Phoenix War III

[Ra]

OOC: C'mon people, post something! I'm grasping at plot straws now!

Now, I understand that DF isn't gonna be able to post til Monday, but that doesn't mean we should just let the damned STGOD fester.
===========

The next day, Madar was in casual clothes, walking through one of Coruscant's countless red light districts. Among the immense throngs of people of virtually every sapient species imaginable, the rogue Dark Jedi blended in sufficiently enough. The people tracking her every move were persistent, but she had honed her Force senses enough to know when they were watching her.

And that was virtually every second. She couldn't take a piss without her watchers knowing, and it made her furious.

"Damn this," Madar thought. "I should get off this rock, and soon. Ra will understand that our cover is blown. And that's exactly what I'm gonna do, once this last little mission is done."

But in the minds of her voyeurs, Madar suspected they had no idea she was aware of them. She had made every attempt to go about as if nothing was wrong, and never acted suspicious or looked around corners for pursuers. Whoever her foes were, they were not Force-users.

Madar nonetheless decided to turn and take a back way toward her destination, the Lounge Erotica. It's blatant name was quite apt, the establishment being one of probably hundreds of thousands, if not a million, strip clubs on the planet. It was also where her 'contact' was spending the evening.

Madar made her way steadily on, not getting in any hurry. She didn't need to. This continued to frustrate the IBI agents watching her from many kilometers away, but they still got hopeful, seeing the renegade going down a back alley.

It had been strange, however, as Madar didn't tell anyone - not even her trusted assistant Buscan - where, exactly, she was going, or whom she was meeting. She just told her two cohorts, "I'm meeting someone".

Suddenly, the agents reeled back in surprise. Their equipment seemed to switch off, or at least go blank entirely. No matter what they tried, they could get no reading in the area Madar was. Shouted curses rippled through the gathered operatives, and calls for a black shuttle to take a closer look were made.

"Madar," a female voice called.

The Dark Jedi snapped around to look at her right, and spotted a blonde woman in a red outfit stalk toward her.

Madar didn't even bother evading. She just asked, "Who the hell would you be?"



"My identity is unimportant," the woman said, stepping up very close to her. She was taller than Madar, and looked down at her as she stopped just a foot away. She continued, "We know what your employer is up to."

"Seems like everyone does, these days," Madar noted dryly.

The woman made no emotion, only continued, "We know what the Heliopolis Group is doing, and it's about to blow up right in your faces. I would suggest you do something about that, before it's too late."

"What are you suggesting?" Madar asked skeptically.

"I'm not suggesting anything," she snapped. "I'm telling you what is about to happen, and how to stop it. Get to Tais II, and soon. They're coming, and if she has access to it - you know what I'm talking about - it will cause quite a problem."

"Someone else knows about... Oh my god," Madar whispered. It was now obvious that whoever she was talking to, she belonged to the enigmatic "Organization" that had been heavily involved during the Phoenix War and even before, and had even been doing heavy experimentation with Guardian technology, just as Ra's Heliopolis Group was doing on Tais II.

The woman then got right up to Madar, and whispered in her ear, "Your boss is a fool, Madar. He doesn't know what's about to happen. He has no idea. That's why I'm here, now. You have to stop this."

"Why are you helping us?" Madar asked darkly.

"Because this is in the best interests of both of us," the woman answered. Madar looked warily upon her, and the woman finally said, "Go."

Without any other word, Madar turned back the way she came, and ran for all she was worth, using the Force to boost her stride. On the roof of one of the clubs nearby, a man took a puff on his cigarrette, watching closely.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

OOC: good point, Jon. I'd love to see the CSM back!

Oh, and Adam, I could not answer your message yet, because now I'm still engaged in a real-time communication with Imperial Secretary of Defense, so it is not like I can pause for a moment and reading anything.....

Without any other word, Madar turned back the way she came, and ran for all she was worth, using the Force to boost her stride. On the roof of one of the clubs nearby, a man took a puff on his cigarrette, watching closely.

"She's escaping!"

The junior IBI (Imperial Bureau of Intelligence) agents were making their move as a female, senior agent stopped them, "let her go. What are we going to arrest her for, anyway? Night jogging?"

Another senior agent replied, "and it is not like she's going to make the transaction here and now either."

The senior female agent sighed, "black market arms dealer. You know what, Mulder, I miss the day of the Guardians UFO."

"I know what you mean, Scully."

With the words, the two senior IBI agents stood up and prepared to leave the lounge.

[Ra]

Later, Madar rushed up the stairs of a Coruscant spaceport, heading to the private terminals. She was practically out of breath, but had managed to call her operatives in time, and requisition a Heliopolis Group private shuttle to get her back to Tais. In the distance, Buscan and Nica waited impatiently, their faces changing from impatience to concern as they saw their senior operative stride up.

"What's going on, Madar?" he asked.

