Disclaimer: This work of fiction overrides any and all other writings of Theros’ past in every matter. This is the official past, basically, cause I’m too lazy to go back and rewrite every other entry to fit. That, and the aforementioned process would be somewhat inconvenient.
Chapter 1
Once, your kind had ran
through oceans of grass to chase agile prey.
Once, your kind had skulked through dense forests to set traps.
Once, your kind had farmed and freed themselves from chance.
Once, your kind had made war and nearly destroyed the land.
Once, your kind had suffered retribution from the stars.
Twice, your kind had made war and nearly destroyed the land.
Thrice, your kind had made war and succeeded at destroying the land.
Once more, your kind will face each other. This time, who will die?
The ancient lore. Preserved in each generation, as a reminder of the cataclysmic past of this race…
Why?
Inevitability. That which we strive to delay. There looms one final conflict on the horizon, drawing nearer with every day. The War to end all Wars, as it were.
This time, who will die?
These are the records of the final journey of the final ship to bear the name Jaelle’s Fury. This is all there is. There is no more.
Where shall we start? My first encounter with the Crimson Fury, or the day the Scourge appeared? Which events could possibly be more influential upon my life?
Birth, for starters.
An astute observation, no? Mayhap conception would be slightly more influential, but who would want to discuss the process of bringing that about? All stories have a defined beginning, and end, and this is where mine begins, complete with the ancient Kimari myor.
I will not bore you with the records of my grand adventures when I was a young kit. My parents loved me as much as I loved to burn small insects with magnifying glasses. However, I can assure you of this. Mine was not a pleasant childhood.
Only a set of diplomats from two completely different cultures could ever produce a child as screwed up as me. ^_~
“Liyo Kunou! Liyo Kunouuu!”
*WHUMP!*
“Gah… Myaanira… just call me Theros!”
“Bah. Theros, you have to take me to see it!”
“See what?”
“Praid! The floating city! You said you were going there after this summer!”
“Myaanira… You’re sitting on me.”
The one called “Myaanira,” (who had, by chance tackled her quarry – she wasn’t all that graceful on her feet, after all) managed remove herself from what one could call a “compromising” position, leaving a rather ruffled looking Theros sitting on the ground.
“Theros, you have to take me to Praid…”
Standing up, and brushing some of the dirt off his clothing (and out of his hair), he sat back down on the bench that he HAD been on prior to Myaanira’s assault.
“Why do you want to go to Praid? It’s… boring.” An extreme understatement… he thought to himself.
“But Theros!!! There are so many things I have to see! The Royal Congress… The Grand Library…”
“You just want to ride in the suborbital.”
“What! How could you say such a thing!”
Pausing, Myaanira’s expression changed from anger, to well… shock.
“YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SUBORBITAL?! I MUST ride in it! Take me! I promise, after this, I’ll never bother you again!”
“…that’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one…”
“Hmmph. I have to get to Praid somehow… after all…”
“After all?”
“We’re going to the Academy in Praid together!!!”
“…”
“Theros… are you all right? Theros?”
“This can’t be happening…”
It doesn’t have to.
“Wha? Myaanira, did you…”
Amusing. The little kit doesn’t know where the voice is coming from.
Theros glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. Myaanira was no where to be found. And… this was most assuredly not the city park. It looked more like the “undesirable” part of town… And overhead was an unfamiliar moon.
“Where are you?”
Where is insignificant. More important is Who and When.
“What do you mean?!”
Laughter.
Loud, cackling laughter.
“Theros… hellooooooo?” Myaanira waved a hand in front of his face, before promptly poking him in the cheek.
“What the?! Myaanira! What are you doing?! Have you gone mad?”
“You were just kinda… sitting there. Being distant.”
“I was?”
“Yeesss… and it’s annoying. Take me to Praid?”
“Wha… Praid? Why Praid?”
“Liyo Kunou…”
“Fine. We’ll go to Praid in the suborbital. Just don’t call me by that name!”
