on me, my willful path, the solidity of my body will be the most firm island of calm for your mind to rest on."

Her outstretched hand shimmered with some colorful plates squirming just underneath the feathers of her body. As the reacher focused a soft ticking sound emanated from darker spaces of the room. Black gears emerging from empty space then translucence as something approaches the plane. Bits of clockwork assembling for purpose.

"Have you ever had drugs that lose your person? This will feel like that. We must move quickly after my path will be much easier to follow," Whispered the reacher to Kanto looking periodically at the healing ripple in reality.

Irral looked to Carson, Golden, Violet-corrupted eyes taking in the Vampire with a near subtle caution. "You are correct, Vampire. Only a fool would venture alone past that door." he said. His gaze returned to the Aschen, who were tinkering with their toys. "And only fools would ignore the commands of the door." he added softly.

Pramia

Welcome to Pramia, please do try to pay attention to warning signs.

Turning to the map once more, Irral's eyes examined it. If he was reading it correctly, the second Eye would be on an Airship above a city within a valley surrounded by numerous Mountains. The Dragon's body began to radiate Golden Light, and a beam of his Holy Magic rocketed into the air, straight up, narrowly missing the Aschen ship. Either it had ignored any possible shields, or it was merely just Light radiating off his body, but either way, it traveled unimpeded straight up.

"I will return when the second Eye is found." he said calmly. And suddenly his body vanished, a small burst of energy being sent off from his last location, shaking the very air around them and rumbling the ground gently. A Draconian Light Magic Circle was left on the Stone floor where his feet had been; indicating where he would appear when the second amulet had been found, whether he found it, or someone else did and brought it to the Door.

The circle where his feet had been glowed dimly, and a magic Hum was audible from it. It was still active. If anyone wanted to follow the Elder Dragon on his quest to find the Second Emerald Eye, they would be able to from stepping through the transportation Array.

Sara's mind was suddenly filled with Images of far off places she had never seen before. Even with her psionic powers she couldn't figure it out having never left Terra. As the vision cleared Sara looked around the room. Soon enough people where starting off in small groups to go to other Planets and try and find this second eye or whatever. Well all but the Aschen...

As pokemon girl said she should come with her Sara sighed. "My name is Sara... but sure I'll go with you... anything to get away from these fools... hope you blow yourselves up Aschen scum."

Sara headed out of the ruins and as they left she turned to her squad. "I'm going on alone you guys head back to HQ and inform command of what's happening here."

The squad saluted and took off in their banshee. As they left Sara turned to the pokemon girl "So where we off to kid?"

Christopher lead his group through the Collenham Mountains for about an hour or so, braving the wilds and yet...strangely enough not coming across any vicious fauna like Christopher expected. Odd...to make things stranger, as he neared the site he was directed to he could feel a strange...pull. This lead him through the Mountain Fortress and just into it, as they approach he spoke up.

"Past this point, it is up to the rest of you if you want to stay. There's something strange...something off. I won't let you strangers get pulled into undue danger - not ones beyond perhaps even my own comprehension." Pulling the rest of the money from his satchel he'd move to offer it to those who had taken the quest. "If you wish to stay, it's not bound by the contract so I'd still take the payment. But either way, you're free to make your own choices...thanks for getting me to here."

Vithimiris grunted.

Whether or not the others would stay, Christopher would approach through the entrance, seeing the door and...stunned. There were already people here? He suddenly felt a lot less special.

Kanto was still a little wary and unsure of Flynn's sniffing and prodding, but he stayed close to her, his tail swishing in contemplation. Being dragged across reality? The description itself did no favors to quell his apprehension. But he had come this far, and Flynn seemed like the friendliest creature he had met in this place.

Kanto watched as the transformation took place across the room, heart racing just a bit as he mustered up some courage, keeping close to Flynn as she asked a question about drugs.

"Kanto has not done this... But he will stay close and move swift!" He said with a nod, offering his wrist to the dinosaur as she had requested, looking at her third blinking eye.

"Maybe you lot can talk some sense into..." Casren Bistreo gestured at the gigantic Aschen drill to the newcomers. He stood by the idea that any more attempts at forcing the door open would just anger it, especially now that it had proven itself sentient to some degree.

