#UNLEASHED UPON FEDERATION SPACE

[wardogsong]

// @fasciinating tfw when you just KNOW you could traumatize Spock by introducing him to Khan 2.0 but that's not enough.

[chronicle-of-isha]

Chapter 18: Crossroad

Aeldari! The battle is lost! Our kin have fled the skies and the Webway is closed to us. We have nowhere to flee and no hope of fighting our way through the eternal enemy.

Fill your hearts with curses! Curse those who leave us here to die! Curse those who sent us here to fight on this barren world! Let your bitterness fill your voice until it becomes the banshee howl! Let the sorrow of knowing you will never see your home, or travel through the immaterium ever again fill all the spaces in your soul!

Aeldari! Fight! Fight and die! Fight for there is nothing else left to do! Die for that is what they made us for!

Let our screams pierce the veil and let our hate burn the stars! Let our might shine bright in this last moment, for we shall never shine again!

Cry out at the injustice we are made to bear! Cry out at the arrogance of our enemies and what their overreaching folly has unleashed upon us all! Scream and cry, for our pain and sorrow is what our masters want!

You will never see your children! You will never see your parents! You will see your brothers and sister, for they stand beside you just as doomed as you are!

We shall never wake in another body with the memories we scrounged and scraped and scavenged for thousands of years! All you have is now lost!

So hate! Hate and rage! Curse and wail! Fill your heart with sorrow and scream at what has been forced upon us!

This is our end! There is no future! There is no hope! Die with despair on your lips and tears in your eyes! Die cursing our gods and our kin! Die cursing our creators and our slavers! Die cursing the parents who brought us into this world of suffering and strife!

They have come! Fight or flee, it makes no difference now! Die in pain! Die alone! Die with those beside you knowing that they will be tortured just as you will be for the enemy has no mercy!

Curse! Rage! Scream! Hate! Cry, and suffer! This is our fate! This is what we were born for and what we were given everything to do!

- Autarch Alarathis 48,241,253 BC

In memory of all the souls who returned to our divine mother so new life may bless the lands where our blood has been spilled.

—----------------------------------------

The Emperor returned to the secondary bridge of the Bucephelus accompanied by the crackle of psychic energy as the Warp portal closed behind it. Isha was nowhere to be seen, but the presence of the Aeldari Goddess could be felt in the dark room where it had first sung its distracting song.

The Emperor gave Isha a cursory glance with Warp sight before marching towards the captain's chair where Lysander was seated.

Everything had progressed, mostly, according to schedule.

The readings of the Eye of Terror were in the range Malcador and the others had calculated. Soon, the Warp would become calmer for several hundred years, meaning the opportunity for humanity's re-expansionism was approaching.

The remains of several Aeldari 'Soul-engines' had been recovered. Stocks of psychic crystals, Wraithbone, and blackstone had been pillaged and looted from abandoned Aeldari colonies, as well as torn from both the dead and living Psychomatons they found. All of these materials, incapable of being created by humanity, would be important in creating the psychic beacon necessary for the crusade that would take place after the reclamation of the Sol system.

Most importantly, the gene-tech that was left behind on many of the old worlds of the federation of man had been recovered safely. Almost all of the reagents, enzymes, and catalysts the Emperor had gathered during the final days of Old Night had been used up in creating the leaders and weapons that would bind humanity together. The soldiers that would be needed for them to maintain their rule would require far more.

They would be self-sufficient and capable of creating more of themselves once sufficient numbers of the Progenoid glands of each legion were completed, but the initial investment was proving more expensive in terms of gene-tech than the Emperor would have liked.

'The Selenar gene-cults will regret spurning me.' The Emperor muttered internally.

It would take another 40 or 50 years, but Terra's natural satellite, Luna, would be brought to heel. Careful preparations would be necessary for the invasion, for a single wayward bomb or lance blast could wipe out everything the Emperor wanted from them.

But, things were progressing on that front as well. The first proto-types of the 1st legion already walked with his Custodes upon Terra, gaining combat experience with their new bodies while slowly replacing the Thunder Warrior garrisons placed around the lands that had been unified into the Imperium.

Once the majority of Thunder Warriors were relieved of guard duty by the 1st legion, they would be gathered to break Mt. Ararat, the last fortress-complex of the lands of Urartu and gateway to the Ethnarchy.

When the conjoined bunkers and dugouts within the mountain were nothing but hollowed out ruins, the true changing of the guard could commence.

It was poetic in some sense that the monsters of the old world would be purged where all Abrahamic religions claimed the Ark of Noah beached itself after the great flood; the flood that wiped out all the sinful cities that incurred God's wrath.

Of course, that fictional myth was based on older legends, and the Truth of what happened was not whatever despotic messiah or ruler demanded his or her scribe write into holy scripture for their convenience.

The original story was very different when the Emperor sat upon the throne to his kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia.

The Emperor shook its head, reverting to the more distanced mindset it had instead of one of its more ancient personas. That period of history was a simpler time with allies that could be relied upon, a populace that was mostly obedient, and gods he could argue with.

Now, it was all that was left. No one else remained.

'Were they worth everything you gave them?'

The question asked in a sad voice echoed in the Emperor's mind.

He couldn't answer that question back then, and it wasn't sure of the answer now.

The only thing the Emperor did know was that there was only the path of progress, the sacrifices necessary to move forwards, and the eternal legend all humans worked to be a part of.

That path would someday lead to humanity's future and salvation.

The Emperor could still see that future, symbolized as a distant island floating on an ocean as black as night. There was no swimming in these waters, for beneath the rippling black ocean underneath the starless sky lay abyssal monsters of every kind. The only way to reach the island was to wade across the narrow sandbar hidden beneath the treacherous waves.

White foam and dark waters obscured sharp coral and slippery rocks embedded in the path that would cut or trip the Emperor should they be stepped on. The Emperor would step over them where possible, but not all could be predicted or averted. Some would have to be trodden on, and the consequences would have to be beared.

Stepping on the coral pierced skin, drawing blood and leaving burning fragments within the muscle.

Stepping on the slippery stones would cause the Emperor to lose its footing, banging shins, knees, elbows, or even its jaw against other jagged rocks.

Every time that happened, the Emperor would have to drag itself up again and push forwards, for the Emperor could never stray from or linger upon this painful path.

The cold waters of the ocean continually sapped the Emperor's strength. Only by constantly moving would enough heat be generated to resist the chilling touch of the ocean.

And the abyssal monsters that swam beneath the waves were always watching and waiting for the Emperor to fall.

If the Emperor ever fell from the path, either due to losing its footing, or from weakness as its body lost even the strength to shiver from the freezing waters, they would drag it down into the depths of the ocean. There, in their natural habitat, the Emperor would be drowned and devoured; with all its screams silenced by the weight of the water and turned into muffled froth that would float up as small bubbles to the surface.

"My Lord…" Lysander called to the Emperor. "The Titan transports should arrive in another hour, and the survivors on the Xenos slave carriers have all been rescued. We can begin the journey to the Pluto Warp gate when they arrive, but we will need your assistance to mask the fleet's presence when traveling past the outer planets and Mars to avoid detection."

The Emperor was still behind Lysander, having emerged from the Warp on the raised platform of the command deck that held the holomap and captain's chair.

The Emperor closed its eyes, switching to a more amenable persona for the occasion.

This expedition had been tiresome, and the extra baggage in the form of the Aeldari 'Catumen' was aggravating.

"As a celebration for a job well done, I thought it would be a good timing for a speech." Lysander quipped as the Emperor stepped forwards.

"A speech?" The Emperor replied with a slight laugh. "I would think a toast would be necessary as well. No celebration is complete without a good drink."

"I thought the same thing, my Lord." Lysander's chuckle came from over the high backrest of the chair that obscured his head and back from the Emperor's vision. "I've given permission to the bridge crew of the Bucephelus and the General Staff of the other ships to break out the Amasec. One quarter of a glass for all of us at a job well done. The rest of the crew will get extra-rations and a glass of Amasec with the last meal of the day."

"Prepared as always eh?" The Emperor stepped forwards, past the armrest of the captain's chair, and turned towards Lysander. "Then I guess I have no choice but to give a spee-"

—----------------------------------------

As the Emperor turned towards Lysander, he saw his Lord's brown eyes widen and the slight smile he had on his face turned into a vicious scowl. In the next moment, every hair rose on Lysander's neck as his breath caught in his lungs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some of the bridge crew trip, falling to their knees, gasping for air as the psychic pressure of the Emperor suffused the entire bridge.

Then, the moment was gone, and Lysander sucked in mouthfuls of air like a half-drowned man as the rest of the bridge crew coughed and at least one vomited.

Lysander turned towards the Emperor only to see his Lord whip his head to the entrance of the bridge. At the same time, the pneumatic doors whooshed open just as one of the Custodes ran through it at full sprint.

The Custodes came to a stop before the Emperor and saluted, but the scowl on the Emperor's face only deepened as he inspected one of his personal bodyguards.

Golden sparks crackled from the Emperor's eyes which slowly looked up and down, left and right across the entirety of the bridge, as if he were looking through the very walls and into every corner of the massive starship.

"Lysander." The Emperor's tone was quiet and utterly devoid of all emotion. "Redirect all the Titan transports to the nearest Vengeance-class cruisers."

"My Lord?" Lysander asked, hoarsely.

The Emperor turned towards Lysandre, and he saw golden flames roaring inside the black pupils of his brown eyes. "Begin a full disembarkation of the Bucephelus to the battleships Artax and Chetak."

"A disembarkation, my Lord?" From the way the Emperor was acting, it sounded more like an evacuation order.

The only reply was a silent stare from the Emperor, and the emotionless look froze Lysander's blood in his veins.

No questions would be tolerated. No disobedience would be forgiven.

"As you will, my Lord." Lysander bowed, eager to break eye contact.

It was rare to see the Emperor so angered, but this was not the first time Lysander had seen his liege's fury. This was usually what happened when those who faced the Master of Mankind didn't accept what he said while he was smiling.

And Lysander had a good idea who the cause for his Lord's ire was.

'I had a feeling something was wrong with the Catumen…' Lysander thought to himself as he activated the ship-wide vox.

"All-hands. Proceed to your predesignated hangar bays and prepare for disembarkment. I repeat. All-hands. Proceed to the…"

Lysander repeated the message several more times as the bridge crew picked themselves up while a janitorial servo-skull removed the regurgitated contents of someone's stomach from the floor.

The Aeldari Catumen had been completely silent when it returned. Lysander had thought it would appear the slightest bit distressed after the battle with its people. Even the Emperor expressed a brooding frustrated form of sorrow, sometimes standing on the empty battlefields of Terra littered with bodies and staring off into the distance.

The Catumen, however, appeared utterly undisturbed, as if nothing had changed from when he first saw it on the bridge. It merely walked out the door without a single word, and wandered off into the ship under the watchful eye of one of the Custodes who followed closely behind her.

Lysander couldn't tell why the sight of it made him uncomfortable earlier, but he understood now after staring into the Emperor's face just now. It was the complete lack of emotion upon its beautiful face that had sent a small shiver down his spine.

Regardless, whatever was about to transpire was not going to happen immediately.

The Emperor had ordered for a disembarkation, not an evacuation. The former was an orderly transfer of people off the ship with shuttles and barges. The latter was a mad rush for every crewmate to the nearest escape pod to launch themselves into the void of space, for it would be safer there than within the ship.

Lysander finished repeating the order to disembark, and turned back towards the Emperor. His liege was glowering at a point at the edge of the room, slightly down and to the right. Gold sparks crackled periodically from his eyes, and Lysander shivered as he suddenly felt something look at him from the direction the Emperor was looking at.

The Catumen was there, beyond the walls and far below this deck looking back at the Emperor while the Emperor glowered at it. Lysander had been caught in its peripheral vision, yet even that briefest touch of the corner of its eyes caused goosebumps to form on Lysander's arms and neck.

"Bridge crew…" Lysander called out to the men and women who were on the level beneath him. Some were quivering, like newborn fawns. "We will head to our designated disembarkation point. Follow me." All of them followed him meekly, giving the Emperor a wide berth.

The Emperor turned as the last of the bridge crew passed him, and looked at the Custodes. Something unspoken passed between them, and the Custodes banged his spear against the floor of the ship once in affirmation before following the rest of the bridge crew through the door.

The walk through the Bucephelus's corridors was long and silent. Only their footsteps followed by the clank and clomp of the accompanying Custodes at the end of their group echoed around them.

Finally, they reached their assigned hangar bay with the shared shuttle for most of the crew on this section of the ship.

There was a crackle, and the Emperor appeared before them again out of a Warp portal next to the shuttles that would take them off the Bucephelus and to the battleships that remained at either side since the battle with the Xenos. His face was emotionless, but his eyes inspected each and every one of the crew boarding the shuttles as they passed him. Custodes followed many of the groups boarding the shuttles, entering with them and leaving the Emperor behind.

As Lysander locked himself into his seat with the restraining bars and harness of the shuttle, he sighed in both relief and exasperation.

Nothing ever went as planned, and he had left his best bottle of Amasec behind underneath his chair on the bridge.

—----------------------------------------

The Emperor watched the crew of the Bucephelus pass by. All of them were flickered between two states through the double vision of foresight.

Human faces and skin were occasionally replaced by ash, blood, and charcoaled flesh. Blackened human pâté after blackened human pâté passed by him, like conveyor belts carrying burnt hamburgers that had been stepped.

Even the Custodes were not spared. Their Golden armor was flattened and partially melted. Their spears were bent with blades shattered, and whatever remained of their reinforced flesh and bones had been incinerated and carbonified.

However, it was the Bucephelus itself that concerned the Emperor the most. The corridors were filled with volcanic rock, and the entire ship itself was twisted like a wet rag that had been rung out.

'Isha.' The Emperor thought, and looked down into the depths of the ship where the Aeldari Goddess stared back at him.

Somehow, Isha would be responsible for everything he saw before him.

There was no time point for the events in the Emperor's foresight, but instinct whispered that this was not an immediate event.

Isha had not moved during the disembarkation of the Bucephelus, merely returning the Emperor's gaze patiently, as if to say it was the Emperor's turn to make its move.

The Emperor cast its foresight out into the far future, attempting to see whether the island it saw was gone.

The island remained in sight, but it too was flickered between itself and another vision of the future.

Static crackled, replacing the island with a blurry image of granite black and burning orange walls closing in around the Emperor that gradually melted away into an elliptical bubble made of black and red crystal.

The Emperor was at a crossroad. Two futures lay in its path. One where all progressed as planned. The other was something it had never seen before, but meant certain doom.

"I should have known your species' pride wouldn't keep your head cowed for long." The Emperor muttered.

Narrowed eyes were the only response Isha gave.

The Emperor cast one last look throughout the ship, confirming every crewmember and Custodes had left, then opened a Warp portal to the dark room Isha waited in.

This battle found all those who followed the Emperor wanting, so just as the final battle between the Void Dragon and the Protector of Humanity had been fought between just the two of them, this fight between Isha and the Emperor would be theirs and theirs alone.

—----------------------------------------

There was a crackle, and a purple vortex swirled into existence growing larger and larger like the whirlpool that forms when opposing currents in the ocean meet. The Emperor stepped from the Warp, purple mist and clouds sticking to the golden armor like tufts of cotton candy before sizzling into nothingness as they dissipated into the materium.

"Is this your attempt at negotiating with me?" The Emperor asked sarcastically. The golden glow from its armor was the only other source of light besides the green glow that was centered around Isha in the dark room.

"In a sense, I suppose this is." The Aeldari goddess replied tartly. "Violence is the only language creatures such as you seem to understand."

"Then you have moved too late." The Emperor snorted. "You stood a better chance with your Psychomatons."

"I did not wish to slaughter your followers." Isha shrugged. "You are their protector. Any action against them means you must react. That is your purpose; especially if that action is taken by something from the immaterium."

