The Ascension of the Imperium IC (All Tech, TG for interest)

by **Skyhooked** » Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:37 am

~~Zulus~~Vampires (still) attack! Fight back to back! Show them no mercy and fire at will! Kill or be killed!

Despite such a daring car attack from the flank, vampires managed to kick the road warriors back by inflicting heavy losses on them. They picked another tactic though. On the beach, they would just try to circle around vampire forces, wherever this was possible and shoot from afar, just like Mongol horse archers, and in the town, try to split them into smaller groups. And despite being shot at, vampires to the shock of defenders regenerated and pushed forward with Wammu leading them, obliterating the barricade and it's defenders with ease. This caused the defenders on the hotel roof to call for reinforcements. It looks like, Emerald Crescent should be renamed into "Four Leaf Resort" or something, because a warband, led by Shawn Bjornson was nearby, patroling the beach.

-"This is the overboss! Well, shit! Like we don't have enough trouble already! I am headin' to your location, until then, hold the place as best as ya' can! Over!"- Shawn respons to the call, as he and his warband ride towards the vampires. In the meantime, the militiamen have regrouped, created a new line of barricade and started shooting vampires with hollow point bullets grabbed from gun stores. Those bullets would not only be more accurate, but also have better stopping power and they would expand in the bodies of vampires. Even if they regenerate, such thing would still be stuck in bodies and cause more troubles. Downsides of such bullets? Worse armor penetration and they are fewer than regular ones. On closer distances, makeshift flamethrowers and shotguns loaded with 00 buckshots would be used.

And thankfully, Shawn and his Crew have arrived faster than expected. Technicals, reinforced with armor plates of Paramount's Chosen and outfitted with drone weaponery, would try to shoot vampires with plasma and then ram through the vampires army. Hopefully, the makeshift armor of drivers and gunners, made of MK3 drone plates is bite proof. Meanwhile, the Overboss himself, charged at the Wammu himself, first firing several shots from his Deser Eagle at his torso, and then taking out his warclub. A pretty heavy baseball bat with spikes. He would engage Wammu with the warclub and Desert Eagle, and in case he loses a club, he also has a combat knife.

North Korean showdown
The liquid pet of Angelo turned out to be smarter, than defenders thought, but game of smartness can be played by two players. Skyhookedians with liquid nitrogen didn't belive, that creature decided to escape them forever, and kept their guard. If this creature appeares again, it will get some refreshing shower, if not, then it's still better to keep the guard, just to keep it underground, while another warband was called to mix and pour some quick setting concrete into cracks ASAP, to hold this watery demon under the road. Tactic may be a little bit ridiculous, but so is all this war.

In the meantime, Casey James had to deal with his own quick setting mixture. However, it was spat at him by Secco from all sides. Stand user is a mighy person, but Casey James didn't even consider surrendering. He dodged and hit pieces of hard matter with his sledgehammer, while heading into the open space, where Secco would be limited to the ground. Hopefully he can't swim in the air... Before Casey made it, he took several unpleasant bruises. Secco's spitting is rather accurate.

And what about salvaged grinder turrets? Yes, they became the prime target of Octavian grinders, and took losses, but this allowed for other forces to strike, while they were not the prime targets. Energy core projectiles would fired from mortars at Grinder tanks from different places. And not only that, but also coastal bombardment continued. The naval squad dedicated to fighting Drone Fighters took losses, but still continued to resist, although with less power. And this, coastal support became slightly weaker. Several ships joined anti-air fight instead.

But what about Angelo? He is escorted, and thus a hard target. Still, doesn't mean, that he can't be attacked though. Several farmer airplanes would fly over them and throw out bombs made of drone energy cores (favorite Skyhookedian weapon against Octavia) on top of them, while a group of road warriors harrassed and tried to distract them. In the meantime, a squad of Neon Suns together with John Walker AI would position themselves on the water treatment facility.

Defense of Earth and Skyhooked

As scanning proved to be more dangerous for humans, with infiltrators blowing themselves up, methods of distant scanning were developed ASAP, with use of Octavian drones sensors, hopefully friend/foe indentification system of salvaged sensors will work fine and expose infiltrator better and faster.

Several planes were shot down by the Chosen, but the pursuit didn't stop. More road warriors in technicals and guntrucks would attack Chosen with core bombs and salvaged weapons, trying to cut off their escape routes. All while, there still were buried core bombs near fires, which would be detonated near the Chosen. Anything to force them to multitask. After all it's impossible to shoot every damn object at once, right?

When the ~~Winged Hussar~~ Mandate of Humanity arrive!

Fort Liberty, edspite being destroyed, was still fought for. Scavengers fought Octavian drones for the salvage, that could be found in this pile of metal and rubble, when suddenly something large fell right on the hill and sent a shockwave, that knocked down Skyhookedians, who were nearby. Suddenly this thing also started firing. But to the comfort of scavengers, it only attacked Octavian forces. All, while Mandate's divisions went to defend Skyhooked city.

The message, sent by Mandate, was broadcasted. While morale was still above average despite swindling, this message full of hope, made it soar. Maybe with the help, the invaders will be driven out from the Earth. Stan Dixon, one of the Council members, great gunslinger and just a charismatic guy, replied to the message.

-"Howdy, this is Stan Dixon, partners! First, we greatly appreciate your unexpected aid. I too wish, that we met under more peaceful conditions. Together, we gonna kick Octacian metal asses outta Earth! Second - when this is all over, if ya' give us a ride, we gonna come to the heart of Octavian Empire and bring the war to them! They gonna see, what we are capable of when we are pissed off! Your aid won't be forgotten! For freedom! For Skyhooked! For Earth!"-He responds and then he and several warbands, equipped with armor and weapons made of Octavian drone parts prepare to engage cultists and their leader Diego Brando and his monsters. Stan oiled and cleaned his revovler and winchester rifle, reparing for an epic fight.

by **Imperial-Octavia** » Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:35 am

Ginostra

The knives seemingly didn't phase The Paramount and neither did the new arrival not because of any overconfidence or underestimation of his opponents, but rather acknowledgement of the threat others could pose if he dropped his stance. It seemed that the human had not been properly informed of the goings on of this region of space, exactly as rude as he expected the group before him to be, "Had we known you were dragged along we wouldn't have been so insulting towards you. To be implicated with that harlot is a grave insult indeed and we are sorry for that. As for the events in this galaxy, our Imperium rightfully decided to cede some primitive planets and uplift them. Some fools decided to get in the way of that process and a war ensued and now, we are here. Now will you be joining with them or will you be leaving?"

The strange alien creature that had thrown it's tentacle at him was odd, but now he understood that it was from Khorzomoth. The Imperium was not officially at war with any nation's with that name but there was only one real possibility as to what group it belonged to, "Are you associated with those orb things in the periphery? They have caused us a little bit of trouble but thankfully we've found a way to combat them rather recently, though we must wonder if we're about to find a new way to kill them? We must assume that will depend on how well you fare against us.". Looking at the other man talking to him mentioning some information that he certainly shouldn't know unless he was spying in, but from way he talked he seemed very confident in his ability to goad him. Was there a reason for this? The Paramount wasn't keen on finding out yet. He was only there to scout out the power of those coming to face him, not get himself too deep into a fight which he might not have be able to win in these conditions, "How do you know of the events that you've mentioned? We know that we haven't exactly been broadcasting these setbacks to the galaxy so this means you would've had to been involved in them, correct? Or are you in our systems somehow?" though the newcomers knowledge of some recent military events was interesting, Mark's words would interest The Paramount the most.

"The anti-matter bombings clever? No, no, they were pragmatic. We knew you would be out here soon enough regardless of what we did so we decided to draw you out so we could deal with you faster. at the offer of a challenge The Paramount laughed heartily. He would've thought that Mark would know he wouldn't have accepted such a frivolous offer. "We would prefer if you put that sword down and attacked us first. We have our own plans for the upcoming battle...though if you already know my strength I assume there isn't any reason to hide it anymore..."

From the center of The Paramount's chest yellow sparks began to form, crackling and dancing around his chest and flowing throughout the metal in his body surrounding nearly every part of him as he is covered in yellow energy almost completely obscuring his body. Moving from his feet the energy would hit the floor spreading across the floor slowly snaking it's way around the metal figure and connecting to every electronic device in the area. Rocks were lifted by the currents of this energy surrounded by the energy, burning it into slag; it reached into the nearby buildings stretching onto their walls and inside, causing any electrical device to explode, their energy subsumed by the module. And just as the electricity spread, it receded back into The Paramount leaving crackling sparks of yellow energy flowing across his body and revealing the true extent of his power.

"So please Mark, go ahead and take the first shot. We insist..."

Florence Bunker

The Chosen weren't even given the time to detonate as Renee's gun tore through them and with that knowledge the Chosen inside opted to retreat and try to inform The Paramount or at least the boss of the gang which had allied itself with. Melone however had almost managed to reach a door but unfortunately had managed to sprain his ankle running down one of the many hallways of the bunker, but with Babyface's next move he believed he could still make his way out. As Elias and Renee walked down the dimly lit halls of the bunker Babyface finally struck waiting for Renee to pass a door which seemingly lead to nowhere it converted Renee into cubes, first starting with the mouth to ensure that she couldn't call for aid, then the rest of the head, and not so long after her entire body would have been molded into cubes and turned into a small ball. She would still be alive, though uncomfortable but most importantly unable to use her Aura.

As the Junior manifested itself in front of Elias it raised it's hand signaling him to stop whatever he was doing should he have noticed the stand's shenanigans by now. With eyes almost completely devoid of emotion he stared directly into the eyes of the man, "I am the only one who would be able to revert your friend from this form-" the monotone voice said, keeping the ball close to himself, "Should you want to see her again you will make your way out of this bunker where I will then revert her. If you are to kill me, your friend will be stuck in this form permanently, now begin movement towards where you entered the bunker." The Junior was lying to Elias, if he was to be killed then Renee would return to normal but with his mother's stoic, near emotionless delivery of his words there was little chance that Elias would be able or willing to call the sub-stand's bluff. As long as Melone got out, the stand would be satisfied in it's performance.

The Battle of Morioh

The fights inside the now abandoned buildings were mostly close quarters which meant that the drones were at a bit of a disadvantage as they lacked a second free hand which, as could be expected, left them relying in the strength in their one hand followed by a blast by their eraser laser cannons. In order to break the personal shields certain members of The Mandate's military had MK3 drones would often rely on their alternative fire mode on their eraser cannon, firing anti-tank rated beams to break their shields and plunge a hole directly through their attackers. Imperator drones went down from the plasma fire, at least before they activated their shield generators. While off for most of the invasion to save a bit of the fusion battery's energy, but with an enemy with real firepower it was time to use the full extent of the drones capabilities including their back mounted rockets. Switching to their laser autocannons the Imperator's would let out outstanding levels of fire towards the soldiers of The Mandate allowing for the MK3 drones to advance and continue to maneuver as their enemies were suppressed. Rockets flew into houses where Mandate soldiers attempted to hide themselves by the stand users often taking out some Octavian drones as well though most were ordered to leave the houses they were in.

The stand users were pleased with what they were able to do in such a short amount of time. Enya was hugging her son J'Geil for being such an effective killer while he, somewhat embarrassed, continued to use his stand to slice the enemies of this Octavia into pieces while his mother picked up said pieces and used them to terrify and maim their non-stand using enemies. J'Geil's Hanged Man proved especially effective in the houses that The Mandate's soldiers rushed into to hide themselves from other stands. The stand's blade bounce off every reflective surface cutting eyes, necks, wrists, and anywhere else that the troopers allowed themselves to be cut followed by his mother's stand, Justice, controlling sending her fog like stand to puppet their body sending their boarding axes against their friends and themselves in some cases. Akira Otoishi was amazed by the power that these few suits had given Red Hit Chili Pepper as he began playing his guitar (again) in glee. The thought of an entire army to feed his stand made him estatic! The stand continued to drain the suits of armor occasionally attacking the now defenseless marines with his ever growing power.

Absalom was pleased that his stand was doing so well in clearing the roadways, as he was with the invasion as a whole as it destroyed the society which had pained him so. To maximize it's efficiency Satanic Coupler would create tracks through buildings, crashing through them and the soldiers within. His sister, Mical would turn her mirage of an Octavian fleet into a reality and watched (as she is mute) as it began to rain death upon the Mandate's infantry. Drone Fighters poured from carriers and strafed the forces of the Mandate. As the AI programming of the fleet activated, they immediately began looking for information on their current situation other than the enemy army below them, as they received the information from their Tactical Codex connected brethren above orbit (the created mirages were not connected to the Tactical Codex) and as they learned of the ongoing battle they would begin to respond. Some of the ships such stayed on the surface to fight off the ships The Mandate had sent to the battlesite while many others began rising into the atmosphere (often participating in some local bombardment as they did) and went their own way spreading out across the planet and into space above. The Artillery ships would see and opportunity and distance themselves from the general battleground before positioning themselves in such a way where they could shoot at The Mandate fleet from Earth's stratosphere. Some other ships moved to other places on Earth activating mini-FTL jumps to arrive to strategically important areas faster. Mical would not stop there however, making mirages of oil tankers and boulders to crush and explode the Mandate troopers on the ground.

The cartridge would at first appear normal, completely indistinguishable from the norm. Exactly as Midler wanted. In the span of a few seconds what should have been a cartridge transformed itself into an ancient 18th century cannon minus the fuse and then shortly launching a few cannonballs in quick succession from the cannon which seemed to move by itself before High Priestess ran off to hide itself within something else metal to get other unsuspecting soldiers. Tarkus would be cutting his way through marines at this point having arrived at the battle. His immense strength came to use as he cut through entire buildings to take down more lives of the invaders on DIO's Earth. Inside the Higashikata's mansion various family members were surprised and frightened by the futuristic men with axes running into their house and up the stairs (Joshu had to be stopped from using his stand on them before they knew the whole story behind their enterance).

As they actually entered Jobin's room, the mechantor would fire off a few quick salvos of laser fire before pulling out his Electro-saber and working on blocking their axes and then swiftly counter attacking all while Jobin watched. Outside the first of the Mechanators had arrived, mostly the four legged Kwoof and some of the other closer mechantors. While most Mechantors would take cover, the Kwoof would rush forward at speeds around 80mph firing their back mounted lasers, looking to get into melee. While certainly not recommended by the Mechanators Corps, the Kwoof were an agressive race and occasionally they would be unable to control themselves even despite their assimilation. Hopefully this would turn in their favor.

Above Earth Orbit

As the new Mandate reinforcements came in the Octavian fleet continued with it's plan despite it's recent encirclement on it's bottom segment causing quite a few ships to turn and face their new foes. As the Octavian fleet fired in all directions a few large pods were dispatched from the Dreadnoughts into various Mandate vessels surrounding them from both sections of the Octavian fleet before using plasma cutters to drill through the hull of the enemy ships letting hundreds of ankle high crawler drones through and a squad of Chosen within each. They would be sure to rush into the bridge running at their max speed of about 90mph while the crawler drones spread out taking care of any crew members around the area before drilling and self destructing onto any important components in the ship such as the engines or life support. The drone fighters were largely ripped apart by the Warmind's first salvo and shortly engaged in evasive maneuvers, but with this third fast target it was clear that the Octavian fleet was outgunned however losing orbital superiority was not an option. So of course normal reinforcements were called into the battle of which there would be about 260 ships of a fairly standard arrangement, but it was clear that a special touch was needed to achieve victory in this battle and thus the Aether Swimmer was called back into action.

As the Tactical Codex ordered the Aether Swimmer to this Earth it would teleport there via the Aether, again showing that at least that much worked. It's first move was against the Warmind that had entered the battlefield and begun it's assault on the Octavian fleet and though they did try to return fire the projectiles were being spread too thin and so was the Octavian point defense systems. In order to remedy this the Aether Swimmer preformed a simple manipulation of the Aether sending out multiple missiles aimed for the inside of the warmind. Unfortunately for the Aether Swimmer the process went catastrophically wrong, now instead of the planned missiles going inside the Warmind multiple random objects were sent popping in and out of realspace and it just so happened that said objects were attracted specifically to the Octavian fleet. Now some objects would have been mostly harmless if they were not being telefragged into some machinery which would have been preferred to have been untouched. Multiple technical errors began to pop up in multiple members of the Octavian fleet and would likely signal the first time in Octavian history in where a frigate's sensors were knocked out because of the appearance of a fish within the delicate machinery.

...So that was a bust, but there was still more for the Aether Swimmer to do regarding The Mandate fleet. Warping into the interior of a few Mandate ships while in the Aether and formulating a particularly nasty surprise, nanites which would eat through anything they came in contact with before forming themselves into something which could spread to the next ship (granted that it went better than the previous attempt, if not the swimmer would be looking at some extended maintenance.) This Aether calculation went off without a hitch planting a few fast acting nanoswarms to consume the ships and their crew's at a rapid pace. The Aether Swimmer would spend some time moving from ship to ship planting these nanites focusing on the Black Eagle expeditionary force and the Arkwright expeditionary force looking to thin their numbers and allow for the fleet to reform and recover with the reinforcements. The Tactical Codex did have a few contingencies in case this failed, but her battle simulation showed this as the most successful course of action.

The Earth

Various battlefields had just got far more complicated than they had been before warranting the growing Octavio-Africa section of the Octavian Earth colony to begin mass producing Crawler drones (in their larger, gun toting variation) and MK1 drones. It would be a while until the proper resources could be gathered to make MK3s (labor wasn't an issue as recently assimilated Africans and rebels with penal worker bodies would certainly do well enough) but until they were able to control more of the continent this would be fine. The african based Octavian artillery would stop with their "light" ordinances and switched to the nuclear artillery and aimed upon the Mandate's african Planetary Landing Zone. Almost immediately upon it's landing it would find multiple gigatons of force thrown at it, raining down a cobalt isotope making the area it hit (or was shot down over) uninhabitable for a very, very long time. Luckily for the Global Defence Council this would mean they would be spared from bombardment for the time being. In occupied Octavian territory such as Italy and much of Asia, South America, Africa, and North America the creation of Bio-Battalions were emphasised by the Mechanators, chipping humans and making them subservient to the Octavian cause. Men, women, and children were all chipped, added to the massive military mind of the Octavian army and armed with whatever the Mechanators could afford to give to them.

In Skyhooked the Chosen would surprisingly charge head on at the road warriors at around 90mph shooting at their tires as to break through the attack while the rear guard ran backwards to shoot the bomb carrying bombers that pursued them while also using their enhanced reaction times to shoot the cores before they hit the ground though they would rain down large amounts of shrapnel scratching and cutting into their armor. As the Infiltrators were slowly discovered they would pull back, now replaced with some of the newly spawned ships, hunting down the GDC with orbital bombardment looking to wipe them out. The movements of the Pillarmen's armies was noticed and had a few of the lighter ships deployed to monitor their movements far up enough where they were unlikely to be seen. Italy was a no-go zone for the Pillarmen so the moment they passed that border all hell would be dropped down upon them. As for these "superheros" spawned they would be met with a variety of responses.

On Diego's side of the landing the sudden arrival of heroes would be chalked up to stands though Diego found it odd that the Octavians hadn't picked them up and that he didn't see their stands... It did not matter, he would deal with them quickly enough. Using Scary Monsters he morphed into his blue dinosaur form, his familiar nickname-Dio-written on the side, he would need the speed to approach his prey, the panda. As he approached and leaped forward at the jugular of the for he had to wonder what sort of freaks that this enemy had on their side?

Wammu on the other hand was more excited about foes of which he could truly test his mettle against though he wonder if true battle was even possible as an Ultimate Lifeform. Truly a worrying thought. Growing wings and taking to the air, Wammu would first bring his attention towards the one who flew above the battlefield bringing ruin to his vampire army (along with The Mandate's growing bombardment of said army.) As he flew to Copycat he summoned her attention with a few sharpened bone fragments shot from out of his chest not trying to intentionally hit her as an ambush would be a cheap shot, "Human! I, Wammu challenges you to battle!" As Wammu rose into the air to face Copycat his figure eclipsed the sun for a brief moment showing a quite elegant pose. He looked down at Bjornson as his bullets seemingly melted into his skin, the Ultimate Lifeform simply flicked his wing sending feathers about as sharp as knives while Wammu hoped this would keep him from interrupt his battle with one more worthy, "Human, this is no battle for you. Lead your forces while you can and I may grace you with battle."

The vampires, now mostly left to their own devices would continue to charge at the Skyhookians and in their hungry advance they would often catch some of the encircling forces and would try to rip them to pieces, but many were surrounded and would have trouble regenerating being shot from all angles. The hollow point bullets from Shawn's warband would be an issue, but it seemed to be generally ineffective when aimed anywhere other than the head which would provide a second's respite unless the bullet was to destroy the brain of course.

In other places some of Mical's manifested ships moved across Earth with small FTL jumps moving as high up into the atmosphere as possible as to avoid some massive damage to the planet. In North Africa multiple cruisers and frigates would appear attempting to use their point defense to deal with the attempted bombardment with their nanite clusters eating away at anything physically shit at the area and simple shielding to try and catch the plasma. This was not the most effective way to stop the fire and many shells would slip past the point defense- especially the plasma-leaving devastaing damage on the Octavian held section of Africa leading to the worker drones scrambling to build just a localized shield generator to keep their Ecuempolis project running. Meanwhile a few ships made their way to North Korea...

Skyhookian North Korea

As the superheros arrived and began spreading chaos throughout the Octavian lines reducing many drones to scrap and busting open quite the number of Grinder class tanks. The 5% lightspeed shots of the grinder tanks would begin aiming at Supernova aiming where her predicted path of flight would lead next. Should a shell hit, it would be quite detrimental to the hero's health. Superman Miracle would at first be focused by drone fighters strafing around his massive body firing lasers and missiles especially near his legs. Then somewhere far above the hero's head one of Mical's recently summoned Dreadnoughts had recently made a small FTL jump very, very high in the atmosphere to prevent some rather catastrophic effects on the planet. From far above the man the K'onqesta class dreadnought had a multitude of large pods open from below it as massive Tungsten rods readied themselves, hidden from the sun's glow from the enormity of the metal behemoth above it. Just as soon as they had been loaded, they would be fired sending massive rods reeling towards the planet. Now the secret to Octavian orbital bombardment rounds is that each rod is packed with a quite ludicrous amount of explosives and as they collided into the sea (and hopefully on Spaceman Miracle), the already large detonation would be added to with the explosion most likely affected the Squids as well.

