Chiron-Delta

As Russian continued to creep along the planets surface, his modified sonar soon picked up multiple objects hidden underground. He stopped by the closest one and opening a port in his mech suit, he grabbed a digger hidden inside the port and began to mine clear the area of earth. While he was busy diggin up the earth, he retrieved a transmition by the Aschen fleet that seemed to be broadcasting in multiple frequencies. The message was telling them that they were here after detecting a strange anomaly and we're waiting on what course of action to take.

Russian soon dug far enough into the earth and pulled out a rusty piece of metal, presumably from one of the terraforming equipment long since broken. "Well so much for having an easy assignment..." he soon took note that there was little to no sound going on, all he could hear was the wind up above the hole he had just made but he soon heard something which set of a few alarm bells. The same disembodied voice spoke again, speaking through everything including the sand next to him. "Why do I always get the difficult assignments...I should do more research on a planet before I land on it." He spoke to himself and began to climb out of the hole.

As Russian began to climb out of the hole he made, he heard a familiar voice talking to him yet again but this time the person on the other side seemed to be at their limit and yelled into the radio causing him to reach for his own radio to turn it off in fear for having his eardrums blow out. "Jeeze! Someone is pissed off." He spoke to no one in particular before he heard a particular sound, and that sound was anti-aircraft fire.

Climbing out of the hole Russian patched into his ships systems half expecting to see it under attack but what he instead saw was anti-aircraft fire hitting random things with no clear target. "Either their targeting systems are damaged, or its malfunctioned...either was its not my problem this time." He shrugged and began to walk of to the next object on his modified sonar.

"I'll kill her..."

Several questions flooded his mind at once. Why was one of his men shutting him out intentionally? Why was nobody keeping him updated on the incoming ships, and WHY in the HELL were the anti-aircraft guns in full assault, blasting at whatever may be lurking in that empty bit of nothingness?!

He began rubbing at his temples, his eyes tightly shut as he thought. He stood alone in his quarters, dressed in his usual gear, a light flickering above his head as it swiveled relentlessly on its chain. Impatiently, he jammed his finger into the intercom. "Colleen, if you have any fuckin' sense left in that head of yours, I need you to get it out of your ASS, and give me and update!"

Something hit him. Not physically, mentally. He could feel some ominous presence, looming over him, as though he were being blanketed by a thin layer of snow. Shaking his head dismissively, he patched through to a separate line, ordering the immediate lock down of the prison. Alarms began to sound and metal doors could be heard, echoing through the corridors as they slammed shut, one after the other.

Heaving a sigh, he made for the rest of his gear. Slipping his helmet over his head, strapping his boots on tight, systems came online. The helmet gave him an easier access to Colleen's line, and he tried her once more. "I've locked down the prison. If I don't hear back from you soon I am coming out there, and god help you you'll be shoveling shit for peanuts by the time I'm done with you!"

A sudden stillness came down over this place. It would take a moment to notice, but the first thing those located outside would notice would be that the anti aircraft munitions flying about the air were frozen in place. The second thing to be noticed would be how everything, literally everything, seemed to vibrate. Utter Silence pervaded the fabric of reality in this section of existence.

It was peaceful.... Until she woke up. Her first words, the first time the voice of the vessel ever had a definitive presence, the first time it could be acknowledged as an actual entity speaking was heard throughout the area. Where as before, the whispers and voices sounded soothing and soft, Her voice was cold, metalic, and gave the impression of a knife sliding through the air. "Chaos Threshold reached, initiating second phase protocols" She said, and the planet itself shuddered as with fear.

The material surrounding the vessel on the surface dissolved away as tendrils of raw energy snaked through them. No... that's not quite right. Rather, it was like the roots of a plant. The matter itself turned into energy, which then rushed to the ship. Rivers of energy pouring into that vessel quickly exposed it fully, and as it did the ship lifted free of the ground. A simple looking craft, about the 27 feet long from nose to tail, and around 18 feet from wing to wing. It was not adorned or decorated, aside from the gold tracing that gilded it's parts here and there.

