ic Orphans of Yesterday [IC]

[trollthumper]

"Right. Let me consult the records." Velak pushed his way back on-screen, carrying a small computer tablet in his hands. "It says here that, when the anomaly first presented itself, the Korata hung suspended for 2 hours, whereas you hung suspended for... 17 minutes. When that window elapsed, you were capable of forward motion, but found the suspension effect persisted if you tried to break past the terminus point - I believe you wrote here, Sri Steward, that it was 'less a brick wall, more jogging through Jello.'"

 

"That... sounds like something I might say, yeah."

 

"Right. So. Give us 12, and you should be capable of movement."

 

As Velak had said, 12 minutes later, the Korata and the Voidrunner lurched forward with a start. Cavalier took the opportunity to break away back towards the terminus point... only to find himself slowing rapidly, as if forward propulsion was vanishing from the universe. Let's be honest. If this was a con, and they'd gotten me by just suggesting I shouldn't do it... I'd be kicking myself. With that, he turned, moving - at full speed - towards the planet, managing to catch up with the Voidrunner as it breached orbit.

 

As they approached the surface, Cavalier could see... well, not cities. Not as he might know them. Too small, but... only a few steps down from a Lor settlement. The population density of Cahokia, and the tech level of Silicon Valley. The Korata landed in a large clearing outside of the town, followed by the Voidrunner next to it.

 

By the time Cavalier had touched down, a crowd had gathered to meet them all. Hundreds, at least, and it seemed more were coming out of the city. All with a mixture of features - some human with slight Zultasian features, some a mix of Lor and Deep One, others more Xuli'Ha. Their expressions were a mixture of joy, disbelief, and - in something Cavalier could entirely relate to - nervousness. He lowered his helmet, and as he did, he swore he heard people gasp. 

 

"Hi," he said. "It is, uh... good to meet you." 

[Electra]

Jessie was the first one off the Voidrunner, practically tumbling through the hatch as soon as it opened. It was very important to be off the ship, for one thing. Being on the ship was not good, especially when bad and dangerous things were happening. No matter what dangers the outside might offer, being out in the open air was definitely a thousand times better than being on any spaceship. More importantly, though, these were the people who might be holding them prisoner and keeping them from getting back to Earth. They told a weird story about time that she wasn't sure she understood any of, but it was possible that they were just lying. If their purposes were nefarious or dangerous, she was going to stop them by whatever means necessary. 

 

She stopped at the bottom of the gangplank, momentarily nonplussed at the size and composition of the crowd. It didn't look like any army she'd ever seen, but she wasn't sure what it did look like, either. They all looked like they were waiting for something incredibly interesting to happen. 

[Darksider42]

Despite one last attempt to leave the planets orbit, Ruby was forced to concede and head for the mystery planet. A few commands were put onto the console to make sure the engines were ready for emergency takeoff. Planning ahead was something would have to do in. She got up from her chair just as the ship made planet fall.

 

She was ready as soon as she disembarked. Golden battle scared armour and her Repeater Rile was charged and ready. Even if combat was not what they had in mind, the implied threat of violence could deter some of these people. "Keep your eyes peeled. I really don't want anymore surprises." She told the over Voidrunners. She did not trust the low tech look this place seemed to have when they can lock down a planet. Even if they clam they did nothing. All she could do now was wait and watch the gathering crowd.

[TheAbsurdist]

 

Bliss stepped out, tall and... and...

 

The helmet came up on her suit when she saw them.  Immediately.  Though not quick enough to hide the flush of rage through the infra-red markings on her features.  Writ large to those who had her genetic markers.  Her hands clenched, and she thrust arms down, her tendrils shooting down and pushing her up in a sudden propulsion and making her land back onto the ship, not approaching the... people any further.

 

She was not of her people.  Not really.  Not anymore.  There were still some things anathema.  And she just was face to face with it.  

 

She hated the Lor.

Edited November 26, 2016 by TheAbsurdist

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria padded out onto the gangway and down onto the grass - and she did get a reaction from the crowd. From some of the humanoids in the crowd, especially those who seemed to particularly bear the blessing of Dagon and Hydra, there came a faint rustle of murmuring - and near the edge of the crowd, exclamations. "The Dark Mother comes! She comes!" Aquaria blinked hard, trying to process what she was hearing, an impressive sight indeed given the sheer size of her eyes. 