"So, all of this is just a threat?" The Emperor questioned with one eyebrow raised.

"Are you so blind to how the future works, Mon-keigh?" Isha sighed while giving the Emperor a condescending look. "I fully intend to kill every human here and tear this ship from the sky. It is because I have the intention and the ability to do so that you see the double vision of foresight overlaid on top of each other. That was the only way you would ever force them to flee from this place. No mortal, no matter how enhanced, will survive what is to happen here."

"Then…" The Emperor's sword materialized in its right hand with a burst of flames. "I have no choice but to destroy you."

Isha merely shook her head, as if exasperated.

"You will have no choice in the future, but at this moment in the present you still do."

The slaughter of the humans had not yet happened even though it was foreseen. Therefore, the Emperor would have to act to prevent that slaughter. However, as they had not been murdered yet, Isha was still blameless for their deaths.

There was still room for discourse between the two deities.

But, the Emperor would still have to act against Isha, for it was the Protector of Humanity.

"Then, it makes no difference then." The Emperor said as it took a heavy step towards Isha. "This is a threat." Brown eyes met with silver ones as the two stared at each other. "What do you want?"

The death and destruction wrought by Isha would be costly. If there was a way to prevent it, the Emperor was willing to consider a degree of leniency. Although, any offer given would be made mostly to buy time to find an easier and better place to destroy Isha.

"I already have what I want." Isha replied, a slow smile growing on her face. "You, all alone here with me." The room shook as both of them released their psychic essences, filling the room to the brim with the invisible weight of their presence. "There is only one name for the path I proceed down. It is you who sees the crossroad that must choose which direction to go in order to end up in the same place."

The Emperor raised its taloned hand, palm pointed towards Isha in an open fist.

"Then I shall reach that place over your broken body and stolen mind."

Golden walls crackled into existence several meters from Isha before closing in on her to surround her as they did on the dead Necron pylon world.

Green winds suddenly rushed outwards from the goddess, snaking around each individual wall and shattering them from the side facing outwards, while brown gusts of hurricane force slammed into the Emperor. The air howled as it rushed past, dragging the Emperor backwards and forcing it to its knees. The talons on the Emperor's left hand sparked as they caught the floor, scarring the metal as the force of the winds was slowly overcome by the friction of the Emperor's armored boots and golden talons against the metal floor.

"Did you think I did nothing but mope while I was your captive?" Isha laughed. "These golden wards of yours are made to project your power inwards in a cage suffused with only your essence. But, just like the walls of a badly built house, they are easy to knock down when they stand alone."

The Emperor glared up at Isha. Such a display of power should have been costly. Any attempt to overcome the Emperor with only psychic power would be annulled and it would cost more power to destroy the wards than it took to create them. However, the confident posture of Isha betrayed no worry. This inefficient usage of power did not disturb her in the slightest.

"You devoured their souls." The Emperor growled as it rose against the howling air. "That is the only explanation for this power." A golden finger rose to point at Isha accusingly as the Emperor stood up from the ground; long locks of raven hair flowing behind it with the wind, writhing like snakes. "Mother of the Aeldari. Goddess of Life. Your titles are nothing but sophistry and propaganda. In the end, you gods are no better than the Ruinous Powers of Chaos."

Isha only snorted at that.

"Do you think me so easy to anger with a statement of the obvious?" All emotion fell away from Isha's face, leaving only the blank eyed stare of something utterly inhuman looking at the Emperor. "I am a deity from the War in Heaven. It was we who kept the Sea of Souls clean of the corruption that now suffuses the Warp. We fed upon all the emotions including the pain and suffering felt by the races that worshiped us. It was by keeping all the horror they experienced in our bellies, converting their worst nightmares into our miracles and gifts, that there was nothing else for the Warp Predators to feast upon."

A wince returned emotion to Isha's face as some painful memory forced a hand up to her forehead. "Although, in the end, even we could not keep the Warp Plagues from ruining everything."

"Then you truly are no better than Slaanesh."

The Emperor gathered its strength within it, preparing its next move. There were no more Aeldari here. Whatever power Isha had was temporary; like an enormous battery that had been charged. The Emperor was still connected to humanity, constantly empowered by them. Victory would be the Emperor's eventually.

Even if the amount of power they had was equal, the Emperor's own nature rejected and reverted the unnatural and unclean. Thus, every interaction between Isha and the Emperor would take more from Isha than the Emperor. Eventually, Isha would run out of power, and then vengeance could be mete out at the Emperor's leisure.

Still, even though victory could be achieved by weathering this temporary storm, whatever fallout from their battle would damage the ship they were in. A quicker victory would always be better, and conquering a greater foe would foment a grander legend.

"You still do not understand what that means." Isha smiled to herself sadly. "I took the thoughts, dreams, and souls of my children as they died; slain by your people's hands or recovered by my own. All the thousands of years of fattening pleasure, and the torment of losing it all at the hands of She who Thirsts now lies within my breast." The goddess's hand rose to the goddess's chest, gripping at the simple white shift, wrinkling the thin Wraithbone cloth that covered Isha as the Aeldari's deity's lips curled back in anger. "It is only thanks to the emotion they carved my core out of, the body woven together by my mother, and the boiling blood my father poured into my veins that I can convert all the worst parts of their lives into a future good."

The Aeldari goddess's eyes were vacant, looking at something or someone that no longer existed. The pitch of the green and brown winds' howl raging throughout the room rose as the speed they ran around the room increased, denting air vents and forcing screws and bolts out of pipes as they forced themselves through every available opening in the room; as if they were seeking to escape as far away from Isha as they could.

"The strongest emotions born from the deepest despair and hottest hatred draw out the greatest power from the immaterium." Isha's voice was heavy with a smoldering resentful anger. "The Four are based off of that principle, and so were we."

A sardonic smile crossed Isha's lips, sheathing the white teeth bared in anger, as some semblance of control returned to the Aeldari goddess's face.

"Besides, do not speak to me as if you are any different. You throw all those who reach out to you into the flames for your own purpose."

The hand clutching at Isha's chest relaxed and fell away.

"In the end, we are both just a more complex form of Warp Predator. That was the name of the creatures the Old Ones specialized in breeding, after all."

Golden sparks crackled from the Emperor's eyes as its own lips drew back with its own anger.

"I am the Protector of Humanity." The Emperor spat. "Their sacrifices are the toll paid to ensure the survival of all mankind."

Isha laughed at this, a manic carefree laughter of exhaustion and disbelief. The irony of what the Master of Mankind said was too much to bear.

"Tell yourself what you want." Isha replied, head still shaking at the hypocrisy of it all. "The same theories that made me were applied when making you, even though you were far more blessed than I ever was." The smile disappeared from Isha's face as the last words left those pink lips, and a deep seated hatred glowed in those silvery eyes; dark green jealousy and black brown rage mixing within the abyssal black of the goddess's pupils.

"Enough of your accursed words, Aeldari witch." The Emperor said taking a step forward against the winds. "I may have wanted your knowledge, but I should have known that suffering your presence was never worth the price." Golden chains clinked as they emerged from around the Emperor; howling winds passing right through them, annulled and incinerated as they passed over and through the burning links of metal. "It may take me far longer, but burying you on Luna should bear fruit in a few decades."

The chains struck, rushing towards Isha through the wind at blinding speed, only to be suddenly entangled in dark green vines that grew from the ground and air around the Aeldari goddess. The two bindings clashed, with the chains slowly but surely pushing back the vines, burning and strangling them. However, the speed at which they moved was now at a snail's pace.

"I have seen your tricks, Mon-keigh." Isha snorted. "You would do best to never use the same ones again."

Time stopped for a brief moment as the Emperor realized something. Isha's form remained Aeldari, and no hint of animal claws or fangs appeared on her.

Those features only appeared when Isha was surprised or suppressing something; when some internal discord affected what shape the Aeldari goddess should take.

Isha was not conflicted, confused, or out of control at this moment. Every action was being conducted with precision and care. Every part of the Aeldari goddess was now in complete sync, and fully directed against the Emperor.

The most potent weapon in the eyes of the Mother of the Aeldari were not the beasts of the wild, but the Aeldari themselves and it was their form Isha now took.

The Emperor only had time to open its mouth before Isha vanished, turning into a gold and white streak that was rushing towards it. A misty cone of vapor trailed behind the goddess as the sound barrier was broken with the lunge.

Reflexively, the Emperor tried to step back, but only managed to lift its head backwards before Isha's fist narrowly missed the forehead and struck downwards into the center of its chest.

The blow sent the Master of Mankind through the reinforced metal of the floor with the screech of torn metal, only for that sound to be interrupted as the Emperor crashed through the ceiling of the deck below it, penetrating that one as well.

Floor, ceiling, floor, ceiling. The Emperor passed through 4 pairs before opening a Warp portal behind it that opened at Isha's back. The force Isha struck the Emperor with propelled the Master of Mankind like a bullet, sending the Emperor through the portal and towards the Aeldari goddess. But, even as the Emperor turned around to strike what it thought would be Isha's exposed back, the Aeldari goddess was already turned towards the portal, waiting for the Emperor to exit.

The Emperor could teleport instantly to almost any location it wished, but even the Emperor could not pass through a door that had not been opened. Thus, the door would always appear before the Emperor. Ergo, Isha would always strike first, for the Aeldari goddess would always stand in front of the door before the Emperor could pass through it.

But, that made no difference. The Emperor's sword was held with both hands, and the runes of forced slumber and thought-stealing were already upon the burning blade.

Golden steel met white skin, and cut through it like butter only to be smothered by an explosion of gray green bark and branches that tore themselves out of Isha's arm instead of red muscle and ivory bone.

The wooden bindings smoldered and steamed as they wrapped around both the blade of the Emperor's sword and both of its hands; holding the Master of Mankind in place.

The runes upon the blade crackled, and multicolored flames burned beneath Isha's bindings, making them glow like overheated wood or charcoal in a fire. Yet, the spell did not progress any further.

Static crackled before the Emperor's eyes, and new understanding spread through its mind.

Plants, when infected by a parasite or pathogen, had several defenses they deployed with their immune system. Their first reaction was to pump garbage into the affected region; to kill off the infected cells or entire leaves, to destroy the part in order to protect the whole. Isha used that biological reaction as symbolism for her own defense against the invasion against her mind the Emperor's spell brought; encapsulating it in junk memories and thoughts that she would kill off as the spell spread through them.

As long as the Goddess of Life continued killing the infected parts invaded by the Emperor's spell, its spell would never progress any further.

The Emperor struck with a psychic blow, firing a stream of golden flames emitted from before its face, only to be rebuffed as green brown winds slammed into them with even greater force; the Emperor's immaterium annulling aura balanced out by the greater violence Isha struck with.

Forked lighting lashed out from the equidistant point between them where their two energies met; clawing molten gouges into the floor, walls, and ceiling.

The Emperor would eventually win this battle between psychic blows. Even now, Isha had to spend more power just to hold the growing ball of blazing energy between them. However, it was the Emperor who would lose if time progressed any further.

Both of the Emperor's hands were bound, but Isha's other arm was free and it was cocked backwards like the hammer of a gun; the muscles in her arm and waist both pulled back and taught like an archer pulling back a bow string. In less than 0.01 seconds Isha would strike the Emperor with the force of several hundred cannons. Taking that blow at this close range, and with both its arms bound would be physically fatal. Even if the Emperor could regrow and repair its body, Isha would attack again before the damage could be repaired. From then on, Isha would repeatedly destroy the Master of Mankind's partially reconstructed form, and the Emperor would endlessly be on the backfoot.

The Emperor needed to take back the initiative this instant, and the decision needed to be made in less than 0.008 seconds.

Isha's eyes widened as the Emperor cut off its psychic attack, adding an extra millisecond to the timer, bringing the golden pauldron on the left shoulder forwards. The converging energies between them was slingshotted towards the Emperor and struck the golden pauldron, sending screaming sparks flying everywhere, pockmarking and cratering the wall behind the Emperor with a shotgun blast of psychic energies as the stream of green and brown gouged into the golden auramite of the Emperor's armor, shattering into splinters of force as the nullifying aura of the Emperor eventually destabilized them enough to break apart.

But, the Emperor's gamble worked. The force of the strike on its left shoulder had torn its left hand from the bindings, and as soon as the taloned hand was free, the Emperor swung its psychic might like a hammer into the side of Isha's green brown winds, deflecting both diagonally away from them, cutting through every hull and bulkhead of the Bucephelus as it crossed the wall, shooting into space like a laser beam.

Free of both Isha's psychic attack and part of her dead tree bindings, the Emperor's taloned hand closed around her upper torso as she swung forwards; freezing the motion of her waist, leaving only the muscles in her arm to swing forwards. Even then, the sonic boom of her strike sent a shock wave past the Emperor's cheek; cutting up the side of its face, shattering both the jaw joint and eardrum.

However, Isha's fist did no more damage than that, as the taloned hand held her back, out of arm's length. A Warp portal opened before them, and the Emperor threw the both of them outside of the ship, into the void between the Bucephelus and the planet below.

The Emperor's talons squeezed around Isha, sparking as the auramite screeched against the goddess's impossibly hard skin. Only the sword could penetrate that, and the blade was still bound in the bark bindings of Isha's arm.

However, the Emperor could feel the goddess weakening.

It was the Goddess of Life and the void of space was an inhospitable place to it. On the ship, there were still plants, air, dust filled ducts, and dirty rooms. All were filled with life of some sort; whether it be decorative flora, microscopic fauna like dust mites, and bacteria or fungi. The environment of the Bucephelus was a microcosm teeming with invisible life, and thus Isha could exist there comfortably.

Out here, in the lifeless void filled with no air, where the only winds were the solar winds released from radioactive plumes by the nearby stars that brought painful death for most life through genetic damage and radiation sickness, Isha would weaken.

Soon, the bark bindings would die, and the Emperor's sword would plunge into Isha's heart, sending her to sleep for all eternity; creating another alien Atlas that would shoulder all the worlds of humanity.

The Emperor expected despair, worry, or even pain to be expressed in the silvery eyes of Isha, but all it saw was the reflection of grim determination the Emperor itself acted with.

Isha's free hand grabbed the taloned gauntlet, and psychic energies sparked as the nails began to drill down past the Emperor's aura.

Something touched the Emperor's mind. Something unfathomably more massive than it, and infinitely alien.

Pain filled every nerve fiber of the Emperor, and its teeth gritted holding in a tortured howl.

Thoughts, sights, sounds, smells, and sensations seeped into all that composed the Emperor; adding weight to the golden path that threatened to cause its bricks to crack and crumble.

The Emperor attempted to throw Isha away, but it was the Emperor who was now bound to Isha. Its taloned hand was gripped with one hand, while the sword was bound in the bark still protruding from the other.

It… He… She… could feel that whatever Isha was doing was interfering with the multiple personas that composed the Emperor, forcing a different face up to the surface as alien memories were dumped into the Emperor's mind.

Man, Woman, Old, Young, Black, Brown, Yellow, White. Every race, gender, and age of human shifted from one to the next as the Emperor struggled against Isha.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Emperor could see Isha was not unscarred by this either. Flames consumed the hand embedded in the gauntlet, burning away at her as the Emperor's essence rejected and reverted Isha back to the nothingness of the immaterium. A pained grimace furrowed her brow, and sweat flew off her skin into the void in pearly droplets as they tumbled ever closer to the planet.

Suddenly, Isha's grip weakened, and her arm that was bound to the blade via the flora that had come out from it came loose from the tree bindings, as if shedding the wood like a glove. Flames were consuming that hand as well, but the Empress didn't bother considering why or how that happened. Instead, she took her swords, still encased in Isha's bindings, and smashed the blade covered in burnt bark against Isha's head with all her might.

