Betrayals (A Scythian Short)

[The Shadowscythe]

A moment later the handcuffs that restrained his hands behind his back released and Lord Shadowscythe dropped to the metal grate floor as Lord Warhead had already turned and begun pace ahead of him.

"Get this Scythian back to his dropship and into orbit alive and unharmed - any trooper who disobeys in this order or fails to keep him from harm will be disemboweled by me personally, tighten the sensor grids in orbit - the sub-humans ship has to be up there somewhere, their teleporter systems are stolen from Assyrian designs, short range but powerful - they will have a local grid setup in waiting for him."

He paused for a moment, almost as if to taste the air around him.

"All other teams, strip this place of all its worth - the Scythian Emperor would not have sent one of the few he entrusted with the information he needed for no good reason even if he did send him here to die. There has to be something of worth in this place."

Lord Warhead then continued down the corridor, with Shadowscythe and the Immortal troopers following close behind.

"I will see you in orbit Scythian - there is work to be done."

-----

A few minutes later Shadowscythe was alive and above ground, the air around the facility entrance was buzzing with short range Immortal dropships of varying sizes and shapes, all in the process of landing down or taking off with troops of various types and variations - ahead he saw the Carnivore dropship, lifted from within the entranceway to above ground, the pilots held at gunpoint by Immortal troops in waiting.

The pilots turned to face Lord Shadowscythe as the Immortal troops at his sides parted and let him move under his own speed.

"No questions, get into the cockpit and start the engines, we are being let out alive as we have bigger fish to fry - get us back to Stormsword One immediatley" Lord Shadowscythe relayed as he simply strode into the now empty troop bay  and the Immortal guards parted and returned to their other duties.

With a series of mechanical clicks, whirs and the slow gathering roar of the engines ignition sequence, the Carnivore rose from the ground and began the slow process of breaking the planets orbit.

[The Shadowscythe]

Lord Shadowscythe emerged on the bridge of stormsword one, the ascent into orbit taking precious minutes away from the time he needed to prepare and plan for what little he knew.

Karsus's ship was somewhere in orbit, probably a Monarch battleship of some type adapted to make use of a stealth field, the attack would be sudden and brutal and at medium range, close enough for all its weapons to come into play - to wipe out the wolfpack before they could retaliate against him.

Somewhere in orbit Lord Warheads ship, or possibly ships where in hiding, Immortal stealth systems warped space rather than phased them - easier to detect, but what was worse was the prospect of having to face two possible hostiles instead of one if Lord Warhead decided not to keep his word.

The world below sat pristine and almost untouched, and either faced orbital bombardment from Karsus's vessel, or invasions from Lord Warheads - and this was compounded with the fact that Warhead and Karsus kept insisting that the Emperor had sent him here to die-

"Sir, Stormsword formation is ready - de-phasing signature detected at extreme range" Ensign Kato relayed from his forward display section as Lord Shadowscythe watched from his broken train of thought.

"Target appears to be a heavily modified Despot class cruiser - it is moving at, Oh Holy Crap! ENERGY OUTBURST DETECTED!"

Across the depths of the system the Despot class was moving slowly and foreboding, its dark gray hull simply absorbed all the light from around it as it moved purposefully and charged its massive under-hull Anti-matter projector.

The Anti-matter projector that was already charged from the moment it dropped out of phase.

It took a  nanosecond and a single massive outburst of light as its main Anti-matter projector erupted into a pillar of light that passed through the vacuum of space within another nanosecond Stormswords Two and Four where vaporized instantly, their shields flared and burst before they even had the chance to mitigate the damage as a raw beam of Anti-matter erased bulkheads, hull beams, power systems, life support, converters, crew, fuel and ammunition and then passed through the other side without the chance to explode.

They had been wiped clean from existence, without a single atom of dust to lay to rest.

Lord Shadowscythe paused for a moment, stuck with fear as the two vessels - including the enhanced systems from Stormsword Two had been erased clean from the universe, struck in a moment of fear his mind reeled.

-----

Lord Shadowscythe watched from the command deck of the Mantorok as the many-fold green and red markers in the holographic display panel swam around on another.

Thousands of men and ships reduced to floating green cubes, blue motion vectors and yellow fire-control cylinder paths, cutting, crossing and counter-crossing red sharks that took up the front of his vision.

Another blast reflected harmlessly off of the main view screen as an Immortal Assault Carrier was diced cleanly into five parts by a fellow Monarch class battleship and her Anti-matter Projector Cannons.

At first, everything seemed to have gone well - the element of surprise had forced a clean path through the Immortal defence fleet, bisecting it into two halves while the Orbital drop teams dropped off thier weapons of war, and then came about to face the enemy that had reformed around the main fleet.

The problem was that the Scythian fleets where well armed and had a slight technological and logistical advantage over thier enemy, but thier only combat had been simulated - and thier fleets had been set up as the breadbasket of the empire to keep an economy that almost imploded on itself a century ago from going supernova.

No matter how well armed you where, it was the ability of the troops under your command that turned the tide of a war - and unfortunatly for Lord Shadowscythe - his fleets and troops where nothing more than lambs wrapped in steel.

And now they where getting slaughtered.

The drop fleet had taken the full brunt of the Immortal defence fleets, whittling thier numbers down to 45% of thier original number - and now the main fleet was enveloped on three axis by Immortal capitol and super capitol ships.

Issueing a deft series of vocal commands and holographic motions, he ordered his fleet to move downwards - beneath the Immortal axis and to meet with the defence fleet to reform a firewall over the planets equatoral gravity well, using one group advancing to fire through the group reforming and keep a wall of fire on the Immortal bastards, buying the ground troops enough time to take the city, secure the objective and then spare the Behemoth walkers they had to Orbital suppression duty, enough guns to make the Immortals either flee or be blasted to atoms.

Just as the last of his commands where issued a young bridge officor turned from her console and yelled "Lord Shadowscythe! We are picking multiple Hyperspace exit jumps forming behind the fleet! Thier energy readings and formation suggests a Britannian Battlefleet with multiple Dreadnaught class vessels!"

True to form, dozens, and then hundreds of white lines slithered onto the holographic display - each one coming to a halt and berthing a Britannian warship, weapons hot and ready to fire.

"Holy shit . . . " Lord Shadowscythe said out loud, with fear across his face "Maidens of Scythia have mercy on our souls."

And then his world shook, slammed sideways, and erupted into ethereal white flames.

-----

"All ships! Arm weapons and break formation! Stormsword sixty-nine phase out and try to get behind that monster and for the love of the maidens do not get in that things firing line!" Shadowscythe yelled aloud as the battlegroup began firing off long range laser blasts and missiles as a screening action as the four remaining destroyers parted and began their evasive maneuvers.

[The Shadowscythe]

A moment of serene peace overtook as Lord Shadowscythe watched the shards of light from the Laser cannons of the remaining Stormsword battlegroup crossed the darkness to the looming Despot class battlecruiser thousands of kilometers away on the far side of the orbit of the world laying in wait below.

As the ships parted in each direction at different flank speeds they needed every possible advantage they could take against the unexpected vessel - sixty-nine Kentaurus class destroyers would have had the equivalent power to take on a single Monarch class battleship and win through sheer virtue of firepower, the Monarchs where designed to be jack of all trades ships - heavily armed and armored but the Kentaurus destroyers where built to be battleship killers, to take on their far-larger Immortal counterparts.

