The Survivors (IC/MWRP/ open to group)

[Dolmhold]

The Void Unknown
Spacecraft Squadron

Dark were their hulls, their turrets, their missile bays and their very beings as they sped across the vast backdrop of the numerous grains of radioactive sand that were the lights of this galaxy. Darker still were their engines, the holes of note that made up their capacity to move as they slid smoothly across the system, awaiting a reason to be. The charcoal hulls of the five in their casually loose formation blended in with the void all too well, enough to arouse an air of suspicion upon the lack of stars detected, should visible light be their choice. Across infrared, they were hot, a string of red across a background of black.

Perhaps those ships were automated, as the new light of their engines spewing out a potentially vile mixture of gaseous matter that lit up the entire spectrum like a candle at night, only worse, in a synchonized fashion. The far began to converge in and the close shot forward, aligning themselves up like a broken spear before colliding with a another equally harsh light and disappearing, its whereabouts unknown and only traces of the harsh plasma and the horrific radiation remained. Their existance had appeared to be no more.



An hour earlier...

Sirens were ringing in his head as the stream of data flowed across his analytical dam, examining and processing the data for further evaluation, detected several major discrepancies, clogging up his dam as it presented itself.

"Errors in data collection, issues in the sensors, nothing more," he dismissed it, hoping to return on his task of silent surveillance in that moment. He failed.

The discrepancy kept biting on his mind, gnawing away at his patience and generating an air of uncomfortable solitude within himself. He kept trying to dismiss it, trying to clear his mind of the issue. An outlier. An error. Something was probably broken. Soemthing was-

"Wrong. Something is wrong. Nothing can excuse five solar deaths within the same point, nothing. This just does not make any astronomical sense at all. Is the equipment actually fried?" He thought tediously to himself, trying to justify this strange data. A massive blot on the sensors, lasting for several seconds. Then four more blots, all in an area just a few light months from this position.

"Perhaps the interpreting programs have got it wrong... But then again, they never have gotten anything this wrong. Granted it is hilariously low resolution, but... arrgh..." His mind was now under consistent assault under the weight of this new data, his processing power being redirected to this one task, off from his real task of examining the incoming data. Zoning out of the real issue, he allowed himself to devolve into a state of useless mental activity, futilely attempting to refute the data, and then allowing the data to spring back under more evidence and thought. He was...

"Hey, Jonwen, are you alive? Did your programming crash?" Was the only thing that interrupted this devolution, a sole voice cutting through his train of thought like a gunshot frightening a sleeping cat. Indeed he did jump up in shock, his avatar's head darting as quickly as his eyes as his arms flailed up into a defensive position as instinct took control for a mild second before realizing his mental assailant was in front of him in the digital world of his.

"Yes I am alive, and you just bombarded my train of thought to ashes! Thanks a lot!" Jonwen snapped back, his eyes very peeved as he looked around this small digital world that represented many a crew member's mental escape or life. Beautiful flowers of red, gold, white, and blue varieties. Trees of sapling to skyscraper sizes coexisting with this reality. Airplanes, old and new streaking the skies with all manners of exotic birds. All were of their desires and imaginations. All were not real.

"Well, you happen to have suddenly stopped analyzing the data, and seemed to have stop working, so I was about to reboot you..." His face poked itself in front of his, smiling childishly as a river that represented the flow of the data burst into an all-out flood in the world, threatening to convert it into nothing more then a digital ocean world.

"Alright, I get it Cal, no need for the dramatics. It was nothing more then a really hard piece of data that made no sense, I'll hand it over to you to analyze it," He replied, a tone of annoyance still within his system as he got back to work analyzing the far more boring stream of regular data, resuming to toil once more-

"WHAT KIND OF EVENT HORIZON ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE!" The man that was once in front of his face screamed hysterically, his digital eyes wide open as the outliers proceeded to mush his mind. On and on he began to appear more and more hysterical, the unknown unnerving him with every second that went by.

