[@Ozerath]
[center][h1]The Gashathi Rule[/h1][/center]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YThhuZ2.png[/img]

[b]Cygnus Arm, Unknown Sector, Planet FH-K2L3[/b]
[hr]

[i]For many weeks now the pride of the gashathi fleet ahs been building on the Planet FH-K2L3, codenamed under "Falcon's Nest". The gargantuan ship has alreay received it's frame and now the interior is being worked on. The construction has been moving forward at an unpresidented rate and the full Lokhar colony has been ambitious about the project. Their speed and effiency is through the sky to impress the Gashathi and receive a place for them inside the Royal Armada. If their construction finsihes their pilots and engineers could achieve ranks unsees to their race before, and it might buy them a ticked to individuality. [/i]

The sounds of plasma torches, drills, saws and cranes filled the cavern and created a symphony of engineering. The seer of dark, Kindal'Q has been observing the work since it began. His job was to monitor the speed of the work, and evaluate the quality of the Lokhar's jobs. If he sees their work truly godlike, fitting for the divine grace of the Praetorian race then these insectoids will be blessed with freedom inside the empire. If they fail however they will suffer consequences. The seer smirked under the mask as he looked around the cavern. In his hand was a terminal showing all the details of the construction so far. In a matter of weeks the support structure of the ship was completed. As he looked through the cavern he saw the bustling Lokhar doing their best. And not just here. He was well aware that all the other colonies and shipyards did their best to please him as he stays. His accomplice left a few days ago to oversee work on a different project, and left him behind. The task at hand was daunting: overseeing every bit of work, checking on the cargo manifest and crew logs. But he wasn't a seer for nothing, and once he finishes teh job he will surely get promoted to overseer. Such thoughts filled his brain until a loud explosin shook the cavern walls. The sound of crumbling rock could be heard from above and the emergency sirens began their shrieking motage. The shields turned on but a few boulders had managed to slip through and were approaching the ship fast. His face froze as he saw his future slip away in the place of those rocks, and his muslces stiffed up in a second. Clearing his mind was hard with all teh action, but before the rocks could reach the ship and invisible force stopped slowed them down and ultimately stopped them. His hands reached out towards the rock, Kindal'Q looked at the shocked Lokhar engineer next to him and shouted. "Take out the stones this instant. Your lives depend on it." The Lokhar hastly saluted and rushed off to turn on teh defrence systems. Soon the turrets turned off and obliterated the rocks. Thought the ship was saved, the seer was unhappy with the incident. 

[hr]
[b]Cygnus Arm, Unknown Sector, Planet MR-H2G[/b]

[i]It has been approximately 4 hours since a Gensathi Marine was abducted by unknown alien forces on the planet MR-H2G. 34 mintues since the war on aliens began. 2 minutes since the MCA Tarnatula began manouvering into lower ornit, entering the atmosphere to provide tactical support to the units battling on ground. 15 seconds since Cprl Mc Quirk blew up the front door to an alien complex.[/i]

The explosion shook the ground and lifted a hefty stack of sand and dust from the ground. The explosion made a sculpture in the sand showing where the forces dissipated. There wasn't much sand left after the blastwave, and the remaining metal pieces of the blast door were fused with glass that formed in the intense heat. Quirk juggled for a second with a plasma grenade and then threw it in the opening. He hit the dirt and signaled for the other. "Watch out!" A few superheated bolts of plasma and wolfram came out from the doorway and then ended with an explosion. The fire bursted out and sent an intense heatr wave towards the marines. The group of 8 in cover around the entrance, all of the guys who survived the crash in the MCA dropship which crashed around 5 hours ago. The captain, Max was also with them in full exo armor. "Alright boys clear the tunnel. 1-2, 1-3 Set up a perimeter and transmit co-ordinates to the rest of the fleet." Quirk and the other marines who were about to go into the complex checked their guns and and armor. He walked to the entrance and looked inside. A long hallway with another large blast door at the end. The tunnels were scorched and two inanimate corpses lied at the end of it. He looked back at the radio operator who nod at him and then he switched to fleet comms. "This is Aplha leader do you copy Skywatch?"