The Despot class however was designed around indescribable levels of firepower - carrying a single Anti-matter projector that was half as long as the vessel itself and counted for almost a third of the beasts mass, it was designed to be used as a long range suppression platform - Monarch groups would hold targets in place while Despots simple wiped them out in entire battlegroups at a time.

Their alternate and far more pressing use however was orbital bombardment, and with an Anti-matter projector designed to take out vessels powered by nothing short of blackholes and singularity drives - a single hit from the deathly weapon would be enough to wipe out an entire city - a prolonged blast would incinerate a continent, and a full hit would cause nothing less than an extinction level event.

And Lord Shadowscythe was all that stood between Karsus's flagship and wiping out the world below, regardless of whenever the Immortals decided to rear their ugly heads.

If they did at all.

The Despot however, was not going to give him anything more than a moment of peace before the onslaught began once more.

Stormsword Five was moving far above the rest of the group - attempting to line up its killzone from its main cannons and begin the bombardment on the shields of the Despot Cruiser when the Despot fired a series of embedded thrusters deep inside the armored flank of the vessel, turning the vessel on its axis as it cut the power to its main engines, bringing the massive barrels and magnetic containment chambers of its Anti-matter projectors to bear.

The searing light burst across the void in a nanosecond - and Stormsword five almost disappeared from sight.

Only to re-emerge without shields, or anything from the rear half of the vessel - its entire engine block had been slagged into a lump of twisted metal and melted armour - its port side Laser cannon turret had been wiped away and almost half of the main decks had been opened to space - bulkhead doors sealing to stop the torrent of atmosphere, drive plasma and bodies from meeting the darkness.

Stormsword five simply continued to drift into the beyond as its power systems failed - the crew beyond help until the rest of the battlegroup achieved victory or death.

At that moment Stormswords One and Three returned fire with their own Anti-matter projector cannons - far smaller lances of blue-white light returned across the void and dances patterns of arcing energy across the Despots shields.

Which glowed intensely.

Wavered for a moment.

Shimmered under pressure.

And Held.

The shields dissapeared from sight once more, intact but no longer visible as Lord Shadowscythe and his bridge crew cursed under their collective breaths - three vessels out of their total sixty-nine out of the fight and two of those remaining unable to even dent their enemies defenses.

As he watched Stormsword sixty-nine creeping ever closer under the guise of its phase-drive, the invisible, intangible ship armed every single one of its Anti-matter missiles for their highest possible yields and arming codes activated.

They had one chance to pull this off - Lord Shadowscythe simply knew he could not count on Lord Warheads so called "alliance" or "support" - this was a Scythian matter, and one that would be solved by Scythian means.

The only blood that would be spilled today would be Scythian, and it certainly would not be his.

[The Shadowscythe]

The creature that was once recognized as Karsus stalked the corridors and under-sections of the KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN base as the Immortal troops above set about sending in their various killteams into the abyss in their vain attempts to end what counted as his existence.

What little of his face formed into a fleshy death grimace as he stalked through the outer edges of the bases anti-matter generator, an endless swath of tubes, pipes, coolant blocks and magnetic containment systems.

In the distance he caught sight of three Immortal troops, clad in black and gray armor with flachette rifles shouldered and ready to lay waste to anything unfortunate enough to get in their way - it was almost pitiful to watch as they moved through to the next cross section.

It was almost too easy.

He quickly moved into a loping gait and leaped, elongated bone and claw dug into the ceiling above and he close on his targets, seconds later he was on them.

The first turned in time to take a full set of claws through the faceplate of his armor and through the other side - shredding the poor bastards face into a mush of blood, bone and brain matter.

The second for his worth managed to squeeze out a couple of shots - firing almost wild, taking a chunk out of the side of Karsus's face with a rouge Flachette round, Karsus back handed the Trooper through a wall and a half dozen pipes and containment systems as raw coolant poured onto the corpse, freezing its blood inside the veins.

The last had his rifle raised and finger on the trigger - he fired off a trio of rounds, and Karsus felt what could be considered true pain from somewhere inside his chest - the Troopers victory was shortlived however as he lept onto his face - the last thing the Trooper ever saw of this world was the demonic face open wide beyond any normal means and bite off the entire front of his face.

Karsus took a moment to contemplate to himself "There really is nothing more crunchy in this world than a human jaw" before the pain kicked him hard in the centre of his chest, he looked down to see a torrent of almost black blood and liquid yellow pus oozing from his chest.

"Well you son of a bitch, I could have repaired this one" He said to himself as his lope began once more - setting his course for the teleportation system he had secretly installed deeper in the reactor.

The journey in itself did not take long, but Karsus could feel what little of his life-force ebbing away by the moment, he lifted himself into the coffin-like teleportation tube and activated its primary systems and closed his eyes.

A moment later he arrived in its sister unit, in a darkened room surrounded by thick armored bulkheads.

He dropped from the tube, his inhuman form struggling to take the steps it needed to reach the computer panel on the far side of the small room - activating the holographic systems and entering the activation commands he needed, and then dropped as the lights activated to the rest of the room.

His vision blurred as he looked up to the three glass tubes before him, one empty - the other two contained bodies held in stasis ready to be awakened, kept aloft and alive in some type of blue viscous fluid.

His vision darkened and tunneled as fluid drained from one of the tubes before him and opened, and another version of himself stepped out and moved down to face him.

"Brother, the plan proceeds - I have been killed - finish the job." The elder creature muttered under what little remained of his breath.

The younger form - still naked from the tube proceeded to an armory panel in the wall aside the computer panel and opened it - taking a Scythian laser pistol from the section and powered the red blocky handgun as the creature wheezed its death pains into the floor.

"The plan proceeds, but you have become to sentimental in this life if you are referring to me as 'brother'" The younger said as the pistol finally reached its optimum charge.

"The strong live, while the weak simply die" He stated with a stone cold expression as he raised the pistol and pulled the trigger and the creature below stopped living, its head simply ended at the neck as a stump of cauterized flesh and bone.

The younger moved over to a nearby locker and pulled out a fresh Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence uniform and holstered the pistol in his uniform as he strode out of the room, leaving the corpse of his former self behind.

He moved through solid gray corridors, his path unlit as he moved through the thrumbing innards of this other place - gravity shifted slightly and the low lighting phased out for a moment and a screeching sound was heard through the walls as he finally reached his destination and the doors opened to reveal the bridge of the Despot class battlecruiser - the Assassins Redoubt.

He moved to the commanders chair without a word and looked down to the two ensigns - S.O.N.I officers wearing jet black uniforms - their heads shaved bald and features removed - the cybernetic implants on the back of the next working perfectly, syncing them to the ship and the gestalt psychic field that Hearcer had Karsus testing for this very purpose.

His Master was right on so many points, the strong live while the weak die, the galaxy as it stood was only a means to an end - and control was everything, power was the illusion. Those with power but no control deserved their coming fates.

He looked ahead out of the central viewscreen and holographic system as he assessed the situation. Two of Shadowscythe's Kentaurus destroyers had been annihilated outright - while a third had been rendered useless, drifting out of the battle on its last course.

The two remaining destroyers ahead fired their Antimatter projectors against the Redoubts shields - which took the twin blasts and then flared out of sight.

The smirk on his face could not be described as anything as raw satisfaction.

"Identify the command ship and then target the other vessel - cripple it but don't kill it - I want to draw this out for as long as I can make him suffer" He said aloud to the two Ensigns - while the psychic field would have picked up his intent, sometimes it was just felt better to give the orders for yourself.

