Delexis stood in the command centre of his Apocalypse "Starkiller", the Collateral Damages... Looking at its lifelessness, no crew, just him and ReLIC.... This was 3 Hours before his first assault mission, he had to hit an enemy fleet, and destroy one of their shipyards. He stood, and asked...
"Why, ReLIC, what's it for?"
The response was delayed by a few seconds, ReLIC was processing Terra bytes of information, mission data, history, etc... And it finally answered,
"Why what? Why this war? Why the senseless violence, Commander?"
Delexis turned to the viewing screen, looking directly out the Moor of the shipyard...
"Exactly that... What is it for?"
"Commander, you realize if they know you're having such thoughts..."
Delexis stopped ReLIC, knowing what is was going to say...
"Yes... I know."
And he left it at that, they never spoke until their mission was given the go-ahead...
3 Hours later, as they commenced mission "Maiden Voyage", it was to be Delexis' first mission, and the first combat exercise of the Collateral Damages... Delexis sat in his chair, and asked another question, this time more relevant to the mission...
"This ship's a bit big for this, yes?"
ReLIC Replied instantly...
"Well, if High Command thinks it necessary, Commander..."
Delexis sat, waiting a moment before replying...
"Very well, we should trust their judgment, yes? Don't answer that, release the docking clamps, bring the engine up to full power..."
The engines hummed lightly, and several jolts were felt as the clamps released, it was all going smoothly...
"We're away from the base, Commander"
Delexis looked at his maps, thinking if the best approach to the Shipyard.
"Hmm.... Initiate rupture, bring us out... Right there..."
ReLIC replied, almost certain that he made the best tactical decision...
Delexis held his hand under his long, lizard like jaw... Thinking of how they would hit the base, the Cannon or jump into the middle of the shipyard, and destroy it from the inside...
"Bring us out of their sensor range, we'll see them before they see us, and bring the "Big Bang" up, I want to test it out..."
ReLIC replied, sounding confused...
"Big... Bag, Commander? I do not understand..."
Delexis got impatient.
"The main gun! Bring it up to operational! I want to test it on the shipyard!"
Minutes later they came out, just outside sensor range, but well inside the "Big Bang"'s range, and he only gave one order...
"Do it."
The Starkiller's Cannon charged, the energy reading were detected by the shipyard, so they immediately scrambled their fighters and bombers, plus any local cruisers, of course, they weren't quick enough, the last message ever received from that base was: "This is ***** Shipyard, we're under assault by a single Imperial ship, some kind of Pla--" *Large explosion and then static*.
Delexis stood on the command deck, looking out at the base falling apart around itself, and the explosive shockwave from the Cannon, ripping apart anything and everything in its way...
"ReLIC, job well done, and we did it in one... Clean... Str-- Sunnuva!"
As he was speaking, a large piece of the stations hull smashed into the port side of the ship, putting a massive hole in the sensors array, and exposing a large section of the ship's interior, the force of the impact also caused a rupture in the coolant tank, and the reactor was about to go into melt-down.
"Commander! Hull breach, port side, I've sealed what I could, but it seems pretty shot up... On top of this, sensors are picking up a Federal Destroyer class vessel, followed by a bomber group, orders?"
Delexis stood back up, rubbing his neck...
"Get us out of here, we need to jump back to Crucis!"
The ship lurched forward as the engines powered up, and a large section of the port pulled away...
"What... Was... That?"
ReLIC's reply was delayed a few seconds...
"Torpedo impact, Commander..."
But they hit too late, and the ship was already jumping, the Rupture closed behind them, sucking in a damaged fighter with it...
The Collateral Damages came out of jump, around 25K from the Crucis Research post, his ship's current "Home", they coaxed it forward, and hoped no one managed to follow...
About 3 to 4 weeks later, the Collateral Damages was tasked with assisting a planetary invasion, not as part of the main fleet of course, but more of a distraction, it would approach from the opposite direction of the Fleet, power up its main gun, but never fire, the Federals would send a large portion of their ships to "Deal with it" and the Fleet would make their move... However, Delexis had an ulterior motive.
