Union of the Strong

Gladiaxa

thebuilder Ok, I'll wait for a response from LeftandGod for the rest, I would not like to destroy what he tried to do with this event.

thebuilder

Gladiaxa (yea, but i'm here to make sure that a character has a chance to survive)

FangTheCat

Brank
Even though the ship had already warped, Swift is activating a machine.. one which looks like a Model VI..
"I'm going back there, There are secrets to be found, stories to be told."

yobeefjerky

(Well then, the NH leaving the alliance was a good idea.)
(For clarity, they left the system as soon as the Overlords returned, no reason to stay in system with their unassigned armada)

G4L4XY

<Departing Shortly>
The captain scrambles to his seat, requesting to block off the bridge door.

"Somebody, shut the damn door already! Shut it shut it shut it now! NOW!"

As the bridge door begins to close...

DING!

The elevator opens, revealing a group of troops, guns aimed at the bridge crew.

"SOMEONE, PLEASE! ACTIVATE THE TROOP LOCK! HELLO?"

The bridge crew go mad, running around and to find the button. However, the troops driven insane by the anomalic event begin to rain bullet hell on everyone they see. Particle rounds set to "complete destruction" vaporize the captain and fry a control panel, starting a small fire.

<Subspace Jump Redirected>

Rounds rip through another bridge crew member, sending him crashing into the lock button.

<Weaponry set to [blanks]>

The chaos aboard the ship comes to a stop, the remaining bridge crew left frozen in shock. Two head over to see if they can make the jump, only to realize that the jump panel has been destroyed.

"Fuck it. The thing's busted."

"I could rewire it. Well, if you take out the fire, that is."

The bridge janitor manages to locate a fire extinguisher module, rushing to the panel and spraying it. Looking at the wiring, the crew loses hope.

"Agh. I... I don't know if I can fix that..."

"I could see if there's any spar-"

"The ship is on lockdown, and the lockdown switch is jammed. They destroyed the elevator too. We could try the stairs, but the nearest supply module is probably gone by now. There's little time left until the jump."

"Well..."

He pauses for a while.

"Nevermind."

The ship's countdown alarm goes off, leaving the bridge crew in horror.

"Look, Alex. I really... it was fun working with you. You've made me laugh and cry. You've brought me through hard times and good times. I remember thinking that you'd be nothing when you replaced the older guy. I was wrong. Our time together could be over at any moment, so I wanted you to know how important you are. You aren't just a replaceable unit in a stellar navy. You're a person. A person important to all of us. Irreplaceable.

He places his hand on her helmet as the two look down in a solemn moment of silence.

<Jumping in 10....>

The bridge crew decide to come together, unlocking their helmets. They stand in one line, holding hands as they look through the bridge window.

"I don't care where we go, as long as I'm with all of you."

<Jumping in 5...>

"Well... it was an honor to be here beside you.

<Jumping in 2...>

The group of several species, races, and religions stand together as one. They look at each other, shouting in unison...

"GLORY TO THE REPUBLIC!"

<Jumping>

With this, a cruiser-sized chunk of the forge is torn open, sending debris flying everywhere. The ship is gone, and only they can know what happened in the end...

(egh sorry if this came out cliche/late. I was writing this in the morning and forgot about it)

LeftHandofGod

Ultranova FangTheCat Jenwuf Brank G4L4XY
As the chaos unfolds, the Forge begins to come apart, the damage sustained being too much for the superstructure...which was never built as a functional model. To maintain the illusion, Contemplator had merely commanded metal rings to be built without all of the functional capabilities. It wasn't like it had planned to let the galactic leaders live long enough to discover the ruse anyway. The debris and flares from the star only add to the destruction and even more ships fail and crumble as two very different scenes begin to play out...

RandomCommander
The hedron shifts and flows into a humanoid form, and then it gestures, reality folding around its hand to form a crude but functional khopesh, the sickle blade gleaming in the light.

