When the Nothing Shines Upon [IC]

[trollthumper]

Ditko Street

Wednesday, August 13th, 2014

6:32 PM

Another workday done. The question was whether or not he'd have to work the evening as well.

Kyle Steward made his way through Riverside, stopping to bask in the summer heat. The good news about his workplace was that it wasn't exactly a gigantic bastion of professionalism; the bad news was he still had to wear long-sleeved shirts every so often. Fortunately, he'd managed to shuck the shirt and go in just a T-shirt. The sun was just starting to dip down, but it was still somewhat hot and humid. The iced coffee was helping, but there was still a ways to go.

All in all, though, things were peaceful. Steamy, sweaty, and crowded, but peaceful. There was a cool breeze kicking up under the muggy air, and it promised an interesting night. It was enough to cause him to almost get lost in thought.

And then the shrieking started.

The first eruption happened right next to him, in a car pulling into a parking space. The driver lost control, colliding with the car in front of him. Then came the radio at the newsstand down the street. Then the PA system at the nearby coffee shop. Soon, the entire street was awash in cacophony. Through the bursts of distortion, Kyle could hear words... but they weren't in any Earth language.

He tapped his bracelet, hoping the sight might go unnoticed amongst all the chaos. The language filtered into his ears, swiftly translating. It was Lor, and although it was garbled, he could make out a few pieces.

"Alone... fallen... help... dead... dead... stranded..."

And all across Freedom, the static spread, erupting from every device attuned to radio waves. Repeating the same request...

[horngeek]

Deep Space

 

Alone in deep spa--WARNING: TRANSLATION MATRICES UNSTABLE

 

A hundred different systems clamored for attention- communications, muscle boosters, translation matices, power generator...

 

Too much.  This would be the work of weeks even on Belran-

 

Not that that was an option.  

 

Belran fallen-- send help--

 

WARNING: STELLAR KHANATE LANGUAGE FILES CORRUPTED

 

--they're all dead...

 

WARNING: LANGUAGE OF THE SEEDERS LANGUAGE FILES CORRUPTED

 

--stranded in deep space. Alone in deep space--

 

RECOVERING FILES: LOCAL NAME 'ENGLISH' LANGUAGE FILES

 

--Belran fallen--

 

Belran gone.

Edited August 16, 2014 by horngeek

[N/A]

Neither the roar of the air conditioner, nor the classical symphony from the radio was quite able to muffle the giggles and sweet nothings the couple in the backseat had been whispering to each other ever since they had slid into the backseat of Astrid Kierkegaard's electric blue Tesla luxury car. Astrid periodically rolled her eyes as she weaved the silent behemoth back and forth between lanes. Even with every vent pulled open toward her, she had already stripped down to her black tanktop. The collared blue shirt she'd used to feign respectability lay crumpled in the front passenger seat, wedged beneath her folded-up wheelchair.

She breathed a sigh of relief as her hand eased off the accelerator lever and pressed down on the brake lever, spinning the wheel with her other hand to drift up against the curb in front of Chez Henri. She glared up at the rear-view mirror, waiting for the lovebirds to notice the car was no longer in motion. She was just about to clear her throat when static exploded from the radio. The passengers leapt up out of their seats and started to blush. "Oh hey, we're here!" Astrid turned the radio down as the man fumbled with his smartphone.

Astrid was back on the road before the back door slammed shut. She cranked the volume back up on the radio as she sped through the Midtown streets. Words started to appear randomly in the static. She couldn't understand most of them, but a few sparked recognition. "...XXXXX...fallen...XXXX...<dead>..." Astrid did a double-take at the radio. "English...Danish...German? Can't make out the others..."

Astrid parked in front of the first church she could find, of the many littering Midtown. She struggled to pull her wheelchair out onto the ground, unfold it, and heave herself into it as quickly as possible. She pushed the wheels almost hard enough to blister her palms, banging the front double door open with her footrests. The nuns milling about the pews all glanced up at her. The eldest among them spoke up. "Can we help you, my child?"

Astrid rooted through her messenger back and pulled out a bottle of water and a large, ornate drinking horn. "Only with a vow of silence, Sister." She poured the water into the horn, then upended it and guzzled. Thunder echoed throughout the cathedral. A bolt of lightning slammed down from the clear sky, passing through the church roof as though it weren't there, enveloping Astrid in a pillar of light. When the light faded, Thrude Thorsdottir of Asgard stood in her place. She brought a fist to her chest in salute to the nuns. One of them weakly waved back to her.

