Galactic Empires (IC)

[Melpomenia (Ancient)]

Unnamed Helghast System

Serric chuckled warmly as he heard the Helghasts' words.

"Well then, its' a good thing we're not in the home system! Otherwise, you'd be dead."

Oddly, there was no threatening tone to the sentence, and he chuckled once more once it was said. The large Nebulous continued drifting slowly forwards, looming.

"Now then, what do I have to do to mine in this system?"

The Communication Specialist replies quietly, "The only conditions for mining in this sector is, you stay away from our mines, or then fighting starts, and thus. People die. Apart from that we don't care if you mine every un-inhabited rock in this sector to nothing!" He cuts off again, as the ship begins to re-activate it's cloaking field, slowly fading from view, and from the other ship's sensors.

Serric glared at the vanishing ship. Something would have to be done about these disrespectful foreigners. He turned, and set about untying Karina from the large quantity of duct-tape that restrained her.

"Being quiet wasn't so hard, was it?" Serric joked, raising a brow at her. She merely glared back at him, rubbing her wrists.

"You nearly got my ship blown up." She grumbled.

Serric chuckled once more. "I sincerely doubt that. Now, Captain Karina, if you would!"

The female Curator shot him a final glare before addressing the ships' AI.

"VIKI, I want you to take us out of this system, if you would."

"DESTINATION?"

Karina glanced at Serric, who nodded, and spoke;

"The eighth of the previously entered coordinates, VIKI."

The ship flashed brightly, Clawson drive activating, then vanished from the system.

[Partially Blind People]

-SNIP-

What do you eat?
Do you have vac-tubes? (a pressurised train that travels through a vacuum tunnel allowing it to move at high speeds)
Are there any zoos?
Are those spaceships over there?
Are you telepathic? and...
What is that thing on the leash? It looks kinda cute.

The soldier scans the Aliens several more times, constantly checking out his findings, all the while answering the creature's questions as they come at him.

"We eat, just about anything really.. I mean we're just humans.. We eat everything from Carrots to Deer.."

"Vac-Tubes? You mean like.. Trains? What is this 2001?"

"Zoos.. Yeah, I suppose there are a few zoos, but I doubt you'd like to see Helghast animals.. They're pretty nasty."

"Yes those are spaceships, over there.."

"No, we're not telepathic I'm affraid. But that's why we build AI.."

"And that ugly b*stard, is a mutant, or our friendly ship pet.. Rex."

---

Lalwani led her crew through the docking bay into the space port itself. Being visitors, and alien visitors at that, they were secluded from the view of the public and many space port workers. Instead, they were led by the Helghastian military to a secure area of the space port before they were allowed to relax slightly.

"What are we going to do now?" Lalwani asked, using the translator block, "Are we to stay here and discuss matters with your people or are we to be allowed to return home now and spread the news of contact with a new race?"

Maybe, just maybe, they're going to trap us and experiment on us like in those old sci-fi comics! joked Sinon.

Lalwani sent a giggle down the telepathy band before replying Oh shush you!

The Kiint were rather bemused by all of the human communication gear. They seemed to use an infinite amount of different items to communicate with each other and those further away, possibly even humans in other star systems. Every time the Kiint thought they had found all the devices another human walked in using a different one. This confused all of the Kiint because of their use of only telepathy to communicate with each other. They all stood together in one group, wondering what would be happening next.

---

"Understood" Thorne said, before the airlock tubes entered into the hangars, as the droids searched Thorne remained peaceful, even communicating with Nova at one point, harmlessly discussing old times they'd had together. Once they'd been given clearance Thorne started the ship off again, slowly moving towards the planet.

The ships were guided to the Jessup asteroid orbiting the planet in the planet's asteroid ring. They docked at the spaceport there which was strictly military.

5 voidhawks docked first and prepared the battle droids for the arrival of the new ships. An area of the spaceport was designated as the meeting area. Only battle droids and Kiint government officials would be allowed in with the humans.

The 2 human ships were allowed to dock whilst the remaining 10 covered them and then patrolled the area around the asteroid, looking for any threats. The human crews were brought into the meeting area where they were met by 50 battle droids and one grey-furred old Kiint. The Kiint picked up a translator block and after the whistle it said,

"Hello, I am Lieria, Foreign Secretary. I believe you had some skills we could acquire?"

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

Lalwani led her crew through the docking bay into the space port itself. Being visitors, and alien visitors at that, they were secluded from the view of the public and many space port workers. Instead, they were led by the Helghastian military to a secure area of the space port before they were allowed to relax slightly.

"What are we going to do now?" Lalwani asked, using the translator block, "Are we to stay here and discuss matters with your people or are we to be allowed to return home now and spread the news of contact with a new race?"

Maybe, just maybe, they're going to trap us and experiment on us like in those old sci-fi comics! joked Sinon.

Lalwani sent a giggle down the telepathy band before replying Oh shush you!