This was going to be fun.

[The Shadowscythe]

Lord Shadowscythe percpective however, was as far as fun as he could possibly get before sheer panic could kick in.

"The son of a bitch is toying with us!" He thought to himself as Stormsword Three activated its emergency thrusters yet again, firing high powered single use thrust packs embedded in the ships hull to shift its latteral and vertical position to avoid the high-powered blasts fired from the Despot cruiser that was rapidly closing on their position.

"Main Projectors armed, Firing!" Kato relayed as the two destroyers opened fire again - a futile gesture that was met with little to no effect, but they had to keep the ship amused for long enough for Stormsword sixty-nine to get as close as possible to fire its own deadly payload from where the Despot could not reply in turn.

The Despot however, had been waiting for another chance to toy with the other two ships - and unleashed another barrage of Anti-matter particles as the tight-wrought beam shot across space and collapsed with the Kentaurus destroyers shields without causing any external damage.

Internally however, the ships shield generators had been turned into three piles of melted smoking metal as damage control teams ran to their control stations as panic ran through the ship like a virus - the captain only just managing to keep the fear of death in check as the ship continued to evade the oncoming destruction.

Onboard Stormsword sixty-nine however, the bridge exuded calm and control as the ship crept ever closer to its target - engines slowed down to less than a quarter propulsion as its now armed Anti-matter missile compliment was locked onto its target as the missiles virtual intelligence systems tracked the various vectors they would need to evade Anti-missile fire and obliterate the ship.

"Sir, missile locking and tracking complete - We are ready to fire"

"Very well" The captain replied as he then spoke to the open comms channel between the three ships "Lord Shadowscythe, if you can distract them again, we are ready to fire."

Lord Shadowscythe said nothing in return as Stormswords One and Three drew themselves into firing positions and charged their Antimatter projectors to fire - Two bright lances ignited the space between the two destroyers and the cruiser as Stormsword sixty-nine dropped out from its phased-state and launched its entire hoard of 16 Anti-matter missiles.

The despot didn't have time to turn or react in any meaningful way beyond activating its Anti-missile defense systems as the basilisk defense turrets spat out hundreds of laser bolts into the void as the missiles turned and jinked their pathways through space.

Three vaporized into a cloud of dust and particles in the first wave.

Another four where hacked to pieces by combined blasts from the first wave.

Two more where disabled as their virtual intelligence systems where overpowered by the artificial intelligence onboard the Redoubt.

The other seven however, hit their mark.

Blinding white light ignited the command screens of the three destroyers as Petratonnes of raw Anti-matter created a miniature sun where the Redoubt once was - static washed through sensor systems and cameras automatically adjusted for the saturation of light.

A moment later, the glare faded and the Redoubt was gone - not even dust remained.

Lord Shadowscythe sighed for a moment - holding his breath just long enough for any surprised to jump out.

A moment later he heard whooping of victory through the still open comms channel from Stormswords Three and sixty-nine.

His shoulders dropped a little - tension eased itself just enough for Lord Shadowscythe to convince himself that it was done, he had won.

That was when Stormsword sixty-nine exploded.

[The Shadowscythe]

Lord Karsus could not stop laughing.

The ravaged remains of the Kentaurus class destroyer formed into an ever expanding halo of dust and debris as the Redoubt had activated its own phase drive at the moment the missiles had detonated - saving the vessel from harm and giving him enough time to re-position and re-arm the main Anti-matter projector cannon and return the ship to the stellar dust it was once built from and then return to laying the errand dog to rest.

The prospect of it was just too much for him to handle, the fools really did do all the work for him - they struggled, they fought - they hoped, and the moment they achieved victory he ripped it out from under them.

Their weakness really was delicious, ripe for the taking.

"Target the second vessel, destroy it this time - toy with him for a little longer"

The ensign before him turned and rarely spoke in turn "Sir, FTL anomoly detected - the fifth vessel appears to have jumped"

"Hrmph, I had thought the dogs dead - no matter if they return to their Emperor and relay the news for themsel-" He was stopped mid sentence as the FTL drive delayed by moments dumped the destroyer inside the Despots shields with its only operational laser cannon already facing and ready to fire.

The captain of the vessel had managed to dump what little power the ship had available into its secondary thruster systems and the FTL drive, pouring the exotic particles into realspace and for all intents and purposes teleporting the ship inside the Despots shield bubble - trapping the ship inside the very barrier that protected its prey.

With the last moments of resolve - Stormsword five opened fire with every turret it could use at its disposal at point blank range, every blast focused on the Antimatter projector of the Despot.

Which in turn returned fire with every short range weapon it had at its disposal.

Stormsword sixty-nine kept firing as chunks of its armor where melted away and blasted off - as the bridge exploded and the captain and ensign crew where annihilated the gunnery captains kept firing until each turret of the vessel was taken out one by one.

The Despot however was much better off than its target, and each blow to the Antimatter projector was met with a hammer blow in turn.

Until the last of the Stormswords weapons where destroyed.

The engineering crew - in what was left of the power core had made a pact with the captain and crew, they knew that unless the Despot was destroyed their entire mission - every crew of the Stormsword battlegroup and the planet below would not survive.

The three remaining officers took their interlock disengagement keys into the console and turned together - disengaging the magnetic interlocks that prevented the antimatter and matter reserves in the main reactor from meeting in anything but a controlled magnetic bottle to draw power - the particles flooded in an uncontrolled reaction and then detonated.

Inside the Despot's shields.

Karsus and the two ensigns where thrown clean across the bridge as the shields of the Despot held and magnified the blast back in on itself, eventually subsiding and greatly weakened.

The armor had withstood but had been melted onto itself - damaging most of the external sensors and systems, the shield generators had been melted themselves - sharing the ironic fate of those onboard Stormsword two.

And most importantly - the entire undercarriage of the Antimatter projector had been destroyed - with the barrel elements responsible for forming and firing the blast out of commission the entire system had shut down as a containment mechanism.

With the main threat out of commission, Lord Shadowscythe paused for a moment, just long enough to mourn the loss of another crew before he gave the order "Stormsword Two - close and fire, we end this NOW"

'Aye, Lord Shadowscythe!" The other captain replied as the Despot turned on its axis, slow and sluggish as it began to fire wave after wave of Anti-matter missiles from its own over-sized launching racks.

[The Shadowscythe]

Stormsword One weathered a glancing hit, its shields flared once more but faded away as its missile defense grids held against the other missiles it had just managed to avoid - the lone blast being the missile that got close enough to proximity detonate in the hopes of causing collateral damage or masking shields long enough for another missile to score the kill. Lord Shadowscythe threw more orders across the bridge as the ships own reactionary thrusters fired and the ship shot on its axis at full speed before firing its Antimatter projectors once again - not causing the Despots shields to falter, but obviously causing more internal damage as a part of the ships melted armor exploded outwards in a fireball of shredded metal and vented atmosphere.

Stormsword Two however was not doing as well - its own power grid pushed to its absolute limit, another missile turret was knocked out in the edges of a proximity blast as the ship struggled to maintain its firing paths - desperately trying to stay alive and land another hit on the Despot in turn.

Unfortunately the moment came when Stormsword Two failed - its missile targeting grid unable to track the incoming blasts, the holographic display warned of an incoming missile that could not be intercepted.

With a three second countdown to impact.