"I don't have much time to explain," Madar panted. "I'll tell you after we're underway."

Two regular corporate guards, both Jaffa, stood by in their business suits, as the three Dark Jedi turned, and hurried up the ramp, finally following them aboard. Moments later, the ship; a Lambda-class shuttle, folded its wings down and hurtled upward into orbit.

Madar exhaled, and stated, "I was contacted by a member of the Organization, some Imperial group that's practically autonomous to the Senate. They don't answer to anyone."

"Go on," Buscan nodded.

"Their agent told me that Tais II is about to come under attack. From what she implied, I expect it's the Zerg that recently arrived in Ra's galaxy."

"Then you're right, we can't let that happen," Buscan stated. "We should nuke the base before it's too late."

"The operative made some notion that "she" couldn't be allowed to get access to our Guardian relics. I suppose that whoever that is would be the Zerg leader," Madar went on. "But whatever the case, if the Zerg are invading, we won't have much time."

Outside the windows, space stretched characteristically as the shuttle entered hyperspace. Madar glanced out just long enough to notice.

"I just hope we get there in time."

[Narsil]

The tall human man watched the Dark Jedi's shuttle depart with disgust, leaning with one elbow against the landing strut of his own YT-1300. He wore a nondescript flight suit, grey in colour, and his hair was a grey-flecked black, his eyes were hazel and he had the look of a wizened war veteran, though you probably wouldn't be able to tell which war it was. His job here was that of an observer, hired to do so by an unknown employer - an organisation which called itself the Commonwealth. Despite the pay they offered, he did it for free.

Anything that would disrupt the tyrannical Galactic Empire was good enough for him, especially after they'd killed his family some countless years ago. He'd never quite forgiven the Empire for that - especially not after they turned their guns onto him. That was when he'd fallen into darkness, retained the balance between light and dark.

"Excuse me, sir," the spaceport official said again. "You need to pay the landing fee or you will not be allowed to use this spaceport."

He turned his full attention to the official and spoke softly, idly waving a hand as he did so. "I do not need to pay the docking fee..."

"You do not need to pay the docking fee..." the official echoed.

Daroch Sacart, Jedi Master, had returned to Coruscant. With a sigh of exasperation, he made his way into the endless city. On his way out, he passed a strange looking man wearing pyjamas and incessently asking about tea.

[Destructionator XV]

"Urgent message from A'millian Prime, sir," a young officer said to Lord Adam, passing him a paper.

He reads it, and turns to the Lady: "Mathias is dead."

They immediately go to the launch control room, and Adam says "We shall be departing for A'millian Prime presently."

"But sir, the conduit will be full."

"We'll take the high speed personnel transport, and be back in just a few days."

They get onto a tiny ship, shaped for high speed travel through hyperspace, and move off into the transwarp conduit and incredible speed.

[Destructionator XV]

Starbase 186

The transwarp terminus comes to life, and a tiny shuttle is slowed to sublight speed, then pulled into a tractor beam.

As the shuttle is pulled into dock of a high speed small transport, the passengers look out at the 74th Fleet intermixed with science vessels and massive cargo ships, all taking up position to enter the transwarp gate.

The transport disappears in a flash of light as the transwarp conduit comes to life.

An hour later, the transport emerges above A'millian Prime and descends into the atmosphere, on approach of the norther temperate zone. The ship flies past a yellow desert and over a majestic mountain range to reveal the Royal Castle on the horizon, the flag flying at half-mast.

The serene grassy hills gave way to the forest and finally the capital city. The small ship slows and begins her decent to the roof of the Castle, the fighter escorts continuing on over the shimmering seas beyond the city.

They land, and the hatch opens. The Lord and Lady step out, instantly greeted by men wearing the uniform of the Royal Guard division of the Star Marines, and beyond them, Sir Hoisler, captain of the Elite Knights.

Once inside, Adam, with a wave of his hand, dismisses the Royal Guardsmen, who immediately obey, and turns to Hoisler: "How did it happen?"

"Professor Mathias," Hoisler answers, "was found dead in his quarters at the Academy yesterday morning, My Lord. The doctors say he surcummed to his advanced age during the night, in his sleep. My own men examined him and the room and also found no evidence of foul play."

"He had 2,011 yahren of life," Adam said, "and served three A'millian monarchs. That is old, even for us."

"I ordered the Castle's and the Academy's flags to half-staff for ten days, My Lord, and we have a funeral planned for later today."

"Thank you, good Sir." the Lady says.

"Yes, My Lady," he puts two fingers and the thumb of each hand together in the traditional A'millian salute of utmost respect, then turns to return to his preparations.

Hours later

The Lord and Lady, wearing full dress uniform, walk into a relatively long, but narrow room of the castle, with a slightly elevated platform in the front.