 

She picked one of the speakers out of the crowd and leaped to her side, fearlessly vaulting into the crowd of humanoids. She blinked at the female and cocked her head inquisitively. "Who are you to speak of the Dark Mother?" 

 

"I am Kee'lee - I am your servant before the King and Queen in Yellow," croaked the female, bowing her head as she should to show submission. She hadn't the green skin nor the extended limbs, but in the bulging eyes and gaping mouth, she at least had the look of Aquaria Innsmouth. "I am thrice the spawn's spawn of the Dark Mother." 

[trollthumper]

Down in the crowd, two young girls pushed forward towards Jessie and Aquaria. Aquaria could tell the younger one had a greenish tint and newly-formed gills. "It's her!" said the older one, pointing to Jessie. "She's the one who punched the pass through the Alara Mountains! She saved the Halans Expedition from Mt. Aran!" 

 

"Really?" said the girl with the gills, studying her. "I thought she'd be bigger..."

 

"Ala, Ne'kaa, that's enough," said Kee'lee. "Staring and pointing is rude." She bowed before Aquaria and Jessie. "I am sorry, Dark Mother, Mother's Spear. You must understand the curiosity of youth. Sometimes, giddiness comes before reverence."

---

Cavalier could feel the tension among the crowd. Well, both crowds. Bliss's retreat back into the ship wasn't likely to be due to nerves. He looked to Ruby. "Is she, uh... going to be okay?" 

 

"We should have known." Cavalier turned back; somehow, Velak and Javeen had managed to push their way to the front of the crowd. "The records show that, of the various members of the Voidrunner, Bliss was most resistant to the idea to genetic diversification. It took some time for her to deal with the idea of adding Xuli'ha traits among the population. For a long time, she saw it as a mockery to her species."

 

"Oh. Good. You know, if there's one thing I'm sure we've got here, it's the luxury of time. You couldn't have set up a controlled landing site and avoided the parade?"

 

"You would have been seen anyway," said Velak. "The anomaly was... not subtle. And we don't exactly have the facilities for subtlety. And..." Velak went quiet. 

 

"And?"

 

"Velak," said Javeen, "now is not the time to be quiet. See, Sri Steward, we needed you to understand two things. One: That we were not pirates, not scammers, not liars. We are, in fact, your descendants. And you, and the crew of the Voidrunner, and the crew of the Korata, are our ancestors."

 

A sinking feeling came with that statement, one that Cavalier had spent the last half-hour trying to avoid. "And two...?"

 

"We needed you to understand, just what would be at stake, if you left. If you managed to find a way to break the anomaly." Javeen pointed to the crowd, many of whom were cheering for them - for him. "We don't understand much about temporal mechanics. But this is... one of ours called it 'soft time.' The very quantum mechanics of the anomaly that shunted you back in time may play havoc with causality."

 

"So, if we leave... this doesn't happen. And... you don't happen?"

 

Now it was Javeen's turn to fall silent. "We're not even sure leaving is possible," said Velak. "Not before the waveform collapses. And if it collapses, you will likely be caught in it, so..."

 

Cavalier nodded. "I understand," he lied. He turned back to the crowd and waved in the friendliest fashion he could muster, which sent up a new wave of cheers.

 

Just keep smiling. Keep smiling, and the nice people will be happy. You can scream much, much later. 

[Darksider42]

Infrared vision was a useful thing to have built into your helmet. It made reading the emotions of a Xuli'pan a lot easier. "...They've made her mad."  Ruby would have continued but Velak and Javeen made their presence known. Suddenly that anger that had been simmering in orbit had started to boil over. Ruby loomed over the pair, circling them like a predator. She listened as they explained their plight to the star knight.  "For someone that claims to be from the future, 'we should have know.' seems to be a running theme here."

 

"Not only have you insulted me, the clan that took me in and their ancestors, you've insulted my crew. Now you claim to be our descendants?" She leaned in close, her helm a dark mirror of the faces of the two aliens that barely contained the growing fury she was feeling. "I am getting really sick of this joke. Drop this charade. Now." 