Over the vast amounts of radio chatter, ReLIC isolated one signal, from High Command:
"Alright X, you know what to do, get on it."
Delexis sat back in his chair, he didn't reply, he thought... Oh, I'll get on it... I'll get on all of it...
"ReLIC, it's time to commence our own little... "Operation". First objective, batter this fleet, we'll give the Federals some time to stew in their own fear. Second, high-tail it out of here, we need to get as far away from Colony space as possible, out to the Edge. Third.... Well, that's for us to decide, isn't it?"
ReLIC Hesitated...
"Commander! You know what this means!?"
Delexis ignored it, and looked out the viewing screen...
"Bring us in."
The Collateral Damages lurched forward as the engine went to full impulse, from the Flagship of the Invasion fleet, all they saw was the planet, Delexis didn't respond so they had to assume he'd been found out, so they commenced the invasion...
About half way through the landing processes, a large ship buzzed in front of them all, it was the Collateral Damages, and its guns were trained on the fleet, however this ended, it wouldn't end well for them. Delexis gave the order.
"Rip them to bits, no survivors, let the soldiers planet side deal with the rest"
The Damages' guns lit up like a Christmas Tree, all of the anti-shipping guns were trained on the capitals, and the point-defense were tracking the hundreds of fighters and bombers, buzzing around like insects, in a matter of minutes, the majority of these fighters were destroyed, the Flagship was taking crippling fire, and the rest of the fleet was simply helpless, they couldn't fire back and do enough damage, nor could they aid the Flag and get it out of there, they'd been defeated by a single ship.
"ReLIC, we've done enough, they'll retreat, now... Where to next?"
"May I suggest a Renegade system?"
"As long as we're the biggest thing there, get us out of here"
The Collateral Damages disappeared in a flash of blue and purple light, all that was left was the crippled flagship, and the debris field, a reminder of what happened, this, was "Red Friday"...
A few months later, the Collateral Damages had become one of the (if not the) most feared ships throughout Imperial and Federal space, it was rumored throughout the masses that he commandeered the vessel, and it was all a scandal, etc... Of course, all of this wasn't true, he did it because of what he had become, a weapon, a tool, nothing more, nothing less. Luckily for Delexis, the Imperials couldn't kill him, they needed him alive, on the downside, the Federals labeled him a "Crime against nature" and he was to be killed on sight (irony much?).
Delexis had ordered ReLIC to move the Damages to nearby a Nebula, and he would take a Vindicator running Imperial IFF transponders to the surface of the planet Ra'Kii, his home planet, he had some "Loose ends" to tie up before they left once and for all. So, he powered up the Fighter, and took off out the hanger, as he left the Damages, it went into cloak, near invisible to the naked eye, impossible to see in the crystal nebula.
"This is Ra'Kii control to Blue 4, adjust your entry, or you'll burn up..."
Delexis pressed a few buttons on his console.
"Done control, anything else?"
"Uh... Yeah, actually, what's a lone fighter doing out here?"
"...Special business."
"Hrm... Alright, good luck then... With whatever it is you're doing..."
Delexis didn't reply, and continued down towards the surface.
He landed in the Capitol, and looked at the hundreds of buildings, tall and short, dirty streets, police, even a few soldiers on patrol... Then something caught his eye, someone in one of these patrols, an old "Friend", by the name of Kaira, he ducked into a small alcove so he wasn't spotted by her, or the other two soldiers, when it was clear, he climbed a pipe to the top of one of the shorter buildings, and started to trail them along the roofs.