"Calm down, even I didn't go insane Cal. Yes, it appears that five stars died in one spot in rapid succession. No, we do not know if our equipment failed, the scan isn't due for another hour. Now, what do you think we should do?" He asked, even more annoyed by his hysterical screaming then he was by his pop-up face move.
"Well, I can't analyze it without going insane, and you simply crash-"

"I DO NOT! I was simply in deep thought!" Jonwen had to retort, anger sizzling within his lines of programing that made up his existence. His true self, his physical self, was deep in a chemical sleep, inside a broth of liquid chemicals dominated by the liquid substance of water that neglected to allow himself in reality to feel such rage lest he do something... interesting. In his mind, it was stronger then ever.

"Yeah, well what I'm suggesting is that we investigate. It is one of our roles as part of the defense of Dolmhold to identify and investigate errors and issues. And yes, you do crash," Cal bounced back, unfazed by Jonwen's furious reply as others in the server began to take note in their conversation.

"Investigation? Why not? I order that we set a course to the area noted," Another, more powerful voice boomed, his somewhat careless identity amplified by his words. It was the Rear Marshal.

"Wait, wha-"

"Proceed," A captain cut through, further sealing the fate of the squadron. They were now to investigate the anomaly and its surrounding area. A purpose to move otherwise had been found.

Present Time

He had traveled through it many times before, even felt it as the ship on multiple occasions and felt the hot bath of radiation that coated the ship, while allowing himself to feel empowered under the engines that thrusting powerfully into the void of space that eagerly accepted the gaseous mixture, an explosion of what was formerly plain water.

And yet, each time it had exicited him, the concept of traveling far in little time and the concept of the wormhole, its very existance. Even as the captain of the ship, he devolved into taking pleasure over such minor things like entering a wormhole- perhaps that was why he was chosen to be captain in the first place. He wish he knew.

The light had only existed in the openings, the holes that linked him from this inexistance or false reality with existance like the connections that linked his physical body with his digital mind, the pulses transmitting statements of awe even as they burst away from the openning deep into this tunnel. A dark place that could be as dark as inexistance should it collapse. Rather, one would be joining inexistance should it collapse.

It would be meer minutes before his vessel would escape the other end, and bright would the other be. Playtime would be over, but he didn't care, life was playtime to him.

"Once there, what would we encounter? A space-time opening? Some FTL scheme gone wrong?" He questioned.

[Vetega]

Izon nodded in agreement with the Sentillian king. A preemptive strike would be disastrous. Then he heard her voice in his mind. That annoyed him.

'If you aren't warmongerers like Nregokath would have us believe, then why destroy entire races? Just because you can? That's the attitude he gives off. Personally, he reminds me of my younger years. Although he's much older than I. Explain this to me so I don't have to fight you. Because I would prefer not to. ' he sent to her.

Then he looked at the kings face. He knew what that look meant. He laced his fingers together and sighed. The first rule of a good king is that your people came first. Izon understood that.

"The offer stands, just in case you change your minds. You know where to find me, but because Zecatera is involved I will be moving Hezion to a new location. " he said finally.

[Hladgos]

"It's not my goddamn fault that I have to do what he says!" Screamed the being, glaring at the emporer Izon.

She never truly had any experience dealing with her emotions, so they ran loose like a pack of wild dogs. Noone had ever really cared for her, so she simply didn't care what her actions did to affect others, including her irrational behavior.

"Dont combine my and Nregokath into one person Izon. It will be a grave mistake on your part."

Sentillian Fleet

Sjuna shut down the camera, but kept a communication channel open as the ships sat in place, waiting for something to happen.

"I will think, and have my people decide on what we will do, but-"

At that moment, all eyes focused on a flashing warning screen, blaring a time, and a set of numbers. When they were attacked, the ships were nearly annihilated. Though on the outside they looked fine, they were missing large amounts of their original equipment, and though it could be replaced easily, they had no time to do so. Reacting on a quick and uncalculated move, the ship nearest the exiting Dolmhold force fired a single line of energy, and as it exploded into the size of a supermassive red star, the ships made a microjump away from the new attackers. No harm would have been meant, except for the fact that the energy expanded to just a few kilometers away from the Dolmholdi, forcing them to either suffer catastrophic amounts of damage, or to move away as fast as they could.