The Kiint were rather bemused by all of the human communication gear. They seemed to use an infinite amount of different items to communicate with each other and those further away, possibly even humans in other star systems. Every time the Kiint thought they had found all the devices another human walked in using a different one. This confused all of the Kiint because of their use of only telepathy to communicate with each other. They all stood together in one group, wondering what would be happening next.

An officer enters the room after some time, his hands tucked behind his back as he says, "You're free to go if you wish, otherwise you're free to head to one of our Colonies, so that you may explore freely. I'm sad to say, that we can't allow you to set foot on the Home-world, as only foreigners with special access cards may, and Imperium Born individuals, so if you were to settle on one of our colonies, and were to have a child. Your child would then be permitted access to the home-world, as the child would be Imperium born." He points to the door saying calmly, "Shall we?"

[East Brundus]

Sector 4, Planet Rarshina, Fataeri System
It was at first a blip on a screen. A blip that had appeared out of nowhere. A blip that was traveling at massive speeds towards the planet. For some hours, the Disciples and their close assistants sat and watched in deathly silence until the blip finally came within distance.
What a surprise they had.
As soon as the ship came within some 300 000km of the surface, space places circled it at a safe distance, not knowing what to do. Of course, the computers had long ago calculated that if it crashed onto the surface it would cause minimal damages, but still. It really was quite a surprise.
And finally, it hit the upper atmosphere, burning as it went. Nearly half the world saw it fall slowly, and it would be discussed in state controlled news stations for all most two weeks.
It fell in the interior of the main continent, a massive expanse of uninhabited steppe as a collection of burning rubble. In a 1000km radius around it fell the emergency pods, each one tracked by a computer.
Almost immediately rocket planes set of to the scene. The Disciple of Sector 6, Cadi, a small, lightly built female with gray blue fur, had been sent by the Disciples to the area of most interest, the highest concentrated area of pods. In a radius of about 800m, some 37 pods had fallen. And so, two medium sized rocket planes built for rough landings, glided down onto the grassy surface in said area. Out poured various troops and robots of all kinds, and finally, out of one of the planes, came Cadi herself, dressed in a luxurious fur coat to fight of the chill of 3 degrees Celsius. She and an accompany group of 15 approached the nearest pod. A robot approached it and climbed the surface, oblivious to the heat, looking for some entrance, while smaller areal drones sped overhead, scanning the nearby land. Silence held the group as they waited for a result.

OOC

Remember that:
-It's currently 3 degrees Celsius.
-The gravity of Rarshina is 1.6 that of Earths.
-The average female Snefu is some 2.5m tall. So the Disciple, despite being described as small, is probably still taller than most humans.

[Partially Blind People]

Lalwani led her crew through the docking bay into the space port itself. Being visitors, and alien visitors at that, they were secluded from the view of the public and many space port workers. Instead, they were led by the Helghastian military to a secure area of the space port before they were allowed to relax slightly.

"What are we going to do now?" Lalwani asked, using the translator block, "Are we to stay here and discuss matters with your people or are we to be allowed to return home now and spread the news of contact with a new race?"

Maybe, just maybe, they're going to trap us and experiment on us like in those old sci-fi comics! joked Sinon.

Lalwani sent a giggle down the telepathy band before replying Oh shush you!

The Kiint were rather bemused by all of the human communication gear. They seemed to use an infinite amount of different items to communicate with each other and those further away, possibly even humans in other star systems. Every time the Kiint thought they had found all the devices another human walked in using a different one. This confused all of the Kiint because of their use of only telepathy to communicate with each other. They all stood together in one group, wondering what would be happening next.

An officer enters the room after some time, his hands tucked behind his back as he says, "You're free to go if you wish, otherwise you're free to head to one of our Colonies, so that you may explore freely. I'm sad to say, that we can't allow you to set foot on the Home-world, as only foreigners with special access cards may, and Imperium Born individuals, so if you were to settle on one of our colonies, and were to have a child. Your child would then be permitted access to the home-world, as the child would be Imperium born." He points to the door saying calmly, "Shall we?"

"We shall return home before visiting one of your colonies."

The Kiint returned to their ship and, after they took a flight round the systems gas giants, jumped back home.

[Vredlandia]

Ter'shik

Seeing this as an opportunity to learn more about the Zorks,the commander replies

"Disease?Rebels?Perhaps we can discuss this right now!In so fact,I can gather some of my top officers and researchers and arrange a meeting.My Lieutenant here will overlook the ships while we are gone."

He then pointed to his Lieutenant,who happened to be right next to him

Ter'Shik

B'rok nodded and told his guards to come with him.
Afterwards they walked towards the big volcano, where some soldiers already awaited them.
The waiting soldiers saluted and swam away, while the guards of B'rok lined up before the volcano.

[The Blazing Aura]

The ships were guided to the Jessup asteroid orbiting the planet in the planet's asteroid ring. They docked at the spaceport there which was strictly military.

5 voidhawks docked first and prepared the battle droids for the arrival of the new ships. An area of the spaceport was designated as the meeting area. Only battle droids and Kiint government officials would be allowed in with the humans.

