[@Ozerath] [img]http://i.imgur.com/YThhuZ2.png[/img] [hr] [b]Cygnus Arm, Sector FH-K23, Planet Corinthene[/b] [i]In high orbit around the homeworld of the Rhodesians floats a single cloaked [url=http://i.imgur.com/8ftfbHW.jpg]ship[/url]. The personal vehicle of a Gashathi Hirule, accompanied by him and only 2 other Mekhar onboard. Carrying out a mission of the highest importance, the vessel has been orbiting the planet for days now, silently observing the planet and it's inhabitants whilst staying undetected with the help of the Hirule's abilities. Now with a slight glimmer running across the ship's surface in the small engravements, it begins powering up a powerful radio equipment.[/i] The cockpit door opens with a gentle hiss of air, and retracts into the walls. A mekhar wearing respiratory equipment looks throught the open door and turns on his translator. "Sir we are ready for broadcast on your mark." The Hirule in the middle of the carefully decorated room levitates above the floor in silence deep in meditation. His 4 arms by his side, and the other 2 behind his robes, his eyes suddenly open and shine from behind the mask's holes, reflecting the glimmering light. The mekhar's body shivers as his mind is filled with a single word "Begin". It backs into the cockpit, and sits in a chair next to the other mekhar. They press a few buttons and the lights change in the Hirule's room, and a circular hole opens up in the floor. From it emerges a small metal ball that floats floats towards the Hirule. It stops a few feet away, and opens up, breaking into many smaller pieces orbiting a single crystal core. The Hirule looks into the crystal, and takes one last breath before the crystal begins throbbing with a red color. Below the ship, on the planet's surface lie an abundance of gigantic cities, dotted with massive skyscrapers made of glass, and different holo boards broadcasting news and stocks. The Rhodesians tend to their busniness rushing to their offices to turn in daily reports or make statistics about different things. Ships flying by at high speeds, carrying people to their destinations. Then suddenly a low pitched sound vibrates the air in the cities, creepely echoing throught the streets, stopping people in their tracks as they look at their pocket terminals or stare at the holo boards. A face unseen to them before appears, showing a masked [url=http://i.imgur.com/dmL7E9z.jpg]alien[/url] in a brightly lit room. It levitates slightly above the ground, and his 4 hands are held out for all to see. His eyes staring at each and every person that looks at him, his presence brings anxiety to thos dare take a glance at it, glueing their eyes to the screen. "Inhabitants of Corinthene. You have strayed from your beliefs, and destroyed your temples. You let your culture go to waste, and choose to follow false gods. You abandoned your old ways, and choose to obey a heretic race of false gods. Your sins are not without consequences, and the time has come for you to pay for them. The true gods have awoken, and they brought salvation with them." The eyes of the alien narrow behind the mask, his gaze turning ominous. "Prove yourselves to the only gods to exist, and show us that your existence is meaningful. If you fail to do so, you will suffer the fate of those before you." The image switched from the alien to planets razed, charred corpses lying everywhere. Cities left to rot and skyscrapers crumbling and crying for one last desperate metallic cry as they hit the ground. The picture of the alien came back, this time only his mask could be seen. His mask changed shape, and formed another 4 holes, as the alien revealed his 6 eyes. "We will be watching you attone." With that the holo boards went haywire, showing only static for minutes before returning to their usual program. "Excellent speech sir. The broadcast went planetwide, and there were no problems. Your message was clear and audible." The two mekhar started clapping with their tentacles and turned back to congratulate the Hirule in the room behind them. As soon as they looked through the open door, the Hirule swept on his arms across the air, and the door suddenly closed. The mekhar stumbled back and yet again a shiver ran across their body as the unfamiliar thoughts fileld their minds. "Silence. Waste my time, and you will become genetics material." The shocked pilots lloked at each other, and the hastly powered up the ship and it's engines. In a matter of seconds the vessel dropped the cloak and instantly faded away as it entered FTL. [hr] [b]Cygnus Arm, [Classidied], [Classified][/b] [img]http://i.imgur.com/NeUQ8bM.jpg[/img] [i]When a being is attuned to the psychic plain, they experience a whole different world. The constant shift in strenght and force of the realms causes strange vibrations around those who are also psychic. A stronger being can easely mask it's existence from lesser users of this plane, but a lesser being can only hide from a greater being if their power is incredibly small. As such, finding a Hirule can be only done by someone, or something even stronger.