Edited November 27, 2016 by Darksider42

[Electra]

Jessie hesitated and stepped back when approached by people out of the crowd, but they didn't seem threatening and they didn't have weapons. If there was a fight, she could probably grab Aquaria and fight their way out before the crowd could overwhelm them. She cocked her head curiously and tried to understand what the young people were telling her. It sounded as though there'd been another Erin White here at some point, one who had been some kind of folk hero to these people. That happened sometimes, Jessie knew. Erin was already a folk hero among the Furions and probably some other people as well, and although her own memories were purged and blurred and indistinct, she understood that she herself was a bogeyman on the world she'd come from. Would there forever be iterations of Erin everywhere she went? 

 

For now, it seemed like the best course of action was to keep an eye on the crowd. Some of the Voidrunners were obviously not happy with the situation, and that could mean trouble was about to descend, but Aquaria wanted to see the Dark Mother, so Jessie would stick around as long as necessary to make sure that happened. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria looked down at the younglings, ducking her shoulders and upper body as she studied them with great black-and-gold eyes that seemed to stare into their very souls. She took a step back as she considered what those gills meant, what the clear signs of the blood of Dagon and Hydra meant cast among the watery blood of the Surface life of this world. "Sharp teeth, young ones," she croaked automatically before looking back at Kee'lee. "She's so old. How long has she been waiting?" 

 

"Three hundred turns beneath the stars," croaked Kee'lee in reply, "three hundred turns -" 

 

Deep One and hybrid finished together. "Until the stars are right." 

 

Aquaria forced herself to remember her pod, those who had swum with her through the Sea of Stars to this place. She didn't understand what had happened or how they'd come to be there, but she knew the song of a Dark Mother. "They are not lying, Ruby Voxx. There is no technology," the alien word sounded strange in her booming voice, "nor Surfacer trick that could make the song of a Dark Mother." She cocked her upper body towards the distant ocean and bellowed, "She's coming! Jessie, quickly!"

 

Sea Devil and Singularity were soon bounding their way towards a startling sheer cliff that hung out over a finger of a strangely verdigris ocean. The waters were churning with waves that bespoke some activity beneath the surface of the sea. At the edge of the cliff, cyclopean statues of figures strange to the Voidrunner crew and their arriving Lor counterparts hung in carved native rocks. A small trickle of locals had followed Aquaria and Jessie, mostly those who had the mark of Aquaria about her, and some were murmuring, "She comes! She comes!" 

[trollthumper]

Velak and Javeen held their hands up in the face of Ruby's blaster. "We...," Velak stammered, "we understand why you're upset. We know what all this means. We're trying to ease the transition, but we know what it means for you to be here. And what happens --"

 

Javeen held up a hand as the song that seemed to draw Aquaria washed out over the crowd. The cliff was a good ways off from the field - it reminded Cavalier of photos he'd seen of Normandy - but the churning surf could be heard from here. And then, suddenly, there was a mountain in the abyss. 

 

The mountain was clad in metal - the same metal that held to Aquaria, only much larger, scarred by age, and bedecked with barnacles. It retracted with a sound like thunder, each slot pulling away to reveal the grand, weathered face of a Deep One matriarch. Aquaria knew it - she - was no Mother Hydra, but it was a damn slight close. 

 

She did not speak to the crowd. Rather, there was a pulse, infrasonic, that washed over the faithful and the apostate alike. For a second, Cavalier felt... smothered. Cold. Crushed on all sides. But still... safe. There had been a priestess on the Starforger who worshipped the Mother Void - space itself. She had a few tricks about her, too, gifts she claimed came from the Nurturing Dark. For the first time in a long time, Cavalier found himself in the comforting, lightless folds of the abyss. 

 

Then, the Dark Mother looked above Aquaria. Eyes the size of lakes locked upon her with a raptor's gaze. A voice like the shifting of the plates rang out. 

 

"Has it been... of course. It has. Greetings, child. To believe I was so new once..."