The 2 human ships were allowed to dock whilst the remaining 10 covered them and then patrolled the area around the asteroid, looking for any threats. The human crews were brought into the meeting area where they were met by 50 battle droids and one grey-furred old Kiint. The Kiint picked up a translator block and after the whistle it said,

"Hello, I am Lieria, Foreign Secretary. I believe you had some skills we could acquire?"

Thorne nodded with approval, the asteroid base had a slight sense of home to it, as all 400 of the Human and Kroot crews exited the ships Thorne looked around at the singular Kiint, "I think you may be slightly outnumbered here" he joked, "Don't worry, it's just my warped sense of humour, we wouldn't attack anyone unless they gave us a reason. Yes my name is Thorne, I lead a Mercenary and bounty hunter group called the Night Guardians, and with me is Nova, my second in command. As Mercenaries we'll do most things short of starting an actual war, though we can end one if need be, and as Bounty hunters we are unsurpassed in the Galaxy, as this is first contact, we'll do the first job for free, so don't worry about the money side of things just yet, but we also accept Technology and materials as payment. So if you have any job you want done, no matter how dirty or low it is we can do it for you, so long as it isn't cleaning." Thorne chuckled at his own joke, as well as half the crew behind him, "Sorry, my humour again. Anyway Lieria do you have a need?"

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

"I got it, typical surgical mission then" Sonar responded before powering up the engines, blasting off in close pursuit of the Helghast ship. Sonar called out the standard checks for a prototype mission, recording the answers onto a data-slate linked directly to the main computer back at the Daybreaker, ready for Clone to run and double check that everything was running smoothly.

As the two ships enter the system, the Helghast ship makes it's descent into Helghan's atmosphere, before docking in a large Military installation, where a slot is freed for Sonar's ship. Once both ships have docked, their crews are disembarked, and the Admiral of the Retribution, greets Sonar once again. "So, isn't this just Déjà vu? Anyways, we'd best get moving, best not keep the director waiting." The two crews begin marching through the installation, all around were thousands of troops, shifting crates of ammo and weapons across the facility, to be loaded onto huge ships, there was also a surplus of ships being constructed outside, of which their construction echos through the station.

After the two crew's short walk, they arrive outside, where a large convoy of Armoured Vehicles and such await, both crews are loaded up, the two seperate Admirals stuck in one with their right hands, where they sit the rest of the drive together. The Retribution's Admiral gives a comment as the troops begin moving up a dirt road, "I hope you know this mission has potential for alot of your crew to die.. Just sayin'."

After another short time, the vehicles pull into a walled off yard, where nothing but a small bunker lays, a massive blast door covering a third of it's face, and several armed guards lazing about the yard, clearly not expecting anyone to find this facility miles out in the woods.

[The Blazing Aura]

"I got it, typical surgical mission then" Sonar responded before powering up the engines, blasting off in close pursuit of the Helghast ship. Sonar called out the standard checks for a prototype mission, recording the answers onto a data-slate linked directly to the main computer back at the Daybreaker, ready for Clone to run and double check that everything was running smoothly.

As the two ships enter the system, the Helghast ship makes it's descent into Helghan's atmosphere, before docking in a large Military installation, where a slot is freed for Sonar's ship. Once both ships have docked, their crews are disembarked, and the Admiral of the Retribution, greets Sonar once again. "So, isn't this just Déjà vu? Anyways, we'd best get moving, best not keep the director waiting." The two crews begin marching through the installation, all around were thousands of troops, shifting crates of ammo and weapons across the facility, to be loaded onto huge ships, there was also a surplus of ships being constructed outside, of which their construction echos through the station.

After the two crew's short walk, they arrive outside, where a large convoy of Armoured Vehicles and such await, both crews are loaded up, the two seperate Admirals stuck in one with their right hands, where they sit the rest of the drive together. The Retribution's Admiral gives a comment as the troops begin moving up a dirt road, "I hope you know this mission has potential for alot of your crew to die.. Just sayin'."

After another short time, the vehicles pull into a walled off yard, where nothing but a small bunker lays, a massive blast door covering a third of it's face, and several armed guards lazing about the yard, clearly not expecting anyone to find this facility miles out in the woods.

"Don't worry, we have a whole planet to repopulate from" Sonar joked, "but seriously, we Kroot have a bit more survivability than you humans, though I do have to ask what is this mission about, I'd prefer to have details on the mission before carrying through." Sonar looked up at the bunker, "Impressive if this is what I think it is"

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

"Don't worry, we have a whole planet to repopulate from" Sonar joked, "but seriously, we Kroot have a bit more survivability than you humans, though I do have to ask what is this mission about, I'd prefer to have details on the mission before carrying through." Sonar looked up at the bunker, "Impressive if this is what I think it is"

The Admiral holds the door open, entering after Sonar, to reveal a large elevator, once everyone is onboard it begins it's descent, as the elevator goes down, it suddenly becomes open, you can see out into a Massive facility, it looks like it's own small city under there. Massive labs scattered all around, once at the bottom they are greeted by a Older woman, with long white hair, she says in a bold tone, "Admiral, I am re-asured you know what you're doing." The Admiral gives a breif nod, before waltzing off following signs that read "EUROPA", after around an hour they reach a massive Blast door with a map of Europe carved into it, it being guarded by three massive mechs, with light machineguns on their shoulders, and flamethrowers on their palms. The Admiral turns to sonar saying, "So the mission will take part on the other side of this door. Your mission is simple, exterminate any living things within there and destroy all data related to a project known as 'Defiler', Simple. The good news is you will also have 30 Helghast Special forces working with you. We must also remind you that alot of the things behind this door are highly classified, and you will be required to wear Gas-Masks. As, this is the ward designated to bio-logical warfare... And something might have escaped."

