Clear Skies - Now Open!

[ojamamask]

Michael looked around him, terrified and distraught. Everyone seem to be laying on the floor drowning in a pool of their own blood, but to his amazement, he couldn't find a scratch on himself. In fact he can't even remember the last time he saw his own blood since he was 6. The gunfire seem to calm down a little but it was still suicide to be unprotected, he saw that ship in the distance and the rest of the squad drawing back into it. He saw one of the squad members shouting at him to get on the ship. How on earth was he going to reach the ship without being shot down or blown apart? Then he looked down...

Below where his hands were placed were shards of glass, all around him. He quickly looked at the palm of his hand and only saw a few little pieces of glass stuck to his sweaty palm.
"What the hell?" He exclaimed in disbelief. "Why aren't I bleeding? And why now?" Michael then slowly lifted his hand up...and up, until his hand was in plain sight.
A bullet shot straight towards his hand and pinged straight off his hand. Now realizing his potential, he hurriedly scuttled toward one of the injured soldiers with numerous bullets attacking his torso and legs. Each bullet recoiling his own body but without even damaging him. As he saw that he was getting closer to the ship he started to increase his pace until he managed to reach it with one of the squad grabbing his arm and closing the door.

[Iron_Fang]

Blackmane gets out his crushed EPA and watches as it starts to move with light blue energy buzzing throughout and around it and pieces back together. Blackmane drops it in astonishment and sees the rest of the squad watch him

[Sir_Luke]

And Luke is still lying on the floor bleeding...

[Skunk_Giant]

"Alright, look, we have a mission. I'm sorry for appearing ungrateful, but we can't just run off. That's the type of stuff that'll get us in trouble," Nathan told Erika. "If you can take us back to Atlantis, we can get through our mission, and we won't speak a word of your whereabouts. As for Vestis, I want revenge just as much as you, so I'll give you tips on his whereabouts whenever the CoO give me any info on him. Right now, I just want to stop the Reds from making their way back. I'm sure you know how much chaos there'd be if they rose back to power."

[Blank_Kold]

The pain started to emerge as the light of the nova faded into nothingness, leaving but small pockets of debris. Vestis's muscles were torn, one of his arms was likely broken from a toroid, nothing syndrome wouldn't fix in a few hours. Atlantis was gone, hopefully all traces of Vestis had gone with it.

There was a light in the darkness.

No one could have survived. It was impossible. Then it clicked; it was the girl. "engage cloaks, Ghost." Vestis said over the ship's comm system. "I want to be undetectable."

"Broadcasting on an open channel, I know you're out there, Love. And I know you've some things you want to say."

[KaosuHamoni]

"Broadcasting on an open channel, I know you're out there, Love. And I know you've some things you want to say."

Cursing under her breath, Erika enabled the ships cloaks, and took off.

"I don't want to say shit to you, sweetie, apart from the fact that you will die. That, you can be sure of."

As the ship hovered over a still-standing portion of Atlantis, she turned to the Sgt, saying "You can get off here, but I'm not going to follow quite yet. I have business to take care of, namely, the narcissistic psychopath."

[Skunk_Giant]

"I have business to take care of, namely, the narcissistic psychopath."
Nathan thought for a moment. He looked back to his now wounded squad. They were good, in fact, some showed great courage... But in an extremely tough situation, how would they be? Would they have survived the ambush if there hadn't been other soldiers and police officers around?
"How about this. We help you track down Vestis. When we get him, you can do whatever you need to do, torture, kill him, whatever. Then, we take him back to the CoO, and we mention that we all caught him, but he was dead when we arrived. That way, you get the cash for bringing him in, and in return, you help us down on Atlantis."

[Blank_Kold]

Horror shot up Vestis's spine, his left eye hazing while his right was consumed in darkness. He was waking.

An earsplitting sound rang through the squad's fighter, the voice that followed was equally disturbing. "listen, trash, should you have even the slightest desire for self preservation, you'll refrain from talking to us like that." The voice was enraged, filled with hatred towards unbroken minds. "Have you any idea what kind if damage a dreadnought class toroid will do to a fighter like yours? The force could destroy that piece of shit, but that would make you lucky. Personally, I'm hoping it just destroys all of the ship's life support systems; there isn't anything write like running out of air deep space. Or do you think that cloak will save you? Ghost's eyes see right through a shroud like that. Now, give me a reason to not kill all of you."

The squad was at a loss, how many people did Vestis have with him, was he bluffing?

"You have thirty seconds," the voice finished.

[Sir_Luke]

"You have thirty seconds,"
"He's lying!" Luke exclaimed. "If he really wanted to kill us he would have done it already, Erika, can't you see that?"

[Blank_Kold]

A ball of plasma the size of a small shuttle rocketed over the fighter, making a couple of EPA's spark.

The voice started again, Comms are still open. You have twenty seconds."

[KaosuHamoni]

"You have twenty seconds."

"Fuck off, you melodramatic pair of self-important assholes."

Grasping the ball of plasma in her supernatural grip, she flung it back with ease. "Sgt, get them out of her-"

A crack of lightning burst from her right hand. "Oh no. Ohnonononono. Fuck! Sgt, take the ship, get them out of here. Do not return for me unless I contact you, understand?!" The darkness was spreading. By now, it was visible at her shoulder.

She packed her weapons in the locker, and jumped out of the ship, screaming "GO, NOW!"

The darkness was past her neck now, and once it reached her eyes, she spoke, but she sounded different. Seductive, but synthetic. Metallic almost.

"I am the last Siren, and you are on my territory. Leave now, or die."

With her eyes completely, impossibly white, and pure energy arching across her body, she began to glow, as the last of the darkness consumed her. Whipping up a ball of bright blue energy in her hand, she stated "This is your first and final warning."

