"What happened after that?" Asked Soren. "He floated in a sleep until he reached Planet Malta. The ship then woke him from his self-imposed comatose," Aurelia said.
"There he waited for 50 years, gathering small amounts of support, first through.. 'special' means, then through normal recruitment to his cause. He had gained a group of about 40 thousand troops, pilots, and others when the Nomads started invading the colonies."
"He stayed out of that war, waiting until the Nomads had hurt the humans enough that he could easily gain their full support, and push the nomads back. But the nomads were defeated before they had gotten far. His plan no longer usable, he abandoned it, and made his way to Freeport 9, which had been newly constructed at the time."
"He quickly gained the support of the Zoner population on the station and worked on securing the rest of the high-level Zoners elsewhere in the colonies. From Ames Research Station to Freeport 5. With them behind him, he made an even larger push into power, even clashing with the Sirius Federation, which had allied itself with the BAF."
"But I'm getting ahead of myself. It was only shortly after the nomads had fled, that the Phantoms appeared. At first they seemed to be only terrorists. However they were working for the C'tan. As soon as Luciaden was aware of this, he immediately ordered all his troops to attack them on sight. Not only for revenge, but for the fact that if he came complacent, they could get enough forces to destroy him, for surely they would when they finally learned who he was."
Aurelia was just about to go to the comm to find out where Luciaden was and what was going on, when the alarm sirens went off.
A woman's voice, repeated "Report to battle stations, report to battle stations..." A recording.
The comm panel in the room made a popping noise. A young man's face appeared on the screen. "Princess, Captain, your presence is requested on the main observation platform." The screen blacked out again, and the comm panel turned off.
Aurelia walked up to Luciaden. "Sir, Xizer called in. He says he grabbed the Rheinland Cruiser we needed, using the distraction of the Wraiths attack. He is on his way to equip it. Then he will drop it off at Bruchsal and head on back. The distractions the Wraiths cause should gain us some more freedom of movement."
"Good, but that is not what I called you up here for. The equipment Captain Soren here found was hooked up to the station's comm systems. We activated it about 20 minutes ago."
"I recently acquired a crystal from the wreckage of the ship Soren found. We searched Planet Cella Dor for it. And we found that it was meant to attach to the equipment you found. Any minute now, the ship that attacked you should be appearing. As soon as it does, engineering will be activating the equipment with the crystal. We think it will allow us to control it. And if it doesn't... We we have routed almost all power to the Inferno clusters. We will keep it trapped in a state of paralysis until we find out how to control it."
He turned back towards the window and waited for any sign of the ship.
The computer console at the edge of the viewport chimed. Walking over, Aurelia flicked the screen on.
Along with the the image of a bunch of.. Smashed guards, was some text at the top of the screen.
Level 371B
Special weapons research section
Genetics subsection
She flipped through some more screens. After seeing nothing but unconscious or dead personnel, she switched to a query screen.
Enter Query: Cause of level 371B disturbance.
Disturbance identified as subject Lien-12-Delta.
"We have a product loose." She said aloud. "Level 371B Genetics labs. We moved in a lot of the SiN|Tech labs there recently. Seems one of their products managed to escape the complex. Its loose somewhere on level 371B."
"Sloppy." Luciaden growled. "Please take care of this problem. Let the SiN|Tech liaison know of my... Displeasure with their failure."
She nodded and walked off towards the lift. (OOC:elevator)
Luciaden walked back to the center of the viewport, where they had set up the equipment.
"Alright, I think we've waited long enough. If its not going to come on its own, I'll give it some added incentive." He flicked a few switches on the machine and it powered up through the spliced wires they had adapted to fit with their power supplies, instead of those of the crystal juggernaut that they had been taken off of.
The panel came alive in front of him. The screen flickering on, and text that had bewildered his techs and translators, but looked as obvious and easily read as the basic Sirius language to him.
It was his language after all.
And it was those texts that explained the reason why every time it was activated, it attracted the same red frigate-sized crystal ship.