[The Blazing Aura]

"Don't worry, we have a whole planet to repopulate from" Sonar joked, "but seriously, we Kroot have a bit more survivability than you humans, though I do have to ask what is this mission about, I'd prefer to have details on the mission before carrying through." Sonar looked up at the bunker, "Impressive if this is what I think it is"

The Admiral holds the door open, entering after Sonar, to reveal a large elevator, once everyone is onboard it begins it's descent, as the elevator goes down, it suddenly becomes open, you can see out into a Massive facility, it looks like it's own small city under there. Massive labs scattered all around, once at the bottom they are greeted by a Older woman, with long white hair, she says in a bold tone, "Admiral, I am re-asured you know what you're doing." The Admiral gives a breif nod, before waltzing off following signs that read "EUROPA", after around an hour they reach a massive Blast door with a map of Europe carved into it, it being guarded by three massive mechs, with light machineguns on their shoulders, and flamethrowers on their palms. The Admiral turns to sonar saying, "So the mission will take part on the other side of this door. Your mission is simple, exterminate any living things within there and destroy all data related to a project known as 'Defiler', Simple. The good news is you will also have 30 Helghast Special forces working with you. We must also remind you that alot of the things behind this door are highly classified, and you will be required to wear Gas-Masks. As, this is the ward designated to bio-logical warfare... And something might have escaped."

Sonar smiled as her thoughts were proven true, a massive underground facility, was hidden here. Looking at the map confused Sonar she'd never seen a landmass of that shape, and wondered if it came from Earth, the now barren shell that all humans originally came from. Listening to the Admiral she nodded, "Surgical mission it is" she replied, "Helmet's on" she then called suddenly, and each member of her crew attached the helmets onto their heads, "You see these have gas masks built into them, amongst other things" Sonar said, her voice sounded normal, unlike the muffling associated with gas masks, "and as you can hear, we can communicate with them fine as well." Sonar looked grim when the Admiral said about bio-logical warfare, "We know the risks, and as you can probably see we're well armed" each crewmember pulled their rifle out of a specially camoflaged pocket on the back of their suits, the two sharp blades at the muzzle and stock glinted, "Don't worry their unloaded, they just also happen to be our close combat tools" Sonar said trying to soothe the fact that the admiral had just let 200 armed aliens into a top secret facility. Looking around to check everyone was ready Sonar let out a feral call, the crew responded, forming up into ten separate groups, interestingly the Kroot formed 8 of these groups and the humans were separate in the other two groups. "Let us go then" Sonar said simply, "We are ready."

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

Sonar smiled as her thoughts were proven true, a massive underground facility, was hidden here. Looking at the map confused Sonar she'd never seen a landmass of that shape, and wondered if it came from Earth, the now barren shell that all humans originally came from. Listening to the Admiral she nodded, "Surgical mission it is" she replied, "Helmet's on" she then called suddenly, and each member of her crew attached the helmets onto their heads, "You see these have gas masks built into them, amongst other things" Sonar said, her voice sounded normal, unlike the muffling associated with gas masks, "and as you can hear, we can communicate with them fine as well." Sonar looked grim when the Admiral said about bio-logical warfare, "We know the risks, and as you can probably see we're well armed" each crewmember pulled their rifle out of a specially camoflaged pocket on the back of their suits, the two sharp blades at the muzzle and stock glinted, "Don't worry their unloaded, they just also happen to be our close combat tools" Sonar said trying to soothe the fact that the admiral had just let 200 armed aliens into a top secret facility. Looking around to check everyone was ready Sonar let out a feral call, the crew responded, forming up into ten separate groups, interestingly the Kroot formed 8 of these groups and the humans were separate in the other two groups. "Let us go then" Sonar said simply, "We are ready."

As Sonar finishes what she was saying, Thirty Special Forces troops can be seen, in full combat gear approaching, one stepping forward speaking in a female voice, "I am Lt. Snow, I shall be in charge of Helghast forces for the duration of the mission, I highly recommend you and your people stay close at all times." She turns to face her troops who stand behind her, saying, "Bring it forward!" At that second, a large mech walks round the corner, much like the others, but this one is in pure black and has a machine gun on one of it's hands and a flamethrower on the other. Snow, turns back to Sonar saying, "Shall we?" At that moment the large blast doors open, to reveal complete darkness, nothing can be seen.. The corridor is pitch black, and haunting sounds come from within, the sounds of heavy breathing, groans of injured individuals who were unlucky enough to live this long, and the sounds of movement deep within. The Admiral places a hand on Sonar's shoulder whispering, up close, "Welcome to Helghan."