The captain of Stormsword Two turned to the camera for the commfeed and raised his hand in a salute.

"Its been an hono-"

The captain disappeared from the screen in a blast of static before Lord Shadowscythes comm screen cut into a blank "SIGNAL LOST" message, as he looked out the bridge screen he saw the last remaining destroyer dissolve in a massive blast of white light.

Stormsword Two was gone, and the remaining missiles turned on their vector paths towards the last remaining vessel - Stowmsword One.

Lord Shadowscthe swallowed his panic hard, and moved it to the back of his head - with the visions and memories of his last encounter still fresh in his mind he accepted the fact that he couldn't save himself from the path the Emperor had put him on, the only thing left to do was to save his dignity if it was his fate.

His fate to die.

"All weapons, keep firing - designate missile targets as per your own disgression. Helm, Prepare for ramming speed. Engineering - prepare the magnetic interlock system for self destruct" He ordered, Ensign Kato stopping for just a moment until he replied.

"Aye Lord Shadowscythe" and the orders went into place, Stormsword One sped up to ramming speed - its guns blazing at full fire as the ship sped towards its death towards the swarm of oncoming missiles and the Despot beyond, the missiles turned and arced to chase the destroyer as it closed on its final target.

More explosions filled the void as the destroyer closed on its target - as the missiles converged more detonations covered each other, sensors overloaded and gave in to their electronic frailties, Lord Shadowscythe closed his eyes. He was ready to finally accept the inevitable.

[The Shadowscythe]

Which is when the commfeed suddenly burst into life, at first just with audio - but the image eventually settled into a face suffused with a bone white complexion, a reaper like grin and waving lines of raw heat etched across its surface.

"Ahh, and there it is - that Scythian sense of nobility and self-sacrifice, that's what makes you lot so fun to fight. We've been a little held on the surface but we haven't missed the best part of the fight!" Lord Warhead announced over the comm channel, half growl, half magnanimous to himself.

"De-cloak us, take out those missiles - and then remove that vessel from my sky." He announced to his own crew as Lord Shadowscythe opened his eyes in an unexpected surprise and watched the holographic screen in front of him resolve as three Immortal battleships de-cloaked in the distance between Stormsword One and the planet - firing with long range Ion cannons and plasma beams - filling the space around Stormsword One in a cone of Purple plasma bolts and arcs of yellow ionic electricity, taking out every missile around the destroyer in one fell swoop and then advancing to flank speed as they turned their weapons to the Despot the moment the chance presented itself.

The shields of the Despot dropped within 30 seconds of the bombardment - unable to sustain their previous invulnerability to the Plasma and Ion attacks, and Lord Karsus cursed under his breath that the Immortals had finally played their hands, his own vessel now unable to drive them off as it had been able to before.

"Take us to FTL, random co-ordinates first - then take us directly to Unbound. Do it and DO IT NOW!" Karsus exclaimed as the Redoubt took hit after hit - external decks being vented to space and more systems being knocked out over and over again.

A moment later - the Redoubt disappeared in a flash of its own exotic particles as it jumped out of the fight, and the fight was done.

Lord Shadowscythe finally let out an uneasy breath of relief as he watched the three Immortal battleships pull ever closer to Stormsword One and then slow down to a half in a delta formation above the destroyer.

Looking up through his screens he had never had the chance to see an Immortal vessel this close before, each hull was similar but different, different armor and weapon layouts in symmetrical and asymmetric positions and loads - sensors pointed out of each ships black hull armor like barnacles on the skin of an ancient space faring monster.

"I think you will find that is your problem dealt with for the time being" Lord Warhead announced again over the comm channel.

"It is a shame however, that I won't be able to rip that little shits head off for a while longer yet" He finished off as Lord Shadowscythe simply stood in silence.

"What do you intend to do now?" Lord Shadowscythe asked aloud.

"Simple, we are now allies - for the time being we need each others services to be rid of far larger problems for us both. You will be coming with me." Lord Warhead replied as a series of FTL co-ordinates where transmitted over onto Lord Shadowscythes monitors.

"Before you ask any questions as to why - I said there is more at stake than you know and I intend to teach you the full ramifications of what is about to pass, your beloved Emperor currently thinks you dead and it would be much better for everyone involved if he continues to think that, and all the time we are working together you can keep me under your own leash and make sure I won't be invading any more of your beloved Scythian worlds." Lord Warhead spoke in an almost mocking tone.

"Just so you know I am in one of my rare truth telling moods - Scan Haven below, I think you will find it is devoid of my troops. A sign of good faith." He finished.

Lord Shadowscythe looked down to Kato and nodded who then began the scan, minutes later the results came up clean - despite the obvious devastation the world was clean of any and all Immortal presence.

"Lord Warhead, as much as we are enemies - I hate to admit the logic at work. If I jump to these co-ordinates what will I find?" Lord Shadowscythe asked with a gilded tone.

"Simple - The answers to your questions, the second stage Immortal fleets and the beginnings of the end. Time for a good old 'Tally Ho' Don't you think?" Lord Warhead continued to mock.

"Very well - FTL on my mark" Lord Shadowscythe stated in the final words between the two.

The four ships dissappeared together, Scythian ships via FTL, Immortal ships via hyperspace.

-----

Some time later.

-----

In the distance another ship melted into realspace - an ancient ship, a perfectly round sphere covered in spines and barnacles and uneven hullpoints. The creatures aboard skittered and screwed through the innards of the ship - guiding the Psychic field of the larger sleeping evils eye to the world the Scythian Empire knew as "Haven"

In the very center of the ship stood a single humanoid being in a ship filled with mindless cybernetic insects - watching as the many limbed extensions of its will went about its duties.

The being once known as Loveless felt through its greater extension of self - it had felt . . . something here, a psionic field that had been missing from this galaxy that had taken the creature from its tasks of re-awakening itself to searching for another - a creature the Shraag had through dead for nearly an eternity.

The source of the field had long since passed - but on the planet below it found something else through sheer virtue of luck - another deathsphere was embedded on the far side of the planet, shielded from view in the magma below the crust of the world - the node was weak, but it would soon be awoken and soon the Shraag would awaken fully once more.

The creature once known as Loveless gestured its fingers slowly, its Immortal form now fully integrated into the greater whole - a consciousness within the sleeping beast moving to awaken the whole and then find the greatest gift at all and ascend to the possibilities these new found Immortals had gifted it.

It felt something for a moment, another new emotion, or perhaps, an old emotion re-born.

Satisfaction.

The Deathsphere moved into position and the Meson bolt bombardment began, wiping every single life-form on the planet out within an hour.

Yes.

This was Satisfying indeed.

[The Shadowscythe]

Lord Hearcer stood in the midst of the holovision crew as he shortened out the few microscopic creases in his uniform, watching around him as the various production crew members went about the final preparations for his interview.

Just across from him, on a hastily moved sofa emblazoned in deep Scythian reds was the official correspondent for the Scythian palace - the very same palace which was currently being re purposed by S.O.N.I agents for the purposes of the interview now seconds away as the multi positioned cameras came into life around him.

"Welcome to the Emperors planet here on planet Scythia, I am Correspondant Janis Mar and I am here to day with the Commander and Chief of the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence Lord Hearcer with a statement from the palace regarding the events of the last 48 hours." Janis began as she introduced the worlds of the empire to their new de-facto Emperor.