“Yay! I’m going to Praid in a sub-orbital!”
Theros simply shook his head. It wasn’t as if he could expect Fanthyra Myaanira Zeal to act any differently… She was extremely enthusiastic (many times bordering on annoying), and far too… active? No… Active was good. She was almost too smart. Earlier in her childhood, she’d been involved in a program designed to find Kitara’s next Liyo Yanfarr, or Fanthyra Dirgar.
Myaanira was a candidate in the first six stages of the program, but was ruled out due to her… unique viewpoint. She was, and still is, of course, a genius with a very cheerful outlook on life, but when one is able to disassemble an unfamiliar weapon, and reassemble it into a phased plasma cannon (which of course, was NOT the original weapon), using only the components of the previous weapon, in a time span of less then 60 seconds, instructors become somewhat… disturbed.
Of course, the fact that she test fired the weapon and destroyed three entire racks of astonishingly expensive computer components might have had something to do with her dismissal from the program. Maybe.
He sighed. If she had access to a suborbital, she’d probably turn it into a fully fledged interstellar craft within a week.
The story of how the two arrived in Praid, the magnificent floating city, was simple. They sat in a suborbital for a little over forty minutes. What they did once they were there was another story.
Let it be known now that one does not simply “visit” the Royal Congress or the Grand Library, without wreaking a goodly amount of havoc to do so.
After all, between all of Kitara’s important diplomats and the largest archive of scripture on the planet merit the guard of the elite Panthyr for a reason, don’t they?
* * *
“LT-375, continue on current heading. Prepare for primary deceleration.”
“PSO Control, this is LT-375. Continuing on current heading. Ready to initiate primary decelerators.”
“Roger that, LT-375. You will enter rem-op range in 30 seconds. Prep all control systems for remote operation.”
“Acknowledged. All systems ready for rem-op.”
“Confirmed, LT-375.”
Stars shone in the sky amid the darkness of night. Several were obscured briefly by a large object, and then the darkness was replaced with light.
“Primary decelerators firing. Speed at 82 nyars per second… 42 nyars per second… 2300 nyars per minute…”
The light ceased, and darkness was restored for but a moment, before the light returned.
“Secondary decelerators firing. Speed at 1564 nyars per minute… 1292 nyars… Gravimetric force nearing upper limits. Altitude: 19048 nyarra”
“Touchdown in 45 seconds.”
“Gravimetric force nearing maximum tolerances. Speed at 2251 nyars per hour. Altitude at 12651 nyarra.”
“30 seconds.”
The whole affair continued, with the primary and secondary decelerators firing in the programmed sequence that allowed the small suborbital to descend safely. It was a very exact science. Travel faster then 750 nyars per hour before touchdown and you run out of runway. Travel at less then 600 and you crash.
Derivians would never let this model of suborbital fly. No emergency reserves, no possibility of evacuation in case of any equipment failure. Once the decelerators had fired, the craft was landing.
When one of these starts on a descent, you clear a path for it. Quickly.
“5 seconds. 4… 3… 2… 1…”
At suborbital altitudes, tires freeze and become brittle. The likelihood of the tires shattering during the deceleration process is so great that the suborbital is outfitted instead with runners reminiscent of those used on snow mobiles. These aren’t insulated like space shuttles, after all.
The other part is that these runners are nearly frictionless. Deceleration once the craft has landed on the runway is effected by a system similar to that used on modern naval aircraft carriers. A super alloy cable is held taut across the runway, and caught by an arm underneath the craft. When it catches, the cable starts reeling out until there is simply no more, and then reels the craft back in.
If you catch the cable, you’re guaranteed a safe landing. If not, your craft skids off the runway, and keeps going until it either A.) explodes, or B.) is destroyed by friction with the rough terrain.
Of course, there have been several cases of C.) Craft smashes into the ground several hundred nyars before the runway.
When that happens, it’s not pleasant. Twice the Praid Suborbital Airport has relocated due to the complete loss of the first half of the suborbital landing runway.