The Grinder tanks would manage to withstand the Energy Core bombardment with their laser defense grids, shooting the cores mid-flight exploding leaving chunks of shrapnel flying throughout the Battlefield as all Octavian drones pushed forward looking to capture the area once and for all. Multiple armored spearhead's lead by Grinder tanks and Spawner IFV's would rush forward accompanied by drones and then would look to encircle Skyhookian miltia and then follow in crushing the encircled troops with superior numbers and firepower. Then The Mandate's outpost in the area would be properly disposed of and then similar could be done across the planet leading to a decisive Octavian victory in the region (one that was much needed at the moment).

Aqua Necklace would quickly find attempts to trap it inside the ground where it would slide up the legs of those who approached and then would force their way down the throats of the would-be trappers where they would then be poessed and turned against their allies before killing the poessed person themselves and moving into the sewers to go catch up with the Chosen with Angelo. Meanwhile Chosen would sprint thorough the back alley's and buildings to avoid the core explosions while carrying Angelo over their shoulder's quickly making their way towards the water supply for the area.

Massive plumes of water would rise from the detonation reaching up miles in the sky and as more fell and hit the Earth it would seem as if it was raining in the city that was being fought over which would benefit some of the upcoming actions of a certain stand user. As a bird, Pet Shop had been skilled at dealing with flying targets and he showed that off quite wonderfully as he chased off any Skyhookian aircraft from approaching Cioccolata and his Green Day's flesh eating mold, but with the arrival of these superheros the bird was interested in seeing something die in detail, "CAWWWWW!" Squawked the bird as it went through the window towards a certain Supernova. As he dived towards Supernova, he manifested a massive, boulder sized Ice chunk to crush the hero with his stand Horus while cackling in falcon.

As Casey charged towards Secco the stand user simply retreated up the stairs snickering to himself. If all went to plan Casey would follow him and fall right into the trap Ojiro set up. Should he go all the way to the top floor then surely Secco would win. He just had to avoid being caught...

Cioccolata meanwhile, bored from waiting on Secco to bring him Casey, was a little excited about Pet Shop's sudden exit but as he flew out of sight he sighed. He hadn't seen anyone die in a while so he guessed that if he let Green Day's mold spread a bit that it couldn't hurt. Secco would be fine as he usually was with the mold. On the battlefield below Green Day's flesh eating mold would begin to spread again eating away at any organic being who happened to be too close to the ground. As Cioccolata looked out the window he rubbed his hands together as a smile spread ear to ear. There could be some fun had here yet.

Paraoon

Had the Visoran and Simulacra not been there, the battle would have instantly been over with the arrival of the dreaded cruiser and the immediate disabling of the Octavian fleet. Luckily for the Imperium they had some new equipment that they could now test to their fullest extent. First dealing with the most pressing issue-the vacuum beam-the ANSR would simply bounce it towards the one heading towards the planet trying to cause some small level of interference in the incoming beam. Then moving to the oncoming fire the cubes would use their ANSR's to form a point defense net from the nothingness of space while a passive bubble around the slabs would keep most projectiles at bay for the moment as the point defense net formed itself in the next few seconds. The winding structure which stretched around the WK to the Simulacra ship lined end to end with the most efficient point defense system that the Visoran had encountered which should've been able to handle most of the fire coming from this Cruiser. Soon after each of the ships would begin spawning billions of strike craft from their sides which would immediately begin rushing towards the Cruiser, dodging projectiles and using ANSR manipulations to stop the flow of damage though still millions would be annihilated only to be replaced with a new stream of strike craft. The WK and the slabs would all immediately engage in intense EW looking at all avenues of taking down this thing while the WK unleashed billions of caster rounds modified to split itself which allowed the shots to grow exponentially hopefully bringing the Cruiser to heel. The other slabs would fire as well looking to aid in taking the Cruiser down.

Already having to try and evade the shots getting through their point defense from the Cruiser, the last thing that the slabs needed were the Warmind's interfering in the raging battle. Decided to use a familiar tactic and some karmic retribution the now defunct Octavian fleet would be used as they were in Ridley's Rest. With an activation of their ANSR devices many of the Ocatvian ships would find themselves teleported inside the three remaining Warmind's in Paraoon and with the WK they would be sent spinning inside of the Warminds basically transformed into drills as they spun at ever increasing speeds until they would become little more than blurs to the naked eye.

Unnamed System

The magicons noticed that something was wrong when the orb dissapaited when hit with the chains and once the Octavian ships began to disintegrate, each and every one of them began to search for the signature of the orb only to find it seperated in sub-atomic particles. A clever maneuver, but the magicons could do one better, first using some basic merging magic many of the particles would be forcibly slammed back togther before the magicons summoned the energies of Micronous Prime and focusing on the particles of the orb, it's size would be forcibly adjusted to where they would normally be before a couple Fallen Beams would be sent into the core of these things, embodying destruction in it's purest form which would hopefully be more effective than the banishment being used previously.

The glowing blue aura coming from the Gladian ships were noticed and some magicons were sent to stop it with the quite basic Chains of Primus. As some portals formed from the sides of the Armada thousand of miles of radiant blue chains would begin growing on all sides of groupings of Gladian ships where it would then loop itself around again and again moving at about 0.9c until the chains had completely enveloped a portion of ships where they would then be crushed and compressed by them. Increasingly large portions would be surrounded and squeezed upon hopefully denting the numbers of the Armada by a bit.

On the other side of the magicon-Octavian fleet the sudden arrival of reletivistic kitchen ware was less of a surprise than would've been expected. Point defense went to effect and the magicons used a couple portals to move them elsewhere (sending some to aid their allies fighting the Gladians sending a couple spoon streams at their ships), but after all was said and done nothing too significant came of the attack. After one battle, Warper was already tired of dealing with whatever that thing was. Only one took that much to deal with and there were supposed to be another six of them? He wasn't about to get himself involved in the mess fighting all those would be, but it wasn't as if he could teach the Octavians magic. Unless?...

The Synthesis of a virus

After all this time the `Stando Virus` had finally been synthesized by Octavian OPRA operatives. It took some time to understand the more esoteric aspects of the viral strain, but after some cross examination in Deception databanks some lines had begun to be drawn and finally the secret of stands were available to Octavia! There was also the question of the secondary virus found in the arrow Chosen had retrieved off Polnareff known as the `Requiem Virus`. It seemingly improved the stand creating process that the original did, but it was relatively similar and was also able to be synthesized though it had a habit of behaving...strangely in lab conditions. It would have to be researched further, but it could be produced at a slower rate. Viral samples were given out to some choice Mechanators and despite the occasional core overload it would seem as if Octavia was one step further to making a stand based force. A few samples were sent in stealth corvettes to Earth in order to spread them among the Mechanators there and give the `Requiem` variant to The Paramount...

Diplomacy

The Paragon saw a variety of new messages from a few sources. For one there was the Tzakyuza. The Paragon was fairly excited to see what the Solblood would give Octavia in this war especially if the accounts from H'Krell were to be believed, then again there was a very real chance they refused the offer entirely, but as for now it would seem that...oh... H'Krell was certainly not to date in their affairs as it seemed with their nation in shambles and the Solblood being dead and all. It didn't matter much since some use could still be derived from them, it was just rather shocking seeing how badly things had went for them. It was rather nice that he had received ship data though, it would make a guild contact much easier if that was the route that Father chose to take in this matter.

The Imperium grieves the loss of your Solblood, truly the galaxy has lost much in her passing. We thank you for the info and we will take whatever blood colors you can provide. Your co-operation will see the fall of the Orion Republic and the renewal of the Tzakyuza nation

The next message came from a group called the Pandorans and they seemed to have a deep hatred for the Mandate of humanity (which seemed like a reasonable opinion by The Paragon, they seemed like quite the annoying bunch) and wanted `gentically pure prisoners`. Usually that would warrant some questions, but at this point anything would make Father happy, even whatever branch of pseudoscience that these people may bring to the table.

The Imperium will accept your gracious offer. We shall ensure your Remenant shall be restored back to the golden age of Pandoran civillaization. We are already able to wire over some organics located within our own Imperium in their many forms. We shall send some from our Organic zoos and many of the Teendi who should be intelligent enough to work for what you intend to do with them. Be sure not to leave them unrestrained lest they cause problems.

by **The Dominion of Mankind** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:59 am

Interstellar space- in range of Paraoon
Attention. Temporal malfeasance detected. VDP incursion redirection to self.
Before the virtual particles responsible for the odious task of carrying the fundamental forces of physics had even made their rounds, the Explorer class vessel had started its response.
TAGs activated, surrounding the vessel in heavily compressed time as the vessel simply disappeared, translating to relative safety- a good kiloparsec of distance between it and the vacuum decay.

"Unexpected occurrence. Likelihood of Dominion interference low. Detecting unknown vessel appearing in combat zone. Adjusting environmental parameters of universe [3->4->11->54][7->8->9][6523]" MT droned on to himself.
MT took note of the FTL speeds of the Cruiser, luckily his vessels were built for destroying fast opponents, having been warring with the Dominion for some time. But the elephant in the room was not in simple physical observations.

"Well, time to throw myself to the metaphorical dogs. These exercises are never as easy as they have any right to be."
*click*

"Environmental parameters have changed unexpectedly. Please reconcile them." MT curtly stated.
"I see. Commence priority shift. Dominion presence is now secondary. Use whatever means you have at your disposal to further investigate the source."
"And then?" MT quickly cut in.
"Depth will be increased appropriately. Please keep to the schedule." the voice said in a somewhat menacing manner.
"Of course." MT blurted out without realising.

Concerned by the tone of the voice- MT sped up his perception of time a smidgen to make the merciful *click* come sooner. And soon did it come.
MT decided to make do with what he had. Detecting the primitive vessels of the ISO escaping in realspace he arranged a handful of lineships (the "unknown" classification of vessel) to await their becoming stationary.

Then with his current, singular explorer: MT chose to unleash his compression lance arrays upon the new arrival, anticipating their response. He used the translation array of one of his larger vessels to swap the position of his drones and the incoming stream of point defence fire, bringing a few million of them much closer to the enemy vessel.
The rest of the drones were able to avoid the dizzying amount of fire with varying degrees of success. Some simply moved and dodged the predictable patterns, others were able to translate away and the remainder used their Forcers to render the enemy fire harmless.
Around 30% of the drones were not so successful and were blown to pieces, being unequipped to take enemy fire. Still, the evasion success rate was only set to improve with further observation as the point defence seemed to lack the finesse of a Dominion AI behind it: anticipating and changing up the spread patterns and timings countless times per second.

The majority of the surviving drones chose to surrounding the remaining Visoran forces in a defensive screen, ready to intercept incoming fire.

Earth

Brobarious contemplated the Paramount's words for a brief second before replying. "Very well, your compliance with my request is appreciated. True to my word I will disengage, though since this battle has piqued my curiosity I shall observe from a safe distance."
Of course in reality, Brobarious was simply unwilling to enter a fight with so many unknown variables. Joining the losing side would result in nothing but trouble and with the inability to see far ahead enough to discern the victor, He preferred the simple approach of waiting to see who would lose.
And with a brief flash of light Brobarious was gone- the observation part a half-truth. He blinked several kilometers away to produce a cloaked drone to observe the fight, freeing him up to investigate the machinations of Earth.

Pondering where to go, he decided upon the United States of America- wishing to see what had become of the great superpower of the long distant past...

Somewhere in the Universe...
Circles glowed and fabricators fired. An armada born from nothing to fight nothing had emerged.
Strange spherical constructs and Menger sponges slowly flashed into existence, subatom by subatom as the Dominion prepared their response to the Simulacra.
Pocket Plane Creation Successful. Reseating in progress.
"Fantastic, given current observations we now outnumber the bastards 300:1 at least."
"Now all we need to do is wait for our AI to finish reseating into a more suitable vessel and we should be good to go and give those bastards a bloody welcome.". Keith joyfully stated.
"What about that damn Pontiff?"
Suggestion: Investigate Earth
"AI is right, sensor readings are all over the place at Earth, not to mention it's Earth, or an Earth at least. If there's any one place I'd choose to check out in this universe, it'd be there.

"Very well, once we've revealed ourselves to the Simulacra we can dispatch a scouting force to Earth- with the pre-requisite that the galaxy is still in one piece."

by **Gladian Imperium** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 11:15 am

Unnamed Colonial System

The bridge of the Walls of Iron flew into an ordered chaos as the Chains of Primus lashed out at the fleet, encircling them and constricting around the shields, with the apparent intent of crushing them.

"Captain, esoteric attack inbound. The shields of the larger ships are holding it back for now, but the CV on the lighter ships can only keep something like this for so long."

"Redirect our Conduit, let's throw these chains off of us and into the Tempest."

"Aye sir, recalibrating."

As the chains wrapped around the greater fleet, some of the smaller ships would suffer their shields failing, although the chains would be briefly halted by an unknown force-perhaps an auxiliary shield system, but what system would cause the chains to fracture and spark?

Then, the Walls of Iron erupted. A great storm cloud exploded outward from it and enveloped the fleet, masking them from the Magicons' view. Suddenly, the chains seemed to...yank, suddenly extending further and further into the cloud, as though the fleet was trying to escape through FTL. In fact, however, the chains had been grabbed onto by a current of The Tempest, the massive interdimensional "storm" that many civilizations of the Arkeyanaverse used for travel. In this process, the chains had been grabbed by The Tempest and dragged away from the ships, fated to drift forever among the infinite expanse of the Tempest unless they were banished or retracted.

And then, the bombing started. Great aurora-esque beams shot from the rift into the Tempest, signature signs of the Bifrost, the system of teleportation utilized by the Gladians, and crossing the void of space towards the Magicons being charged by the Orb. The great beams wound around the Orb, and impacted the Magicon vessels, producing bizarre patterns around them, before the vessels were torn apart from the inside-exploding outwards in a sphere of shrapnel, killing any Magicons within, as the beams faded from existence.

Paraoon

The Octavian vessels, much like the ones in Ridley's Rest, were transported into the remaining Warminds as a means of telefragging-which only worked briefly. Just as they began severely damaging the forward interiors, the Warminds vanished, having jumped away to the Phase Gates of Linnaeris.

Battle of Earth, Earth Orbit

It Was Like This When I Got Here continued their methods of slicing through the fighter squadrons of the Octavians, yet took note of the boarding maneuvers on the Mandate ships. Vanishing and for an instant, appearing in two places at once, the Stealth Warmind jumped to the rear of one of the Mandate's Fleets, diving through it at relativistic speeds as it deposited its payload and strafed the nanotech-infested ships with Effectors, the effects being twofold:
On the boarded ships, several glistening, silvery balls of what appeared to be some form of slime appeared, only to reshape themselves into an ever-shifting mass of weaponry and limbs that set upon the Octavian Boarders, attacking with monomolecular vibro-blades, rapid-firing micromissile racks, blasts of Effector and Chaingun fire, and occasionally even the devastating, if brief, flashes of laser fire. Secondly, the ships infested with Nanites would see the swarms suddenly...glow, as though being heated to a tremendous degree, melting them and reducing the once-threatening piles of nanites to little more than immobile slag. As IWLTWIGH cleared the lines of the Mandate fleet and began entering those of the Octavians, its dual 3000m quad-gravitic railguns swung into action, strafing the fleet with multi-exatonne Worldbreaker Shells as Effectors fired as Disruptor Lances, slicing into ships as the Warmind flew its course, heading for the other Mandate fleet encircling the Octavians.

Mount Stromboli, Italy

The cloud of spores drew closer to its destination, Mt. Stromboli, and impacted the ground at significant velocity. Streaked with rapidly expanding bands of scarlet, it consolidated and reformed into the form of Masque, although it was...different. Taller, broader, two pauldrons upon its shoulders and a humanoid body, covered in some weird armor, beneath the cloak. Silently, Masque extended itself, invisibly filling the air surrounding it, the Paramount, and the people against him with nanites, ready to send its plan into motion.

But for now, it remained silent, waiting for someone to make the first move.

by **The-International Space Organization** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 12:27 pm

CRUISER 'STARFURY' - PARAOON - OCTAVIAN SPACE

"Foe has adapted to Alpha pattern Ack-Ack. Moving to QAPAI control... Detecting hints of manipulation. Tracing source. Decompressing"

"Gunnery, focus. Leave the Manips to the crew. Sensors, eyes on enemy?"

"Eyes on. Moved rapidly. Inbound shots. Shunting down... Shunted"

"Got eyes on the Manips being used. Rather familiar pattern, eh Captain?"

"That it is... Compress ratio 1 to 1. Gunnery, status?"

"Shots qued. Waiting for comression."

"Manip, hold... Now."

"Compressing. "

At an immesurable moment, the Cruiser surged to life. With the Compression Lances touching the energy-wave thin shield that marked the edge of the cruiser, it came to life and the next chain of events was one so rapid that it was almost impossible to track an order-

'First', the Cruiser vanished. 'Second', the Explorer vanished as-well. 'Third', the Cruiser re-appeared where the Explorer had been. 'Forth', the Explorer re-appeared where the Cruiser had been. 'Fifth', the Compression Lances struck home.

All the above events happened in the same instant it took the Quantum Clock to tick forward one measurement unit. And then the Cruiser returned it's attention to the vast drone swarms. The metaphorical gloves coming off, as it returned to sitting, a mocking few meters off the Explorer's bow- The 'Sixth' move. And then moves 'Seven', 'Eight' and 'Nine' happened so fast they blended into the same move.

Move 'Seven' was heralded by the Cruiser shoving itself up- Vanishing from Real-Space, as it's 'torpedo hatches' opened wide. Dumping a hell of 'torpedoes' down the Dimensions it had 'leapt up'. At the same time, dumping uncalcuable amounts of data into a 'Real-Space' construct. Shoving the shell down the pre-requesite layers, as it re-appeared in Real-Space in, for lack of a better way to put it, inside the core of Paraoon.

Move 'Eight' happened within the same moment the relocation had. Two 'batteries' of 'main-caliber' guns projecting their rage into the Visoran fleet, adapative shells fighting adaptive armor.

Move 'Nine' was the same fury of the Cruiser's main battery coming online- 'Missiles' 'leaping' forward from hatches as they slammed into the 'surface' of Paraoon from beneath. Detonations shaking the planet's crust from beneath...

And much of this happened on the second tick of the Quantum Clock's smallest unit of measurement.

"Ten."

Move 'Ten' happened much the same way Movement 'One' and 'Two' had happened. With the Cruiser quietly exchanging places with the Explorer again- Shoving it [and the compression beams] into the core of the exploding planet, as the Cruiser silently returned to the spot it had occupied at the beginning of move 'One'...

L1N-3R TASKFORCE 'DRAGONS BREATH' - RIDLEYS REST - REAL [?] SPACE

The L1N-3Rs took a hell of a battering, many of them being knocked out as the focused fire from the Visoran rained home. The remaining five or so grouping together- As the numerous strike-frames quickly made the decision to go down slugging. Diving head-first into masses of Octavian and Visoran fighters, missiles and guns roaring as they sent hellish volumes of fire down-range. Explosions worth Exatons shaking space, and wiping out swathes as they went down fighting to the last craft. The L1N captains spending a few moments debating their last action, as they studied the wall of metal set against them... And then torpedoes tubes opened. Torpedoes launching into the void of space, before vanishing with surges of energy...

And then coming crashing back down with devastating blows. Twenty four universe shattering blows slamming against the wall of metal at the same instant, the 'warheads' shaping to do the maximum damage possible. Terrifying explosions racing across the shielded wall of metal like a wildfire racing through a field of dry grass, expanding to encompass it. And then uncaluable amounts of energy finally detonated, in rage against the metal wall which had denied the L1Ns a clear line of fire. The remaining L1Ns turning to run- But most were too battered and wounded to risk BFDs, as they simply slammed engines to full. Racing for the form of Octavian ships and formations, firing everything they had as they surged ahead. A huge barrage of missiles, shells, and anti-strikecraft fire lancing outwards to strike at anything hostile in range. One L1N in particular turning, as it heard the dying screams of the marine boarding team, overwhelmed by the sudden Visoran aid. Guns turning against the Sword of the Imperium's armor, and heavy torpedoes again loosing into the empty void of space. Accelerating ahead as they twisted and turned to avoid defenses trying to take them out, as the L1N responsible for launching them detonated with the fire of it's fuel tanks filling the void. The torpedoes, and the raw amount of shells thrown about by the L1N's last stand all beginning to slam home...

ICN DIPLOMATIC VESSEL MIDNIGHT DREAMS - ISO DIPLOMATIC RELAY RAN-3 - ISO SPACE

Stuhr brushed some dust from the pauldrons on the diplomatic suit, as he look at the briefing in hand... Smirking, before wiping the look off his face as he turned to the console infront of him. Octavian communication lines had been mapped out by the UG when the war had begun- And old notes on what lines the Octavians had used in Cymopolia, that utter clusterfuck... As he input the needed lines of communication, ensuring the screen was off and everything was secure.

Hello, Octavians.
I have been ordered on behalf of the International Space Organization to make contact with your nation, in order to discuss a deal that would prove beneficial to the current status of the war, to both the International Space Organization, and the Octavians. Please, contact me further on this line.

And, like that, the message was away... Now he just had to deal with the Andromedans and Brisan.