The vessel lifted free of the ground, and then began to glow, as parts of the ship shifted into a state of energy themselves. These sections shifted and morphed. The front of the seat lifted to form a masked face, the wings shifted positions and morphed to become like humanoid arms, The tail extended and split, becoming clawed legs that slammed into the earth, drawing more rivers of energy from the physical matter. "Transition Complete, beginning search" She said as she turned towards the prison, utterly ignoring those near her. With every step, crater formed as more and more matter was absorbed for her power. A chamber in the center of the new entities chest opened up, and an orb of gyrating energy was revealed. Tendrils of raw power snaked out from this chamber and reached forward, grasping at any matter it found, breaking it down and absorbing it.

The moment that chamber was revealed, an indescribable fear echoed through the fabric of reality. It felt as though the very air was terrified and wanted to flee from this thing that had appeared. In the hearts of the mortals nearby, in the very thrums of their blood, a primal, instinctive fear would settle into their very flesh. It was a fear not born of a spell or outside influence, it was the simple instinctive reaction to danger. The very cells of their body would shiver in terror, though they might try to deny it. One simple fact could not be denied by anyone present. The creature that had made it's presence known was surely the doom of all that was.

A lone figure stood silently on a distant dune overlooking the chaos of the region. It was like a phantom or a mirage that passed unseen beneath all but the most advanced scanners and perceptive senses. The figure was clad in a dark brown cloak that blended with the scourged earth of the planet's surface. Two glowing yellow eyes focused coldly on the awakened vessel with calculating indifference.

The Agent of Wrath felt the Power radiating from the ship like the gravitational force of a black hole. It was darkness and malice, and yet cold and emotionless. However, even though the Agent sensed the vessel's power and heard its voice as clearly as any other, it simply ignored its alluring call.

<< Priority One Artifact detected. Unit Beta-34 requesting reinforcements for extraction. Informing the Repository. >>

Beta-34 ran a quick calculation on the ship's trajectory after ending the communication. It took a single step before its form dissolved into the background.

"Sir... I'm detecting weapons fire from the surface, doesn't appear to be firing at anything in particular." A deck officer informed the Commander as he looked to the planet below.

The deck guns remained primed as the crew tried to sort out everything going out.

"We're going to lock this whole thing down." Gray reported. "Do we have enough troops for a planetside assault?" He asked, as his Executive officer shook their head.

"I'll signal the nearest available Reverence to lead an assault to secure the prison."

Gray nodded slightly, before the executive officer replied. "Sir, I've recieved a response. The Bloodied Spirit is changing course to intercept. They'll arrive in half a millicenton." The XO Reported.

The Reverence II Bloodied Spirit promptly recieved the call from the Iconoclast over Chiron-Delta, and with a shift, it jumped from Blackrock, and appeared in low orbit over Chiron Delta.

The massive Reverence II was large enough to easily obscure the skies over the maximum security prison complex. It's massive engines thundered on the surface as it began it's descent. To those versed in Aschen tactics, this Reverence II was situating itself to lead an assault on the planet, in addition to landing troops.

---

Khaine paused as he looked up, the brilliant white flash of light followed by the appearance of the Bloodied Spirit had quickly caught his attention for a moment. But it was Helga's spell casting that was the most concerning. Raising his Magnetron rifle, he opened fire, with an audible thunk his weapon sent a single 20mm self propelled projectile towards the casting mage, hoping to swiftly remove her from the picture.

Being yelled at can do many things, but in this case it did knock Colleen out of whatever she had been in, let's say frustrated anger combined with utter stupidity. Still Mac had broken through whatever hold had been on her and immediately she replied, "Okay here's long and short of it Mac, there is Helga and I, Helga fighting an Aschen, I am monitoring a ship from a dude calling himself the Russian he is according to the scans on my suit drilling into the ground near the base. There is other stuff but gist of it is that anomaly is causing strange shit to occur... I can define what it is entirely, but it made me hack the anti-aircraft defences which is why they started firing, thankfully the orbital platforms were not activated, although with how things are you may want too..." with that she awaited the yelling and screaming, while sighing, "Actually can we shoot down that ship, I can paint a target on it with my electronics if you wish."

Once more waiting, she would patch through to Helga, "Look if worse comes to the worse, we have orbital cannons they could be used on the Aschen ship, it could well take it down... damn the consequences... also that thing, anomaly, it appears able to alter or influence people... thus why what happened, happened... thing is I am in control again. I am likely going to paint big red target on this ship, and shoot it down, leaving the Russian without any means to escape... after that I shall head to where you are."