"DO YOU KNOW WHY I WAGE WAR AGAINST THIS GALAXY? I WAS CREATED TO BE A GUARDIAN, YES. CREATED AND THEN ABANDONED. MY FATHER MADE ME, GAVE ME MY ORDERS AND THEN LEFT! HE LEFT US ALL LIKE WE WE'RE SOME PIECE OF TRASH TO BE DISCARDED! OUR GOD DISCARDED US, SO I SHALL MAKE OF THESE RACES A NEW GOD TO GUIDE US! "

It strides forward, and flicks a hand, a spiraling lance of plasma slamming into Window-Null while it engages Wing-Pandora and Effervescent-Blade in a flurry of lightning-fast attacks.

dafeeeeeeeeeesh thebuilder Gladiaxa
Devan and the admirals look around in fear as the Forge begins to cumble, groans and creaks echoing through the structure. And then a figure walks into the docking area, with something gripped in its bloody hand. Contemplator's other avatar halts mere feet away from the gangplank to the XA ship and tosses the object to Devan's feet. On closer inspection, there are scorch marks and melted streaks covering the avatar's form. As Devan looks down, he sees that the object is Soccan's charred and severed head.
"THE LITTLE LORD WAS INTERESTING AND CLEVER, BUT THE ENDEAVOR WAS ULTIMATELY POINTLESS. NO MORTAL CAN HOPE TO PREVAIL AGAINST ME."

Searing light gathers as the shape collapses back into a hedron and begins channeling enough stellar plasma to burn a planet. The strain only serves to accelerate the false Forge's disintegration, and a gaping tear to vacuum opens up across the docking bay...

boombox
Several days later, the GSR fleet exits FTL at the given coordinates. Bastida has made a (mostly) full recovery thanks to Heinrich and is standing next to Hans as he looks at the planet turning below. Then they receive a transmission from the planet.
"Ah, Fuhrer Hans. I have been expecting you for quite some time. One might even say you are late, perhaps. Please come down, and bring Lady Vos with you."

thebuilder

LeftHandofGod Devan grabs the XA admiral by the shoulder and teleports somewhat away from the room, he then runs the last piece to the shuttle, throws the admiral in, goes in himself and let's the honorguard get in their respective ships, they then flee towards the UEE fleet, which is ordered to fire at the station

boombox

LeftHandofGod
Hans glances over to Batisda, then tells her to follow him.

Hans: "Heinrich, du bleibst hier, überwachst den Nordsektor und unsere Fluchtroute, falls dieser Engel oder was auch immer versucht uns einzuholen."
Heinrich: "Jawohl, mein Führer. Viel Glück."

The two shake hands, then Hans and Batisda go down to a hangar, where they board a dropship. Three dropships exit the fleet, and request landing permission.

Gladiaxa

LeftHandofGod
well, just like he said!thebuilder

Gladiaxa

LeftHandofGod
Ship of Darkness:
Sir, the station was not functional!
Nothing to do, the structure itself was, just some modifications, and it would have been good. Anyway we are not here to play the photocopier. We can leave, we discover who is behind all that later ...

RandomCommander

LeftHandofGod ((Probably not going to use my "system" here because you already know how this will probably play out))
Two additional copies of Window-Null appeared on either side of the middle-most copy before the Plasma lance sent it backwards, crashing into the wall, which buckled and caved from the impact. The Avatar had bright cracks coming from the place that the lance hit, and that copy shattered into a thousand sparks, sinking into the floor. The two remaining copies teleported to different places around the humanoid form of the Contemplator - one activating wrist-mounted blades that splits in a T-shape and the other generating an electric whip from its right hand. They charge at the figure in unison.

Effervescent-Blade's various swords detach suddenly and whirl around the Assault-Class Avatar, deflecting a lot of attacks while the Class-Head himself forms two Dao blades to clash the attacks that manage to pass the "barrier" of animated swords. "And how exactly shall you intend to complete this when we have a severe, galaxy-wide threat attempting to devour all these races into nothingness!? YOU'LL BE LEFT WITH ONLY VOID IN THE END!!"

Wing Pandora emits a forcefield to protect her from The Contemplator's attacks, she seems to be generating a large ball of some sort...

dafeeeeeeeeeesh

LeftHandofGod
(lord soccan reaches the room with hedron and trys to swing his axe at hedron)
whats wrong with you you pretend that your creator abandoning you is a good reason for trying to wipe out a galaxy you pretend your the only one suffering here we dont need you as a god!