Insert control unit It repeated, the symbols running down the left side of the screen. Any minute now the ship should be appearing.
And he meant to capture it.
To be continued
OOC: For those of you new to this story, I suggest going back and reading the posts before this if you plan to be posting here. If you don't it might conflict with current or past acts. But do remember, at the moment, the crystal ships ARE invincible. And cannot be destroyed. Only stunned by inferno cannons. And at the moment, the only people allowed to capture them are the Phantoms and AW for RP purposes that will come in about 10-15 more of MY posts.
"It's here." His voice came out as a whisper, with a tone of deep satisfaction.
Captain Soren looked out the at the expanse of space through the generous view that the observatory windows provided. "I don't see anything.." He turned to look at Luciaden and took a surprised step back as he saw his face. More importantly, when he saw the blood red eyes, not just pupils, the entire eye was the color of blood.
Before he could figure out if it was real or a hallucination, the comm panel beeped. Soren walked over and started the holoproj, and the face of a young lieutenant came up.
"Sir, we have detected a ship heading.. .. - -"
"Yes we know its here," Luciaden bit out, interrupting him. "Have all gun crews prepare the Inferno turrets. They are to fire at the range of fifteen-hundred meters. The Caedo battlegroup is to prepare its trap." "Yes sir, right away." The Lieutenant's face disappeared as the transmission was cut.
It was another few minutes before the Miralukan Juggernaut was within the range of any of the station's weaponry, but eventually they started to see individual turrets start firing at it. After a minute, the saturation fire had become a full barrage. A few kilometers ahead of the ship the Caedo and its escorts were preparing the Inferno Web to catch the ship.
After countless shots rained down on the Juggernaut, it was becoming increasingly clear that it was not being effected. "Call off the cannons. Signal the Caedo to spring its trap. The Inferno Cannons are not to shoot until the ship is caught in the web. At that point, all station and battleship's cannons open fire." The Juggernaut came within a kilometer of the battlegroup as Soren relayed those orders to the generals in charge of the two separate operations.
The 'webbing group' consisted of six battleships. The Caedo, one of the other Outcast Dreadnaughts, two Zoner Juggernauts, and two Osiris-class battleships. All from the Caedo's fleet.
The two massive Zoner Juggernauts pulled the web, while the two side-positioned Osiris' made sure the web stayed out, instead of collapsing in on itself. The two trailing Outcast Dreadnaughts were to supply power to the web, and steady the ends of the web, so it did not simply slip over the target ship.
The battleships positioned themselves and waited for the ship to come. Having very little in terms of AI, the ship did not perceive the battleships, or the web as a threat and flew straight into it on its way towards the station.
As the tail-end of the web wrapped around the ship, the battleships and station opened fire with over 30 inferno cannons. The ship could be seen stretching the net's other side as it tried to stop the ship's built up kinetic energy. Eventually it slowed and stopped. The webbing around it slowly pulsating with massive energy.
"Sir," the voice of Captain Laren of the Caedo came from the comm speaker. "We have secured the ship and are preparing the web for transfer to the station." The background hum of the ship's bridge had picked up as the crew got the ship ready to transport a ship easily three times its size.
"Incoming object!" A voice of one of the bridge crew yelled out.
The view of the bridge rocked as something slammed into the battleship's side.
The screen went out as a bright burst of blue covered the screen.
To be continued
(OOC: Hopefully continued faster than it has been.. Sorry about the delay in it, but I've been busy with alot of RL stuff such as school, driver's ed eating my time, and a few other things. The story should progress faster now that driver's ed is almost over, and that I'll have plenty of time during the holidays to write.)
"I want to know what happened immediately!" Captain Soren screamed into the comm panel at the waiting lieutenant.
"Yes," As Soren's image winked out "sir."
The lieutenant stood and pulled out his sidearm. Finally he would be paid, after a year of infiltration. His job was to kill Luciaden of course, and his employers.. Well he didn't know what to think about them. Very secretive, and not into the nature of letting him know anything he didn't need to.
