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Plasma and Fire
7: Thought

7: Thought

He sat on the cot, pondering his situation and everything he had been told. They'd spoken for three hours and focused on more practical matters. Citing that they could teach him about himself and his people after they escaped the planet. He'd already heard about the start of the purge from Alavaros and Vossan. Now he had an even clearer picture. It was a massacre when the purge started, Minad were used more like weapons then soldiers after all. Imperium standard was apparently to just throw a handful, or sometimes just one onto the world and then sit back and watch as they wreaked havoc when standard forces wouldn't cut it.

So of course it was a slaughter for Imperial forces at first, until the Imperium deployed their new 'Imperial Warriors' and the mechs. Combined with the overwhelming number of Mauchinians with other vehicles and the Minad had found themselves outnumbered and outgunned. Somewhere in the middle of the next day a fleet appeared in Orbit and engaged the defenses there, while 'rifting' down troops in heavy suits of powered armor, Nolian Templar. They'd apparently chosen this moment to declare war, and start an all out offensive against the Imperium. All they'd told him about rifting was that it was some sort of teleportation making use of other dimensions.

The current situation for the Minad was....untenable. They were spread out among a few hastily set up hideouts and bands of roving survivors. The best chance they had was to get off world. Steal ships and rift out with them. That was next to impossible, because the Imperium had fortified every spaceport on the world to insane measure. To make matters worse, there were the Velathurans, which had been explained somewhat to him. They used the dead to hatch their young, who then feasted on corpses and each other until they eventually molted and became intelligent. They'd been at war with and raiding most of the Descendant races since a few thousand years after the Ancients War.

He grimaced as he reached over to prod at the stub of his missing arm. It'd grown out a bit and would heal eventually. It'd take too long, they offered him a prosthetic and he hadn't made the call on that yet. It'd stop the regeneration until he took it off and wouldn't be as good. On the other hand, he'd have another hand. He snorted at that as he looked over to the right of his small room. Where a table sat with equipment for him. On it's right side lay a pulse pistol, another combat knife, three small canisters with indentations that were apparently plasma grenades, and a set of five spikes that were supposed to be strapped to his armor when he went out on whatever they might tell him to do. Apparently, Ancient or not he wasn't considered leadership.

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In Kelevars own words he'd always been 'Better ripping through the field than he was at planning.' He certainly didn't feel that way. Didn't matter what he felt though, they were on a timer. Escape or die. They simply didn't have the numbers to go against the Grarvian Imperiums forces.

They were planning to send him out after his M.I.U reactivated. They'd even given him equipment for his armor that he could connect once it turned on. Those lay on the left side of the table, a small disk meant to mount on his upper back. A pair of Gauntlets that would integrate into his armor that he was supposed to be quite familiar with. A small tube built to clip onto his helmet, which had finished it's repairs fully. It wasn't extended over his head yet, as the powered suits most Mauchinians and Minad wore were apparently extendable suits of armor built into massive plates, surgically embedded into the spine. Of course only Minad could get their suits replaced with updated models, as it'd kill a Mauchinian outright to remove the Plate after installation. His was apparently locked into it's active state by his M.I.U before it shut down.

His grimace turned into a scowl as the words he'd been dreading appeared in his vision.

Warning! Detecting severe corruption in M.I.U Kelxath Neural Matrix! Drift from Imperium protocol is likely upon full reactivation. Advise immediate report to nearest Imperium base to initiate M.I.U Reset. Time until reactivation: One minute.

The other Ancients hadn't been able to assure him of his M.I.U being safe during the conversation. Apparently it had became strange and obscure due to his time in the Rage, which they claimed he fell into during the Zero Incident. That was all they would say. Nothing more about it. Larsik had even looked anxious almost, as they brushed the topic aside quickly.

He only really had one way to find out though. So it was time for a step into the dark.