The titanic blow sent the goddess shooting away from the Empress, and shattered the charred remains of her bindings into charcoal splinters.

The Emperor reverted to his preferred male form, persona included, for whatever Isha had implanted inside of him still raged inside his core; burdening the already crowded path his true form paved with extra thoughts and memories.

The neutral mindset equidistant from everything could not be brought back, but it was a trivial matter. There was no need to be neutral to break a god. He hadn't defeated the Void Dragon as the Emperor, after all.

Isha was falling towards the planet, both arms still burning, but she was not dead. She could not be allowed to die after inconveniencing him this much.

Cursed knowledge from Molech came back with the horrid memories of that place, and new golden wards formed with the numbers of Chaos. 3 sided equilateral triangles formed far away from Isha, keeping them out of her reach while they were reinforced and strengthened. 8 of these were summoned with Isha at the center. They would close together as a shining trapezohedron formed from 3 sided triangles that would make a shape with 8 sides and 6 vertices; a double pyramid made with golden light and red flames that would fill with all the horrors of decay, war, and decadence humanity had experienced.

He watched her glare up at him, before shooting towards one of the gaps between the swiftly closing wards. They moved too slow to catch her, but he was expecting that. There were only a few places she could run to escape the wards. They would herd her right where he wanted her.

With all the psychic he could muster, the Master of Mankind launched himself towards Isha, far faster than any bullet or bolter round. Golden after images streaked behind him like the tail of a comet.

The burning blade of his sword roared as the flames that came from it grew brighter and brighter as he closed the distance between them.

Isha turned to face him, and he could now see the shifting beneath her skin as she prepared to intercept him again with the wooden self-sacrificing bindings, but it was his turn to see through her tricks.

If this were the immaterium, the same symbolism of self-sacrifice could have been used, for that realm was truly composed of thoughts and dreams. However, in the materium, no matter how effective the symbol was at its purpose, there was a physical limit to the material it was expressed with.

The Aeldari goddess grimaced, and the shifting beneath her skin withdrew.

The Emperor sneered at her.

The wood that exploded from her body would not stop him now. He traveled too quickly and with too much mass. The moment she tried to intercept him with that same trick, he would smash right through whatever branch or root she could produce and impale her in the same motion.

As the Emperor's blade streaked towards Isha, her burning hands slammed down on the flats of the blade, spewing glowing green and brown smoke from her hands as the flames ate through the flesh and bone of her fingers. But, she was still able to catch the blade centimeters before it punched through her breast. Psychic energies sparked and cracked as she attempted to push back the spread of the Emperor's spell with raw psychic power.

The two of them streaked through the ash clouds of the planet below them, appearing as a green brown shooting star with a golden tail.

Storm winds howled around them as they penetrated the upper atmosphere, gray ash turning orange at their passing from the heat of the friction they generated that burned the very air around them.

The Emperor's blade slowly started to slip from Isha's grasp, drawing closer and closer to her heart.

Then, the flames surrounding Isha's arms suddenly gutted out. The charred flesh and bones regrew themselves, restoring the white pearly skin of her arms and the soft smooth fingers of her hands. When her nails reformed, the Emperor felt something repel him, just like magnets of the same polarity push each other apart.

There was a thin glow of gold at the very tip of each of her nails, and it was these that now grasped the blade of his sword.

Such a weak grasp should not have been able to push back against his blow, but the blade refused to budge an inch while it was held between her 10 nails.

The Emperor looked up at Isha's face and his blood ran cold.

A wide eyed bare toothed grin stared back at him, like the smile of a wolf before an orphaned shivering lamb.

Ancient instincts honed by fighting the Bull of Heaven and countless other monstrosities screamed inside the Emperor's mind, and he swung his sword sending Isha flying off to the side.

Then, all sound disappeared as he suddenly accelerated towards the ground.

The air resistance that was the only thing that slowed his fall had gone, along with the atmosphere around him. Isha had pulled all of it away, and now he was falling faster than ever with nothing to stop him but the hard ground that was rushing up to him.

He reached out with his psychic touch to annul her grasp on the air around them, but quickly pulled back and instead surrounded himself in the strongest psychic barrier he could muster.

He was now in the center of a giant vacuum, equivalent to being at the epicenter of a gigantic primed Krak grenade. If he undid Isha's control, the vacuum would close upon him in a devastating shockwave that would pass right through his armor and liquify his insides.

But, Isha wouldn't wait for the Emperor to set off the bomb he was now inside. She would surely strike first.

Not a moment after he had that thought, a hammer of air slammed into his barrier from above. Isha had opened the top of the vacuum chamber she had created, and all the air that had been removed was now screaming down at him, shoving him towards the ground faster and faster.

The Emperor reinforced the barrier, his body, and his armor as he hurtled to the ground and struck it with meteoric force; sending dust clouds several hundred meters into the air with an explosion that cracked and cratered the volcanic rock most of the planet's crust was made of.

The remaining air displaced by Isha rushed in to swiftly disperse the ash and dust of the impact, leaving only the Emperor in the crater his landing had created.

Slowly, he rose to his feet and began to walk out of the concave hole he had made, only to stumble and land on one knee.

His eyes sparked as his physical form started to shift once again from male to female, old to young, race to race.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Isha said gently as she landed in a gust of wind, sitting down leisurely on the ledge of the crater above the Emperor.

"Powerful as that ability may be, using it has several risks that you should be well aware of." Isha rested her cheek on one hand as she looked down upon the ever shifting Emperor. "Should you stop your feet now, there is no assurance you will start from where you were, or even start again at all."

The Emperor glared at her with a feminine face before switching to one of an old arab.

"I always wondered what sort of god you were." She chuckled. "In hindsight, there were many clues. The impression you left on all your followers. Your self-righteous nature. The rejection of all that you see as unholy. I even understand why you found my song so painful to listen to."

The Goddess of Life hummed a small section of her song, and giggled girlishly as the Emperor grit his teeth and shifted into several other people rapidly as the discord within it increased.

"Your path is but one possibility among the many ways life can wander." Isha spoke quietly, her voice melodious and echoing as all Aeldari voices do. "You walk blindly upon it, always wondering whether things could be different, but never able to see what could have been."

The Empress glared at Isha, white teeth bared as her soft feminine features twisted with rage, glowering at the goddess with eyes wet with unspilled tears.

"It must be painful to hear all of what could have been in my song. To see and feel the peace that could have been yours if you simply chose to live a different life."

Isha sighed, and sat up right; looking down at the feminine Master of Mankind with cold regal eyes.

"But, you had no choice but to walk the painful path you did. No one else would, and no one else could. Even when you finally left the mortal realm and became a being of the Sea of Souls, you could not stop yourself from trying to save them. But, being a god means to define both what is and what isn't your Truth."

A slow smile crossed Isha's face.

"I see why they call you the Anathema..."

Neoth

First King of Uruk

Saint

Specimen D-001

The names and titles she called him were said all at the same time, overlaid upon each other yet simultaneously individually identifiable, truly revealing to the Emperor what exactly she had done to him and taken from him.

"You once pronounced to know the end of my path, God of Heroes." Isha said quietly. "Allow me to prophesize the end of your legend in return."

[of-substandard-parts-a]

HEADCANON // SHADOW

In some timelines (depending on when the thread is situated and whether it’s an AU or not) Lore owns a black cat called Shadow (so, this will either be in-between “Brothers” and “Descent” or after “Descent”). Originally, Shadow is a fabrication passed on from my time roleplaying Lore on Twitter; she was introduced to him by the Data I wrote with and now, she has her own little headcanon post.

The basics of Shadow: Shadow operates on half a braincell, but she’s very sweet and affectionate — despite Lore’s copious attempts to teach her how to single out humans and attack them, didn’t work, unsuccessful. She is a bit of a quirky little cat and craves loves attention. Her favourite spot to sleep is on Lore’s chest — he’s kind of like a big laptop charger, just like Data, so his chest is the warmest and most comfortable place to doze off on. The feline has some equilibrium issues, so she sometimes bumps into objects or miscalculates her jumps and falls on her face. She enjoys being in the presence of other people and cats; she’s very easy-going and, unlike Spot, does not try to escape Lore’s quarters — unless she really misses him.

Background information: There are literally numerous ways regarding when, where, and how Lore crossed paths with the cat, one of them being after “Descent” when he was not deactivated but simply put into custody, so he could defend himself before Starfleet would make their final determination (whether to deactivate him and ship him off to Daystrom, or reintegrate him into society with adequate guidance and counselling). While Starfleet contemplated their next course of action, Lore was permitted to wander around the ship with a security detail or his brother.

1. After meeting Spot, on the few occasions Data and Lore were in his brother’s quarters, Lore caught himself growing a certain fondness for the orange tabby — he was much less focused on hurling sarcasm at Data when his feline was present. Hence why Data proposed to take him to the cat shelter on the Enterprise and introduce him to the cats that were still available and required an owner. Naturally, Lore pretended to be disinterested, but within minutes — probably seconds — upon laying his eyes on Shadow he caved and adopted the black feline.

Or after “Brothers”...

2. In 2367, shortly after the conclusion of “Brothers,” Lore raced through Federation Space searching for a planet on which he could blow off some steam after his encounter with his father, Doctor Noonian Soong, and his brother, Data. He wanted to take out his anger on anyone or anything. He had travelled several lightyears and eventually found a planet — the perfect candidate to unleash his wrath on. The android stumbled upon an abandoned village and started to ravage it, and it was not until the influx of contradictory emotions overexerted his circuitry that he ceased his irateness and sat down. Several hours elapsed, during which Lore had been preoccupied, staring at his damaged hands and the puddle beneath his feet, watching the rain create ripples in the superficial pool of water, until his auditory sensors suddenly detected the light, but irregular footfalls of a creature behind him. Immediately, he leapt to his feet and was ready to toss rocks at whatever was approaching him, but when he saw the black feline, drenched, muddy, and injured — Lore didn’t know whether he’d been responsible for the limp — he sat down again, waiting for the cat to reach him. The black cat immediately started to rub her face against his shins and meowed softly, trying to jump on his lap, but her injuries impeded her from performing the act, and at that moment she looked just as forlorn as Lore. He decided to take her with him to his ship and nurse her back to health. Initially, he didn’t want to keep her, because he was afraid he might hurt her, or would fail at being a good owner, but the second he had cleaned and bandaged her, and she curled up beside him and fell asleep, he came to the conclusion that retrieving the cat to the planet would be a cruel thing to do, and thus, decided to offer her a forever home on his ship.

Another alternate universe...

3. During the intervening time between “Datalore” and “Brothers,” Lore had been involved in all sorts of shady, but lucrative affairs. He’d worked alongside pirates, black market vendors, merchants, and successfully deceived his competitors. At some point, he even ended up commandeering a nicked Romulan Warbird (more about this in another headcanon post that is specifically about this AU). Anyway, long story short, during one of his many errands to some dodgy planet near the border with the Ferengi, he visited a black market to procure “new” parts for the Warbird to get its cloaking device operational again. Shortly after he’d found all the necessary ingredients to finally complete his hard labour, a band of Nausicaans ran into him. Lore rebuked them and neutralised two of the six that constituted this band, promising to eliminate every single one of them should they make another attempt on his life. Miraculously enough, they stood down and the band of rogues and Lore each went their own way. However, they had barely parted ways when a black feline hobbled after him and meowed to garner his attention. Annoyed, Lore tried to shoo the cat, which attracted the Nausicaans’ attention again, and they immediately advanced, claiming that the cat is theirs and would make an acceptable dinner. At this unpleasant revelation, Lore shuddered in disgust but decided not to meddle in their affairs. Unfortunately, the feline seemed to be aware of her fate and, with a lot of effort, clambered into Lore’s bag, unbeknownst to the android and the Nausicaans. When he returned to the Warbird, and opened his bag, the black cat jumped out and started to run around the bridge, knocking equipment over and accidentally activated systems which Lore quickly had to disable or abort. A brief chase ensued in which the cat ran amok and Lore tried to capture her. Eventually, she managed to sneak into his personal quarters and hid and curled herself up in a small ball under the couch. While she snoozed, Lore lay down on his stomach and watched her sleep, thinking that perhaps having a little companion on board this humongous ship might not be such a bad idea after all, and decided to grant her asylum.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 09/07/2024

Rick and Morty: The Anime EP#04 - Memories: A flashback reveals Mullet Rick was the creator of Defiance, the rebel group against the Galatic Federation, which was joined by Space Morty after Mullet Rick gave up his authority. Following the events in the previous episode, Space Morty continued to fight along with Alien Elle, which Mullet Rick got tired of. In the present, after leaving Mullet Rick's universe, Rick finds himself stranded in the paradox space by living as other Ricks. In the end, he realises Elle is the one behind the scenes, who wants Rick to validate her existence in this dimension. Summer and Morty, as picked up by Space Beth, soon locate Rick out from the paradox space. Morty recognises Elle is driving Rick's spaceship, implying Rick finally gives in. Space Beth has doubts of encountering Elle somewhere before. Meanwhile, Beth gets insecured for being left behind by Rick again, and Jerry stubbornly plays with Rick's properties. Post-credits scene: Beth welcomes the family members and Elle back home, and they have a memorable family photoshoot. They all forget Jerry, who activates a dimensional travelling gadget and goes lost in the garage.

Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc EP#05 (49) - Bright Red Sword: After saving Kozo, Muichiro is taken to his shed for a new blade, where they encounter Gyokko. With her whip-like sword and Love Breathing, Mitsuri saves the village from Gyokko's demons. After Karaku pins Nezuko beneath heavy debris, she grips her hands onto Tanjiro's blade, coating it in blood. Muichiro attacks Gyokko and discovers he can produce new vases and teleport between them to avoid getting hit. He is poisoned by Gyokko's attacks and trapped in a watery vase. Using her fire, Nezuko heats up Tanjiro's blade into a bright red hue. Sekido realizes the blade resembles that of the swordsman who almost killed Muzan. As his scar becomes a fiery mark once more, Tanjiro unleashes his Hinokami Kagura and swiftly beheads Urogi, Karaku, and Sekido. He notices Aizetsu has been beheaded by Genya but is shocked to see he has assumed the appearance of a demon.

-Toonami Rewind Shows-

Sailor Moon EP#22 - Romance Under the Moon: Usagi's First Kiss: Luna and Beryl wonder if a visiting princess could be the one the Guardians have been looking for. Mamoru dreams he is Tuxedo Mask and a girl is asking him for the Silver Crystal. At the ball, Usagi accidentally drinks wine and experiences her first kiss by Tuxedo Mask.

Sailor Moon EP#23 - Wish Upon a Star: Naru's First Love: Nephrite creates a crystal that will guide him to the Silver Crystal. Usagi tries to tell Naru that the man she loves is Nephrite in disguise, but Naru does not believe her, saying Usagi's jealous. Nephrite convinces Naru to steal a crystal from her mother and bring it to him.

[lindajenni]

sep 2

week in review - headlines

"behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me." psa 40:7

U.K. Population Collapse “Good for the Planet”, WEF Adviser Prof Sarah Harper Explains Remember how depopulation was called a right-wing conspiracy theory? Things have changed, and ‘population collapse’, which can no longer be denied, is now good for us!

Daycare Centers In Germany Provide ‘Masturbation Rooms’ For Children …One report published by Die Welt, discussed how the practice of sexualizing kindergarteners is unfolding in two daycares in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia [NRW].

WHO and UN are Sexualising Little Children Worldwide to Normalise Paedophilia “Schools must equip children to have sexual partners” – say the UN and WHO” is the title of an article from Stop World Control, which has evidence to suggest that the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) are sexualising little children in primary education worldwide, for the purpose of normalising pedophilia.