With that she switched off her intercom and began to input coordinates from her scan of 'The Russian's' ship, basing it on the information and sending the data to Mac, "There is the information, input it to some of our defences and blow thing out of the sky."

Helga grimaced as the monster rose from the earth bellow. She held her spell as the arcane and eldritched energies that flowed from her hand and the surrounding areas continued to form more complex spellwork. It was with every intention that she wanted to destroy such an abomination on life and as it made its way towards Colleen and Mac's location. The Witch Hunter was not focused on anything else other than the destruction of such a thing before her and as Tidus took his shot there might have been an end to her chapter.

"Helga, snap out of it, you stupid witch!" Her shadow jumped out from underneath of her and in an instant cast its own spell enforcing the barriers that protected Helga thus far. Ghast smirked like the devil as the 20mm broke through the initial barriers only to stop as Ghast raised his left hand enforcing the slowing of the projectile to a sudden halt.

The gunfire broke Helga's concentration causing the spell to fizzle and distort the space around her changing the land into a fertile green field that extended outwards several meters only to then freeze in an instant causing no harm to anyone or anything.

"Not today soldier." Ghast taunted as it shrunk back into Helga taking on her shadow once more. Helga herself looked over to Tidus and grimaced. "We need to take that thing down!" Fully turning herself towards the soldier and making her way over to the armored hulk with little fear her in soul.

"I don't care if your xenophobic nature is telling you to shoot me again! Fuck it all if you do but I assure you Ghast would hate for his vessel to be damaged beyond all repair!" Helga raised her voice as she continued to make her way over to the soldier. "Tell whoever you have that is incharge to blow that thing back to fucking Hell if they so wish. Obviously it is a danger and I can examine the remains later!"

It was then that she heard the transmission from Colleen only to feel even angrier at the notion of turning on such a super power. A poor move on any souls part that thought they could withstand such a military might especially when they were on a rock that was not all that important. "Colleen! You know I have grown attached to my fucking body! Turn those damned weapons towards the fucking behemoth that is making its way towards your prison!"

Hearing back from Colleen was nothing short of a miracle. He listened through his helmet now, being fully prepared at this point to disembark from the confines of the prison. Patching his voice to Colleen, he spoke calmly. "Alright, now that you're actually paying attention, we can do something about this. I'm staying inside as long as I can to run the defenses, as well as making sure we don't have a full blown riot in here. I need you to focus your attention on whatever the hell that thing is making it's way toward the prison, we don't have time to fight this many battles at once. For god's sake woman who taught you how to prioritize? I'm deploying assistance, try not to let it get ruined."

Shifting his attention to his main control area, he input the codes necessary to reroute the exterior defenses so they weren't blindly firing at god knows what. Instead he focused them on the incoming vessel, the one marching it's way toward the prison, the one emitting the...fear.

All the anti aircraft defenses ceased fire momentarily, swiveling on their bases to the new coordinates, a low hum emanating from within before they opened fire. The collective force of the assault would me much more effective now that it was actually aimed at something!

Flicking to a different program on the controls, he input the codes for his own personal side project, The W4RD3N. Initiating the auto pilot he locked it on to Colleen's position. "You've got incoming Colleen, it's a friendly, the thing I mentioned to not let get ruined."

With that he made his way for the main prison chambers, to ensure security was still acting accordingly, and things in his prison hadn't gone completely to hell.

---

---

From within a sealed surface outside the prison walls, a launch sequence began. The doors slid open, revealing a some thirty foot gap in the prison wall. It also reveled a fifteen foot mechanical being with no pilot. From within it's sealed dome cockpit, the machines beeped to life, prompting the machine to move forward. A bulk of faded crimson emerged, it's legs moving fluidly on their own, prompting little lag time between steps. "creating energy field..." a robotic voice echoed from within the construct as it lurched forward, a glisten of light manifesting in a ten foot radius centered on the construct before disappearing. "primary combat functions...ready.."