This room was seldom used, but nonetheless carried great emotional meaning to the aging Lord Adam. It was here, so long ago, that he last saw his adopted children, lying on the same pedestal where the old Professor now lies. It was here, not so long ago, he gave the vows to his beloved Lady.

The room was almost empty, with only a small group of his former students and coworkers in attendance. He had a family once, a mother, father, brother, wife, son, and daughter, but they were all gone now, some killed in the Third War, the rest slain in the holocaust of AW 3009, like oh so many others. The wizard was left alone with only his work, the joys of teaching his arcane ways, to keep him going over the years.

Adam, with the Lady at his side, continued on through the room, his countenance betraying no emotion, and looks down at the old A'millian lying motionless on the pedestal in the front of the room.

"Only five of us left, now," he thought. He glances over at the Lady beside him, and turns to see the relatively young Lady Lucrecia behind him "won't be much longer until it is just the two of you".

He closes his eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath to still his emotion, then turns to the small group of assembled people, silencing them with a look.

"I was a friend of Mathias." he addresses them. "While I never attended his schools, I still learned from his wisdom. From his wisdom and his strength, we rebuilt our great nation from its own ashes."

"I was a friend of Mathias," another voice sounded, the voice of Sir Hoisler, wearing his Elite Knight's uniform, and the ceremonial hat of a Royal Academy graduate. "In his nine-hundred, forty-three yahren teaching at the Academy, he personally trained over ten thousand Imperial Knights, but I remember in his classes he treated me as not just another student, but with individual care and a love of his profession that I have never before or since seen in a man."

"I was a friend of Mathias," a mousy female voice rang out from Lady Lucrecia, a woman with long, blue-green hair visible from beneath the graduate's hat on her head, whose feet gently levitated above the floor. "When my dear parents were killed, it was he who took it upon himself to protect and teach me as his own."

"I was a friend of Mathias," the Lady begins. "When I was captured in the Third War, it was he and My Lord who personally battled to rescue me from the evil's clutches."

They turrned back to Lord Adam, who looked at the face of the old man, then stood straight and proclaimed "So say we all."

"So say we all", the words echoed from all the persons in attendance, who then came to their feet as the A'millian National Anthem played.

As the song played, the Lord, Lady, Hoisler, and Lucrecia magically levitated the body of Professor Mathias off the pedestal and down to a back room, where medical technitions waited to prepare him for his requested cremation.

The Anthem ended, and people started to leave the room to get back to their duties and lives.

"Only five of us left."

[Dark Silver]

OOC: okay, Allen. Where are you?

=======================================================

When the Sith Lord finally answered, Nexvian took the lead, "Ah, Darth Kreshna, such a pleasure to speak with you again. I have a missive from you concerning the acquisition of a Gun of Command for our Go'uld Allies......"

The Sith replied, "It is a pleasure to speak with you too, Minister. I trust you have received my missive?"

"......like I said, Mr. Secretary, that Ba'al have decided to carry out his plan to build the naquada installation. Such attempt can potentially distrupt the balance and stability of the region and...."

Darth Kreshna explained the situation to the Secretary of Defense; he explained that arming Ra would make Ba'al think twice before committing any aggression. It was indeed true that the GOC-14 --which was the newest publicly known model-- had a rather restrictive export policy, and while the Empire allows exporting that particular model to allied nations, the process could take several months under normal circumstances. The Sith, however, believed that the current situation did not fall under 'normal circumstances'.

Besides, GOC-14 was only the newest publicly known model. Darth Kreshna had known well the Empire's policy to not exporting anything unless it had something that could beat the exported item hands down. GOC-14 was powerful indeed, but anyone trying to use it against the Empire will found it ineffective, since the latest version of infantry psychic shield was already implemented.

And while explaining the situation, the Sith also mentioned about the new race called the Zerg, as well as the arousing suspicion following the meeting.....

"Of course Lord Kreshna" the Minister spoke slowly, then a seemingly benevolent smile spread across his lips, "I will sign the requisition order immediatly...and we will ship a GOC-14 to the Death Star to be purchased by the Go'uld. As for this new race...open normal diplomatic relations, keep it kurt, but find out what you can."

The minister looked over one of his data displays, then back to the holocomm, "Lord Kreshna, the Science Ministry informs me you never responded to their request to send a survey and sample collection vessal to the SR-388 system in the Delta Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy....Please do so immediatly. It is priority Gamma-Epsilon. any findings is to be classified Omega level until such time as a ship may be dispatched from the home Galaxy to rondevous with your station." It wasn't a request, the Minister expected the order carried out.

[Narsil]

Message.Encoding; 254.627.452.723

Destination: Amillian Prime
Source: HMS Hello, We're Calling With A Special Offer For..., Sovereign Commonwealth communication craft.

Data:

We request an audience with the leadership of the A'millians in the interests of diplomacy and trade. More will be elaborated upon later as we engage in further talks, but we have something that may be of value to you. Send a return signal with the desired meeting point, and an envoy will be sent out.