[The Blazing Aura]

As Sonar finishes what she was saying, Thirty Special Forces troops can be seen, in full combat gear approaching, one stepping forward speaking in a female voice, "I am Lt. Snow, I shall be in charge of Helghast forces for the duration of the mission, I highly recommend you and your people stay close at all times." She turns to face her troops who stand behind her, saying, "Bring it forward!" At that second, a large mech walks round the corner, much like the others, but this one is in pure black and has a machine gun on one of it's hands and a flamethrower on the other. Snow, turns back to Sonar saying, "Shall we?" At that moment the large blast doors open, to reveal complete darkness, nothing can be seen.. The corridor is pitch black, and haunting sounds come from within, the sounds of heavy breathing, groans of injured individuals who were unlucky enough to live this long, and the sounds of movement deep within. The Admiral places a hand on Sonar's shoulder whispering, up close, "Welcome to Helghan."

"Darkness, a slightly weird smell, haunting sounds coming from seeming nowhere and almost dead people. In some ways this reminds me of Pech."Sonar smiled, "Can we turn our helmet lights on or is night vision and our senses a better idea?"

[Melpomenia (Ancient)]

Sector 4, Planet Rarshina, Fataeri System
It was at first a blip on a screen. A blip that had appeared out of nowhere. A blip that was traveling at massive speeds towards the planet. For some hours, the Disciples and their close assistants sat and watched in deathly silence until the blip finally came within distance.
What a surprise they had.
As soon as the ship came within some 300 000km of the surface, space places circled it at a safe distance, not knowing what to do. Of course, the computers had long ago calculated that if it crashed onto the surface it would cause minimal damages, but still. It really was quite a surprise.
And finally, it hit the upper atmosphere, burning as it went. Nearly half the world saw it fall slowly, and it would be discussed in state controlled news stations for all most two weeks.
It fell in the interior of the main continent, a massive expanse of uninhabited steppe as a collection of burning rubble. In a 1000km radius around it fell the emergency pods, each one tracked by a computer.
Almost immediately rocket planes set of to the scene. The Disciple of Sector 6, a small, lightly built female with gray blue skin decided to go herself personally, to the place that interested her the most, the highest concentrated area of pods. In a radius of about 300m, some 50 pods had fallen. And so, two medium sized rocket planes built for rough landings, glided down onto the grassy surface. Out poured various troops and robots of all kinds, and finally, out of one of the planes, came the Disciple herself, dressed in a luxurious fur coat to fight of the chill of 3 degrees Celsius. She and an accompany group of 15 approached the nearest pod. A robot approached it and climbed the surface, oblivious to the heat, looking for some entrance.

OOC
[spoiler]Remember that:
-It's currently 3 degrees Celsius.
-The gravity of Rarshina is 1.6 that of Earths.
-The average female Snefu is some 2.5m tall. So the Disciple, despite being described as small, is probably still taller than most humans.

[/spoiler]

The pod was, in a word, massive.

Looming over the group, the huge, unblemished smooth metal surface of the pod was roughly the size of a very thick skyscraper. in rough green paint was shown the symbol of the Confederacy.

Slowly, a sound began to emerge from the heart of the pod; a scraping, repetitive metal noise, the sound of mechanisms moving and machines activating.

[East Brundus]

The sound echoed through the vast stillness of the steppe. The group stepped back a few meters. The droid scaling it's walls found nothing of any suggestion and so it crawled back down over the smooth walls like a fly, not bothered by the angle of inclination.
Just then, the distant roaring sound of another rocket plane sounded. This one was bigger than the two previous ones, some 60 m long and extremely loud. Cadi had to cover her ears as she observed it's decent. When it landed, the back slowly opened in a ramp, and out came assorted vehicles and even more troops. The area of the steppe was looking more like a military camp, tents even being set up.

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

"Darkness, a slightly weird smell, haunting sounds coming from seeming nowhere and almost dead people. In some ways this reminds me of Pech."Sonar smiled, "Can we turn our helmet lights on or is night vision and our senses a better idea?"

Snow replies to Sonar's Question briefly, "Either." Before she turns on her head torch and marches into the darkness, the light from her head revealing the corridor, it's floor covered in the corpses of Scientists and security personnel, broken out lab windows either side. And to make it even more horror movie styled, the lights are dangling down by their cables, sparks coming off some of them, the sounds of breathing and movement now amplified. Snow turns to Sonar saying, "You coming?"

[The Blazing Aura]

"Darkness, a slightly weird smell, haunting sounds coming from seeming nowhere and almost dead people. In some ways this reminds me of Pech."Sonar smiled, "Can we turn our helmet lights on or is night vision and our senses a better idea?"