"Did you hear the, er, door speak?"

"All right then," Jennifer sighed. "If we're going to take a vacation to where I think we're going, we're going to need to stop at my house for supplies. That would be near Ridgecrest City, and the place is crawling with shadow dudes of all types...it's why I ran to this fortress in the first place. Casren, Sara, and, uh...Flynn? On me. Let's see if we can't slip past their perimeter. The light dragon dude makes me think they aren't quite as strong as before. If it comes to a fight, we might be able to break the line, but we're done for if we're surrounded, so we'll have to move fast."

She put her bag back up on her shoulders. "Back to the main gate. We got a long way to go and not a lot of daylight."

Flynn took Davien's hand with a raking trill the small feathers of it silky soft, "rRrRrRrRr! Your rabid gunners are your problem. We have a way out to follow the elf."

Her head lowered to move her feathered tail curled around him to make sure he knew when to slow down so he'd keep pace. As they neared the ripple in reality left behind Flynn's soft melodic humming followed along with ticking coming from darker corners. The world didn't as much get smaller, though there was likely that sense of vertigo, but everything seeming to rotate in place at some strange angle difficult to properly express. Externally Flynn and passenger got flatter the closer to the Elf's last spot before slipping out of reality entirely. Nothing but a lazy lensing of light as if a small disquiet pond hovered a crater in midair.

The inside of the path lost all sense of time in the endless astral plane reflecting on the soul of the one that passed through it. A chaotic place for the unprepared there was never anything to focus on for long before the hall of mirrors shone a new memory. Except for the black feathered sapien in front of him. Occasionally veering up, or even stopping to smell for the trail in painful looking sharp angles. Below them both the hall of mirrors seemed to prefer memories of footprints as if her own desire to trail Yvandir smashed a toe-claw into the memory and held it there. In all Flynn was the island of calm the panes lurking between her feathers fending off the emitted hazardous will of an astral plane.

It was the loss of the contiguity of time that would be the deepest hazard. When the mind lost its place in the inexorable deep that was the Astral plane. While it might perhaps seem that their trip was still ongoing it was Flynn's ardent voice calling for Kanto's attention that was the present moment. He would have to engage with the present moment than the past.

Sara looked to Jennifer "Well i'm trained for stealth missions and with my Psionic powers I should be able to detect any hostiles and if we are careful... and lucky... we should be able to get in and out quick and quiet."

Sara did a check of her rifle and other gear and nodded. "Ok I'll stay cloaked behind you just lead and I will follow. I can use my powers and suit's tech to render myself unseen even by magic and anti stealth tech. Anything tries to attack us...they will be dead before they know I hit them."

Sara then once again vanished from view not even a shimmer of her was seen.

Havasikaji looked around at the scene before her. "What is this?" She demanded. "Who are you people?"

The Aschen team continued to work hard setting up the pallet with the laser drill, while a pair of scientists that dropped down from the ship above began taking close up photographs of the door itself, along with installing anti-mana charges.

"Solis, you're to take the data gathered here back to Langara, where the data will be analyzed and a course of action chosen." The Radio chirped.

The Aschen woman nodded, extending her hand to take the data recorder from her science team.

"Alright, I need to take this back to the Empire." She said, taking the device.

The scientists nodded, before fanning out and taking additional photographs.

Looking up, Erin watched the Aschen vessel disappear without a trace, it's stealth systems engaging, then she touched a device on her wrist, a swirling vortex of energies engulfing her, allowing the woman to seemingly disappear without a trace.

Integra appeared in a swirl of silvery light, nanite swarms pouring out of the rift he'd created and settling like a gloss on his jacket. Eight undead monstrosities, each an amalgamation of different creatures sewn together, then augmented with cybernetics, stepped out of pitch-black rifts of pure night. With a free appendage, they each saluted their Captain and fell into formation behind him, their various weapons at the ready.

It was crowded here, much more crowded than it had any right to be. "Ello, ello, my duckies! My name is Once Dread Pirate Captain Integra Blackheart, no relation, and I'm here to fulfill the prophecy." One of the servitors dropped a cask of femtites, which rose up and surrounded the Captain creating an imperceptible swarm of femtometre sized robots that formed a bubble around him. "I trust we are all ready to begin?"