He shrugged, no matter. The credits this job would make him would last him a lifetime of luxury anywhere. He laughed to himself. Luciaden was way to trusting with his own army, using little to no protection at times. Well he would learn the hard way just what exactly happens when you leave an enemy at your back.
As the other communication officers turned to see why he was laughing, he pointed the gun at one of the other's suprised face and blew his head over the comm terminal in front of him. They were quick, he had to give them that. By the time he pointed the pistol at the room's officer, the man had drawn his gun and was in the process of aiming it at him. However, he didn't have the time to shoot, as Lieutenant Tschel's gun shot struck the man in the gut. He walked over the body and out the door as the man fell down groaning.
- - - - - - -
Captain Soren glanced over at Luciaden, waiting for the inevitable explosion of anger at the destruction of one of his ships. To his surprise, he was just standing there staring out at the ship. A mix of what looked like anticipation, and satisfaction on his face.
"Wonderful, it will work perfectly." He whispered to himself. "Captain, transmit to the comm antenna crews. They are to transmit on all comm bands with the signal I send them," He said more loudly.
"Sir.." "You don't have to understand Captain, just obey." He said coldly. "Yes sir.."
He gave the orders as Luciaden walked over to the equipment the tech room had moved up here. By the time Soren had turned back, Luciaden was done and waiting. "Sir?" Soren stopped himself quickly, hoping not to anger him again. "You wish to know why we are breaking off our attack?" He asked. "Well.. Yes sir."
Luciaden slowly raised his hand, a glowing crystal in it. "You don't know what this is, do you?" "No sir.." He answered, wondering where Luciaden was going with this. "This," he spun the crystal around in his hand, "is a control unit."
"A control unit? For what?"
Luciaden nodded his head at the ship thrashing in its netting, ripping it to pieces. He waited. "That? It controls THAT?! Soren exclaimed.
"Yes, now that its test has been complete we can get on with the capture." "Test? You sent our ships out there, our MEN out there just to test this monster?" He yelled. "Yes, I had to be sure it could withstand the pounding we gave it, if it could not it was worthless."
In the middle of a battle operation, Soren wasn't about to argue. But he promised himself that he and the Supreme Admiral would be having a very long, and very loud, talk about this..
Aurelia was stalking down the hallway towards the SiN|Tech labs that had been positioned on the base, when she felt hot breath on her neck, right before the muzzle of a handgun pressed against the back of her head.
"Alright missy, you just stand there and turn slowly." She felt the pressure being pressed against her head release and turned to face a man in a lieutenant's uniform. He lifted his gun a bit higher, aiming at her face as she glared at him. "Luciaden, take me to him."
She snorted. "You won't get within a mile of him before you were killed, I suggest you leave, now." "Ha, funny miss. Now move!"
As she was turning, she saw movement in the corner of her eye. She looked over, back at the man, and looked what it was she had seen.
The man was watching her as she looked back, a sudden mixture of surprise and wariness in her eyes. Slowly, with a look of fear on his face, he turned... And was slammed through the wall by the monster that had come up behind him.
Green, armored, and 3 meters tall it slammed him into the wall with enough force to smash a hole into the adjacent room. The being's legs and arms were what looked like biological versions of a piston. And very large pistons at that. The thing's arms were half a meter thick, its legs even bigger.
It turned toward her, and she swore. The being grabbed at her with its arm with a surprising speed for its size, as she barely twisted away in time. Where she had been standing there was a large dent in the floor where it had tried to smash her.
It roared in anger. "Oh hell." She turned and made a sprint towards the other end of the hallway, heading for the hangers where she could try to kill it. She heard, and felt, the shaking of the floors and walls as it ran after her.
Dimly she realized, once again, she would be forced to clean up someone else's mess.
- - - - -
Soren's anger had all but disappeared as he looked out the viewports at the ships outside.