"Thank you Janis, it is with great regret that I bring the news of the last two days into light. I will start first of all with the Emperor, who has fallen into a deep coma after suffering with a rare genetic disorder for the last three days that has been causing the slow degeneration of his health and mind. Despite the best medical care available in the Empire he fell into a coma shortly before the attacks on Scythia itself, it can only be viewed as a blessing that in his condition he did not have to weep for the ever turning fate of our world." He recited with a practiced look of sadness and remource.

"As of this moment the search for any possible heirs to the bloodline is underway, but as the Emperor had not yet married of had children we are having to backtrack several generations to the last of the Lord families who had the right to the throne - in the mean time the leadership of the Empire would have fallen to the War senate if it where not for the cowardly and intentional attacks against us."

The camera changed for a moment from the 3d feed of the interview to the 2d view of various security cameras as multiple individuals, one on a train - another in the top of a vast arcology tower - others spread throughout the capitol city killed themselves in unison with the cry of "Immortales Victoria!" and then explosions rocked the city.

The view then returned to Hearcer with his stone expression "These terrorist attacks where made upon the Empire by our own citizens, those who had been subverted by the efforts of the Immortals - as a cover for an Immortal strike team to bypass our security systems in the chaos and slaughter the entire War Senate, we do not know how they managed to achieve the intelligence to make such a strike - or if they had been planning this for the moment when our leadership was at its weakest - but the strike had decapitated our entire command and control structure for most of the main armed services for the Empire."

He paused for a moment to take a breath, long and drawn out just enough to bring a falsehood of regret to his tone "Which is why, with sadness the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence has instituted article 4 of the Empires institution of leadership."

Janis herself paused for a moment, waiting for Lord Hearcer to continue.

The act was going perfectly.

"I, Lord Hearcer - Commander and Chief of the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence, am hereby declaring martial law and suspending all forms of civilian government until such time as a new Emperor can be found and all current galactic conflicts are resolved - the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence will hereby assume control of each military branch of the Empire and lead with confidence and humility to move us out of this period of uncertainty and into a strong new age of security and prosperity. I hereby ask every citizen in the Empire to aid us in these difficult times as we stride forward into the future together."

He paused again, the drama complete he then moved onto his final pre-rehearsed sentence.

"I thank you all for your time, truely and deeply - another statement will be released shortly and all questions and concerns will be addressed at that time. I thank you."

The holofeed de-activated as Hearcer rose to his feet with Janis and strode out of the stateroom and into a nearby elevator shaft and then descended deep into the earth.

"How do you think it went?" Hearcer asked in the confines of the dropping metal box.

"As always the years of acting have paid off, the transition will be bumpy - but as always you have everything under control." Janis replied in a dull monotone - all previous aspects of her hologram personality long gone.

"Good, good - status report?"

"The evidence planted in the homes of our volenteers has been picked up with law enforcement, our embedded officers will lead this to the press, which will put the final nail in the coffin about the Immortal suicide bombers, by the time everything else is done no one will ever know the truth."

"Good, and the operatives?"

"Paid in full, evidence planted leading to an Immortal cell operating out of one of our older Orbitals - the mercenaries have already been liquidated after payment, bodies have been planted and our teams are ready for your word to bust the assassins."

"Very well - and the Genoans?"

"Are still struggling to pull together their own government after your kill orders, they are ready for the next stage of the plan"

The elevator reached the bottom of the shaft and the doors opened into a vast but hastily assembled control center as S.O.N.I operatives moved to install hundreds of new holographic screens and command and control centers into what used to be the Emperors personal bunker beneath the cities underbelly.

A fresh faced operative came running at a half-jog to Hearcer and Janis with his holographic tablet in hand.

"Sir, Karsus has just arrived in orbit with the Unbound - he has a status report for you"

"Very well, I will take it in my conference center" Hearcer replied as he crossed between the younger agents and through to a glass-walled room to the far side of the greater room - it had no table or seats to speak of, it was nothing more than a box with holographic screens embedded into the floors and walls, which burst into a life of colour as Karsus's face filled the room.

"My lord, I regret to inform you that Lord Shadowscythe has escaped, and is currently in the company of Lord Warhead."

Hearcer stopped for a moment, a split second of rage filled his mind before he stopped and it subsided.

"Dare I ask how this came to be?"

"I had him in my grasp when the Immortals invaded the facility - I was forced to use my combat form but Lord Shadowscythe was evacuated to orbit - I almost killed him again when the Immortals interfered and my flagship was disabled."

For a moment Hearcer ground his jaw. The rage subsided again as his resolute calm returned.

"Do we know their current location?"

"Negative"

This was frustrating, this was beyond his grasp and this was not - not - part of the plan.

"Very well - get your repairs underway and prepare for the next stage of the plan"

Hearcer cut off the holographic feed at his end as he paced for a moment, not noticing the freshly faced officer creeping up to the door to the conference room and letting out a sheepish cry of "sir?"

"Yes, what is it?!" Hearcer snapped in return, harsh as a laser carbine on burst fire mode.

"We have found something of interest to you three levels down - something the Emperor had sealed before he left"

"And what is it?" Hearcer replied again, still snapping his words.

"Well, we don't know - we thought it would be best for you to see it for yourself."

Hearcer sighed, and without another word strode towards the ensign and out of the room, as the younger man then half-jogged ahead of Hearcer to lead the way to a stairwell at the far side of the room that had been hidden behind a fake wall that had been installed some time three and a half years before and down some short lengths of stairs and into a larger, dark space containing some machine - not a vast machine, but Hearcers eyes rebelled against the darkness around him as he attempted to take in what he could see before him.

A moment later another officer at the far end of the room activated the power supply to the hidden level, bathing the room in a dim blue glow - revealing an advanced machine, taking in aspects of science and machinery that Hearcer thought no longer existed in Empires that had long since faded away.

Attached to the front of the machine was a series of holopanel interfaces a little more advanced than those that where being installed upstairs, as his fingers danced across the panels they returned to life - from some type of stasis mode that they had been held in for what must have been longer than a simple three and a half years.

The screens then ignited into life for the first time since the Emperor himself had used them to recall a message from beyond the edges of this universe as the speakers not seen from Hearcers point of view played out a recording of the Emperors voice, obviously far older and war-weary than he had ever heard in this life.

"Our world is dead, and we are destroying an entire universe just to send this message back to you. The Immortals are coming, and this cannot be allowed to repeat. You need to hide until the time is right. KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN is the gateway, you must find the key. Lord Warhead must die. To sleep, Perchance to -[STATIC]"

He smiled to himself as he realized what he saw before him and a new series of mental plans went into effect in the back of his ever moving mind.

"So . . . this is where it all began?" He said to himself in the dim light of the bunker, far beneath the surface of a world in turmoil.

[The Shadowscythe]

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

The rhythmic thudding of feet on the treadmill, the smell of fresh sweat and the sounds of a ship moving through the depths of the void.

Harkins continued to run, Quaram beside him on another treadmill putting the strength of his new prosthetic leg through its paces, the pair had been challenging each other back into health since his last psionic "incident" that had a half-dozen Assyrian meditechs running to return him to the land of the living once more.

"Post Incident Psionic Inducement" They had called it - he didn't understand every term the Assyrians had used once they had explained it to him - but he understood the gist. Every brain had the latent ability of Psionic power, but the way the nerve clusters grew in the brain during youth either opened up the abilities during the teen years of the subject in question or never at all - sometimes evolution and social circumstances played a role along with other factors, but the fact of the matter was that more often than not a person with the ability to do so would show their abilities before they hit adulthood or remain unable to use them for the rest of their adult lives.

