Aftermath of the Nomad contact near Pittsburgh

[chovynz]

Hyung's mind drifted in and out of consciousness. There was no one to help him this time. One part of him saw this "goings-on", as if from an outsider's viewpoint. Another part clawed at the cage of his mind. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

The psychic shock of once more coming into contact with the nomads had reverted the healing that Hyung had undergone in the last little while. Hyung's unconscious body stirred and moved around in the confined spaces of the combat service freighter cockpit. The memories that were behind the barrier broke through and once again raped his humanity. Mixed up flashes of running through the big navy ship, interspersed with the memories of those other nomads "Keepers.Ninurta" and "Keepers.Gebeleizis" so long ago. Hyung's mind was stretched beyond the breaking point and his body gave a shudder, his mouth gurgling froth and spit.

-----Flashback-----

Hyung acknowledged the comms and spoke curtly, wanting to get off this rock ASAP. The Liberty Navy and LPI had been after him, after the disappearance of Daniel Hale - Navy Officer, brother of the now-Admiral David Hale. Hyung had freaked to leave Liberty and went elsewhere. He was a Junker, he knew how to hide. He would wait until warrants and notices got buried beneath mountains of paperwork that the Liberty government were so fond of. He had worked hard and saved up enough for a Freighter ... newly developed by the Junkers to help out at Yanagi. He had kept his low profile, and had even changed the ship name identification in the IFF chip. Hauling scraps and poking his nose into fields and places where "normal people" don't care to fly.

-----Flash Forward-----

The nomads Scout[Tundra] and Gleamshrike had forced Hyung's mind open; Hyung had resisted but what can one person do against two nearby nomads AND his own memories? His already fragile psyche had been battered from without and from within. Hyung was only human after all. Hyung couldn't remember much from that time, but he did remember ... floating in space...so cold...a console, his hand smashing down on it...a figure in white, trying to restrain him, flashes of Liberty ships, broken and torn, gaping wounds and life flowing out. The shreds of humanity twinkling in the vastness of space, then snuffed out like a moth in an afterburner exhaust fume. Something was there, a darkness...something terrible. Hyung's mind snapped in terror and retreated.

-----Now----
Hyung body rocked, his arms flailing, his eyes receded into the back of his head, his neck lolling around on his shoulders. Sanity was lost in madness.

-----Flashback-----

"So..." asked Daniel Hale as they sped towards the trade lane ring that headed to fort bush, one he had used so frequently on duty now seemed somehow menacing. "..what was it you wanted to show me?" Hyung Soong sat there silently for a little while as they moved through space. Finally he said, "You ... I'm ...I gotta talk about this to someone. Never thought it would be with a lawman." Hale said, "heh". The memory jerked, Hyung's inner vision twisting ... Fragments of the next memory ... Hale said, "The nomads putting images and ideas into my head ... they -are- beautiful aren't they. What did they want?"

----Flashback------

The "Keepers" were inside his head. Horrible visions of Manhattan red with blood. Entire fleets of colony ships, military ships, any ship available, evacuating, no humans left ... the Planet turning translucent blue. The "one" known as Gebeleizis was showing him horrible stuff, twisting his insides. Unable to withstand the sheer force of will, Hyung's mind crumbled in on itself and vision after vision assaulted his so pitiful, limited frame of reference. These nomads were so far outside Hyung's reality, he couldn't grasp the depth and complexity of what they had done to him. Not infested...Not hybrid. But pitifully broken, used and tossed aside like the bad end of a dog's toy.

-----Flash Forward-----

Scout[Tundra] and Gleamshrike assaulting his mind, the trained healing barrier broken as if it didn't even exist. A faint memory of someone screaming ... wait .. that was him? What was himself saying? "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" all meaning stripped from his soul, yet again. A fading memory, a VERY large ship, the LCSA-Ft.Louisbourg, magclamping his small Junker freighter. Someone asking about him and mentioning alpha waves ... Someone else talking about an LPI officer Smith and shooting the memory shears off to the left in nauseating shimmers.

-----Now-----
Hyung convulsed, his arms spasming in morbid reflexes ... Vomit staining his shirt. The nightmares had returned. Would they ever go away? Hyung's mind screamed in frustration and rage, his body unable to do much more than keep his heart beating. His body, a shell, a cage, a stillness beyond what sanity can bare. His mind a raging torrent of psychological abuse and torment, no rest for the wicked.

For it is indeed true. Those who deal with the devil are bound to him in one way or another. In hell there is no rest.

---

Seek fun and you shall find it. Seek stuff to Q_Q about and you'll find that, too. I choose to have fun.