Fortunately, the ships usually don’t get that close when they crash.
“LT-375, Welcome to Praid. Have fun. PSO Control out.”
Myaanira put on quite possibly the largest smile she had ever worn to date.
“We’re in PRAID!!!”
The small craft shuddered somewhat immediately after Myaanira finished speaking.
“Er… what was that?”
“The antigrav systems kicked in. Runners are no good for taxiing.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that. Ooh, look! The Main Terminal!”
“I don’t know how you do it…”
Now that they were loaded onto one of the smaller flatbeds the airport had, the suborbital was on its way to the terminal, behind which a steeply inclined launcher resided. Myaanira made some sort of exclamation about it, too, but Liyo Kunou didn’t hear it. All he could think about was that voice he had heard in the imaginary alley…
“Ooh, the airport meka! I wonder how much training it takes to operate a LifterMek… Looks Complicated.”
The suborbital was guided neatly into a dock, and the gangway latched onto its side.
* * *
As the son of a Duchess, Theros was pretty much guaranteed free reign over Praid and it’s facilities, namely, the Great Library. However, the problem presented itself in that Myaanira, a Fanthyra, was not.
And of course, she wasn’t going to let it stop her. After all, Tabbana Brusolla managed to get in and out of the place. She was Kitaran! And a bit headstrong…
Little did she know the true extent of the security “upgrades” that had been put in place since the infamous escapades of the one called B-sol.
“LIO KUNOU!!!”
“ACK! You’ll be the death of me, woman!”
“Tee hee.”
“How did you get in, anyways… the door lock requires a pass code and DNA sample…”
“I hacked it.” Myaanira beamed.
“…”
She giggled.
“You… You… You HACKED IT?! WHY!!!”
Myaanira visibly recoiled. Theros fumed.
“It was easy. The house mainframe only employs multi-fractal encryption with Black IC systems. Didn’t take me longer then five minutes. :D”
“You do realize that the house mainframe is the same model as the ones they use at the Royal Congress, don’t you?”
“Tee hee. But they use theirs in the Jiraga Multiframe configuration. You’ve just got one.” She grinned.
He sighed. In less then an hour the first semester at the Royal Academy would officially start, and she’d be away from him for at least two hours a day. The prospect of being away from her seemed somewhat appetizing. No more unexpected surprises… Or destroyed equipment for that matter; but only for a mere two hours. She’d no doubt make up for it by wrecking twice the amount of it afterwards, while she continued to inadvertently drive him insane.
Oh, joy. School life with Myaanira. Kitara would never see her coming until it was far too late.
“Well, I’m off to my class.” Myaanira said. “Advanced Weapons Tech 212. I kinda already had the prerequisites, so they let me take it. See you later!”
She bounced out the doorway, towards the air car which would no doubt promptly deliver her to the turbo rail station. For the briefest of moments, Theros remembered what had happened when they had got onto the turbo rail at the airport. Myaanira had actually managed to remove one of the inertial cancellation field generators from inside the cabin, and the damnable thing had to slow to three quarters its normal speed to prevent certain unsavory side effects to the passengers of car 43. For all he knew, she still had it.
That aside, it was indeed interesting to see how the train entered the floating city from the land below.
Or rather, it wasn’t interesting. It was subtly terrifying.
About half a mile out of the airport complex, the turbo rail track began to rise, creating a ramp. Because Praid actually floats above a mining annex on a laser pillar system, the rail cannot be continuous, because Praid does indeed shift slightly due to a number of outside factors.
Theros knew a bit about the turbo rail trains. They didn’t touch the track, but technically, they didn’t NEED it either. It was more used to create a route which could not be intersected by air cars.
So, as the two did not know this, Myaanira naturally screamed when the train left the rail and traveled across the short gap between the ground based rail and the rail descending from Praid.
It should be noted that the gap was approximately the length of the entire turbo rail train, due to the fact that buildings began to make further extension of the ramp impossible.