It was going to be an exceedingly long day, wasn't it?

by **Sildorian Empire** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:25 am

Where the Brave dare not go

After what felt like two and a half months but was probably less than a standard tick, the two relatively large taskforces breached out of the Delara System in their own respective ways. It was probably not a smart idea, given the Sildorian and Bloodshadian voidcrafts' respective methods in breaching the logical barrier blocking man's ambition to dwell between stars, but given the sudden nature of the emergency, neither side had thought, prior, to calibrate their Drives with each other. What's more, they probably would not really be able to calibrate the two regardless. The Bloodshadian Frameshift Drives were arcane in nature. Of the 31 fleets that make the First Star Order, only 3 voidcrafts were equipped with that rare Craft informally called a Psi-Drive, and while a Jump Drive could potentially be calibrated even with an arcane craft, there were few of those, even in the largest Sildorian Star Order.

All this and more mattered none though, as -like Captain Weindorf had suggested, the fleet would only arrive "when it means to". And that was exactly what it did. The First Armada breached into the Kleon System, not quite ready but more than willing to cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war.

Imperial-Octavia wrote:
Operation System Error

A stealth vessel somewhere in the periphery of the Imperium would begin making connections among the internets of Sildoria and Bloodshade disguising itself as a domestic signal. Once inside, sentient AI bot farms would begin to populate the virtual infrastructure of these nations monitoring their activity and noting their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Within the course of a few hours the AI would launch their attack; the most viewed websites of these nations would be filled with a particularly nasty memetic causing an irrational rage in the viewer which would cause them to begin rampaging everywhere they went, surely causing some chaos among their ranks. Then the economic institutions of the nation's were tactics and though they were far more protected than the regular web (in Bloodshade's case they were on a completely different intranet) however a solution to this issue arrived in a massive phishing operation as everyone confirmed to work in the banks, stock markets, and what not would be sent e-mail (or their equivalent of it) messages which when opened would discreetly download sentient AI which would begin keylogging. Once they were able to gain access to their economic institutions they would wait as the email with the keylogging AI was sent up the chain of command automatically until reaching the highest levels of the organizations before they would find their control stripped and the banks and stock markets sent into chaos. Money dissapearing from accounts, interest rates going up and down sporadically, and who knows how many large business loans cancelled. A similar system was tried in government positions where if let in they would begin printing trillion upon trillions of their currency in order to cause hyper-inflation and would also try to cause some other chaos in the military by giving contradictory orders and most dangerously telling of civil wars starting in certain areas and to shoot ships and stations in that area on sight, though by this point it was suspected that the governments would be able to stop the AI chain after seeing what had happened to the banks.

This cyber attack was hoped to cause chaos among the situation and hopefully make Bloodshade drop out before they got too involved. The last thing Octavia needed was more enemies.

Sildora Prime, Sila

In the meantime, a much less glorified part of the bureaucratic organism of Security was doing a much more important, though equally thankless, job. While the pilots, cannoniers and explorers of the Sildorian Military are well respected and even better known among the average Sildorian, the duty of keeping safe and secure the organization spanning across stars, itself a Herculean task on the most peaceful of times, falls on the shoulders of the Sildorian Bureau of Security and Intelligence. And they had their tasks cut out for them.

For much of the next few standard planetary rotations, the SBSI was the most busy it had been in ages. While cyber-offensives were by no means rare in modern Warfare, Sildoria had yet to face a foe with this level of technological disparity -at least in a fight where it was the one on the weaker side. For the most part, the slicers and programmers behind their holo-desks had the easiest job. It was the desk jockeys and clerks who were in for it: explaining to the megacorps that no, the Sildorian economy did not just collapse, control your bloody workers.

by **Ignis States** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:19 am

"I just passively observed everything going on with a mirror of mine. I used that to watch you and your blunders. The worst of those blunders? Your 'pragmatic' bombings. You didn't get me right where you want me. I have you right where I want you."
Mark doesn't elaborate on this as he simply keeps listening to the Paramount, keeping his aura steady. When the request to attack first hits, his fist clenches down slightly.

"You want me to strike first, then I'm going to do just that." Right before he charges forward, the Ausar pauses to observe the flashy electrical power boost thing. What a basic bitch power boost.
"You got stronger. I'll give you that. But your strength isn't the most impressive I've ever seen. If you had fought me at my prime, I'd kill you effortlessly. As it stands now...!
Around the man's body, his midnight aura swirls, surrounding him in a massive pillar of shadow. It bursts into the air, blocking out the sky above him and the Paramount for miles. Slowly, Mark raises his hand, the storm of Darkness howling and writhing as a violet glow melds with it: The color of Nightmares. A growl builds in the Ausar's throat as the pavement beneath his feet and mere inches from Paramount's is ripped to shreds with the force of his energy alone, finally culminating as deep red flame surrounds him.
And in a single flash of light, it all dispels. Mark slides his right foot in front of his left, placing his sword by his side before resting his hand on the pommel. That other guy, Brobarius something something, left. That probably leaves more to Mark, just his luck.

"Ready when you are."

Meanwhile, elsewhere....

"Yellowblood and orangeblooded subversives exist even with the castes' extreme loyalty. We'll send them to you for whatever tests you may hold. With luck, may we succeed in reclaiming our lost systems."
The Tzakyuzan transmission ends, left with only a set of coordinates. Said coordinates are to a maximum security prison planet in one of the last remaining Tzakyuzan regions of space.

by **Khorzromoth** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:07 pm

Sol System
Earth | Sicily | Ginostra

Upon hearing the Paramount's taunt, a half-smile crept up on Retzvethkhatztemnet's face. A low hiss escaped his lips before he spoke, black fog rising from his mouth with each cavernous syllable.

"Indeed. I must congratulate you, little cacophonous husk - typically, when we tread on surface-critters such as yourself, they don't figure out some way to nip back at our heels. You got lucky with those quaint sorcerers of yours. So have we, I might add. Their consciousnesses taste better than those of your ships."

As the Paramount and Mark initiated their spectacle, the Spawn rose further up into the air and disintegrated, the dispersal of his body masked by the veil of shadow conjured by the Ausar. Deep, echoing laughter resonated through the darkness, intertwined with the wailing of Mark's sorcery like the howling of wind in a thunderstorm. When the light returned, small pockets of black mist lingered throughout the air, soon coalescing into dozens of faint, spectral silhouettes, all bearing Retzvethkhatztemnet's original form. As Mark readied his sword, he would notice a slight change in its appearance - countless strange black markings now appeared etched into its surface, pulsating with a dim, blood-red glow and swirling dark wisps of smoke. As the latter began to snake their way around his sword arm up to his head, a harsh whisper passed through his mind, and in a gesture that only he could see, the floating spectres around him all parted their lips in unison.

"Strike true, swordsman."

Octavian Space
Gladian Rendezvous System

Imperial-Octavia wrote:
Unnamed System

The magicons noticed that something was wrong when the orb dissapaited when hit with the chains and once the Octavian ships began to disintegrate, each and every one of them began to search for the signature of the orb only to find it seperated in sub-atomic particles. A clever maneuver, but the magicons could do one better, first using some basic merging magic many of the particles would be forcibly slammed back togther before the magicons summoned the energies of Micronous Prime and focusing on the particles of the orb, it's size would be forcibly adjusted to where they would normally be before a couple Fallen Beams would be sent into the core of these things, embodying destruction in it's purest form which would hopefully be more effective than the banishment being used previously.

The glowing blue aura coming from the Gladian ships were noticed and some magicons were sent to stop it with the quite basic Chains of Primus. As some portals formed from the sides of the Armada thousand of miles of radiant blue chains would begin growing on all sides of groupings of Gladian ships where it would then loop itself around again and again moving at about 0.9c until the chains had completely enveloped a portion of ships where they would then be crushed and compressed by them. Increasingly large portions would be surrounded and squeezed upon hopefully denting the numbers of the Armada by a bit.

On the other side of the magicon-Octavian fleet the sudden arrival of reletivistic kitchen ware was less of a surprise than would've been expected. Point defense went to effect and the magicons used a couple portals to move them elsewhere (sending some to aid their allies fighting the Gladians sending a couple spoon streams at their ships), but after all was said and done nothing too significant came of the attack. After one battle, Warper was already tired of dealing with whatever that thing was. Only one took that much to deal with and there were supposed to be another six of them? He wasn't about to get himself involved in the mess fighting all those would be, but it wasn't as if he could teach the Octavians magic. Unless?...

Tearing its way through to the Magicons from the Octavian fleet, the swarm's progress suddenly began to stutter. Solid blocks formed within the free-flowing nanite mass, converging onto each other in greater and greater volumes, as the will of Micronus Prime was channeled through the Magicons onto their ravenous assailant. Soon, the entire swarm was pulled back into its original shape - within barely a moment of the orb being reformed, a surge of destructive energy was beamed directly into its core, causing it to shudder and pulsate at the initial impact. Bypassing its outer barrier, the Fallen Beams were sent rippling through its interior, washing over countless infinitesimal surfaces as their energies were channeled and dispersed. An intricate network of glowing veins briefly appeared on the orb's surface, almost as though it was about to burst open, before the offending blasts were radiated outwards as a conic shockwave towards the Magicon fleet. Having already been partially absorbed and heavily dampened, it dissipated after a rather short distance, grazing the Magicon frontline before fading out.

A rampage thwarted? Not quite. Disrupted, certainly, and somewhat delayed; the Magicons had somewhat more bite than had been anticipated, and a slightly new approach was perhaps in order. But it would not be held off for long, for there was still prey to be consumed. And so, after a few painstaking - if exceedingly short - moments, the orb disappeared once more, just as the Bifrost beams passed around its silhouette and struck the Magicon vessels like a terrible storm.

What reemerged in the midst of the carnage was not, by any means, an orb. Stretching and whirling at blinding speed around the assorted wreckage was a formless, twisting vortex of countless immensely long tendrils, lashing out in all directions at what still remained of the fleet. Each swing tore clean through the hulls and bodies alike of the whirling mass' targets, meeting seemingly no resistance; blow after blow from thousands of serpentine whips sliced through ship armour and living metal as though they were butter. Bodies were shredded to ribbons, chunks of shrapnel reduced to mere flakes. Yet in spite of its apparent frenzy, each swing seemed carefully calculated, each target meticulously tracked. There was no dodging its strikes - each tendril moved at such speed that reacting to its position was all but impossible, and anything straying beyond its reach would soon find its terrible whips snaking after it, while its entire mass moved and contorted through the void in search of prey to viciously disassemble.

Within this scene of chaos, one would require truly exceptional acumen to note that the flailing thing striking at the Magicons was missing part of its full mass. Indeed, though its presence within the system was made up of but a single, unfragmented "body", a rather different arrangement could be found elsewhere, in a place considerably harder to reach. Fragments of the whole lay suspended beyond the rift, sequestered away from even the prying hands of gods - yet from which they themselves were perfectly capable of reaching outwards.

As the writhing blur continued to rip through the fleet, stragglers soon found themselves assaulted with a new hail of extradimensional "dive bombs", materialising directly onto them from seemingly nowhere and disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but gaping holes in their wake as a sign of their presence. Still more fragments simply remained hidden beyond the veil - perched as though at a birds-eye view, they lay still and observant, keenly watching the violent spectacle unfold.

by **Bloodshade** » Sun Aug 09, 2020 5:24 pm

Ginostra, Sicily

Things seemed to have been heating up already. The Ausar was busy flexing his arcane muscles. A new ally seemed to have replaced Brobarious who seemed to have tucked tail and run, one just as mystical and eerie as the other, although this time, he seemed to have been interested in aiding them already, snarking at the Paramount and possessing Mark's sword. Vishala couldn't help but snicker audibly. That old geezer was still adament in using that toothpick. Very well, she wasn't going to sit this one out.

"Alright...time to take out some interstellar trash" - Vishala said with a mirthful tone accompanying her words.

Not a moment too soon and the lapine, perched atop the ship's roof, leaps a dozen or so meters into the air before letting herself free fall to the ground before twirling and shifting her body around in order to land on both her feet like an agile feline. She took one deep, audible breath Her demeanor was grim and forbidding. Pupils dilating abnormally, almost saturating her iris while small arcs of what would seem to be lightning danced and pooled around her eyes. A membrane of haze occupied the immediate surrounding area across her skin, appearing as if there was this untouchable heatwave suddenly protecting her but it was simply a product of her body's vibrational movements causing the transfer in energy to the air molecules around her, accelerating them in the process. Ready to pounce at any moment while possessing a persona completely alien to her typical psyche.

"This what ya want?" - Vishala

In the meantime, Ambrosia was visibly vexed and worried about what she forecasts to be a careless and brash brawl. She might've been somewhat hopefuly that Vishala would be somewhat heedful of the island and its inhabitants but Mark and the Paramount were more than ready to flex their muscles and it's not like they needed her. Masque was apparently here as well, seemingly hovering nearby and taking great interest in the battle to come. Gods above, these people frustrated her to no end. The village was still filled with hundreds of natives and tourists who seemingly were disconnected from world events. She'd contemplate dealing with the Paramount after evacuating both tourists and natives from the island.

Ambrosia began by formulating multiple copies of herself and embedding one single thought in each clone of hers to follow: Convince and persuade the people on this island to leave. All around her, a hundred seperate pieces of shrubery twirled and formed odd shapes and sizes all around one another, eventually forming into near identical copies of Ambrosia, although one could tell the difference if they simply poked at her. These greenery clones were nothing but extensions of Ambrosia's will. A snap of her finger and each clone understood what she wanted, heading over to each house containing any signs of life.

Not only was her soft demeanor, slender figure a calming, reassuring sight for this island's population, she had already materialized different articles of suitable clothing, rather than her skintight battledress. A simple pair of wide-leg crop jeans and an off-shoulder crop top with a meaningless tourist bureau badge attatched to the latter piece just to evoke that sense of legitmiacy and authority. While one would have simply just teleported these poeple to mainland Sicily, Ambrosia didn't want to give them a worse hand than they've already been dealt by the presence of all these godlike beings. In any case, Ambrosia put her mind to the task and confronted each group on the island, speaking to and barraging the diverse number of people on this island with a sense of urgency, most importantly in the lingua franca: Italian.

"Ciao! Scusa se ti disturbo ma c'è un'emergenza su quest'isola. Sbrigati ora, sei in pericolo imminente! Dove posso mandarti?" - Ambrosia and each of her clones uttered as an initiation to every person they came across.

Most were already aware of the shenanigans happening and asked if they could be sent to mainland Sicily, readily giving away the addresses of friends and family. The others who were initially stubborn were simply given a front row seat to the silent alien showdown currently about to blow up any second now. That got them spilling the beans. The moment they felt comfortable with their destination, Ambrosia sent each and every person flying into a portal of her making, throwing them to relatively safe places on Sicily while acceding to their demands.

by **Imperial-Octavia** » Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:11 pm

Paraoon

After the Cruiser's inexplicable display of power seemingly teleporting about the battlefield as well as the transportation of the Simulacra ship the WK was immediately aware of a need for more firepower, but first they would have to avoid the shots fired in it's direction by the Starfury. With a few simple manipulations the WK would send the batteries into the system's sun and in the highly probable chance of it's survival the entire sun would be encompassed in a infinitely dense metal covering the sun hopefully trapping it for the time being. Onto the next step of the WK's plan it beckoned the other slabs closer to it, teleporting them into it's presence and then after a quick ANSR command the two slabs next to the larger Visoran cube would begin to transform. They grew in size with surprising neatness for the amount of mass that they accumulated in a matter of a few plank seconds. Millions of tons of mass would be added upon the slabs as they too would become WK's lined with all sorts of caster arrays and ANSR's able to contend with the threat they were facing. The EW intensified on the cruiser as well as the quantity of caster shots which would be further amplified by the WK's next action. The caster rounds fired by the first WK had already been exponentially grown, but after the Starfury's display of power it was seen as time to take off the metaphorical gloves. In but a few Planck moments quadrillions of caster barrages-summoned through the rapid production of them within the WKs-would surround the Cruiser barely even a micrometer away. Battery upon battery of caster shot would appear close enough to scrape the armor of the Starfury before slamming into said armor.

Whatever it was that the Cruiser summoned in Paraoon before destroying it, reducing the planet to little more than space dust, one of the WKs would send a caster shot inside the construct and set it to explode inside said construct with enough force to destroy a couple stars at the very least, likely drawing some attention from forces as of yet unknown. Visoran fighters would more than take up the place of the drones as they used caster shots to try and deconstruct the seemingly invincible vessel. This battle was proving to be an interesting one...

Ginostra

If The Paramount had a mouth it would be locked into a deep grimace at the moment. Why couldn't this have been simple? All he had wanted to do was test what his enemies could do against him, but the longer he stayed within the battle the more obvious it became he may be do for a longer stay than he bargained for, emphasized by that demon spawn transporting itself into Mark's sword and multiplying himself all the whils(along with Vishala's high speed vibrating). The Paramount wished he didn't have to show what he could do so soon, but with the limited practice he had he knew there was one way he could match it blow for blow. Letting a part of his power dissect parts of him, a few orbs came out of The Paramount's back only to be quickly replaced by more metal as some liquid rushed over it. From the orbs grew new figures, molded by the liquid metal that consityited them until they formed into near perfect copies of The Paramount himself. He matched the demon orb one-to-one on clones and he hoped that it would keep him.from getting ganged up on. Now if only they could trap Mark, but as far as they knew the module only allowed them to do so much...

With that very thought it went to work, molding The Paramount's metal body into something more like liquid and then automatically sending part of that liquid into the cracks beneath his feet as what it planned to do became immediately obvious to The Paramount. Under normal circumstances he would have made his surprise known, but now...now he could let this miraculous event slide to maintain his defensive position as his hand blades popped out from his hands revealing that they had adopted the yellow energy from the module, almost completely converted into it appearing as two blades of pure energy. The Paramount noticed that there were these particles in the air, but from what? The Paramount remembering what he had done last time allowed another part of his foot slink off to find whoever they came from hopefully letting him find the source if it was of any note. "Very impressive charging Mark and you as well demon-spawn for going into his sword, but we have noticed you haven't attacked us yet? Is it fear that stops you or a lack of basic listening skills? We're waiting...

DIO's mansion

As Mirage and Fragment kicked down the door, two of DIO's most loyal followers, Vanilla Ice and Enrico Pucchi immediately rose to action, Vanilla Ice and looked to their lord softly saying, "Lord DIO, I shall investigate these intruders." Before Vanilla Ice could run to deal with the newfound enemies his lord DIO stopped him

"Wait Ice, take Pucchi with you. I wish for you two to work together in your service for me." The two men looked at each other for but a moment before both men bowed and went on their way. The two most devout followers of DIO had a rocky relationship. On one hand Vanilla Ice envied and hated Pucchi. Vanilla could tell that DIO loved Pucchi more than he did him, but why? Was he not loyal enough? The man who cut his own head off for his lord unaware of the amazing power that DIO held which even overtook death? The man which single-handedly killed two of the six of the Joestar's allies? What had this Priest done that Vanilla had not done himself? He hadn't even fought for Lord DIO when that most abhorrent, detestable, vile, Joestar named Jotaro killed his master! The very thought of it made Vanilla Ice furious causing him to tighten his fist to such an extent that he began to draw blood from his hand. Pucchi on the other hand had no such feelings of hatred towards Vanilla Ice. It was his fate to try and achieve DIO's favor and fail, and Pucchi was aware of this knowing that DIO's "gravity" had drawn in Ice, but instead of the collision and merger which DIO and Pucchi had, Vanilla was doomed to orbit in jealously. Instead Pucchi was more worried about what the vampire may do if he ever snapped due to the rage that DIO's relationship to Pucchi brought him.

The large, muscle bound, vampire could easily break Pucchi over his knee, not to mention his terrifying stand... Pucchi's Whitesnake was formidable, but the priest knew deep in his very soul that if it was ever to go against Cream it'd clearly lose...The two men walked in silence for the rest of the trip. As Mirage and Fragment walked through the dark and oddly misty mansion they would see a dark skinned man in purple robes with gold accents around the chest. His brown eyes blended in with the dark but his white hair sharply contrasted with it.Instead of the priest himself, it was an illusion made by Whitesnake to gage the power and intention of the intruders, "Would you mind telling me why you have come here?"

"Father's orders. We're here to kick your leader's arse so step aside." Fragment grinned and put fist on her other hand as Mirage looked into the man's eyes, trying to go past his mental defences. She slipped in, as if he let him. His mind felt featureless, and she tried to probe further, like a person touching their way out of a dark hallway. That's when she realized - there is no other end of the hallway. She backed up and whispered to her sister, telling her that this person isn't real. Fragment smirked.

The illusion grimaced with disgust at Fragment's comments, though he wanted to call out this insolent non-believer for her disrespect for DIO, he knew that wasn't the best course of action for the time being. If he was to do the best for DIO he would need to keep a cool mind to do the best work for his master, "I do not know your father nor do I care. You would do best to leave this place girl, there is nothing for you here…" Pucchi hoped that the girls would take his advice to avoid any fighting so close to DIO. He noticed the whispering going on, but what would they be talking about? Were they stand users too? He'd have to keep it in mind as this continued.

"Yea? Why don't we see what you bleed? If you do bleed at all. Haaaaa!" Fragment threw a single punch at the illusion, so hard she could break the door if it was close enough. Meanwhile, the Vampire Twins, still as cats of opposite colours, landed on the floor of the mansion interior, looking around to try and determine which room they were in, with Heartstring outside still guiding them. "I can feel you inside, please respond." She said to them.

"Wha-What!" As the illusion was punched Pucchi had to wonder how exactly the girls had realized that they were looking at an illusion and where did she receive the strength to punch so hard? This clearly was not a human but surely a vampire couldn't have turned against DIO? Was it an assassin from the Pillarmen? No matter the case this had to be dealt with and fast. As light began arcing it's way into the mansion, Whitesnake made it's way down the stairs, it's pure white skin and black coverings making it quite the noticeable figure (not to mention the wording covering the stand's skin or the mask that it had where it's Jose should be). As it went to spoke the same voice which was the illusion spoke with came from the stand, "So it seems you are aware of DIO's presence here. Hmmm, but how exactly? Who exactly sent you? Was it Kars? The Octavians? It matters little to me, all that I know is that you must perish for DIO."