[Vetega]

Izon frowned at the outburst, but reminded himself that she also reminded him of himself a few years ago.
"i didn't mean any offense, since that's obviously the way you took it. I meant nothing negative. Where is Nregokath? Since he somehow manages to control a being of power such as yourself, which must be no easy thing to do, I want him to tell me why he destroyed the Sentillians. I'm not going to fight him. Just an honest conversation. If he's even capable of that."

He immediately regretted the last remark, as it would probably send her into another tirade. But it had already been said. He noticed the Dolmholdi entrance and the resulting Sentillian warning shot. Which wasn't much warning. It was mroe like back away or die. Not the usual, stand down or be fired upon and possibly live through the encounter. He'd have to ask Hezion about their technology. He didn't want a star being shot ot him, as it would likely just make him extremely angry. Again.

"I understand." he sent in reply.
It was all he could say. It was up to the Sentillians now.

[Hladgos]

"I doubt he will talk to you, and I doubt he even cares of the reason. And he-" Zecatera's voice was suddenly cut off with a pain filled yelp.

She was under a curse from the dark emporer which kept her completely under his control. She couldn't even talk about her curse, or give any information about it. She knew how to escape it, but she needed others to know how to do it as well, and since she was the only one that knew how to end the curse, she was forever trapped. There were so many things she would say, but couldn't. As long as she obeyed Nregokath's orders, her children were unharmed.

Sentillian Fleet

Sjuna listened to the reply with calm eyes, though brevity was not always the way to go with something like this. Leaving a decision to a scared and confused peoples was not always the best decision. The Zecatera ship still sat silently, watching, waiting, until something happened. It slowly began to move forwards, and as the Sentillian ships moved away from the Dolmholdi, the Zecatera ship moved forwards. This meant several things, but there were only two options. Run or fight.

"All of my kin, we..." Sjuna stopped.

Something suddenly snapped in the king. He remembered the Zecatera as they ravaged Sentillian space, destroying everything and killing everyone. He remembered watching the school being destroyed. Nothing was strong enough to stop them. Not even the emmensely powerful military that the Sentillian had. It made him sick how easy it was for them to destroy his people, his brothers, sisters, everyone... That single Zecatera ship was more powerful than his entire nation? Sjuna let out a roar of hate, and the ships shook, visibly changing into a more aggresive mode. His eyes changed from yellow to black, and his body changed to a more battle ready form, spikes down his back and blades on his arms. He was angry, he would show them. He would show the universe that the Sentillian race was not something easily destroyed. They would fight now, whether or not they died.

"I am sorry... father..." He whispered quietly as he broke yet another promise to the previous king.

A line of energy cut from the lead destroyer and hit the Zecatera ship, lighting it up like a white dwarf, and a pulse of energy was sent down the guiding line keeping the ship pinned. This was one of thousands of weapons they had no time to use in the original attack. He would have nothing held back, regardless of any excess damage it would cause on the Milky Way not so far away. The advancing ship was stopped in place as it lit up and exploded with a force unseen by anyone in the galaxy, and quite possibly the Hezion. A wave of kinetic shock flew out from the completely eradicated Zecatera vessel.

[Vetega]

Izon watched the attack calmly. His mind was scanning the weapon used and the power output.
'Have you seen this before? 'He asked Hezion.
'No. My contact with the Sentillians has been brief. There are alot of things I don't know about them. '
'Interesting. Their technology pertaining weapons surpasses your own. I wonder if they possess the same amount of knowledge you do. '
'They do. They are just as old as the Levelians. 'Vex said as he entered Izons mind.
'Their weapons give off the same amount of power as a low level Incendere assault, which only a god can perform. Nregokath must have unleashed a quick blitzkreig like the one the Empire used at the start of The Fall. 'Izon mused.
"Action stations. ' he said aloud.

The two cylon ships went to battle readiness. They weren't aiming at the Sentillians.

