[b][u] Palatine High Orbit [/u][/b] Before making their planetfall towards palatine, a small orb shaped device, an observer satellite was silently watching the new arrivals, scanning the ship for threat potential and life signs, two of which had been detected aboard the small alien vessel. Normally, this wouldn't register a blip on the radar, however, due to the recent...defeats by the Totalist State, the possibility of this vessel being of their origin is too much of a great risk to dismiss in the vast algorithm, and as dictated by said algorithm, the local garrison has been alerted of the intruding vessel's presence, and to make sure these visitors do not return home. [b][u]Palatine, Waltonberg, a few hours after the skirmish[/u][/b] David and his crew did not reach too far after their encounter with the collective troops, maybe passing a block or two before the weariness was finally setting in. The David had then decided to bunk in an old abandoned toy store for the mean time, to get their rest and energy before returning to camp. And there they were, all fast asleep after a hard day's work, all for except David, standing in watch for any enemy movement along the streets, watching out from the wide hole in the left side of the store's main entrance. The sun close to setting, he stood there in silence before a voice called out to him. "David?" A familiar feminine voice spoke. He turned to face the woman. "Feeling better Jess?" "More or less" she replied. "But..what about you? You've been kinda quiet since the fight." "Ah, it's nothing...just thinking." "About what?" jess asked. "About all this." he replied. "What are we even fighting for anymore?" "We're fighting to be flesh and blood, to be free." she replied. "But that's just it, we bleed and die...and for what? Those goddamn machines get stronger by the day...and we lose more people by the day.." Jessica's facial expression has a scene of concerning and sadness, drawing closer to David, placing her hand over his left cheek. "Don't blame yourself for buck. It was unavoidable." "I know..I just can't help but feel responsible." all was quiet for a moment as the two drew closer, embracing one another for a brief moment, ending with with a kiss before separating. "Thanks darling." he said to her. "No problem hotshot." she said with a smile. "...Mind If I watch with you?" "Be my gu-" David was interrupted by a sudden loud booming noise coming from above, taking notice of a ship landing near by. "Shit!" he cursed as he ran to the others. "Everyone get up and get your weapons!!" he cried out frantically. "We got Muncs coming in!" The Vessel slowed rapidly and flared its nose upward as it closed with the ground, engines whining against the strain of gravity. The whining slowly subsided as the craft eased its way onto the ground, kicking up dust and rubble before finally shutting down. It would be eerily silent for what must of felt like an eternity before the long hiss of a hatch opening could be heard. Chev quickly stuck his head out of the ship, looking around a bit before gingerly taking the steps down. He stopped at the bottom and looked around again, before nervously stepping out onto the ruined street. “ Yep, 70 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen…. its breathable” Kiyvch said though his breathing mask as he calmly walked down the stairs. “ Good” Chev said before ripping off the mask and goggle assembly, “ I always hated these things” he finished. Chev smacked his lips together like he was tasting the air, before grimacing slightly “ Tastes metallic..” he quipped still grimacing. “ Really? Kiyvch answered before taking his own mask off and nodding in approval. Kiyvch ran a hand over his closely cropped hair, surveying the square before them. It looked like there was a battle here and recently, bodies laid about and craters still smoldered from the event. " Shit..." Chev said in a somber voice, " This must be what Bactria looked like during the war..." he said with a slight chuckle. Kiyvch nodded and looked up towards the skyline, looking into the many empty windows that eyed them. " Nervous?" Chev quipped with another chuckle, walking farther away from the ship. " I feel like we are being watched..." Kiyvch said bluntly, " Don't stray too far from the ship Faustus" he nearly barked before hurrying back into the ship. Chev shook his head as he slowly turned around and made his way back to the ship, he didn't want to worry his friend too much. The sound of a crank caught his attention as he walked back to the ship, his gaze snapping to the antenna rising on the top of the ship. Chev chuckled again and walked up to the ships steps, turning around the sit on the second to last step. "Alright, I logged this and sent our entire log back home. I say we leave this place and go explore that nice grassland planet a few million miles back". Chev shook his head and looked up at the sky " I think there is something worth finding here, I think we should find out what this is.." Not too far, a pair of Drone Combat Dropships speed towards the landing site of the alien craft, no doubt their rather loud approach has been noticed, nonetheless, they pressed on, preparing to either apprehend or most likely, kill these visitors. Meanwhile, David and his now alert group make a controlled dash across the blocks they've previously passed, slowly reaching their destination of the supposed Collective starship, as they moved, Cole had heard another said quickly approaching from behind. "We got more Muncs! duck!" immediately everyone paused and fell on their front sides, avoiding the gaze of the droships. "What the hell's going on?" David said as they proceeded to move onward. Rage flashed across Kiyvch's face " We have no business here! I have no intentions of dying on some......." he yelled