The stand would wind up a punch aimed directly towards Fragment's face looking to gage her reaction time and if he would be able to obtain a disc from this. Above the fight was a face, only a face, seemingly floating in mid-air watching the battle play out. Vanilla Ice was waiting for the perfect moment to strike at these harlots from the ceiling. DIO was reading a book somewhere in his bedroom as he awaited news from Pucchi and Ice's fight. As his two most loyal subjects it would really be good if they would work along with each other. He had to see who had sent the assumed assassins, though why would they come barging through his front door?... DIO closed his book and began checking the upstairs. Something was off about this attempt on his life. Very off.

Delara System

The unfortunate attack by the ISO during the invasion of Sildoria had certainly stalled the invasion as far too many ships went down during their attack before the Visoran cubes saved the invasion's ass to put it lightly. Not that many more could be lost while maintaining momentum and the Armada needed a place to regroup and while the capabilities of the Sildorians and Bloodshadians were rather unknown, it was predicted that they wouldn't be able to cause much in the way of losses. The hundred or so ships in Delara wasn't enough to withstand an attack from the their combined fleet and as they opened fire fleet after fleet would arrive into the system adding to the incoming fire. With the arrival of a carriers strike group, a few thousand strike craft poured into the battle and then with the arrival of a fleet heavy in Artillery Ships Teratons of combined force began to ram into the combined fleet of their enemy. In what was not all that long, thousands of Octavian ships had joined the battle sending salvo after salvo of kinetics, missiles, particle cannons, and whatever else downrange.

EW attacks were performed on both enemy fleets looking to cause any number of disruptions such as disabling aiming systems or removing life support to make what was hoped to be a massacre easier. K'onqesta class dreadnoughts moved forward to take the brunt of the damage for the larger ships while Assimilator class Corvettes and Uan Frigates moved forward to swarm the enemy alongside the drone fighters which numbered in the thousands-a number which grew as the foundaries inside the carriers made more Drone Fighters for the battle. A classic Ocatvian strategy which would hopefully yield satisfactory results.

Operation: System Error

Though the AI were miraculously pushed out of Bloodshade they were still allowed in Sildoria where they would alter their memetic attacks to be more subtle. Though sending citizens on a rampage was useful (those still in berserk mode would still be allowed to galavant around their planets causing untold levels of damage), but it did not have the civilization destroying effects that it was hoped to have had. The memetics would be altered to have a more subtle effect, now those who were exposed to memetics would begin to feel that they wanted to be apart of the Imperium while the Sildorian codeslicers would be abated with some dynamic code restructuring their code to stop their attempts at destroying the AI which plagued them with Memetics while also attempting to affect them as well to simply quit their jobs and prevent those who were not effected by these memetics by any means necessary. AI would also begin to seek out fifth columnists, anyone within the Sildorian Empire willing to join with the Octavians without the need for memetic opinion shifting. Any who were fanatically authoritarian and also wished to transform the Sildorian species into synths.

These individuals would be promised their own state, all the wishes they had for the Sildorian state fulfilled, and maybe depending on their usefulness more land than which they started with to spread their ideals (granted they were loyal to The Paramount and his government). Operation System Error would be expanded to The Mandate as well with their recent entrance into the war, starting with the more subtle memetic actions taken recently, skipping over the rage memetic which gave them away before. These actions would hopefully knock these lesser powers out of the war.

Unnamed System

The combination of being dragged through the Bifrost and then subsequently battered and cut by that thing which still refused to die left many Magicons dead by the combo attack. The ones who survived put up shields and desperately hung on to life being battered by the tendrils of the orb and the pummeling by the Gladian Armada leaving the option of retreat the only viable one. As they warped back with what remained of Warper's group they could tell they were equally unlucky as many among his number was missing. There were many questions held by both the Magicons and whatever remnants of the Octavian fleet existed but to the Magicons those questions were for the Octavians to answer; they were all collectively done here. Meanwhile after the Magicons found the depth of the Gladian fleet, the Octavians began amassing a response Armada while hoping that the orb wasn't a Gladian weapon. The Armada made up of around 3000 ships (seen as possible insurance against the orb) prepared themselves to get involved should the Gladians be detected anywhere in Octavian space. Assuming that the orb came with them, the Octavians turned to a still mostly unknown group, but one who may be able to provide some sort of help against the orbs. The Guild. Having been queued in on the guild's more esoteric properties by the Decepticons Octavia had the feeling that this would be the path to finally rid themselves of the pests on their border.

To: The Guild
From: The Imperium of Octavia

Hello. we have another contract for this organization. There is a group of black orb like organisms on our periphery. We would like you to send some operatives to hunt and kill them, we will accommodate for space travel. There are 7 confirmed orbs in our space and they are extremely hazardous. We will send video of what they have been seen to do in our last confrontations. Payment will be provided.

[b]

Talking to the enemy

After his incident at Ziannamon Prime Tk'Rantar was assigned to diplomatic and adminstrative duties, something which his bad luck could not effect seeing as all he had to do was lend his processing power to an adminstrative AI and maybe talk to a few allies here and there, but of course ruin came his way once again. As Rantar let his processing be used to organize the transport of fusion cores or keep track and update planetary production quota's, he was forcibly ejected from the AI core causing him to stumble from his port as he saw an obviously female Mechanator walk in front of him. Obviously because her custom shell was quite obviously modelled after a female Octavian even going so far as adding head mounted mecha-tentacles and some..hair like tassels made of metal hanging from the back of her head. So she was high ranking enough to get a custom shell; he knew nothing good could come from this. "Rantar, you have been chosen for a mission, you will come with me for more details."

"And who are you?" Asked Rantar already scanning her for anything on her identity

"O'shaa, member of the Mechanator Internal Oversight commission. Now come on, you have a mission." The Internal Oversight Commission? Rantar wondered what he could have possibly do to have drawn them in? As Rantar stood up O'Shaa threw forward a mecha-tentacle to bind his arms and drag him onto her ship just to be that extra be more sure that he would not try to escape the task before or otherwise have a breakdown.

As a grumbling Rantar walked towards the terminal he began to understand why he was dragged here as he saw a message from...the ISO. He had some negative past experiences with the ISO in Cymopolia which had been called a...number of things, none exactly positive, but as Rantar saw O'Shaa slowly pulled a stunner hidden somewhere in her back leading to a less than cheerful noise from Rantar, "What if I-"

"Respond Rantar."

"But I-"

"Respond to the message."

With that message Rantar started responding releasing the the built up heat that this interaction caused in the form of in-built vents in his shell (he had learned he needed them after the Rantar Reforms and the stress they caused him were written). Then reaching to the datapad in front of him through the Aether began writing.

The Octavian Imperium would be interested in the negotiations the ISO has for us. Please send details soon

In the few seconds it took to write that message the entire room had been filled with steam. O'Shaa wondered how he had not been shot already. The Paramount did indeed work in mysterious ways.

O.P.R.A. Headquarters

The message from the Tzyakuza had been sent up the command chain and had made it's way to the Mechanator branch who were in charge of the project in the first place. It was a safe bet that the prison planet full of political dissents would be dangerous and so Tenrin had a few Chosen thrown together to scout the place out with some weapons from Project Frequency though they were under strict orders not to actually kill anyone. 6 Chosen were onboard along with a few Commando Mechanators to pick up the prisoners. Within the day they had boarded their shuttle and made their way to the planet...

Quintession Inquiry

Though the guild was ruled as the main foreign vendor from which Octavia would get services these Quintessions were somewhat interesting. The following message was sent to them.

Hello, The Octavian Imperium is interested in the services which you provide. If you could give us a summary of your good we may consider purchasing. That is all

Propaganda

The Know Your Enemy on the Zravvisk was a total success! Preliminary reports showed that spare shell donation had went up around 50% and anti-Zravvisk sentiment was at an all time high. It was truly a success for the Commission and with that success came the need to make more. The Paragon had personally asked the Commission to make one on the International Space Organization for whatever reason, perhaps he had enjoyed Paraoon's existence, truly the cause could not be determined, but as their head they didn't have much of a choice in the matter (not that they cared much about who they covered exactly, but it was strange that he demanded the ISO be fast tracked). And so the Aethercast was created and then quickly streamed to quadrillions who were ~~forced~~ excited to see the new program their government had made for them.

by **The Auraverse** » Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:26 pm

|⌂|Earth|⌂|
|Florence, Passione Bunker|

Elias stopped in his tracks at the appearance of the Stand before him. As the thing spoke, even his less dynamic movements seemed to slow - by the time the proclamation was finished, he stood frozen in place, his expression neutral. He idled for a few moments more, before taking a step back and cocking his head. His own stare was about as cold as that of the Stand; their gazes locked, he spoke - slowly, and with an inflection that was difficult to pin to any particular emotion.

"Well, now. What an interesting little trick. Renée - I apologize. If you can still hear me, I'll have this sorted shortly."

A little more of that previous jovial overtone crept back into his words - still, the eyes remained frigid.

"But you, you must be the... stand? Was that it? Of that Melone fellow. A moronic name... but a reflection of the soul."

The tip of his cane met the floor with a gentle clack. In the suddenly-near-silent bunker, it was deafening.

"And of course, a reflection carries many things over with it. Tricks and all."

A slender hand reached up, unhurriedly, and loosened the loop around his bow-tie. The tip of a pinkie brushed a now-exposed collarbone - lines of purple flowed over pale skin.

"And yet, you expect me to trust the mirror-image of vermin?"

As his final word descended into a growl, lilac light flared up around his feet. It snaked across the concrete in sporadic, angular lines, bouncing from wall to wall, crawling up onto ceilings and into doorways. The fluorescent lighting gave out in a cascade of sparks - the room remained lit by the pulsing, violet glow. At breakneck speed, the light-tendrils wound their way through the bunker's halls, slipping through cracks and under doorways. Soon, they would reach Melone himself. And Elias did not stand idle for long - in the flickering gloom, he lunged forwards, the tip of his cane thrust towards Junior with all the force and velocity of an armor-piercing shell. His next proclamation melted into the hypersonic scream of air rent asunder, and carried no less fury.

"NOW HANDS OFF HER, YOU FUCKING RAT!"

|⌂|Earth|⌂|
|Stromboli|

As the chaos began to unfold, Hatlen gave a curt sigh. A gentle shaking of the head accompanied his next few words.

"Such childish antics - though I suppose it can't be helped at this point. Very well - if you insist on behaving like rowdy toddlers..."

A flick of the wrist, and the blue vistas beyond the island's shores began to subtly shift to a more vibrant shade. But no, that wasn't quite it - as the colors of the clouds and open sky seemed to blur together, a hexagonal mesh flickered into being. It wasn't the sky that had actually changed colour - it was merely filtered now. Through a pale-blue screen of interlocking hexes that seemed to stretch on for miles, encapsulating practically the entire island.

"...then a play-pen is in order. Can't have valuable data going to waste."

Reaching into the air beside himself, he extracted a similar chair to the ones he had produced aboard the Stormrider. Placing it firmly into the dirt, he took a seat.

"Go on, then. You must have some mutual murdering to get on with."

by **The-International Space Organization** » Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:49 pm

ISO DIPLOMATIC RELAY RAN-2 - ISO SPACE

Relay 'RAN-2' was an incredibly busy place, even without the brewing... Border dispute? Whatever it was- It didn't truly matter to the buercratic monster that was RAN-2. Nor did it trully matter to the economic monster that was the ISO- One if it's untellable numbers of eyes shifting, at insistent prodding from the ICN, to look at the conflict, and study it's economic complexities.Opportunities laying themselves wide open for the exploitation. If they helped one side, unusually strongly? Oh well.

It was just how the business market fell- As, soon, the buzzing of out-bound communication wires meshed into two-way communications... And then into initial talks- Then into back and forth of economic negotiations. And then, they coalesced into deals- Payment to be sorted as needed. And then outbound communications turned into internal communications. Vessels being loaded, convoys being sorted, escorts being prepared for the truly dangerous movements- While others were left to trundel along at their own paces. But the outcome was all the same- Convoys being rallied at Finity's End, as they were taken under care of the ICN, to be escorted to the Ignisian States, and the Bloodshadians. Some needed... More than others, but to the ISO- As long as payment was properly sorted, it didn't matter in the end.

And as vessels began their track across the endless sea of stars- It truly was just that. Another job for the ISO.

ICN DIPLOMATIC VESSEL MIDNIGHT DREAMS - ISO DIPLOMATIC RELAY RAN-3 - ISO SPACE

Imperial-Octavia wrote:
The Octavian Imperium would be interested in the negotiations the ISO has for us. Please send details soon

... Stuhr smiled as the message came through. Smiling deeply to himself, as he grabbed the other PDA- Transfering a levy of pre-written terms to be transmitted... Along with the second part of the message. After-all... Such a contract would need to be organized in person.

The ISO has the following terms- To be discussed further, in person.
Terms of InterCluster Navy Naval Forces Combat Withdrawal -
1. The Octavian Nation, and allies, shall not pursue further hostilities with the ISO, or it's economic subsidaries, in releation to this conflict.
2. The Octavian Nation, and allies, shall not confiscate ISO technology. If ISO technology falls into the hands of the Octavian Nation, and allies, it shall be returned to the ISO without any investigation into them.
3. The Octavian Nation shall allow ISO trade vessels to flow without issue, into nations the ISO is engaged in trade with.
4. The Octavian Nation shall be responsible for an economic agreement, to be agreed at a later date, for the continued neutrality of ICN vessels in the currently on-going conflict.
5. If the Octavian Nation is found to have violated any of these principles, appropiate reprisals shall be levied and carried out.
The vessel, the 'Midnight Dreams', upon confirmation of this, will be arriving in Octavian space in order to carry out the further negotiations.

And with the tap of another button- Away, the message went. Stuhr smiling to himself all the while.

ISO INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS RELAY 883JKHAS73 - CLUSTER 4234 - SECTOR 3

The Mercenary Fleets were a fickle thing.

More loyal to money than even the rest of the ISO, and it's vast structure, the Mercenary Fleets were... Certainly one way for the ISO to get a job done. As long as the ISO could promise them but a fraction of the endless reserves of money it had, the ISO could keep them sicced onto a target like a wolf nipping at the heels of prey. However, there were few jobs that the ISO- Let alone the ICN- would allow to fall into the hands of such... Fickle fleets.

So, when the job offers began to circulate, bearing the official communications of the ICN- ICN Fleet command, none-the-less!- The fleets leapt into life. Fighting to accept job offers first, as they began to bid... But many of these weren't for the brewing 'Octavian Conflict'. Many of the jobs were, admittedly, wild goose chases... But nobody would have to know that. Atleast until it was five thousand or so years later, and everything was declassified.

But, a few, very specific, fleets got... Very specific job offers. As highly... Specialized fleets began to head for a pre-designated rally point. Old XLIV MDVs sliding out of docking slots, and then into MDV space.

The ISO had just levied one hell of a bounty against any Octavian Battleships- And the 'Wolfpack' intended to collect that bounty.

by **Gladian Imperium** » Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:17 pm

Private Virchworld 2r-28, Horus Orbital, Linnaeris

In a quiet room, two figures sat at a dimly lit table. The first, appeared to be an elderly baseline human. The other, a mass of antiquated hardware topped by an ancient LCD screen, displaying a cartoonish, yellow smiley face. Yet, the latter's mood was far from what the screen depicted.

"Trez'nav, this conflict is a mess. What was supposed to be a routine in-and-out blitz has turned into a slugfest that we're losing thanks to the intervention of unexpectedly advanced powers. So, tell me, why exactly are we bringing one of our most valuable experimental assets into this theater?" The smiling construct said, leaning forward and supporting themselves with one archaic hydraulic limb.

"It's simple. Our current encounters with the Octavians have proven that a direct attack is no longer feasible. We will have to resort to more distant and remote attacks with expendable platforms. While our normal carriers are more than capable of indirect fire, the Andromeda's unique armaments will stand to outrange and outgun hostiles in the event the Starfury is unable to respond to a situation, and combined with the industrial power of One Jump Ahead and the firepower of the rest of the reinforcements, we should be able to burn the Octavians from the cosmos. Their special allies and mysterious freak accidents will not be able to help them, if we can attack from beyond that which they can fight." The elderly human said.

"And we are to send it in alone, without support other than our own ships? If left alone, the Octavians will surely attempt to engage it in a direct battle."

"Which is where the 800th Armada comes in. Even now, Warmaster Lutherus has plans to create a Construere Vitae Nest outside of Octavian Space to rapidly amplify the fleet's numbers. We can deploy our own mobile shipyards to the area and build up a force to drive the blades of war home, right to the heart of the Imperium. In the meanwhile, Lutherus and his forces will provide ample distraction for the Octavians, raining down hellfire and laying siege to their systems."

"I see. Are you certain this is the correct approach?"

"I am."

"Then I will make it so. The Andromeda and her escorts will be called to the Front, but their transit may take time-our current line of Catapults isn't capable of handling ships of the Andromeda's Caliber, and the Tempest behaves in strange ways this side of the Gates. You are dismissed."

And with that, both figures vanished from the room, the room following suit as it dissolved into a shapeless void.

Arkeyanan Feet Carrer Andromeda, Phase Gate "Kleipade"

Among the winding corridors of the vast Andromeda-Class Fleet Carrier, a lone figure walked with urgency. Her name was Allania Toni, Pan-Human of the Clade Yggdrasil, recently appointed as commander of the ACV Andromeda. The massive fleet carrier, and her escorts, would be embarking through the Tempest to the Milky Way, where they'd meet up with the 800th Armada, the Travelers One Jump Ahead, Canned Monkeys, Decisive Battle, Dihydrogen Monoxide, and Heaven-Sent Abomination to coordinate a long-term siege of the Octavian Imperium, and other operations against its allies. As she made her way to the bridge, she mused on how the Federation had finally begun shifting back to crewed ships after so long, thanks to advancements both in augments and in the safety of crewed warships. Arriving at the door to the CIC, she was greeted by a brief "Captain on the bridge" as she crossed the threshold, the thirty or so crew of the Andromeda standing at attention as she made her way to the center of the room, where the AI core of the ship, named "Ancillu" waited patiently.

"Ancillu, how's our systems holding up?" Allania asked, watching the aged drone as it scrolled through countless technical feeds.

"All systems are nominal, we're clear for Tempest Navigation. The fleet's tethered to our Anchor, and our course is plotted. Ready to enter the Tempest when you are."
Ancillu replied.

"Good, alert the fleet, we're moving out."

"Aye, captain."

A few minutes passed, during which the Andromeda and her fleet gathered into one cohesive formation, before engaging their Tempest Drives. A great portion of the Tempest was lifted into realspace, creating a gateway into its myriad currents as the fleet rapidly transited into it, the thundering rift in space imploding on itself shortly after. It would take twelve months for the fleet to arrive at the Milky Way,

Uninhabited Solar System, approx. 50ly beyond the Periphery of Octavian Space, Gladian Logistical Hull Stellar Shield

"Wormhole transit complete, no vessels located in-system or in the surrounding systems."

"Scans complete, system has nine planets. Two minor planets, one major planet, one supermajor planet, two gas giants, and three more major planets in the outer edges."

"Target the Supermajor, load all tubes with the CV pods. Launch on my mark."

"Aye, sir, loading tubes...tubes 1-15 loaded, tubes 16-30 loaded, tubes 31-45 lo-hold on, getting an error on tube 38"

"Gunnery Deck, are you able to troubleshoot?"

"Aye, drone inbound. Seems to be a jammed interior hatch, nothing too severe."

"Hatch unjammed, Tube 38 marks as loaded. Ready to fire on command."

"Fire at will."

In an instant, the Logistical Hull erupted in holes as the massive CV pods flew from their tubes, re-orienting and burning for the massive planet before them. Each one seemed rather...inconspicuous, simply large cargo containers propelled by gravitic drives, even as they positioned themselves into an even dispersal across the planet, they dove through its dense, toxic atmosphere with ease, braking just before impact to preserve the planet's integrity as they slammed into the ground. Then, their internals activated. Small reactors and computer banks, available for the growing mass of pseudo-biomatter as it began extending roots into the planet and giant fronds into the atmosphere. each pod reaching out to its neighbors, as they began turning the planet into something more...a Nest, from which the Armada would be reinforced.

Ginostra, Italy

Masque had silently watched the procession before him, the flexing of power, the erection of barriers. At least Madam Carstein was actually attempting to help the bystanders. Alas, it seemed like someone had to fire the first shot.

And thus, he inhaled. As the air flowed through his mask, down his windpipe, and into his lungs, he felt a unique energy flow through his body, sending small arcs of electricity between his fingers. He clenched a fist, and dropped to a kneel as he sensed the buried globs of nanomachinery. The energy within refined itself, growing exponentially more powerful as his internal biology reconfigured to become the best possible generator, and his very form was calibrated to the finest of degrees, as he focused and brought the charge to exceedingly powerful levels.

This. Was a Hamon Overdrive.

Masque, in one fluid motion, blew his fist into the ground, sending a powerful surge of Hamon through it that reduced the surrounding area to ash and molten glass, flinging in all directions as the surge traveled outward, potentially destroying the buried nanomachines. But yet, there was more to come. The Paramount would notice the rapid formation of glowing, thin lines around him, just as a surge of white-blue Hamon, followed by a surge of plasma comparable in temperature and energy to a star, neared ever closer to him.

Ridley's Rest

The Warminds, one-by-one, vanished from the system, the eruptions of their reactors visible on long-range sensors.

Then, OJA struck one last blow, in two stages.

First, a rather unassuming, 100-meter cube would appear among the Visoran ships and the Sword of the Imperium. After an exceedingly short amount of time, it "detonated", converting everything within 1000km of the blast radius into one massive, super-energetic hell equivalent to a quintillion, quintillion big bangs happening repeatedly across every cubic meter. Second, all Visoran Fighters in the system would disappear, displaced into the black hole at the center of Ridley's Rest where they would, hopefully, be torn apart by the tidal forces.