[Darksider42]

"Really? Because I really don't think you do!" Ruby sneered, her rifle still trailed on the two. Nothing but excuses. Any action she was about to do was interrupted by Aquaria. "Song of what?" Her attention was then drawn to the mountain of flesh and metal that rose from the depths The strange sound emanated from it,  It brought memories of gazing into space. Staring at the infinite black, dotted with the faint gleam of burning stars and stained by brilliant nebulae. She turned back to the two. "...What is that?" Some part of her was starting to suspect the answer. But still there was no way this was possible. For now her rage blunted, but it still lingered and she still sought answers.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Darksider42

[TheAbsurdist]

The sound that Bliss made was akin to glass and metal scrapped against each other, forcefully, repeatedly.  Her tendrils shot and arched down, embedding in the ground near Ruby and she pulled herself down in a blink, and she held herself in an aggressive posture.  "Abominations!  Filthy Lor monsters!" Her voice rose to a chittering, rasping roar as she backed up her compatriot, abandoning her previous stance of not interacting if she could help it.

 

Despite the extensive modification she had gone through, this was something different.  She wasn't beholden to the taboos and beliefs of her people, but some things stuck.  There was no biologic compatibility between herself and anyone else here.  Those tendrils shot and twitched the points aimed menacingly at the Abominations.  "Lies!  I never would have allowed this!" came her snarl her voice dripping lower, venomously, "...I would have killed any who tried this.  This is anathema... this is..."

 

Then came... Aquaria?  She stepped back and narrowed her eyes a little bit, as she looked up her, and she silenced.  For a moment.  "No, no, no, NO!"  She drew in a sharp breath, and she slammed her arms down, creating a whiplash across the tendrils, arching them up and then smashing them into the ground with thunderous effect, as she bared her teeth... beak?  It was hard to say.  Though the markings on her body pulsed with her heartbeat, angry and sharp.  "I cannot be... this!  I would not accept this way.  No Child of Hual'tlop am I!"  Her manner of speech backsliding into mannerisms from her people.  Her expression not daring them, anyone to try and force the matter.  

 

"No spawner of mockeries.  Never." Her voice dipping low, dripping with menace, and she pushed against that thrumming that calming.  Oh, Sire of the First Fire, I know I have betrayed that which is taught, but I followed you, your precepts.  Not to Waver, was your decree.  I fought for your name, to glorify Your Child on High.  You called, I answered.  I do not waver now!

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria made obeisance before the matriarch, bowing low and sprawled to show the clan markings on her back, before she realized exactly who this was. "Dark Mother," she bellowed, "how have you come to be here? How have you-" birthed so many hybrids!? She didn't ask the last out loud, not when she was surrounded by so many of the latter, who were still looking on her as she might look upon a Serpent Person communing with an avatar of Dagon and Hydra. They seemed like nice people. Well, 'people.' The other Aquaria had no words for her counterpart, though, not when there was something more interesting to focus on. 

 

"Jessie?" Without another word, without so much as a glance at Bliss, the titanic Deep One reached down and scooped up Singularity with one massive limb. The three-fingered hand was familiar, albeit bigger than Jessie herself. Up close, from the noise and smell, Jessie had the feeling that the segmented armor that covered the thick, barnacled hide of the Deep One matriarch was covering other things too - things that perhaps weren't yet visible on the Aquaria she knew. But as it was, that giant hand drew her level with a massive face, curved snout, and gigantic eyes. The titan looked at Jessie and suddenly raised her head to the sky, giving a great and terrible bellow that was matched a moment later by some of the hybrids on shore, a mournful wail that sounded something like whalesong in the air - if the whale was the size of a small mountain. 

 

[Electra]

Jessie yelped with shock as she was scooped up, sitting down on the massive green hand in an instinctive bid to avoid falling. The skin was uncomfortably clammy and a little slimy, and though she had excellent balance it seemed smart not to take chances. She scooted backwards a little further as the massive frog-monster-maybe-Aquaria-somehow brought her much closer to that massive mouth. The enormous sad noise was not as bad as being eaten, but it was definitely not good either, blowing Jessie's hair almost straight back even as it sent a chill down her spine. "Are you okay?" she finally asked, for lack of anything more sensible to say. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I waited. Until the stars were right." The titanic Deep One set Jessie down near and ducked towards the base of the cliff - peering downward, Aquaria could make out a vast cave entrance underneath the stones where they stood. "Go and see the city on the Surface," the other Aquaria croaked in a booming rumble like undersea volcanoes erupting. "Then we will sing a song of ages past. And of the walls in the caverns of the sky." She vanished then, in a great bulk underneath the hill, and some of her followers began the journey down the cliffside to tend to her. But Aquaria and Jessie stayed above. 