It had been replaced by full-blown rage as the ship outside proceeded to shred the Caedo piece from piece. All the while Luciaden just stood over the control box fiddling with his little machine.
However, what Soren didn't know, was that Luciaden was trying his best to get the machine to give him power over the ship. Even with the control crystal inserted, he was denied any control over that particular ship. However, he had access to locations and controls of others. Desperate, he tried a hacking technique he learned before.. He shoved the memories to the back of his mind, it would do him no good to dwell on them now.
Its response, unexpectedly, was not the release of control to him, but the complete shut down of the console in front of him. At the same time, though he would not realize this until later, an order to all the ships connected to the equipment's control were given an immediate command to come to the control's source.. And kill everything in sight.
The machine then fried the crystal, producing a large black lump in its stead. He looked up and out the window at the ship. As he was watching, the ship began to glow with a blue light that shown through the netting that was still covering part of the ship. Slowly the glow expanded farther and farther, until it was racing outwards from the ship.
It closed in on the station until the viewport showed nothing but a large blue light smothering the reinforced glass. Then what sounded like a distant bomb exploding thundered in his ears. He was starting to wonder what had caused it when a ripple should in the blue light. Half a second later Soren, who was standing near the window, was sent flying 20 feet to slam into the room's back wall. He slid down and fell to the floor, unconscious or dead. Luciaden tried to brace himself from the shockwave and grabbed the equipment that was bolted to the wall, as the glass from the window imploded inward littering the room with glass.
He felt the shockwave reach him but instead of being thrown as Soren was he wasn't even moved by it. Rather, he felt like a serrated dagger had been stabbed into his head. He felt his throat burning as he scream in agony, but couldn't hear himself.
He wondered through the pain, that perhaps he had finally miscalculated. And, for perhaps the first time in his life, felt genuine fear. The mental pain had dissipated enough for him to retain some control over himself. It seemed to be a rather useless feat, because as he looked up, the first thing he saw was the fact that the ship he had so desperately tried to capture was now barreling down on him.
He had just enough time to wonder what he had just done before the force of the ship's impact sent him flying into the wall, sending his vision into blackness as he was knocked unconscious.
He came to slowly. At least, slowly for him. The first thing he noticed was the sound. The sound of water flowing past him. Then he began to notice other sounds such as a distant thrumming noise, and the soft sounds of machines moving around.
It was then that he remembered what had happened. He sat up abruptly, and immediately regretted it as the movement sent a sharp streak of pain across his back. He tried to breath and found his lungs fill with a think, syrupy liquid. Pain from protesting muscles raked his back as conscious thought quickly melted away to be replaced by instinctive reaction.
Luciaden reacted quickly, attempting to swim through the thick, sticky liquid that held him down. Dots starting to fill his vision, he tried to find a way out of his watery prison, his legs buckling, his lungs burning from lack of oxygen. He began a slow fall towards the outside wall of the tank he was trapped within, almost losing consciousness. He prepared himself for death. Finally an escape from a universe he had become disgusted with. Humans and their pathetic ways, the petty wars. His mind flickered through his life. From the beginning with the invasion of the nomads, and his involvement in it. The scattered wars that had been attempted against him. The faces of those he had commanded, those he had killed.
His thoughts turning to the life he had before he had been captured and tormented. Visions of his home, now a burning firestorm blazing across a barren landscape. The once-great cities of impentrable crystal crumbling from time and neglect. And those responsible...
No! His teeth clinching together. I will not go out like this. Not until I have avenged my people.
A surge of adrenaline filled him, mixing with the intense anger within him.
Eyes squeezed shut, teeth throbbing with the pressure of being clinched together tightly. Hands balled into fists. The anger inside him exploding outward. Abruptly aware of everything around him. The ship that he had fought to capture. The stars racing past as it moved at incredible speed. Every small bit of machinery and crystal throughout the ship. The ship's shuddering as its controls, keyed to be used with Miralukan minds, went berserk under the telepathic pressure of Luciaden's outburst.
And the subtle, yet very alive, being that was on the ship..