Nasa asteroid strike unleashes boulder storm ‘as deadly as Hiroshima’ A storm of boulders “as deadly as Hiroshima” was accidentally unleashed by Nasa during tests to change the trajectory of an asteroid, scientists have found. … Now astronomers have found that although the impact succeeded in knocking Dimorphos slightly off course, it also dislodged 37 boulders, which are currently zipping through space at 13,000mph. …a 15ft boulder hitting Earth would deliver as much energy as the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan

Leftist organization to haredi journalist: ‘Religion is stupid’ “Religion is stupid. There is no difference between the nonsense that you believe into those of the Christians and the Muslims,” the movement wrote and added that it is only “a different language for different idiots. Proselytization is proselytization. In the eyes of others (most of the normal world), you are just that.

Built Upon Lies And Spiritual Darkness: The Rise And Fall Of Satan’s Counterfeit Kingdom But Satan also has a strategy. The heart of his strategy is to blind mankind to the fact that God’s judgment will soon fall upon this world. This denial has a purpose – Satan is using it to prepare the world for his coming attempt to establish the visible, political form of his evil kingdom on earth led by an emissary we refer to as the Antichrist.

Federal court says parents have no right to opt kids out of LGBT curriculum A federal court ruled Thursday that parents who sued a Maryland school district have no right to opt their children out of classes teaching LGBT curriculum.

Pope Francis appears to reject the idea that homosexuals are called to chastity Pope Francis has again indicated an openness to homosexual activity, as he has refused to affirm the Catholic teaching on chastity and celibacy for homosexuals.

Mutilating gender surgeries in the US nearly tripled over 3-year period, study finds A new study released this week shows an alarming increase in the number of so-called “sex change” surgeries committed in the United States. Specifically, these radical procedures nearly tripled between 2016 and 2019, with a significant number of young people obtaining chest mutilation or reconstruction.

Generating A False god: ChatGPT Goes Viral With ‘Fake Bible Passage’ Portraying Jesus ‘Accepting’ Transgenderism According to a Reddit post that went viral, a trans-identifying individual posted, “I was feeling sad today,” and so this person turned to AI for encouragement by asking ChatGPT to write a “fake Bible passage about Jesus accepting trans people.”

Senior Jesuit priest and close friend of Pope Francis accuses Jesus of being ‘stymied and callous’ A close papal confidant and editor of an influential Jesuit publication has published a Gospel commentary described as “blasphemous” due to its description of Jesus Christ as “stymied and callous.”

[plugrick]

In gromflomite society, their caste system was directly based on bloodlines that benefitted their extensive military operations. Whilst their populous still had some semblances of free will when it came to choosing mates, the Feceration influence weighed heavily upon the decision with whom to produce offspring with. Good soldiers with bright promising futures were bred for specific purposes, full stop. Some for higher intelligence, others for grunt work, and at the top of the metaphorical food chain were the Berserkers.

Drones were the strongest of their kind, and revered for said strength. Having Berserker blood in one’s veins automatically made them more respected, and often times equally as feared. After all, it only took a certain degree of violence to awaken ancient instinct passed down from generation to generation - and a single drone was capable of the same destruction that would normally require an entire squadron.

Once their blood lust was unleashed, there was no true way to stop a Berserker unless their hunger for destruction was satiated or they were dead. When dealt injury, they only became more powerful and determined to kill. The more gruesome the wound, the better the results. At least, that’s how it was for the majority of their kind…

It was that very same ability to tap into that altered state of mind that had aided Mike the prowess to power through the prison escape and endure the dreaded bite of Lizardperson. Berserker blood was the same reason that Flannax Archibald was able to continue fighting through grevious damage wrought unto him, not to mention survive months locked in a defunct ship with a monster.

Although his bloodline was not pure, Krombopulos was as dangerous as any of the rest of them. Doubly so because he wasn’t like these brutes. Not even close.

The out of control drone that had been struck in the great cord threw his head back and roared in agony, spittle flying through the air with the intensity of the action. Mike had made an smart move by crippling a limb, as physical inability was the only thing that could force something so overrun with the craving for death to slow down even slightly. Green blood sprayed out with the intensity of a fire hydrant, thanks to the fact that their blood pressure ran notoriously high when in the throes of madness.

He turned swiftly to land an attack in revenge for the extremely painful snapping of tendon, and grew ever more frusturated when Mike flitted out of the way in the blink of an eye. Instead, his great fist caved in a wall where the enemy had only just been standing there laughing. It enraged him. The drone snarled like an animal, every ounce of personality drained from his features and replaced by pure, undiluted malice.

The second one shouldered off the injured soldier unceremoniously, unamused by the weakness displayed. The traitor was fast, but this hallway was small, and he was big. The soldier stood tall to take up as much space as possible in the hopes of blocking evasion, charging head on.

————

Leave it to a defector and known member of the Galactic Rebellion to speak the most sense out of everybody in the room. If nothing else, Amy could be respected for her thinking skills where some of the more basic grunt soldiers were lacking. They made short work of covering their faces with whatever they had - extra cloth, pulled up shirt collars, even just claws - in the hopes it would spare them from the same fate as poor suffering Arlington who collapsed onto his knees.

Eyes in the room turned onto her, most of them shimmering with a healthy dose of surprise. Not only because none of them had ever been spoken to in such a way by a dainty lady before, but also because of her borderline ludicrous suggestion.

Ending one of their own? Turning a weapon on their fellow soldier by the command of a rebel who wanted nothing more than to see the great Federation destroyed?

The senior soldier Amy addressed stiffened his posture, clearly uncomfortable by being singled out. “That - that goes directly against my orders from the Grand Leader. Our commands were to attempt to save the victims. I cannot kill another of my own platoon!”

Ugh! This was no time to display an unwaivering sense of loyalty to one’s own! OR listen to that Ken bastard! Rick was quick to back Amy up on her split second decision, jumping right down the guy’s throat with classic flair. It was probably refreshing to see him direct his spitfire attitude on somebody else.

“What are you, a-aaa pussy?! Big man over here w-with a big gun is too much of a WIMP t-to shoot it?!” He tore into him mercilessly, mocking him for good measure. “W-what good even ARE you?!”

The soldier frowned, a flicker passing through his expression that seemed wholly unsure of himself. “She is part of the Rebellion! A traitor! I cannot secede to her demands!”

Rick took a step forward, wildly gesturing to the actively dying soldier in front of them all. “LOOK at this guy! He - he’s going to go Berserk any moment a-aaaand TEAR US ALL TO PIECES, and it’ll be YOUR FAULT! THEN who w-will be the traitor?!”

The human, whilst being an inferior meat based primate creature, drove a strong message home that seemed to resonate with the senior soldier. They could not afford to be trapped with a Berserker in such a tight space, much less one that was infected. It would end every last one of them, and the responsibility of being at fault for allowing it to happen was too great of a cross to bear into the afterlife.

The senior soldier stepped forward and wordlessly pressed the tip of his weapons muzzle right between the eyes. Arlington’s dark rimmed, dizzy red lenses rolled up to look at him in a last moment of clarity. There was relief evident in his tired, defeated gaze. This would free him from the shackles of the horrific disease taking ahold of his body. Truly, it was an act of the utmost mercy.

BANG!

The chitin that made up the outermost layer of Arlington’s head exploded outwards in every direction, decorating the walls and occupants of the elevator in solid chunks of his remains. A jelly like substance that consisted of brain matter and inner flesh that lied beneath was exposed, holding its shape for merely a few seconds before melting into a puddle that fell to the floor with a squelch before the rest of his body folded limply.

Rick released a breath that he hadn’t been conciously aware he’d been holding, thankful that the imminent threat was over. Even if he had been directly in the splash zone. He reached up and wiped away a piece of disintegrated skull from beneath his eye with a cringe, flicking it away off his fingertips. The whole thing reminded him a little too much of the Dennis incident. At least none of it got in his mouth this time thanks to covering it with the hem of his shirt. “Eugh.”

The occupants of the elevator stood in a wide circle around the centerpiece of spilled blood and guts as Arlington’s body still spewed from his jugular veins, a beat of silence shared between them as the outpouring of green fluid slowed and signaled that his heart had finally stopped.

“…. Glob damn…” Rick finally spoke up, trying to lighten the mood. “Th-that was a close one. Heh heh. Coulda been real bad, am I - am I right?”

Crrrrrack.

What was that?

Creeeak. CRACK.

Arlington’s body twitched. Hard.

Creeeeeak…

Rick had spoken too soon. His eyes widened and he took a half step back towards Amy, flattening himself against the wall in his best effort to put distance between himself and whatever the FUCK was happening to what was left of Arlington. He was dead, beyond dead - head exploded off of his shoulders DEAD - and yet his body jumped and writhed where it lie face-up on the floor.

That horrific, nauseating sound emanating from the body was bones snapping, he realized with a start. Creaking and groaning and grinding upon one another beneath a veil of chitin and flesh that still contained them. Arlington’s ribcage squirmed as if great parasitic worms were crawling through him, pushing from within and rippling through his chest plate visibly beneath his uniform.

He had never seen anything like it. And neither had any of the rest of them, judging by the shocked faces and whimpers of fear circulating the space.

“Uhhh!” Rick’s voice pitched high with panic. “W-w-what the fuck is happening?!”

CREEEEAK—

Arlington’s remains suddenly jolted up off of the floor, his muscles not yet affected by rigormortis contracting to throw arms out and arch his midsection off of the ground—

And something tore clean through his chest from the inside, flesh ripping and tearing apart in a display that would traumatize even the most battle hardened of the lot of them.

KSSSSHHHGHHHH!

A thing burst out of his chitin with impossible force, the visceral noise itself enough to make one gag. The unidentifiable little obsidian black creature was covered in deep green blood and shreds of organs, but lifted its head and shook it off before taking its first breath and letting out an ear piercing screech.

“REEEEEEEEE!”

It’s wide parted mouth exposed tiny, perfectly white sickle shaped teeth. Tiny razor claws gripped at the edges of broken chitin for purchase, scrabbling to free its smooth body from the vicera that it had been birthed from.

Smooth skinned, long tailed, muscular arms and legs, blacker than the deep reaches of space—

IT WAS A LIZARD. A BABY LIZARDPERSON!

Rick completely lost his shit right then and there, trying his damndest to desperately claw his way backwards up the wall behind him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

X

[hauntingcryptids]

Anything

Dhawan!Master x Reader

Summary - The Master makes a demand that you don’t expect.

Based On This Request -

Warnings - canon typical violence, Master typical violence, me making up random alien species, The Master being obsessive, possessive and a bit of a yandere

Word Count - 1802

A/n - I think that I made this more of a gender neutral reader. This was requested on my old Tumblr by a lovely anon! I also made this bit of an AU, where all of Whittaker!Doctor’s companions are together travelling together. I hope that you enjoy it!

------------------------------------------------------------

The Master had devised yet another attempt to destroy thousands of civilizations of alien species and gain control over innocent people for his own gain. He infiltrated an intergalactic community, killed the leader of a planet within that community and then pretended to be said leader. He then staged a meeting of the presidents and leaders of the Intergalactic Federation. There, he could unleash a barrage of bombs onto the leaders, killing them all. Once they were all killed, The Master could easily set himself up as the ruler of that group of galaxies. He would have his little kingdom in space to do whatever he wished with. Including finally getting you to leave The Doctor and devote yourself to him.

But, of course, The Doctor created another brilliant plan to stop her best enemy’s devious plans. She had heard rumours of the prime minister of Miyalo going virtually radio silent. The only communications from the prime minister of Miyalo were to the Intergalactic Federation. So, that’s where The Doctor, her companions and you began to do some research. The Doctor ended up wishing that she had begun researching the rumours of the silent prime minister of Miyalo sooner rather than taking you and the rest of her companions to Space Paris for a quiet getaway.

The Master was already set up and prepared to kill thousands. A legion of ships were filled to the brim with bombs ready to drop on the Intergalactic Federation Base below. All explosive-carrying ships were being led by a flagship being piloted by The Master. Once over the base, he could press one button and unleash the bombs upon the base. The Doctor had to act quickly before The Master reached his destination on the planet. 

The Doctor tracked her old friend’s presence to the control room of the ship. The Doctor and Yaz set out to the artillery room of the ship to deactivate the bombs and cause a malfunction to travel throughout the fleet of ships, so The Master would not be able to release them. The Doctor then sent Graham and Ryan to the base to try and force the leaders staying at the Intergalactic Federation Base to leave the planet. And finally, The Doctor sent you and Dan to talk to The Master and try and get him to stop all of this. It was a triple fail-safe plan, as The Doctor described.

You and Dan ran to the console room of the ship. You ran faster than your friend down the halls of the large ship, holding the interior floor plan of the ship, that The Doctor sent to your phone, in front of you. But when you turned around to see if Dan was running behind you, you saw that you were alone in the halls. You were about to run back to try and find Dan, but you distantly heard The Master shouting at a machine for not working fast enough. It was reckless to face off with him alone, but this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done so. You knew that you needed to stop him in order to save all the individuals on the planet below. You’d risk an argument with The Doctor if it meant that you helped save the lives of thousands. You ran toward the console room of the alien flagship, slowing down the closer you got to it.

You crept into the room and saw The Master pressing buttons and pulling levers with malice. You ghosted forward, not entirely sure how you were going to get through this situation by yourself. You were second-guessing yourself now that you were actually alone with the rebel Time Lord. Maybe he wouldn’t be as willing to cooperate with you as he was like the last time.

“Well, well, well … Look who’s finally arrived.” The Master slowly turned to look at you, leaning against the edge of the ship’s console. You took a deep breath and pushed your fear down and ignore the Time Lord’s flirtatious undertones.

“Stop all of this Master!”

“And why should I do that, love? Just because you asked me to? I don’t think so.” The Master strutted toward you, highlighting his mocking and teasing tones with judging faces and looming gestures. He always inched forward and pointed his finger at you whenever he wanted to make an impression.

“That worked last time, though.” This caught The Master off guard. He could sense your uneasy nature and did not expect you to be this confrontational with him. He did enjoy the banter, though.

“So, The Doctor sent you to me as a distraction. So, she and her little pets can defeat me behind my back while you have my full attention. It’s a good plan. You are an impeccable distraction, but you and your pesky friends won’t be able to stop my genius plans this lime, love.”

“Just stop this, Master. Please. You don’t have to do this!”

“But don’t I? My previous plans failed, but now I actually have a chance to succeed without any consequences.”

“But you would be killing your oldest friend and so many innocent people! That sounds like many consequences to me.”

“None of them matter to me! Just you. And with you out of the way of the bombs and the artillery room, I can finally destroy my best enemy! And I get the opportunity to flirt with you uninterrupted and become an incredibly powerful leader of an intergalactic community in the process. That’s an all-around win in my book!”

“You can’t do this! This isn’t worth it. You can flirt with me uninterrupted any time and not kill anyone!” You hoped that appealing to The Master’s romantic side might help your case. Even though the Time Lord took a moment to consider your offer, he moved back toward the console of the ship and prepared the deploy button.

“Try me.” The Master hovered his hand over the deploy button dramatically. You hadn’t received a message from The Doctor. You had no idea if she had done what she said that she would do. You knew that you would need to do something incredibly risky and vulnerable to distract and stop the threatening Time Lord before you. The Master moved to press the button. 

“Please, please, I’ll do anything!” You screamed out to him causing The Master to pause and fully consider the possibilities of what you were offering.

“Anything?”

“Anything you want.” The Master chuckled before staring you down and stalking back toward you. He loomed closer to you than ever before. You could feel the heat of his breath on your face and neck as he stalked around you in a circle. You felt like prey caught in a predator’s sight. The only difference is that you, completely out of your mind, consented to be caught. You convinced yourself that this was a good idea. Once he was facing you again, The Master bumped his nose against yours and brought a hand up to caress your face. He smirked when he felt you flinch away from the surprisingly soft gesture,

“Kneel.” The Master whispered against your lips. You sighed, you expected that The Master would act this way, but it still made you uncomfortable. You needed to save The Doctor, though. So, you kneeled before the renegade Time Lord. The Master stepped back to get a good look at you in this position. You clenched your jaw in distress when you saw the raw hunger in The Master’s eyes; you had never been looked at so wantonly before.