[Tiffany Korta]

Triakosia was about to call it a day and stopped flying around the city looking for trouble, so she could have a little personal time, when she picked up the radio broadcast. All of them reaching back toward where the signal was coming from, she couldn’t hear the radio signal itself but it wasn’t difficult to find the source of the problem, or at least it Earthly source.

Oh well she hadn’t had anything to special planned.

 

With a little sigh she flew towards where she believed the signal has originally been broadcast from to try and get to the bottom of this possible problem.

[RobRX]

"What in the name of Sirrion is all this racket?!" shouted Kyle Finley, also known as the (rather elusive) mystic and inventor, the Silver Magus. Raising his googles, the technological left behind what he was currently assembling, a bizarre mechanical brain-like structure of wires and, crystals and phylacteries. Next to him, leaning against the wall, was the half-assembled torso and head of some mechanical humanoid. His workshop-slash-arcane laboratory had remained as eclectic and poorly organized as last time, only this time it was even more cluttered.

 

"Let's see here; hmm, a signal. The words are of no known language to me. Could be extraterrestrial. Shame, my armor still hasn't been properly modified for space flight." He then slapped his own tight at the realization. "I knew I forgot something. Now where...did I...put the armor." mumbled the inventor to himself, tossing aside scrolls, arcane tomes, an iPad and a wrench. No armor-folded-as-a-suitcase to be found, however.

 

"Oh well, time to break out the new one. Shame, it doesn't really have any new functions installed yet." Kyle had quite the habit of rambling. In this case, he meant his new armor, functionnal but without any of the new planned features installed. Mostly, in the past few months had had found countless small adjustments to make to his armor and as a result had built a new one. Most new features installed being entirely for ease of use. And feeling less tight in places that are quite uncomfortable.

 

 

[trollthumper]

Kyle was already heading for a back alley, calling his armor to bear. "Hey, Mentor," he said, "I don't know if you heard, but there's kind of a big cacophony going down on my little blue marble."

"I am aware, Star Knight Stewart," said the grand central database of the Star Knights. "There has been a widespread commotion that has been broadcast from the middle reaches of the Sol system. Right now, its range is limited to a 25 mile radius of your land mass, but it appears to be growing exponentially as it finds new means of transmission."

"Well, as long as we answer this thing before primetime," he said. The armor slid into place over his head - soon, Cavalier of the Star Knights was ready to take to the air. "So, how far out is our pirate radio broadcast?"

"It appears to be coming from an object drifting through the Asteroid Belt. Closer to Jupiter than Mars."

"Well, that'll give me a bit of a hike. All right. Let's go see what's the trouble."

He took off into the sky in a green blur, rapidly leaving the atmosphere. As the void took him and the blue faded, he swore he could see streaks at the edge of his vision. It appeared he might not be the only one taking this on.

In time, he - and the others - found their way towards the source - some through signals, some through playing follow-the-leader. There, stranded in the middle of the belt, lay a ship...

[horngeek]

The ship itself...

 

Sleek might be the best way to describe it.  The ship looked almost like a missile at first glance, although the viewports and shattered wings disproved that theory quite quickly.  

 

And it was damaged.  Quite obviously, and quite heavily.  The front was crumpled, one wing was shattered entirely while the other was torn off (where that debris had ended up was far from apparent).  The cockpit (at least, it looked like the cockpit) viewport was entirely gone, and the engines were twisted, as if they'd been hit by some sort of missile.  

 

It was a miracle it had made it into the Solar System, in fact- the hull looked to be barely holding together.  One thing was obvious, though.  

 

Whatever had happened to this ship, it had been bad.

 

----

 

ATTEMPTING TO RESTART COGNITIVE PROCESSES

 

WARNING: INSUFFICIENT ENERGY.  BOOST REQUIRED

 

RESENDING DISTRESS MESSAGE

 

Belran fallen--

[N/A]

A cloud of fog in the vague shape of a great eight-legged warhorse gallopped across the skies of the Tri-State area.  Lightning flared from inside the empty spaces where a horse's eyes would have been.  Thunder roared with every beat of the misty hooves.  One hand gripping the wispy edges of the cloud resembling a horse's mane, one hand holding the great axe-hammer Hridgandr to the side, Thrude Thorsdottir, Princess of Asgard, rode her spectral steed in a widening spiral radiating out from the center of Freedom City.  She climbed higher up and farther out with each pass, faster and faster.  Searching for the source of the distress signal, her route expanded to cover the city, then the state, and soon the entire Eastern Seaboard, before breaking the Earth atmosphere entirely.  Once she pierced the stratosphere, Thrude kicked her boots against the edges of the horse-shaped cloud between her legs.  She became a fiery blur, azure and amber rings racing around the planet.