The radio buzzed for a second and then a familiar voice came in. The operator aboard the Tarantula. "We copy Aplha Leader, what's your status.

A huge boulder fell dwon from Quirk's shoulders as he transmitted his co-ordinates. It was just plain primitive that they had to do it this way. Too abd this planet's atmosphere was incredibly hostile. "We located an entrance to an enemy complex at the transmitted co-ordinates. Requesting reinforcements."

The radio went silent. Soon he could hear some arguing in the background and then the operator answered. "The Tarantula is currently entering atmosphere. No reinforcements availbe now. We will send what we can as soon as the manouver is finsihed."

Quirk sweared and turned off the radio. He had no time for bullshit like that. He looekd at Max and switched back to the squad comms. "Max your friend always so nice? Do they expect us to rush in with 8 men? I swear to god these Mekhar are so arrogant." He armed the gun and reloaded it with a full mag. "Let's crack his nut open."

"Wait, you can't do that. We need more men!." Max shouted through the intercom and then fiddled with his wrist console. "Let me try it!" He switched to fleet comms and stared at Quirk.

"This is Cpt Max of the MCA Chaqrum, what's your status Tarantula?" There was silence. And more. THis could only mean he was transferred to a different channel. Soon enough the captain of the Tarantual spoke. "Max I don't have time for you now. We are not in a bar, and there are no favors here oin the field. You must do without troops for now, we simply canno-" Emergency sirens popped up in the background and fileld the comms. The operator spoke into the radio this time, now on teh squad comms "To Alpha actual we cannot send reinforcements. Skywatch out". Max looked at Quirk with a shocked face and sat down in the sand. "Something is going on with the tarantula.

[b]80k meters above, high atmosphere of MR-H2G[/b]

"What is this warning about?" Captain Kyle shouted across the bridge with a furios look and even more furious tentacles. He always hated the atmospheric entry, especially if something went wrong. And something ALWAYS went wrong. The crew didn't call the Taranula the MCA Cursed for nothing. One of the senior operative spoke in on the bridge. "We have multiple heat signatures." Great. Missiles of all things. just great. He wanted to break something, but he reminded himself that he was on the bridge. "Turn on the flaks and set shield to half capacity." Another operator turned to him with a worried look. "Sir, we cannot use teh flak during atmospheric entry. The turrets would burn up." Kyle shouted some loud swears and looked around the bridge. Everyone was looking at hime xpect a few operator. "What are you doing you imbecile bunch, do something!" The crew quickly turned back to their jobs and soon enough the bridge was fileld with chatter again. "Do we have any additional info on the heat signatures?"

"Sir we have multiple reading all across the board." The operator who first spoke up added. "They are approaching really fast."

"Can we evade them?" kyle asked from the pilot. He just looked at the captain and shook his head. "Drats."

"ETA 20 seconds" Kyle frowned and gave the order "Brace for impact. Code orange." The sirens began shouting even louder and switched colors from yellow to orange. He REALLY hated this manouver.

"ETA 10" The operator counted back as the missiles approached. kyle followed the events on the holo board. A few dozen misslies approaching the ship from all side. If they are lucky these things will cause minor damage, or won't even get through the shield. "ETA 5"

As soon as the word "Impact" lit up on the holo the ship shook with an extreme force and kyle was thrown off the chair. The lights went out for a second and then came back as soon as the adaptive circuits sealed the breach. "What teh bloody fuck was that?" 

"The shields didn't work. The missiles passed through and hit the armor. They damaged the reactor room. We are operating at 72% effiency."

"Can anyone tell me good news?" Kyle inspected the holo screen with the damage reports on it. The shipo was hit severly. Whoever these guys are they can punch through the shields and personal armor of the gashathi. 