'Whether he wants to talk to me or not, I will speak to him. He must hold you in some kind of spell of control as Chaos once had over me and many other gods. I have vast experience with this. It's quite simple. However, and this is no bluff because I know he's listening, he fought Crysallis before. They were almost equal. I am stronger than my clone ever will be. And I have other gods who would fight him. Even the Architects themselves will not allow him to wantonly destroy entire races for long. I will find you Nregokath. That is certain. ' he sent to Zecatera.

'Finding him will be a challenge, but it is possible. Fighting the Zecatera will be almost impossible without the use of your most powerful weapons. You will need to built something new. 'Vex mused.
'Or something old. Something that was used during the 7 year War of Independence. '
'Scilla. 'Hezion answered.
'No. That thing was banned for a reason. It's too powerful. 'Vex said without hesitation.
'What would you have me do? Ignore my duties as a god to protect all life!? Is that what you are suggesting? '
Vex remained quiet.
'Answer me Vex. We have been friends for nearly 500,000 years, now you're going back on your own morals. '

'………I will think about it. For now, prepare your forces. If the Zecatera attack the Sentillians you will have to fight them. This is the path you chose to follow. '
'I will ready all superweapons. All of them. '

Izon rubbed his temples.

Void

The Hezion scanned the entire area for more Zecatera ships. The two cylon ships jumped next to the Hezion and performed scans of their own. They joined the blockade around the worldship as Izon teleported to Hezion's core chamber. Hundreds of images floated around him once he stepped forward.
"I have gathered all the information I have on the Sentillians and the Zecatera before you. I've also given you the data on the design I've been working on. "
"What is this? "Izon asked while pointing to something with a big red x on the screen.
"That is something I came up with eons ago. Back then, the resources didn't exist to build it. Now they do. I call it Gaivan. "Hezion responded.

Izon opened the file. His eyebrows raised slightly.
"Build it. All of it. I want a weapons fit on every ship large enough to hold these weapons. If there is a war to be had, I won't hesitate. The Federation has been attacked invaded and almost destroyed too many times. I won't let it happen again. To anyone. Federation or otherwise. "

Vex was always watching Izon, waiting to see his next move. The young god was unpredictable. This was good, but also dangerous. Enemies of life were in for quite a surprise.

[Dolmhold]

"An object that is in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force."

The Void Unknown
Spacecraft Squadron
CSSC Silent Night

Dark may their hulls be, but bright was the absurd explosion of catastophic levels of energy as his eyes, or rather his ship's sensors, felt the onslaught of a sudden expansion of horrific levels of energy. Terrified shock coursed through his viens as barely managed to save three percent of the sensors that were on the bright side of the ship while vast sections of the ship were already compromised with an expanding cloud of water vapor becoming plasma by meer contact with the radiation.

He was speechless, speechless as he could not believe what had just happened. His mind suddenly longed for the darkness insaide the quazi-reality of the wormhole, renouncing his feelings of curiousity of what was on this other side. He could not believe what had just happened, that massive wave of energy unbeleavable, as he recoiled in shock. As the vapor plasma bolsted up his shields, deploying quicker then the real plasma could in defending what remained from this onslaught of deadly energy, his mind was fighting to prevent himself from entering a state of shock.

"Or was that impulse shock?" He questioned himself, awaiting reports of the massive wave of damage that had transmitted though the ship, which was in no doubt wrecked despite the engineering efforts that created such armor. It may have taken decades to weave each molecule, each bond, but it was of no use against this new and horrifying wave of energy.

Slowly, the damage control sensors reported back in, reporting the burnout of seventy percent of the main hull, the trashing of at least fourty three percent of the ship, meaning that the computational areas the the crew areas barely surviving under a few meters of pocket-ice. The shield was still burning away, powerful radiation impacting it and even producing a noticable recoil and nudging force, but as it was set on the highest heat capacity mode it was still holding. Holding, but not for long.

"Alright, I am alive... I still exist. I am still a tangable entity, my physical body is safe. My ship is mostly wrecked, but still somewhat operational- Oh crap."