Unless they came into contact with another psionic source so powerful that the body would literally re-wire the brains own neural structure as a means to protect itself, akin to how skin protects against UV radiation or white blood cells fight infection, the body would adapt quickly and painfully to protect itself. For those just on the verge of having the gift but never developing it - the inducement would literally throw the brain into disarray and develop unheard of new abilities simply by trying to stay alive.

"Man, could you believe the bullshit this guy is spitting out?" Quaram said aloud with a voice filled with disgust.

"Wait . . . what?" Harkins replied in surprise - his mind had been elsewhere as he turned off the treadmill and stopped for a moment, wiping the sweat off of his forehead with a nearby towel.

"Hearcer - The Emp's ain't dead - he's right here with us, The attacks on the homeworld, everything . . . Bull. Shit."

"And don't we just know it brother" Harkins replied as he moved to a nearby serving machine and dispensed two cups of water.

"Now I may just be a 'simple marine' but why the hell don't we just jump back home, explain to the people what the frak is going on and kill the shit outta this asshole?" Quaram said as he took a cup out of Harkins hands and gulped the slightly salted water down hastily.

Harkins took a mouthful of the electrolyte enhanced water himself before he replied "Probably for a hundred and one reasons too high for our paygrade dude, hell iunno"

Harkins looked down into his water for a moment contemplating before he finished off the rest in two fast gulps and then threw the cup away.

"Yeah well, we don't have a paygrade right now so where the hell does that leave us?" Quaram replied sarcastically.

"On the arsend of nowhere without a frak to go by?" Harkins replied with a stuttered laugh following it as the pair then left the gym of the Assyrian medicea cruiser and moved through the corridors of the vessel.

By all accounts most of the wounded had been healed or where healing, and for the Assyrians credit they knew what they where doing - the main problem for now was keeping everyone fed and watered and keeping a bed to sleep in, with the unexpected influx of both Scythian marines and naval personnel along with their Genoan allies to boot - the medicea ship and others like it had turned into defacto shanty towns, with soldiers of all levels hot-bunking gurneys and doing their best to share what little they had to keep morale up and efficiency from taking another hit on the overcrowded ships.

"Look buddy, I'm gonna try and take a bite to eat - you gotta go to your brain-draining lessons, just do me a favour and try not to pass out again huh?" Quaram said as the two marines fist bumped and the pair split off in their seperate directions.

A short while later Harkins reached his destination, a level down in another re-purposed gym hall, a dozen other Scythian and Genoan marines of various ranks and types where hooked up to EPG machines and other devices as Assyrian medicea techs ran through what little counted as a Psionic tutoring program on a ship full of those who had never had to deal with Psionic powers before - most of their exercises focused solely on trying to control and contain what latent power they had rather than learning new abilities in an unprepared environment with inexperienced teachers - it was lessons in focus and willpower that made Harkins head ache and soul feel burdened.

It was nothing but a drain on his very being, but it was better than passing out and nearly dying again, but there was next to nothing he could do to stop the endless replay of his memories from repeating over and over again.

He moved from cover to cover as a Tarantula tank burst into flames - a dozen blasts ripped outwards from the sixty-nine legged tank without a single entry wound as it collapsed into the concrete . . . in the distance an Orpheus SHDT slammed into the ground, its shields still online, but its crew had been turned into paste inside a factory built metal coffin . . . in the distance he could see the Behemoth command and control walker backing up as troops and tanks fell all around it, its shields where stressed almost to breaking, apparently holding back some kind of unseen attack from every direction . . .

. . . but Harkins could not see a single enemy solider, or tank - in fact as he moved forwards all he could see where dead Terrorkhan.

Thousands of dead Terrorkhan.

He moved through buildings filled with Immortal troops who had never even gotten to the fight, reserve forces that had been meant to wipe out the Scythians as they made the final push into the city . . . the bastards had planned for everything.

Harkins focused himself further, he could feel the burning pain at the back of his skull and the pressure building, like his skull was becoming rapidly too small for his brain - but he held as more images flashed past his minds eye.

A shape caught the edge of his vision . . . something moving towards him, trying to flank him.

Black, fast - and humanoid.

He turned and raised his rifle at the last second, a defensive posture - and was rewarded with an Adamantite blade sinking halfway through the rifles cowling - rendering it useless.

His eyes, his mind focused for a moment - and the shape revealed itself.

Bald, scarred, black uniform - couldn't see him - an actual Immortal. Fuck.

His mind filled the gaps his eyes couldn't - the details seemed to slide.

"So, Scythian - you could see me . . . this will be interesting . . . " the unknown assailant, Loveless . . . the name uttered through Harkins mind.

"I never knew the Scythian Empire had psionics . . . even low level ones . . . I'll add this to your list of new tricks, like making troopers burst from the inside out . . . "

The blade was lifted and slung, Harkins shifted his weight backwards - using the SIBAS suits slightly enhanced speed to counter his own movements and withdrew his own Diamond sharpened blade from its leg holster.

He pushed the images aside again as he continued to pressure himself into his focus - it was the same as exercising any other muscle group, learning your limits - pushing them, making the muscle stronger, faster and more able to deal with the loads placed upon it. So he pushed himself harder into the focus, to see how far he could go.

The Scythian struggled to pull himself up as the pistol was levelled at the back of his head . . . Loveless would end this life with glory . . . finish this battle, return to the fleet and return to his own masters . . .

PAIN. YOU WILL ALL FEEL PAIN INSULENT FILTH.

The voice was everywhere and nowhere at once - words that boomed through silence . . . Loveless felt it first - a hammerblow os psionic force with no beginning or end.

I HAVE AWOKEN. YOU HAVE DEFILED THE GARDEN.

Loveless rolled onto the floor, clutching his head as pain wracked through every sence, every fibre and synapse of his being - he managed to see the Scythian, screaming and vomiting inside his armour as the front plate depolarized into some form of glass viewing section.

I AM THE FIRST MURDER. I AM BEGINNING AND END. THE REAPING IS NIGH

Loveless watched as a skyscraper of the Scythian's city - a tower of red and gray metal dissapeared into the ground, followed by another, and then a city block started to sink as the Ice that made up the underground cavern the city was held in began to crack and open.

The sounds of skittering, citinous hides - thousands of clicking eyes, teeth and mandibles filled the air as Loveless raised his psionic defences - sealing his own mind off against this relentless force.

I AM THE SHRAA-

The focus broke and his mind slipped, he dropped to his knees and his breath started heaving against his chest as a slow trickle of blood eeped from his nose - he wiped it away on his sleeve as he rose to his knees once more and went to get another cup of water.

The memories still ground onwards when he focused, the later ones especially so - but at least now he could focus if only up to that point without blacking out again. Progress was slow and a struggle at best, but eventually he hoped - eventually he would be able to master it.

Then he would be able to return to his duties, like the other Scythian marines onboard the ship who had not had to face the shraag's beasts directly.

And someday he would be able to face down Loveless again as well.

[The Shadowscythe]

It has been said across many worlds and many eras that time is the healer of all wounds great and small - eventually time would move on and all things would pass with it into the great beyond.