"Sir we have multiple fast movers closing in. They seem heavely armied. They will intercept us in 120 seconds." Kyle frowned once again and gave out the orders. "Issue code red. I want all hands on battlestations. Deploy the flaks. Set the shields to max capacity." The clouds outside thinned out and the ship slowly stopped descending as it reached the 15000 meters goal altitude. The real fight was about to begin.

[b]Inside alien complex, 50 meters below ground[/b]

"To Alpha actual this is Delta actual." Quirk halted the team and replied. "What is it Delta actual?" He moved to the blast door, watching one of the marines prepare a charge as he was waiting for the reply. "The Tarantual suffered heavy damage from missiles. We are launching now, but don't expect much. The captain ordered full alert and all the gunships left before the alien fighters would intercept us." Quirk closed the comms and took a deep breath. Today is teh day when everything goes wrong. He realized that the demolition expert was ready, and he gave the signal to cut the door open. He trained his gun on the explosive as it slowly cut a gensathi sized hole in the thick blast door. Time seemed to stopped as the charge did it's job and he watched as his marines grasped their guns. Aliens on this planet? Are there more? What technology do they have? Questions raced through his mind. Then the charge blew up and pushed the large metal palte inside. 

From teh hole that was created dozens off bullets started firing. One of the quickly hit a marine on his leg and made him lose balance. Quirk grabbed him and dragged him out of the line of fire. "I need the medic here". The wound wasn't too big and it seemed like the projectile was partially deflected by the armor. However he suspected that the marine's bone is in many peieces now. A painful groan when he touched the wound just supported this claim. "Hang on soldier, the medic is here." He left the guy and the medic behind and pulled the pin on a laser smoke. "Smoke out!" He threw the grenade in the opening. As soon as it hit the ground a thick black smoke emrged from it filling a large area on the other side. The sound of gunshots muffled, but weak bullets still fell through the smoke. "Those damned bastards have some weird guns." He thought they used plasma weapons, which can be avoided by the smoke. But here they are looking at bullets dropping out of the smoke, quite clearly amde of metal. "Come on guys these are not enough to kill you. Or do you want to lvie forever?" He rushed in the hole and opened fire with his gun at the direction where he saw the plasma dissipating. He got hit by a few of the weak bullets, but they pinged off his armor.

He ran around the wall and found a box soon enough. The smoke was beginning to clear out and he pulled one of the disoriented marines behind the box. "Watch out you moron." He peeked out from behind the box and saw a lrage room fileld with boxes and an elevated entrance on the other side where a few dozen of the aliend were shooting from. Ther red armors covered their faces and imposed in the blank room. In the red sand these armours are almost unspottable. The gunshots soon began to fade and the whole squad made their way behind some sort of a box or crate. "Listen up team, open fire on 3." The marines nod and Quirk counted to three. The marines opened fire on the aliens, and a hellish firefight broke out. One of the aliens threw a grenade that landed next to him. He quickly grabbed it and threw it back for it to blow up in one of the aliens face. Angry swears could be hard from the other party. Either they didn't like their friend dying, or the guy survived. He shot a few blind shots above the crate and the peeked over. He and the marine enxt to him were off to the side and the aliens seemed to have focused fore on the others. He tried grabbing a nade but he realized he threw it all. "Goddamnit". He looked at the shocked marine next to him and asked. "Do you have nade with you?" The marine took a second to process the request and then passed a greande to Quirk along with a dozen nods. Poor guy. Qurik peeked around the corner, but he pulled his head back as a bullet boucned off the crate. "Throwing Grenade!" He pulled the pin, cooked the nade for a second and then threw it towards the general direction of the enemy. The aliens shouted in an unknown language and ducked both ways from the grenade. The explosion still took out a few and shaked the others. Qurik jumped up and opened fire at the remaining aliens. He thought it was over, but the door behind the enemy opened and a large alien in a power suit of some sort came in, opening fire from a fast firing gun. At least 2 marines instantly got hit and the others ducked behind cover. The medic rushed over to the injured through the line of fire and began giving them treatement. Qurik noted to give this guy a promotion. The marine next to him got hit by a stray bullet that bounced off teh wall and got knocked out. He couldn't hold any longer and shouted into the comms "Where are the reinforcements?" Instead of an answer a few shots landed on the big alien from teh doorway, and a large team of 15 marines rushed into the room. They cleared the room in seconds and blew up teh large power armored guy. A final marine entered the room, adored with the squad leader insignia and his mask painted over with a skull. Only one marine has this kinda armor. 