[Destructionator XV]

Adam received and read the message from the Commonwealth craft.

"This kinda looks like a trap." he said.

"Or maybe even a crank call." the Lady responded.

"I guess we should check it out. Here?"

"Nah, howbout the middle of nowhere?"

"Earth?!!"

"No, closer, than that, somewhere like Riwal."

"...ok, what the hell."

From: "Lord Adam" <adam@centralcommand.gov>
To: "HMS Hello, We're Calling With A Special Offer For..."
Subject: Meeting

Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundry="/==========/"

/=========/
Content-Type: text/plain


HMS Hello, We're Calling With A Special Offer For...:
We will accept your meeting at the Riwal system, in as soon as twelve (12) hours from the time this is sent. Attached is a star chart to assist you in finding this system.


/=========/
Content-Type: application/starchart
Content-Encoding: 8bit octets; bitfield-starmap v 15

<binary data>
/=========/
Content-Type: application/digital-signature
Content-Encoding: base-64 encoded binary data

<digital signature>

[Narsil]

After recieving the data, the HMS Hello, We're Calling with a Special Offer For... relayed the star-charts and navigational data to the diplomacy craft. "Time for you to go to work," the comm-ship AI said evenly. "Don't fuck this up."

"As if you have to worry about me screwing it up," the HMS No Aggressive Negotiations Please replied. "But there might be a problem with arriving on time. Either way, I can't waste too much time here."

As the courier ship entered hyperspace and zipped towards its destination at all maximum speed, the HMS Hello, We're Calling with a Special Offer For... sent a return message, acknowledging the location, but also adding an extra detail:

"It may take up to eighteen (18) hours for our courier ship to arrive at those coordinates, we request some patience in this matter."

[Destructionator XV]

A final acknowledgement was sent, and the Lord and Lady took a ship on course for the Riwal system to meet these new folks, despite concerns raised by the Royal Guard.

They would arrive in ten hours, and had to sleep anyway, and set up some discreet probes just to be sure this was no trap.

[Narsil]

"For the final time, no, I do not have any tea you bloody maniac!" Daroch growled at the pyjama-wearing man. "Will you just bugger off and find a Force-forsaken cantina or something? I hear Dexter's Diner has quite the offer going on a specific Jawa-related blend." The man had been following Daroch for at least an hour at that point. When subtle Force-alteration to the psyche of the man - an attempt to fix it, the overt display of a lightsabre, and literally pointing at a café hadn't worked, he had eventually tried aggressive persuasion. In short: he started yelling.

The pyjama wearing man blinked and worked this information through his head, and then walked away muttering, "Thursdays... I could never quite get the hang of Thursdays."

This man, Daroch decided, is bloody insane. Sighing wearily, he trudged onwards to an abandoned apartment building... he had respects to pay.

[Ra]

Corporate Shuttle, en route to Tais II

Madar wiped her brow as the holographic communicator switched on. Moments later, a flickering image of Meryetre's face appeared before her.

"Madar," she smiled. "How are you?"

"I'm afraid this isn't a personal call, Meryetre," Madar said in a concerned tone. "Otherwise I wouldn't be calling with such a secure uplink."

Meryetre's gaze turned changed from happiness into one of wariness. "What's wrong, then?"

"I'm heading to Tais II as fast as this thing's hyperdrive can take me. Meryetre, listen! You have to execute Directive Chi, now," Madar insisted.

"My friend..." Meryetre answered, "I can't do that! It would-"

"Look!" Madar interjected. "There isn't time to explain. Get everyone off of that rock right now, Meryetre."

"Very well," the Jaffa sighed. "I'll speak with the base commander. But if you could tell me what your sudden urgency is, it would help greatly."

"Someone else knows about Fireday," Madar added grimly. "Invasion imminent."

"No!" Meryetre whispered. "We have to tell the Lord now!"

"No time!" Madar snapped. "Blow it, blow it now, before they get to Fireday."

"I... I'll get right on it," Meryetre stumbled to say. "Thank you."

The transmission flickered out, and Madar leaned back on her couch in worry. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself down.

For the briefest fraction of a second, Madar heard something in her mind.

"You're too late."

Madar's eyes snapped open at the psychic message, and shuddered, "Oh my god..."

OOC: The best time to begin the invasion is now.

[Destructionator XV]

"Captain, if it looks like the shit is about to hit the fan, leave us and save the ship," Adam commands. "Get the fuck out of here and warn headquarters."

"B-"

"It is not a request. Now, we're beaming down."

Two pillars of sparkling light appear on the barren world of Riwal, followed by a sparkling box.

"Wo-o-o-w," Adam looks around.

"Aye, this is the result of the Guardian's life sucking," the Lady informed him.

"The bastards didn't miss a molecule..."