 

After a few passes, the goddess finally noticed the gleaming, floating wreck spinning in orbit.  She rode up to the ship, reached out to the hull, and grabbed on to what was left of the wing, straining to hold it still.

[Tiffany Korta]

Arms folded back Triakosia shot straight through the air at many times the speed of sou. It took all her effort not to panic and try to breath when she broke the atmosphere, she still wasn’t use to doing this normally sticking to just inside Earth's atmosphere.

 

With time being a fact she poured on as much speed as she could, faster than she normally travelled though she still arrived well after the Thude. it only took a few second hovering near the object before she could she what the other hero was doing and flew nearer to the spaceship to see how she could help.

[trollthumper]

Cavalier looked over the wreckage of the ship, idly wondering to himself how it had managed to propel itself this far. It was possible it might have drifted into the solar system, by a journey of centuries or even millennia - or perhaps everything but emergency power had been routed into the thrusters before they finally cracked and gave out. Or maybe something had practically hurled it into this system...

Okay, enough ghosty-ghoulie crap. Let's go find out what's making this thing spam the earth. He slipped into the ship through the cracked viewing window; whatever atmosphere was on this ship had long since been vented, meaning he'd have to keep the tin can up. Now, however, he could hear more of the transmission - something about a dead, fallen world. Not good. But there had to be a reason this message was being sent out by a ship, and not a satellite.

From the broken cockpit, he waved to the other parties who had gathered around the ship. He didn't quite recognize them, but he had to guess they weren't here for looting. After signaling to them and beckoning them closer, he headed into the bowels of the ship, trying to find the reason for the vessel's voyage...

[horngeek]

In the bowels of the ship... floated a figure.  

 

Bare skin exposed to the vacuum of space, she didn't seem to have any ill-effects from what would kill any normal person.  Orange hair floated around in the zero-gravity environment, framing light, freckled skin.  The figure wore a grey bodysuit, and as the ship stopped, she bumped into the walls.  

 

And she was the source of the transmission... that suddenly cut out.  

 

RESCUE CREW DETECTED.  REDIRECTING ENERGY TO COGNITIVE PROCESSES-

 

What?

 

WARNING: APPROXIMATELY TEN MINUTES OF RESERVE ENERGY REMAINING.  TRANSLATION SOFTWARE CORRUPTED- FILES RECOVERED: Local Designation English (System 5823)

 

REQUIRED ACTION: REACTOR JUMP-START

 

The woman's eyes opened, looking at the various figures.  Her gaze scanned across them, before she bumped into a doorframe.  

 

She held out a hand to steady herself, before focusing... and frowning.  Her mouth moved, no sound audible in the vacuum, before she shook her head in frustration, and tried to gesture to the heroes, trying to get across that she needed some way to communicate.  

[Tiffany Korta]

Triakosia paused for a few seconds she still couldn’t quite believe she was out here in space. She was still getting use to the idea that she wasn’t going to explode from not having to breathe.

 

She took a deep breathe, so to speak, and set her mind on the task at hand. There were others already gathered and one at least seemed to have an idea what was going on, so for now Triakosia was happy to follow his lead. She gave him a little wave to show that she was in board and flew closer so she could follow him to go inside the ship.

Edited September 22, 2014 by TiffanyKorta

[RobRX]

Arriving near the alien craft after a long journey off the surface of planet earth was a figure clad in silver and gold armor, composed of segmented metal plates, wearing a long cloak which was no doubt even more impractical in space than on the planet. Briefly, the figure paused as it rambled to itself, observing the space craft and trying to catalogue it.

 

Then the figure flew off once more and continued it's path toward the alien ship.

[N/A]

Thrude glanced back and forth between the silent figures floating inside the wrecked cockpit.  Of course.  No sky, no sound.  Just nothing.  Fortunately for them, when I beckon, the storms follow!  She held Hridgandr in a double-handed grip in front of her, resting the flat of the blade against her forehead.  The runes etched into the metal began to glow, and sparks danced between them.  A pale, spinning sphere of mist appeared in front of her.  It grew visibly as it twirled, expanding until it filled the ship, and the space around the ship.  The sound of blowing wind came rushing into the ears of the assembled heroes.

 

"I am THRUDE, Daughter of Storms, Chooser of The Slain, Princess of Asgard and Protector of Midgard!  If thou doth require aid, then ask, and it shall be provided."