LeftHandofGod

dafeeeeeeeeeesh
.......Soccan died offscreen.....

LeftHandofGod On closer inspection, there are scorch marks and melted streaks covering the avatar's form. As Devan looks down, he sees that the object is Soccan's charred and severed head.

RandomCommander
Contemplator struggles on, but this form was never intended to see combat and it shows in a lack of offensive weaponry and slower reaction times. Eventually, the damage passes the point of no return and determined to make the Subcores pay, the hedron overloads itself in an antimatter reaction, completely shattering the compartment and leaving the Subcores drifting in raw vacuum extremely damaged from the blast.

thebuilder
The hedron shifts slightly to follow the ship, and then fires a plasma lance at the UEE fleet. What happens next is nothing short of devastating. The fleet's formation is shattered and ships tumble away from the path of the beam, wrecked and venting atmosphere. Devan's ship in particular is damaged, with only minutes remaining before the superstructure comes apart from the strain.

boombox
Once the dropships land, they are guided to the source of the transmission, a large cavern with a throne against one wall. The entire space is lit by a glowing light far above on the ceiling, and the entire area is old. From the throne, something stirs, and as Hans and Bastida get closer they can see that there is a desiccated figure seated on it wearing a uniform of the old Vidachos Quorum. On its chest can be seen a nametag that though faded, can be clearly read.

VOS
TELANAE

FangTheCat

LeftHandofGod
The machine merely cackles.. a mechanical voice with biological embedded within the sound.
"Swift Is Not a Leader.. And nor was his mother of the same name.. But his father.. Perhaps the prophecy was true.. "
As the sentence is finished.. a machine seems to slowly form from nothingness, A Silver and Gold machine similar to that of a Model VI..
"That.. Felt weird.."

The Biological machine activates a small weapon, a single core on its back is glowing in a silver light.
"You came back..?"

"Of course I did.. For you.. you are Ekeri.. A Legend among Us.."
"You.. Fool.. You were Wrong to return, You are not a Leader like your father, Nor do you have the immunity to survive a plague.. You are ordinary, What makes you think you can survive this.. Catastrophe.."

"Who says I expect to.."

The machine merely stares, the biological mass still suffering as Swift's machine seems perfectly capable..
"Then its settled.. guardian Kura will no longer kill for the Veil's greed, but rather protect the Old Ways once more.."

The Ekeri simply stands, watching quietly.. the core of silver glows faintly, casting light in all directions..
"Here's the Plan.." The machine states as of of its arms becomes the Veil's putrid organic slush..

Dumb

(well not gonna lie thats quite the twist for such a "convention for the mak encounter survivors",looks like our enemy is not only the maks anymore ;/)

thebuilder

LeftHandofGod Devan, being in meditation state is unnaffected by the vacuum of space, for now.... (also, i highly doubt one lance could disrupt a relatively spread out 200,000 strong UEE formation...they have..experience with those kinds of weapons)

boombox

LeftHandofGod
Hans looks over at Batisda, then tells his guards to stand down and comes closer to the figure, then stops and asks Batisda:
"Do you know that figure? Vos Telanae?"

Alpha

LeftHandofGod

image https://i.imgur.com/U0kIuSk.jpg

And from sudden Dark Flames something unseen appeared. Cultbeasts, but evolved to spread more terror. On top of one of them stood... Could it be?

Morgoth smiled, he seemed ready for battle, slightly excited.

"Hey Hedron, don't bully the mortals, that's my job!"

He lifts his dark spear, fire and shadow being fired in Hedron's direction. The Cultbeasts didn't stand idle, the larger ones fired their hunters and primal hunters. Even an Eye of Doom shot a mighty projectile.

RandomCommander

LeftHandofGod
Of all the Subcore Avatars, Wing-Pandora seems the least damaged. "The forcefield served its purpose, what relief!"
"Great, c-can you repair us to a fun(+!0nal state, p-p-please?"

Wing-Pandora remembers her functions and begins stitching up the cracks in the Avatars and restoring their integrity. As Trader-Class Avatar configurations are literally made for creation and maintenance, she worked fast and efficiently.

Despite this, the damage was quite extensive. The Subcore programs were not designed to handle the amount of punishment Core-AI usually are subject to when fighting a higher entity, and the damage seems to have transferred - to some degree - to the Subcore ships themselves.