Luciaden gasped, sinking into the wall and floor as his knees collapsed beneath him in shock. His vision blurred as unconsciousness threatened to overcome his oxygen-deprived brain. However, this time instead of hitting the wall, he melded through it, slowly falling out into a bare room. He sucked in air greedily. Laying there on the floor, recovering from the mental and physical pressure he had just suffered. The soft sound of boot steps steadily moving towards him.
Too drained of energy, he could do little more than look up at the boots quickly approaching him. And what he saw froze his mind.
His mind blanked, the site stunning him speechless. At last he strangled out a shaky "How?"
That was all he got out before an intense pain was unleashed on his mind, resulting in his loss of consciousness.
Raf'el stalked down the ship's main corridor towards the secondary hanger bay for the use of officers and agents.
He spotted the specially-made shuttles as he walked into the hanger. Just as he was entering he heard one of the shuttles start up. Making his way across the hanger, he started up the ramp and up into the cargo hold. Standing there, packing equipment and weapons, were twelve Phantom special ops agents. As they spotted his entrance they straightened up.
One of them walked up to him and saluted. Maleneye, the squad leader, was a large man who's face was as rough and craggy as the man was brutal. "We're almost ready sir. We are packing the last of the equipment now. We should be ready within a few minutes from now. We also managed to acquire two power-armored suits, which are being loaded right now."
"Good," Raf'el said with a satisfied sigh. "I'll be in the cockpit until you are ready."
"Very well sir. We also managed to rig a freighter to fly randomly and fire a continuous stream of missiles at the ship. That should distract it enough for us to get in close and make our own opening."
"Good, continue your preparations Commander. I want your troops to take that ship without so much as a flicker of hesitation or ignorance."
Raf'el took the controls of their shuttle as the freighter beside them lifted off. Flown by remote from the commando in the co-pilot seat, it was being sacrificed to give the shuttle more of a chance of reaching the target, intact. The freighter exited the hanger bay somewhat wobbly, followed by the shuttle with Raf'el and his commandos on board.
The two ships entered cruiser and flew off towards the cruiser-sized ship. When they reached a distance of three kilometers, they shut off the cruise engines and activated the thrusters. Raf'el reduced the speed of their shuttle and the freighter jumped ahead of them. At two kilometers his co-pilot sent the freighter into a weave, or inward spiral, to make it more difficult to hit. He also initiated the freighters missile launchers to start random shooting, in an attempt to attract the attention of the ship.
Raf'el goosed the thrusters and quickly closed the distance between them and the ship, as it moved to attack the freighter. By the time the ship had destroyed the freighter, he and his commandos had gotten within a few hundred meters of the ship. Already they were preparing to eject themselves and their equipment out into space.
He and the commandos grabbed the handle grips on the portable rocket booster and one of them gave a command on a hand held control unit which began the cargohold's door to open. The commandos and Raf'el in space gear drove the rocket straight at the large ship's hull. When they had almost reached the superstructure they shot a powerful adhesive that stuck the rocket to that spot on the hull.
"Sir, we can't find any seams in the hull, and we can't cut through that material." During the time they had taken to try getting into the ship, it had again fell silent, having destroyed the shuttle and freighter, and apparently unable to identify the small group around its hull as a threat. "Keep trying!" They did. And half an hour later they were no closer than they were when they had begun. "Sir, we are running out of time. We have twenty, maybe thirty minutes left of air." Raf'el floated there, trying to think of what to do.
His eyes grew wide in shock and recognition as he recalled the reaction from the chunk of crystal when he had touched. The cold of space bit into his hand as he pulled his airtight glove off, exposing it to the vacuum of space. He pressed his bare hand to the side of the ship. As he expected, the hull around his hand started to pulse green on the blue background of the ship's hull. He kept up the pressure of his hand as the green glow grew outward from his hand. After he had a circle of two meters that now pulsed green, the speed of the pulsing decreased. Slowly the pulsing became a solid color of green.
