Welcome to Gaia! ::

Arcadia gave a calm affirmative response to Emma as she completed her return arc. "Welcome to the party, Ruze. Looks like you've got a bit of a problem. Green Four, on me. We're going to clear these guys out."

Pilot Ivlivinevya began chuckling. "Oh, well this is a little backwards, my lady friend. It seems the damsel has come to save the shining knight." He dipped around a Rex and pulled a U-turn, diving right back into the fray. "Please leave your name and number, and I'll be sure to contact you about repayment." What no one could see was the sly smirk on his face. No, Dil, focus. You have to save Ukraine.

Garrett rolled the dead Drathonian into the underbrush before continuing on his way. Given too much time, the lizards would surely begin to wonder where their colleague ventured. "The engy and I are inside the compound, headed toward the central holding area. We can swap stories 'n gear there. I look forward to bartering with you, Jack: can I trade you some lizard piss for those fine anti-matter charges? It's not much, but it's all I've got to spare."

As the Demolitions expert and engineer approached another corner, their second opponent appeared; luckily for them, he was not rounding the corner but continuing forward. "Engy, check 'round the corner, I've got this one." Garrett lunged forward, knife drawn, and stabbed straight through the Drathonian's neck, severing his spinal cord. The corpse crumpled into his arms. It gave dead weight a whole new meaning, dragging around the limp form of a lizard. Once the body was hidden, the knife was withdrawn and Garrett sighed. "Why the f*#% didn't they just give us Whispers? That would have been so much easier."

======


Von Drethenmëir stalled in shock for a moment as he was yanked through a hyperspace jump. Quickly regaining his senses, he realized in that fraction of a second he'd lagged behind the vessel he was pursuing. Still in a bit of a brain muddle, he had a long moment of lucidity in which he stopped, fired off a volley, and watched the cockpit of the scimitar go popping off like a whizbang. Green six would soon be caught in a hurricane of his own vomit as his inertial dampeners cut out with the rest of his power, and he was spun off with enough G-forces to kill a man. He passed out, the emergency backup system activating his distress beacon.

Von Drethenmëir finally regained his senses, just in time for the Terran vessels to renew their assault on the unlucky Drathonian pilots that had been dragged along. Someone tried opening a channel to him, and he immediately deactivated his com altogether. Now was not the time for words. It was the time for action.

Especially considering the half dozen Scimitars that rocketed in on him. He immediately throttled a corkscrew loop, zipping about in a quick loop that allowed his deadly array of lasers to slice through the wings of one of the pairs, knocking the starboard wing off one and both off the other, leaving it with no shields. He took one final whirl in his acrobatic loop, his fire catching the cockpit of a third. Frail human body juices mixed with burning plasma as the vessel stopped dead in its tracks. Von Drethenmëir had little time to relish the lucky shot, however. The entire squadron scrambled, looping back in on him from every direction. He wheeled down, out, and away from them, biting a scaly lip as his shields absorbed most of the brunt of it. A few shots made it through, cooking one of his laser cannons. He arced under and around a severely crippled Mars, easily dodging what little AA fire it could muster as he cut the line of sight from his pursuers. He kicked into full throttle, zigzagging his way toward the Hymn.

((Too tired for Raji and Jack. Auto them for now plz.))

Confusion. One moment, the Terrans were being beaten blow by blow into submission, and the next, simply gone. Nuclear shells were fired at ships that were no longer there, missiles streaked into empty space, and in some cases, even impacting against fellow Drathonians. For a brief moment, the red ships hung still in the empty black at a loss for words. The battle went quiet, save for the flickering hulls of broken ships, and smaller, more minor explosions from those that still bled. One of the system's suns, known as Antony, slowly made planet rise over the gas giant Pliny and illuminated the Drathonian fleet. Rays of EM radiation seemed to spit from the sun, opening gaping holes in several Raptors' shields. Missiles streamed in from yet unseen Glaives, impacting against red hull. And then they came. With their back to the sun, they looked like large black sharks coming to eat the floating red flesh. From the very largest, a lance of light emanated and struck three ships; the blows were indirect, but just close enough to kill. The outer edges of the beam refracted into a brilliant glow from the glancing impacts, and seriously weakened the shields of several others, burning away many of the smaller pinpricks of red. Turbolasers and fiery MAC rounds impacted and quickly finished the weakened ships off. As the tenth Raptor class blossomed in a funeral pyre for many of it's crew, Antony's light shifted, revealing the white ships of the Terran Fleet.