Kialya did not appreciate the sentiment as she left herself segregated with her thoughts once more in the harsh sterile medicea room onboard the Assyrian medicea ship, she had lost track of all forms of time on purpose and denied herself most forms of contact beyond the orderlies and nurses who brought her meals and medications, refusing to talk or even acknowledge those who attempted to converse with her in any way, shape or form.

Portions of the battered and bloody bruises across her hips had healed with time, but the stumps that now made up her legs where still stitched with bloody red scar tissue joined with the white lines of self-dissolving stitches and white patch bandages, the rest of her body was slowly but surely getting used to the acclimatized loss of limb but her mind rebelled against it, she felt shattered and hollow and filled with an indescribable loss of pain and misery.

She had failed in her duty, failed her shipmates and her commanding officer, she had failed on every possible level a Scythian officer could fail and was then forced to pay for it with her flesh and blood.

She had failed as a person, failed as a woman, failed at every possible level other than being a slab of meat for the operating table and now wanted to be left to rot.

Perhaps if they left her here long enough the bedsores and ulcers would kick in, and then being unable to move she would just stop eating, drinking and eventually breathing - a slow and agonizing way to die, more than enough to make up for the other 1400-something crew who died a lot faster in that fateful conflict.

Or at least that was the plan anyway, if it wasn't for the damned thesnuggler they kept trying to shove into the room with her.

He was an Assyrian, an officer like her but a non-combat recruit - most likely hired through a commission through his university education and given a mock rank to justify his joke of a position.

He wasn't Scythian, he wasn't raised in her culture - taught from the age of childhood that life was preparing her from the age of 18 to 28 for mandatory service to the empire, that the military trained for all walks of life and wasn't just a pansy choice for someone who wanted a subsidized education.

It was honour, it was duty, it was a life spent serving to reap the rewards.

His hair was unkempt, his uniform fitted him but was loose around the edges, treated more like a pair of scrubs than a soldiers attire and the laser pistol holstered at his side had never been drawn or used for anything beyond his own ego-games in front of the mirror.

In her eyes he was perhaps one of the few things in this universe more sad and pathetic than she was, and he got under her skin throughout the entirety of his two hour sessions. The endless waffling, his so called version of the military "de-brief" everything about him was just irritating.

For what must have been the first time in her recent memories she felt genuine hate towards this goddamn moron.

As the session passed on she had taken to staring intently at the gas on air pump extruding from the wall to her left and focusing on drowning him out of her mind with her own form of internal white noise, using that wordless voice in her head to put him anywhere but in the damn room with her.

Obviously even his will was starting to crack as he eventually stopped talking to himself after an hour and a half and sat silently for a moment, he spoke to the room rather than Kialya as he said something along the lines of cutting the session short and coming back tomorrow with extra nursing staff and he hoped she would come around and communicate with someone before he would have to go another step higher in her care, whatever the hell that meant.

He packed up his things into a small medicea case and moved the chair back to where it was when he came in, worded something along the lines of a goodbye as he left the room and Kialya was left with some peace to herself once more.

That peace was very quickly broken as a figure suddenly burst through the door with a half-muttered "Oh shi-" and the door slammed shut followed by several heavy breaths at the door.

Kialya whipped her head around to see who the new mystery incomer was and saw the man stood at the door.

Tall, built and muscular with black skin and short black hair, a Scythian Marine BDU kept in near immaculate condition and a laser pistol holstered at his hip, and as the eyes moved down the leg of his uniform ended and revealed the silver of a mechanical leg, brand new and in mint condition.

A pang of guilt filled her heart as she realized she was now in the presence of one of the ground marine forces from the assault, a man who had been through direct combat and had taken his wounds, almost the same wounds as hers. He was now up and moving, obviously pulling himself back together and getting on with whatever counted for life in this fleet.

As he turned he realised he was not alone and was caught by surprise, returning Kialya's glare as his own eyes darted from the bed to the figure within it, to the naval officers uniform on the second chair beside the bed, his eyes moving to the rank pips and he reacted instantly, standing to attention and snapping off a crisp salute.

"Maam! Sorry! I thought this room was empty!" The unknown marine fired off with the speed of a marine as Kialya shifted her weight fully to lie on her back.

"Relax marine, no need for that shit in here" she spoke slowly, getting back into the practice of using the vocal cords that had been silent since Lord Shadowscythes departure "Who where you hiding from?"

The marine dropped his posture quickly, settling into a far more comfortable standing position as his hands dropped to his mid-torso, making motions as they went as he spoke aloud.

"This utter asshat of a psychiatrist has been hounding me for weeks now, little shitsucker that he is got around to me early while I was trying to get some lunch - I legged it to the first door I could find and hid from the sun'a'bitch" He ran off with a sly grin, obviously another victim of the Assyrian who had been hounding her all this time.

"Whats your name marine?" Kialya asked aloud as her voice finally found itself steady again.

"Quaram maam, dare I ask the same of you?" He returned.

"Kialya . . . " She replied " . . . take a seat if you want, I doubt he would look for you in here - I have been giving them all the silent treatment since they put me in here"

"Much appreciated" He replied as he moved her uniform off of the second chair, keeping a healthy distance as he then let out a sigh of relief and arched his back, the cracking of vertibrea filled the air.

"How are they treating the navy then? Any better than us ground pounders?" He asked half-jokingly.

" . . . I uhhh, get my own room I guess? And all the Assyrian pains in the ass I can handle" She replied slightly deadpan, an attempt to break the ice, all part of the age old imaginary feud between the Navy and the Marines.

Quaram let out the mandatory half-chuckle as he looked around the room. "Heh - we don't even get digs this big shared between the sixty-nine of us, I get the feeling I need a transfer"

He stretched again, this time the legs - she watched with an almost bizarre mix of sickness and jealousy as the prosthetic limb matched the movements of the real limbs near perfectly as the ankle rolled and artificial toes wiggled.

Quaram looked down at his new foot as he noticed Kialyas gaze and replied weakly "Blame the Immortals for that one - took my leg clean off with a boobytrap, I was damned lucky to be inside when it happened, the atmosphere of that damned rock kept it sterile but any exposure to that planets sun would scour the cells from your bones, the new limb is good enough but a little strange to get used to. The Assyrian ones work by turning the phantom limb you get from amputation into actual nerve signals to control the movements, I don't think I will ever get used to feeling a floor under a metal foot when I put it down."

Kialya suddenly shot her gaze to the floor and then across to where her legs should be as she dropped silent, tears filling her eyes.

"Maam? You okay? Was it something I said?" Quaram asked with the first range of genuine concern she cared about for a long time.

"I'll save you the story Quaram, and the gore - I have nothing left of either leg from above the knee down, the Assyrians removed them after the gravity was knocked out, I don't think I will ever look at a set of stairs the same way again" She muttered as she choked back tears of loss and pain.

Quaram moved across to the closer chair as Kialya finally broke down for the first time since she drove Lord Shadowscythe away with her pain. The marine, not entirely sure what to do between being a soldier and a person simply lent her his hand as warm, salty tears started to roll down her cheeks, slowly at first before becoming a flood that lasted for at least ten minutes or perhaps longer in the rooms twisted joke of time.

Eventually she looked back up to the marine as the tears past, in the hardcut features where signs of warmth as a small but welcomed smile grew on the marines face.

"Thank you Quaram, you tell anyone about this and I will have you court martialled" She uttered silently between the pair with a blank experession, it was still far to early to smile,

"Not a problem maam." He replied aloud.