He jerked his hand back in surprise as it started to move into the crystal, which had now become a jelly-like substance. Cautiously he pushed his hand in again, farther this time. Suddenly he could feel air, warmth, as his hand encountered oxygen again. Quickly he moved the commandos into the ship through the green area, then entered himself. He removed his helmet and breathed fresh air. Slightly surprised to find it clean and fresh, instead of the usual stale air common on vessels this size.
"You four, search the ship. the rest come with me." Four commandos headed down the ship's 'spine' as Raf'el and the other eight commandos took off in the direction of the bridge. They were entering the bridge as the other team contacted them. "Sir, we have searched the ship. No lifeforms, it must be running on autopilot as we thought." That thought was confirmed as Raf'el walked into an empty bridge. Pale tan metal-type consoles lay in a circle around the perimeter of the room. In the center of the room, where a much larger console wrapped in a circle around a chair. The commandos spread out among the terminals. He had personally instructed this commando unit to read the Miralukan language that would be displayed by these terminals. He took his seeat at the center terminal, giving him a tactical map of the ship's area. The Oblivion showed as a ruby-gold dot on the screen, meaning a moderate threat, with tactical information displayed on terminal screens on the rings above and below the center ring.
"Whats the status on the engineering equipment?" He asked. One of his commandos answered, "Engineering states all systems are ready and on standby." "Good, navigation, status?" "All systems ready sir. It seems the ships shared information. We have half of Sirius on the maps, along with a fair amount of systems outside Sirius."
"I want you to set a course to a system named Malier. Send its location to Oblivion." He said. "Done sir, course set and ready to jump." The commando on the navigation console replied. "Open a channel to Darkstar."
"As you can see we have managed to gain control of the ship. We sent you coordinates for our destination. You'll arrive in a couple days with the C'tan warp drive. We will be using this ship's warp mechanism, instantaneous travel. I'll be sure to make it all nice and safe for your beloved Oblivion," he added sarcastically. "Just make sure you are not running any C'tan IDs when you jump in." Raf'el's face disappeared from the Oblivion's comm screen as his newly acquired ship warped out.
(OOC: The end of this part of the story will have a fair *cough* massive *cough* amount of power-playing. This is on purpose and necessary for the events that will be taking place Near the end of this story, and the entire part II. The story has been talked over by the main leaders of it. The things that happen here will not affect the server or directly affect other stories (such as something here ends up killing stuff in another story, it will only influence other threads indirectly, not a direct physical, story-changing way.). The characters that die in the end of Part I and Part II are characters that the owner has decided to have killed. Anyone who wants to get involved please PM me. Also, PM what you want to be doing in the story. I'll approve it and/or change what your be doing, or reject it. The end of this part and the beginning/end of the second has a set series of events that must happen. Anyone who wishes to join the story will likely end up in the middle of Part II.)
A large blue crystal hung above a dead planet. As if forgotten, deserted, the dust-brown planet moved along its slow, lazy orbit around a dim red sun.
Raf'el stared at the images appearing on the terminal in front of him. "Beginning our orbit sir." Called one of the Phantom operatives seated at a console. Distracted, Raf'el moved his hand in a motion of dismissal, ignoring the reports of those around him. He closed his eyes, drawing on the powers his race had been granted with.
His perception of the solar system spread like a virus from his position. An expanding circle that blanketed and mapped the star system in Raf'el's mind. Searching for life, even the smallest bit. His mind's eye searched the giant red ship that was making a larger orbit around the planet. Nothing. He searched the outer sections of the system, the ice-covered moon on the far side of the sun. Moving in he sensed his own ship. Pushing past that he crawled his senses over the surface of the planet. Desolate.
Moving closer to the one-time major population centers, still covered by half-destroyed buildings. His perception changed from such pure blackness to blasting light that the next moment he found himself panting, with what felt like the most intense headache he could think existed. A pain in the back of his skull where his head had jerked into the chair back.