****

"Ten Raptors down, and that shot of ours had plenty of their support craft fried to a crisp as well." Cibo sounded with glee. Every ship was like a marionette performing a play for their manipulator. The shots she called went off without a hitch; she couldn't be any happier. The red monsters were finally paying for everything they took from her. It didn't feel as personal as slitting their throats, bathing in their fountain of blood, but it felt good to know every pretty flare was a hundred or more going to hell. "I'm guessing we can either go into a slug-fest like earlier, or fly right through them, coming around for another bite. Your call Admiral." To her fingers, strung puppets all.

****

The mood was actually rather cheery, like that of a crowd of spectators watching a game of Football or Soccer. The SeFlaurinds were actually being entertained by the Terran troopers' plight as they sneaked into the prison. "Hey, look at that babe go! I bet you two rations that she slits that last one's throat!"
"You're on! I bet she's badass enough to snap it's neck!"
"Ha! That's two meals you owe me. Hey, Killy, come join us man!" The constant low tone poetry of their language kept Yotruyan informed about what was happening as he dragged a bound up Dragoon out. Though it was battered, and bruised with every single limb broken, it would suit his purpose just fine.
"No. I'm getting my disguise ready." His knife plunged in, followed by his armored hands. Bones were torn out of the squirming Drathonian as Yotruyan worked to de-bone the b*****d filth. One of the weaker constituted ones retched when he turned around to look at the scuffling noises. Finally, a bloody skull landed on top of the pile of bones. What looked like a Dragoon stood over a small stasis cooler, stuffing entrails into it. Yotruyan had put on his 'disguise', using the Drathonian's body in the place of a proper combat skin. Just as he closed up the container, and hid it away for later, the alarms cried out into the night. A pair of Terrans ran out of the prison, circling around. An explosion went off, sending a limb or two into the air. Yotruyan nodded at Corporal Illaloo. His metal storm class blunderbuss thumped once. Twice. Thrice. Marble sized orbs of acid arced through the air, and splattered over the fence, silently melting it down. At this distance, they wouldn't even hear the thumps. "Attack. Use an approach vector somewhat opposite of the Terrans. Keep them in view...I hope they like theatrics."
"Yes Sir."