Snow replies to Sonar's Question briefly, "Either." Before she turns on her head torch and marches into the darkness, the light from her head revealing the corridor, it's floor covered in the corpses of Scientists and security personnel, broken out lab windows either side. And to make it even more horror movie styled, the lights are dangling down by their cables, sparks coming off some of them, the sounds of breathing and movement now amplified. Snow turns to Sonar saying, "You coming?"

Sonar chuckled "Naturally" she replied, moving forward, switching her helmet to night vision, and motioning for the rest of her crew to follow suit. Each of the crew held their rifle with the blades pointed outwards, ready to use them as a fighting stave, and also ready in case of ambushes. With their helmets on it only left as a reminder to the Kroot within the crew that they couldn't practice, their usual 'odd' customs, not that any of the shapers, each of the Kroot leading the eight teams, would want to select the meat on the ground to digest, nor would the heads be a particularly good thing to bring back. The crew advanced in the group of twenty, each group in a triangular formation, and two lines of 5 of these formations

[Mexican Liberation]

Ter'shik

As the officers and researchers entered the volcano,back at the ships,an officer spoke into his watch again,certain that there are no English speaking Zorks in the area

"Yes,I just got the word.Operation 2611-HEFOP is a go once more!Repeat,Operation 2611-HEFOP is cleared for action!"

A soldier approached him

"Are you sure we should do this?" he asked

"Positive.With extreme luck we'll encounter heavy resistance but be able to easily wipe it off."

The soldier sighed

"We just met them,and now we are going to kill them?"

"No,no,no!Only their leader,that or we'll make him our new...puppet figure.Look,it's more complicated than it seems.We're not just goint to conquer them and rob them blind!What kind of barbarians would do that?We are going to help them,we're going to cure their diseases,and end their little rebel problems,and whatever else delima they may be in,after that,they'll have to give us a share of all those resources,us being their guardian angels and all...if not,then we'll make them give it to us by force!"

"This just doesn't feel right to me..."

The officer sighed

"It doesn't feel right to me either...and honestly,over half of our troops in the mission openly admit to not feeling right about it either,but it's the only way.Look,the UCIN has been short on resources for almost a century,for crying out loud,Ironis Sinori was our only source of metals long before any of us were born,and the reserves are almost empty!We have been trying so desperately to get the metals and resources under here for over half of the UCIN's entire existance.Although it's not morally right,we need to do it,for the continual survival of the UCIN."

"And what about the natives?What will happen to them?Will we rob them completely blind and leave them to die when they're out of those resources?"

"Although a majority of us may leave,we won't abandon them!We'll simply relocate them."

"To what,a freakshow at a circus in Erion Ehcram?"

"We know of this nice little planet a few light years out of the UCIN home system.The conditions are too extreme at the moment for us,namely to inhabit it,but we crunched the numbers and discovered,that over time,these natives could actually get used to living on that planet,over 95% of it is water,and it is only slightly smaller than this world."

"But that won't be for a very long time..."

"It doesn't hurt to think ahead,for the moment,we'll just silently take the resources as we help them with their problems.To deal with pollution,we'll pass restrictions and what not.To reduce rebellion...we'll deal with it...silently.As for now,we're just sort of gearing up for whatever this planet throws at us."

"I understand...thank you for your time,sir"

"Anytime"

The soldier walked away,after saluting the officer

Vekta

The president joined the princess,his secret service left behind

Meanwhile,a secret service agent contacts an unknown location via his earpiece

"Yes...he's falling for it...it won't be much long...he's talking with the prince...er I mean a friend....Where? She mentioned Talon Post...it's a Helghast Rebel base...really?Interesting...she also mentioned mutations of some kind,do you know what that means?You do?When?Got it,all forces will mobilize until then!Roger...out"

The agent looked up and saw a Helghast soldier staring at him

"Wrong number" said the agent,grinning

(This sort of adds to the plot twist to come later... .)

[The Vekta-Helghast Empire]

Sonar chuckled "Naturally" she replied, moving forward, switching her helmet to night vision, and motioning for the rest of her crew to follow suit. Each of the crew held their rifle with the blades pointed outwards, ready to use them as a fighting stave, and also ready in case of ambushes. With their helmets on it only left as a reminder to the Kroot within the crew that they couldn't practice, their usual 'odd' customs, not that any of the shapers, each of the Kroot leading the eight teams, would want to select the meat on the ground to digest, nor would the heads be a particularly good thing to bring back. The crew advanced in the group of twenty, each group in a triangular formation, and two lines of 5 of these formations

They all reach the end of the corridor, and two other corridors out stretch either side of the group, Snow turns to Sonar saying quietly, "We'll split up, you and your troops go left, me, my troops and the mech will go right. We re-group here in three hours, if something goes wrong, say on the radio SIGMA, that's the code word. Good luck out there.. Infact, you three, go with the merc's they'll need some guidance." She points to three riflemen in her group who give brief nods before heading over to Sonar and her troops, walking with them along the haunted halls.

