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Chapter 3

(KC, Southern Knights Attaché) SKCPT Blake Mural

Location: Alta-IV Section, Sub Section Delta-G5, Alta System; Andromedan-Tamwyhn Front; TRV Legatus

National Date & Time: January 21st, 181 After Colonization, 1654

Race: Genetically Engineered Human

Voidic Mage: Y/N

Mage Variant: N/A

Age: 36

Sex: Female

Gender: Female

The hull rips open, and several Rebels are ejected into space. Their screams are silenced by the vacuum, as the Troopers rush into the ship, drawing their knives. The two Knights move in with the Troopers, blades at the ready. Inside the few Rebels who had prepared for such an event were drawing their own knives, and rushing to fight the boarding party. None would win, as the Troopers easily dispatched them. Reaching a closed bulkhead, one of the Troopers pulls a cord from his armor’s wrist. Plugging into the device beside it, he freezes completely, indicating he was a Nexil. The door opens, releasing even more oxygen into the vacuum of space.

The group quickly enter the ship, and close the bulkhead behind themselves. Continuing forward into the familiar, yet unfamiliar corridors, they soon begin to hear sounds again. The blaring of the alarm, the hostile captain spouting orders to repel them over the ship’s comm system, the yelling and running of rebels in the distance. They each close off their oxygen tanks, and swap to the air in the environment. It was still light at the moment, but each knew the feel of this situation, and would not succumb to low oxygen. Pushing forward, the Troopers sheathed their knives, and raised their rifles.

As the oxygen returned, they saw a few Rebels sprint past their corridor, unarmed and panicked. Ignoring them for now, the Troopers kept moving, systematically clearing their path, ensuring none are picked off in hostile territory. Captain Mural moved to the front of the formation, LS-012 in her hands, at the ready to stab any hostiles that approached. The group was facing no resistance yet, but they could hear the sounds of combat further in, indicating the hangar group was engaged in combat. As they reached a turn, Captain Mural spoke, “Corporal Randal, go left. Taking right.” The Dracan steps up beside his Commanding Officer, and the two enter the corridor, facing down Rebels moving towards them from both sides. The rebels looks startled to see the two knights, but quickly raise their rifles, and Captain Mural calls out, “Shield!” Both knights raise their arm in front of them, as if blocking an attack. As they do, a wall of shimmering blue appears before them, covering themselves and two Troopers who move up beside them, and aim.

The fight begins, and the enemy’s rounds slam into the blue shield, while the Troopers’ rounds go through, causing the enemy to have to take cover. Captain Mural begins moving forward, as she calls out, “Push up!” Randal begins moving forward, blade at the ready for any enemy to get lucky on a charge. The Troopers start gathering behind the two Knights, splitting into two teams, and remaining behind the shields. The Rebels were taking cover, and still firing in a futile attempt to kill their enemy. When one would poke out to fire, he would be met with a round from the lead Trooper, and fall to the ground or return to cover.

Pushing forward, the two Knights reach the first group of Rebels, and pause, knowing what’s about to happen. The Troopers rush forward, entering the corridor, and executing rebels who did not immediately lay down their arms. With a call of “clear”, the Knights push forward again, blocking the fire meant for the Troopers. Only one Rebel was smart enough to lay down his arms, and was now being dragged along with a rifle to his back. The Troopers kept pushing with the Knights, and soon the corridor would be cleared on both sides. Seeing no more hostiles, the two Knights drop the shield, returning it to their bodies. They then hear LtCol Hanline over their headsets, “Hull Team, split in two. Move towards the bridge, and secure the enemy Captain.” The Troopers begin moving again, following their respective Knights.

Captain Mural sticks with the Troopers, blade at the ready. Entering a room, they find several rebels trying to dismantle a sandbag emplacement. With expediency, the Troopers push into the room, taking the sandbags as cover, and killing the five rebels. The sound of a heavier caliber rifle firing begins, causing the Troopers to properly hunker down. The rounds impact the sandbags, unable to get the Troopers. As the rebel realizes this, they turn their attention to the Captain, who rushes to a pillar in the room.

The room was two stories, with stairs on the sides, and doors on both floors. On the second floor, a sandbag emplacement sat, with a heavy machine gun bipoded on it, and a rebel holding it. Staying behind the pillar, the Captain waits until the rebel stops for just a moment, and the return fire begins. Three seconds pass, then five. Then ten. Finally, after twelve seconds of sustained fire, the rebel stops, and the Troopers rise to engage his position. As the return fire begins, the Captain sprints for the stairs, quickly ascending. As she reaches the second floor, she charges the closest rebel, who simply starts sprinting away in fear. Sadly for her, the Captain is a Knight, the peak of one’s race, and being a Human too, means she soon has LS-012 skewering her.