****

Alarms cried out. An explosion went off. On the far side of the compound, opposite of the Terrans, small arms fire rang out. Drathonians suddenly begun to scream in horrible, high pitched squeals of pain. An acid grenade went off, and a limb sailed through the air, falling right next to a marine named Garret, still melting and burning from the green acids the SeFlaurinds used. Next, one of the most unusual sights happened. Out of the brush, a Dragoon ran right through the gaps that appeared in the fence and scaled the compound walls like a demented critter. It went right up to one of the watchtowers and roared, plunging a knife right into the skull of a Dross gunner. The Dragoon jerked the blade hard, snapping it right off and leaving it inside the skull. The other Drathonian gaped in shock at what happened before having it's own Dross wrestled out of it's hands and stuffed down it's throat. The old SeFlaurind Colonel in the center of the compound saw this, and suddenly yanked a lizard's pistol. He shot each one of his tormentors square in the eye before using their bodies as sandbags; laser fire raked his position. Up above, the strange Dragoon held it's ground in the tower taking everything the others threw at it. It just wouldn't Die. Another pair of Dragoons filled with hate towards this apparent traitor defiantly strode forward and threw a pair of critters at the rebel, engulfing it in flames. A horrible, unearthly scream came from the flames, and a burning figure emerged. It bent over, skin splitting along the spine and out of it's back emerged a black skeleton. It was like watching some sort of demonic butterfly hatching from it's chrysalis. It moved, twitching and jerking horribly like a nightmare towards it's foes. Fast. It was upon the closest horrified Dragoon before it could react and hamstrung one of it's legs. The Drathonian officer roared in fear and defiance, backhanding the almost skeletal monstrosity. It sprawled across the floor, but was back on it's twitching feet in a blink. It was apparently weaker, but so much faster. It knocked the Drathonian off the wall. The Terrans would see a pair of SeFlaurinds rush forward, knock the Drathonian over as it rose, and fire into it's chest. The body convulsed horribly for several long seconds before creating a puddle of filth and dying. The second Drathonian raised it's Dross at the hellish demon, and found it holding some sort of elongated pod with a stock, and pistol grip integrated. The strange black pod fired a single buzzing burst. In just one second, the Dragoon was rocked back by over 30 small blue burning metal bullets impacting it's chest.

****

"The Terrans better make an opportunity of this show. My nerves are still stinging from that getup."

(( Hope it's to your liking Kai. 3nodding ))

All that gunfire was something to admire at a distance. And the sound of Garrett's proximity mines going off every so often made him smirk. The Drathonians stopped following him about a quarter of the way around the compound and he stopped planting explosives. Hearing more mechanical reports ahead of him, he moved toward the compound, hoping to come upon his fellow Terrans. Coming out of the brush, he hardly had any time to realize just what he was running into. There was Kai, a cluster of aliens, a partially demolished structure, and another unconscious body right in front of him. He only had enough time to release his grip on Dante's arm and drop his duffel before tripping over Yotruyan and shouting, "Woah, s**t!" He managed an ungraceful roll then climbed to his feet clumsily.

"What the, what the f&#% is that!?" he shouted at Kai. He didn't really wait for an answer, though. He was out in the open, and he made sure to fix that quickly. Once behind cover with his duffel, he noticed an unconscious Terran and quickly inspected for some tell-tale sign of its identity. It was stealth operative Still Sehene. "What the hell, Kai? Seriously, what the hell happened? I go for a damn ten-minute jog and when I come back, the mission's gone to s**t." He took a deep breath to calm himself, and added, "Don't answer that. It's not important and I need to... think."

Lieutenant Hendlow eased Sehene into a seated position. He was down on his left knee, his right foot planted on the other side of the unconscious Marine's legs. He checked her over for wounds then tugged off her helmet to make sure there wasn't any bleeding. None, thankfully; now why the hell hadn't Kai been more actively approaching the situation? He hoped it had only just occurred or the young Lieutenant would get his a** chewed later. He put the helmet back on the unconscious stealth operative and gave it a gentle tap; as soon as he'd done it, though, he regretted it. Those around him probably were getting mixed messages from it.

Garrett shook his head. He tried to focus on what he needed. He tried not to shout at Dante for becoming a frightened mute; he tried not to shout at Kai for leaving Sehene unattended; he tried not to complain about the lack of communication; he tried not to stare at the aliens that were apparently friendlies. No, he didn't do any of that. Instead, he picked up a gun from the sack--his had been lost in the woods while he dragged around a fumbling green engineer. Everything was proper, so he took a deep breath and looked around. Speaking of friendlies...

"Where the hell is Gallagher?" He had a truly irritated glare fixed on Lieutenant Kieran Nakamura as he locked a magazine in his carbine and slammed the bolt home.