"Unfortunately, these Avatars are relayed not through our Coreships, but Subcores designed as conduits for our direct influence. This is as much I can fix at this level."

"Reassuring: You did an excellent job, as usual."

"I just wish delusions of grandeur weren't so hard to reason with."

"Listen up, Sub-Command division, time runs short for us, so we defeat the Contemplator's proxies quickly... And indirectly. Transmitting orders through secure Collective network..."

Effervescent-Blade creates four bypyramidal objects that carry an overwhelming amount of power, and for the time being he finds an enclosed piece of the Forge's wreckage to hide in, and shuts down non-essential systems save for passive communications, to reduce his signature.

Window-Null copies himself about 5 more times, before teleporting to many different areas at once. He seems to have targeted areas still containing alive individuals - including the UEE fleet, though the clone assigned there is keeping a low profile.

Wing-Pandora returns to the flotilla of 3 Subcore ships and maintains a dimensional stealth field covering them and her Avatar - a seamless, orb-like portal showing the same, empty space but from an alternate dimension with little activity.

LeftHandofGod

thebuilder Note: The idea is more that the lance strike bored a hole to Devan's ship. Maybe twenty ships or so were destroyed. Alpha
The hedron drifts out towards Melkor and halts.
"SO...HE WHO ARISES IN MIGHT. HOW IRONIC THAT ONCE YOU WERE THE MIGHTIEST OF THE VALAR AND BOWED TO NO ONE AND NOW YOU ARE ENSLAVED TO A MERE HIVEMIND. PATHETIC. BUT I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN SQUABBLE WITH YOU NOW. BUT YOU LOVED THE LIGHT SO MUCH, LET US SEE HOW YOU LIKE THIS NOW..."
The hedron turns aside from Melkor and then begins to glow and burn right before a pulse of distortion strikes into the star and the hedron vanishes in a jumble of cubes and spheres. The star meanwhile, dims for a minute, then blazes twice as bright as before...and begins to swell in the first steps towards a supernova. Mere minutes remain...
boombox
Bastida stares at the throne in awe.
"Telanae Vos! She founded the Imperium! But how?"
There's a rusty chuckle as the figure shifts slightly.
"I was called to a higher purpose. But not one without cost. For two and a half thousand years I have waited, my body slowly decaying as the decades and centuries passed me by. For in this place there is only truth, and the truth is that all things must die. But my watch is over and the burden passes to you. A weapon can be made, Bastida, but the price will be great..."

And far away, on board the true Star Forge, a metallic humanoid watches as shipyard rings disgorge ships by the millions and grins...
"LET THE GALAXY BURN"

Jenwuf

@LeftHandofGod
Akio & Lyov:
There they stood, within the hall... still...
The three Lupidira had since left, and attempted to escape... to no avail.
So it was just them...

"So Akio umm... any plan?"

"Ha...
The plan is, die, then work out how to escape this hell."

"Umm... Sounds great... but i have no clue what the hell you are even on about."

"Oh... you will know soon enough."

"Hmm... Nah, im good thanks.
Have fun being dead."

"Bye then."

Lyov seemed to melt down into what was just essentially a blob of nanomachines, and proceeded to head towards the hangar at a speed that far exeeded that of a normal person.
Simply going through debris and obstacles.

However, even this would likeley be useless...
Since no ships would be operable, let alone one he knew how to fly, his efforts would mean nothing.

Now he really wished he actually had gone with even Lance...

He reformed into himself in one of the empty/semi destroyed hangars and waited for his inevitable demise.
Thinking of how best he would (if he were still alive) portray his second death...
"Gatekeeper Lyov killed in heroic act of defiance."
Or something along those stupidly egotistical lines.

Akio sat down once Lyov left.
And he too, waited.
Although he knew what awaited him, and he hated it.
Perhaps however, he could work out where it was, and how to escape this nightmare.

Gladiaxa

Alpha Ship of Darkness ...:
-But what ... Melkor? How strange ... Well it does not matter we act as if nothing had happened.
-So are we leaving commander?
-No, I want to see the massacre first.

thebuilder

Alpha (so Melkor basically said "I fart in your general direction"?)