Finally, OJA, as a parting farewell gift, displaced a liberal quantity of Worldbreaker Shells into the bridges of the Decepticon Worldsweepers, most likely destroying them as it, in turn, opened a portal to the Root Network and entered it, collapsing the rift behind and leaving the Zraavisk with a rapidly-self-destructing field of Disruptor Missiles, a ball of proto-universal hell, and the scattered debris of the many fleets of the system.

by **Neo-Unified Nations** » Sat Aug 15, 2020 11:56 am

Missing, Have you seen our... Battlegroup?

Area 51, Nevada

In Groom Lake, Nevada, there's a certain base that's hidden from the general populace, it's rumored to hide experimental technology, but the Global Defense Initiative denies such false claims! There's obviously no experimental Weather Control Technology! All of that mumbo-jumbo is just Paranoid Supernatural rambling!

Just kidding, it's true, there's mumbo-jumbo here, a lot of it.

Including the Extrauniversal Battalion.

"Crusader One to Crusader Two, your grenade launchers aren't loaded."

"Crusader Two copies, HEY DICKHEADS! LOAD THE 'NADES NOW!"

Crusader One laughed as he heard Crusader Two yell at some maintenance guys who yelled back, fucking hell, being in the GDI Army always brought things like this, it was fucking funny.

Crusader One shut off his radio, it was funny hearing chatter in the background, but there comes a limit at hearing Crusader Two scream at maintenanence men.

Crusader One was part of Battlegroup Crusader, a fighting force of 400 M1A3 Abrams tanks armed with a 120mm Railgun and a shitton of heavy grenade launchers, one must wonder what kind of person came up with the idea of slapping several Mk 19s onto the Commander's cupola in place of a normal .50 Caliber, just why?

Meanwhile, alongside Battlegroup Crusader, was another Battlegroup, Paladin.

"Paladin Two, you got any cards?"

"Nope, Paladin Niner took 'em."

"Darn."

Battlegroup Paladin was composed of 400 somewhat-new M1A4 Abrams tanks, armed with a 125mm Railgun, and eight Hellfire missiles taken off the older United Nations ADATS, along with a 20mm unmanned autocannon replacing the Mk 19 grenade launcher, it truly is a force to be reckoned with...and half of the production run for 2069 was delivered to Battlegroup Paladin.

Nice.

Paladin One was busy recalibrating the gun sight on the autocannon, seeing as the reticle was off-center, he smacked it a few times, then twisted it, eventually he went back to smacking it, "Why doesn't this thing fucking work?" Paladin Four-Oh-One said, banging on the gunsight.

"Yo, Commander, stop hitting the sight, it's gonna break." one of Paladin One's fellow crewmen said, Paladin One snarled, "I fucking know!" he yelled as he banged on the sight, then stopped, he aimed down the sights, it's finally on-center, good, Paladin One pulled his eye away from the sight and clapped his hands, "Well done, me, I repaired the gunsight." Paladin One said, the gunner next to him sneered, as did the loader.

"What's so funny?" Paladin One asked, the gunner broke into laughter, "You fucking idiot, you've just damaged the adjustment knobs for the damn Autocannon." wait, what? Paladin One took a look, oh.

"Shit, it's cracked." Paladin One said, the gunner and loader burst into maniacal laughter, "YOU FUCKING IDIOT! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Paladin One wanted to die at this point.

"FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! AAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Paladin One screamed as the tank's crew burst into laughter.

"Paladin One, please, for the sake of my people, stop laughing."

"Fuck you, Overlord Eight!"

"I see why the Paladin Battlegroup is considered the most rowdy."

Then, here's the final battlegroup, Battlegroup Overlord, armed with Epsilon Assault Railguns, capable of tearing the Space Needle in Seattle down with one shot, the Epsilon Railgun utilizes a 180mm Railgun, several grenade launchers, and has support platforms in case it needs to be used as a temporary howitzer, it's the second heaviest tank next to the M-66 Mammoth, which has 195mm guns.

Overlord Eight sighed, Battlegroup Paladin is still the most rowdy Battlegroup of the Extrauniversal Battalion, that was an open secret, they deny it, but it's true, Battlegroup Paladin is like letting eight-year-olds take control of Anti-Armor/Air Tanks, bloody hell.

Overlord Eight turned his radio off, he leaned back in his seat, he wondered what this new 'Experiment' thing is all about, SF Command's been quiet and asking people to shut up about questions regarding P.V.-6221, where the hell was that ship anyway?

"Damn Battlegroup Paladin doing dumb shit again." Overlord Eight said, he looked over to his side, where he stored a photo of his unit back in Galicia, while it was fun killing the Supernatural shitheads there, it was also a warzone, and literal hell could be attributed to it, he saw what can be summarized as, 'some shit'.

"The Vigo Massacre's still stuck in my head, damn it." Overlord Eight Said, shaking his head, what happened in Vigo would have to stay in Vigo.

Jolly, he could still remember everything.

The flashbacks never ended.

Overlord Eight heard knocking on the hatch, he popped it open, and stuck his head out, he was greeted by a GDIA Mechanic, "Yo, Overlord Eight?" he asked, the outdated PASGT helmet on his head contrasting with the vest he wore, which was quite modern as of today, 2069.

"Yeah, what's up?" Eight asked, looking like a meerkat as he popped out.

"The...'experiment' is scheduled in about two hours, just so you know." the Mechanic said.

"Cool, we might get to know why the fuck Army Command's asked them to stop inquiring about P.V.-6221, where the hell is that ship anyway?" Eight said, irritated.

"Don't fucking know, but hey, better than hell." the Mechanic said, he turned to his back, "Well, Eight, I gotta go, don't be late in two hours!" he said, sprinting away, Eight shook his head.

"Mechanics will always be mechanics."

He descended, and closed the hatch, plopping back into his seat, he closed his eyes, hopefully the rest of the crew would be back and wake him up by the time of the experiment.

"Such is life." Eight said.

Crusader One, meanwhile, was busy sorting out ammunition with the help of his loader, one advantage of the M1A3 is that it added a slightly bigger storage for shells, which varied from APFSDS to NAPHE, or Nuclear-Armor-Piercing-High-Explosive, "So, HEAT goes here, and APFSDS is on the left, right?" he asked the loader, who was counting the shells.

"Yeah, put HEAT on the right, and APFSDS on the left." the loader replied, repeating his routine of counting the shells in their corners, which were HEAT, APFSDS, and NAPHE, Crusader One knew that APFSDS was the most reliable of shells, NAPHE would sometimes cause localized nuclear winters, and HEAT wasn't enough to punch through supernatural armor, especially enchanted ones, eugh, so why would they keep HEAT and NAPHE? Just in case, just in case.

The Neo-UN Crewmen finished sorting out the shells, Crusader One had almost misplaced a NAPHE shell in the HEAT corner, but rectified that error, One would never live it down shortly afterwards.

"So, wanna talk about stuff?"

"Nah, man, I'd rather just sit down and do nothing."

"Oh no, Area 51's REMFs possessed One! Aaaah!" the loader said sarcastically.

"Knock it off, asshole."

"Fine, fine."

And thus, One and his loader simply sat down in their tanks, doing nothing.

Two Hours passed, and the Experiment was almost ready.

Weeell, actually, it was 'testing' not Experiment, but the Army wouldn't fucking care, they're the same damn thing, fucking Bureaucrats.

At least Supreme Commander Nathan wasn't like those assholes.

Or Secretary-General Reiko too.

Paladin Niner was busy shuffling the cards he had 'borrowed' from Paladin Two, it was fun stealing shit from him, especially when they served during the Philippine Theatre of 2042, seven years before the end of the Second Supernatural War, where he would often take his shit when he was asleep and give them back as soon as he showed the slightest signs of moving, it continued on even after the war, ha.

Niner snickered, it was funny messing with Two sometimes, especially when he'd take his smartphone just to look at the Gallery for suspicious shit, thankfully there were none, hell not even the history of his browsing brought anything, good on you, Two, good on you.

Niner was brought out of his silence by the gunner, who spoke to him.

"One Minute, get ready."

Niner nodded, he hoped that this would be successful and not a clusterfuck.

Niner stared at the world outside through the camera of his autocannon, mounted on the commander's cupola, watching the other soldiers do their things, he even caught a glimpse of a Suppressor Specialist's shotgun being reassembled, he wasn't certain which Suppressor Specialist owned it, but if they needed the gun to be re-assembled, they're either stupid or just bored to shit.

Niner was freaked out by his radio activating.

"Tasukete...." the radio blared out in a very, very distorted tone, almost sounding like it went through the same effects as the ship from that one movie, Event Horizon, what the hell?

Niner's gunner stared at him, nobody was on the frequency, but most importantly, he remembered Niner turning off his radio.

"...Niner...." the gunner said.

He nodded in confirmation, he was listening.

"What the fuck was that?" the gunner asked.

He shook his head as if he wanted to say 'NO FUCKING IDEA' in the loudest tone possible.

"Whatever that was...." the gunner said, but he was cut off by another transmission,

"...osen unit to evaluate the issue. Do not attack them. That is all."

"THE HELL?!" the gunner asked, startled to shit.

Since when did random messages start popping up on the radio?!

The gunner looked at Niner, scared to shit.

Wait, he forgot something.

Both of them turned to the loader, who wore a shocked expression on his face.

"Y....y-y-you guys heard that, right?" the loader asked, and he seemed quite frightened.

All three of them looked down at the driver, who heard all the commotion.

"Whatever that was, let's not think too hard about it....for now." the driver said.

"Agreed." the loader said.

Niner nodded.

He was shaken, and confused, mostly the latter.

Wait, the 'test' or Experiment was still ongoing, right?

Niner looked through the autocannon cameras, every soldier who did random things were now in a proper formation, line formations like the time of Napoleon, each of them holding their firearms like one would expect in a parade, with the barrel facing the upper left.

Niner looked over to his crewmates, who simply stared back at him.

"Turn on your radios." Niner suddenly spoke up, he's been silent for a while, why speak now?

But that didn't matter, the gunner, loader, and driver complied, turning on their radios, Niner did the same, and was greeted with voices that sounded like they were from scientists or testers.

"Hello, Humanity's Finest!"

Niner listened to the radio, searching for anything suspicious.

Niner found nothing suspicious in the tone of the voice, but was cautious.

"We have gathered here today to test a Mobile Boundary Reactor!"

Wait a second, wasn't a Boundary Reactor an experimental travelling device used to get into one place?

And P.V.-6221 disappeared after testing one...

OH SHIT!

Niner was about to yell, but then he heard something along the lines of 'Activate'.

FUCK!

Niner then heard panicked voices, which grew even more panicked minute by minute.

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!" he abruptly yelled, only to get back something along the lines of "WE'RE TRYING!"

Niner looked through the sight of his autocannon.

His eyes stinged!

What he saw was...indescribable in other words, but it was like a prism assaulted him while flooding forbidden information into his mind.

Niner jolted away from the sight, eyes still in pain.

Whatever happened, it couldn't be stopped.

Niner closed his eyes in attempt to take the pain off.

He never knew that he blacked out as the Reactor committed a meltdown.

And threw them into hell.

Unknown Location(?), Korea.

Overlord Eight woke up to the sounds of gunfire, while he already heard things like that, they didn't occur as commonly, something was off.

Overlord opened the commander's hatch of the Epsilon, and collapsed his arms on the hull, what he saw surprised him.

It was an active warzone, fires, explosions, and the like.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked.

"All I remember is...the MBR going haywire...then..."

He came to a realization.

That's what happened to 6221.

Their BR went haywire, and they're gone now.

The same thing happened to him...and his battlegroup.

"Shit."

And to make matters worse, the Epsilon Railgun stood out.

In a ruined urban city, the tan-and-yellow scheme meant for desert environments made the Epsilon stand out.

And he had no idea where to go.

Unbeknownst to him, all of Battlegroup Overlord suffered the same fate.

As did 20 Humvees, and 200 infantrymen.

They were stuck in hell.

Various Places, P.V.-6221.

"Where is a computer system, we're going to diagnose the problem with your system so you can leave this sector."

The...thing stared down at poor Mihaly, caught red-handed and not being able to do shit with his G11K3.

Hopefully, they did get to go home after this.

"Uhh....there's one over-"

He was interrupted by footsteps from another area, behind him specifically.

The footsteps sounded like boots and not like the....things that were in front of him.

Another Crewman? He hoped so, maybe he could guide...the things...to the bridge.

They might be- no, they are robots, Mihaly realized.

The shadow loomed closer, revealing the sillouhette of a GDISF crew member.

Thank god.

He was finally greeted by...

Oh....oh shit.

It was Communications Officer Alexis.

Alexis was known to be extremely xenophobic even if he knew that testing the Boundary Reactor would lead to extrauniversal encounters.

Which would lead to his death if he opened fire.

Alexis stopped, and yelled.

He raised his M16A4 at the Robots.

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF TO THE UNITED NATIONS IMMEDIATELY!"

Shit.

Better than opening fire though.

Mihaly sat there, and did nothing.

Alexis, meanwhile, was pointing the M16 at the Robots, aggressively too.

Hopefully they would understand...

"YOU HAVE NOT ANSWERED, DIE!" he suddenly screamed, oh no, he was doing it!

In fear, Mihaly activated the Reflective Energy Field.

He closed his eyes as he heard the gunshots.

He hoped the rest had woken up.

by **The Dominion of Mankind** » Sat Aug 15, 2020 3:23 pm

Interstellar space- in range of Paraoon
Attention. Temporal uncertainty threshold reached. Changing to causal configuration.
Attention. Non continuous movement pattern identified. Adjusting physical parameters.
"Wha-"
In the same instant the unknown vessel defied time yet again, redirecting another attack.
Unfortunately the thousands of white lines bounced harmlessly off the energy shields of the Explorer class, after all the weapon was used for fighting the matter based shields of the Dominion.
"Wait, elaborate on those alerts!"

Before MT could think another thought, he felt his control of the ship severed.
He helplessly observed in what could only be described as horror as the "ship" began unfolding itself like a piece of Origami. Eventually it finished changing into some strange spherical formation of interlocked triangles.

Counter Esoteric Configuration Zeta.
As soon as the ship had changed shape, it wreathed itself in a roiling ebony cloak. MT's sensors registered this as a true vacuum.

"What the hell is Counter Esoteric Configuration Zeta? Why have I lost control of the ship? And how and why is it able to exist in a true vacuum state??!" MT practically shouted at the insolent vessel.
Response: 403 Forbidden.
"The third question at least...?" MT said in a resigned manner.
Response: Fundamental particle shift to exist in true vacuum state. Parameters adjusted appropriately to correspond with altered physical constants.
"I didn't see that anywhere on the manual!" MT exclaimed.
Just as MT was pondering what to do with the rogue vessel the damnable *click* sounded again, causing indescribable dread to emerge.

"There's been an adjustment to the schedule, do not be alarmed."
"I, uh, what?!"
"Control of the vessel has been automatically relinquished due to insufficient authorisation."
"In addition I have received word from above that this altercation is to be moved offsite to prevent collateral damage to this universe of interest."
"What does that entail?" MT asked in a strange tone.
"As control of the vessel has been relinquished from yourself, no action is required. The Explorer class, the enemy vessel and the remaining Visoran in the vicinity will be conveyed to some-place where they can do no harm, and no harm can come to them"
"I assume there are worse alternatives?"
"Quite so."

The connection was cut again, leaving the hapless MT to his own thoughts.

"Well, fuck".

Beyond the universe, beyond space and time, outside the reality that governed such concepts and astride the various planes of relative nothingness, something stirred.
With naught a single perturbation quantifiable by any known concept of toil or trouble, the Explorer class vessel, it's aggressor and a handful of Visoran cubes found themselves torn away from their known reality and placed within their final resting place, seamlessly encoded directly into the fabric of the Void.
This inescapable box, infinite in scale but infinitesimal in depth was to become the final resting place of the unfortunate vessels, their fight being reduced to a pointless spectacle. Countless eons into the relative future of their home reality, once all three factions have been reduced to nothing more but a fading memory, the ruins of this brilliant, pointless battle will remain trapped in the timeless tomb.

Attention: Plane shift detected. Physical constants consistent. No action necessary. the Explorer needlessly stated to itself.
With the change to casual configuration, the Explorer had no need for the unreliable temporal axis being used to perceive the actions of the enemy vessel. Capitalising on this advantage, the Explorer traced the enemies' change in relative position, as it also did not trust absolute real-space positioning to be accurate, finding a rather predictable movement pattern in the process.
Of course, the computer realised the futility of trying to hit the vessel, despite having its movement figured out and made the snap decision to alter its approach.
Information: Enemy vessel mobility reduces weapons systems effectiveness to below the acceptability threshold. Solution: Alter delivery from discrete-temporal lockstep to continuous. Atomicity of temporal progression induced causalities will be violated. Risk is within acceptable bounds of current context.

And with that, speed and time manipulation ceased being relevant factors. The Explorer class mercilessly enqueued billions of Compression Lance, VDP and Charge Reversal events into a single quanta, violating the redundant time axes so graciously provided by the brand new box tomb.
And as that single measurable unit of time elapsed, space was suddenly set ablaze by a perceptibly endless quantity of weapons fire from impossible angles, the impact of said weapons a guaranteed certainty on all current realspace positions of the enemy as time had yet to give them a chance to cause anything.
The next quanta elapsed, weapons fire continued and simulations of every possible vector of return fire were completed and a micro translation based solution package enqueued into the next morsel of causalities to take effect.

------

With MT still left to mentally recover from the sheer absurdity he just witnessed, he almost didn't notice three of his vessels being destroyed by a perfectly spaced void torpedo barrage; courtesy of the Dominion.

"Sigh... Well back to things I do understand!" MT exclaimed in a lifeless tone.

The Dominion emerges!
As a small detachment of Destroyers finished getting the proverbial drop on the Simulacra, the real war began. The Dominion AI noticed the rest of the Simulacran fleet responding almost immediately, VDPs charged and Compression Lances ready to rain down hell.
But that wasn't to be enough, the bulk of the Dominion fleet rapidly split up, maintaining a spacing of at least 100 parsecs each as they sought to surround the Simulacra, above and below the galactic plane.
The outer ring of the galaxy became a strange, trippy light show as countless white lances stabbed into the void, very few finding purchase on the nimble Dominion vessels which responded in turn with a neverending hail of slugs, tachyons and torpedoes of various destructive flavours.
Occasionally the light show would be interrupted by cosmic scale cones of darkness, sometimes swallowing up a few of the pesky Dominion ships buzzing around at massively FTL speeds. Luckily the Dominion vessels were located outside of the galactic plane resulting in these cones being aimed away from the majority of star systems.

"I assume you know the drill, overwhelm their defensive systems with suppressive fire, strip their shields and destroy them with antimatter and void warheads."
Positive. Lack of access to hyper-antimatter warheads is a limiting factor, but this can be mitigated with a custom Broken warhead redesign to mass transmute antimatter in-situ.
"A marvelous solution- clearly our AI is back up to standard.

The light show continued, progressing around the galaxy in a rythmic circle as both sides continously took evasive maneouvers. Eventually this rythm would be broken and tendrils of the light show chaotically spiralled around in the intergalactic void as the battle began to spill into the surrounding supercluster.

Current projection estimates a 78% chance of success in this battle.

"Great, can we go and get Pontiff now?" Bob excitedly said.
"Awfully eager are we? Very well I see no reason why we can't spare a detachment to visit Earth. Have a couple of ships exit the battle and remain stealthed, then surround the Sol system and commence deep scans of Earth.

It will be done

The US of A
Pontiff in USA sequel to be edited in when it's done.

by **The Zravvisk** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:44 am

Mining Planet 122

The Lunastra noticed 15 incoming ships, though with the powerful solar wind affecting its sensors, it couldn’t tell the exact type of ship incoming. From the data coming in they could either be corvettes or frigates. It ignored them temporarily as it accelerated out of the wind. It was unlikely that they would get much effective fire off at this range with the interference. As it exited the wind its sensors confirmed that they were corvettes as its turrets swung around to engage as the Lunastra turned to bring all of its guns to bear. The bow lance would be especially useful against the weak enemies even if it was predicted to only fire off one or two shots before they were too close to effectively aim it. The Dutchman didn’t seem to care about the arriving ships, showing off its single minded focus on only enemy ships that were close or it or activity attacking it.

The Hammerfell shields flicked as they took the full force of the Voidscreamer’s main gun. The shield took heavy damage but was still holding. The captain of it was glad about that as he did not plan to turn his ship around. Even with the beating it was taking from the Voidscreamer if it got close, its graviton cannons would hurt the Voidscreamer much more.

The Owls were expecting to be detected and took immediate evasive action. Still several were too slow or not agile enough and were shot down. Those that reached their target fired off their torpedoes and hoped that they aimed their light payloads well enough to disable the dreadnoughts’ main guns, even for only a while. They sped away still dodging fire until they would get far enough that their sleath would hide them again.

In the massive dogfight, commander Jor’kul chased down another Octavian fighter and destroyed it with a center of mass disruptor shot. She and her wingmen had been busy plugging the gaps in the fighter line that the Megafortresses couldn’t get a lock on and judging by the fact that she constantly had five fighters on her tail, the Octavians realized she was a threat. One of the fighters on her tail blew up having been destroyed by a Megafortress that moved in to support the battle with its turrets, already having fired off all of its hundreds of missiles. She was glad almost every Megafortress chose an all swarm missile load out for eliminating ground targets before this space battle started. Sure it meant they were useless against ships, but their sheer amounts of missiles were what was keeping the Auxiliary Fighter Corps in the battle, as long as someone else guided them. However, despite how many missiles they carried, many of them were running out and it was likely that with how slow they were that they could rearm and return before the Auxiliary Fighter Corps was overrun. She considered ordering everyone to fall back to the cover of their ships’ point defenses when newcomers arrived and started making a mess of the Octavian fighters on the flank.