“Call me by my name.”

“Master.” You whispered. Your eyes fluttered around the room, hoping for any sign of The Doctor coming to save you.

“Can’t hear you, love.”

“Master.” You said more forcefully.

“Oh! I love hearing you say my name! Say it again.” The Master jumped up and down clapping his hands rapidly before bending down to look in your eyes more closely as you said his name again.

“Master.” The Master smiled more manically than you have ever seen. You felt so defeated and degraded, but you couldn’t deny your immense curiosity for what The Master had in store for you. To your surprise, The Master, knelt down before you so the two of you were now level and equal.

“Now, my good little Human, you will be coming to live with me on my TARDIS.”

“What?”

“You said that you would do anything, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I just wasn’t expecting that request.” 

“Not a request. A demand, love. Now I suggest that you get up and follow me to my ship.” The Master jolted up to gain some control again. His tone darkened to a growl to highlight his point. He held out his hand for you to take when you didn’t immediately stand to join him.

“And you will stop your plan to kill The Doctor and the people of the Intergalactic Federation?” The Master didn’t respond. He only cocked his head to the side as a warning and held out his hand closer to you. Somehow his eyes grew even more intense, demanding and possessive. You took one more deep breath before softly placing your hand in his awaiting palm. The Master instantly clamped his hand around yours in an unyielding hold. He pulled you to your feet in a swift motion, causing you to fall into The Master’s sturdy chest. The Master has a brazen smile etched deep into his face as he secured his other hand on the small of your back, keeping you firmly against his chest.

“You’re mine now, love. Forever and always. Mine. And nothing could ever make me let you go.” The Master let go of his tight grip on your hand and surprisingly gently, compared to his previous movements, cupped your head and placed a delicate and meaningful kiss on your temple before manoeuvring your bodies into a hug. For some reason, you didn’t feel the need this time to flinch away from his movements.

Just as The Doctor and her companions broke through all of the defence mechanisms The Master placed on the flagship’s console room door, you and The Master teleported to his TARDIS. You never saw them. You never saw your friends’ confused faces. You never saw the lost and defeated look on The Doctor’s face when she saw you wrapped up in The Master’s arms. But The Master saw it all and he would cherish those images for the rest of his days. He relished in the fact that he finally stole you away from his best enemy. You were completely his now. And true to his word, he was never going to let you go. Even if you wanted him to. You agreed to anything after all.

[razieltwelve]

Close Combat (Final Fall)

Once, long ago, opposing ships had drawn opposite each other on the high seas of Remnant to delivery devastating broadsides. That age had long since passed, but there were still battles to be fought, if in space instead of upon the open sea.

X      X      X

No one spoke on the bridge of the Imperial dreadnought Valorous Heart. Instead, the minds of everyone on board were linked in a sort of quasi-telepathy established by the vessels artificial intelligence. Commands were issued faster than thought itself and obeyed just as quickly. Organic and machine worked in perfect unison to ply their deadly trade.

“They’re pulling alongside,” Heart, the artificial intelligence of the ship, murmured through the shared comms. “They’re looking for close combat.”

The ship’s captain, Artanus, took a split-second to consider the situation even as Heart gently pushed the results of thousands of simulations into his mind. The captain’s lips curved up into a smile, and he ran one hand through his thinning grey hair.

“Oblige them.”

X     X     X

The Federation dreadnought, Flame of Adan, had led the Federation’s attack on the systems held by the House of Arc. It had delivered a crushing blow, successfully defeating the Arc flagship in orbit over Benevolence IV. The one hundred mile long ship had gone down, splitting into several pieces before impacting the surface with extinction-level force.

This time it sought to repeat the feat against the flagship of the Imperial suppression force that had arrived to shield the fleeing remnants of the battered Arc and Lie Fleets. Blasting its way toward the heart of the Imperial formation, Adan, the artificial intelligence, had almost expected his foe to seek shelter in his escort. Instead, he received a reply worthy of an Imperial dreadnought espousing a sentiment he shared.

“Death before dishonour.”

His captain chuckled at the message.

“Move in for close combat.”

X     X     X

In an age where weapons could fire at interstellar distance, it seemed absurd to close to within only a few hundred miles of each other before opening fire. Yet at the same time, it made an awful kind of sense. Electronic counter measures, evasive manoeuvre, stealth technology, and protective advances had all increased the survivability of ships to match their weapons output.

But at this range, there would be little such frivolity. Instead, they would be betting everything on the skill of their crew, the advancement of their systems, and the quality of their engineering and weapons

As an Imperial dreadnought, Flame would put his systems, crew, and engineering against any ship in existence. The Empire’s finest shipwright had designed him and his classmates, and the mightiest of the navies shipyards - a multi-system manufactory - had laid his keel and forged his hull, whilst the Dia-Farron themselves had installed only the deadliest of weapons. For a hundred years, he had stood unyielding in the face of the Empire’s enemies. He would not turn and run, not before the Adan, not before any vessel.

For the Adan, it was a simple matter. If the Flame could not be defeated, then the Empire’s forces would surely triumph. The Flame possessed superior ranged weaponry, but the Adan was one of the most advanced dreadnoughts in the Federation’s fleet, and his crew was amongst the most experienced. Moreover, his weapons were designed specifically for close combat ship-to-ship warfare.

For a brief moment - a handful of the supremely swift processing cycles of his kind - he admired the other ship. The Flame was magnificent, a testament to the Empire’s naval tradition. And then the admiration gave way to excitement, to joy. He was a dreadnought, and battle was his trade. 

“Weapons free!” his captain ordered through the quasi-telepathy, dozens of other, more specific orders being transmitted to gunners, engineers, and other staff. “Engage!”

X     X     X

Thousands upon thousands of laser batteries lit up, spanning the gap between the two vessels with impossible speed. Missiles followed, and the space between them lit up as their shields erupted in coruscating defensive displays. Minute holes appeared, bored into the shields by the handful of specialised shield-disrupting missiles that had managed to connect only to be patched over by dedicated shield projectors.

The rail guns opened fire next, titanic mass driving behemoths that could slag planets. Projectiles tipped with exotic materials designed to unleash localised singularities or anti-matter driven explosion amplified to absurd degrees rocketed forward at close to light speeds, each weighing thousands of tonnes.

This was the modern equivalent of the broadside, a glorious no-holds-barred barrage that sought to bury the opponent beneath sheer weight of fire. The shields of both ships flickered beneath the assault, enough power to crush solar systems raging against their defences. In a longer-range duel, there might have been an option to unleash nova cannons or other more powerful weaponry, but not at this range.

The plasma batteries, photonic-kinetic weapons, and singularity weapons came online last. The shields of both ships finally splintered, and space and time went insane. Weapons that defied reality and tore the very fabric of space-time sent sensor pods wailing in distress, and at last, at long last, the final layer of the ships’ defences was called into play.

Their armoured hulls.

Neutronium, Infinitum, and materials so exotic that they could not have been produced in more than trace amounts only a few centuries ago made up the armoured hulls. Star-killing forces carved furrows in the hull, and the klaxon of alarms rang out on both ships as furrows became cracks and holes. 

Engineering crews rushed to stymie the damage alongside drones as the two ships continued their relentless assault. But slowly but surely, one of them was gaining an advantage.

X     X     X

Flame passed the message onto his captain and crew. There would be no evacuation. Short-range teleportation and so on would be impossible with this much exotic radiation still in the area thanks to the weapons exchange.

“We could surrender,” Flame offered. “They would let us live.”

The captain sent the question through the telepathic comms channel, and the reply was unanimous.

“Overload all reactors,” the captain ordered, a small smile on his face. “For the Federation!”

X     X     X

“Sir, the Flame has overloaded his reactors,” Heart said quietly. “They’re going out shooting.”

“Understood.” Artanus nodded gravely. “Then the least we can do is oblige them.” He took off his hat. “Match output. Destroy the Flame.”

X     X     X

As Flame’s hull came apart and his crew died, he took a few cycles to reflect on his impending death. There would be no backups for him. The interference from the lingering radiation was too great to transmit a copy, and the version of him in the archives was far too outdated to even be considered a copy of the AI that he was now.

“Congratulations,” he sent the words across the void to Heart. “You’ve won.”

The other AI was sombre. “You fought well. It should not have come to this.”

“But it did,” Flame replied. “And so here we are.”

His processors began to stutter as an explosion tore through his innards, vaporising his reactors and sending energy spikes radiating throughout his systems. 

“It looks like this is the end for me,” Flame said. He’d thought that he might be frightened when this day came. Instead, there was only quiet satisfaction. He'd held nothing back. He and his crew had been as close to perfect as it was possible to be. Their loss could not be laid at their feet. 

“You can keep talking if you like. I’ll listen.”

And so, for the last few cycles before he vanished in a blinding explosion, Flame told Heart about the beauty of the shipyards where he’d been built, of his brothers and sisters who had fought so proudly for the Federation. As the last cycle came, he sent across a wave of emotion, what passed for a smile amongst their kind.

“It was an honour to face you.”

“The honour was mine.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

A glimpse of ship-to-ship combat in that era.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here.

[suckmyfatdugtrio]

THIS IS A POST ABOUT MY WRITING SO DONT READ IF UR GONNA COMPLAIN YOU FAT SACKS OF MY LITTLE PONY SAILOR JARS

[Intro Theme]

Announcer: These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore new worlds and civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.

The starship Enterprise slowly crawls across the screen. Sounds of phasers firing ring out. The camera pans out to show two TIE Fighters pursuing the damaged ship.

Kirk: Mr Sulu! How are our shields?

Sulu: 17% and falling sir, we’re almost done for!

Kirk: Wait, we can take refuge on that small moon over there

Kirk points to a small gray planetoid

Sulu: That’s no moon, sir, I believe it is a space station!

Spock: I feel a disturbance in the logic

The camera cuts to the inside of a large throne room. A cloaked figure sits upon it. A man dressed in gray robes enters the opposite side of the room and kneels.

Figure: Supreme Leader, we have reports of a rogue ship in the Kardashian system

The figure takes off his hood to reveal Harry Potter

Harry: Gandalf, scramble our fleet. We must protect Narnia at all costs!

Gandalf: I will see to it immediately

The camera cuts back to the cockpit of the Enterprise. Crew members are running about wildly and frantically working at their stations.

Kirk: Mr. Sulu, get us out of here!

Sulu: I can’t sir, they appear to have locked us in some sort of tractor beam!

Spock: God help us all

Checkov: This is probably a bad time, but now I’m going to talk to you about my sponsor: RAID: Shadow Legends!

Everyone (collectively): AHHHHH!!!!!!

A shadow falls across the Enterprise as it is slowly pulled into one of the space station’s docking bays. The ship comes down with a small chunk. Hundreds of soldiers in white armor begin boarding the ship, dragging out everyone into the bay. Gandalf walks out of a corridor and stands before the Enterprise’s gathered crew.

Gandalf: Now which one of you is the captain

Kirk (Standing to his feet): Me. I am in command of the Enterprise

Gandalf shoots Kirk in the head with his silenced pistol

Gandalf: Anyone else?

Ohura: That doesn’t make any sens--

Gandalf shoots her in the head as well.

Gandalf: Anyone else?

Spock: No. We’re good here.

Gandalf: Good. Troopers, take them to the prison level

Trooper: Sir, we don’t have enough room for all of them

Gandalf: Make room then

Trooper: So you want us to pack them in like sardines?

Gandalf: Yes.

Trooper: I was joking. How are we going to---

Gandalf slams his staff into the ground. His voice becomes deeper and his eyes are filled with flames

Gandalf: You graduated from Hogwarts, did you not?

Trooper: Yes…

Gandalf: Use your fucking magic then!

The camera cuts to a shot of the crew of the Enterprise jammed into a small, cubic cell

Trooper: Wow, they actually fit

Trooper 2: I know, and we barely had to use any magika in doing so

Trooper: Well, it’s better than the time we had to imprison that guy, what was his name, Danny Pajama?

Trooper 2: Danny Phantom

Trooper: Yeah! That bastard! Fucker kept going through the floor. We had to call in an exorcist.

Trooper 2: You know who you should have called?

Trooper: Who?

The screen cuts to black followed by several screams

Announcer: Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Narnia

The camera pans out to show a massive castle. Guards wearing power armor and holding lightsabers patrol the outside walls while more watch from several sentry towers. The camera then zooms in on a window and enters a war room where Harry Potter is sitting in front of a large map. He pushes a large, ball shaped figure across it.

Harry: The Death Star has been unleashed. Soon the entire universe will fear me!

A man in old fashioned colonel uniform standing across the table from Harry warily eyes the other side, where several figurines depict federation ships.

Colonel: Sir, Don Cheadle could still pose a threat to us. His troops are some of the best in the galaxy, and if he decides to side with the Federation, we could suffer losses

Harry: Shut up Colonel Sanders! The solution here is simple. You are going to take your fleet and crush Don Cheadle before he can decide to attack us!

Colonel Sanders: But sir, his main force is currently in Russia.

Harry: So?

Colonel Sanders: It is currently winter…

Harry: I don’t care! Attack it anyways! Leave now, before I start force joking your white ass!

The camera shows the orange gridline of LA. The camera pans up to show a 747 touching down. A muscular man with white hair and strange, glowing eyes grips his armrests.

Salesman: You don’t like flying do you?

The white haired man slowly looks up at the man who has approached him. He grips the armrests harder in exaggerated fear.

Geralt: What gave you that idea?

Salesman (smiling): Ya wanna know the secret of successful air travel? After you get where you’re going, ya take off your shoes and socks. Then ya walk around on the rug barefoot and make fists with your toes.

Geralt: Fists with your toes.

Salesman: Maybe it’s not a fist when it’s with your toes… I mean like this… work out that time zone tension. Better’n a cup of coffee and a hot shower for the old jet lag. I know it sounds crazy. Trust me. I’ve been doing it for nine years.

The plane stops and the passengers begin to rise. Geralt opens up the overhead travel compartment and removes his sheathed swords. He sees the man’s scared look and points to a symbol on his armor.

Geralt: It’s okay. I’m a witcher.

The camera cuts back to Spock, Sulu, Checkov, and Mcoy sneaking out of the jammed room. They quietly sneak into an air duct and begin crawling towards freedom, but Spock is skeptical.

Spock: I find the chances of our escape to be about 65000 to 1

Sulu: Never tell me the odds!

The camera cuts to the outside of the Death Star as the theme plays and the credits roll. This marks the end of Star Trek  2009: Episode 1.

[nickjb]

Star Trek story idea

The Federation have recently made first contact with the Ferengi, and from the bitter experience of several Federation members, they know the potential danger of a species in the grip of such insane hyper-capitalism. The trouble is, they have no way of stopping them.

Unless...

Section 31 exists to counter threats the mainstream Federation cannot. It has knowledge of the dark history of Earth and the terrible weapons that were unleashed upon the planet in the 21st century. And amongst those weapons were ones so terrible in their purpose that people did not even realise they were weapons and didn’t try to stop them as they wreaked havoc.

They know this weapon and the terrible beauty of its operation is the only way to stop the Ferengi.

A few weeks later a human with an entirely plausible existence and reason for being there sits in heated discussion with a group of Ferengi at distant space station. He tells them he has a curiosity for history, particularly the history of pre-Federation economics, and is eager to learn from them how such systems work in practice. Wide-eyed and endlessly interested, he lets them explain - in exchange for the modest profit of free drinks - describing how similar some of the things they explain are to things he has read in the histories, but there is one thing they have not mentioned about which he would like to know more.