As the weapons throughout its being hummed to life, it made it's way quicker to Colleen's location. "detection grid...activated" Picking up on her exact coordinates, it paused for a moment. "gravity fluctuation systems...ready"

Suddenly, the construct was slightly airborne, lingering for no more than a moment before soaring higher, further away from the prison toward his target. Traveling a short distance before coming to it's mark, settling down surprisingly precariously next to it's ally, a low hiss projecting from it's various limbs, it almost appeared to be looking down at her. "ally...confirmed. begin protection protocol 8-4-1...initiated."

Although the threats of demons and blood crazed maniacs were very much present in facility 104, Russian was interrupted by an alarm going off in his mech suit, warning him that there was something locking onto his ship. "Now I have more things to worry about, very fantastic." He grumbled as he fumbled with multiple monitors inside his mech suit and began patching into his ships controls. "Password: GEZdaf80outaere, Initiate program intermediate evacuation." With that the ship began to lift into the air, bringing the landing gear back into the ship before activating shields and self defense weaponry before making its way back to space. Hopefully the ship would hold on long enough to get out of range of the anti-aircraft weapons.

Russian now annoyed that they were indeed planning to blow up his ship, decided to curse the people, especially that woman talking to him. Pulling out his radio, he began to talk on the local frequency so most people would hear him. "Oh cool, go ahead and target my ship with your weapon systems. You know what missy, I could care less about what happens to the planet. Have fun with the demons, blood crazed marauders, and whatever the hell is moving around on the planet. Oh by the way I am inside your supposedly maximum security prison, facility 104 was it? And I am currently busting the prisoners out. I wonder what your bosses would say and do I wonder? Maybe they would dock everyone's pay and send you all janitor duty. Anyways screw you all and screw all of your organizations. This is Russian, not wishing any of you luck. Also great security, it sucks."

The Vessel continued it's approach to the prison, taking no more notice of Helga or Tidus as a man would a seed planted at his foot. It did however take notice of the new Ship signature warping in directly over it's head. A cold voice issued from the vessel, echoing across the landscape. "Analyzing new signature... Threat Level minimal, Pilot potential Moderate."

The Reverence and Bloodied Spirit would both then recieve a transmission. "Attention life forms, for your own safety, you are to remain at distance from this planet. You have potential, and must not be harmed. If you do not comply, your safety cannot be garunteed." The image which would display on the appropriate screens and panels would be that of a raid haired woman with four ice blue eyes, which hold no warmth. There would be no mouth on this entities face, nor nose, only the four eyes positioned around a Green marking in the middle of it's face. How it achieved speech could not be discerned.

The Natuna would then proceed to ignore the new arriving ship, and continue on it's way to the prison. At the point the defenses activated and fired, the vessel would raise it's right hand and gesture, as if to grasp a doorknob or handle. The shells fired from the bases defenses would then flash bright green, before vaporizing into streams of energy, which then flow into the open hand of the Natuna. "Hostilities will not be allowed." The vessel spoke, before raising it's hand upward, bringing with it the energy. The cascade of power then split into mulitple streams, each one forming into a solid jagged shard, though of what could not be known. These shards would then fly forward, each one about 20 feet long and 5 wide along the bevel, and seven score of these there were, a veritible blizzard of blades. This 'storm of swords' would crash into the side of the base, striking the cannons and defenses from which first issued the matter what provided the energy for this retaliation. But then, if one were of the mind to take notice of it, a strange occurance happened. Each shard then flashed green, and in a 60 foot radius bubble around each flash, all the physical matter that had been contacted would also flash green, before it too vaporized and streamed towards the Natuna and the orb sitting within it's chest.

It is in this manner, that the Natuna would disable the presented defenses of it's target. The vessel continued along it's trajectory, each stride bringing it closer and closer to it's goal.

And still, that sense of dread would take hold of one's heart, should they chance to see that core again. The wiser, or perhaps more intelligent life forms would make the assumption that whatever was in that core must be a great and terrible thing, to instill the instinctual and primordial reaction it did.

Above the prison complex, the reverence II was finally in position. It's engines rocked the ground below, but what was to come next would spell doom for the prisoners below.

Commander Lionel Felghast, an older man that had been placed in charge of the Bloodied Spirit was eying a large combat map, a three-dimensional holographic projection of the prison, and the terrain surrounding it.

"Three strike teams will move in, three directions." He said, focusing in on the prison itself. "Whatever that thing is on the ground heading to the prison needs to be neutralized, and then we'll move in and secure the complex itself. I want artillery and ground support deployed in these zones here" Felghast said, turning to his executive officer.

