A flash of bright light. A jump. A Marduk. It jumped in, weapons blazing. Beating on both the zoner figther craft and the AI figthers. In the distance one looking for it could see a ship decloacking. A Liner, Prison liner, perhaps. It launched several valkryies onto the damaged Tisphone which slowly but surely found its way into the ship, virtualy undetected.
Another flash of light. A jump, and all the Nomad vessels were gone.
One of the Zoner fighter blew up before it had chance to do anything, the Large AI cruiser fired, but as the Tisiphone was severly damaged it didnt notice the Valkyries boarding it. The men in the fighters climbed out of their ships and started to run trough the ship, obviously looking for something.. Or someone..
Sturm stood up looking directly at Cassandra who had told him off what she thought of what had happened..
He looked down at her and gave her a small black box;
"Cassandra, run... Run away from here, run to the shuttle bay and take it to the Peregrine.. It needs to take you far away from here... It's the only chance we have.."
She started to cry and asked in a low voice;
"Why cant you come to?"
He smiled at her and kissed her forehead;
"Im who they want... I need to be here when they come, you can go on without me.. You have to finish the Hades Strand.. You have to, for all our sakes."
The men made their way through the badly damaged ship. Bodies and wounded littered the hallways. 'Fragile shells, these Humans.' They didn't bear any weapons, but instead they handled floating objects. A small minded fool might refer to them as 'artifacts'. Shields, weapons, projectiles, whatever. Nothing but the Nomads knew what they were and what they were for.
They came across a Human or two. It didn't matter much. A few thoughts here and there and he or she was reduced to nothing but a weak, empty shell of nothingness. Resistance? Non. The Agent has done his job.
Fifteen short minutes later
*THOMP**Krrst**KWOOSH** And the door the the labs blew open in a flash of blue light.
'Where are youuuu professor'
'We won't hurt you...'
'Come out come out wherever you are...'
A bunch of books, some closets, few shelves and some computers. The place was a mess.
'Professor...We need to talk to you...'
'Professo- Oh, there you are'.
Sturm wanted to talk. Wanted to know what the hell was going on. But the two 'men' had other plans. One of them shot one of the orbs circling him into the ceiling, striking the professor down in the process.
'I'll drag him. Where to?'
'To Altair'.
She ran, the box in her hands, she held on to it as she held on to the tought of Sturm.. Her cheeks where covered by tears, she loved him, she really did, but he had asked her to leave him so she did. She ran into the shuttle bay, there it was, the tiny shuttle.. She jumped into it, an explosion shook the Tisiphone but she entered the coordinates for the Peregrines fighter bay and hit the launch key..
Thank god for Auto pilots she tought as the little craft left the shuttle bay and flew trough space at the AI cruiser..
She didnt know what was waiting for her, but Sturm had asked her to survive, for all their sakes.
Saker gasped as the battleship appeared. Before he could blink, or move, shots rammed his precious Peregrine like shots to his own heart. Children screamed as the Peregrine took a battering. He stumbled to the command chair, and clambered into it slowly.
His green eyes slid back into his head and were replaced by globes of pure black. His lips curved into a cocky smile, and his fingers clenched the arms of the chair.
With a second flash, all of the Nomad ships dissapeared.
Saker paused for a second, and then noticed the Valkyries boarding the Tisiphone. The multitude of Zoner fighters that were there a second ago were now merely wreckage, and the Children shrieked as they danced complex patterns to escape the weapons fire.
The Children shot back to the ship, sliding gracefully into the Nursery.
Saker thought for a moment, debating running, and then watched as a small shuttle curved away from the ship, heading towards him.
His black eyes narrowed slightly, expressionless, cold. He didn't move as the shuttle did a graceful turn and followed the children into the Nursery. He smiled sadly at the Corvo cruiser, knowing what was happening to it.
Then he powered the Peregrines engines. If that shuttle contained what had brought the Nomads to them, then they needed to get away quickly. Life had gotten an awful lot more confusing.
"Eris" he muttered. "Give me some light..."
She mumbled to his ear, gave him thoughts and suggestions. He followed them.
The Peregrine shot away from the sight, with it's small shuttle and visitor inside it.
Schultz looked at the monitor blinking on his screen, it showed several Valkyries in it's launch bays.. He knew they had company, he pushed the private com;
"Baker Company, respond Baker Company"
A minute, several minutes, to long a time for Schultz own good, the mercenaries onboard didnt answer.. Then when he had lost all hope a crackled communication came in;
"Captain, we are trying to find the boarders now, I only got two men left, but were ready for what ever they got.. I'l be in touch"
The mans voice was harsh and brutish, Sergant Sheppard where a large man, trained in several different martial arts and in the use of different weapons from all around sirius, he had even gotten tought by Outcasts. He and his two soldiers ran trough the corridors off the Tisiphone, Joseph and Gregory, both experienced Merc's and good friends of Sheppard. He held up his hand and the two others stopped quickly, he moved the raised hand down to his side, to show the others to crouch. And they did, he looked down the dark hallway, he knew he saw something move. He raised his assault rifle and activated it's night scope, and took a gander into the now lit up hallway. Four men in uniforms stood and watched them, their weapons allready raised and a smile could be seen on the man closest to the three. They opened fire and the group got shot down, without them even firying a shot.. The uniformed men ran off with Sturm in their grasp.