And of course, a turbo rail that is operating off a rail is somewhat more frightening to be a passenger on then one that has the rail securely beneath it.
Ah, psychology. Fun, isn’t it.
Anyways, to sum it up, Myaanira screamed, and latched onto Theros in such a manner that he had required a few stitches afterwards. Myaanira had made it a point of hers to keep her claws as sharp as possible, as certain fashion magazines had dictated. Theros had wished she didn’t.
*THWUMPF!*
Academy Uniform. If he could make the insignia out from this angle (the uniform WAS resting on his head, after all), it was that of a first year cadet. Most likely fitted to him. Complete with the Ducal crest.
“Oh fun. Now no-one will possibly mistake me for non other then the son of the Grand Duchess*. Wonderful.”
[quote]*Liyo Tanuga Jaelle was appointed Grand Duchess of Praid after Liyo Amra Yanfarr had entered exile. Technically, Tabbana Brusolla had become Grand Duke some time earlier, through his marriage to Liyo Mimir, but as with Liyo Yanfarr, he too was in exile at the time. After Liyo Jaelle’s death, the Royal Congress appointed a regent, because the Dukes Liyo Yanfarr (Formerly Grand Duke), Tabbana Brusolla (who became Grand Duke through marriage with Liyo Mimir), and Liyo Theros (who would have been Grand Duke after Jaelle, if B-sol never returned), all were conveniently in exile. We now return you to your regular programming.[/quote]
Theros sighed, before preparing for his first class – Diplomacy 101, which would be followed by Space Combat 112.
He smirked. As per Academy policy, students could change their time table for the first two weeks, adding and dropping courses.
Diplomacy 101 magically disappeared from his timetable within half an hour.
[quote]And now, for a brief interlude by the narrator, because there are Important Things™ to note.
At this very point, Liyo Tanuga Theros, who would later be known as Theros Tanuga, was about 17 GSY of age. As for the time frame… His entrance into to the academy came two years after B-sol and Mimir escaped from the Great Library of Praid together. Technically, Theros has unrestricted access to the Great Library at this time, but, as previously noted, Myaanira doesn’t. And just for kicks, here’s a picture of Theros’ first year Academy Uniform. If Bpen’ll host it. ^_^;;
[img]http://illuminati-fiction.net/bpen/cadet_tanuga.gif[/img]
We now return you to our regular programming.[/quote]
* * *
The Great Library of Praid resembled an ancient coliseum as far as architecture was concerned, and for all intensive purposes, appeared to be plated with titanium. The steps up to the main entrance were solid and extremely polished granite, thoroughly laced with pyrite for that golden shine without anything near the cost. There was a large fountain in the center of a circular courtyard adjoined to the main walkway around the library, made from the same materials as the steps and the walkway, to cement in the minds of tourists that the fountain was most definitely attached to the Great Library. It bore the crests of all the houses of the Royal Congress along the circular ledge that was guarded by several cameras to prevent patrons from sitting on it. The crest of Liyo Tanuga resided about three crests away from that of Liyo Amra.
Of course, the crest of Fanthyra Myaanira resided absolutely nowhere in the city. Only one whose family crest was on the fountain seemed to be allowed access to the Library. Not that that little detail had stopped Tabbana Brusolla, however, although he did not have the luxury of sitting and reading what could be defined as the Kitaran version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
Not that was the point to begin with… Theros could go in and out of the Library freely. Even if Myaanira had all the forged documents in the world that would allow any Tabbi with a slightly blonde mane in, she still would have been escorted away, for one reason.
Myaanira’s natural hair color was no where near any shade of color that could be remotely considered blonde, and for Kitarans… coloring (and re-coloring) hair is not exactly… convenient.
Hence, there was a slight problem with the plot to get her into the Library.
[quote]For those who have been in the area, picture the Vancouver Public Library. For those who haven’t… I’ll try to find a picture. Or you could just watch The 6th Day. The Vancouver Public Library is featured prominently in that film. It’s only the place where most of the action happens towards the end. Just picture it with the Guggenheim’s exterior plating instead. ^_^ [/quote]
“Gak! Six individual multiframes acting as a whole?!”