"One of many planets like it."

"Those fuckers."

"Yup."

They open the box, and set up a small structure and wait for the Commonwealth representive to arrive.

[DesertFly]

Compared to the stony indifference of Tais II's immenseness, the people swarming through tunnels hewn from its rocky skin had no more significance than ants; the ships floating proudly in orbit perturbed its eon-long slumber no more than a small fly would.

Things were quite different when viewed from the perspective of the crew manning the ships, or the staff hurriedly preparing for the evacuation of the base. With the pending auto-destruct weighing heavily on everyone's mind, the atmosphere in the base was one of somber work. The few who tried to lighten the mood with the occasional joke were quickly frowned into silence. This was important work, and there was no room for levity in most people's jobs.

Up in space, the first Ha'tak had been sacrificed; its destruction had proved instrumental in the disabling of the probe that had been surreptitiously scanning this rock from the safety of hyperspace. The ring transporters on the other ship ran constantly as the crew helped evacuate the base, and a steady stream of cargo ships cycled through the hangers. The Jaffa minding the bridge were growing tired. They had been standing at their stations for hours now, overseeing the flow of ships. There was almost a sense of relief for them. The evacuation was nearly over, and soon they would be able to get back to civilized space.

Although their complacency might have had an effect on what transpired, in their defence, they had been searching for ships, not ravenous beasts. This may have had a part in their slightly slow response to something that wasn't even as large as a cargo ship. The sensor operator was the first to notice something. "Sir, there's something coming around the horizon. I can't quite make out what it is--its sensor reading is like nothing I've seen before--but it's about the size of two Al'kesh." "That's odd," his superior said, inputting some controls of his own, then scanned the data arrayed before him. "We can't get an exact lock on it; it may be a group of smaller ships." He opened the relevant communications channel. "Launch a wing of gliders, and direct them and the Al'kesh to move between us and this new contact." He watched as the symbols representing his ships and the mysterious new one rearranged on the screen. "Raise shields," he commanded. "Sir," spoke up one of his crew, "we still have a groups of cargo ships both on the planet and in transit. We have orders." The captain sighed. His crewman was right. This evacuation was of high priority, and delays would be frowned upon, at best. Besides, there was no guarantee that this new contact was hostile. If it was a group of death gliders or comparable ships from some rival, his own gliders and Al'kesh would give him enough time to retrieve the rest of the shuttles and raise his shields.

The gliders whined through space. The pilot in the lead squinted against the blackness, hoping to pick up a sight of the bogey. His sensors weren't picking up much; if not for the telemetry data he was being fed from the Ha'tak, he would have been convinced he was alone, except for his wingman. He glanced over at the small ship that floated slightly behind him and to the right for reassurance. To his shock, a small creature has attached itself to the cockpit, and was chewing through the canopy. With a small explosion of air, the creature holed the cockpit, killing the pilot almost instantly. In his death, he spasmed, sending the glider spiralling off into the void. All this happened in a matter of seconds. The lead pilot looked forward again, just in time to see another of the creatures streaking toward his glider. He jinked quickly, and felt a thud as the creature smacked against the wing. He glanced over, but was relieved to see that the creature hadn't been able to grab ahold of his wing. Ahead of him he saw the group that they had been looking for. It was composed of several kinds of winged monstrosities, including the one that had just destroyed his wingman and had tried to do the same to him. It was a strange looking creature, something like a large bat with a long body that curved under it. From an orifice on the end of the "tail" the pilot saw another of the creatures that had almost killed him emerge, ejected quickly in a puff of green gas. As it screamed toward him, he keyed his radio--

"Repeat, we are under attack. The object is actually a bunch of these things, I just barely escaped--oh shi--" his words were suddenly cut off by a scream and the boom of explosive decompression, then the radio itself died. The battle was not going well. The new arrivals had blown directly through the death glider screen, destroying most of them in less than a minute. The Al'kesh fared little better. Their larger size enabled them to shrug off the attacks of the small creatures, but those weren't the only things out there. A crew member on one of them survived long enough to shout something about a corrosive liquid eating through the hull, before he too died, this time accompanied by some rather gruesome sounds before the operator could cut the feed.

The captain was no fool. As soon as the first glider died, he had ordered the shields to be raised, and the remaining cargo ships on the planet to cloak and go to hyperspace as quickly as they could. He continued running the rings, though, as he still wanted to get as many people out of the base as he could before he activated the self destruct. "Launch the rest of the gliders," he commanded, "have them run escort for the remaining cargo ships." Privately he didn't expect the gliders to have any more success actually protecting the cargo ships than they had in combat, but at least they would provide more targets for these invaders, and they would give the cargo ships more chance to escape.

With a flash, the last Al'kesh disappeared from the screen.