 

"The unutterable that can dwell in silence and immensity," quoted Aquaria in a soft bass Lemurian sing-song, in awe remembering the ancient chants of the Dark Mothers she'd learned in her youth. But this other Aquaria, this reflection of her past self? Future self? Dwelt in no silence - but from the look of things with spawn, hybrid or not, around her as great as any on Earth. She was acutely aware, with a sudden sense of sick grief as she looked at her friend, that this Aquaria had outlived Jessie by two centuries? More? "Come," she croaked softly to Jessie. "Let us see our friends, and see what these others have built." She added to Kee'lee on the way, "Sing to me of how we were stranded on these rocks three hundred years before I hatched." 

 

"

 

 

[trollthumper]

Cavalier looked to Roulette and Ruby. "Is she... going to be okay?" He then looked to Velak and Javeen. "And do you have any idea what's going on here?" 

 

Velak shook his head. "It's a long story, and --"

 

"We no longer have time for long stories," Javeen said. "All you need to know is that, if she fears interbreeding, that's not what happened --"

 

"I think we need to know a hell of a lot more than that!" 

 

"Yes, but I want her to know --"

 

"And you really think she's going to trust anything that comes out of your mouth now?" 

 

Javeen shot daggers at him, then shook her head. "Bliss did not want to take part in the genetic diversity program, due to her religious objections. She held fast to it most of her life. But... she did leave some information in her last years. Two generations after her death, a genetic disease from the old days of Lor-Van began showing up in the blood. We might have been able to treat it with the home world's resources, but... the Korata, for all its resources, did not have everything."

 

"What level are we talking here?" 

 

"Fatal. Axon degeneration within 2 years of life. Death by age 5, in most cases. Bliss's code carried a gene that would counter production of the lipids that resulted in nerve degeneration; however, given the intricacies of Xuli'Ha genetics and its autosomal dominant nature, it resulted in other Xuli'Ha traits entering the population."

 

Kee'lee approached the group. "The Great Mother asks that you see the city," she said. "So that you may understand all that came of the crash, and led to this."

 

Cavalier nodded. "I feel like she would listen to the Great Mother on this one." 

[trollthumper]

"The Ocean Without grew still," said Kee'lee, "for three days and three nights. The Great Mother spent that time in the stillness amongst her compatriots, imploring to Dagon and Hydra for some sign, some sense of purpose. Then, with a roar like the eruption of a volcano, the skies split. Their vessels, cracked and broken, fell from the Ocean Without to the firmament. The stars and the Ocean Without were barred to them, save for the shallows. But it was no punishment - it was a sign. To establish a new clutch for the time when the stars come right, so that Dagon and Hydra may hear the song and bring wisdom to another atoll in the Ocean Without. She guided her children, teaching them the ways of the law and the bounties of the new Ocean Within. And in time, she took to the Ocean Within herself, so that she might join the great choir and bring Dagon and Hydra's love upon this world."

 

Cavalier looked to Velak. "That is an interesting story," he said. "Thoughts?"

 

"She's right," said Velak. "Not making any declarative statements on the theology, but the practical details are right. You were in orbit for 72 hours when the waveform collapsed. The ships were disabled in all aspects - engines, life support, and so on. With limited oxygen and disabled tech, you decided to land on the planet. Once you got comms and astral navigation back online, you realized you'd traveled 300 years back in time. In some cases, like your armor, there was such a disparity between extent tech levels that reintegration was... hold on..." Velak drew up a file in his datapad. "'...like trying to post on Twitter via telegraph.' I'm sure that made sense to you..."

 

"We couldn't make contact? At all?"

 

"The Lor hadn't expanded into this sector of space back then, the Star Knights hadn't incorporated quantum entanglement-based means of communications by that point... there were attempts to set up a relay, but nobody was answering. There were a few attempts to launch satellites, but they got caught on the edge of the anomaly."

 

The group arrived at the edge of the city. In addition to the obvious Lor influence on the architecture, there was something of a communications infrastructure - not quite on the level of cell phone towers, but a very solid pay phone network. There was a small bazaar set up in the middle of a larger market, as well as what looked like a few guildhalls. There were few people still left on the streets - mainly essential workers, Cavalier surmised - but everywhere the group passed, they couldn't help but draw attention. 