Oh crap referred to the fact that his ship was heating up, fast. That remained of the ship could not radiate away energy as fast as energy was imparted onto it, and a plan was needed, quick. Desire for survival was not even a desire, it was a basic program that was coded into every successful organism and as such, his mind went into a state of frenzy to determine how to survive.

The answer came not from him, but another crew member.

"Salis, rotate the ship's dark end to face the incoming energy and fire the maneuvering thrusters directly at it! It should push us away enough and add matter to the shields!" A feminine voice shouted across Salis's mind, giving him the answer as to survival.

Slowly, the ship rotated what it can with what remained of its maneuvering thrusters, turning around to hope for escape. Yet the energy kept pushing, kept trying to destroy what remained of the ship, as it sluggishly attempted to flee. Temperatures kept building up despite parts of the hull evaporating and joining the shield as damages were continually sustained over and over again like torture.

"Full thrust maneuvering thrusters, we need to get out of here in order to stay alive!" Salis shouted at the top of his digital lungs, full and inefficient burn being the norm for the thrusters as they pushed the spacecraft away. "We are minutes between survival and death, try to stay steady!" He continued.

"Who am I joking, I'm not asking them to remain emotionally steady, I'm asking myself. How did I lead them into this mess?" He continued to ponder, survival dependent on a small timeframe. Should any of the equipment fail, they'd be slowly roasted to death.

"A few minutes. Let's hope that we hold for a few minutes."



Void Unknown
Spacecraft Squadron
CSSC Specks

"Shields up, full discharge! Open unaffected side to allow port missile one, three and eight though for coldfire! We're under attack, assailant unknown. Contact with the rest of the squadron can not be reestablished, assume the worst!" The captain shouted in a panicky and fearful tone, reflecting the general feeling across the entire ship as they had barely escaped the horrendous firepower or isolated event.

He was certain that it was hostile fire however, as nothing would've hit so suddenly and directly the moment they exited the wormhole, so deliberately. That and mountains of sensor evidence of some ship doing something, but that was not what he was on top of. Right now, he was ensuring that the plasma shield held, that the gradients were at max if not higher, and that no damage would come to this ship.

"Hold it- another one of ours detected, mostly slagged but still operational. See if we can contact them," Another voice chimmed though, detailing the sights of what she saw. "They're holding, and trying to flee. Is there any way we can remotely help them?" She questioned, hoping that there was an affirmative answer.

"None. We have to hope that they can get out safely. We can connect with them, but that'd distract them." The captain signaled, examining the situation as to what was happening alongside everyone else. "Are the assailants identified yet?"

"Federation ships identified along with alien ships- could be either." She replied, fiercely angry at the situation and nearly filling with battlelust. "So I can't save them, they have to save themselves. Well, those attackers are about to get another thing coming at them." She hated.

As she thought, three cylindrical poles exited the ship, their engines not on but drifting in a relative direction, ready to fire and go pummeling at the enemy spacecraft when identified. Drifting slowly away from the spacecraft itself, the cylindrical poles were none other then missiles, RKV style missiles. And they were ready to fire when ordered to.

"Contact the Committee. This may be another extra-galactic invasion."

Committee For Collective Security, Databurst Center

"Databurst from the Darknight squadron- reinforcements needed, one ship already cripped, three unaccounted for and only one intact. Wait, what? This is not good. Someone, we need to get to that area pronto." Someone shouted and shrieked, frightened by the data burst's message and its contents. "Those power levels are absurd."

"We have no choice. We do have three other squadrons nearby, along with our fighters. We'll reinforce them soon. Inform our allies."

Ending ran out of steam, aaack. Sorry.

[Hladgos]

Zecatera ships, the forty kilometer long destroyers and one hundred and thirty kilometer long battleships came through the innerverse far outside of any range of weapon here, though the Sentillian knew how to hit them from the opposite side of the universe. Sjuna watched with hate filled eyes as the small attack group came to end them. He knew it was small, because there was such a small amount of them. Otherwise thousands of ships would have come to eradicate them.