They came to a square and stopped, he looked down on them, I better get this right... he thought, as he timed himself... After a minute or two of watching, he decided to make his move, minimal police traffic, but enough people around for him to prove his point, sadly, he didn't really want to hurt Kaira, but it was his only choice, and chance to make an example of the Imperial's soldiers... He jumped down, charged through the crowd, pulled out his knife, and sliced clean through the throat of the soldier on the left, and before either Kaira or the other could react, he was down too. However, Kaira managed to get her sidearm out, and while holding the arm with his knife, she shot him in the shoulder, of course, with all the adrenaline he didn't feel squat, and after he saw the blood, it just made him angrier, he dropped the knife, and forced his claw into her chest, pushing her down, as he pulled them out. She dropped down onto one knee, and he grabbed the pistol she dropped, she looked up at him, clenching his jaw, with the blood running down his arm, and out of his mouth from a rifle butt to the mouth. She didn't struggle, try to run, or even cower... Just looked at him as he aimed the gun to the space between her eyes...
"Do it."
Then he pulled the trigger, he felt bad for what he did, but shook off the feeling like a feather, and ran for his ship, this time, the defense grid was all over him, so he powered up and went straight for the Damages, never to be seen or heard from again, he got back to the Damages, started a random jump sequence remotely, and followed it with his ship, he abandoned his Starkiller, and exited in Sirius.
Shortly after the ion-storm, Delexis was searching through the cargo bay of the 'Former Glory', going through his old objects from when he was part of the 714th A.G.C. He opened the locks on a khaki crate, they were rather heavy, so he assumed it was a 'dangerous weapon'. It was far from it....
ReLIC, what...... This is...... It can't be......
Inside the crate was a set of Military documents, a tell-tale sign being the insignia on it, and the signatures at the bottom - all of the signatures belonged to Military officials at the time, and one from the Emperoress herself. He lifted the papers, reading them over..........
It was a rather warm night on Garathor, one of the worlds closer to the 'dead man's zone', the Black Talons, his squad, were tasked with taking a Federal science outpost, they were dropped by an orbital platform only moments before. They were only just collecting themselves when Delexis' commander - the squad leader got their attention.
"OI! ALL OF YOU!"
They all turned to look at him, holding their weapons across their waists.
"Alright, you were all briefed, but in-case you've already forgotten, we have to take..."
He lifted his head over the small knoll, pointing his snout toward the big lit building, seven towers littered around the outer compound, and an eleven foot fence as the perimeter.
".... That base. Command won't tell me why, an' it's probably good they haven't. Some genetic research outpost, it's our job to smoke it. We need to take control of the installation and destroy the power couplings, the base will go into meltdown."
Delexis nodded, lifting his Imperial-design assault rifle, loading a clip of projectile rounds, fixing the sights. The squad leader gave them a brief movement of his hand, instructing them to slowly advance. They approached the outer fence, ducking behind slight rises in the ground where the lights passed over them, the Federal heat-scanners proving ineffective against their cooling suits. The leader turned to Delexis, speaking softly.
"We're doing more than just taking out the base, we have to recover some documents...."
"Sir?"
"Research documents, when the four of you are overloading the reactor, I'm supposed to pick up the documents, so if I don't come back within ten minutes, leave without me, documents or no. Got it?"
"Of course. I'll tell th--"
"No, just tell them to leave if I don't come back."
"Okay."
The squad engineer crept up to the fence line, slowly cutting a chunk out with a laser-cutter.
"Alright, you know what to do, make your way through at meet at the core, got it?"
All of the soldiers replied at once, like a hivemind.
Delexis was the second to make it to the inner reactor, he saw Harthen standing at the control platform, giving him a brief nod, Delexis made his way up.
After a short while, the rest of the squad made it - except for the leader, Delexis knew, and kept it quiet from the rest, instead giving them the order to begin the overloading process...
"Harthen, get to destroying the coolant tanks, Kara'al, keep the doorways clear, the rest of you.... When the reactor opens to vent after the coolant tanks get destroyed, throw explosives into it... Don't hesitate, you should have about fifteen minutes to escape. As for me, I need to recover something..."
Though that was never his intent - he was going to try and find the squad leader, it had been eight minutes, and principles got in the way of the mission.... 'No man is left behind', as it were. He made his way toward the main labs, along the way he encountered several guards, they spotted him and they entered a firefight.