With a flick of the blade, the rebel is thrown to the floor, and the Captain continues rushing for the emplacement, only to hear a second one firing. She feels the impact on her side, but keeps sprinting, even as she sees the blue flaring of her shielding. She closes on the emplacement, and finds the gunner drawing a knife, and rushing her down as well. She smirks, this sort of thing could work on a Private, not someone as high ranking as a Captain. She blocks the knife, and expertly parries it. The rebel seems to realize his mistake in the brief moment she turned the situation into a one-sided conflict. With that rebel now on the ground with a new hole in his throat, the Captain rushes to the gun, still feeling the impacts on her shielding. She knew it was about to give out, so she had to make these rounds count. As she quickly aimed the gun, she saw the explosion to the right of the second emplacement, knocking the rebel away and onto the ground, bleeding from shrapnel.

The Troopers quickly began rushing up the stairs, following the Captain towards the bridge, who felt the low hum of her shielding recharging what was damaged. As they near the bridge, they hear through their comms, “Hostile Knights in bridge!” The Captain immediately begins sprinting, blade at the ready. She would not allow the Traitors to lay a hand on their former brothers and sisters. Following the sounds of gunfire, she enters the bridge, and readies her blade for a fight. Glancing around the room, she counts five rebels including the Captain of the Legatus, and two Traitor Knights. The Knights raise their own blades, one with a bastard sword, the other with two daggers. The Knights begin to circle each other, completely ignoring the dead and Rebels in the room.

(Unknown Civilian) Ryk

Location: Alta-VII Section, Alta System; Andromedan-Tamwyhn Front; AMEV Immortal Magi

Federate Date & Time: January 21st, 181 After Colonization, 1654

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Race: Freeborne

Voidic Mage: Y/N

Mage Variant: Evoker (Terra)

Age: 58

Sex: Female

Gender: Female

Ryk was dragged off to medical, despite her protests. On her way, she began to regret getting on this ship, as the alarm was extremely loud. Being virtually pushed into the medical bay, she sees injured Andromedans laying on beds, with the more heavily injured in medical pods, where their limbs were regrowning, or their ruptured organs were being put back together. She could sense some voidic magic within the medical pods, but not enough to properly cast spells, so she deduced that the methods were a lot more mundane. She is pulled over to a cordoned off area, causing her to speak, “I don’t need a cordon. I am not sick, nor am I uncomfortable with the sight of blood.” The medic answers with a frown, and annoyance in her tone, “Doesn’t matter. You get a cordon, Civi.”

Dragged into the cordon against her will, Ryk takes a seat on the bed, and the medic begins looking her over while asking, “Any pain anywhere?” The sounds of pain within the room make Ryk feel like she doesn’t belong, as she shakes her head in response. The medic then flashes a light in Ryk’s eyes, making her flinch. A few seconds later, the light is removed, and the medic checks the other eye. A few more seconds pass, and then she says, “No concussion either, so you’re clear to leave. Just remain away from equipment and other things. Stay in the mess, nowhere else.” Ryk stands up, then asks, “Where is the ‘mess’?” She didn’t quite understand the use of ‘mess’ in this case, but with her rough directions gained, she headed off, not wanting to stick around and continue to keep a bed away from a fleetman that may actually need it.

She soon finds the mess which seemed to be a cafeteria, helping her understand what the medic had meant. As she looks around, finding no one in the mess, the alarm cuts off, letting her hear the yells and screams of the Fleetmen near the mess. The ship shakes violently again, causing her to lose her footing and flap her wings, bringing her into the air to have a better landing. The world around her was vibrating, and she could see it as she came back down to brace herself on a table. As she holds the table, she sees a Nexil with a medical armband run into the room, ignoring her completely as it passes by. The uncanny machine person gave off no signature of life, not even the normal signature a Nexil would give. This baffled her, as she thought a Nexil could not move or exist without that signature. It ran past, and out the other side of the mess hall, giving Ryk a moment to think as the ship began to calm in its shaking.