“It’s the Grand Library of Praid. What did you expect?”
“Well, er… About three multiframes, actually. ^_^;;”
“…”
“What!?”
“You remember when Liyo Yanfarr’s daughter ran off with that Tabbana dock worker?”
“Yes…”
“They upgraded the Library security after that. ^_^”
“You could have told me that!”
“I did! Besides, not even I have access to the system. I’m on the registry of allowed users, but all I can pull up is a library catalogue…”
“BAH! Pray tell, what are the multiframes operating as?”
“Let’s see… Each Multiframe is composed of three mainframes, based on the MaGI structure… You take six of those… er…”
“…”
“The Grand Library has two actual MaGI supercomputers.”
“Blargh. Each MaGI unit is composed of three smaller processors… each of which are composed of three separate sub processors. You’d need about five more systems of that class attacking simultaneously to have a hope of hacking it. >_<”
“Indeed. But, I have a plan!”
“Enlighten me, O wise one.”
“Could you not divert all the comm-net traffic in Praid through it?”
Myaanira pondered this suggestion. Other then directly hacking the damnable MaGI system by taking control of six more computers (most of which didn’t exist), the plan seemed a bit more reasonable. Simply hack the central comm-net offices and redirect the traffic through the MaGI… That much data flowing in and out, requiring processing, of course, would probably disable the security system long enough for her to get in.
“Gwahahaaa! That’ll work! How long do you suppose we’d have?”
“About five minutes, at most. Within a minute the system would already have diverted processing of the data to two of the three multiframes. By the time five minutes are up, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had managed to reroute the entire thing back to the original destination using just one sub processor.”
“Hmm. So the security system will effectively be disabled for the first minute.”
“Yar. The cameras will come back on as soon as it can free up a single sub processor, and so on and so forth until it routes the data back to where it should be going…”
“I’m going to need to borrow your house computer. ^_^”
* * *
“Liyo Amra myao ra braar.”
“Whaddya mean you’re leaving me?”
“At the tone, the time will be…”
“As usual, the weather in Praid today is perfect. The chance of rain is minimal…”
“Praid Comm-Central, what the bloody hell is going on?”
“Comm traffic is being re-routed! We’ve no idea what’s happening…”
“PCC, please repeat, we did not receive…”
“Grand Library, we can’t hear you? Please repeat…”
The din of all the voices in Praid seeped throughout the MaGI room at the Great Library, giving the illusion of the machine having a great deal of multiple personalities. Unless a specific channel was picked out, the noise of the others turned it all into gibberish, mixing conversations that happily continued as they noticed no interruption in service.
Myaanira giggled, and turned off the small data-pad that she had used to tell Theros’ house computer to redirect the traffic with.
“Here we go.” She thought to herself. Theros was entering through the main entrance, and due to the new technical problems, it was taking forever. He acted annoyed and indignant, as such delays were surely the result only of “impudent and stupid” guards. Myaanira made her way in through the service entrance (Yes, the Library has a service entrance. Shipping and receiving books and whatnot! Gwahahaa.) which, due to the security system outage, was conveniently unlocked. She glanced down at her wristwatch, which read 00.28m. The door quietly slipped shut, and she was in.
“Cameras are everywhere… Time for a little disruption for that. ^_^”
Myaanira reached into her pocket, and pulled out a pair of sunglasses she had modified. The little timer continued to count in the corner, whilst the miniaturized tech should turn her face on the cameras into a wonderful little blob of static.
00.47m. Myaanira sprinted through the primary book stacks. There was but one item she needed to get that was not located anywhere else.
Her objective was to obtain Liyo Amra Yanfarr’s Manifesto, which conveniently detailed how out of date the clan system was, among other things. The content that it held was mostly responsible for why it wasn’t accessible to anyone, including the Liyo Amras.