JP: Kai, Garrett, Sehene, Seflaurinds/Ottyo, Dante

The noise died down for a bit, with the retreating of the Drathonians. The few left to guard the door stayed behind cover and took potshots at anything they noticed moving. The Terrans did a similar thing from their positions, trying to take out the defenders, but it was clearly at a standstill for the moment. the battlefield smoked, and reeked of ozone and burnt flesh, but was the calmest it had been since the alarms had gone off, the very same Alarms which had now been silenced by antimatter charges. Muffled bangs and shots could be heard inside where jack's squad has made contact, but it was clear by the glow through the broken window that they were confined to the room they had entered. Kai realized that now was his chance and, through a gap in the pile of bodies, zeroed in on a Drathonian hiding behind the doorway. He flipped his helmet back down and his HUD displayed an accurate view of where his shot would go. He took a few moments to like it up with the soft spot on the Drathonian's neck, and fired, taking the beast out, an instant later, he grabbed the Colonel and pulled him over the pile of bodies, heading back towards the other Seflaurinds.

Perhaps it was the silence or perhaps it was merely Garrett's strong will, but he regained consciousness only a few minutes after being knocked out cold. His head ached like... well, like a block of wood had knocked him on the head. He slowly worked his way onto his back and grimaced, eyes squeezed shut. His thoughts were sluggish as were his movements. His hand slowly reached up to the helmet, trying to rub his eyes, but the visor impeded consolation. "Well ******** my skull and call me Dooby, that ******** hurt..." He took a deep breath and slowly sat up. Another series of profanities seeped from his mouth and bled through the communications system. "How long was I out?"

"Nnnn..." Sehene felt consciousness come back in a blurry haze; she did not really want to wake up. Goddamn her head hurt. The sounds of war began to ring in her ears again, and she opened her eyes to see that she managed to stay in the same spot as before. She groaned again and pulled herself into a more upright position, squinting at those nearest her, and wondering who exactly they were.

No answer as of yet. Go figure. He looked around and noticed Sehene coming to. Smirking, he spoke to her via the helmet mic, "Nice of you to finally join us. Have a nice--oh ********." He grimaced a second time and pressed a gloved hand to his helmet. The pain just got worse, and Lieutenant Hendlow could have sworn his skull was on the verge of splitting.

The Drathonian handgun in Colonel Illaloo's hand boomed, rocking his frail frame as the Terran dragged his form away from the pile of bodies he had made earlier. A single slug ricocheted off the ground, and caught a Blaster on the ankle, knocking it over. "Ha! I still got it!" the old man exclaimed. Meanwhile, a single SeFlaurind Rebel was dragging the slightly smoking skeleton that was Killy. Several chunks of his suit and flesh were literally gone; how he was still alive was something to be surprised about. The Rebel laid him to rest next to a Terran who was sitting still against the wall, and quickly rejoined the battle. Killy's swollen eyes slowly opened, only to see slurry of rainbow colors and cute little critters hopping about. His eyes rotated in his reptilian head, and fell upon a Terran next to him. Its head looked like a yellow circle, with black beady eyes and a giant grin on its face. "Damned drugs..." he choked out. He was missing some of his lungs. Maybe half of his liver too. His hearing slowly came back to him, and thought he could hear techno music blaring from the guns. No matter whether or not they were firing, he could see streams of confetti flying out of their barrels. His helmet's built in translators picked up what seemed to be swearing in a language he did not understand; he returned the favor, "Yeah, ******** you too." he said in the graceful tongue of the Seflaurinds. Corporal Illaloo fired of his final shell, sending a trio of dumb lizards into convulsions on the ground as the acids burned into them. "Covering fire now!" he cried out. The temp of weapons fire suddenly intensified as every remaining SeFlaurind opened fire on the hiding Drathonians, keeping their snouts down.

She turned to the voice and grimaced in his direction; forgetting that her helmet also wouldn't make her face visible. She nodded in his direction, "Great to be back...” She looked over him with concern, he must've been hit hard. Speak of the devil; she didn't remember how she ended up this way... "Are you---" She paused as a SeFlaurind was placed next to her, and gaped in shock at what was remaining of him. "You're still alive..?"