What, he enquires with an innocence so genuine it hurts, do the Ferengi know of the concept the human histories refer to as cryptocurrency?

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (141/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[3 December, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Less than an hour ago, King Rehval III Trismegistus stood on the verge of total victory. The almighty King of the Saiyans had become invincible, immortal, and the rest of the galaxy had been forced to submit to his irresistible power.

And none of that mattered at all!

The secret to Rehval's power lay in his alchemical bond with the planet Nagaoka. His energy was merged with the vast geological power of the planet. Normally a fleet of warships or a single angry Saiyan could make short work of a planetary body, but only because it lacked the conscious will to defend itself. Thanks to Rehval, Nagaoka could protect itself, and Rehval himself was more powerful than any Saiyan who ever lived... or so he had thought.

Luffa was the only being in the universe who had dared to challenge his new power. He had expected her to try something. She was the Legendary Super Saiyan, after all. Rehval had heard the tall tales of the old heroes. He never dreamed that one of them might be a woman, or that such a woman would defy him so completely. But he quickly learned that Luffa was destined to be his enemy, and that she would rather die than accept his rule.

And so his goal became to surpass and defeat Luffa. Once, he had been content to play the elegant statesman, using political wiles to unite his people and realize his will for the Saiyan people. But Luffa insisted on dragging their species backward. She spoke of honor and compassion like they meant anything in a cynical universe that only respected results. The only way to truly defeat her was by force, and so he had merged himself with Nagaoka, and demonstrated his absolute superiority. Proud and stubborn, Luffa chose to invade Nagaoka anyway. When her allies abandoned her, she came alone. None of this was much of a surprise to Rehval. He expected some final, desperate last stand from her. But instead, she used his own power against him. She parted the clouds over Nagaoka, and used the light of its moon to transform herself into a giant ape.

With that single stroke, Rehval found himself on the defensive once again. Luffa's power had already been extraordinary, but now, in her Golden Oozaru form, it was unthinkable. The snarling beast cut down his followers like they were a swarm of insects in a firestorm. Even Nagaoka's crust had taken heavy damage, despite Rehval's efforts to protect it.

As for Rehval himself... his exact nature was somewhat difficult for a layman to interpret. His followers recognized him by his power, though they had no idea what to make of him. His Jindan elixir increased their power, but it did so by mingling their ki with his own, just as he mingled his power with that of the planet. There was a Saiyan man named Rehval, but he had evolved into something more, and his Saiyan body had begun to feel like more of a part of his greater self. His abilities allowed him to control not only the mass of Nagaoka, but the earth on numerous other planets as well. He had become a celestial being, whose intellect happened to be centralized around a Saiyan body.

But Luffa's transformation into the golden ape had exposed the flaw in his evolution. Normally, a Saiyan Ape could be neutralized by destroying the full moon that sustained the transformation. In an extreme situation, one could destroy the plant the Ape was standing upon, and they would suffocate in airless space. Or if all else failed, one could withdraw to another planet and begin anew. Only this time, Rehval could do none of these things. He was Nagaoka and its moon, as well as the Saiyan body that controlled them both. He could no sooner run from this place than an ordinary man could run from his own heart. Luffa was using his own power against him, and she didn't seem to care what happened to her in the process.

It was all collapsing. Rehval's cult had fallen. If any of his followers still lived, they had fled in terror to other parts of the planet. Luffa didn't bother to chase them, since there was really nowhere for them to hide. She had destroyed all of the spaceships days ago. Rehval's faithful might have looked to him for guidance, but the man they had sworn to obey was now a corpse in their empty fortress on the opposite side of the planet. Before, Rehval had been coordinating the battle from the safety of his chambers, but when he found himself overwhelmed by Luffa's power, he grew desperate, and used an overdose of his elixirs to complete his unification with the planet. This killed his Saiyan body, but it enabled him to wield Nagaoka's energy more completely. He now was Nagaoka, for all intents and purposes. With this drastic step, he was able to forge a new body for himself, one made of solid gold taken from the planet's interior.

The gold-Rehval was much more powerful than a walking, talking gold statue would actually be. Earlier, he had made a grand speech about how he was empowered by the nobility and purity of gold's essence, rather than the metal itself. But Luffa had still been able to beat his new body like it was made out of a soft and ductile material. He struggled in vain to restrain her while his remaining followers died in a feeble attempt to cut off her tail. She simply shrugged them all off like they were nothing!

Lying on the ruined surface of what had been their battlefield, Rehval could only watch as Luffa mowed down his cultists with a blast of ki from her enormous mouth. She scooped a pair of warriors into her paw, and crushed them without a second thought. With each Saiyan she killed, their Jindan power was dispersed and reabsorbed into the planet. This was by design, as Rehval wanted a way to recover the power of his followers when they failed him in battle. Part of his strategy in the war against the Federation was to send his warriors to die, thereby increasing his own personal strength while eliminating unworthy followers from his flock.

But he had never imagined losing so many of them all at once, and on his home territory. The planet was assimilating their energy more rapidly than he could cope with, and the experience was painful to him.

Then, Luffa pointed her brutish fingers and fired a ki blast at the ground. She had been attacking the planet's surface all night, but this time it had a much more dramatic effect, and Rehval suddenly experienced a far more terrible agony. If he had still been a Saiyan, it might have like losing an arm or a leg in an explosion. But instead of a limb, he estimated that she had destroyed a huge section of the continent they had been standing on. Where it had once been, there was now only magma and ash. And among the chaos, a giant golden ape hung in the sky, beating her chest and howling with gruesome satisfaction.

The destructive energy she was unleashing was beyond anything he could have anticipated. Her last attack had been enough to destroy ten planets. His Jindan power had enabled him to blunt the effect and keep most of Nagaoka in tact, but this only delayed the inevitable.

Laying upon a floe of half-molten rock, Rehval's golden body was twisted and dented beyond recognition. He had the power to reshape himself, but he was having trouble using it. Above him, lightning flashed angrily in the cloudless sky. Above that was Nagaoka's moon. Its soft glow seemed to mock him for his hubris. He had thought himself so clever for mastering its power, and now it had been turned against him.

Slowly, painfully, the gold-Rehval rose to its full height, and drew more metal from the planet's mantle to increase its size. Without taking the time to repair its appearance, Rehval turned its misshapen head toward Luffa.

"You've lost, Rehval!" Luffa bellowed. "The only way you can fight me is to pool all your power into that tacky body of yours, but you can't protect the planet and attack me at the same time! I don't even have to hit you, not when I can just blow away some more real estate!"

"No!" Rehval cried. "It's not too late! I can still stop you before you can destroy it all!"

"Ooh, so it's a race, is it?" Luffa laughed. "Fine! Then let's end it here and now!" And with that, she alighted on a section of rock that had cooled enough for her to stand upon. Rehval's golden avatar followed her. This time, he began to wonder if his bold words had any truth to them. Luffa had hurt him so badly already, and she showed no signs of slowing down. He was determined to keep fighting, but he couldn't deny the despair that had crept into his thoughts.

He shifted his tactics this time. Knowing that he couldn't match Luffa in a direct confrontation, Rehval used the nature of his new body to contort himself into positions and stances that would be impossible for a humanoid to match. As he did this, he tried to exploit Luffa's weaknesses. She was favoring her left shoulder, after he had stabbed it earlier, but the real target had to be her tail. If he could only cut it off, she would revert to her normal form, and he could destroy her with ease.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep up. Luffa had wounded the planet more seriously than he had realized, and his power was dropping rapidly. Worse, her combat senses were as sharp as ever. It was easy to see the ape form and assume she had become a mindless brute, but she saw through his attacks almost before he could execute them. There seemed to be no answer to her power.

And then, suddenly, she faltered. There was a brief lull in their battle, as Rehval was so astonished that he almost failed to take advantage of the opening.

"Of course. Of course!" he shouted as he fired a ki blast at her chest. Suprise gave way to comprehension, and then joy.

"You can't maintain it!" Rehval cried. "All that power, but you can't maintain the form! I should have known!"

He tried to stomp on Luffa as she dropped to one knee, but she had the wherewithal to roll away from him. The pain in her simian expression told the entire story. In spite of his own pain, he couldn't help but enjoy this moment of triumph.

"But then," he said, "I did know. I never expected you to use my own moon against me, because I couldn't believe that you would ever become this powerful. And I was right! The toll it's taking on your body... your fragile, mortal body!"

"You... you haven't won yet, Rehval," Luffa said after a groan. She fired a defiant ki blast from her mouth, which vaporized a third of his golden body, but this wasn't enough to stop him. Rehval smelled blood, and he was determined to go in for the kill.

"So that was what this was," Rehval gloated. He needed time to rebuild his avatar before he could press his advantage, and taunting Luffa would keep her distracted. "Your heroic last stand? You gambled everything on a power-up that would tip the scales in your favor, but you miscalculated. Once again, time is on my side, Luffa! I don't have to overpower you, not when I can just wait for you to fall on your own!"

He shaped his body into a long, spindly parody of a Saiyan, and formed his hands into thin, golden blades, which he charged with geomantic power. Luffa was still able to dodge his wild swipes, but she was finally giving ground, and Rehval was enjoying every moment of it. And yet, in spite of the situation, Luffa still had a smile on her bestial face.

"You put up a good fight for a woman," Rehval chuckled, "but you'll never be more than meat and bone, trapped within the limitations of the flesh you were born with. I've prevailed because I transcended my limitations! My brother's name, my father's throne, my master's alchemy, Nagaoka's power! What do you have, Luffa? What do you have, besides a bunch of old stories, and a power too primitive for you to control?"

As he asked this question, he looped his wiry frame around one of Luffa's punches, and wrapped himself around her like a tangle of barbed wire. Luffa struggled mightily, but this time she couldn't shake him off. Luffa howled with rage as she rolled around on the ground. She even began to rip at her own fur as she struggled to pull Rehval's golden form away from herself. In response, he stretched his mass even thinner, and clung even tighter to every purchase he could find on the ape's body. In this shape, he lacked the strength to restrain her movements, but he no longer needed to.

"I see the advantage of this now," he cried. "Get so close to your enemy that their defenses become your own! The shoe's on the other foot now, Luffa! And now that you can't dodge, I'm free to do this!"

He concentrated, and with a tremendous effort, Rehval blocked out the pain and forced the planet around him to give him the power he needed. It came in the form of lightning, electric bolts mixed with raw ki energy from the planet. Rehval's golden body acted like a conductor and the bolts lanced from the ground, across the skies, and into him... and then into Luffa.

Her gutteral shrieks were like the sweetest music to him now. His only regret was that he couldn't make the attack continuous. It took time to charge another strike. During these short pauses, Luffa's massive fingers ripped even more desperately at his golden strands, and he knew she was nearly defeated.

"I can sense it, woman!" Rehval jeered. "You're losing control! Your poor little body can't handle it anymore, can you? You should have stayed home all these years! Kept your nose out of my business! The future of the Saiyan race was mine to decide! You! Never! Should! Have! Gotten! Involved!"

As he raved, Luffa charged her own ki to fight back against his offensive, but he was too thrilled with his success to let that stop him. Let her power up, he thought to himself. It would only hasten her own demise.

"You thought you would get something out of this?" he shouted between her screams. "A measure of revenge before you died! You petty little idiot! There are other Saiyans out there! The ones you killed today can be replaced! Even the damage you've done to this planet can be repaired! It might take me a century to fix it all, but when I'm finished, it'll be as if it never happened! I'll rule the universe a little later than I planned, but I'll still prevail! And you'll still be just as dead!"

He suddenly realized that this was how it was supposed to be from the beginning. He had taught his followers that their suffering was a crucible designed to purge impurities and eliminate weaknesses. Nagaoka... his very self, was just another crucible. He had to suffer, to face Luffa in this way, for how else could he overcome his nemesis and rise above the final obstacles? It would be here, on this day, that the universe would be purified for all time. And in that epiphany, the pain he felt, the raucous screaming of his enemy, the rush of destructive power through his golden coils, it all seemed so sublime to him.

And then, finally, Luffa collapsed. Her breathing was rough and unsteady. Her Golden Oozaru energy was building out of control. Rehval could feel her pulse racing, and he knew that her savage heart would fail at any moment. This had to be the end. There were no more moves for her to make.

"It's over, Luffa! I've won," he said. "All I have to do now is wait for your body to give out from the strain. Until then, you can't hurt me at this range, not unless you want to hurt yourself in the process!"

Luffa gasped a few times before responding. When she finally spoke, he expected to hear some admission of defeat, or perhaps even a begrudging apology. He got neither.

"That was my plan all along, you jackass," she said.

And then she began to laugh again. Rehval was about to demand to know what she found so funny, and then he suddenly sensed a huge power welling up inside Luffa. He tried to pull away from her, only to discover that she had created an energy field around her body that kept him trapped against her fur.

"Did you really think I came to this mudball all alone without a plan?" she shouted. "You think I didn't expect my body to give out under the full moon? You fool! I was counting on it! Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner!"

It finally dawned on Rehval what she meant by this. When she first arrived on Nagaoka, he had blithely assumed that she had come to die in battle. Now he realized just how right he had been.

Except she never had any intention of dying alone.

She was going to take him with her. The planet, the moon, his golden avatar... all of it.

"There's no way out, Rehval!" she screamed, her power intensifying until he could no longer sense it properly. "No ships to fly you to safety this time! No magic portals to whisk you away to a safe haven! You're trapped here, with me, on this worthless planet, and when I go, you'll die with it!"

Suddenly she was standing upright once again. Rehval wondered if he had ever managed to hurt her before, or if she had simply been luring him in this entire time.

"Luffa, no!" Rehval pleaded. "You can't! The Saiyans! Your son!"

"They were dead the moment they joined you," she said with a roar. "You thought this stupid planet would make you a god, but it's nothing more than a millstone around your neck!"

She was right, and now it suddenly occurred to Rehval that he was entirely at her mercy.

"But the Saiyan race!" Rehval wailed. "Luffa, you have to spare me! If we all die here, then the future of the Saiyan species is doomed! I'm the only one who can ensure our prosperity! You have to let me live! I beg you!"

"You beg me?" Luffa asked. "You really do have no pride at all. If you're the only hope for the Saiyan race, then we're better off extinct!"

And in those last moments, Rehval realized there was nothing more he could say, nothing more he could do. His golden body was helpless. The source of his power was fractured and doomed, and he was at the mercy of a monster who wanted nothing more than to end his life. All his knowledge, his power, his rhetoric, would avail him nothing. It was this realization, more than the prospect of death itself, that horrified him.

Then, he heard a terrible, ear-splitting roar, as Luffa released the power within her in a tremendous explosion. Through his connection with the planet, he could feel Nagaoka being ripped apart, and the pain it caused him was greater than anything he could have possibly experienced in a mortal body. He expected everything to go black, but instead, it went white. A brilliant, agonizing white.

*******

And then, strangely enough, Rehval found himself lying on the floor of his fortress. The planet--or what was left of it, was directly beneath him. He could still feel the pain of its death throes. He was still linked to Nagaoka. It hurt so much that he could barely bring himself to move.

Somehow, he found the will to crawl. The last thing he expected was to be shunted back into his original Saiyan body. He had assumed that his abandonment of it was permanent, but it was an experimental treatment, and he never imagined that Nagaoka would be so badly damaged, or what the effects of this might be. This was all uncharted territory now. As he struggled to crawl out of his chamber, he paused to put a finger to his throat, and found no pulse. A stench in his nostrils and an unsettling moisture in his pants suggested that his bowels had evacuated. The discomfort of these revelations paled in comparison to the torture that assailed his senses. He was still one with the planet, and he would experience its destruction firsthand.