Mmm, controversy. That the Manifesto had been stolen would be the news of the decade.
If Myaanira had managed to get away with it.
01.02m. The cameras were back. Deep within the control center, one of the many techs noticed the young woman with no face sprinting towards the main vault. 01.15m. The MaGI had already cleared an entire multiframe sub processor. The vault doors descended quite happily, barring entry. Theros finally got in the front door. Myaanira noticed that her objective was conveniently now out of reach, and that the entire thing was spiraling very nicely out of control.
And then, at a minute thirty, the internal comm system came back up, and started blaring.
“Intruder in section 16-B, approaching section 15-D! All available guards, intercept!”
“Fnord.” Myaanira turned left down the next hallway instead of right. Theros had been able to get a somewhat accurate floor plan.
That, and he was wearing a tracker. Myaanira’s glasses displayed the distance to it and the direction.
“This is Water, Calling Wind! I’ve got a bit of a problem here. ^_^;;”
“I noticed. Head for Section 7-C.”
“That’s the air pad! We can’t get out there!”
“Sure we can! There’s a bridge to the building across the street!”
“Fnord! I’ll meet you there!”
Myaanira made another abrupt turn, and nearly ran right into two Panthyr guards. She turned back and ran down another hallway.
“Ack! I’m taking the long route!”
“The long route!? THERE ISN’T ANOTHER ONE!”
“BAH!”
Theros started running down another hallway, and saw Myaanira run past the intersecting one. He turned to follow her, knowing that there were about five Panthyr behind them.
“Window!”
“I see it! We’re on the second floor, though!”
Myaanira tapped a few commands in on the input for the data pad linked to her glasses.
“Do you see it?!”
“An air car! How?”
“I’ll explain later! We’re RUNNING OUT OF HALLWAY!”
The air car door slid open right as the two smashed their way through the window, landing in the opposite side of the vehicle.
03.00m. The MaGI system had completed redirecting all the unwanted data away from it. It noted the security breach, and abruptly sealed the building.
The Panthyr guards ran straight into a wall that had descended to block the window.
“You didn’t get it.”
“That I didn’t. The vault systems came back on earlier then I expected.”
“I noticed.”
The air car was still hovering outside the sealed window.
“Funny that their security system would stop them from catching us. ^_^”
“Tee hee.”
The door slid shut and the air car took off as the sounds of sirens began to approach.
* * *
“And in other news tonight, there was a break-in at the Grand Library of Praid. Intruders managed to reroute all comm net traffic to the Library’s computers…” Theros clicked off the wall display. It was annoying that the security system had come back up two minutes earlier then expected, but it annoyed him more that the Manifesto (and several other ancient and not so ancient texts) had been made unavailable for withdrawal, so to speak. The texts were available to be viewed through a rather secure plaz casing, which was no doubt far stronger then the double paned window that he and Myaanira had sailed through. Of course, Theros had taken the brunt of the window himself; he was the faster runner out of the two.
Unfortunately, that meant arriving back at the Citadel Liyo Tanuga covered with bleeding cuts, in somewhat tattered clothing. The medical staff (and housekeeping) had been convinced not to inform Liyo Jaelle about the slight incident, however… The fact that she would have had the entire lot of them replaced if a single one of them talked likely helped in that matter.
The Grand Library incursion was likely the most exciting thing that Theros and Myaanira would do together.
Myaanira later transferred to the combat academy in the Fanthyra clanheart.
It would be a little over a decade before Theros would see her again.
[quote]Note: B-sol is about two or three years older then Theros, max, according to whatever demented mathematics I carried out to figure it out exactly. I think it’s three years, now that I think of it… Dunno why I brought that up. ^_^;;[/quote]
Chapter 2
Elevator music. Pleasant. The tune was oddly familiar, and yet unfamiliar at the same time. The lilting melody seemed to spark something within Theros that he hadn’t felt before… As suddenly as the feeling had come, it had left him. Only that haunting song remained…
“Ael Lumin…”
“What?”