Delexis ducked behind a section of wall as a bullet only just missed his head, under constant fire he turned his rifle to the side, poking it around the section and firing blindly, he hit one of the guards several times in the chest, the other ducking to reload. Delexis used this as his chance, he jumped up and charged the second guard, knocking the rifle out of his hand and leaving a large gash in his throat.
Delexis walked back to recover his rifle, shooting the second guard just to make sure he was dead, and continued to the labs.
When he reached the labs, he found the door already open, but no blood or bodies, instead he heard a conversation... One he would wish he never heard. He crept over, standing behind the wall as he listened, to his amazement, his commander was a traitor, and had nearly led them into a trap, luckily they didn't have time to execute it... Delexis stood from behind the wall with his rifle at the ready...
"Bastard."
He unloaded his entire clip into the three men, walking over to his leader's body, holding his snout to the side to examine the wound and determine if it was fatal. He spat on him, then reloaded his rifle and took the spare ammunition...
As Delexis got up, he felt a sharp pain in his back, he fell forward, unable to speak, he dropped his rifle and looked at the blood slowly pooling underneath him, before falling from his knees onto his side, fading out of consciousness...
// Continuation of last post, yes, I know it's delayed. ._.//
Delexis was restrained with some kind of frame, his arms outstretched, over the many voices in the room he could hear -one- that stood from the rest - the calm, almost sweet but commanding voice of the Emperoress.
"Waking up? Finally... You, are a lucky one. Soldier. You killed your Commander for no obvious reason, that alone is enough for us to have you gutted and hung by your entrails... No... We have something -better- in store. YOU will become the most effective possible ship commander, you see.... You see, you will have an artificial intelligence..."
She ran her talon down the top of his head, down his snout...
"... Implanted... Here."
The Emperoress didn't speak to him, like she did the others, she spoke to him like a criminal, or worse. A traitor... His only response to her action was a snarl, bearing his teeth and pulling on his restraints.
"I'm no traitor... He was the one going to se- Argh!"
One of the surgeons had already begun the process of removing his left arm, sawing into his shoulder, then across. The Emperoress looked at him and giggled, before turning around to leave, swinging her hips with each step.
"And you were such a... Promising soldier... Sad, isn't it?"
He couldn't speak over the pain, they hadn't given him any anesthetic, he could feel every movement of the steel against his flesh, and then the searing heat of their machines when they sealed his new, mechanical arm to his skin.
"Now hold still..."
Next was the implant, there was little to be felt after they had opened his skull, due to the fact there is no pain receptors in the brain, he blacked out for a brief moment, before he heard the voice of what would be his only true friend over the next several centuries...
Greetings, Commander.
He didn't respond, unsure of what was happening, but the worse was yet to come, they proceeded to remove the area around the sockets of his eyes, and then proceeded to remove them. He couldn't help but scream under the pain, trying to remove himself from the restraints, unable he soon gave up... And then went blind.
Delexis next woke inside a cell, an energy barrier between him and the world... As he woke, instead of his eyes simply opening, they seemed to boot up, like a machine. Very slowly he could see everything, even his guards outside the room... Through the walls... He slowly raised his hands to feel the sockets, instead of feeling flesh, he felt steel. His sockets had been replaced with frames, and once again he heard that voice...
Sleep well, Commander?
He lied on his side, unresponsive... Waiting until he was deployed...
Delexis sat staring at a large radio-pack, a rather light weight device, three antennae sticking out of the bump where the main device is, similar to the antennae on a bug's head. The device was made to be carried into the field on the backs of soldiers... A rather uninteresting piece of machinery, standard... But it wasn't the radio or the antennae he was interested in, it was what was something far more nefarious. Delexis turned the pack over, examining the fitting, immediately noticing the six small needles on each side. He removed the outer casing and the radio to reveal a steel frame, in the centre of that frame a glowing yellow disc, with small hoses that seemed to be connected to the base of each needle...
"Ugh... Why do I always have to be right about these things?"
