vietmyke
The channel spikes again, something different from the captain's voice. "Bo'lak? Pilot Bo'lak." A male voice confirmed. "This is Radar Specialist Zen of the Cerberus Gate. You do you pilot, but you're gonna have a hell of a time getting off planet without us. Still it's appreciated, make it through and we'll make sure you're compensated." The radio remained odd, but it seemed his coordinator probably had other contacts to notify.
Bo'lak could see the other ships getting off the ground, speeding towards the other destination. Many of them had the remaining fighters and gun ships firing on them, no doubt he would be joining them soon enough. Regardless, above him, the Reaver Cruiser seemed to be the only ship in attack position, the others, dozens of other ships, different kinds and models were settling around the outskirts. A moments look would realize their tactics immediately.
The Reavers were the shields, just softening the space port up for the main fleet.
While making her way towards the gate, the Free-Loader's channel stayed on. She could hear a very quiet female voice complete with a loud male's.
"That ship-----say---rina Makhno?" Some of the words were garbled.
"Yes mame! Yes, err Pilot, Makhno!" The male's voice was such a way that his attention was to broadcasting and responding to his captain.
"See to it th---------!"
"Yes mame! Pilot, you have hostiles on your six! Bring them along side the gate! We have Anti-air teams set up! We'll try to get them off you!"
And almost on cue, did the streaks of plasma race just beyond her window, blasting the buildings as she passed. They congregated just after her Reaver stowaway grabbed her attention. The Gate loomed in the distance before her, a massive silver wall. As she approached, she could see the activity all around it. There were crowds of people, almost a riot all plugging away towards anything that looked like it could protect them. But more presently was that the deck had the dots of crewmen setting up weapons. Seemingly like they were aiming at her, the deck erupted with fire.
The plasma behind her was answered with machine gun and laser fire from small crew served weapons. It wasn't alot, nothing truly anti ship but enough fire would be able to deal with their small aircraft. True to their word, they attempted to clear her path through.
Towards the aft side, she could see the warehouses and landing pads that were brimming with activity. A place to land among the crowds if she needed.
The Seeg having been more or less put in their place by the superior androids and no longer being kicked out, found a quiet place to cower during their take off. They had means to defend themselves, but they were not warriors. Most just wanted to protect themselves or their families. Following the Android's and the captain's acceptance to allowing them to come aboard, they would receive praise and gratitude in their squeaky broken language, some even getting on their knees and thanking the God of the Life Ship.
Her radio would continue to play the transmission, but as she approached the gate, she would receive instructions even as the sheilding of her ship would be rocked with some incoming fire as she immediately became a target at lift off. "Pilot! Is your ship armed?" It would ask. "We're starting to get overwhelmed with the amount of incoming! Any covering fire we can get would be appreciated, we're getting alot of civilians here!"
Matrix's selflessness at rescuing who she could would result in dozens of saved lives and a modicrum of safety. The civilians would be ignored, and any fighter Matrix would get into contact with would be their target. Their plasma salvo's thought were bulky and slow, much better conditioned to hitting considerably larger airship targets. She could practically dance through them, her efforts thinning their already strained numbers. Eventually she'd be left alone, most of the gunships moving to support the attack at the Gate.
Still, being free in the air, she'd have a birds eye view of the city, the battle, the Reaver Cruiser above her, and her systems would pick up on the radio transmissions. The call for aid at the grounded Cerverus Gate Cruiser and the exchanges with the other defenders.
Serendipity smiles upon them.
It was that very ship that was calling to them, asking for their, that Dahal came to this dust bowl to investigate, having found the name attached to something quite special. It would actually be fighting to protect the trio, to offer them safe harbor if only they put their prodigous skills to its defense. They get off world, and they get to find the answers that lied within its massive silver bulk.
Time will only tell if she will reveal her secrets willingly or if the entire cruiser would need to have itself cracked open.
Her unique ship would be able to get some additional attention, but not as much as when she originally took off. Not responding to the summons of the Gate, she'd be lucky that she'd not be fired upon, but the Reaver vessels were their only targets. Somehow, as if either fearing her or seeing that her craft without it's weapon fire signature as not the greatest of threat, she would see squadrons of them head in her direction, not directly attacking her but aiming their weapons at the gate, which revealed itself to be the biggest threat as more and more ships were congregating.
The silver metal was lit aflame with plasma fire, all of them directed at the cannon batteries on the top deck. The radio would go off again.
"This is the Cerberus Gate! We are taking fire!" The Gate's gun crews were attempting to destroy as many of them as they can, but it wouldn't be enough. They were forming a screen of their ships, protecting something far worse behind them.
"Wait, what- Oh OH MY GODS! That ship! It's an Infestor!"
Back towards the center of the city, there would be a greater threat descending from the Reaver Cruiser.