“That’s the name of this song, isn’t it?”
“Riiiight.”
Liyo Jaelle fiddled with the ducal crest attached to her uniform. She was on official business up here on Neko station, but she did manage to find the time to have dinner with her son, who had, of course, graduated from the Academy of Praid. Today’s agenda involved a meeting with the IGF representative, to discuss possible operations which would apparently open up new investment opportunities in Tyranis, and the Quelaar delegation would arrive at 15:30 the next day to negotiate a trade agreement, in which they would export precious materials to Praid, and Praid would make available to them the luxury items created using the raw materials.
And then, of course, was the meeting with her Derivian husband which would effectively be planning to attempt to get the good ambassador into an even higher paying position.
The lift stopped, and the doors opened onto an air car balcony, where the car and its escort were waiting for them, along with Derivian Ambassador Jaren Kingston-Tanuga. The massive Tanuga Industries sign loomed on the side of the tower behind them, composed simply of the lettering to spell out the company name superimposed over a version of the family crest that was only twenty stories tall.
Considering that the crest is wider then it is tall, it could have been called a large building.
If it was on a planet.
“Is everything in place?”
“Indeed. First to Chez Miao, and then I’m off to a diplomatic meeting with the benefactors of that restaurant.”
“I hate dealing with those renegades… You never know if you’ve brought enough bodyguards.”
“Jaren, calm down. They’re lead by a rogue Tabbi. I wouldn’t be surprised if I managed to get Tanuga Industries the rights to their entire restaurant chain just by eating at one of them.”
“Indeed. Shall we go test that theory?”
“Why not? And if I don’t get the chain, at least I already own all the competition. :twisted:”
The three climbed into the waiting air car, and got underway. The escort wing followed, and managed to keep up as the car deftly wove in and out of traffic in the civilian zone, eventually setting down in front of the outlandish Chez Miao. The accomplished singer Liyo Kumi Koda serenaded the entire sub quadrant from a large vid display on a building two blocks away, depicting clips from a concert in crystal clarity, complete with air cars flying around the stage with massive speakers attached so that the majority of the audience would hear the concert. The ad continued, ending finally depicting a tour poster, with dates and ticket prices.
Theros noticed what appeared to be a tiny fish, facing right, at the bottom of the advertisement.
“Hmm.”
“Bah. Liyo Koda. That whore has rejected every one of my offers of sponsorship… She still wants to be a free agent, so to speak…”
At this point, a waitress appeared.
“Table for three, please.”
“Of course. ^_^ Right this way…”
The group was promptly seated, when something sounded oddly familiar once again. Theros listened for it.
Each note of the song was exactly the same as the one he had heard in the lift. Looking down at the napkins, he noticed another odd coincidence.
There was that angular fish, facing right, in the lower corner of the napkin. A growing sense of dread crept through Theros’ senses.
“Just like with the limo…” he whispered to himself.
And then, the table began to shake.
“What the?” Liyo Jaelle and Jaren said at near the same time, as the glasses of water rattled themselves off the table.
FOOM! The table fell over, and sirens started to wail all over the station. The staff and other patrons of the restaurant were nowhere to be found.
For that matter, the station seemed unusually empty today. The shaking intensified, and more explosions lanced through the massive construct.
“It’s a raid!” Jaren rather astutely stated. “We have to get to a ship and get out of here!”
“The frigate!”
BOOM! Another explosion, this time far closer then the last. Theros ran with Jaren and Jaelle through the station streets. Their air car had been smashed, and the dock was quite a ways away.
For an instant, it seemed that the three of them were the only ones on the station. All the emergency raid centers had filled and sealed, designed in such a way to hide the entire population from the raiders. Theros looked up, just in time to see the Tanuga Industries building begin to crumble. Emergency shields flickered up in the ersatz sky, straining to keep the atmosphere in as the flaming debris of the TI building fell.
It was just another victim of a mortar round.
It would also prove to be a rather ironic end to a certain ambassador.