The line of battleships and other ships with long range artillery quickly focused their fire on the dreadnought that took the Armageddon cannon shot while their shields were weak. The Dragua fired all of its lances in roughly the same spot. Few had ever survived a direct hit from the Armageddon cannon and they’d prefer that any that did be put down quickly. Chief Valstrath was surprised by the sudden appearance of allies but was concerned about the amount of fire they were putting into the Voidscreamer with zravvisk warriors on it. He motioned for a hail to be opened up to the new forces and spoke, “While we apprerate the assistance friends, please watch your fire. We have friendly forces fighting for control of both the Voidscreamer’s bridge and reactor room.”

On the bridge of the Voidscreamer the zravvisk were disappointed that the cluster bombs didn’t do as much to the defenders as they hoped. They reacted almost instantly to the Chosen charging at them by counter charging eager to show why they were considered some of the Armada’s most elite warriors. Most of the zravvisk warriors ignored the nerve gas as they had cybernetics to filter it out harmlessly. Those that didn’t have cybernetics were stuck with the considerably less effective option of not breathing and removing their mouth based attacks. A few warriors fell to the anti-tank lasers, thankfully manaering to dodge fatal wounds, though most were out of the fight and those that could still fight were crippled. Chyrvalth noticed the large chosen and figured it must have been important since it was a unique model. Roaring at it, she turned her fire on it, both her rotary cannon and rockets.

by **Bloodshade** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:21 pm

Delara System, Sector V
|| Engaging Octavian Forces ||

Weindorf glanced around the bridge as sensors blared into action, detecting the incoming presence of an enemy fleet. The Octavians! They seemed to be taking the initiative and this sector's assigned Octavian fleet was heading straight towards them to deal a decisve killing blow. There were only a few precious moments of time before the Octavians were going to enter the system and form up to attack Task Force Archangel and the accopanying Sildorian fleet.

"All formations, set shield frequences to 'bubble'! Form a defensive shield around key Sildorian ships! Octavian ships arriving into Delara space! Everyone in position! The hunt has begun! Playing cat and mouse, are we?"

Severel dozen shield boats were the first to react to Weindorf's commands, manuevering into position and forming the shape of a shield in front of the Sildorian First Armada, granting it a decisive chance to react to the Octiavian menace that had just warped into the system and began to batter both the First Armada and Task Force Archangel with a diverse barrage of firepower. Weindorf, in the meantime, was more focused in shifting doctrine. In cases such as this, he'd have peppered and evaded the Octavian field of fire, engaging it from its flank and scoring whatever kills they may achieve before escaping, whether it be through warping away to another system or simply cruising at a safe distance at STL speeds using their STL impulse fusion drives to avoid oncoming projectiles and retreat to a relatively safe distance.

However, in this scenario, the First Armada would be more the capable of being this fight's main source of firepower, at least until the rest of the 8^th Void Fleet as well as the 12^th Void Fleet linked up with Task Force Archangel. In the meantime, The Alarielle-class Flagship had comfortably embedded itself in the First Armada's vanguard, using its now-altered bubble shield to envelop the Silodorian frontline with its powerful shielding system, in case any Numen-class shield boats faltered to Octavian fire. Victoria-class carriers would begin to manuever to the back of the Sildorian formation, co-ordinating with Sildorian high command on when it may deploy its strike craft. The rest of the fleet, whether it be corvettes, frigates or cruisers, would embed itself in the First Armada in the heat of battle, positioning itself alongside similarly designated ship classes in order to supplement it. This complement was primarily tasked with defeating any ambitious Octavian fighters, using any available flechette launchers to fire at its surroundings, similar to a space-shotgun of sorts. A great deterrant to any small vessels that might think about sneaking up on it. All the while, Weindorf was madly barking orders to be transmitted to the task force. An ingenous plan sprung up in his mind, one with little risk and high reward if the Octavians bought it.

"Operations officer Slaugh, get every capable Daorun user on this ship to momentarily project a phantom fleet jumping near the stern of the Octavian fleet. Spare no detail! Heat signitures, electromagnetic radiation, the paintjob! Make sure it's projected in conjunction with our the 8^th and 12^th We've got to confuse the Octavian sensors and make them panic! Tin cans will be shaking their heads!" - Weindorf

Officer Slaugh nodded in response to the captain's commands and quickly transmitted this orders shipwide to the crew members, ensuring they'd be up to the task and speak of the devil, the 8^th and 12^th Void Fleet warped into the Delara system, overhead of the Octavian fleet. This should create a new front and as expected, the phantom fleet would also be mimicking the entry of the 8^th and 12^th Void Fleet but from the stern of the Octavian fleet. At least, this would give the Sildorians time to react and properly engage the Octavians on equal footing. At most, depending on how the Octavians would react to the phantom fleet's apparent invulnerability and flanking manuever, it would be a decisive move in regards to manuever warfare, on top of the new front the Octavians had to deal with that was created by the real Bloodshadian reinforcements.

Somwhere in Octavian Space
|| A maniacal pilot seeks answers from a doomed orb ||

Pitch black and virtually invisible in the deep, dark void of space. Alone and searching for answers that will never or eventually come. A lone wanderer with nothing but a big iron on his hip...or in this case, a towering pyramid. A burial tomb or perhaps a prison for the Scavenger. The pyramid hums silently in space with the Scavenger pilot gleaning for an energy signiture. Something that might indicate the return of the Destroyers. Anything to indicate the return of their beloved liberators.

A glimmer of hope. Something strange beyond the horizon. Odd machinations at work. Unique signitures and one stood out to it. A clear mind. An ascendent one. Pure of thought. A diamond in the rough! One that might have other answers! Answers to questions eternal!

The pyramid's base soon hummed into life, a kalaeidscope of Daorun particles materialized underneath it, appearing as a new level of light attached to it structure. Eight? No, nine similar signitures dotted across the galaxy, with the majority being in relatively close vicinity to one another. The Scavenger soon found itself staring at another stark black circular shape of sorts. Lonely. It begain to transmit its thought into the source of sentience in that orb.

Little bird, what do you seek?

A fish in a pond, where do you go?

The Scavenger, curiosity piqued by your existence

Danger looming, husks of nothingness. Anger consuming.

Allow me to glean your box of mysteries, will you?

Ginostra, Sicily
|| Battling the Paramount ||

Springing into action, the lapine was already manuevering around the tin can, appearing as some all-encapsulating blurry haze that resulted in the Paramount seemingly disappearing from the vision of the others due to the boundless number of afterimages being created by Vishala's speed demonry. The lapine's body acted on its own, seemingly seperated from what was racing through her current mind. All she simply wanted to do was put on a show of force.

Only a few moments later and Vishala grew tired of her antics. Time to up the ante. She situated herself a dozen meters or so from the Paramount, now visible to the naked eye. Lifting her constantly quivering right leg, it came slamming down to the ground, producing no visible effects other than the molecular pattern of the ground slowly twisting and turning around the severel weaker clones, building up in potential like a river gaining speed after being unblocked, and aimed straight towards the Paramount, transforming the vibrational energy into kinetic energy and transferring this swamping deluge of power into Perry's body, soon to send him flying into the air. Perhaps Mark could follow up and do some damage.

Ambrosia, in the meantime, was taken aback by this ball of unknown energy(?) that suddenly encapsulated the island at the hands of that otherwordly being that accompanied them. Hatlen seemed to be enjoying the spectacle and the vampiress found his cold-hearted approach to be rather frustrating. It's a good thing she evacuated the island of its inhabitants, otherwise they potentially would've been trapped in this hellhole.

Even if he might've been a completely different brand of power that wasn't even human in nature to begin with, Ambrosia still wanted to confront the Director for the liberties he took. Ambrosia levitated herself over to Hatlen who decided to treat this entire situation like a vacation of sorts.

"Hey, what's your problem? If I hadn't evacuated the natives of this island, they'd have been trapped on this death trap when all they wanted to do was enjoy their time here....just...like what you're doing right now. Still don't know why you can't just fix all this...whatever, not like I'm going to force you."

Ambrosia decided to conjure up a picnic blanket on smooth patch of a grass just a meter or so away from Hatlen before sitting down. She sent out a mental command to a couple of her clones to go seek out some food and drinks. Can't let the island's resources go to waste now that it's unclaimed.

"Uh, you want anything, Hat? Let me tell you, Italian food is savoury and easy to digest. Oh and before you decide to prod me, I could join in the fighting but I don't possess the necessary fighting spirit or style to contribute to the fight in any unique way so sorry to disappoint in case you wanted to see me dance with that husk of metal over there."

by **Khorzromoth** » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:01 pm

Sol System
Earth | Sicily | Ginostra

The tension in the now-deserted village of Ginostra rested upon a knife's edge, both parties in the upcoming clash eagerly anticipating for the other to make the first move, all the while silently hatching plans to be executed upon the firing of the first shot. Among these plans was the background interference of the Spawn-fragment, whose countless spectral bodies hung in the air like the ornaments of a vast, ethereal chandelier - as the seconds passed, it became evident that his many eyes were set on more than just Mark's sword. The same glyphs etched into the blade soon appeared inscribed in the bodies of Vishala, Masque, and Mark himself, crossing over their surfaces in an almost calligraphic display of intricate patterns, glowing deep red upon emerging before fading as they settled in. Subtle, unintelligible whispers coursed through their minds, eventually scrambling into a clear, decisive message that cut through the noise:

"Join in consecration. Fight as one."

Although they would feel no immediate changes beyond the voices in their minds, they would know that something had taken root within them. Like a coiled viper embedded in their essence, it lay in wait for them to act - upon them doing so, it would simply follow suit. And the first to experience this, the first to take action and set off the fight in earnest, was Masque.

As the overwhelming energy of the Hamon Overdrive surged through Masque's form, it found itself accompanied - or rather, enhanced - by something... different. Pushed to the brink of its abilities until it became the perfect Hamon battery, its interior architecture was warped even further by the presence within - pockets and channels that should not have existed opened up in the nooks and crannies of Masque's internal structure, spreading across it like a twisted web of capillaries, moulding perfectly with each adjustment, each recalibration, performed by their host as he optimised his physiology to the fullest. And upon Masque releasing the immense force of the Overdrive, so too did the proverbial lifeblood of these capillaries spill outward.

Tendrils of black mist swirled across the earth-shattering Hamon blast as it surged through the charred ground, seeking out the Paramount's buried nanites with immense speed and precision and bursting into thousands of miniature kaleidoscopic flashes, each one causing ruptures through the ground as adjacent matter was pulled into their core. Still more were carried towards the Paramount, in turn guiding and accelerating the Hamon pulse upon which they rode, causing it to twist and warp in frenzied pursuit of prey.

Just moments before the blast would come surging in, Vishala's blurry form pounced into the fray, forming a haze of countless afterimages in a dizzying display of speed. With each step, occurring at such small intervals they could hardly be perceived, the air around her grew more and more agitated as dark smoke radiated from her rushing body - by the time she leapt back, a web of intensely hot plasma had formed throughout the Paramount's entire army of clones, each strand sweeping inwards like a tidal wave in an immense, super-heated lattice. The markings on her leg glowed like a myriad scorching embers as she raised it and brought it crashing down, the impact causing those same markings to echo through the ground at the Paramount's feet, then through the very air as the ground burst to launch him upwards.

As the Hamon blast drew nearer, hundreds of tentacles lashed out in unison from Retzvethkhatztemnet's suspended figures at the Paramount's clones, each strike channeling through it the combined forces of Masque's Hamon and his own Abyssal essence. Within an instant, all had converged into a seething vortex - the black coils of mist, the waves of plasma, the surging Overdrive, clashing together in a colossal eruption of dazzling colours. All the while, the Spawn-fragment's own clones condensed into thousands of darts, streaking through and around the firestorm at blinding speed like a frenzied swarm of ravenous locusts.

Octavian Space
Gladian Rendezvous System

With no targets left to engage, the whirlwind of spinning tendrils slowed to a halt, its vicious strands settling down as they folded back into each other until once again forming a solid, monolithic sphere. The battle had come to a close. Though the presence of the few remaining Magicons had been traced by the orb's submerged probes to a distant system they had gathered in to regroup, further pursuit was deemed unnecessary - a simple parting shot would suffice. Not long after the last survivors teleported back to Warper's group, a single projectile, composed of a pea-sized core bubble surrounded by a space-distorting barrier, appeared into their system, darted after them at superluminal speed, and burst open. Within an instant, all nearby matter was warped closer to it by sudden spatial compression, every particle thus caught was consumed by the escaping core, and a massive energy surge shot outwards from the ensuing blast, vapourising several adjacent asteroids. Though it was unlikely regardless that the Magicons would continue to pose a threat, thinning their numbers even further served as a minor degree of additional insurance.

Though the orb was now alone in the system's space, the area was not truly deserted - outside of Surface boundaries, the 800th Armada still lurked nearby within the Tempest, and Retzvethraxyilnahr still had dealings to conclude. Manifesting his spectral avatar once again on the bridge of the Walls of Iron, he appeared before Lutherus, his incorporeal hands inaudibly clapping together.

"Well fought, Warmaster. You make a worthy colleague. Now, before our conversation was so rudely interrupted - I trust you will relay my request to the Pact's representative. Coordination between our fronts would make all our tasks more effective."

Interstellar Space

With the newcomers having gathered the data they sought, the otherworldly "conversation" taking place in the interstellar void promptly came to a close, its equally alien participants backing out of the local reality-pocket to go their separate ways. One such way, as it were, led its traveler further along a path of ruin through the Octavian Imperium - it was with this intent that the black orb departed from the empty expanse. Or rather, orbs. Where there had once been a single spherical construct, there were now three, slightly smaller in size.

Although each one was headed to a slightly different Surface-position, all three were bound by a single purpose - they were to comb the space of the Imperium, moving further and further into its inner core. And so they moved, for there was a harvest to be reaped, and only desolation to be sown.

System Na'Arat

Na'Arat was a relatively outlying industrial system, and its development was still in its somewhat early stages - centred around the planet Na'Arat-b, a large, formerly lifeless rock that was currently in the process of having its crust torn into by sprawling factory complexes, which not only spanned much of its surface but reached deep into the ground. The endless toil of machinery churned out minerals from the depths, while the surface, choked with heat, smog, and toxic waste had only two distinct landscapes - the vast, towering metal bastions of unrelenting industry, and the barren, mountainous plains interspersed with refuse deposits that had yet to be built over. To a lesser, organic civilisation, life on such a world would be unthinkable. But Octavia was not an organic civilisation; with but minimal concern for habitability, it proudly sunk its mechanical claws into virtually every exploitable world it could reach, effortlessly braving environments that would kill those who remained bound to fallible, perishable flesh. And yet it was flesh, of a sort, that would soon become the undoing of this testament to mechanoid resilience.

A channel opened into the system, through which an interloper entered. Spacetime anomalies were picked up all around the system, the largest of which was identified as one of the mysterious invading orbs. Mining vessels across the system began to attempt their escape, bringing with them whatever resources they could carry as they initiated their entry into FTL. Standard evacuation protocols were enacted; planetary shields went up, and mass-uploading into the Aether was ordered. Within moments, the entire system was on full alert. Though the Imperium would be robbed of its resources, not one Octavian life was to be lost to this assault... Or so it thought.

The orb's trail of destruction was primarily driven not by any desire to impoverish the Imperium, to cripple its military, or to ruin its infrastructure. It was after the very consciousnesses of its citizenry. For all the devastation it had wrought, the quantity of said consciousnesses that had been harvested seemed rather slim - too slim. Something was clearly amiss. Questions began to arise - and as its probes, scouring across realities from their perch at the precipice of the Abyss, watched the consciousnesses of the entire population of Na'Arat-b instantly leave their shells and shift out of corporeality, those questions were met with answers. It, too, exited physical space - submerging itself into the Abyss, it simultaneously pushed itself an unquantifiable distance away from its targets and brought them within its striking distance.

From the perspective of an untrained observer, the data packets that made up the billions of evacuating mind-uploads would appear entirely obfuscated, lost in the hectic sea of raw information that was the Aether. But the orb was no untrained observer - from its current vantage point, the consciousnesses it had been tracking were all too easy to spot out. With its prey firmly in its sights, all that remained was for the hunter to claim its prize. Readying itself for this end, it stretched its form across its surroundings, funneling their essence through its countless channels and membranes and redirecting them to a single focal point.

What followed the release of this focal point was not a blast of astronomical proportions across varying definitions of spacetime, but rather a simple information transfer. A data packet materialising into the Aether, seemingly of its own volition. Of course, the Octavians had established safeguards around their prized information realm, but the data packet did not care. Neither did the orb, but its own capabilities were of minimal concern here - it merely willed its payload to reach its targets, and the payload itself did the rest. The fact that there was an information lockdown in place that it would have to bypass barely even registered, for this was no ordinary agglomeration of data - a fact that became all the more evident when the information around it began to rapidly scramble to the point of total decohesion, the very structure of the Aether-pocket it had appeared in disintegrating into a chaotic morass of sheer illogic that would drive even superintelligences to cognitive collapse, all the while being "pulled" into the cataclysmic nexus like matter trapped in a black hole's event horizon. Within barely a few planck-times, what was once a robust information passageway had been consumed by a presence so unfathomably alien that its mere existence within the Aether's "space" could have no outcome but the latter's total breakdown.

The population of the Na'Arat system was no more; each soul was gone without a trace. Were it not for the violence with which they were instantly shredded into conceptual oblivion, they would have been lost in an endless tangle of incomprehensible dreams, slaved to the timeless un-mind into which they had been absorbed, until there was nothing left of them but distant screams in the endless depths.

Thereafter, just as quickly as it appeared, the presence collapsed into nothing. The only signs of its entry that would linger for any conventionally observable duration were the destabilising "shockwaves" rippling through nearby information clusters in its wake, and a mysterious, gaping hole in the Aether's proverbial fabric.

System Kr'Kalta

When Octavian exploration ships first entered the Kr'Kalta system, they were quick to note that it was rather rich in resources. Numerous rocky planets, gas giants, and dense asteroid formations were open for the taking - soon after the system's discovery, mining outposts were swiftly put to work, funneling riches back to the core of the Imperium. Yet one of these planets bore a resource quite different from the raw materials that were being mechanically extracted across the system - entertainment.

Located in the Goldilocks zone of the system's yellow dwarf, Kr'Kalta-c was home to a lush, diverse, and above all exotic biosphere. Superior as synthetic beings may be for the purposes of civilisation, the planet's curious organic critters were deemed to make for quite the spectacle, and Kr'Kalta-c soon went from being a planet-wide zoo to a bustling resort world, luxuriant nature reserves dotted with arcologies filled with all manner of entertainment facilities. A rather atypical planetary development setup for the Imperium, which more often than not regarded biosphere conservation as a mere roadblock in the way of industry; in this case, however, the merriment and revenue generated from tourism were deemed more than satisfactory. Sadly, as with all good things, the recreation enjoyed here by Imperial citizens was soon to come to an end.

With the decisive efficiency of a mobilising drone swarm, the leisurely air of Kr'Kalta-c immediately broke into the rushing, yet highly regimented, flow of evacuation protocols as the anomalous signature of the orb was detected near the planet, with little notice being paid to the fact that it appeared unusually small. Strike craft swarmed out of their stations in deep space to provide distracting fire, covering the escape of mining and freight vessels as they prepared to make interstellar jumps, only for the latter to be torn up from the inside by spontaneously-materialising matter chunks while their drone screens were shredded by an avalanche of ultra-relativistic darts. On the planet surface, all recreation came to an abrupt halt as shields went up, and mind-uploading into the Aether... did not go through.

Tethered to their prisons of corporeality, the billions of inhabitants on Kr'Kalta-c could do little but sit helplessly as they anticipated whatever demise they had coming. Grave, stygian laughter resonated throughout the planet's noosphere, making no true sound yet piercing the mind of every individual sophont. As anguish flooded their thoughts and darkness clouded their senses, they hardly noticed as their shells began to blacken and melt, falling to the ground as rapidly loosening clumps of inky fluid before being swept away as fine dust.

Out in deep space, the orb's lost volume swiftly returned before it departed, leaving the system a silent graveyard. Small flakes of metal suspended in the interplanetary void were the only remaining signs of the prior space battle, while the surface of Kr'Kalta-c appeared as pristine as ever. Not a dent could be seen in the towering arcologies, still looming over lush vistas of wilderness. The only change that was evident was an eerie stillness that had beset the planet's population centres, marking a quiet, yet total, erasure of civilisation.

System Xinhaz

Conquered during the early stages of the Great Expansion, the Xinhaz system was once home to an interplanetary civilisation not very unlike the Octavians known as the Pan-Naxni Unity - inhabited by an organic race physiologically similar to Earth's ancient Therapsid clade, its establishment of a foothold throughout its system largely coincided with the rapid phasing out of baseline organic bodies in favour of increasingly widespread and extensive augmentation, most of which being cybernetic in nature. By the time the Octavians arrived, they were in the process of dismantling several of their system's planets - rather than colonising them, they used the materials to build large quantities of space habitats scattered across the system, in which much of their population resided, the rest remaining on the Naxni homeworld of Tkereth.

Although the Imperium initially attempted to conduct diplomacy with the Naxni due to shared views on synthetic augmentation, a series of accidents and miscommunications on the part of the Octavian envoys led to the breakout of a brutal, and heavily one-sided, war. Now, as infrastructure was being rebuilt while the unruly populace was slowly but surely being fully integrated into the Imperium, a similarly one-sided conflict was about to sweep over the fledgling colony - not to hand it yet again to new masters, but to erase it entirely from the galactic map.

In spite of the seemingly disjointed configuration of the Xinhaz colony, the implementation of Octavian technology and infrastructure allowed the entire apparatus to rapidly respond as a cohesive unit as soon as a spacetime breach was reported in the system. Shield generators installed into the habitats were activated, military vessels accompanied by masses of drone fighters went on high alert, and the citizens whose primitive, Naxni-made shells had yet to be integrated with Aether uplink technology were ordered to be escorted into fortified bunkers, embedded deep within either the habitat-asteroids or Tkereth's planetary crust. Once again, however, the Aether uploads failed, while no signs of the orb could be detected in open space. Within moments, communications infrastructure across the system spontaneously broke down, while the behaviour of the populace grew increasingly erratic - however, after an initial descent into unreason, they all rose back up in unison, animated by a single purpose.