Garrett slowly made it to his feet and slowly trod toward the stealth operative, his right hand clutching his Gurrote feebly. "What the hell? Is that..." It took him a moment to register the right word. His head was on fire, and his mind was anything but clear. "That's a... Sef? Damn." He pushed the Seflaurind's arm gently with the toe of his boot, checking for a response. "You alive?" Of course, it wasn't a SeFlaurind; Killy was an Ottyo, but Garrett's mind was hazy, and he had every reason to get alien species mixed up when the only time he'd seen them was various media. "That's no good, and last I checked neither of us is qualified to aid a... whatever the hell that is." He sighed, and swore under his breath for a few seconds. "Our only medic is stuck with Jack in a building some distance that way." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder.

Killy coughed once. Twice, spitting up blood. Yep. He was definitely missing some of his left lung as well. And one of his hearts stopped beating...he'd have to fix that quick, before the other heart failed too. Ignoring the little guttural words being spoken, his left hand touched his right wrist, bringing up a dim holographic image of his status. A caricature of his body was shown, all red, with several sections blinking. One of his fingers jabbed at the left rib cage, and an image of what was unmistakably a stopped heart came up. One of the alien symbols glowed, and he tapped it. His entire body flexed as the suit sent out an electric pulse in an attempt to get it beating again. And again. And again; finally, the image started to beat, and he turned off the display. He painfully looked at the two strangers, their heads giant smiling happy faces. The SeFlaurinds taught him one word, and he used it. "Hi."

Garrett couldn't help it. He laughed, and loudly so. "Holy s**t, he knows Terran!" Lieutenant Hendlow chuckled again. "Man, I... Wow." This was perhaps the WORST moment in one's life to ever have a fit of laughter, but that was probably what made it so funny to the explosives expert. "Anything we can do, buddy?"

By then Kai had reached the SeFlaurind line, and he was surprised they had been able to not hit him, but very thankful for the cover fire. "Well, we’re here, old man" Kai muttered, piling behind the building once again and depositing the Colonel. He looked to See Garret, who seemed a bit dazed, and indeed his HUD identified garret's head region as a lighter shade of green, and was also greeted by an awake Sehene "Good to see you two" Kai said over the Coms.

Sehene blinked, "Of course..." She faded off, mostly talking to herself. She was about to rest a hand on the alien - even if she didn't know what he was, she could see he needed help - but then paused in fascination at the hologram, and withdrew her hand. She was saved from the awkwardness of the situation by Kai, and greeted him with a nod and a stiff wave.

Garrett looked up, his temporarily shortened attention span jumping from one conversation to the next much easier than holding onto one or two. "Welcome back... Oh, ********." He stumbled to his right and sat down, putting a hand to his helmet. "Screw my life."

"You two need stims, and I don't know what the hell that is, but likely our Terran Medicine could kill it" the lieutenant observed, Pulling Sehene's medical pack out and grabbing a syringe, which he stuck into her arm, injecting stimulants, then motioned to Garret "you got yours?"

"Gyuu?" Yotruyan called out timidly; he was confused at the sudden outburst of words that came out of their faceless faces. And the blood loss, amongst other things was getting to him. He suddenly called out to the SeFlaurinds, "Help!" likely shocking the two Terrans. A SeFlaurind who had some experience speaking Terran braved the Drathonian fire, and quickly exchanged a few brief words with the black skeleton thing. To Yotruyan, the SeFlaurind looked like a giant green glowing neon sign. "Blood. No blood left. Have...stuff?" he asked, gesturing at his own veins and then Killy. "Friend! He friend!"

Garrett sighed and looked around. "Yeah... yeah." He pulled the kit off his hip, opened it up, and grabbed a stim. He checked for the standard dosage level and then pumped a dose and a half into his system. Then he tossed the needle as far away as possible. The headache was really getting to his nerves. He gestured at Killy. "What the hell is that? Never seen one before."