Suddenly, a smaller group broke off from the main body. In an instant, they had crossed the intervening distance and smashed into the Ha'tak. The shields shimmered as they struggled to hold off the hellish assault that had been unleashed on them. "Sir," one of the techs said, "that attack took out a lot of our shields! I don't know how much more we can take!" The captain looked, if this was possible, even more grim. In the space of a few short minutes what had been a routine evacuation was turning into a disaster. "All our efforts are for nothing if we're destroyed. Get us out of here." He didn't need to say another word. The bridge crew had been ready to leave for awhile now. The pilot began activating the hyperdrive when another explosion hit, this time with enough force to knock everyone around the room like bowling pins. The captain didn't even need to look at the screen to know that the shields had failed, and something had hit the hull.

The people unlucky enough to be in the base watched in horror as the Ha'tak exploded, its death coloring the sky in shades of amber and ochre.

[Dartzap]

Jackson Merrico was somewhat miffed. in the last few days he had not been aiding anyone, let alone Detritus, This was most annoying. He had no clue what was going on, but he had been hearing rumours of some new speices discovred, bu that didnt really sound intresting to him.

He stalked through the Deathstars main recreational area, in one of the cafes could he see a man in a nightgown arguing with a refreshment droid, something about 'Tea' whatever that was.

He goes to one of the main bars and orders a beer, getting ready to drown iis sorrows in stuff that best be described as 'bantha piss' and get gradually worse from there.

The bartender sidles over to where Jackson is.

'You look like you could do with a stronger drink' he says brightly, clearly looking for a but of buisness.

'No, not really, unless you happens ot know someone who knows what the frags going on around here'

'Ah, woman troubles, eh?'

Jackson looked at the man more closely, he was sweating and his eyes were looking in all sorts of directions. He was afraid, but what of?

'Nah, nothing like that, my boss is giving me the cold sholour for some reason, too busy to need me, dispite thats how I got the job in the first place'

'Haha really... Hey, could you jut come with here, help me lift this up?'

'Uh, sure'

Jackson gets off his stall and goes round the back, where the bartender is.

'I can tell you whats happening' his voice much more firmer than before, all signs of discomfort gone 'the big news is the discovery of a new speices called the Zerg, I had their ambassador in here the other day. Lets just say that insects and alchohol dont mix. He said alot of stuff that I had'nt heared from the newscasts'

'Why're you telling me this?'

'Your Detritus's PA, yes? I'm.. well I'm one of his many spies that he employs from Kronus, and this is my job. Bars are one of the best places to hear information, I then send it to my controller, and then he sends it to to the data sifters. get my drift?'

'Wow, I didnt even know he used spies....'

The Bartender/Spy snickered at this.

'He might not use trollish Spies, because well.. a Troll stands out yes? But with a human, whose to know their alligence just looking at them?'

'I suppose I can see the logic in that'

'Exactly, now take this datapad back to our Lord, and make sure he reads it all'

'Who do I say gave it to me?'

The spy chuckles again.

'Just say Mr Shine sends his compliments, okay?' and with he goes back out to the bar, where numerous customers are moaning.

Jackson checks the time and heads back to the turbolift to the Admin district. this would be get him back on Detritus's good books, yeah....

[Narsil]

The Commonwealth courier was pleased with itself. It managed to get to the edge of the system in the space of thirteen hours and thirty minutes, thus representing a personal record. Immediately, it detected the lifesigns of the A'millians on the planet, and then it teleported the envoy to the planet's surface, a few metres away from the lord and lady.

There was a sudden burst of displaced air, and a woman who looked like every other main character from Mary Sue Fan Fiction was immediately stood there. Red hair, green eyes, curvacious figure, perfectly natural breasts... essentially the figure of a perfect woman. Of course, she wasn't 'real' in the sense that humans would describe it. The Colonials would call her 'enemy', the Cylons would call her 'kin', and Guri would call her 'damn poser'.

"Hello," the gynoid said sweetly, extending a hand. "My name is Gaia - my creator didn't have time to think up a better name, but that'll do for now. I'm here to discuss trading information and technology that might be vital to both of us."

[Ra]

Nyla VI

Ra had no idea what was going on. He poured himself a glass of champagne as a lowly secretary sat across the table from him, keying commands onto a datapad.

"Chairman," she began, "Our stock prices have been doing nicely as of late, but on Corellia your advisors are growing concerned about recent events. The recent problems with Fireday have caused uneasiness, especially for your CFO."

"I'm totally confident that Fireday will be a success," Ra stated, sipping his glass confidently. "All we need is the Gun of Command. Have we received any word toward that end?"

"Some of our operatives within the Empire have heard that a GOC-14 is being shipped to Death Star III, but nothing can be confirmed right now," she answered.

"I'm not getting my hopes up until-"

The hologram flickered to life suddenly, revealing Meryetre's face.

"M'lord!" she called.

"Yes, Meryetre?" Ra answered sullenly.

