Synzy

The Endless Game

In the end, there was little the Cel could do to resist, so it didn't. Far off, in the deep and particularly dark stretch of space, the Cel savoured the knowledge of new civilizations to subjugate and subsequently exterminate. Well, some of them did. The frigates to escape the conflict of First Contact were captured and hastily brought under the control of a particularly powerful vassal of the Emperor who deemed this information too valuable for his fellow lords. The wealth of knowledge that could be assimilated could boost his power in the empire a million times over.

The Endless Game

The Cel soldier paused in his struggles to acknowledge this scientist, eyes narrowed and filled with rage. His mere expression made it abundantly clear that, were the psionic defenses not advanced enough, this would not be a very pleasant place for the scientist right now.

The Endless Game

The Cel struggled without end. No doubt, he was also trying to fling psionic attacks everywhere. He gave no response to the words, clearly incapable of understanding their language. Unfortunately, telepathic communication was less than possible in this containment.

The Endless Game

The rigged power source did its job well, tearing holes in the precursor station's hull with great efficiency. It would not die immediately, but within a week's time, the station would meet a fiery end in the great orb of the sun. The captured Cel was panicking. They didn't know where they were, but they certainly were not back on one of the Reaper frigates.

The Endless Game

On a positive note, the precursor station yielded the code for an extremely advanced artificial intelligence unit. A prototype, but still a great boon to any who wished to advance their computing software. That, and those big honkin' guns. Unfortunately, whatever they shot seemed to require technology unavailable to either of the races present in order to be manufactured. Clearly ammunition for these types of weapons was to be prized and scarcely sacrificed.

The Endless Game

The slagged vessel cut down plenty of the things that came towards it. Indeed, it put up an admirable fight for something to so damaged. Unfortunately for the Wolkar who attached themselves do it, they were not having any of that dragging. The Cel ship writhed and twisted, metal bending in ward and being sucked towards an unstable core that was set to self destruct. The vessel crumpled like a tin can, then simply fizzled out of existence with a warping of space. All that was left was a very fine and brief shimmering where it had once been, and even that lasted only a millisecond. The other Cel ships, the two remaining, fled into the nebulous space they used to move quickly across the galaxy. They were gone. As for the Cel who were in the station, well, they were in a bad way. Upon seeing what the Wolkar would do to them if they were incapacitated, most resorted to executing themselves. Part loyalty, and part cowardice. These were not hardened troops. Those who were captured also executed themselves, if through less conventional means. The bits and pieces of Psionics which had detonated the cranium of their user littered the floors. One, maybe two Cel troops could successfully be captured.

The Endless Game

The Cel commandant's jaw had dropped before his ship's hull was violently breached by an exploding Wolkar cruiser. Similarly, the Cel boarding parties found themselves backing into corners and unleashing bursts of psionics in self defense, rather than as they had envisioned: While marching on the corpses of enemies. They tried to redirect the Wolkar suicide ship by opening an FTL portal in front of it, but they were too late to save their lead frigate and keep another from being crippled. That, in addition to the fire of the station's defenses and the fact that boarding parties which teleported back were bloodied and maimed... Well, they had no intention to stick around. Those shadowy warships turned and fled at full speed, prepared to enter FTL and depart in a minute's time. Messages had already been sent back to the nearest Lord Commandant. They would know of what had transpired here, for better or worse.

The Endless Game

Two of the Cel ships diverted beam weapons to dealing with FERALs while their missiles continued to streak towards the Wolkar cruiser. All other beam weapons either hit the Wolkar cruiser, or crossed over Litharian ships at random. They still believed their victory to be assured, by way of arrogance in their technology, and even closed the gap between their own vessels and the enemy ones. On top of the full-steam-ahead tactics, an anomalous pulse of energy from three of the four Cel frigates was accompanied by the appearance of eerily darkly clad, armoured figures appearing all over the precursor station in groups of two and three. And then, after another pulse from two ships, even more armoured figures appeared upon the Wolkar cruiser. Their numbers, for now, were impossible to determine.

The Endless Game

The Cel ships slow to a halt. The broadcast is not responded to. There is total silence from the four frigates for a mere half minute before the action comes. Arcing points of light detach themselves from the frigates, totaling to forty in all their number, and stream towards the Wolkar and Litharian ships at random. Missiles. Lines of energy run up the broadsides of the Cel voidships as they turn their broadsides to face the most prominent enemy vessels, unleashing beams that sweep across the rival ship's hulls, targeting population-dense locations.

The Endless Game

Day 68 in the 8th millennium They had heard its mournful cry for aid from a race long dead, and coveted that which the cry emanated from. They knew it to be precursor, and eagerly dispatched a fleet of 4 Reaper frigates to obtain the knowledge it might contain. The frigates swept across the void, hastened by the bending of space to lessen their distances. Their entrance came with little warning. Day 74 in the 8th millennium When the Cel ships slipped out of the immaterial realm with little more than a whisper, they immediately detected the infestation. The commandant of this expedition found himself pleased. The trip had been unusually smooth. His good mood was barely hampered by the detection of inferior lifeforms on what they desired. He gazed upon the metal boxes that those surely primitive lifeforms called voidships, and issued a single order that the crew of all 4 vessels responded to with zeal: "Cleanse the infection." 4 reflective, shadowy warships closed in on the station and the starships around it with every intention to fire as soon as they were in range.