"Colonel; execute." Felghast said, as he turned back to the holographic display.

The cacophony of the Reverence II's CIC echoed all around him, the words, the actions, the chime of the alarm, everything provided a beautiful orchestra to the old Commander's ears.

The massive vessel worked like a well oiled machine, landing plots were selected and tallied for gravity-lift deployment, while Marines and ground assault teams checked their weapons and armor systems, gathering at the designated ground deployment zones aboard the ship.

Back in the CIC, the Commander gave the final nod of approval, three zones, one about a mile north of the facility, one southwest, and one southeast were selected for deployment.

And the massive ship in the sky fired down three brilliant purple beams of light, that widened to about sixty meters in diameter. This was the first stage in a massive deployment that was soon to follow.

---

Khaine simply grinned. And then he withdrew a chainsword that was attatched magnetically to his back, revving it a couple times he shouted from behind his visor.

"Witch! There is only one thing to do with you, it's Purge!" He bellowed, before unleashing a powerful antimana pulse from his armor, that extended outwards in all directions, and with a rev of his Chainsword, he lunged at Helga.

As the Anti-Aircraft defenses began to fire erratically, the Commander aboard the Bloodied spirit was watching, the rounds that made it high enough impacted against the shields of the Reverence II, which flared angrily into a brilliant milky white.

"Arm ventral batteries alpha through epsilon. Take out those anti-aircraft batteries." Commander Felghast ordered.

The underside of the Reverence II sported roughly eight hundred individual dual-barreled turbodisruptor batteries, and seven hundred single barrel batteries running along the length of the vessel.

Five of these batteries swiveled to life, and took aim at the facility below.

Felghast watched as the Anti-Aircraft batteries were highlighted into a brilliant red, the Turbodisruptor batteries were calibrated for a staggered salvo fire, and would provide an intermittent stream of weapons fire to silence the batteries.

Once the batteries took aim, they charged up and fired, with a five-second cycling time; they would make short work of the AA batteries below.

The heralding of Aschen weapons fire was that of a series of deafening cracks not unlike thunder, brilliant green flashes that streaked down into the facility below, followed by brilliant plumes of flame as the impacts reduced the AA batteries, and everything immediately around them to molten slag. There was no doubt everyone inside Facility 104 would have heard the sudden weapons fire, which would continue until the last AA Battery fell silent.

Helga groaned as she witnessed the zealot nature of the aschen titan. She knew it would probably come down to this but had hoped that the larger threat would be a bigger issue than her ability to cast spells.

"Witch! Hardly you foul dog!" Hegla shouted as she brought her left hand forward with her fingers pointing outstretched towards the hulking giant of a man. She had intended to restrain him using a spell she had seen once before but found herself unable to find the energy to manipulate or even the time as the beast seamlessly barreled down upon her position. It was with quick footwork and years of training that she would slide off to the side just barely seeing the edge of the chainsword pass her face and the loud roar of its engine.

"Anyone alive?" Helga shouted through her coms link while continuing her momentum in an attempt to book it out of there. "I need someone to open my ship and get me out of here. This is a direct order."

This was too big, too fucking huge and Colleen was part in shock and awe. It was difficult for her to even to think straight, everything just everything. The poor woman could barely keep up, none of her training her made her able to handle this situation. In fact this was meant to be a boring punishment for her actions, but here she was in what was turning into intergalatic incident very fast. It was insane and the chaos in the prison was also buzzing her ear constantly. Think of it, she is standing on a dune staring wide-eyed at the mass destruction and utter nonsense protected from the elements only by her suit, but sweating nervously. If she could even fathom the insanity on display, she said nothing...

This was meant to be a routine, just checking the area, find nothing move on. Now she was wondering if she should have made peace with her Gods, although said thoughts were interrupted by a yelling in her ear and immeadiately she woke up from the almost dream, "Colleen here Helga and yes I am still alive... I am getting nothing from Mac anymore, so may need to use the suit to hack the facilty again, but I'll do it." with that she closed the communication and set about coordinating the ship in all honesty she hoped if Helga could get out, she would take her with her, because in all honesty as it was Colleen did not think Chiron-Delta was a safe place now... not at all...

Hotei