before abruptly stopping and looking up. " The fuck...." Chev said as he looked up hearing faint droning of the Munc dropships quickly growing increasingly louder. " I think we are going to find out whats going on here" Kiyvch said, sounding absolutely terrified. " Go! warm the engines" Chev shouted " Ill go.....do something to buy us time". Without another thought Kiyvch ducked in side and Chev sprang from the steps, running towards the nearest dead body. Half sliding to a stop, Chev shakily picked up a munc rifle and sprinted back towards the ship. The sound of the engines warming up could barely be heard over the now almost deafening sound of the dropships as they passed over the buildings. The dropships loomed over the ship, encircling it around, their nose-tipped guns targeting the ship, all the while, the sidedoors slide open as Varusch soldiers jumped from out the ship to the ground, followed by their Agaathi Commander, soon the Hol Ship was surrounded by a dozen homunculi, of which consisted of nine varusch soldiers, two of their larger brute cousins, and a lone Agaathi Officer. The Agaathi stepped forward, towards the frightened alien. "By Order of the Seven, this ship and your crew are now property of the Agonis Collective and are to be properly processed there after, surrender now or die." Chev watched the dropships pass over them and surround the ship, dropping the rifle down to his waist before dropping it at the foot of the steps. The cannon coming off the nose of the dropship were bigger then their engines, easily enough to destroy the MX-20 in one shot. Chev sat there dumbfounded as he was surrounded, before his gaze snapped to the humanoid figure approaching him. With a blank stare, he listened to the creature speak before slowly shaking his head " What?" he said, just starting to pay attention to what what happening around him. He slowly tilted his head to the side and peered around the Agaathi, looking at the varusch and their brutes with a horrified expression The rebels now return to the site of their last battle, hiding behind behind assorted rubble, observing the situation at hand, David peeked out ever so slowly. He noticed the new arrivals and their ship, it looked nothing like your typical Collective warship, and the two aliens looked nothing like the Muncs. "A new breed? Don't look much." he whispered. "What's going on?" Jess whispered to him. "Muncs holding some people at gun point." David replied. "They're not ours though...they're skin is..different." "Outsiders maybe?" "Maybe, lets hang back for a while, see how this goes." Kiyvch knew something was going on at this point and eased his way towards the port windows. Barely raising his head above the window threshold, he could make out the Munc foot soldiers and brutes. Observing for only a second, Kiyvch dropped down to the floor and moved to the other side of the window, barely peaking his head over to observe the Agaathi. " What the fuck..." he mouthed as he dropped back down to the floor, " What have we done this time". Kiyvch frantically looked around the interior of the ship for anything to defend himself with, regretting the fact that he brought no weapons. He crawled his way to the back of the ship and quietly opened a footlocker in the crew quarters. The edge of a scabbard was sticking out from under a thing layer of clothes. Without a second thought Kiyvch hastily pulled the sheathed blade from the foot locker and forcefully removed the blade from the sheath. The sword hummed quietly as the edge of the blade quickly turned a sinister red. Swords still held a important place in the Hol military. Used mostly as a tool, the military gladius saw action up until the end of the Three Centuries War. The blade's edge was lined with tiny micro-teeth that moved in a sawing motion when pulled from the sheath. As a result of the teeth's movement, the edge of the blade glowed red hot. Slowly making his way back to the ships hatch, Kiyvch pressed himself against the edge of the bulkhead and waited for a time to strike. The moment of silence was irritating the Agaathi Captain, waving his hand to one the varusch, the creature stepping forward to Chev as it slammed the butt of its rifle against him, chev falling to the ground, the Agaathi kneeling down to face him. "I won't ask again. Surrender. Now." From their hiding spot, David and his group watched, that little stunt by the muncs confirmation that these people are in danger. "...Get ready to fight." Without much reply, the rest of the squad pulled out their weapons, ready to ambush the collective soldiers. David had his sniper ready, taking aim of the captain, not too concerned about his comprised position. Without saying a word, he pulled the trigger, the Agaathi Captain falling to the right on the ground in a pool of blood and brain matter. In a misguided attempt to save his friend Kyivch lept from the ship, jumping the short flight of steps. The sniper's bullet got their first however, showering Kiyvch with blood and brain matter as he landed on the falling body of the Agaathi. " Shit..." he said quite loudly as he realized that he was now quite exposed and obviously hostile. Time seemed to slowly tick by as he observed his situation, his head slowly traversing towards towards the nearest varusch. The two seemed to stare at each other for a moment in surprise before either training or protocol kicked in, as the varusch slowly began to level its rifle. With another crack of a rifle, time suddenly returned to normal as Kiyvch lept forward, taking two long stride before driving the blade into the trooper's sternum. The sword hissed as the red hot blade made contact with liquid, half cauterizing the wound before he retracted it, spraying the off color liquid all over the place. In that instant, the other rebels charged