"Activate the grid. Send out instigate signals to make sure noone can see anything other than with their eyes. I dont want anyone stealing our technology, and if someone does... destroy them."

Sjuna had never spoken like this before. He had always called for a reduction of arms and military throughout his life, and never had he wished for anyone's death. This was different. He had a right to order the killing of people now. Didn't he? His entire race was massacred, so he was entitled so something, correct? It didn't make him a bad person...

Hezion

The ancient, yet young near god Zecatera appeared outside of the ship, staring sadly down at the billions of civilians living there. She moved forwards, and stood on the surface, making herself the size of the other small biologicals here, so she wouldn't be intimidating.

"I..." She quickly changed the subject of what she would speak of, since she couldn't speak of that. "Nregokath is never used his power before, nor his weapons he discovered in the pit... I know not of many of them, but the ones I do know are powerful... things that... cannot be stopped so easily."

Sentillian Fleet

Around the Sentillian ships, small flashes of light, like an old flourescent bulb turning back on, brightened around the vessels, and several bright green intricate geometric lengthy shapes made of thousands of little lines, began to appear around the small force. More and more flashes, until the lines began to intersept, and form a mechanical looking energy grid which slowly started to jab outwards and create more intricate areas, protecting the ships from attack. They sat, and waited for the Zecatera to make a move.

[Trinitia]

OOC: I'll improve this later. Gotta run.

Relay Station #B4HD573, Collective Space

The lifeless chunk of metal simply sat in its solitary location, as it had for the past several hundred years. Occasionally, faint signals would be routed along the many antennas and laser links of the device, with the station acting as a passive listening system.

An urgent message, evidently from the Dolmholdi Collective, was picked up by the device. The news was immediately made known to the entire Collective on what had transpired earlier, but a long-forgotten mesh network had shown itself to be much quicker.

Local Collective members, on the region of space closest to the quickly escalating encounter, decided to send a capital ship into the fray. The TCS Anshar had been constructed in the zero-G ship foundries far above the molten planet of Zeta Celenis IX. It boasted four fusion engines, which could be used to power either the magnetically-accelerated ion thrusters or the Manifold Disruption Drive. Rows of fighters and bombers lined the internal hangars of the vessel, kept in place by a combination of magnetism and physical restraints. If needed, they could swarm out of the Anshar like a plague of locusts.

A series of mass drivers were stationed along both sides of the vessel, with tungsten rods being the preferred ammo. Once accelerated by a magnetic field, the rods would become the equivalent of high-velocity asteroids, able to punish both planetary and space targets in a quick encounter that summarized Newton's Third Law quite well. Complementing these weapons was a gas laser weapon. With a combined output of several terrawatts, the energy output of the fusion reactors could be stored, and later used for creating a high-powered laser which could effectively pump out two petawatts of energy for a second or two. These short bursts were effective at melting through most metals.

Will we activate the Drive? Inherent danger in crossing such regions of space.

It is necessary. Closing viewing tower windows now. Shutting down communications links.

Preparations would have to be made before the ship could venture through the despised region which all Terran Collective ships had to move through, assuming they were equipped with the newest drive technology. The ship's systems turned off, one by one, save for basic life support and the FTL drive. Within seconds, the electrical power had been cut to all of the lights, and the Anshar stood still, with no signs of activity. Darkness reigned once more as all of the lights died.

The space around the ship seemed to bend slightly, and the light from nearby stars was distorted. It was as if someone had started to pull at the very fabric of space in a clockwise twist. As quickly as this disturbance came though, it passed, the Anshar with it.

[Vetega]

Hezion

Izon watched the Sentillians. He could easily see past the barrier protecting their technology from mortal eyes.

"Nregokath is different. His use of Ancient weapons will not deter me. If he continues on his path he will know the wrath of the gods. All weapons can be stopped. No matter who uses them. My father built a weapon that deletes anything from existence, yet it was destroyed during the Black Rebellion. I am not afraid of him. None of us are. " he replied to her while bringing up new images of Crysallis in battle with Nregokath.

Izon frowned. He needed to find Crysallis again.