[/i] The gigantic stone doors rumble in pain for some time, but then let in to the excessive force. Dust flies up into the air and shimmer in the light that enters the gigantic hall. It's wall decorated with engravings of strange aliens that seem to worship 6 armed beings. Remnants of fabric and metllic decoration are scattered all across the floor, and what was once a shrine in the middle is nothing more than a pile of rubble now. The whole place is in disarray, and some strange glowing plants grow in the cracks that scatter the walls of the temple. But even in this mess lies a single thing untouched in the far back of the room. A giant metallic statue of a standing Hirule holding a holy relic with 4 hands, his mask anonymous and devoid of holes for it's eyes. In the doorway stands two tall figures, casting a long shadow on the floor. One of them crosses his arms, and burrows his face into 2 more. The other one next to it places one hand on the other's shoulders, and swipes his other hands in an orderly fashion. The torches on the walls light up, and reveal the temple for all to see. With the abundant light the place looks even more like a mess "Brother, this place is ruined. We waste our time with being here. What could be here that interest the Elders or the Ruler?" The figure who hid it's face floats forward and heads for the broken shrine. Other figure also enter the room and lifts up piles of rubble with his psychic powers, throwing them out the door. After a while the sound of impact doesn't appear, and the figure lifts up another bunch of rubble. "Sister would you care to help?" The other figure was spaced out looking at the monument, and didn't move as she was adressed. The other man sighed and tried a different approach. He closed his mask's visor and a world filled with brightness appeared. White everywhere, with occasional black outlines of bigger objects. His body shook at the intense sigh, as the whole room was filled with energy. The open door behind him was an ominous black spot of nothing, but everything else beamed an intense light. He struggled to find the other Hirule in the room, but he failed. The glow of the statue was incredibly bright, something he has never seen before. As if he was slowly dragged in by a powerful force that was calling him... His visor opened up and he went over to the other Hirule. Her mask was sealed, without any place for her eyes to look throught. It seemed like she was under the influence of the power in the room. The same trap he almost fell in. Without hesiation he used his powers to shake her to conciousness. For a second nothing happened, then the other Hirule trembled and every single visor opened on her mask. She seemed confused for a second, like she didn't know where she was, but after seeing the familiar sight of the gashathi mask she calmed down. "Brother, this place eminates with immense energy. I can't grasp it exactly, but somehow this place is as powerful as a living being. I..." She stopped her sentence as she saw the unamused eyes of the other Hirule. His eyes stared at her, but then they turned away, and he began lifting rubble again. "Sister, don't space out again. We have much things to do still. I just hope Khi will arrive hastly." The two Hirule continued with clearing the room, ridding it of rubble. [hr] Cygnus Arm, Unknown Sector, Planet MR-H2G [img]http://i.imgur.com/QLYMDJT.jpg[/img] [i]For months now, this planet has been monitored as it showed an unusually high mineral concentration. As no further details could be extracted from observation, a Mekhar feelt detachament made it's way to the planet to set up mining operations, and learn more about the nature of this planet's creation. The gigantic MCA Tarantula hangs in low orbit, as smaller ships of various shapes and sizes scout the surrounding area for a landing site and an ideal spot for construction.[/i] The engines of the spaceship whirr violently as the whole ship experience an atmospheric turbulance, and the cockpit becomes flooded with red light. The ship shakes again, even harder than before. The gensathi pilot looks out the window, and sees the black smoke coming from one of the engines. he turns back and takes a good look at the sensors. The landing site is just a few clicks away, but one of the engines failed due to above average acididc presence in the air. The report shows that the ship flyed over some kind of an acid went. He looks at the co-pilot sitting besides him who is already transmitting the fault to the fleet. The pilot changes his sub-vocalizer's intercom to wide frequency so the other ships can hear too. "This is the MCA Chaqrum troop transport. Engine 1 failure, we are going to make an emergency landing a few clicks south. Don't wait around for us, we'll make the rest of the trip on foot." His headset is crackling with atmospheric interference before the Tarantula reports in "Copy that