(Ship Advanced Artificial Intelligence) Magus

Location: Alta-IV Section, Sub Section Delta-G5, Alta System; Andromedan-Tamwyhn Front; AMEV Immortal Magi

National Date & Time: January 21st, 181 After Colonization, 1711

Race: Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Program

Voidic Mage: N/A

Mage Variant: N/A

Main Core Age: 3

Sex: N/A

Gender: Female

*Full Functionality Restored*

*Connection to Frames Secured*

*Connecting to Support Frame MikeDelta*

*Connection Secured*

*Transferring Personality Matrix Two and Sub Core Alfa*

*Transfer Complete*

*Frame Dispatching to Assist Injured Crew*

The Medical Frame’s power suddenly started, causing her lights to suddenly shine their dim red, and her head to lift. Examining the room in under a second, she notes that the Medics have this under control. She begins running, her synthetic footfalls were heavy on the metal floor, startling a few personnel who had not realized the AI had been powered back on in the middle of her maintenance. One Medic calls out, “Magus! Injured, port side!” The A.I. was already sprinting. She takes a few turns, and enters the mess, taking note of the civilian as she enters. Ignoring the civilian, she runs through, headed for the port side of the ship.

As MikeDelta runs, the Main Core focuses on taking over for the injured Port Gunners, firing at the TRV Legatus with the intent to disable her. Sub Core Bravo was set in the bridge, listening in on the Captain’s orders, and relaying them to the other Cores. Sub Core Bravo sends a request to the Captain’s tablet, to which the Captain glances and reads, before speaking, “Granted, Magus. Give them hell. Helmsman, relinquish control to Magus.” The helmsman stands from his seat, and moves away to his other duties on the bridge. The ship takes a hard turn, suddenly cutting engines. Most enemy vessels were already disabled or retreating, it was only the TRV Legatus left. Sub Core Bravo sends a message to the two sister ships, “Protect the Convoy, Magi engaging HVT.” The two sister ships, heavily damaged and limping, returned to the Convoy, as they neared the planet.

The TRV Legatus continued moving, now simply trying to retreat, and outrun the Magi’s munitions. Suddenly the Legatus stops turning, allowing the Magi to give proper chase. Heading for the enemy, Sub Core Bravo realizes that the HVT has stopped inputting new commands to her engines and thrusters, meaning the enemy bridge was engaged by the boarding party. The guns however, were still functional, and damage was mounting. Sub Core Bravo could not handle the pressure of keeping the ship fighting, and that was noticed by Magus as a whole. While Sub Core Alfa tended to injured personnel, Sub Core Bravo swapped places with the Main Core. The Main Core began to steer the ship away from collision, however it was already too late. The aft of the ship slammed into the Legatus’ aft, disabling both, and dragging them into the gravitational pull of the planet. Both ships began to head for the surface, against their Captains’ wishes, but they kept their guns firing, dealing damage the whole way down.

(KC, Southern Knights Attaché) SKCPT Blake Mural

Location: Alta-IV Section, Sub Section Delta-G5, Alta System; Andromedan-Tamwyhn Front; TRV Legatus

National Date & Time: January 21st, 181 After Colonization, 1718

Race: Genetically Engineered Human

Voidic Mage: Y/N

Mage Variant: N/A

Age: 36

Sex: Female

Gender: Female

Captain Mural was circling the two Traitors, blade at the ready, when the ship suddenly jolted violently. The two Traitors took that as an opportunity to strike, rushing forward. Captain Mural blocked both strikes, but was unable to block the third, which was one of the daggers. She felt it plunge into her side, but she took that moment to apply pressure, quickly bringing her blade across the Traitor, and then into, as she grabbed his wrist. As the Traitor falls to the ground, she could feel rounds begin hitting her shielding. She ignored the attacks, as she began to focus on the second Traitor, uncaring about the dagger in her.

She moves towards the final Traitor, jabbing forward. He backpedals, while knocking her blade away. He slashes up towards her head, causing her to sidestep and counter with another jab. He quickly pivots, and smacks the blade away. As the battle continues, she realizes her shielding will soon break, and then she would die from the amount of bullets being fired at her. She had to finish quickly, so she took a risk. Throwing her blade towards the Traitor, he just barely dodges, startled and baffled for a second. Blake rushes forward, yanking the dagger out of her side, and getting close before stabbing the Traitor in the sternum, and yanking down, ripping bones out of place and a massive gash in place of the man’s sternum. He slumps to the ground, clutching this new hole, while bleeding out. The Captain quickly took cover out of the door, as her shield was just about to crumble. As she did, Corporal Randal rushed into the room, having just arrived with the rest of the boarding party. As the sound of combat ends, she hears a voice, it was Hanline’s, “All units, brace for impact! The ship’s going down!”

Captain Mural saw a medic rush over to her, and begin urging her to sit down. Doing so, he begins tending to her while the Lieutenant Colonel begins roughly estimating how long it will take to crashland. “Ten minutes! The Magi is going down too!” That was all she would get to hear as she began to feel faint, and passed out.