He gasped. He had never seen such power anywhere. More power than he thought could exist in a single place. Could it be.. No, Luciaden does not have such power. It has to be something else.
The gate began to retract. Harsh winds blasted against the side of the ship, up the ramp. Two soldiers in battle armor descended the ramp to the ground below. Followed by Raf'el and the rest of the commandos that were not clothed in the Phantom's battle armor. Raf'el walked onto a planet that looked like the after image of a nuclear blast. The wind tugged against his robe, the end flapping in the wind behind him. The commandos spread out around the bottom of the ship ramp, covering the area.
Distantly, as if across a great distance, Raf'el heard the soft thump of padded boots. Approaching them was a man, concealed by a long black robe and hood, with golden stitchery along the sides and bottom.
The sound of men snapping guns into place came from all around him as the Phantoms aimed their weapons at the newcomer.
"Pathetic." The voice came in two tones, a normal voice, and then an undertone. "So the rat has finally come, to claim the power he thinks he so highly deserves."
The man lifted his face, to look at Raf'el. The hood falling back. The air caught his long hair, whipping it behind his head.
"You don't know what your getting into." Luciaden said. A malicious grin twisted onto his face.
Luciaden raised his hand, opening it with fingers spread out. The wind howled. The paralysis of surprise had just begun to dissipate when a wall of dirt and sand blasted off the ground, thrown about by the wind.
Raf'el stumbled through the cloud of sand and dust, attempting to find his soldiers or the ramp up into the ship. Through the whistling of the wind, and the sounds of sand hitting the ground and ship around him, he heard the clanking of metal on metal, gunfire, and the screams and shots of those around him. Gunfire sounded to his left. Turning that direction, working his way through the torrent of sand, he tried to find the source of the gunfire. The sound stopped, to be replaced by a scream cut short. Raf'el turned and shouted in an attempt to find the rest of his squad, when he stumbled and tripped. Looking down at the pale-white face of one of his commandos. Eyes staring, a dagger protruding from his chest.
The wind began to die down. Dirt, sand, and mud falling to the ground. Rubbing the sand from his eyes, he looked around. The man laying at his feet was not alone. The rest of the Spec Ops soldiers lay motionless in pools of their own blood. Almost all of them had a knife or dagger, sometimes multiple ones, sticking from their bodies. Left alive were Raf'el and the two Heavy Assault Unit soldiers.
Luciaden stood in the center of the landing field, his black robe crisscrossed with lines of splattered blood from those he had killed. In his hands lay a pure black sword of crystal, with a jagged red line going from the top and spiraling down and around, making one full rotation of the blade. Blood oozed down and dripped from the tip of the sword, falling to the ground.
Immediately, the soldiers in power armor suits swiveled and brought their guns and cannons to aim at Luciaden. Luciaden lunged to the side as the soldiers fired machine guns and cannons, which clew chunks out of the hard ground. He rolled across the ground, coming up onto one knee. He threw his arm out in front of him, and a second later the left-hand armor suit rocked backward, its front armor bashed in, smashing the man inside. He pointed a finger at the downed soldier, flicking it towards the other suit. A rocket flew out of the back of the suit, not propelled by its engines, but by Luciaden's new and unexplainable powers. Raf'el's mouth gaped as the missile sped toward its target, exploding with a bright cloud of fire, which consumed the suit, laving only a scorched pile of junk, with a large hole in its side. Flames licking out from the sides.
Luciaden stood, turning and gazing at Raf'el with intense and haunted eyes. Raf'el was rooted to the spot in shock. He could not fathom how Luciaden had done what he did, affecting physical things, instead of the strictly mental powers that Miralukans were gifted with.
"Your men and machines cannot beat what I have become... And neither can you. Your grave is here Raf'el, among those you betrayed when you became a willing puppet to our murderers."
Raf'el finally shook off his mental paralysis. "And just what is it you have become?" he asked, trying to inject insolence into his tone. His voice cracked as he talked, with more nervousness than he wished.
"I've become what your masters have always tried to make you. A monster"