"I've just gotten an urgent call from Chief of Security Madar," the Jaffa stated. "She warned me to begin evacuation of the Tais II facility immediately. Forgive me, my liege, but I have taken her warning seriously, and commenced evacuations. After discussing the matter with the base commander, he ordered your Al'keshes over I-1071 to assist in evacuation efforts."

"Tell me what she said," Ra stated.

"Madar told me that the Organization warned her that the Zerg were attacking Tais II," said Meryetre. "She was very insistent."

"Are you serious?" Ra snapped. "The Zerg? I told their Ambassador that- What the fuck are they thinking?!"

"They know about Fireday, m'lord," Meryetre said sullenly. "How, I cannot say, but they must have psionic sense."

Ra was speachless. He finally said, "We have to send reinforcements before it's too late."

"It'll be nine hours before they could be on-station," his secretary warned.

"Get me the base commander!" Ra shouted.

A Jaffa then looked over with a terrified look, and answered, "We're not picking up their transmitter signal, m'lord."

Ra's champagne glass fell from his hand, shattering rather spectacularly on the floor.

Tais II

The second Ha'tak was a smouldering ruin in orbit as Mutalisks zipped in orbit, accompanied by a literal cloud of other Zerg breeds. The base commander watched solemnly as a small fleet of Overminds descended to the surface of his dead planet.

"We have to call reinforcements," his XO insisted.

"No," the commander answered. "It's over now. All we can do now is minimize how much of a mess this is."

He walked briskly over to a panel that clashed heavily with the room's rather Egyptian-looking decor, where a human dressed in a black suit of Imperial fashion watched him intently. The operative; one of Ra's personal security men, stepped aside as the Jaffa worked the console, bringing up a crimson-tinted screen.

"Initiate Directive Chi," the commander ordered.

"Directive Chi acknowledged," the computer answered in a far too happy-sounding tone. "Auto-destruct sequence online."

Deep within the base, a set of seven huge naquada-enhanced nukes - deadly Mk. IX Gatebusters stolen from the Stargate program when Earth became Imperial territory - armed, and began counting down. Each multigigaton bomb would be enough to fragment a large portion of the planet's crust.

Alarms called out in a shrill tone, taking the commander by surprise.

"Commander!" an opperator shouted. "Outer walls breached!"

"Damn," he muttered. "Mister Koban, we have seven minutes before we all die in a blaze of thermonuclear glory. Make sure that bomb goes off."

"You got it," the Dark Jedi nodded. He then put a hand to his ear, keying his com, and ordered, "All personnel, move out. Defent Sectors Eta through Rho."

Acknowledgements came in.

Jaffa and humans dressed in Imperial business attire and armed with light blasters stormed down corridors, backed up with Jaffa with typical battle armor and staff-weapons taken from the outpost.

One man swung around a corner, and in a split second noticed some movement. He fired, but his shot was eratic, as his life ended in a blood-curtling scream. A Zergling had torn through the bulkhead, and jumped down on his head, ripping the man apart.

At least seven blaster bolts lit the creature up, and before long, numerous other Zerg began pouring down the corridor.

"Open fire!" one of the men shouted. A volley of bolts and staff blasts ripped horribly into the Zerg, but soon it was clear that they were coming by the dozens down the corridor.

Before long, sheer numbers got the best of the defenders, and numerous men and women were ripped apart. Blood painted the walls as several ran away in terror, some getting pulled down and torn apart by more Zerglings.

Slowly, one of the Dark Jedi stepped up, with a squad of more corporate security agents in tow.

"Now," the man said quietly.

The agents raised their blasters, and commenced massacring the oncoming Zerg. They advanced nonetheless, dozens of them charging forward.

Suddenly the Dark Jedi raised his hands, TK'ing a Zergling back into the others violently. Another he kicked aside, his Force-assisted hit sending it into the wall with a crunch of shattering carapice. He then sent out a Force-wave, propelling the entire line of chattering, rapidly-advancing aliens back into their comrades.

But that wasn't going to stop them. As the Dark Jedi kicked and thrusted with his fists into the onslaught, a Hydralisk bared its teeth at him menacingly, almost appearing to smile.

And in a deep laboratory, the Guardian mind still throbbed and pulsed, the unconscious entity still oblivious - and apathetic - to the battles raging around it.

[Destructionator XV]

"Here early," Adam thought, "All the better."

"Hello," the gynoid said sweetly, extending a hand. "My name is Gaia - my creator didn't have time to think up a better name, but that'll do for now. I'm here to discuss trading information and technology that might be vital to both of us."

Adam looked at the extended hand, and responded with a tilt of his head, his eyes never leaving hers; the traditional A'millian Knight's greeting to someone with unknown status, and spoke: "Let us dispense with the pleasentries and get to business. What are you looking for and what are you offering?"