[horngeek]

"Thou doth... wait a sec.  Oh, right, old versions of the language, right.  Sorry, translation software's a bit unstable at the moment, it's not dealing well with linguistic variations."

 

The woman peered at Thrude, quite... interested.  "How are you doing that, anyway?  Is the ax some sort of weather-control device?  No, that doesn't work, there's no weather here in the first place.  Anyway, looks like however you've done it, you can summon electricity?  So, there actually is something you can help me with."

 

She closed her eyes.  "Think about that later, Kyla.  Anyway.  The thing is, I'm running on... ah... fumes might be the best word?  All my generators are down, I'm running on reserve power, and to keep my body and my mind both active, it's really not enough."

 

The woman... Kyla... frowned.  "I've, ah, got about... nine minutes left before my mind shuts down.  No, scratch that, before my everything shuts down.  I need a jump-start to not die, so if you could..."

 

She looked around the ship, frowning.  "Well, a lightning strike could possibly do it if I was prepared.  It'd hurt, but it'd work.  If the ship was still working, we could rig something up to the on-board generators, but..."

 

Kyla waved her arms around.  "Yeeeeah, that's not going to work."

[trollthumper]

Cavalier was a bit surprised to feel the complete absence of vacuum - a paradox in itself, but a welcome one. He took some time to check out the other members of the rescue party - a woman dressed in a costume like Centurion, another guy in armor, and a valkyrie - named Thrude, apparently. He'd seen glimpses of them on the news, but wished he'd paid more attention, because he was having trouble recalling a lot about them. Of course, that was the least of their concerns right now...

"All right," he said. "Obviously, we don't want you dying after all this..." He looked at the utter wreckage of the rest of the ship. "...whatever. In any case, I think I've got an answer to moderating the circuit." He tapped into his connection back to the central database of the Star Knights. "Mentor, the ablative protocols for the armor - I take it they're regulatory processes as well, right? I could, theoretically, complete a circuit?"

"I'm not sure why you'd want to, but, in theory, yes."

"Good." Cavalier put one hand on Memorial's shoulder. "Okay... Thrude, right? I can regulate the output, provide some resistance so it hurts less for her. Just put the thing in my hand and give me all you've got."

As last words go, there are probably better ones...

[N/A]

"Hah!"  The goddess scoffed.  "'A weather-control device?'  I am the Thunder-God's get!  Heir to his dominion!  The sky is my domain, and Hridgandr is my scepter!  We do not 'control' the storm...we ARE the storm!"  Sapphire tendrils of electricity writhed and flowed from her massive axe-hammer to envelop her entire body.

 

"'Power?'  Yes, I can provide power.  Power enough to cleave a river in twain!  Power to smash a mountain into powder!  Power beyond the imagination of mortal kind!"  Thrude raised Hridgandr above her head, and slowly brought the tip of the blade to rest upon Kyla's shoulder.  A burst of lightning exploded from the axe as soon as it made contact.

[RobRX]

It seems Silver Magus has quite the habit of appearing out of nowhere and doing so fashionably late. "Whoa! By the Shades of Sirrion!" he shouted as a burst of electricity exploded from the cockpit. In space, no less! "Now that is not something I see every day." the armored mage said to himself as he witnessed something impossible. One would think he'd be used to truly impossible things but lightning in space still managed to be completely new experience.

 

He waited for it to die down before approaching the cockpit even further, until in sight of the other figures. "Now then, would anyone mind telling me what is going on here?"

Edited September 26, 2014 by RobRX

[trollthumper]

On the list of all the horrible things Cavalier had experienced, this was somewhere near the bottom of the list. He'd been expecting a blow from a storm goddess to light him up until he glowed, but it seemed that the armor's adaptive matrix was able to deal with the brunt of it - for the most part. He could still feel his hair standing on end under the plating, and he probably didn't want to touch a body of water for an hour or so. But while he absorbed the brunt of the blow, the power flowed gently into Memorial, completing her circuits and repowering her battery without blowing out any capacitors.

Cavalier shook his head once contract was broken, trying to regain his bearings. "Bad plan," he said, "good results." With the atmosphere now in place, he figured looking eye-to-eye might help. He popped back the helmet; it was a good thing he'd taken to trying out a high-and-tight, because he'd hate to think of what longer hair might look like now. "I'm Kyle Steward, of the Star Knights. Kyla, right? You feeling better?"

[horngeek]

Charge successful.  Primary reactor: rebooting.