"Ahh...thank-you." She had forgotten about her head injury, but now only a few minutes and perhaps the pain would subside. "Yes, I've never seen anything like it as well. What is he? Incredible stamina it seems..."

"Looks like the inside of a Drathonian to me" Kai observed, as the Seflaurinds behind him kept fighting. The other group from Kai's squad, across the way motioned that they were going forward, as the fighting had died down, and Kai nodded, watching the four troopers move towards the Drathonian's hiding place.

Garrett Hendlow took a deep breath as the drugs took effect. "Oh my god..." His voice was relaxed, husky, and probably made some feel a bit awkward over the com, but he didn't care. "Hell, this is almost as good as sex..." Another sigh escaped his lips. "Ffff.... Oh, damn." At this point, Lieutenant Hendlow was essentially having phone sex with everyone on the same channel. As soon as he realized as much, he tried to apologize. "Sorry, I'm just REALLY ******** up right now. Ignore me." He yanked off his helmet to take a deep breath of fresh air. And by fresh, I mean smoky, debris-littered, choking atmosphere. Still, it was better than helmet air for the moment. "Damn."

Sehene looked at Garrett and subtly moved away from him. She was definitely not experiencing the same thing as he was...apparently.

Kai Patted Garret on the shoulder "I can't tell you if you're right about the sex thing, Still Inexperienced myself, But you should be back soon" behind his helmet, the blond was making an embarrassed face and rolling his eyes. "We need to move soon, the other team just moved in, and I think we've got everyone here, Awake" Kai said, before turning to the SeFlaurind, and pointing at the Colonel. "Could you have him translate?" the lieutenant asked, not quite getting what had been said.

Opening his eyes at the sound of a shifting body, he noticed Sehene moving away. He laughed raucously, letting his head hang. He stared vacantly at the ground, his thoughts a blur. Ultimately his mind was dominated by the swimming, swirling feel of the feel-good drugs and hormones. Kai only gave him one more reason to chuckle hysterically. "Screw both of you," he said in a mild-mannered tone, a lazy smirk on his features. Another deep breath and the smirk subsided. "Alright. Just give me a few..." He put his face in his hands, trying to calm himself.

"You two, get up high, the three of you stay there and cut their heads off if they stick 'em out!" the old Colonel yelled out. He had picked up a Terran Carbine, and was expertly picking off Drathonians from the safety of cover. "Grandson, you there?"
"I'm right here gramps! Good to see you!" the younger one replied.
Meanwhile, Yotruyan 'Killy' looked up at the Terran who removed its helmet. Pale. It was so pale in comparison to the green SeFlaurinds. A scar was on its cheek as well, starting at the upper lip. Apparently their medicine was crap if they couldn't erase scars. He was so dead. "I'm so dead." he said in SeFlaurind.
"Hey, cut that out Killy! They'll patch you up, you'll see."
"I've got low blood pressure. Suit's going to put me in a coma if they don't do something..."
"Hey Terran, he needs an IV! Low blood pressure!" The Colonel spoke in Terran. He ducked behind cover as a few bolts impacted nearby, sending up stucco and dust. He quickly replied with a green bolt, and was rewarded with a cry. "How you like getting hit between the legs huh?!"


"Mortego has Plasma but he seems busy, I'll order him to get back here when Donnel's group catches up" Kai said to the Colonel, then proceeded to go about ordering such on the radio. Kai leaned out and put up covering fire, watching Donnel's group hop through the window, to be followed by Mortego hopping out and jogging back, his head down to make a low profile. The Seflaurinds did a good job of keeping the Drathonians pinned, and soon Mortego arrived. “What’s up OH Holy Fu- What is that thing?" the medic asked, looking at Killy. "Dunno, it’s apparently a friendly, he needs some plasma" Kai responded. "Right." the medic said, and got to work, sticking an IV into an exposed portion of flesh and rigging up a plasma bag. Kai looked at Sehene "You ready to go? We'll be moving out to clear the building once Mortego says the patient is stable" He held out a hand for her, and looked to Garret and gave him a nod of affirmation.