[Destructionator XV]

In the abyss between dimensions, another life did stir on Riwal. Reformed from scraps of flesh passing through limbo for the last couple years, he waited patiently for his chance for revenge upon all those who wronged him.

Gathering the latent energies that the visitors have brought he sensed that his chance has finally come.

In the ancient laboratory below, a hideous creature materialized from the depths of the abyss.

"I..... LIVE.... AGAIN..." hissed the vile abomination as it rose to its putrid feet.

It moved toward the dark door in the lab, and reached for the knob to open it, when to the foul creature's surprise his arm fell off.

Seconds later, a magical force raised the severed arm up to his vomitous mass of a body and reattached it.

The beast tested its movement then in his grotesque hiss of a voice spoke: "groovy".

It went and opened the door, and was greeted by a bright light followed by a computer voice: "MEDICAL SCAN COMPLETE. GREETINGS, AGENDER SENTIENT OF UNKNOWN COMBINATION OF SPECIES 45301 AND SPECIES 45303. WELCOME TO THE RESEARCH LABORATORY #32536. PLEASE WAIT HERE FOR ASSISTANCE."

"Oh shut up!" the foul creature growled as it continued lumping forward toward the exit.

"AGENDER SENTIENT OF UNKNOWN COMBINATION OF SPECIES 45301 AND SPECIES 45303, YOU ARE NOT CLEARED TO EXIT THE RESEARCH LABORATORY #32536. PLEASE RETURN TO THE WAITING ROOM AND WAIT FOR ASSISTANCE."

"Fuck off!" the thing rasped and opened the door to the surface, slowly, unnaturally, walking toward the structure that housed the Lord, Lady and the Commonwealth representive, intent on vengance!

[Narsil]

OOC: Is... is that ASH?!

------

Gaia finished explaining the situation of the Commonwealth to the Lord and Lady, and ended with, "Which is why we're searching for a way to travel between universes. In return, we will offer a method to restore the A'millians to their former numbers. What do you say?"

[Destructionator XV]

OOC: Is... is that ASH?!

Not quite... but my inspiration for him is obvious... anyway:

------

"Travelling between universes is not something we have done per se, but it may be possible to skirt a black hole under certain conditions to make a jump. We have accidentally done that for time travel, and time travel is in fact a jump to a paralell universe itself. With some refinement, it should be possible to do so again with more accuracy, but it would take us time to figure it out. We may be willing to assist you in this endeavor, if we can have the time. Curious though: how would you do this restoration? We no longer have many DNA samples of our people."

[Narsil]

"It is unfortunate that you are unable to provide us with a method to get home, but we will regardless help restore your species." Gaia continued, "We have built a process to generate and randomise genetic information within mammal species, it scans the genetics of two people - male and female, though if a female cannot immediately be provided we can generate one from a sufficient amount of genetic information from the male. Over the course of three years, the 'looming' process creates a three million baseline population, genetically diverse and capable of reproduction."

She turned, suddenly. "We must adjourn this meeting early, unfortunately, we have a visitor approaching, and he doesn't loook friendly..."

[Destructionator XV]

"Just a moment, yhere might be one other occurance that is relevant" the Lady adds quickly, "Remember ASV Argo? The last thing we received from them was what looked like a interdimensional transport."

"Perhaps, but she never returned, well, we'll discuss this in a moment, let us see this visitor."

[Destructionator XV]

"You'll pay fo-" the creature tried to yell, interrupted by his jaw falling off. Again, it levitates back up and reattaches itself.

"Fuck me" he hissed to himself.

Adam, watching its approach turns to the others and said: "Uh oh... it is here for our BRAINS!"

They wait patiently for the slow abomination to make its way closer to them, and the Lady let out a laugh at its pathetic growls.

"Give me some sugar, bab-" the creature was interrupted by its head being blown off by a gust of wind.

It levitates back to the body and magically reattaches. "Fuck me," it hissed.

"How 'bout, not?" Adam says, drawing a gun from the box of supplies beamed down, and fires.

The weapon's bullet slammed into the creature's skull, shattering it, splattering the repository of its personality and knowledge against the lifeless rocks of the planet.

The pieces reform. "Fuck me," the creature hissed.

It limps forward, growling: "I'll cut out your gizzard"

Adam looks at it and cocks his head "ooooooo kaaaaaaay."

He then pulls out a phaser pistol, turns up the power setting, and takes aim.

"Motherfucker!" the creature could be heard saying as it disintegrated.

"Well, that's that," Adam said, "....what the fuck?!"

The creature undisintegrated. "Fuck me," it hissed.

"I thought creatures damaged by disintegrate could not regenerate this turn!" he added, quoting the Magic: the Gathering card.

But, with each regeneration, the regenerated flesh started looking less and less vomitous. Its face could be made out now.

"...Khardem?" Adam looked, puzzled, "you were so dead."

TO BE CONTINUED