 

Memorial's hair started to glow, light playing over the walls of the ship as the last of the excess energy vented.  Systems check commencing.  Indefinite operation now possible.  

 

Repair systems report: that was dumb.  But worked.  Please don't do it again.

 

"Did my repair systems just-"

 

Kyla shook her head, before nodding to Thrude in respect.  "Right.  I thank you, Daughter of Storms.  All of you."

 

She smiled, although it looked slightly... forced, perhaps.  "Yes.  Kyla Han'denor.  And yes, thanks, I'm feeling better.  Implants all working- for a certain definition of working.  I'm not at full capacity, but that'll just take time, I think."

 

Finally, she sighed.  "I'm... I don't actually know who the Star Knights are, sorry.  Where am I, anyway?"

 

And then, she saw the armored figure floating in, and decided to answer another question of her own.  "These people just saved my life."

Edited September 26, 2014 by horngeek

[RobRX]

"Right, well, I will assume you were the source of the signal I caught." the mage said to the alien cyborg. He then slowly turned his metal-covered face to the Star-Knight and norse goddess. "I take it you've likely got this situation under control, haven't you? You'll have to forgive me, I am not used to travelling outside the confines of earth." Presumably outer dimensions were a different thing.

 

"Does your ship need any repairs? Seems it does."

Edited September 26, 2014 by RobRX

[horngeek]

"...that thing?  Beyond repairs, I'd say.  Which takes a lot of damage, actually, our technology is-"

 

Kyla paused, for a long moment.  "Was rather tough.  Nine times out of ten, the problem's a lack of power.  I can do space travel under my own power, anyway."

 

She sighed.  "To a degree.  Right now, if there's somewhere where people are nearby, that's where I need to be.  The... entity... that damaged this ship and I... well, there's a good chance they're going active again."

[trollthumper]

Well. That was a new one. Kyle had the good sense to assume that the Star Knights hadn't been there since the first stars were forged, but he knew they had a history going back longer than he had time to read about (and he often had a lot of time to read, especially when traveling the void). Given the status of the ship and the nature of the passenger, there was a possibility that she was either from way out of town, very old, or both.

"The Star Knights are a peacekeeping force," he said, "dedicated to ensuring diplomacy, maintaining the relations of local powers, and engaging in rescue and peacekeeping missions." Just please don't ask about the size of the gun. "I'm not sure how much I can do on repair work, but I'll see what I can do with getting the systems back up - if there's any need for an assist there."

It wasn't like he was stereotyping that the robot would be great at computers - he told himself. Rather, this was her ship, her make, and likely, her known operating system from before his world had civilization. But anyway. "So, you said an 'entity' did this. If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could describe the entity..."

[horngeek]

"The ship's kinda redundant anyway, now that the reactors are up and running."

 

At the question, Kyla paused.  "We called it... what we're pretty sure it called itself.  The Communion.  As for what it was..."

 

For about half a minute, she was silent.  "Best we could figure, it was a... kind of self-replicating mechanical hive mind of some sort.  Viewed itself as the pinnacle of existence."

 

Kyla practically spat the words out.  "It'd worked to subvert, control and assimilate worlds for... we don't know how long.  Absorb the minds it viewed as valuable, turn everything else into resources.  Static, unlearning.  A working blasphemy against life itself.  We knew it was coming... it... helped somewhat."  She sighed.  "At least, we put up a fight.  But we didn't have time.  So... I was sent off.  To warn people.  I... don't remember all of what followed."

 

She frowned.  "What we learned of the Communion lead us to believe that they act in... patterns, perhaps.  Absorb life in one area, then settle into dormancy and wait.  There were some sensors hidden, so they'd monitor the area, and if the Communion started stirring again, they'd send a signal.  That's actually what the ship's for- and before I went under to preserve power, I set up some protocols to start transmitting a distress signal if I received that..."

 

The young woman fell silent again, before raising a hand to her face, covering her eyes.  "No.  Cry later.  The long and short of it is, if that distress call went out, the Communion's probably active again.  And we need to let more people know, or the dammed cycle's going to repeat.  I'm not letting that happen if I can stop it."

[RobRX]

Silver Magus stood there, listening. If that story was true (and why would she lie about it?), then this was without the hint of a doubt the greatest threat he had ever come across in his (still brief) career. Still, he had to admit to himself that all this sounded truly fascinating on so many levels. Kyle took the resolution to see with his very own eyes these beings.

 

"If you are here then we have to assume they are aware, correct? If so do you think they are aware of earth already?"