 

"See you - we - whomever... managed to make a lot more than satellites. I mean, the satellites are impressive, but... this is one hell of a place."

 

"This is the largest of our settlements. In addition to the Great Mother's congregation, there are the agricultural communities, the timber lands, the hydroelectric plants... I mean, the Korata had a lot, but you need to incorporate new infrastructure to expand."

 

"Surprised you're not over half the planet, at this rate."

 

Velak grimaced a little at that. "We find we work best when close knit..." He perked up swiftly, reaching his earlier candor. "We should take you to the Great Hall. Give you a chance to see the historical records, get a full understanding of how the city rose..."

 

[Darksider42]

Ruby paused, looking the enraged Xuli'pa up and down as she stepped away cautiously. "...Not sure. Never seen her this angry before." She replied to the star knight. She seen her in a combat frenzy, she seen her arguing with Roulette. Never before had she seen rage like that before. Her attention once again turn to the planets unofficial ambassadors. As before her helmet made it impossible to tell what she was feeling, but one got the impression she was no longer glaring daggers at them.

She elected to stay silent for and follow the group to the records. There was still enough doubt in her mind that this was actually happening. She was curious about what future they would fabricate for her.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Darksider42

[Electra]

Jessie looked a little shaken after being set down, but she walked along with Aquaria and Kee'lee, still trying to absorb the situation and watch for threats all at the same time. "I'm not sure what's going on," she murmured to Aquaria. "Was that you from the future? Or are we from the future and going back in time? They're like how the Furions are with Erin and Trevor." She was somewhat unsettled by this idea, but somewhat intrigued as well. Erin was always the hero, always the important one who'd saved all the people or averted the apocalypse or made the daring just-in-time save. Jessie had been on the outskirts of a few heroic activities, but never anything big or memorable. Maybe that was different here. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I think we must have been cast ashore here somehow," Aquaria croaked in reply. "centuries before our birth. The Sea of Stars has many mysteries." Aquaria's emotions were akin to Jessie's, but with a less alien cast - a familiar situation for the two friends, the Deep One briefly moved. "The walls around this world must be mighty indeed, if a Dark Mother of three centuries cannot break them." That the armor had grown with that other Aquaria was an interesting discovery, though truthfully she had never expected to live until that stage of her life. She did not ask with what Surfacers the other Aquaria had mated to produce her hybrids, whether it was someone from the Voidrunner or someone from the Lor ship (which would surely land soon - were they so incurious?) - such things might be necessary in an emergency but they were nothing she would consider now. But the blood of Dagon and Hydra is strong in them - and they sing the song of the Gods Below. Should I judge them so harshly for their faces and their ancestry? She looked around, swiveling her entire upper torso as they entered the city. I could build nothing like this on the Surface World - not with Atlanteans and Surfacers all against us. "What happened to Jessie?" 

 

"I bear one of the names of Erin Keeley White," croaked Kee'lee in response, "as do many of the Dark Mother's children, and many above. In the catacombs of the Dark Mother, there are coral statues of the Whitespawn to the third generation. It was with her passing into the, ah, afterworld that the Dark Mother went to commune with the Gods Below."

 

 

[trollthumper]

There it was. Another little reminder. Remember that you will die. It was kind of hard for Cavalier to forget right now. 

 

"Jessie White in... time, did... will do..." Javeen tripped on her words, trying to expand on Kee'lee's story. Finally, she sighed. "You have no idea how hard it is for us to talk about it in these terms. We knew this day would come for centuries, and we still haven't been able to figure out the right tenses. Or how to talk about it without sounding insensitive, or dismissive, or... or giving too much away... and again, I'm sorry Bliss had to find out that way --"

 

"I really don't think we're the ones you need to be apologizing to," said Cavalier. "Not directly, at least." He paused, taking the city in. "Is there anything you can tell us about what we did do?"

 

"Well, as you might imagine, Aquaria became a spiritual leader to the people, helping many find comfort in the issues of the anomaly. The crew of the Korata formed the infrastructure for the early settlements and made sure their knowledges - medical, scientific, technological - passed on to the next generation. You served as the first sheriff's settlement, because... well, things weren't entirely perfect. Lifeboat rules and all. The crew of the Voidrunner, Jessie, yourself - you all led expeditions to chart the planet as a whole. Find any of its secrets, as well as territory for new crops, new power plants, and so forth."