One of the Three Helghast soldiers holds up a fist, signaling Sonar's group to halt. He moves about 3 meters forward, when suddenly something leeps out from a dark lab to the right, thrusting the soldier to the ground, it lets out an incredible shreek, nearly deffening some of the group, if you look directly at it, you'd be able to see it's a deformed human, it's eyes covered with skin, it's fingers replaced with long claws and it's head completely bald. It begins tearing the Helghast soldier limb from limb infront of the group, before leeping onto the ceiling, screeching again.. Now charging at the group.

[Partially Blind People]

The ships were guided to the Jessup asteroid orbiting the planet in the planet's asteroid ring. They docked at the spaceport there which was strictly military.

5 voidhawks docked first and prepared the battle droids for the arrival of the new ships. An area of the spaceport was designated as the meeting area. Only battle droids and Kiint government officials would be allowed in with the humans.

The 2 human ships were allowed to dock whilst the remaining 10 covered them and then patrolled the area around the asteroid, looking for any threats. The human crews were brought into the meeting area where they were met by 50 battle droids and one grey-furred old Kiint. The Kiint picked up a translator block and after the whistle it said,

"Hello, I am Lieria, Foreign Secretary. I believe you had some skills we could acquire?"

Thorne nodded with approval, the asteroid base had a slight sense of home to it, as all 400 of the Human and Kroot crews exited the ships Thorne looked around at the singular Kiint, "I think you may be slightly outnumbered here" he joked, "Don't worry, it's just my warped sense of humour, we wouldn't attack anyone unless they gave us a reason. Yes my name is Thorne, I lead a Mercenary and bounty hunter group called the Night Guardians, and with me is Nova, my second in command. As Mercenaries we'll do most things short of starting an actual war, though we can end one if need be, and as Bounty hunters we are unsurpassed in the Galaxy, as this is first contact, we'll do the first job for free, so don't worry about the money side of things just yet, but we also accept Technology and materials as payment. So if you have any job you want done, no matter how dirty or low it is we can do it for you, so long as it isn't cleaning." Thorne chuckled at his own joke, as well as half the crew behind him, "Sorry, my humour again. Anyway Lieria do you have a need?"

"Hmmmmm," Lieria pondered over the options, "Well I am sure you have travelled the galaxy yes? We need to know of potential colonies and areas of great natural resources in the galaxy. As welll as those we can acquire that have already been settled."

[The Blazing Aura]

Sonar chuckled "Naturally" she replied, moving forward, switching her helmet to night vision, and motioning for the rest of her crew to follow suit. Each of the crew held their rifle with the blades pointed outwards, ready to use them as a fighting stave, and also ready in case of ambushes. With their helmets on it only left as a reminder to the Kroot within the crew that they couldn't practice, their usual 'odd' customs, not that any of the shapers, each of the Kroot leading the eight teams, would want to select the meat on the ground to digest, nor would the heads be a particularly good thing to bring back. The crew advanced in the group of twenty, each group in a triangular formation, and two lines of 5 of these formations

They all reach the end of the corridor, and two other corridors out stretch either side of the group, Snow turns to Sonar saying quietly, "We'll split up, you and your troops go left, me, my troops and the mech will go right. We re-group here in three hours, if something goes wrong, say on the radio SIGMA, that's the code word. Good luck out there.. Infact, you three, go with the merc's they'll need some guidance." She points to three riflemen in her group who give brief nods before heading over to Sonar and her troops, walking with them along the haunted halls.

One of the Three Helghast soldiers holds up a fist, signaling Sonar's group to halt. He moves about 3 meters forward, when suddenly something leeps out from a dark lab to the right, thrusting the soldier to the ground, it lets out an incredible shriek, nearly deafening some of the group, if you look directly at it, you'd be able to see it's a deformed human, it's eyes covered with skin, it's fingers replaced with long claws and it's head completely bald. It begins tearing the Helghast soldier limb from limb infront of the group, before leeping onto the ceiling, screeching again.. Now charging at the group.

"Let's go"Sonar called, her small formation leaping into action, literally. using the front five as a boost five of the Kroot leapt up high into the air, before landing on top of the mutant, making quick work of it with their bladed rifles, at a sign from Sonar three groups moved forward, whilst two groups moved to each side respectively, the two human groups stayed at the back whilst Sonar's group moved into the square created, each group was face outwards whilst Sonar and her group watched the ceilings and the floor for any more of these mutants.

---

Thorne nodded with approval, the asteroid base had a slight sense of home to it, as all 400 of the Human and Kroot crews exited the ships Thorne looked around at the singular Kiint, "I think you may be slightly outnumbered here" he joked, "Don't worry, it's just my warped sense of humour, we wouldn't attack anyone unless they gave us a reason. Yes my name is Thorne, I lead a Mercenary and bounty hunter group called the Night Guardians, and with me is Nova, my second in command. As Mercenaries we'll do most things short of starting an actual war, though we can end one if need be, and as Bounty hunters we are unsurpassed in the Galaxy, as this is first contact, we'll do the first job for free, so don't worry about the money side of things just yet, but we also accept Technology and materials as payment. So if you have any job you want done, no matter how dirty or low it is we can do it for you, so long as it isn't cleaning." Thorne chuckled at his own joke, as well as half the crew behind him, "Sorry, my humour again. Anyway Lieria do you have a need?"