But there was still a chance. Apparently Luffa's final attack wasn't as quick and decisive as he had assumed it would be. She had exploded on the nightside of Nagaoka, and he could feel that half of the planet now lay in utter ruins. The dayside would soon follow, but not right away. Nagaoka would linger a bit longer before oblivion, which bought him a little time before the end. Luffa had destroyed his shipyard on the day she arrived here. But there was still one last means of escape. He had never intended to use it, but he had kept it safe throughout Luffa's invasion. He had planned to use it to send for assistance, so that his followers could come and go as they had done before. Now, he dragged himself through the empty corridors, seeking to use it to carry him to safety. He wasn't sure what would happen to his corpse once Nagaoka finally disintegrated, but he knew enough alchemical recipes to find a way to recover, even from this.

He wished that he could summon one of his followers to help him, but that was surely impossible. They were all dead on the other side of the planet. Luffa's explosion would have killed them all instantly.

At last, he reached the section of the wall that housed a secret launch bay. He touched a stone that contained a device that would react to his fingerprint. When nothing happened, he tried it again. And again. It was getting harder to think. He had to figure out how to get the wall to open up before it was too late. As he considered the problem, he finally looked over to the section of the wall that was supposed to have moved, and noticed that it was simply no longer there. It looked like someone had smashed their way through it.

And that someone had taken his secret escape craft. All that remained was an empty bay. Above, the canopy was still open from when the ship had launched. The sky had turned blood red. This was probably a side effect of the planet-wide cataclysm, though Rehval had no idea what the specific cause of it could be. He found it curious that his dead body could still see anything at all.

He struggled to think of who could have taken his escape craft. None of the cultists knew about it. The ones who had installed it for him had all been killed months ago to protect his secret. Treekul might have discovered it somehow, except she never could have smashed through the wall that way.

He thought... he thought that maybe.... he could smell the scent of his daughter. Whether this was his keen Saiyan nose or wishful thinking was impossible to tell. He liked to think that it had been Seltiss who managed to escape. But there was no way to be certain. The future was utterly beyond his control now. The Saiyans were doomed. Theirs was a ship without a rudder.

Then he smelled the aroma of burning flesh, and he realized that it was his own. It smelled so familiar, like when he had murdered his own brother and burned the body to cover up the crime. He had taken his brother's name and identity on that day. It had seemed so clever of him at the time. Now, with death nipping at his heels, he began to regret it. He had never worried much about legacy, because he assumed that his plans would all come to fruition, and the universe would remember him for his achievements and his unforgettable impact on history.

But if this was to be his end, then he would likely be forgotten. And even if he was to be remembered, it would be by his brother's name. It stung his ego, and he was surprised by how much it hurt. He suddenly found himself wishing that someone--anyone-- could know his true name, the one his mother had chosen for him... the name of... of...

What had she called him? It was so long ago, and he hadn't used the name in so long. He was having trouble remembering...

And as his reanimated body burned, and his fortress collapsed around him, the corpse that once called himself King Rehval III Trismegistus finally succumbed to true death. His last thought was the realization that Luffa had been mistaken about him in one regard.

In the end, it seemed that he did have a small amount of Saiyan pride, after all.

*******

[4 December, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Nagaoka was not destroyed all at once. Luffa's explosion atomized a huge chunk of one hemisphere, and blasted apart the surrounding mass. The rest of the planet was destabilized, and smaller, secondary explosions erupted throughout. Within hours, the entire planet had broken up into something resembling asteroids.

On one of these chunks of rock, Luffa could sense that her attack had succeeded. There were no Saiyan ki signatures. Rehval's power was completely gone. His followers were all dead. It was important for her to be sure, since she had somehow survived, and she had no idea how.

Once she was certain that she was the only one left, Luffa considered what had happened. Her intention had been to summon up all of her power and release it all at once in a giant explosion. She had fully intended to die along with everything else. Her Golden Ape form had been unstable, after all. It seemed like blowing herself up was the only part of her plan that was guaranteed.

Instead, she found herself alive, surrounded by a force field of her own ki energy. Somehow, she had survived the explosion, and made this little bubble for herself. There was a chunk of earth for her to lie upon, and enough air trapped inside for her to breathe. It was like a terrarium floating in space. She couldn't remember doing this. Had she blacked out and done this while unconscious? Was this some sort of survival instinct at work? All she knew was that she tried to blow herself up, and then woke up to find the planet destroyed.

She had no idea what had happened to the Nagaoka's moon, except that it was no longer visible. Perhaps it had been destroyed as well, or it was obscured behind a cloud of debris, or Luffa had simply tumbled through space to a position where she was pointed away from it. All she knew was that she was no longer a giant ape.

She was no longer in her Super Saiyan form either. This was no great mystery, as she was too exhausted to move, let alone maintain any transformations. Wearily, she took stock of her situation, and concluded that she was about to die the same way she was born: Alone, in outer space, and completely naked. Luffa had heard of Saiyans using elastic clothes that could survive the size changes of the Oozaru transformation, but she hadn't been wearing anything like that when she came to Nagaoka. She didn't expect it to matter much in the end.

"Well... that's it, then," she murmured to herself as she looked out at the stars. There was very little air inside her force bubble, and the stale odor suggested that she had used up much of it already. The temperature was beginning to drop sharply as well. She had planned to destroy herself, the planet, and her enemies instantaneously, but somehow fate always seemed to drag these things out. It was never like the stories about the old heroes. They always did such drastic and amazing things and it always went so quickly. She supposed the storytellers edited out some of the slower details to make the story go faster.

She hoped that the story of Luffa would gloss over this part, the part where she froze to death on an asteroid without any clothes on. But the more she thought about it, hers wasn't a story that deserved to be told. Hers was a legend of successive failures. A failure as a mother, as a wife, as a leader, and as a warrior. She would shed no tears for the Saiyan race, but it still pained her to think that things had gotten bad enough for her to decide that the best answer was to destroy her own people. The last Super Saiyan, Chanisp, had saved his fellow Saiyans. Luffa had always admired him for that. Now, she wondered why the bastard had even bothered.

It wasn't all bad, she supposed. She had fought plenty of battles, though none ever seemed to be quite the challenge she craved. She had made friends and she had left an impression on countless aliens, though she wasn't sure how much that was really worth in the end. She had found love... but that was over now, and it seemed wrong somehow to take any solace in the memory of it. Instead, she prayed that Zatte would understand all of this some day.

The air in the bubble became stuffier and colder, and Luffa was having trouble keeping her eyes open. She didn't particularly want to die, but she also felt that it was long overdue. There didn't seem to be anything left to live for, after all. No more battles to fight, no more thoughts to think. No more power in her body. She just wanted to lie back and sleep. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep the air inside her bubble, but she supposed it wouldn't make much difference if she suffocated or froze to death.

And then, just as she closed her eyes and surrendered to her fate, she felt something strange. Her eyes fluttered open, and there was a bright light flickering all around her.

*******

[Date and Location Unknown.]

In the next instant, she was warm, and the air was fresh. She was still hurt, but not so weak that she couldn't look down and see that she was clothed again, even if it was only a tube top and a pair of simple breeches. She was somewhere else. In the next few breaths, she found the strength to rise to her feet, and that was when she noticed it.

It was a giant animal, even bigger than her own Oozaru form. The creature was shaped like a great serpent, but with four legs, and antlers sticking out of its head. It floated above her, glowing in the night sky like an obnoxious sign at a casino she had visited once. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but found that her throat was too dry to speak, and in the few seconds it took for her to swallow and clear her throat, the creature spoke aloud instead.

"Your wish has been granted," it proclaimed with a voice like rolling thunder.

Luffa was about to ask what wish, when the creature spoke again.

"Farewell..." it said, and before Luffa could demand an explanation, it glowed even more intensely, becoming a hot filament of light. A group of crystal balls rose up into the air to meet the creature as it vanished, and then these orbs shot off in different directions like shooting stars. Once the strange animal was gone, the dark sky suddenly gave way to daylight, and Luffa finally took note of her surroundings. She was standing in some kind of city. Before her was a structure that looked like some sort of elaborate mobile art display, featuring large gears of bronze that rotated as though suspended in midair.

Was this the afterlife?

Then she heard footsteps. Someone was approaching her from behind. Luffa turned, and found a man in a long black coat. There was something familiar about his face, but his lavender hair and intense expression kept her too distracted to think about it.

"You're surprised, I'm sure," he said.

Normally, the man might have been right. Luffa would have been surprised, but she was too exhausted and confused for the shock to register. She was still trying to understand how she hadn't died in the explosion.

"I'll have to explain it all to you later," the man said. "But first, let's see how much power you have."

He then reached over his shoulder, and drew a sword that he wore on his back. The sound of the metal scraping against the scabbard rang in Luffa's ears. She tried to clear her throat, to ask him who he was and how she had gotten here.

Without another word, the man charged toward Luffa, his sword raised to strike.

NEXT: Xenoversal.

[onimiman]

If I were to rework the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine finale

Nearly a week ago, I had finished my viewing of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Overall, a great show and easily my favorite Star Trek show by far. And the finale, while overall satisfying, could have been better, and I think it’s obvious where it needs improvement: the final confrontation between Sisko and Dukat. Like many, I thought that aspect of the finale was rushed, anticlimactic, and way too removed from the Dominion War to be of any relevance. 

But after a brief discussion with a coworker, we came up with a rough outline of how the Pah-wraith and Dominion elements could have been better handled. 

Now I would have had Sisko confront Dukat in the fire caves before the Federation launched its attack on Cardassia. Kai Winn could still have died the way she did, and both Sisko and Dukat still fall in. However, this unleashes the Pah-wraiths upon Bajor, beginning the apocalyptic Restoration that Dukat sold Winn on in the previous episodes. The Federation, unfortunately, cannot help the evacuation of Bajor as they must focus on finally defeating the Dominion: it’s their last shot, and if that means leaving Bajor to die, then so be it. 

Thus, as the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans attack Cardassia, Sisko and Dukat, still alive but now in their Prophet and Pah-wraith forms respectively, are battling over the fate of Bajor in the fire caves with their newfound abilities. Sisko is soon overwhelmed by Dukat and his fellow Pah-wraiths, but that is when the Prophets finally come to save Bajor. Together, Sisko and the Prophets defeat the Pah-wraiths and save Bajor from total annihilation; the damage can be salvaged, as it had when the Cardassian occupation of the planet had ended.

However, Dukat makes a cowardly escape, using his Pah-wraith abilities to go to Cardassia as its fate is being decided between the Federation and Dominion. There, Dukat transports himself in the office of the female changeling and Weyoun, where he says to the Founder, “You call yourself a god?” He telekinetically shoves her in her seat. “I am a god. And you will sit there until your war is over.” This happens as it seems as if the Federation will lose the battle; but Dukat knows better. He knows that Sisko will not let the Federation lose this war. 

The Prophets refuse to help Sisko finally defeat Dukat for good; they must protect Bajor. So Sisko transports himself to Cardassia, on the bridge of the Defiant, where he uses his powers to halt all of the Jem’Hadar and Breen vessels in their tracks, declaring, “No one else will die because of this war.”

Sisko then transports himself to the surface of a ruined, embattled Cardassia, where Dukat meets him. Dukat threatens to kill Kira, Garak, and their allies who wish to get into the Founder’s compound; but Sisko doesn’t need to help them. Kira and her Cardie allies take that opportunity to get in because of the Founder killing her Cardassian puppet (like in the actual finale). Dukat tries to go after them, but Sisko stops him, grabs onto him, and launches the both of them into the skies of Cardassia. The two of them build in power, Dukat struggling to break free, Sisko holding on for dear life, until they clear the atmosphere. A colossal explosion occurs, seeming to kill both Sisko and Dukat, with Federation and Dominion forces watching on in awe.

The end of the war occurs as it did in the finale. However, when the female changeling signs the peace accord, it is then that Sisko appears to witness the formal end of the Dominion War. Everyone who had thought him dead, who had been preparing a memorial service for Sisko, embrace him happily; he also assures them that Dukat did not survive the explosion. He even shows up at Vic Fontaine’s lounge, where everyone celebrates as they did.

However, it is after the party that Sisko reunites with Jake and Kasidy alone and explains that he must go. He will return one day, but for now, the Prophets need him; they had been charitable to grant him the time to defeat Dukat. Thus, he says goodbye not only to them, but to the rest of the DS9 crew before he flies off (literally, with his Prophet powers) to the wormhole. The rest of the finale plays as it did.

I would understand if many out there think this finale might be even worse than what we got; it’s over-the-top, yes. But at least it would have tied Sisko’s role as the Bajoran Emissary with the Dominion War a lot closer. However, I am totally open to any improvements to this fix-it idea.

@blue-mint-winter 

[oracleofbullshyt-blog]

Chapter 13 - The Calm

The bar was unusually quite amidst the drum of the space station, its usual patrons had been asked to leave in order to allow a secluded meeting to take place. The chairs and tables had been pushed to the edge of the walls allowing a large space in the middle, where a rather large round table had been placed. Around the table sat six humans and three androids. The captain of the Leonidas’s shield sat with the captains of the Buccaneers. A human response fleet meant to deal with threats against human colonies. Each a veteran of the battle for earth. 

Their respective crews sat around the room drinking and talking. Quietly eyeing out each other they usual raucous behaviour was instead replaced with solemn intent, they sat with one ear pointed to the table so they could hear what was being said. The crews were much of a same size except for one which almost dwarfed the rest of the others, yet Leonidas’s Shield was by far the most alien in membership, with most other crews having at most one or two aliens within their ranks.

The captain looked up from the individual ship reports that lay around him to the hologram that showed their ships massed together amongst the rubble of a newly forming solar system that they had chosen to use as the grounds of the battle. Omni looked past the display at the assembled captains that sat around them.

To their left sat Niall, the redheaded Irish man in his signature bomber jacket, he sat looking intently at the hologram. The captain of the Rocket Salvo ship was best used as a long-distance weapons platform, raining down a vicious onslaught upon their enemies knocking them into submission. Next to Niall was Isabella, a brunette woman slight of frame and with eyes of steel, at her elbow stood an android with a multitude of antennas reaching out from their shoulders and head. The woman was the proud captain of a Swarm ship, its hull covered dotted in pods that were able to be used both defensively and offensively, the onboard android controlling their movements. This technology was unique to humans and the androids as the processing power required was immense and previously unheard of, they were an answer to fighter ships without having to worry about loss of life. Opposite captain Balme sat the captain of the Destroyer class vessel Carlos, he had an open face and a warm smile, he was the one who started the fleet when it was needed. The android that accompanied him had four arms of equal length and size to help in controlling the ship, its head unnervingly lacked any visible sensors that could be used to substitute a face. The destroyer itself had few moveable guns preferring to use its shields to get close enough for a broadside barrage, his tactics were old but incredibly effective. Next to him on the right was Victor, an older man kind but stern in his ways, he was the captain of the Battle cruiser and the also the captain with the biggest crew that happened to be all human. His crew size was due to the lack of an onboard android, rumours had it he was still weary of them. His battle cruiser was by far the largest vessel in the fleet, it has multiple layers of shielding allowing it to take a pounding when it needed to. Finally to the right of Balme sat Amelia, she was loud and confident and not afraid to give her opinion. She flew a fighter class vessel, that used the old earth standard model as a base, but between her and the android fleet they had modified the ship to be the fastest and most manoeuvrable jump ready fighter in the galaxy. It was also the most illegal.

Isabella crossed her arms and was followed in suit by her android, rumour had it she had an internal chip implanted so they could communicate without speaking, which showed the level of trust they shared, “So let me get this straight, they have two destroyers AND two frigates, and you called only us? Why not the some more punch? We need at least another cruiser, preferably a dreadnought.” “We can take care of the big ones no problem, but those fighters are what worry me. They’ll be armed for fleet battle, that means a full complement of torpedoes and possibly even ion disruptors,” Carlos remarked from where he sat. Victor looked over the plans laid out in front of him, “How many fighters are we looking at?” Balme looked at them all and sighed, “Initial scout reports show fourteen, but we’re unsure of what could be hiding or docked, we couldn’t get too close.” Amelia looked at Balme, “I can take maybe five by myself possibly even seven if push, but the issue remains, they out gone us, that second destroyer worries me. I can’t deal with the big ones alone, I can push into their shields and disrupt things yes but not disable.”