With a few minutes to cool down, Kai's prediction came true: the sensually pleasing overdose had died down. He still felt amazing, but the there was no more pseudo-eroticism. Just a lovely swimming feeling in his head and a fresh surge of energy. "Alright, I'm better." He put his helmet back on, grabbed his gun, and rose to his feet. "I'm going to help them clean up this mess."

Sehene looked to Kai and nodded, "Of course Sir, thank-you." She grabbed his hand and pushed herself onto her feet, not really needing his assistance, but not wanting to be rude. She grabbed her non-singed sugar, straightened herself out a bit, and nodded - mostly out of habit than really needing to do it at the moment.

While all this was going on Dante took cover as far away from Garrett as possible. He didn't want to face him after forgetting now to fight hand to hand and did nothing while he was risking his neck for him. He fired short aimed bursts at the Drathonians with a little frustration in each shot. I'm such an idiot! I train sim after sim and I forget hand to hand.

"Move up! It's time to clean house!" the Colonel cried out in his withered voice. "Killy, how are you?" he asked.
"I'm missing half a liver, part of my lung, several bits of flesh. On the bright side, I've got more fluids. How do you think I'm doing?! Tell them to just let the fluids flow in, I'll be fine." the skeletal figure replied. He coughed, bringing up coagulated blood which then dribbled out from under the helmet. "See? Fine."
"Terrans! He says to finish the fight!"

Kai Nodded at the old man "You stay here, Mortego, keep watch on him. Kai then noted there was still one Terran blip on his HUD that was alone and, looking back, he noted Dante "hey, Private sol, get over here. I need you and Mortego to work with the Natives and get us a translator working. The rest of us are going in." With that, Kai nodded to Garret and Sehene, and then proceeded for the low building in front, covered by fire from the Seflaurinds. He had grabbed his bag from the pile of rubble, and noted he had 5 Gurottes left. That would be good for now.

Hendlow threw his duffel bag of explosives over one shoulder and hoisted his gun with the other. "Lead the way, Lieu-Kai," Garrett answered, in the best mood in a long time. "Damn, these drugs are crazy. This must be how Orko feels all the time. I kinda want to just roll on these lizards now." He followed the younger Lieutenant toward the nearly demolished structure, a big grin on his face. "I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this a little too much," he said to no one in particular.

Sehene kept a brisk pace after Kai, peering around for enemies. She knew they were inside by now. But...it was always good to be on guard. She looked back at Garrett, "I don't seem to be having the same effect from it as you..." She mused, and then turned back to face forward, setting her jaw and preparing for more battle. Close quarters, ugh, so much more...stressful...when it wasn't as out in the open.

Von Drethenmëir glanced at his rear view sensors, noting the Terran that had actually managed to put a shot in contact with his shields. Well, now.... Considering the swarms of Scimitars that were zoning in on him like swarms of angry wasps, Von Drethenmëir cut off his meandering flight path, and went into an insane series of random zigzags and dips, making an erratic beeline towards the Hymn. With the near-light speeds the pilots had now reached, he seemed to reach it in an instant. Even he couldn't maneuver fast enough at this speed; his brain didn't function at the speed of light!

Sharply pulling up just as he entered the large shield bubble of the Hymn, von Drethenmëir let loose his torpedo. He remained just long enough for his rear sensors to catch a glimpse on the video feed of a massive segment of hull erupting in a cataclysmic inferno. Smiling, he slammed on a button, the space around him bursting with a crack as his vessel vanished in the blinding chaos surrounding the Hymn.


The Hymn quaked harshly, its inertial dampeners unprepared for the sudden shock. The bridge crew were jolted unceremoniously to the side, though any bruises sustained paled in comparison to what the vessel was feeling. Sirens blared as hundreds of emergency alerts flashed onto screens across the room.