"For the love of the maidens will you call my Kialya? Its not like the chain of command matters much for me right now"

"Tell you what maam, I'll cut you a deal - I'll use your name if you let me invite some friends into here from time to time, with these Assyrians about we could use the escape and you could certainly use the company." He said, the look on his face could only be described as un-naturally sly and devious.

Kialya thought on it for a moment, it was probably the first good thing to happen since she arrived in this maidens-forsaken room.

"Deal" she replied, as a sheepish smile finally emerged on her lips.

[The Shadowscythe]

Stormsword One emerged from FTL mere seconds after its transition at Haven, the wonders of Scythian FTL being the equivalent of a spce/time transport drive, displacing the vessel and its contents halfway across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. With a burst of exotic particles the ship burst from the realms of euclidian mathematics and theoretical particle transmission into realspace in a vast cloud of ice and water particles.

Moments later the sensor grids came back online and the bridge crew started to assemble the data on were they where, what to expect, nearby hostiles and targets of interest as the world of digital information burst into life.

The gas field was part of a vast oort cloud, but was artificial in nature - far smaller than it should be and in the wrong position for a solar orbit, large asteroids made of blasted rock and cooled magma drifted lazily in erratic orbits from some form of recent cataclysm, as the sensor grids widened Lord Shadowscythe watched as the field moved in a slow but un-formed rotation as the ship helds its position in the field.

"Sir?" Kato began "We are at the assigned co-ordinates but there is no sign of Immortal vessels anywhere in the nearby vicinity, we are widening our sensor grids now but with a single ship this is going to take some time."

"Take as long as you need Ensign, while you are building the grid - run a test for me, time our FTL position from when we transitioned to when the Immortals arrive and then work out their speed of arrival?" Lord Shadowscythe replied as he thought to himself the possibility of gathering valuable intel.

"Sir?" Kato replied.

"We still have no idea how fast Immortal Hyperdrives are, and we need to milk this chance for as much intel as we can rip from their bloody little fingers" Lord Shadowscythe replied.

"Yes sir, working now" Kato replied once more as fingers began their familiar dancing motions across holographic displays and the sensor grids widened further into the vast, gray clouds.

Tortured silence passed the bridge as minutes passed, and then hours - three hours later the klaxon alarm sounded as the sensor grids finally picked up three distant targets making a slow but deliberate path towards Stormsword One.

"Sir, three targets sighted - targets have been identified as three Immortal battleships . . . displaying the IFF codes of Lord Warhead and his fleet, patching through a transmission now" Kato relaid from his screens as another display opened on the main view screen.

Lord Warheads grinning death mask of a face dominated the bridge, the permanent sadistic grin, the lines of flaming etched across the lines of the bone white skull that made up his face.

"I would have been here sooner but I was unfortunately distracted with other duties . . . " Lord Warhead began as the screen changed over to a holographic display of the system as a representation of Stormsword One joined with the three Immortal ships and made their way out of the cloud through representation arrows " . . . seeing as you are of use to us for now I will tell you this once, follow the routes relay to your ship to the letter and do not leave our formation or the rest of the fleet will erase you from existence. Are we clear?"

"Crystal" Lord Shadowscythe replied as he cut the feed and Stormsword one took up position between the three hulking ships as the group then began a slow journey out of the ice fields.

Shortly afterwards the sensors of Stormsword one went into overdrive as dozens, then hundreds and then thousands of unidentified hostile contacts where lit up on the holographic feeds as Lord Shadowscythe watched the readings go off the scale, to the point where just one ships sensor grids where no longer able to keep a reading on so many vessels at once.

"By the maidens" Kato said as the ships resolved into view as the ice cleared and the full enormity of the Immortal fleets came into fiew, fighters, bombers and corvettes flew in formations in double figures and frigates and destroyers prowled in packs around wolfpack flotillas of cruisers and gunboats while troop transports moved in arcing patterns around the entire fleet, between battleships, battlecruisers, carriers and dreadnaughts.

All of this in the backdrop of a shattered planet, for a moment Lord Shadowscythe thought he had returned to the aftermath of the Shraags emergence when he noticed that there was no Scythian wreckage, only Immortal ships - intact Immortal ships in a staging grounds around a planet that was already being mined after an apparent planet crack.

"Kato . . . cross check those co-ordinates against the co-ordinate systems of all other known stellar empires and do it as fast as you damn well can" Lord Shadowscythe said semi-paniced as the thought crossed through his head.

And by the maidens did he hope he was wrong.

Stormsword One and the three Immortal battleships passed under a dreadnaught large enough to put the brand new Diety-class Dreadnaughts to shame, and it was only halfway through being constructed from the remnants of the shattered planet - once complete the monstrous vessel would be one of the largest ships the galaxy had ever seen.

"Sir, the results have come back" Kato said aloud. "It only matched with one database location"

Kato paused for a moment, awestruck as they passed over a half-imported shipyard structure that was in the process of devouring a continent sized asteroid that used to be a now-dead worlds surface.

He coughed, regained his composure and finished his sentence.

"Lord Shadowscythe, we are at the site of planet Fico."

[mgb519]

thesnuggler

The word buttplug strikes again!
Ironically, it still works.

[Kalvinator]

Shit son, I really need to read these.

[The Shadowscythe]

Quaram had left some time ago to his so called "duties" of avoiding as many Assyrian doctors, medicea technicians and psychiatrists as humanly possible as he went about scouring the ship for some buddies, a corridor turn here, a salute there - a greeting to an old buddy on a gurney as clasped hands and the various faces of military life passed him by.

Kialya however had managed to pull herself up from lying sideways in her bed to sitting up and had taken to her first solid meal in several days, some cold excuse for mashed talteos (some kind of Assyrian version of potatoes) and a meat that could only be described as if bacon and lamb had a bastard child twice removed and then put up for adoption. It was cold, it was hard - but by the maidens did her stomach appreciate it more than morning medications followed by a nutrient feed into her wrist veins.

Some time later Quaram returned with a fellow marine, an old war buddy from years back as the introduction went - he was fair skinned, muscular but not overly so, with the same short-cut black hair and immaculate marine BDU's covering the black and blue patterns of wounds and bruises across his body and a thousand yard stare unlike any she had ever seen before.

Well, that was a lie - she had seen that stare before, in the mirror across from the side of her room - the moment she woke up.

Like Quaram he was caught somewhere between a lifetime of military courtesy and training and how to react to an officor who he had not met before, in a situation that could only be described as strictly "civilian" so he stuttered through the door and thankfully offered a handshake instead of a salute and the briskness of an introduction.

"Harkins"

And so in a room with an officor and two marines (and no mention of a bar to finish off the bad joke) the emotional wounds from Ereberus finally began to heal - jokes where passed and the ice was broken before another marine found her way to the room.

She was slightly shorter than the other two marines, with blond hair and the BDU's of a Scythian field medic and the tiredness of someone who had just come off of a long days draft - she found her way across to the last chair and collapsed into a pile that was formerly known as "Larissa" and the conversations finally got into a flow.

As the hours passed on, some Assyrian medicea tech's came and went - performing their tasks with sheer surprise to see a woman who was in the depths of PTSD and three marines in the midst of full blown laughter, meals where sent in (complete with the marines stealing each others and even some of Kialya's food and the request for playing cards to follow) and eventually for the first time in days Kialya felt like she had somewhere to belong, as the others left for their own rack time.

For the first time in weeks she slept, not with a smile on her face, but the vague feeling like change was about to happen, and this was a good thing.