 

"So I was this planet's law-talking guy? How did we not all die?"

 

Velak looked shocked. "Sri Steward... I know you may be in a state of shock, even disbelief, but... the things you did for these people... you led us through some dark times. Saved us from some great threats. You kept a light going in the darkness."

 

"All right. There. That's what I want to talk about. You said you're closely clustered. You said I - not the agriculture guys, not the electricity guys - saved you from 'great threats.' Is there some Godzilla-level bull**** on this planet or what?"

 

Velak was silent for several seconds, as if he might have given something away. Before he could spit out an answer, however, a klaxon split the air. Those who had gathered to celebrate began swiftly moving off the streets - not panicking, but getting away, as if they had done this before. Guards came streaming out of a nearby building, wearing... it wasn't the full armor, but it sure as hell looked like the gauntlets and breastplate had been reverse engineered from Star Knight (or Spectrum Knight) armor. 

 

"I'm guessing that's the 'or what.'" 

 

"It's a Titan alert. They're... well... we're still not sure what they are. The best way to explain it is to see..."

[TheAbsurdist]

Bliss kicked, something.  At this point it didn't matter what she was kicking, a crate, a person, small mammal, one of these sniveling, lying monstrosities!

 

She didn't need to lift her arm for the tendril to shoot out, and it didn't so much as coil around Valek, as hovered.  Waiting, all forty feet quivering with a predatory need to crush and rip apart the thing.  They weren't people they were mockeries after all.  The tip hovered near Valek's face, as Bliss' enviro helmet disengaged showing the wrathful mask of Bliss.  She stepped towards him slowly, the markings on her face, the ones thgat only showed up normally under infrared were there, barely visible, but still there.

"No, casting of the ch-cht, you will explain.  You are dodging and pretending at being wily.  You are acting as a liar, half-explanations, but you don't have half the guile you think you have.  Like all Lor.  Speak now or I take your eyes, and then your tongue, and then feed you to whatever thing is coming, while you are still gibbering and scream"  While nominally a brusque or taciturn person, Bliss was also very good at being scary.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Let him go," croaked Aquaria with unusual authority. Perhaps the Dark Mother had rubbed off on her. "They had to do foul things to survive here - these people and the Dark Mother. I am sorry that they blasphemed against your flesh," she continued in the same booming bass voice, modulated by the armor that had snapped shut around her. She didn't really believe that Bliss, a canny survivor who surely knew about throwing good bait after bad, thought this was a deception anymore - but she could understand why horror would make her imagine terrible things rather than dwell on an unpleasant truth. "But you cannot punish the living for the crimes of the dead." It was the latter, after all, that explained why and how Deep Ones lived like savages while Atlanteans lived like fat seals in golden cities. "Come, Singularity, let's see what the matter is." And with that, she took off, bounding up the side of one of the nearby buildings for a better view 

[Electra]

Jessie threw an uncertain look after Bliss, but judged that there was nothing violence could do to solve that situation, which left her with a pretty empty toolbox. Somebody else would have to solve that problem. In the meantime, it sounded as though there might be something she could actually fight, finally, at long last. That was so much more palatable than trying to work her mind around the idea that they were about to be thrown into the past and live the rest of their lives there and there was nothing to be done about it. She leapt after Aquaria, landing partway up the building and then swarming up the rest of the way as easily as though she were climbing a ladder. 

[Darksider42]

It was starting to sound like Ruby did not do enough to distinguish herself in distant past of these people. No eternal Glory for me to be immortalised by... At least the voidrunners are remembered. A very long, drawn out sigh came from her helmet as she continued to observe. Her head tilted towards Bliss. "Stop it Bliss. I'm starting to think they are not lying...Much." At the very least they were prone to not explaining anything to her satisfaction and that comes dangerously close to lying by omission as far as she was concerned.

 

The alarms put her immediately onto high alert, rifle raised before learning what exactly was going on. "If they are anything like the mega-fauna on Serenos Prime, then I'm going to have some fun." The Bounty Hunter said as she followed the commotion. It almost sounded like she was happy, which is a first since coming to this planet that gave her nothing but anger and disappointment thus far.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Darksider42