"Thought you'd never come." Qurik smiled as the marine pulled him up. The wounded were carried away and the fresh team cleared the room. It was really a sudden change of events to see the new team arrive. Qurik was eager to hear the news about the tarantual and the other teams. "Tell me everything Morgan."

"I am afradi I don't have any good news." The visors of the mask becamje transparent and the other sergeant looked at his boys doing their things with a worried look. "We lost connection with the tarantuala at T+5 minutes and we haven't managed reached them since. We left the hangar hot, and one of teh dropships got shot down. It is hell of a fight up there." Morgan quite visibly sighed, but Quirk couldn't hear it through the comms. "Look Quirk, it's better you guys stay here. We don't know how big the compound is and we need an FOB." 

Quirl took a step back and looked at his men. 3 wounded, 1 unconcious and all of them exhausted and it quite a shock. He took everything into account. If he was to push with the others there is a chance that their emn would get injured. It would also mean that some of Morgan's man would have to stay back in order to have a fallback line. He was in no shape to fight either. A bullet him him in the shoulder and now it was really sore. He looked at Morgan and put his hand on his shoulder. "We expect you to kick their asses and get my guy back." morgan nod and walked away to push into the complex. Quirk just silently sat down and gave the orders to set up the FOB with what they have.

[hr]

[b]Same time, Bridge of Tarantula[/b]

"Give me a status report! Put the damage and the surrounding area on the HOLO!" The men and women restlessly focused on the battle and repair operations. And it wasn't good. The holo showed the Tarantula dotted with colors ranging from white to black. Some of the ship's most important functions got destroyed, and the hull was in a rough shape. They just managed to fend off a squadron of attacking aircraft but their sheer amount was hard to handle by a ship that was designed to fight larger ship in space. In space, not in the atmosphere. Fires raged across the decks making it hard to organize any operation or to send reinforcements to those on the grounds. As if the aircrafts weren't enough there was a constant artillery bombing. Periodially the ship shook gently as the shells exploded on the shield, but they were steadely decreasing the shield's strenght. It was up to the ground forces to help them now. Kyle was furios and his tentacles were all over the palce. He was doing many things at once and he wasn't happy about it. The whole bridge was just a mess after the attacks. He was about to easen up and order an emergency squad to deal witt the fires when an operator speaked up. 

"We have more aircraft incoming. Patching it to the HOLO." Just great. The holo fizzled and updated the map with a few dozen more aircraft closing in on the Tarantuala.

"Can anyone locate their origin?" Kyle looked at the direction from where teh aircrafts were approaching from. They didn't detect any airbases of any sort in those directions. So where could they come from.

"Sir I think you might want to see this." The Holo switched to an empty spot on the desert. Empty readings, no EM or Radar readings. "What is this supposed to mean?" kyle furiously looked at the operator wasting his time. What was he thinking? he wanted to skold the guy but the Holo updated again. "We captured this a minuta ago." Suddenly teh reading spiked for a second and a hole opened in the sand. Half a dozen aircraft launched from the hole and the it closed up again. That would explain a lot, but how could these aircraft things be so close and so many. He was interrupted in his thoughts when the live feed came in and showed the same spot of desert, now filled with abruptly moving sand.