Upon a grassy plain sat Fort Raynor. It was a massive base and staging ground that was in the final stages of being built. Even with this fact it still was ready for it's current purpose. Here was massing an army of the Terra Nova Empire.

Tanks did wargames. Troopers and Marines drilled. Air and space forces flew in formation overhead. New recruits poured in daily.

"The Call has been given...once our forces are gathered...We march on Ridgecrest..." Sara stated as she looked over the base from her Battle Cruiser.

A cloaked Terra Nova Cruiser Hovered within sight of Ridgecrest City.

"Looks like Draco has been busy...just like we thought..." Sara stated. "But the plan stands.. our Battle Cruisers will open up with a Yamato cannon strike on the largest of the Shadow Legions Fortifications. Next our Raven Bombers and Strike Fighters will do a fly over of the city dropping bombs on towers and other defense buildings. At this same time Strike Force A will start bombarding this area of the city farthest for the portal to Ruula. Our goal is to draw out the Shadow Forces and as they rush Strike Force A the larger Strike Force B will hit the Shadow Legions flank hard. I myself will go and join up with Jennifer's group and help them reach the portal. Hopefully once we get to Ruula we can come back with Ruulan forces to help you secure the city."

Sara took a breath "Ok once I leave the ship wait three minutes then unleash hell."

Sara took a quick dropship trip and then a cloaked run until she came up to Jennifer's group "Miss me?" she asked as she uncloaked behind the group. Sara looked at something on her wrist "Get ready for fireworks in 3, 2, 1..."


The roar of Ten Battlecruisers firing their Yamato Cannons filled the air. As the blasts hit a huge shockwave would come from each impact. As clock work squadrons of Raven bombers and Strike Fighters made their runs dropping payloads of cluster bombs and plasma bombs on the Shadow Legion's defences.

As hell rained from the sky The TLA forces of Strike Force A took up formation on a hill overlooking the city. Siege Tanks rolled in and reconfigured into Siege cannon mode as the Thor walkers, Terra Nova Marines, and TLA troopers took up defensive positions to protect the tanks.



Sara Looked to Jennifer and her group. "We need to hurry and get to the Portal." she said.

Draco's skin resumed its pale appearance the moment the triggers of each Yamato cannon was squeezed. He sensed the hostile intent, and quickly flared his power. As each of the rounds soared through the air, they would be met by a wall of Shadow lurching forth from the wall Draco had his Legion construct around the City itself. Clearly Draco planned to be attacked from either Orbit or from the air, and had these defenses set up well in advance. Granted, however, that he had to be there to activate some of them. Large Turrets rumbled out of the City, turning towards the Battle-Cruisers, and firing Corrupted Light-Fire rounds back at the attackers. Each shell would hit like twenty Hiroshima Bombs, and the fire spread by each shell would do one of two things: Either Turn everything to Gold, making it useless, or Corrupt it until it simply melted away.

"Foolish humans.... Do they truly think they can take back this city?" Draco growled. "Fan out, find any intruders, flush them out." he growled. The Shadowling bowed her head, and vanished in a puff of black mist. A sickening, gurgling roar erupted from all of Ridgecrest City, and mist spread across the streets.

Black Mist.

At first, nothing would happen to those who inhaled it, but it would only take one good breath full of it before the Illusions started. If inhaled, the first thing anyone would notice would be that the sounds coming from the Shadows, both creature and actual shadow alike, were a lot louder. The sounds of claws skittering along the ground and walls of the city echoed now, filling the city with a sense of dread. After the auditory "enhancements", there were simple shadows moving in the corner of one's eye. Making the victim feel as though they were being stalked, followed, hunted.

The Legion didn't stop there, and as the Siege Tanks and walkers made their presence known, more Turrets sprouted from the walls of the city, each of them likewise firing either Corrupted Light Fire or Shadow-Fire rounds of varying sizes and strength levels. One thing was constant however: Even a glancing blow would begin to corrupt or purify, depending on what hit, and what was hit. Draco and the Legion had planed not just for all out warfare, with defenses from orbital bombardments, but for war with the Imperium of man yet again.