out, discharging their assault rifles and pistols at the other varsuch soldiers in the surprise attack. One of the brutes, shrugging off the bullets, turned towards the new attackers, unleashing a hail of laser bolts from its heavy ripper gun. Cole had taking a hit near his ribs, falling to the ground in pain. David quickly fired another shot at the brute, taking it down for good. "Get over here!" he shouted towards the two aliens, motioning his hand for them to run over to his location. Cila ran over to Cole, shouldering him as they fled back into cover. Jess following behind. Meanwhile above, the two dropships were charging up their nose-tipped guns. Chev recovered from the blow just as Kiyvch skewered the trooper, slowly picking himself up on his hands and knees. Even through all the gunfire, Chev could hear David's voice booming over the sound of combat. The pair immediately looked towards the group of rebels with fear and relief as they watched them battle the aliens. " They want us to go to them" Kiyvch yelled, nodding his head towards the group. " Lets..." Chev got out before another whining sound caught his attention. The sound of weapons charging is relatively universal and he knew what is was the second he heard it. " The ship..." Chev said as they both looked back towards their masterpiece. " Go! to them!" Kiyvch yelled as he sprinted back towards the ship, nearly jumping up the steps. Chev didn't argue, he quickly got to his feet and began sprinting towards the rebels. Kiyvch knew what he wanted to do, quickly removing the safety from the twin 88mm cannon that sat on top of the MX-20. A whirring sound could be heard as the cannon reacted to the control input traversing up towards the first dropship before it fired. The report from the cannon in atmosphere shook the rubble on the street made an large shockwave in the air. Before the shell from the last shot hit the ground the second cannon fired, matching the report of the first as the second shell rocketed towards the dropship. The first dropship was losing its altitude, one of its jets damaged beyond repair from the attack, spiraling downward towards the ruins, now a smoking and flaming wreckage. The Second Dropship had its main gun primed for engagement, and fired an overcharged laser shot toward the Hol starship, destroying it in that one shot, once it had loss track of the rebels and Hol, the dropship flew off elsewhere. The laser ripped though the aft of the ship, melting the barrels of the cannon and most of the reactor cooling infrastructure. Leaving a smoldering hole straight though the top and bottom of the ship. It didn't take long for the master alarm to start going off as the reactor quickly began to malfunction. With another curse, Kiyvch lept from his control panel and looked around the ship for a moment. 'What was I forgetting? was there anything I needed'? He thought before ripping the hard drive out of the main computer and picking up the lone sheath on the ground before leaping from the ship. He could almost hear the master alarm get louder as he ran from the vessel, counting down the time before the reactor melted down. " Take cover! Get Down"! he yelled as he ran for the group, swiping his hand outward in a shooing motion before reaching the rest of the group. Vaulting the rubble, Kiyvch landed amongst the rebels before the core of his ship exploded. Once the ship exploded, the rest of the group ducked in cover as shrapnel from the ship scattered through all corners of the area, after a few moments pass, David peeked out, seeing no enemy in sight. "I think we're in the clear." he said as he stood up, mounting his rifle atop his back and turned to the two strangers. "We better get out soon, more will be coming." With that, David and his squad walked away from the skirmish site, making the journey home. Its not like they had a choice, did they know the rebels? No, but they couldn't stay where they were. They had nowhere to go, stranded in the middle of some alien warzone. Kiyvch wachted as one of the humanoids said something in their direction before getting up and walking away. The pair didn't have to ask, they knew to either follow the rebels and live or die in some foreign square to an enemy no one knew they had. " We are probably going to give our dispatch a heart attack" Chev said, groaning to get up as the pain in his ribs grew " It will take an hour for notice of our destruction to reach Itil. They will have to send someone" he finished with a half chuckle Kiyvch shook his head and walked after the rebels, unable to really think of anything to say " Yea..." he quipped as he looked at the dried blood on his hands...." Yea" [b][u] Somewhere Between Palatine and Iitl Task Force 1 A few hours after the skirmish [/u][/b] " Sir"?! a crewman said as he quickly rushed a piece of paper over to the captain " Update from HQ, its barely 30 minutes old" ' MX-20 reported destroyed..............Weapons discharge detected before destruction' he thought silent as he read ' Conduct BDA and either confirm the deaths of Faustus Borov and Kiyvch Haldane or rendezvous with the pair and investigate the nature of their circumstances' With a thoughtful hum the captain turned to page where only one sentence dominated the page ' The probability of hostile parties on the planet are high, you have received full authorization for military action' the captain read with a sigh before placing the paper down on his lap. Running a hand through his thinning black hair, the captain sighed again " Helmsman, increase to flank speed. Push the reactor to 110% and make haste towards our destination, would you kindly". A crisp " Aye Sir" was the response before the vessel physically shuddered a bit " Oh....and beat to quarters" he finished rather flatly, like this was just another day at work.