Schultz watched as the Peregrine began to move away from them, it's engines firying up and drifted further and further away. An explosion shook the Tisiphone.. Schultz shook his head in disbelief.
There was again virtually no resistance. The small squad of mercenaries was easy pickings and was shot down quickly. Useless shells. The ship shook, suffering from explosions from the inside. Conduits burst and wires snapped, giving off a dance of electricity. They started to hasten their pace; while the uniformed 'men' might not 'die' should the ship be destroyed, the professor, and all knowledge with him, would.
After jumping and dodging obstacles, they made it to the shuttlebay. Sturm had regained consciousness but he was quickly knocked out again by the end of one of weapons of the uniformed men and tossed into the cargo bay of one of the Wraiths. They quickly took off and were left relatively undisturbed by the Zoner warships as they approached the hidden Prison Liner. It opened its docks.
Several minutes later
Sturm lay on what seemed to be a quite basic bed in a dark room. He dozed on and off, unconscious, conscious, in and out again. Then the door to his room opened. A man walked in, and then a woman. The man seemed to be of Libertonian origins, a Freelancer, perhaps. The woman however... he had heard of her. She wore a dark robe with red decorations and eyes as black as a moonless midnight.
Sturm had a dream, a long endless field of purple grass, it was gorgeus, Cassandra was running towards him, arms stretched out. he ran towards her aswell, but as he closed in on her, the colors of the area changed, the field turned dark violet and Cassandra, in a burst of light siezed to exist...
He stood in the field, which was now terrifying, when it had only moments ago been a gorgeus and lovely, relaxing place. He now was scared, scared of the Alien enviroment, and as she tough off it, the scene changed. Blue walls blasted, squirmed and grew out of the ground, up over and around him, the floor turned a pale bluish white, almost crytalized.. He had seen the colors before, it was that of the, but before he could even think it, bluish tentacles grew out of the very floor, the same crystalized peoperties as the walls and floors, and started to slither across his legs and torso, it pushed him down into the floor, trough it, he screamed, the air left hsi loungs but no sound was heard.. As he was dragged down into what he could see yet another chamber a female voice ecoed.. "Professor.. "
Pain caught him in a suprise and he saw how the tentacles petruded out of his chest and how blood left his body..
She had him where she wanted him. Trapped in his own mind. Afraid, in pain. His mind on the verge of shattering, giving way to something... Greater.
He sat infront of her, on his knees. Her hand lay on his head and here eyes were closed and moving, as if she was in another realm. The man stood in the back, leaning against the wall. 'Hrmpf' was all he said.
She moved her fingers over his head, through his hair, projecting more and more horrifying images and sounds into his mind. Visions of the void, of death. Visions of loved ones vaporizing infront of him, cities ablaze, people burning. Worlds dying and stars exploding. Just a little more...Almost there...And Crack. His mind shattered.
Sturm screamed in pain. The most fierce and deepest agony one could imagine coursed through his every fiber. His muscles felt like they would explode and his skull like it was about to crack. Then it stopped.
The woman pulled back her hand, and telekinetically pulled the proffesor up. She looked at the man standing in the back. 'Hold him.' He slowly came out of his hanging position and stepped towards the floating, semi unconscious man. He took hold of him just as the telekenetic bond broke. 'This thing's heavy, sweet'.
The woman closed her eyes and placed her fingers gently on Sturm's neck. The man had seen this before, and knew what would happen. 'Another one for the cause?' He asked.
Small streams of a shining blue liquid came out of the woman's fingertips, and went into the professor's mouth, ears, and nose. It took a minute or two, but the process would be absolute, irreversable.
The man placed the professor back on the bed, and left the room together with the woman.
Schultz lowered his gaze from the viewscreen as the Peregrine disapeared from the Tisiphones sensors and Schultz's sight, he took a deep breath as he stood up and looked over the bridge, there where sparks comming from the ceiling and from the monitors, from the walls hanged several wires and different hullplates had been teared cause off the massive damage made on the research ship. Schultz looked at his navigation officer and asked in a suprisingly calm voice;
"Do we have enough power to get out of here?"
She nodded at him and said;
"Yes sir, im setting course to the nearest Freeport"
He smiled and nodded and left the bridge without a second look over his shoulder, he hadtop see the person responsible for all of this; Professor Sturm. He walked to the lift and as it came and it opened up he saw a body of a young girl, her head had collapsed as she had been thrown in against the lifts wall.
He entered the lift and pressed the keypad for the floor where Sturm's labratory where located, as he left the lift he looked down at the girl in the lift and thought to himself; "I hope it was all worth it, I honestly do"
As he got closer to Sturms labratory he saw how the door had been forced open, but he went in, to see how the entire room had been ravaged trough and things where missing. He looked down and pressed his fingers on the ridge of his nose and sighed.. It had all been for nothing.. Everything, all the people...
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