An Infestor Swarm. These were the main threats to the Reaver Assimilation Fleets. These ships were control conduits for their nano swarms, clouds of nanomachine that spread their infections among the organic populations. The Reaver Cruiser opened its bay and this horrid thing began it's descent towards the city below with a contingent of gunships. Having lost so many units, the Reavers must have become desperate.
If that Infestor hit the city, it would be lost. Nothing living would survive.
(Starcitizen)
There was always something off about this whole contract.
It was on a Confederation world, roughly towards the middle of the Oblivion Crisis just when fear was beginning to spread through the known empires. Unmarked messages appeared to people all across the planet, a mass e-mail to anyone that had even the slightest bit of knowledge of esoteric concepts, all without a lack of any sender information. Priests were asked of the knowledge of gods, Hunters their knowledge of demons, Navigators, their knowledge of devils, and scientists, artificers and mages their knowledge of Essence. Most ignored it, being treated as spam mail. Those that responded were vetted without their knowledge, having opened themselves to a rather sophisticated virus that searched their systems and PDAs for information that backs up their claim. Those that chosen receive a job offer. Either to conduct research or act as security with 'No Questions Asked' stipulation. It was a strange way to go about hiring some contractors, but with Oblivion prowling and eating the outer rim of planets of Elysia, it seemed a good idea to start getting strange.
The Cerberus Gate was a heavy cruiser, almost a battleship in size and scope. It held some unique features about it. The Hanger was built for loading and off loading cargo rather than ships. Alot of the cargo was destined for the Research Decks, six total, way more than a typical military vessel. All of them were under heavy guard in massive crates. All of them taken from different places across Elysia until they came here on Teresq. Not even the researchers working on these things got the full story. Access was tight and restricted, teams weren't allowed to talk to each other.
Then Oblivion was destroyed. The research slowed down, the quotas and progress reports were pushed back, parts of the research decks were sealed off and research crews were dismissed. The military like security teams were replaced by arguably cheaper mercenaries. Over more than two months, the ship just seemed to gather dust, its purpose slowly waning.
Now in a sudden moment it was like the Gate was being revived. All its remaining crew in the city, scrambling to set sail, to prepare for borders, and get their meager air craft into the air to cover the Gate's ascent in the atmosphere.
"Altari!" calls the Ku Researcher Dr. X9 Fibra Ops and head of the Demonic Research Team over the vox channels. "Looks like those idiots up top are going to be letting some refugees inside. Go make sure your research is secured and seal off the rest of the research deck. I fore-see we're going to have a failure of security pretty damn quick after take off and I don't want anything walking off!" Fibra had been Altari's superior during the project, and for the most part, she has been pretty open to him. Enough that he was privy to some of the classified files. She also had some skill with arcane probabilities and divination and was generally right about things, particularly when it goes wrong.
(Jarkuzy)
There is no such thing as safe. Only safer.
Even the well known trading lanes that run along The Currents have their dangers. The ways are vast, neutral space has no protective fleets to guard its paths. Wise traders bring escorts, wiser travelers don't sail where others do. While it's likely to run into aid when it's needed, predators know where prey travels. Captain Hades, 'the Storm Bolter' of the Cerebus Gate should have been wiser.
The Destroyer sized ship and it's frigate were all that stood before The Worm when it descended upon it like a falcon upon a trout. There wasn't much treasures to be had surely, but it would have been an easy mark. Another ship or two to sell and salvage. Bravely, they did not submit, they fired their weapons, attempted to out maneuver the approaching ship. But greater craft, greater pilots have tried. Engines, then guns, they did not last before the Darklight weaponry. Pretty standard, pretty boring. But the interesting part came when the boarding parties attached their harpoons and pierced the hull. The crews, though out manned, and out gunned put up a surprising amount of resistance, making the pirates fight and bleed for every inch of the ship. More than firepower, the pirates needed to be devious just to make sure their numbers were not dwindled too severely. They made more entry points, cutting into the engine room, the barracks, the command deck. Eventually with too may contact, too many observations of fire, the giant of a man, regardless of his terrifying weapons, regardless of his powered armor and its advanced sheilding, fell before them. He fought like a demon, and caused more casualties than a pirate lord would feel comfortable with.
That wasn't the most interesting part though. Going over the systems computers, their data logs, their AI cores, they found that in a moment of desperation, every bit of memory was wiped, scrapped. Even the Awakened Intelligence that minded the ships automated systems had its processor physically ripped apart, turning the being into something ravenous and primal. These people were trying to hide something, something important enough that it couldn't fall into anyone else's hands.
And that led to this, Captain Hades, rippling with muscle, nearly eight feet from enhancement gene therapy could barely be recognized as a human or even a human subspecies. He was more akin to the giants, and that made his form, bolted and strapped to the girny within the bowels of the Forever Worm rather awkward. He would be impressive, despite all manners of pain wrought upon him from the medical staff and brutes that wanted a bit of petty vengeance for friends lost, the man remained silent. Only his exhausted breath could be heard now in the black room, blood trickling from a thousand wounds. He would not give up his secrets.
//Other heroes will get their reply presently