All semblance of panic, squabbling, or chaos had vanished; in its place, the now silent and expressionless citizens of Xinhaz moved as one in perfect synchronicity. As they converged onto each other, they began joining hands, the metal of their limbs melting together and pulling them further inward until their forms merged into viscous blobs. Growing numbers of these amalgamations emerged throughout the vast colony, continuing to mindlessly merge with each other into greater and greater clumps of semi-liquid metal before dissolving into the walls of their buildings and habitats, eating away at them like swarms of gargantuan amoebae. All the while, the spherical form of the otherworldly invader began to take shape on the outskirts of the asteroid belt, lazily drifting along as it grew in size. By the time it was fully assembled, all that remained of the colony at Xinhaz was a lifeless smattering of broken-down, corroded rubble dotting interplanetary space and the surface of Tkereth, reminiscent of a field of crops ravaged by a colossal plague of locusts.

No sooner had its task at Xinhaz been completed than the orb received a signal from above - a missive, from the ever-present, all-seeing watcher behind the veil. The stem of thousands upon thousands of branches, of which it was but one. Its missive was followed without question, and the Spawn-fragment remained in place, lurking in the distant void between the barren planets. It was expecting a visitor.

It was not long before the visitor arrived, riding upon a trail of swirling, dancing colours. The smooth black faces of a great pyramid drifted towards the waiting sphere - two dark, simple shapes, at once bizarre and mundane, suspended in the even darker cosmic void. Arranged here for... a meeting, of sorts. Two strange beings, inquiring of each other's nature. One would hardly think a pair of space-bourne geometric objects to have lyrical proclivities - and yet, through the stark silence of deep space, their inquiries formed the beginnings of a song.

A pale, humanoid face rippled out from the orb's surface, carried within mere metres of the new arrival by the extension of a "neck". Black, hollow eyes gazed upon the pyramid's walls; within moments, the inky pair of cavities lit up with a pulsating display of colours, imaginable and otherwise. Entertained by its visitor's particular style of delivery, it saw fit to respond in kind.

A scavenger comes, in the wake of the hunt.

A hunter rests by its quarry.

Scavenger and hunter, two paths intertwined.

One fated to seek the other.

One searches, the other provides.

The scavenger will have its fill.

As it spoke, clusters of concepts were beamed into the Scavenger's mind. Answers to its curiosity, woven into the fabric of its verse, to be unraveled by its listener upon review - or rather, fragments of answers. Statements of purpose, of origin, of allegiance; none complete, all little more than foundations and framework. Whether the truth this base would lead to was whole or partial was not yet knowable - that was up to the Scavenger, just as it had been to the Eidolon, and likewise to the Mann.

Come, scavenger. Eat from the quarry of mysteries.

Be wary, scavenger. Do not overfeed.

by **Imperial-Octavia** » Tue Aug 18, 2020 10:24 pm

Ridley's Rest

The Slabs pulled every trick they knew to prevent the ISO vessels from causing too much damage to the Octavian fleet turning shells into all manner of things from harmless specs of space dust to Visoran fighters which would soon rush towards the surviving Liners before they got any closer to the shield looking to destroy them. As they approached they would be bombarded with caster fire engulfing every area which they would try and move into, parts of the shield would form itself into a hammer of sorts swinging into Liners getting too close to the shield. Alas the Visoran had the occasional slip in the strength of the protective barrier knocking out some ships which could not be afforded to be lost, but these patches were soon closed up. In the meantime with the Warminds gone all Octavian fire was focused onto the station and it's defenders despite the heavy losses maintained by the Octavian fleet. What was now Teratons of shells flew towards the Zravvisk as even the heavily damaged Sword fired thousands of it's intact missiles and shots from their particle cannons along with other secondary sources of fire.

As the final Liner was put down after causing all sorts of hell even the Visoran would begin to open fire upon the station along with their innumerable swarm of fighters. At the same moment the Sword managed to fire off it's main cannon once again assuming without the Warmind's that it was free to fire. Again, the planet destroying shell began racing towards the station and just as victory seemed assured by the Imperium, a capsule appeared next to the Visoran cubes who pushed the Sword out of the way to see what exactly it would do. Multiple Big Bangs worth of force was not expected in the slightest and in but a moment the cubes were utterly annihilated and the Sword, though not completely caught in the blast had one half of its hull totally destroyed. Luckily for Tal'Talen she just so happened to be standing on the half which wasn't ionized (and the Zravvisk Captain was also safe in her battle with the Octavian leader) but the pure rage she felt in seeing her beloved Sword so damaged by these bastards sent her into one of her biting fits which would be turned upon the Zravvisk Captain as she wildly bit at her neck. Even despite this the Octavian fleet would continue to fire, hoping to finally finish this station off.

Mining System 116

The Voidscreamer's armor churned and cracked with the Warmind's unknown attack H'Krell knew that he may need to "tactically withdraw" to the system with reinforcements and that's exactly what he put in place despite the fact he didn't order nearly enough heavy firepower to take on a Warmind but that could be arranged. He called another 5 Dreadnoughts to the area from the Imperium's vast storages which would be there soon after the Voidscreamer would arrive there, but first he had to make sure that they would pursue or his trap would be for nothing...A hostage may make them follow him into the next system... With a sudden and rapid burst of speed H'Krell would charge towards the Zravvisk leader causing the floor to vibrate to the sheer size of his Warform, and then after blocking the autocannons fire with his massive arms and grabbing onto the dragon firing his hand laser right into her stomach and then The Voidscreamer and the entire fleet activated their Alcubierre drives, into the next system over with the Zravvisk on board. Though the brawl on board the Voidscreamer continued, the trap laid was sure to make any damages well worth it...

Ginostra

The following events were unexpected to say the least. First being destroyed by a...hamon blast (combined with some strange black energy, likely from the orb demon). Sure The Paramount didn't exactly trust the Ultimate Lifeforms but such outright treason wasn't so quickly expected. Oh well nothing some quick orbital bombardment couldn't fix, next came that rabbit girl's vibrational attack which then threw his newly regenerated body into the air (Paramount noted that he could regenerate mid-flight and was honestly quite happy about it), leaving him mildly annoyed (honestly he had not expected to be attacked like this), but as always The Paramount had a plan. First he let a barrier of energy from the module which powered him expand outwards, disintigrating those entites which had came from Retz's enhancement of his allies. Secondly he stabilized himself in the air as he once again looked to the module for it's power. Soon his body began to bulge and contort into multiple dripping protrusions and then in only a second they hardened into sharpened spikes. Then he expelled them from his body, sending hundreds of spikes flying into the buildings and roads below crashing into walls and deforming the ground. His assault would only continue slowly shifting to energy blasts which would further destroy the previously quaint town of Ginostra. During the transition to energy blasts the spikes, now sticking out of the ground, would begin to stir ever so slightly...

The Paramount's clones would have a very difficult time attempting to do anything to the enemy clones as they were sliced and blown apart from the hamon blast and the clone's attacks. They would have trouble fighting back, but as they kept that force away from The Paramount proper, they remained in the fight in whatever way they could while regenerating from the blows they had taken.

Florence

Babyface quickly turned himself and Renée back into cubes and flew over to the end of the hall holding the cubed form of Renée in his hand and holding it close to his mouth, "Listen to me, stand user should you allow my master to roam free I shall let your partner go, if not she shall be eaten in her entirety condemning her to death. Make your choice." Halfways across the bunker Melone noticed a light moving along the bunker and though he was unsure of it's origins, his previous experience in the business told him that it could be nothing he would want to be subjected to. He ran that little bit faster hoping that it wouldn't catch up to him.

Delara System

As the Octavian fleet noticed the 3 newly arrived and immediately flew into the closest thing that AI could have to panic as in the seconds they had before the real fire came they began to wait for the orders from their all important Tactical Codex.

"Critical Fleet Warning: Enemy Re-enforcements warped in, Bloodshadian in origin, Tactical Codex says fleet must call in additional elements"

"#1FF36 confirm sending of additional elements. Codex tells to proceed with Fleet Maneuver #A/222-1 to above enemy. Send small detachment to hold enemy from behind"

"Rodger Rodger"

At that moment their plans would come into fruition as the storage yards of Octavia was further opened, this time providing the entire invasion Armada of 30,000 where an extra 2,000 would be sent to the battle there while the main fleet would again begin their expansion into Sildoria. A task force of 100, mostly Battlecruisers and support classes would try and hold the mirage fleet up unaware of the fact that they would be shooting nothing though they would slowly begin catching onto that fact. The fleet would consolidate into a shield wall, merging their deflector shields into one bigger, stronger one until reinforcements came. Meanwhile Dreadnoughts would move to the top of the fleet to protect them from the fire from the 8th and 12th fleets while firing their particle cannons missiles at the fleet above and letting their broadside hit their marks upon the two main fleets. Drone Fighters would focus on defense from enemy fights and harassing the 12th and 8th fleets. The rest of the fleet continue firing upon the Sildorian fleet and the Bloodshadian expeditionary force along with them, EW attacks would intensify in the meantime looking to disrupt their systems and make their reinforcements more effective once they finally arrived.

Diplomacy

As Rantar looked at the reply with horror, it was nothing in the terms that much concerned him, it was the offer for an in-person meeting with the ISO, the last time he had done that was...in Cymopolia. He would obviously rather not relive those memories and as he looked as O'shaa for some mercy, but only found the demanding eyes of a taskmaster, leaving Rantar defeated and quietly sobbing to himself...

After some wrangling Rantar had finally been pushed into the diplomatic ship and was en route to the location of the meeting as dictated by the ISO. He spent his time there shoving pleasure inserts into his neck looking to calm his nerves to varying effect. Though...he could swear that Liner looked similar, but what he thought couldn't possibly be reasonable. In a nation as big of the ISO Rantar couldn't possibly run into him again could he?

Paraoon

As the Simulacra sent the Cruiser to the pocket dimension the Visoran would be taken along with it and they would continue their assault upon the cruiser, sending trillions upon trillions of caster rounds upon it's target. Meanwhile in the prime universe a new batch of Visoran cubes had arrived and began the work of repairing the planet of Paraoon, mending the fractured pieces of the planet and putting them back together while moving the real space construct the Starfury had put inside the planet somewhere far removed from the planet itself, hoping that it wouldn't become a problem later. Then they made their way to the fringes of the Imperium, they had just received new orders...

As Paraoon was restored and the population began to return to their shells they looked around at their trade hub and it's multiple Mega-cities completely untouched and the planned expansions of said cities still in progress by their work drones. The factories in which many of the population worked hadn't a scratch on them and some said that they looked better than they did before. The processing plants which cataloged incoming and outgoing goods were also in tact. This could only mean one thing...The Paramount had intervened in their favor! Many were skeptical about his supposed divinity but after this there was no way that he wasn't! The previously destroyed shield generators became houses of worship, celebration and praise to The Paramount poured into the streets, and the noise of "All Hail!" would deafen any organic deciding to land on the planet! Truly a glorious day for the Imperium!

Shock and Rage

When you were sitting in the best palace that your nation could create it should be hard to feel all too many negative emotions, but as The Paragon read the latest damage report he definitely felt what could be be described as dread. The Tactical Codex had gave it to him about ab hour ago and he could manage to do was stare at it. The Imperium had actually suffered casualties? Was that even possible? The Paragon had thought he would have never have seen the day (and neither would his father who would be having a fit about this development.) Sure many of the Octavians there had consciousness backups offplanet, but the very thought of these abominations being able to even access and manipulate the Aether was horrifying enough. Obviously treating these orbs like a mere pest was a mistake, if they could go into the Aether and delete consciousnesses what else could they do? The Paragon was the current regent and he was about to use that power to save the Imperium from these things.

He pressed a button on the Holo-board which made up his father's main desk and watched as the female figure which the Codex with it's newfound personality chose for these types of meeting. The figure was alien even to The Paragon as it's techno-organic form and horned body looked upon him, ever so slightly annoyed.

"Yes, Lord Paragon?"

"Do we have any new developments on the orb situation?" The Codex stopped for a moment as she went through all available knowledge she had available to her about the war effort of which there was yottabytes and within about 5 seconds she brought up the following

"The Magicon known as Warper has given us large amount of magical info which is being passed around the Mechanator Corps being integrated. Soon after a unknown energy attack a few magicons were injured and they warped somewhere into the Deception Empire." That was fairly expected, bit with the knowledge of magic The Paragon could form a proper response.

"Send the magic data to the Mechantors on the fringes of the Imperium. Also send the Visoran there and have them see if they can find where they came from. I don't want to hear about any more casualties on that front and make sure they find out where they come from. And also why don't we open some of the mothballs and send them over to the Mandate? The Japanese may need some of our help in keeping them back."

"But of course, my liege", and with that his orders were implemented as the Visoran sped off to the other side of the Imperium, fighters and all. Once arriving in the systems the orbs were most likely to appear in as determined by the Codex and soon they would use their PDVA and ANSR devices in unison opening a small dimensional portal and began looking for wherever these orbs came from, until they came about a curious spot. An endless miasma of chaos and madness was which was only stopped by a very particular bubble of relative sanity. Looking deeper, they began to see the signs of a society and what was likely the home of the orbs. This was something to note for when the time came for decisive action against them...

In the systems without the Visoran present, the entire Mechanator Corps on said planets would be given the full knowledge of Cybertronian magic. Using it as a base the first move of many would be to magically enhanced their own shells in all sorts of odd and esoteric ways, but most practically were speed, reaction speed, and durability upgrades putting them on par with there the magicons had been before they had given up the fight. Then, they would begin to experiment with what they had been given soon learning what that could do as a collective group and sending said knowledge off to their fellow Mechanators on other planets. With each new spell the new Magic Mechanators (dubbed the MMs by the citizenry) grew stronger and more wise in their use of the arcane. Of particular interest were illusion and sealing magics. Hopefully they would be strong and numerous enough to combat the orbs...

The Mandate invasion Armada was being made of 150,000 ships and en route to the Yamato Empire's Earth. They surely wouldn't mind when it arrived as it may or may not drag them along on their warpath depending on how ready the planet is, but as hundreds of thousands of ships rose from the mothball yards of the Imperium, one thing was clear. The gloves had officially come off...

6221

The Chosen merely looked upon Alexi and his comrade with what seemed to be contempt (it was quite hard to emote without a proper face after all) and then turned his full body to the two humans as their bullets bounced off his shell harmlessly, "Cease before we have to respond with due force. Where is your main computing unit so we may diagnose the problem." The Chosen called in some more of their Order, about 40 just in case they began to get swarmed, a few more boarding vessels were sent on their way over to the system as the Chosen stood awkwardly getting peppered with bullets

North Korea

As the NUN's tanks landed in North Korea they would quickly find MK3 drones rushing about the battlefield trying to avoid their own cores being hurtled at them from the GDC and as they saw their tanks they noticed that they were: Human, in primitive armor, and on the Battlefield. That was all they needed to see to assume they were GDC with salvaged tanks of their governments. Immediately they switched to their alternate anti-tank laser mode on their Eraser laser cannons with their bright red lasers melting straight through the Railgun tanks. Though this was bad, the real trouble for the NUN crewmen would come when one of the Octavian Grinder tanks drove straight through the walls of a nearby building and fired it's 0.5c shell whizzing through the air and making contact with the tanks in what seemed to be instant. Truly they had found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Somewhere near Vladivostok

The Mechanators located in this small Russian town were truly living the ideal life. The locals, who were mainly fisherman and seasonal farmers had been assimilated effortlessly and now they had started moving towards an area with metals to harvest for the Imperium should they be able to start industry on this particular planet. Truly it was the life until they ran into an odd device. It was damaged, but obviously still functional but perhaps dangerous not that it meant all that much, most of the Mechantors would likely have a backup saved anyways so they could stay around it for a while. Reinforcements were called to the area, perhaps the Imperium could find some use for it...

by **The Auraverse** » Thu Aug 20, 2020 5:54 pm

|⌂|Earth|⌂|
|Florence, Passione Bunker|

Cubes. Of course it was cubes - Elias' briefly-thunderous demeanor seemed to return to its usual cheery self.

"Say, that is a neat trick. Avoidance of physical damage and whatnot. And I wonder - do I call this cannibalism? Do I genuinely lower myself to accepting something like you onto our little branch of the evolutionary tree? Either way-"

To say he cocked his head to the side would be something of an understatement - snapping it into a tilt faster than the eye could follow, he evoked an audible crack.

"It won't work twice!"

Two hands on the cane now - one just below the head, the other slightly lower. They came apart with a silken swish, and another burst of lilac - as the cane's upper segment slid away from the rest, it revealed a sliver of gleaming silver. Glowing symbols had already wound themselves down the length of the blade; as they came into contact with the air, they let out a steadily-rising screech. The sword - for now it truly, undeniably was a sword, arced up towards the ceiling, freed of its sheath - as it did so, the twisting lines of violet it left behind seemed to carve themselves into the air itself. And thus the air came rushing in - a vacuum of sufficient strength to tear light fixtures from their wall-brackets, and the few remaining intact doors off their hinges. And the swing didn't stop there - directing this cataclysmic torrent of pressure, it flung it upwards - directly into the dozen-odd meters of reinforced concrete and dirt separating the hallway from the outside world.

The roar truly was deafening. As the hyperpressurized gas column tore its way through rebar and sediment alike, it compressed further - lines of purple jumped from side to side within the stream, cleaving molecules as they went. What actually ended up erupting from the ground above the bunker, and into the open air, was a multi-meter-wide jet of retina-searing plasma, lancing up a good distance into the sky before finally dissipating. Such a display would be difficult to miss for dozens of kilometers around.

Back in the hallway, things were a tad more restrained - still, the pull was considerable. It dragged Babyface and its captive both back towards its origin point - the pulsating mess of lilac - at breakneck speeds, almost breaking the Stand's hold on Renée entirely in the process. Elias stuck his hand through it to meet them. As his fingers came into contact with the frantically swirling mess of cubes that was his adversary, the patterns adorning them shifted at a dizzying pace - their cold glow helped illuminate his grin.

"Got you!"

How aware Elias actually was of happenings elsewhere in the bunker was unclear. Perhaps it was mere coincidence that his exclamation aligned near-perfectly with the rising tide of light finally overtaking Melone. Or perhaps not. Either way, the glowing carpet flowed under his feet, rushing ever forwards... and stopped. One got the impression that it had found something - the gangster was suddenly beset by the horrible feeling that the something was himself.

Sure enough, as abruptly as it had halted, the glow rose as a solid curtain in front of the escaping mafioso, a mere half-dozen meters or so from the bunker's exit. And to his left, and his right - only the rearwards path remained unobstructed. But even there, something strange was starting to unfold - as if the concrete itself had begun to vibrate softly. Then, not so softly. Vibrations turned to tremors, which gradually built into veritable convulsions - what had up until recently been entirely solid and unyielding floor had begun to twist and distend in the manner of putty, with each wild flex bringing the roiling mass closer to the now-boxed-in Melone.

|⌂|Earth|⌂|
|Stromboli|

The Director gave Ambrosia a somewhat bemused look.

"Really? Some modosophonts on a single island are what you shift your attention to when it comes to collateral damage? Considering the scope of stuff liable to be thrown around here, I'm putting measures in place to preserve planetary integrity. Nevermind a village or two. As for "fixing" things, who do you take me for?"

He motioned vaguely to the battle taking place mere dozens of meters away.

"Of course, I could step in and involve myself in all this to try and end it more quickly, but that would mean lowering myself to the squabblers' level. And it ultimately wouldn't solve anything, because you numbskulls would continue bashing each other over the head with your fleets and your armies and whatnot. As it stands, the information that can be gleaned from allowing this to happen far outweighs the benefits of ending it. Especially considering the resources that would have to be squandered on the latter."

He sighed in annoyance as one of the Paramount's spike-projectiles thudded into the dirt at his feet.

"It would help if they quietened down a little. But that's a minor nitpick by comparison. Oh, and I've no particular desire to see you enter the fray. It might happen regardless, or it might not. I remain ambivalent either way."

Leaning back in his chair, he produced a small notepad by unclear means - grasping a seemingly-ordinary ballpoint pen between thumb and forefinger, he began to scribble something within, taking occasional glances at the unfolding carnage.

by **A m e n r i a** » Sun Aug 23, 2020 1:19 am

Earth, again

The Fighting Panda tried to dodge out of the way. Alas, she was too big and slow to completely evade the enemy's bite, and the dinosaur managed to sink its teeth into her left shoulder. She roared in pain, before hitting the dinosaur's body multiple times with her bamboo staff.

Meanwhile, as Copycat flew and blasted away at her foes, her armour began to chime "multiple projectiles incoming" it said, and in time, she was able to turn around, form shields of hard light in her hands, and deflect the bones Wammu launched at her.

Imperial-Octavia wrote:"Human, this is no battle for you. Lead your forces while you can and I may grace you with battle."

Xiao Mao Mao was never good at English. She had slacked off in English classes back when she was in school. Luckily, her armour translates languages in real time and she was able to understand Wammu's words. She glanced at Switch, who nodded to her in response. Her armour would translate her words into a language Wammu could understand. "I accept your challenge! Come fight me!" Copycat flew away from the heat of battle, periodically spraying the so-called "Ultimate Lifeform" with machine gun fire, leading him someplace he couldn't get support from his allies. Unfortunately, this meant she too, would be isolated.

Dio's Mansion

Fragment stepped aside, nearly missing the Whitesnake's fist, before attempting to land a kick to the kidney herself. "Know that you now are in the crosshairs of the Starchild Sorority." she threw more punches and kicks before landing several metres away from Whitesnake. "In other words, you're screwed." she charges at him again.