"Hmmmmm," Lieria pondered over the options, "Well I am sure you have travelled the galaxy yes? We need to know of potential colonies and areas of great natural resources in the galaxy. As welll as those we can acquire that have already been settled."

"I am afraid we don't generally document uninhabited planet's unless we have been called on a mission to go there by one of our clients" Thorne replied, "However back at our base we have an ultra-range scanner, it is what allowed us to detect your species in the first place, and what ultimately bought us here, if we tweaked that a bit I am sure we could find a suitable world to be colonized. Unless you don't believe in Ghosts that is." Thorne stopped, there was one world he had in mind, however the previous inhabitants of the world had vanished mysteriously, and many rumored the planet to be haunted. "As to those planets already settled upon, we generally deal with the home planets of Empires, which I'm sure you can appreciate would rather not be settled on by another race, but once again our Ultra-range scanner and it's archives may hold more information that could provide useful."

[Melpomenia (Ancient)]

The sound echoed through the vast stillness of the steppe. The group stepped back a few meters. The droid scaling it's walls found nothing of any suggestion and so it crawled back down over the smooth walls like a fly, not bothered by the angle of inclination.
Just then, the distant roaring sound of another rocket plane sounded. This one was bigger than the two previous ones, some 60 m long and extremely loud. Cadi had to cover her ears as she observed it's decent. When it landed, the back slowly opened in a ramp, and out came assorted vehicles and even more troops. The area of the steppe was looking more like a military camp, tents even being set up.

The pod grew slowly silent as a small length of time passed. Eventually, a small rectangle on the side of the pod appeared, growing rapidly brighter red as the strange alloys making up the pod began to be melted. Slowly, the metal began to sink away until it was completely gone from the aperture.

In the aperture stood a lone figure, two-and-a-half meters tall, thick. Its' head was sunken into the shoulders, and strong, large, clumsy arms extended from the shoulders. Legs, with huge, solid feet came down from the thing's waist, and over the shoulders two appendages, on one ending in a three-pronged metal claw, and on the other by a large white sphere, an omni-scanner. In one hand, it held a large, blocky-looking object, elongated.

The figure seemed to gaze over the mass of locals, before jumping and hitting the earth in front of the pod, revealing its' shiny metal exterior and bright, reflective visor.

Yishra Kilenko, Engineer Caste stared out at the mass of locals through the smart visor, the small industrial laser in his hand serving to give him some confidence. It clearly wasn't meant as a weapon, but it was hardly like the pre-tier 5 beings had developed the atomic shielding necessary to protect themselves from the tool, although he despised the though of having to fight them. He was meant to build, not kill.

He willed his wings to move through the neuronic interface; the two extra appendages budged slightly and the omni-scanner began analysing the machines and biologicals present on the surface. His wings, of course, remained motionless.

The single figure stepped forward slowly, his suit servos and motors whirring as he moved, tool in hand, taking exactly five steps away from the pod before stopping, waiting for some kind of response.

[Melpomenia (Ancient)]

Qwanch System [Holm]

A flash, and suddenly the small Confederate Research Ship Numirron entered the Holm system, Clawson drive powering down as it activated its' sublight engines. At about eight tenths of the speed of light, it darted through the system, slowly approaching the sole, inhabited planet.

Planet Holm had been extremely loud in the past few decades, and with immediate action, the Numirron sent a blast of meaningless communications waves down onto the planet, hoping to silence the locals as it drifted in orbit. The automated ship, occupied only by the hyperintelligent sapient computer BABEL-1, sat and scanned the planet, processing every tidbit of information it got.

[East Brundus]

A square of red appeared on the side of the pod and seemed to melt away. The soldiers stiffened, raising their weapons slightly. Then it stepped out, some form of robot, just a bit smaller than the soldiers. They panicked as it jumped and raised their weapons, only to be ordered to lower them.
The being seemed to pass them over with a strange, uncaring feel. One on of it's back appendages, and an odd looking tool was waved around.
It stopped and waited.
The group waited back. Cadi walked forwards, not looking overly confident. Her artificial fur coat ruffled in the harsh biting wind. She reached into a satchel of kinds, and drew out a small circle, a holographic repeater. Her eyes, with their four leafed clover-shaped pupils, scanned the mirrored visor anxiously. She slowly held out her arm, following out the procedure in her head. She clicked a command in her bird like speech, and the hologram played back. On it were images of the galactic coordinates, maps of continents, biological diagrams of DNA, mathematic formulas portrayed in light, the entire history of the Snefu race condensed into 20 seconds and finally, the Unity's national anthem, a collection of alternating beats and rhythms.
The holographic video abruptly cut of, and she packed the small device away.
She walked back a few paces and waited for a response.

[Bojikami]

The Prime commander of the colony responded "that would be much appreciated thank you" he said as he ordered some troops to an enemy fortification, the rest if Bojikamis army was either combating humans or the horde...