He removed the clips from his black toolbox, opening the lid and lifting out a small, silver screwdriver. Delexis started to tweak the device, slowly opening the administration tank, trying to remove the fluids inside it, aiming to replace it with a new catalyst serum doctor Rikard cooked up in his lab, to accompany his 'recent' surgery... The catalyst was supposed to trigger a reaction with the nanites in his body, sending them into overdrive, upping his ability to regenerate tissue - Essentially, making him harder to kill.
"ReLIC, is the serum ready?"
ReLIC's sharp, metallic voice was heard over the intercom, speaking in a calm tone.
"Affirmative, Commander. All you need to do now is remove it from its cooling tank."
Delexis only nodded, walking to the other end of the room and carefully removing a small vial, filled with a transparent yellow liquid out of a tank of liquid nitrogen - wearing gloves, of course. He slowly poured the liquid into the administration device, being very careful not to spill it, the last thing he needs being an outbreak of some uncontrollable pathogen.
The machine beeped as it registered the catalyst, the machine's lights turning red after it had finished preparing, the needles extending beyond the steel case. Delexis stared at the machine for a few moments, before putting the straps over his shoulders, carefully pressing the device against his back. He flinched as the needles pierced his skin, relaxing as the machine beeped again to indicate the beginning of the successful flow of the serum.
"Seems... Fine so far..."
[Username: ReLIC[--
[Password: <Overwritten>[--
[Finding Report[--
[Access File Block seven-through-twelve[--
[Subject: Medical data Extension on Project X[--
[Open[--
It has been approximately seven hundred and fourty years since the Commander was born, at least, this is what I estimate. The Commander has shown absolutely no ageing, this could be due to the original shot of nanites after he was fused with myself, or more appropriately said, when I was fused with the Commander.
However, these eventually wore down, so the Commander had tasked me with reprogramming a set of medical nanites and developing a catalyst compound to make them work at a faster rate, effectively increasing the Commander's regeneration rate by two-hundred and forty-five percent.
Commander also had his left arm replaced, and hydraulics surgically implanted to work cooperatively with the rest of his body, to balance the mechanical replacement with the rest of Commander's body. Sadly, as this was a mark seven prototype, there is a constant need to replace the coolant rod that is now a secondary part of the chemical injection device Commander chose to attach to his back.
To continue, Commander had his eyes removed and replaced during the fusing process, as I was evidently incompatible with his optic nerves, or alternatively they had been severely damaged. These implants, however, are not prototypes. I have made these devices operate at one-hundred and fifty per-cent efficiency, they are capable of thermal imaging, infrared imaging, Electromagnetic-Field scanning (E.M.F) and standard visual, on top of this, they have the ability to scan other objects, including life forms to examine their basic vitals. Accompanying this, is a standard heads up display, however Commander prefers to utilize the one in his helmet.
Moving on to armour specifications. Commander uses a rather standard special operations plate-armour suit, however, after the implantation process the plates on his extremities have been fused to the bone. And until very recently, his helmet had been clipped into his head. The armour is rather 'vulnerable' when standing straight, however, when in any number of combat stances, it slots together to cover almost his entire body. This armour is made for protection against both projectile and energy weapons, and to this day, there has not been one standard human light armament that could pierce or burn it through.
Specifications on my own implantation are as follows:
Unit D-T-K-Seven-Eight-Three-Nine, known commonly as ReLIC (Abbreviation unknown) is an artificial intelligence unit built to be fused into an organic's brain. The specific purpose of ReLIC, myself, was to allow Commander to single-handedly control ships. I have proven effective in several other purposes, however.
Armament: Commander has access to three hypersonic infantry-Rail Guns taken from Imperial space, as well as three field rifles, a type nine plasma-gun, two crates of fragmentation grenades, two 'Scorpion' Drill-Missile launchers, fifteen crates of fresh ammunition, two handguns, and an energy-pistol, as well as a triple-barrel supersonic chaingun. Commander acknowledges it is a hazard to fire the infantry chain gun, it is kept locked away.
<<All weapons are projectile unless specified otherwise>>