And she started levitating.

[Skunk_Giant]

In the sudden change of tone, Nathan leaped into action, taking the controls of the ship.
He'd never been a pilot, in fact, he'd only tried once with one model in a flight simulator. He had, however, been good friends with a pilot from his squad, and had watched him many times doing his job.
He grabbed the controls and began pressing every button that looked like it needed pressing.

[Iron_Fang]

Blackmane sees Nathan pressing buttons randomly, as he is about to press the air locks button he yells " NOOO Sarg!!!!" and pulls the stabiliser and sits in the pilots seat

[Blank_Kold]

Ghost's eye contracted as she fired the second toroid, which careened part the siren at hundreds of thousand of kilometers per second. The impact came first. Most were thrown to the ground, those who managed to grab hold of something soon recoiled in pain as the toroid energy seeped in. The energy managed to stop all the ship's functions; radio, engine, life support, and even gravity systems were damaged impossibly far beyond repair. With their air limited, all they could do was pray.

Several hundred thousand kilometers away, the two phantoms set off to the Theron system, their madness was palpable.

[Blank_Kold]

The air was getting thin, the squad could hardly breath, their luck knew no end. Even with Blackmane's power, the ships support systems couldn't be restored. Tensions were running high as the air ran low; no one spoke, though Erika's gaze said more than any words could. In the dark of the ships bridge they sat silently, waiting for the world to end.

The lights came first, startling the broken squad. The Sight came second, inspiring awe into those that had not yet seen such a vessel. The rejoice came third, the rookies were the only ones who felt it. The fear came last, as the inexperienced saw the look on the Sergeant's face. It was the armada. Erika looked around at the broken figures sitting in her ship. They had only a few working weapons, not enough to fight to a ship. She could use her power but the CoO wouldn't hold back if she did that. There were no good options; they had all disappeared when the Atlantis was destroyed.

"What's wrong, miss?" Michael asked, genuinely concerned. Erika didn't have time to answer, the ship lurched forward as it hit the floor of a Dreadnought's docking bay. Then the door of the fighter was thrown off, an entire armed regiment standing at the new found gape, weapons aimed and ready. "Come out with your fingers interlocked in the air, if we see a weapon you will be shot without prejudice. The Squad did as they were told, a question was asked but it was answered with the butt of a gun. They were herded into the bridge, armed escorts never leaving their side.

"Tell me," a figure resounded, "Why is my planet no longer here? Why are you lot still here? And why should i not just have you thrown into Cassandra?"

[Blank_Kold]

Theron looked a mess. There were corpses lying on the streets, armed thugs digging through them in hopes of a payout. The fringe worlds never changed. They had been like this for over a hundred years. The war couldn't change them, nothing could. Not the soldiers dead in the street nor the missionary dead in the alley.

The two phantoms descended to Canto 34, all of hell rising above them. "They told me you'd come." A voice rang throughout blackness of the Ninth level. "Why?"

"You've some things that belong to me, Nex. I need them back."

"Turn on the lights." As these words echoed throughout the room, light smothered the blackness, revealing a hanging figure in the center of the room, mechanical organs and limbs composed Nex's horrible visage. "I have many things that belong to many people. White eyes mean's you're Crave, correct?" Crave nodded. "Go to my freight station in the Stahli system. You'll find what you're looking for there. But you've yet to pay me for the space, Crave."

Crave wasn't phased, "What do you propose?"

"My men recently came across some CoO soldiers, you might've seen them in the street above. There was a survivor." At that moment two armed guards came in, a teenager restrained between them. "His name is Alec Knight. Do what you will with him; sell him to slavers, kill him, it makes no difference. I simply don't want him on my planet anymore."

"Alright," Crave responded, as disinterested as ever.

Back on Ghost's ship, after Vestis had regained control of his body's mind, the time had come to deal with the prisoner. The brig's doors opened with a slight swish, the boy was sitting on the ground restrained. Vestis shot him in the thigh with an antique gas operated handgun. His muffled scream barely escaped the gag. "You're weak. Useless even. Tell me, as you've obviously got less experience than the soldiers dead in those streets, why should i even bother keeping you alive?"

[michaeld20]

"Useless? You do not know who you are messing with here buddy. But if you really want to keep me as a POW, I could do some work for you... If you let me free." Alec tried to pull out his revolver from his shoulder holster while his captor was not paying close attention to him. He then offered his captor all the money he had and his revolver.

[Blank_Kold]

Vestis chuckled taking the revolver. "You disappoint me. Trying to buy your life? Is money really what you think I want?" A second bullet shot through Alec's shoulder, this time from his own revolver. There was no gag to muffle the scream this time. "Damn it. Can't sell you to slavers with two bullet wounds... Hindsight's 20 20 I suppose. Tell you what, kid, do you want to become a monster?"

"I offer you a game of chance. I inject you with my blood, blood carrying a certain disease. This disease will in all probability kill you in a matter of hours. However, if by some miracle you survive, then you might become like me. You might become a Syndrome carrier of the fourth mutation, infected straight from the source. You won't be as advanced as me or ghost, but you'll be close. But even if the Syndrome doesn't reject you, the beast would likely take instantaneous control of your mind and body."

"I'll kill you if that happens, of course," Vestis smiled, his eyes shining with maniacal glee. "So what do you say kid, will you remain pathetic and be sold off to whoever will take you or will you chance death and monstrosity in hopes of rising above your humanity?"

[michaeld20]

Try and sell me, You will get money, and you BETTER give me my revolver back!

[Blank_Kold]

"Hmm... Interesting choice. Very well, I'll see if I can find someone who'll take you." With that vestis walked to the door, "I'll be keeping this for the moment though," he said, twirling the revolver around his finger. " It's bad practice to give your prisoners firearms."