While her half sister was busy with Whitesnake, Mirage looked up at the stange face above them. "What's the matter? Scared?" she didn't need to try hard to notice it. She is a telepath, after all. Her words were not meant simply as taunts. She was probing into the entity as well, trying to discern its nature through telepathy. Was this a sentient being? Or was this another puppet controlled by a person somewhere? She tried to sneak into its mind, quickly looking for any cracks or openings while being careful enough to avoid Whitesnake attacking her.

Upstairs, the Vampire Twins received Heartstring's message. Camellia purred in response to avoid making too much noise. Their cat ears could pick up the sound of footsteps heading towards them. Camellia crouched and his under a table while her twin prepared to pounce from much higher ground. If this were Dio coming for them, they'd best be prepared.

(Unfinished post)

by **Gladian Imperium** » Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:21 am

Trifexian Gestalt, Arkeyanaverse

In the formless structures of a realm no outsider has beheld, A voiceless choir sang out across the plains of computronium, echoing across fractals and sliding across holes in space, reaching the processors of a never-resting mind.

The Mind slid from its prior residence, the landscape around it warping and bending to transport it across vast volumes in a mere instant, taking it to its body. The body slid free of the vast oceans it slept within, rising from the surface as though it were a fluid rather than a solid of such density, it should be no more than a singularity if it were to enter the universe.

The Body listened once more to the Choir, sailing through the warping and fractalizing landscape of the shifting realm, bringing it to one of many rings that hung from strings of ideas, gates that linked the heavens and the known world, and Beyond. It was through one of these rings the Body traveled, sliding between universes as it continued listening to the Choir's song, woven and intertwined with instructions.

It exited the Ring, entering into the New Realm that the younger powers had been so eager to colonize. And simply, vanished. Folding and tucking space around itself as to hide from the universe-a far more refined version of the same principle found in the operation of Phase Drives, and shot forth, making for the milky way.

Earth Orbit

IWLTWIGH Abruptly halted their blitz through the Octavian Fleet, electing to dive away from the formation towards the planet below before abruptly pulling up. It hovered briefly for a few seconds, before lunging back upwards to rejoin the battle.

However, in those few seconds, it had deposited something via displacement.

EXO Fireteam, Outskirts of Unnamed Village

<This is IWLTWIGH to Lead, do you copy>

<Lead to IWLTWIGH copying, Displacement successful, ten meter clearance was sufficient. All units report as active.>

<Requesting status of Esoteric Signal?>

<Esoteric Signal appears to be in motion. Detecting Octavian signatures around the Signal.>

<Understood. You have your orders, good hunting.>

As the connection cut, Lead immediately got to work ordering the Fireteam into position.

<Anky One and Anky Two, prime your weapons. Quetz One and Quetz Two, I want both of you grounded but do be prepared to provide CAS if needed.>

<Velo One, Drop to Rack and fire two Rods at the Signatures flanking the Signal. Effector Warheads, target the stuff they're made of.>

<Aye, sir, Dropping to Rack.>

Velo One, a towering, 3-meter tall humanoid machine, dropped to a kneel, supporting themselves on hands and knees as a plate on their back popped open, extending to a vertical position and revealing five missiles. Two of said missiles lit up, before shooting free of the Rack with quiet pops and taking to the air, flying in an arc as they descended on the Octavians, one kilometer away.

The Missiles would impact the ground around the vehicle, letting off two Effector Pulses aimed at the very materials the Mechanators flanking the vehicle were made of, turning it into slag.

As Velo One retracted their Rack and rose to a standing position, the twelve units would move into a running start, making for the Vehicle housing the Esoteric Signal.

Ginostra, Earth

As the Paramount unleashed his barrage of spikes and bolts of energy, Masque's body contorted, the cloak flapping to reveal a bizarre humanoid body coated in a stony exoskeleton.Yet, this body was unnaturally malleable, warping and twisting to expertly avoid the spikes as the Angelnet jumped backwards several meters before blasting the ground with a powerful burst of wind, burrowing below the surface to shield himself from the bombardment.

The Arctic, UL Hive

One of the many pods outside the bulging spine of the Hive began to squirm. Chitinous shell cracking and steaming as something within began to wake up. A flash of light heralded the emergence of a single long, massive claw that glowed and dragged a gash across the upper surface of the pod. The shell exploded, a large...creature beginning to wake and rear up, its tail sweeping out behind it as its two claws...strange, alien wings, began to glow with a searing rainbow of colors, air beginning to circulate around it as it channeled the power of Waamu, launching itself into the skies and creating a horrendous shriek as it breached the sound barrier, heading for Skyhooked. Meanwhile, another creature of the same breed burst from yet another pod, headed for North Korea.

NUN Battalion, North Korea

As the EXO Fireteam in Vladivostok closed in on their quarry, another, larger force closed on theirs in North Korea. One of the Esoteric Signatures had originated there, and as the force closed in, they made their move.

The Octavians would find themselves bombarded by Effector Warheads, the Grinder Tank in particular being targeted by several Disruptor Missiles that would potentially tear right through its hull. Several Ankylosaur-pattern units vaulted over buildings, affixing themselves to walls as their array of Effectors and missile fabricators bombarded the Octavians around the NUN tanks, the very armor that protected them turning into torturous traps as they heated and began to melt, dripping into the frames and joints that held them together before cooling, hindering mobility.

Quetzalcoatl-pattern units shrieked overhead, their avian forms dispensing hell from above as they circled, keeping watch for reinforcements.

Finally, Velociraptor pattern units marched towards the formation, firing their Effectors and micromissiles at the Octavians.

Khorzomoth Rendezvous System

If Retzvethraxyilnahr were particularly observant of his surroundings, he'd notice the Walls of Iron's bridge was...different. Screens flickered ever so slightly, and the structural beams that ran along the walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to inaudibly hum with an internal power. Everything was covered in a reflective sheen, although from what wasn't apparent. As the Tempest withdrew and the Armada re-entered realspace, the hulls of the numerous vessels would be speckled with glowing red fissures.

The fully-armored Warmaster turned to face Retz. In the full garb of the Mantle, he loomed an extra meter taller, adding to his already imposing height as his helmeted face turned to the Spawn.

"I've already sent the order to Comms, the message should be arriving to Trez'nav in a matter of minutes. It'd be shorter, but our comms infrastructure in this area is rather...undeveloped." Lutherus said.

Delara System

The Delara System was greeted by a massive drive signature inbound at superluminal speeds. The warped space twisted and contorted, taking up a volume that only planets could challenge as it dropped below light speed. The signature dissolved into numerous smaller drive signatures, unveiling the KMWP’s Sildorian Humanitarian Fleet. A Transmission was sent out.

KMWP|CANNED MONKEYS|DELARA SYSTEM
This is the Traveler Canned Monkeys, we are on a mission of humanitarian aid. Any civilian vessels, stations, or cities that wish to evacuate from this system, must notify us within the next two hours. To the combatants of this system: Any attack on civilians, or against us, will be considered an act of open hostility and retaliated against with appropriate force.

by **Ignis States** » Sat Sep 05, 2020 5:49 am

Mark doesn't even say a word as the weird...shadow demon thing does to him and his allies what it did to his sword, simply focusing on dodging the spiky balls and energy blasts Paramount is flinging on everywhere, blurring into shadow with each and every sidestep or dash away from attacks. He grits his teeth before the shadows around him intensify, blood red flames burning within them as they grow thicker and thicker. He then thrusts his hand towards Paramount's general location, the area around the Ausar vibrating with power.

"You want me to attack, I'll give you an attack." All hell practically breaks loose as a massive, sweeping torrent of consuming black flames emanates from Mark's outstretched hand, a layer of corrosive Hatred surrounding it. The poor town of Ginostra suffers even more as the backblast from this attack destroys more than a few buildings, outright consuming them with flames of shadow instead of simply burning. At the same time, he aims his sword forward, honing his magic right at the tip. With that, he fires a cutting wave of pure darkness, aiming it at his opponent's chest. Best to take out that damn module when he has the opportunity.

The Ausar begins to rapidly think as he takes note of the weird box thing. Mark can't use his mobility, but this gives him a far, far deadlier idea than Paramount might be prepared for.

Meanwhile, with the Tzakyuza prisoner thing.

Most of the prisoners on the planet seem to range from muscular brutes with crimson, pink, and orange blood to skinny females with dangerous glints in their eye, the mark of a born killer. All except for two prisoners, each in a lone cell. A female of average height and a lithe, skinny build, fur that's white and striped with grey, and piercing eyes of pure teal. Her expression is one of pure melancholy as she stares out the window of her door, which is made of rune inscribed metal and hardlight.
The other prisoner is a male, though looks a bit runtier than the rest. Pitch black fur contrasts greatly against eyes of pure smoke grey. Though he isn't a hulking monster like most of the other guys around here, he definitely isn't some anorexic, either.

The door for the tealblood prisoner has the following name inscribed on it: Yeishlakhi. The grayblood prisoner's door has the name Ramani.

by **Imperial-Octavia** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:13 pm

Gionostra

If The Paramount was able to smile, he would be grinning ear to ear as Mark charged towards him. As Mark approached The Paramount dodging and weaving through the machine's attack he would find Paramount ready to block, arm blades made of yellow energy in a defensive stance almost as if The Paramount was expecting this. Then at the very last second, as Mark's sword blast was about to clash with the energy swords The Paramount was...gone? The assembly of his enemies would surely be confused for the moment they had before Paramount's plan came into effect. In but a second each of the spikes that Paramount had just thrown morphed into clones and immediately got to work devastating the enemies of the one who spawned them. Mark would find the worst of it, as FTL beams of ethereal energy rushed towards his position in the middle of the air surrounding him on nearly all sides except for upwards. The situation would only become worse for the swordsman as the original Paramount reappeared below him on the ground and unleashed a massive blast of energy directly above him, far dwarfing anything his clones could produce. Retz's clones would find themselves outnumbered with the new influx of clones as they slashed away at the wisps that were produced which were causing chaos among Paramount's clones while also attempting to slash and cut their way through the clones looking to get to their source.

Vishala would find beams from the clones aimed directly at her as some of the extra clones looked to claim a new kill. In front of Halten and Ambrosia a clone would spawn from the spike that was wedged in front of them and it would aim it's arm cannon at Ambrosia as a beam was charged though it was noticably blocking Halten's view of the battle which could be seen of an "attack" of sorts. Masque would be pursued by multiple clones moving at hypersonic speeds firing yet more beams towards the merged UL body looking to disintegrate it in it's entirety.

Florence

Babyface would immediately turn Elias' arm into a bundle of cubes before jumping back and grabbing the ball which Reneé had been turned into, "You fool! Now you have truly doomed your friend to death, remember that as I consume her!" The Junior slowly raised Reneé to his mouth, not actually intending to kill her, but to make the appearance of such to maintain his leverage over his attacker. Melone was absolutely terrified by the light overtaking him and the noises that came from behind him, but he hoped his Junior still had it covered. It was his only hope now.

DIO's Mansion

Whitesnake took Fragments kick and recoiled and so did the Priest upstairs leaving him reeling and clutching his stomach; Whitesnake wasn't intended for close combat like this, but if he was to protect Lord DIO he would have to adapt. Summoning a disc from Whitesnake holding the command "run" the stand would throw it towards Fragment hoping that it when it hit, the retreat caused by the disc would allow Whitesnake or perhaps even Ice's Cream to finish the girl off. On the top of the stairs, once the pain of the kick had faded Pucchi grabbed a nearby potted plant, broke it's casing, picked up a glass shard and placed it under his hood. Should those two sinners come up the chairs, Pucci would not stop his fight. While Mirage probed Vanilla Ice's mind all she would be able to find was endless layers of devotion to this DIO along with the intent to kill...

And then he striked! Coming down from the roof, he would slam into the ground (Mirage having hopefully moved out of the way lest she be annihilated) and burrowing straight into it before rising up from it and beginning a circle in the area he had last seen Mirage and closing it tighter with every loop, erasing the ground around him. Meanwhile DIO began his search for what he expected to be another set of assassins which he, in all of his power would easily dispatch. Strolling through the hallways of his mansion he would search every nook and cranny looking to suss out the additional foes.

Skyhooked's beaches

With the Fighting Panda bitten he would soon become one of Scary Monster's dinosaurs, but in this state Diego could hardly resist taking another bite at the Panda looking to go for the jugular. Wammu on the other hand wouldn't even try to avoid the bullets as they sank straight into his body as if they were nothing and then releasing a large swarm of mosquitos from his back which would move at Copycat while Wammu moved in to land a punch upon Copycat and slam her to the ground.

Earth

After the Pillarmen were discovered to be traitorous those ships sent to monitor them would begin surveying the world to find whatever traces of their horde which they could, before ascending into the Stratosphere and raining down hellfire upon them. The small numbers of the strike-team sent to do so meant that not every area with the UL swarm would not be targeted. Large groups in Russia would find most of the fire, while the Artic cluster would find the largest amount of ships focusing fire upon it. Meanwhile, massive amounts of reinforcements were called to the planet ranging from more armor to assets from the Aqua fleet once thought unneeded.

Skyhookian North Korea

As the effector warhead went through the first tank leaving it a broken husk on the battlefield, only to have multiple other tanks attempt to replace it trying to shoot down the Velo's which took out a fair number of the Grinders while the few that got into range of the EXO's opened fire with their cannons slamming shell after shell at the EXO units while attempting to maneuver around them and their warheads. The drones would be immobilized and left them attempting to fire their lasers on front of them as their metal melted and bubbled and then cooled leaving them paralyzed, but the Codex prepared to use the final resort it had in situations like this. Deactivating the safety mechanisms on the surviving drones large amounts of hydrogen would begin to leak from the fusion cores inside the drones to avoid totally leveling the city. The Grinder's which were once shooting at the EXO troops would begin reversing at their top speed instead focusing on their Quetzalcoatl units in the air and though it could've appeared as a retreat it was anything but.

In the next seconds, whatever drones remained would explode in multi-kiloton blasts where they were molten in place obliterating the areas around them and causing a rather large explosion from the multiple drones detonating next to each other. It wouldn't take long for drones to replaced those who had fallen to ensure that their targets had died.

Somewhere near Vladivostok

The Mechanators were having a rather pleasant conversation about how the invasion had been treating them when suddenly five of them were taken out by some unknown force causing the two within the truck to slam on the gas...only to find they could only go 2 mph... Suffice to say the two Mechanators would begin to look for any solution out of their current predicament. The driver pressed the red button only to hear a voice telling them how to use the thing and while helpful, at the current moment it was more an annoyance more than anything at the current moment. The other Mechanator pressed another button and watched as the truck disappeared from sight. Had they been saved? It seemed not as after a few seconds the EXO's seemed to notice something behind the path of the truck and resumed their pursuit of the truck and the odd object which dangled from the back of it. With another worried glance out the window on the quickly approaching EXO he pressed another button which caused the thing in the back to shake a little, making a horrible shrieking noise, before emitting a vortex lifting large quantities of dirt and what remained of their former allies. Unsure of what else to do, the mechanator began pressing that same button over and over again. Hopefully that transport would arrive soon.

Vonia-III

The planet of Vonia-III was once a vast ocean planet inhabited by a primitive race of insectoids who lived on the islands surrounded by the purple waters of the world. As usual this all changed when the Imperium arrived with their drones and ships and seized the planets while the insectoids, convinced that they were gods allowed themselves to be assimilated and watched as their planet was transformed into to something very different. First their bodies were discarded and replaced with similar metal ones, those originals never to return. Then the islands they once resided on were built over with metal and quickly had factories placed on top of them, introducing the Vonians to industrial society and quickly. Bridges spanning millions of miles connected every island on the planet connected them and showed them the scope of their population quickly. Finally the planet was turned into one of many resorts where citizens could gawk at the many organic lifeforms which existed under the purple seas of Vonia-III. Underwater cities were even for those who wished to live there permanently (granted that they had enough Loyalty Points to do such a thing), but unbeknownst to the population, even further below the violet seas of Vonia, even deeper than the mining drones taking whatever they could from the virgin planet without causing too much ecological damage, where a massive interconnected O.P.R.A base was held along with a reprogramming camp tucked away neatly in the corner. Yeishlakhi and Ramani would be among the first organics to learn of this place in decades.

Some barely sapient sea creatures had existed in the deep waters of Vonia, known as B-type Vonians, and O.P.R.A saw a prime opportunity for some uplifting and experimentation. The poor B-types would find themselves brought into full Intelligence, forming complex thoughts and ideas only to be used as guinea pigs for all sorts of experiments. Nerve gas optimization, memetic strength, more effective assimilation methods, all of these things were subjected to the B-types along with many more, but as the Tzyuka were escorted into the base it was quiet. Clearly the base was ready to take on the two aliens with all their resources. Flanked by Leviathan class naval ships, the Chosen having picked up Yeishlakhi and Ramani with little issue docked into the entrance to the base and escorted them into the main hallway of the place where they were met with a stout robot equipped with a tail, Tenrin Khaso himself was there to greet the newest and possibly most important subjects of O.P.R.A while giving them a quick scan, "I see that the Chosen have preformed another operation flawlessly. Did you have to use Project Frequency?" He asks while moving to examine the latest catch of his organization.

"There was no need. These two were apprehended peacefully."

"...Okay, that's fine. It was hoped that we would get some combat data on the prototype, but oh well that's the past. Take the two to the reprogramming camp in the back-"

Tenrin looked at the two Tzyuka in front of him, "-Oh wait, I've barely introduced myself have I? We can get to that later, but first we'll need to...teach you a few lessons. We can't have you doing anything to jeopardize the improvements we have planned for you two. Have fun in there!" As Tenrin said this, the Chosen began to escort the two Tzyuka to the reprogramming camp. Once they arrived they would find a room full of chairs with a screen in front with a few speakers scattered around the room. The Chosen would use their bodies to practically force the two into the room before allowing the door to close and lock them in. Soon after a buzzing noise would begin to play from the speakers giving them both a small headache and leaving them feeling probed, almost like something was looking straight through them. Then came the video which they would oddly feel compelled to watch despite any previous doubts that they had before. Little did they know that the Memetics had already started their altering process upon their minds. The video was also laced with them and soon enough the two Tzyuka would be loyal to Octavia and The Paramount. O.P.R.A just had to wait and Octavians were very good at waiting.

Propaganda

The Commission of Information was quickly becoming a vital part of the war effort as the numbers for donated goods and enlistment went up by massive margins per episode. After the "Know Your Enemy" on the ISO spare shell donation went up 80% and insert recycling nearly tripled. Seeking to capitalize on this success and maintain the siege mentality being bred by this program. Tonight's target: The Orion Republic...

by **The-International Space Organization** » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:36 pm

CRUISER 'STARFURY' - A DIFFERENT REALITY - SOON TO BE EXOTIC PARTICLE TESTING GROUND

"De-compression!"

"Keep it snappy! Where are we?"

"Shunted to an alternative reality. Plan C-3?"

"Negatory. Disconnect from command deck, and initiate R-12. This is a chance for knowledge we've never been able to grasp before."

"Affirm. Disconnecting."

"Right, bridge empty. QAPAI! Initiate plan R-12!"

In what could be considered exceptionally fast for even the Cruiser, plan 'R-12' kicked into action.

Step 'One'- The cruiser's Reactors surged, and then cut all power at a single instance. Step 'Two' The QAPAI aboard the vessel requested a permission which it was instantly granted- As the Mossin Drive was slammed into full overload, and it's containment fields fell apart in the same instant. Step 'Three' could barely even considered one. It was more a... Combination of an untold, likely truly infinite, steps all moved into one singular, immeasurable even to the most advanced civilizations, instant.

An uncountable number of universes were compressed into a space barely a septillionth of a planck's length across in every direction. An amount of energy, and mass, without end gathered into the smallest possible box even possible. And then, Step 'Four' was the brutal realization of all of these facts, coming to bear in the same instant.

To say it 'detonated' would be a fundamental misunderstanding of all the forces at work in the same instant. But to anything that could observe the incident- And remain intact afterwards, that would probably be the best description anyone could tack to it. The very fabric of the reality the 'battle' was occuring in was quickly subject to a force that would be... Rather impossible to describe at the best of times.

Untold numbers of unknown particles which formed the very basis of everything leapt out from the 'detonation'. Lancing through the void of space with brutal effects- Cascades reaching out as the explosion threw matter and energy about like a child throwing toys about, or a nuclear detonation throwing debris. Being at the 'center of detonation', the Cruiser's shell was simply gone. Not even a shred of debris remained to mark where the Cruiser had given a middle finger to the Visoran and Simulacrum in the same, final, instant... But, with the mess it's final act had caused, it didn't exactly need to leave debris to burn a reminder in the harshest manner into everything watching.

ISO DIPLOMATIC VESSEL 'MIDNIGHT DREAMS' - NEUTRAL SPACE

Stuhr grinned as the Octavian vessel arrived at the agreed upon point- Gesturing to an aide, who delivered a datapad right into his hand, with a cross-section scan, and a cross-reference, to the vessel now sitting in the distance, as Stuhr moved for the communication station settled deep within the Midnight Dream's armored hull. Sitting down soon enough, and putting the datapad away. Waiting a moment as the Midnight Dream's, admittedly over-encrypted, transmitters and receivers modulated their frequencies... Soon sending out the hail, and accepting it's return counterpart-

As Stuhr promptly bursts into laughter seeing who was dispatched- "Of all the officials, across an entire empire spanning hundreds of star systems... We just so happen to meet again, Rantar." He promptly collects himself, however, moving onto the more official business.

"Right. I'm sending across the terms of the afore-mentioned economic treaty- With a minor adjustment, relating to a certain happenstance within your little nation-state. The ISO cares little for the opinion of microbes crawling across the interstellar ground, but I find it entirely a fitting stance here. For myself, the official ISO Liaison, to officially consider this treaty signed, the Octavian Government must, formally, and publicly to it's citizens, issue an apology to the International Space Organization." Stuhr let out a chuckle, as he settled in to wait for Tk'Rantars reaction- Already mentally wishing he had a bowl of popcorn...

The Ascension of the Imperium IC (All Tech, TG for interest)

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