“The building’s coming down on top of us!”
“Just keep running!”
“This can’t be happening…”
Splat! Or rather, SHRAK!
Liyo Tanuga Jaelle disappeared under kilotons of steel and plaz.
The large screen in the distance began replaying the Liyo Koda ad, complete with the little fish facing towards the right.
* * *
The Kitaran frigate 1370 was in very poor shape when they arrived at the docking ring. The station continued to shake, for the raid had continued for the better part of a half hour, in all reality being a siege. The Concordance class stations possessed formidable defenses.
Not that they had prevented the widespread destruction within the dome. Every now and then, a weapon round would penetrate the shielding and armor, sending chunks of shrapnel the size of buses flying into the buildings within.
Jaren’s commandeered air car had very nearly been turned into a metal pancake by one of the aforementioned chunks when several secondary supports abruptly gave out in a sub quadrant, sending an office complex to its doom in the freight zone. The remnants of the Tanuga Industries building lay shattered along several streets, designed primarily for foot traffic, with a massive stump, a third of the building’s original height, tilting towards the very streets already inundated with massive amounts of debris.
Were it not for fallen debris, the frigate would have been ejected with the rest of the docked ships when the power to the docking ring was interrupted. As it was, a large support beam lay across the bow of the small ship, pinning it in place. The two made their way over to the main airlock, which was miraculously undamaged.
Theros realized that objects had seemed to start to move before he had touched them, but only by a matter of milliseconds.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Jaren said, whilst powering up the small ship’s engines.
For a moment, it felt as if there were six people in the cockpit with him.
The violent shaking resumed, and the support beam fell off the bow of the ship.
“Uh oh.”
The frigate drifted away from the docking port, still powering up primary systems. A destroyer, painted in crimson, brought its guns to bear on the small target.
KABOOM! The shields and armor were stripped from the small craft, and the secondary fuel tanks blew, destroying the primary engine systems. The destroyer, satisfied that it’s latest quarry had been obliterated, turned back to picking off the numerous ships drifting outside the station, as the frigate 1370 drifted towards what had once been Naralurro.
Theros had very conveniently sealed himself in his quarters. Jaren had taken the escape pod, leaving him here to die in the wreck of his own ship. It was when the air began to grow cold and thin when she first came to him.
“Liyo Tanuga Theros.”
Theros looked around. There was no one else in the cabin… but this wasn’t his cabin. He was seated in what appeared to be some sort of theatre, and on the screen, over and over again, Liyo Jaelle disappeared under kilotons of steel and plaz. Each repetition was punctuated by a massive symbol depicting what looked like a fish facing to the right.
“You wanted her to die anyways. At least this way you don’t get charged with murder.”
Theros looked around, searching for the phantom voice. When he couldn’t find it, he looked back at the screen, and straight into her eyes.
“Boo!”
Suffice it to say, Theros was startled.
“W, who are you?”
“Depends who you ask, really. A Zallun would give you a name that you probably can’t pronounce.”
“…”
“For now, let’s just stick with War, okay?” She gave him a sadistic grin.
“Where is this place…”
“Hmm, let’s think… where IS this place, anyways?” War pretended to appear to be thinking, before whapping Theros’ forehead. “It’s inside that nice little skull of yours, if that helps any. :twisted:”
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m not the one talking to a hallucination that just said this is all in my head.”
“Point.”
“Now, my little plaything, we’ve got a few things we need to discuss…”
“Discuss? I’ve nothing to discuss with you… You’re nothing more then a hallucination, after all.”
“Wrong again. I think you’ll come to enjoy my company… Just remember. They are coming, and you won’t know it. It all depends on who gets to you first, or rather… if you can get away from them.”
In his mind, Theros saw Liyo Jaelle disappear under the rubble over and over again, and he sat in the cold, darkened quarters repeating a single sentence to himself.
“I couldn’t save her…”
He was still repeating the same sentence when he was nearly out of air.
The Taenarians arrived shortly after he lost consciousness.
* * *