Chaqrum, as soon as we can spare a ship, we'll send a recovery team to pick up the ship. Leave your emergency transponder on. Tarantula out." The pilot looks out the window and the slowly growing surface. His expression turns angry as he adresses his co-pilot "You can't trust Mekhar ships. Flimsy designs, unlike our ships! Take the helm, I'll encourage the boys in the back." The co-pilot nods, and the captain leaves the cockpit. He passes through a small corridor with different machinery in it until he arrives to an airlock. It is a small room with lockers in it. He opens one labeled "Max", and quickly dresses up with the exo-suit in it. The HUD of the suit activates and quickly fills him up with info about the ship. They are 600 meters above the ground, descending at a slow rate. Slow enough to spare the ship, but fast enough to kill them all if they encounter any issues. He calibrates the intercoms so onyl the Marines can hear, and then he enters the troop compartment. As soon as he steps the marines voice fills in his helmet. "Look who's here!" "What brings your here captain?" "Here for a chat Max?" "What's up witht he ship?". He waits out until the boys calm down and he clearst his throat before speaking into the comm channel so that his voice becomes more audible than the roaring engines. "As you might have noticed our engine failed. We are approaching the ground fast, and we are going to make an emergency landing so you better brace for impact." One of the marines joyfully interrupted his speech. "Emergency landing? I didn't know you could say crash landing so fancy!" The marines break out in one big laughter and the pilot lets out a chuckle too. His attention doesn't fade thought and as soon as the cooms are clear again he continues. "I hope you all remmeber your training in this scenario. We haveN't much time and we still need you guys alive and well." One of the marines raises his hands. "What is it Pvt Holzer?" "How much time do we have until impact?" The pilot looks down on his wrist and his HUD brings up a statistics panel. "I'd say about 10." The marines looks confused at each other and the same marine asks again. "10 what?" The pilot smirks at the others before he lowers the protective plate of his helmet and speaks into the intercom. "10 seconds boys. Brace for impact!" The marines are stunned for a single second, but then quickly lower their helmet visors and take up a position taught to them in training. A few seconds of silence, and the everything goes black. [b]30 Minutes later[/b] The marines lined up behind the wrecked ship, their commander giving them order via intercomm. The pilot watched from far way before returning to the cockpit. The door crackles as he stands in front of it, but it fails to completely retract itself. The co-pilot looks at Max and shows a smile. The pilot returns the smile, but looks at the other man worryingly. "Will you be ok? The recovery ship should be here in a few hours." The man nods, but his face disfigures from pain as soon as he moves his head. Max gently pat his shoulders before leaving the ship. The marines outside are ready to go, checking their guns and gear for one last time. The turn towards Max as he leaves the ship, but they don't pay too much attention. Now that the ship is no longer in air, the leading spot goes to their squad leader. Max sighs and checks the map on his HUD. A bit crude but it is enough to navigate to the landing zone. It is only 5 clicks away, an hours walk at most in their suits, but they have to pass over a canyon to get there. A message pops up that tells them to head out, and marks a path to their objective, as well as lighting up all the other members on the HUD. It seems like one of the marines is already way out, scouting the area. The walk passes by uneventfully, up until the marine who was in front suddenly disappears from the map. They squad is thrown into disarray, and the squad leader is shouting orders to calm the soldiers down. Max turns off the cooms, and rushes up the hill in front of him. He should be able too see the missing marine clearly from top. He might have lost signal or... As he reaches the hill, Max is frozen. Aliens he never saw before are carrying the dead marine away. Creatures with big ears and pointed noses, their body covered by fur, resembling the likes of a fox-like creature. But they are tall, even taller than the Gensathi marine in the armor, and must be really strong if they could carry such a heavy piece of equipment. But the worst part is that they don't seem primitive: They have a grey uniform, and are carrying guns on their backs. He is suddenly pulled back over the ridge by familiar hands, and the marine squad leader is shouting at him. "What are you doing staring at them? What if we get discovered, huh? They could have reinforcements nearby! Contact the ships now!" The rest seems like a blur as the marines set up a perimeter, and the Tarantula confirms the reports, dispatching reinforcements before max passes out.