"What in the Gashathi's name is this?" Large mounts of sand erupted from the ground. Then a large pile rose up in the middle and begain violently growing. As the sand spilled it revealed some grey thing. Soon enough most of the sand disappeared and from belove it emerged a gigantic walker of some sort.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/jSuWNUr.jpg[/img]

It seemed like the time stopped moving as every eye trained on the Holo. The walker stood up and began moving towards the Tarantuala. A few of these could easely make up the size of the ship itself. "God have mercy on us." Kyle woke up from teh shock first and instantly began shouting orders. "We need our main batteries online! Throw everything we got on that thing!" 

The Tarantula's hull opened on the bottom in multiple slots and revealed a few large caliber railguns. "2 minutes until operational!" That was noo good thought Kyle. Whatever this thing is it won't wait 2 mintues to get shot. As if a divine answer the Holo showed a massive energy spike in the walker. "Sir it seems to be charging up some kind of a weapon." 

"Shields to max capacity! Signal fleet command to send reinforcemetns. We need hel-" A powerful beam of concntrated ion suddenly hit the ship and shaked it's every bolts. The shields blocked the damage for a few seconds and then they gave up with a loud bang. The beam carved a massive hole in the outer armor before it stopped and left half of the ship's systems completely broken. Kyle was knocked down and looked around the bridge. Some of the crew here seriously hurt, and most of the monitors read black all across the ship. These are the moments he thanked the Gashathi for any tech. If it wasn't for their fancy electronics they'd be falling down right now. "Damage report!" No one answered. Only moans and grunts could be heard. The war had just begun.

[hr]

[b]Uncharted Space[/b]

[i]On the faraway capital planet of the Gashathi Rule was a room carved into the mountain, filled with sculptures and carvings of their majestic deeds. Little know that the same halls of this cold place house the most important meetings in the Empire. A palce where no weapon short of super powers can hurt the council. And this day was a fine examply of such mettings. The entire Council gathered to discuss some of the most pressing matters at hand with the Ruler.
[/i] 

Kel'thaN sat in his new throne and admired the texture of the marble it was made of. A throne for the Ruler of the mightiest race. He smirked under the mask and looked across the large room. The council finally gathered as the last Gashathi entered the room and bowed. His royal subjects always had issues for him. Some of them were really small, but there were times, just like now, when the council gathered without a set date and discussed teh issues at hand. This time it wasn't jsut one big issue, but 2 at the same time. "What is the first item on our list?" A small Gashathi close to the throne stood up and checked a few files on his holoTerminal. "Sir, we have received news from the planet of MR-H2G. Our forces have met alien resistance. We have already setn reinforcements their way, a detachement from the Mekhar fleet." The Elder stopped and waited a response. There was silence in the room. Someone muttered something but they went silent quickly. Kel'thaN buried his face in his hands. 4 of them to be exact. [i](Ultimate facepalm lol)[/i] The elder grew nervous as the Ruler trained his eyes on him. "What response did you expect? Put aside the fact that we already sent a fleet without addressing me, you summed up the events. Do you expect a apt on the head, or a cookie?" Kel'thaN stood up from his new throne and looked at the Elders. His mask was entirely closed, but his face was quite angry. "This is NOT the old empire we had! We cannot allow small mistakes or leisurely political feuds. We are here to show the galaxy that we are a force to ber eckoned with, even after the hundred thousand years. Our sleep made us more! We must stand up against any aliens. We msut work at 100% effiency to unite the galaxy again. This is a new era in our history and so we should act like it." 

His eyes observed the hall through the mask and scanned every bit of psychic energy. He got his point across. He sat back down in the throne. "We must show the aliens what we are capable of. no matter their strenght no one in this galaxy has technology that can rival ours. Send another detachement from reserves. Bring a force that can destroy the whole planet if need be!" By the end his voice has conquered both the air and the minds of others. He was immensely powerful if angered. He almost became a Hirule, but he gave up on the chance. But that story can wait. "What else?" The small elder sat down and another one stodd up a lot further away from the previous one.

"Sir, our fleet has detected Commonwealth forces approaching checkpoint Alpha. They are all set for the plan." Kel'thaN smirked and gestured for the elder to sit down. Finally, the first time since their awakening that a foreign race will see their potential and culture. They either join them or they will die. His thoughts ventured off into the distance when a thrid elder stood up. A Seer nonetheless. "What is it?" The Seer opened a holo file and swiped to the grand Holo in the middle of the room. It was a detailed chart of many things but the most prominent one was a model of the GRA Zeus. Kel'thaN lifted his eyebrows as he inspected the model. It showed the Zeus in a pretty advanced state, and he wondered whether it was a projection for future plans. "Sir the construction team working on the GRA Zeus has finished the ship's superstructure and are preparing for the interior parts." A massive uproar of shock and awe lifted from the room as they listened to their fellow elder. The Zeus couldn't be this advanced already. A ship of it's size takes more time than that to make. "I beleive that the Lokhar have been working day and night on the Zeus. However this haste may prove fatal. During the inspection by my fellow Seer a massive amount of rubble almost fell on the ship. I advise we offer some rest or ease for them or they might recklessly endanger the ship and it's crew." Silence fell on the room. So it was true. The Zeus was really a thing to be looking forward to. Not jsut a pet project until the empire strenghtens. Excited mutter soon filled the room and even Kel'thaN was lost in thoughts. Finally an unfamiliar voice broke the chit chat. "Gentlemen please make sure that our Commonwealth friends receive due treatement. With haste!" The voice came from a gensathi that stood almost 5 meters tall. Whether he was bron like this or i he was modified is unclear, but his black armor was heavely modified to house him. This man was Admiral Bull, the man behind all the GRA operations. The mastermind who have won more battles than any other admiral in Gashathi history. 

The Council dispersed soon enough and the Admiral bowed before the Ruler. "I willt ake my leave sir. I will observer the meeting with oour newest friends." Kel'thaN silently nodded and waited for teh doors to close behind the men. "You can come out now. I never understood the need to hide in this room." Half a dozen Mekhar appeared on the walls, their camo skin turning back to it's natural bluish-grey color. They crawled down to the bottomn of the stairs and bowed to Kel'thaN.

"We are pleased to see you mighty Ruler." The Mekhar in front spoke up and turned his head towards teh Ruler. "We are happy to see you in good health." 

Kel'thaN let out a laugh and gestured for them to stand up. "You never come here to be informed about my health. What is it that you want?" The Mekhar below looked at each other and a second one stood forward, stopping next to their leader. "Ruler, I beleive that the race we encountered at ML-H2G could be of particualr use to us. Their bodies are highly adaptive to harsh conditions it seems and their weapons are unlike anything we have seen before. According to our research, the use of such weapons could give us an edge in battle as long as the enemies don't create countermeasures. Of course we already have plans to counter such weapons." The Mekhar stopped and sent a batch of data up to the grand Holo. Blueprints and tests about the weapons the aliens use along with genetic details. "If you allow us we would be pleased to take royalty over the captured subjects. If they are as excellent soldiers as we think they are, they could seal the gap between ordinary Kaalispar and the Gensathi Regulars." 

Kel'thaN took a moment to assess the data. What the Mekhar want is nothing out of the ordinary, but they are dealing with a new race here. Normally the prioners would go to the Gashathi and gensathi researchers, but as times are there is a shortage of those two. With a sigh Kel'thaN agrees to it. "Very well. Take the prisoners we capture. You amy ahve free reign over them. But I expect results fast."

"Of course Ruler." The mekhar group bowed and left the room. It was only the empty chamber again. How depressing. kel'thaN played around a bit with the details before leaving the room himself.

[hr]

[b]Cygnus Arm, Classified Location[/b]

TBA (waiting for OZ)