They sat there at the table for the next few hours manoeuvring ships around the hologram and drawing up plans, sighing and growing frustrated when the androids ran the simulation and severe sometimes even debilitating damage was sustained by any one ship. The crews were consulted, and members gave input on what they could do and achieve from where they sat, but ultimately the captains sat around and decided what their plan of action was going to be.

Victor looked up from the hologram they had in front of them, their battle plans laid out meticulously after hours of deliberation and strategizing. Lines were drawn over the hologram  in confusing patterns and intricate swirls indicating the paths of each ship as best as possible during battle, enemy ships were numbered and crossed out in the order they were to be destroyed according to the plan, each captain new what they had to do and was ready, their crew was quite and determined in the background.

“Let’s go over it one more time, from the top please. Before we get a goodnights sleep.” “Everyone waits in formation around the dust clouds of the system as we discussed, engines ready to move and shields well cycled. I’ll get the Angamar’s attention with a series of quick jumps in and around the nearby systems, maybe even one or two shots to make sure they follow. Once they have my trail I’ll jumps into the system where everyone awaits, when their jump signatures are registered, I’ll run out to the edge of the field to bombard them from afar preferably trying to get to their flank so we can stretch their shields thin. Then Victor opens up on the closest Frigate to himself until their shield is down and forced to re-cycle where I’ll finish them off with a few well-placed salvos getting them out of the battle.”

Niall looks to Isabella to continue the battle path with a nod,

“I’ll use my swarms to keep the fighters busy, with their lack of shielding however I’ll be spreading them wide so they can’t be easily tracked and between Amelia and myself we hope to finish them off before too long”

The baton is picked up by Victor as he starts to speak,

“Once I’m done, I’ll switch all power to my anti fighter guns and load flechette rounds into the big guns to combat the fighters as well. I’ll move to get above the frigates to draw their weapons as I do this.”

Balme looked up with a nod,

“Whilst you guys are busy with all of this I’ll have used this time to pick up speed while I’m cloaked so that I can disable the remaining frigate while its busy with you guys, with enough speed we can get through the shields and crush their bridge with the battering ram, effectively removing them from the fight for a few hours. That just leaves the Infiltrator. Amelia and I will work together to disable its engines and then the ship itself.”

On cue Carlos pointed to the hologram in front of them,

“That leaves the two remaining destroyers for me. They have swivel-based guns, so they’ll be focused on Victor above them hopefully, allowing me to close the distance between us while their attention is shifted. Niall will weaken their shields with a continuous barrage, empty your missiles if you must but those shields need to be near cycling by the time I get through Niall. I’ll get in between the two and with my destroyer I’ll unleash hell with a duel side broadside manoeuvre, while they’re panicking the rest of you’s will come and help mop up.” “Sounds like a solid plan boss.” “Drinks back here then?” “Of course, standard procedure.”

The crew of each ship took time to make piece for the oncoming battle in their own way. At the next rotation the ships jumped to the fledgling system they had chosen for the battle, standing silently each ship took their position amongst the clouds of dust and asteroids that swirled lazily around the star at its centre. Eventually the slow turmoil would give arise to new planets and potentially even become habitable, maybe far in the future the planets would house life, which would spend their days doing nothing but fight for survival. This life could turn into intelligence, perhaps maybe even on one of these planets one small individual would unwittingly set into space making history and recreating the future around their action’s unseen. For now, it would be witness to a battle. Small and seemingly insignificant to those who held a part in it, by far not measuring up to the fabled battles that predated the creation of the galactic federation. Or even the first contact wars of the Humans and the creatures that were once known as the Gha’al. Nor as desperate and seemingly important as the battle for Earth that left humanity changed forever. Yet in this small insignificant star system, with its young and lazy star at its centre, would bear witness to the beginning of something new, something grand and great at its core, a movement that would change the galactic playground.

Unknowing of their position in history, Leonidas’s Shield stood still in the vast expanse of space, flanked by its comrades and well cloaked. They waited for the arrival of the Angamar pursuit fleet to start their manoeuvres and end the threat. Each member stood ready at their respective stations waiting for the combat klaxon to sound, their only indication that battle had commenced since the blast shields had been raised. Each was outfitted in full combat space suits, equipped with an atmospheric supply and life support in case the worst outcome came to fruition. They stood in silence contemplating the upcoming events, aware of each other over the comms always.

The familiar distortion of space that indicated an incoming ship from jump speed heralded Niall’s Rocket salvo ship. It folded out of the distortion and immediately took a sharp turn and moved out of the way to where it was stationed.

Christine’s voice came over the wide band of the bridge, elevated in fright but with a determined tone, “They took the bait, they’re incoming.”   The distorted haze of other jump signatures was visible soon after in the expected tight formation they had worked on for the planning.

Captain Balme hands tightened on his seat in the bridge as he heard these words spoken over the wide band, he looked on with a calm expression not allowing the crew to see how truly worried he was. His foot sat tapping against the seat unknowingly. Omni stood to his side his servos whirring endlessly, he ran every possibility and every minor detail through his core, storing each as a possible solution to some minor infraction in their plan. The Designations of the other two androids in the fleet present in his processing space, it was calming have others of his kind with him again. The Avisxian twins sat ready at their stations on the bridge in front of the captain and Omni. Looking over the readings of the sensors and scans, they sat nervously waiting clicking out a soft tune they had learned as hatchlings before life lead them to this. In engineering Vahatu stood ready and waiting for his commands, pulsing in colour of calm purpose he knew he would do what was needed to keep his new crew alive. They were the first crew he wanted to stay with, the first so accepting. He pulled up the life signs and vitals of each crew member and stuck the hologram into place on the wall, his eyes flashing back to Initium’s every so often as he worked through the ships core systems. Initium looked around her station in shields, they were newly cycled and ready for the upcoming battle. She laid her head against the back of the seat and sat readying herself to react to the battle as she was required. Sciaal sat with his headset on in communications, ready to intercept and disrupt the oncoming fleets chatter. Proficient at pattern recognition he had what it took to decipher the calls of the oncoming fleet, often throwing in false calls of his own as well to disrupt their manoeuvres. Ben and Slugs stood leaning against the loading hatch of the main forward gun waiting for the battle to start, they kept the guns reloaded, the systems working and the guns moving, they were the ships best way of defending itself. Mantis and Wolfs sat across from each other next to the airlock, they nodded to each other as they tightened their straps, it had been awhile since they had to be on full alert like this. Wolf looked at mantis who sat idly clicking her mandibles, they had to be fast and strong, they were sent where they were needed the most, they were the response and damage control team, he knew they had to keep the ship safe so the others could do their work.

A calming voice came over the radio,

“This is it everyone get ready.”

A fleet started to unfold out of jump space where the distortions had been.

[nemowritesstuff]

Wingless Dragon Race Introduction: Sheta

Wingless Dragon Taglist: @malaykawrites @madammuffins @kaatiba @mvcreates @starlitesymphony

Sheta are a humanoid species, and Humanity's closest allies. Experts in the medical sciences, Sheta are at the forefront of many biological advancements.

As the story is on its first draft, all content is subject to change. Under a cut because it’s pushing 1200 words.

Physical

Sheta are reptilian beings, standing on two legs with two arms and a tail. Their hands have four fingers and two thumbs, one thumb on top of the hand and one on the bottom. Short claws extend off the fingers but not the thumbs. Their heads extend into a snout, with a nose on the end. Their tails are generally as long as the Sheta is tall. The blade on the end of the tail is made of enamel, similar to human teeth. 

Sheta reach a height of about 1.6 meters when fully grown, with common variances being 1 to 1.9 meters. While about as broad as a human, they generally bulkier, averaging 110kg for a Sheta of average height. Sheta scales are generally deep brown or pale orange, to blend in with mud, dirt, or sand.

Sheta reach adulthood at 27 years of age, and used to have a life expectancy of 90 years, but their medical advances increased that to about 195 years.

Sheta are cold blooded (specifically, ectothermic). Sheta clothing has such evolved to allow basic thermal control, with temperature belts being a popular item. When working planetside, depending on the planet and daily temperature, partial or complete TeRe (Temperature Regulation) gear will be needed. Sheta can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, but colder environments slow down their productivity.

For food, Sheta are herbivores, and farming is seen as an important and spiritual part of life. Vegetables, fruits, and nuts provide the bulk of a Sheta's diet. In times of extreme need, a Sheta can eat meat, but cannot handle meat diets over extended periods of time.

The Sheta's tail-blade starts to form about six months after birth. At three years, it is naturally sharp enough to harm. This is when the child begins to learn how to care for the tail-blade, as a damaged or unkept blade can lead to severe pain or life-threatening infections. Properly cared for, the tail-blade can handle the rigors of daily use. If needed, a Sheta can use specially developed tail coverings that allow the tail-blade to withstand even the most strenuous of jobs.

The tail has another use, besides being a natural weapon. Sheta speak in near monotone voices and do not emote much with their faces. Their tail, however, is very animated during conversations, and is the main way for a Sheta to convey a tone through body language. Not understanding Sheta tail movements can lead one to the assumption that Sheta are cold and emotionless.

Culture

Sheta communities are smaller affairs, never really reaching more than several dozen members at a time. With pregnancies lasting from 30 to 32 months, and Sheta maturing later in life than most, Sheta are fiercely protective of their community members. Despite being in such small communities, all Sheta are bound through their devotion to All-Mother, and are willing to work with other communities to make life easier. This mindset has made Sheta valued members on starships, and many Sheta find new homes as permanent members of a ship's crew.

Sheta are a deeply religious people, with almost every Sheta following Matria, the worshiping of All-Mother. All-Mother is both the Sheta homeworld and their Goddess, and is revered as such. Many aspects of life, from farming and traveling to birth and death, involve rituals and sacrifices to the All-Mother.

Among the stars, Sheta still worship All-Mother and Her teachings. Any planet the Sheta land on is thanked for their hospitality in receiving the children of All-Mother, and the Sheta treat the planet as if it were their own. To recklessly endanger a planet is a criminal offense among the Sheta, and depending on the severity, can be punished by death. There have been several political incidents because of this, leading to a revamping of environmental laws in the Galactic Federation.

Sheta in the Galactic Federation

The Sheta's greatest contribution to the galaxy as a whole is their medical knowledge. When the Sheta's skill with medicine was combined with the Olgoth's skill in technology, the average health of GF citizens improved drastically. Sheta are highly valued as medical personnel, and the most skilled of Sheta doctors are on the cutting edge of medical advancement.

History

When Humanity first arrived on All-Mother, they did not know it was occupied by the Sheta. The humans, shortly after arriving, quickly turned to warring amongst themselves, as what they wanted to do with the planet remained unknown. In the midst of this war, the Sheta set about sabotaging the war efforts, trying to make the humans abandon the planet.

By the time the Sheta revealed themselves, the humans were nearly out of resources. Humanity knew they needed to make a deal with the Sheta. The treaty they signed left All-Mother to the Sheta, but the Sheta would assist the humans in not dying of starvation in space. In return, Humanity would gift the Sheta space travel.

The two coexisted as they further explored the stars. Upon finding the Yur, Olgoth, Tichon, and Amiriad, the Sheta willingly joined the Galactic Federation, while Humanity signed a treaty with their new alien allies. When Humanity went to war with the Amiriad, and then with itself over joining the Galactic Federation, some Sheta joined the humans as medics. The Sheta were able to save many lives during the wars, but seeing the devastation the humans were capable of unleashing left most Sheta mentally scarred.

After Humanity joined the Galactic Federation, Sheta went back to their lives as doctors and biologists. Many Sheta spend their days either helping others or researching cures. Alongside the Yur, Sheta are quick to dispel violence. Having seen Humanity in war three times, the Sheta are in no hurry to experience such a travesty again.

Bonus fact

The All-Mother's most sacred teaching is to not take life needlessly. But, even the Sheta acknowledge that sometimes killing is necessary to save lives. To earn the right to kill, a Sheta must complete the Murderous Rights ritual. The ritual consists of several personality and problem solving tests, to determine if a Sheta is capable of making the snap decisions while also maintaining morality and logical thinking.

The ritual ends when the Sheta attempting the ritual is told to enter a room and kill the other Sheta within. Some communities use convicted criminals, others use the elderly or terminally ill; there have been rare instances of communities using innocent Sheta. After making the kill, the Sheta must stand in the rain to see if All-Mother blesses them. If there is still blood on the tail by the end of the ritual, the Sheta becomes Bloodstained.

A Bloodstained gains the legal and spiritual rights to kill whomever they wish. The Sheta are willing to defend their Bloodstained's actions, even if the target is a member of another race, so sure are they that their Bloodstained's religiously sanctioned murder is entirely necessary.

Wingless Dragon introduction here (mobile)

[avenger09]

My Star Trek Villains

"I Hate the Federation. Because they threw me into shadow." - "Once, when the name Klingon was spoken it incited fear, and made Blood run cold. Now when we are mentioned the Quadrant merely takes a moment to roles their eyes as they exclaimed "Oh those Klingons." We have allowed this for to long. Why? It's simple... our Empire sacrificed it's might so that the Noble houses may bask in their sense of importance. To give up, so much, for so little is monstrous. Once there where words carved into the Imperial Palace that said. "Empire before House." They tried to erase that, but many still remember it. With this Humans help the rest of the Empire will remember as well." - "Romulus burned, and does the Tal Shiar do? Commit itself to denial." What if there was a reason that nameless background character never got promoted in the 7 year voyage. Unlike with Picard's and his alternate timeline where he simply played it safe and was never noticed. This man was more then willing to jump into adventure, except the opportunity to prove himself never arose someone else always beat him too it. Which is even more tragic when you think of it. Further eroding his will would be the fact he barely got into Starfleet, his instructors inadvertently sabotaging him by virtue of a system that's designed only to allow the exceptional to pass. He is not as clean cut as other Starfleet personal not as adverse to violence, and for that he was unfairly looked upon as a relapse into a more uncivilized age. He realized this when he took the initiative and was finally given a place... In Section 31. He did not appreciate that. The thought that he had no where to go but to stand with the most unscrupulous of people. To do wet work when what he wanted was to explore and learn about the universe. If he had been born in Kirk's time he might have gotten that. As it was, he had the misfortune of being born in the wrong century. He tried to make the most of it, convincing himself that despite what the "Rogue Organisation" did it was ultimately for the good of the Federation. That bit of self deception died when he and two other Agents where given the job of bringing in a promising recruit that they thought would do great things among their ranks. Alixus. Discovering what she had done on the Shuttle ride, how she willingly allowed her own people to die just to prove her theory's and broken the ones that didn't to her will through cruel indoctrination, turned his blood cold. It was only through the defiance of Sisko that she had been stopped, and it was through his defiance that she finally met her end. In a flash he fired the phaser his fellow agent believed he had only been adjusting, and in three quick pulls of the trigger ended her life as well as his colleagues. Using his Section 31 training he took off in the hidden transport heading into the most lawless corner of space. Where he met two allies. A Klingon exile who wished to return the Empire to a more practical age and be rid of the pompous houses who where over-obsession with honour. And a Romulan, tired of her people's leader's constant infighting always leading to the undoing of the progress of their predecessors, and the stagnation it caused even after Romulus was destroyed. Together these three odd friends conspired to work together and take control of their Nations. Or at the very least remove what each believed was the worst parts of them. With a small but growing fleet under their command made up of other outcast’s and idealists, alike and while the three old powers are none the wiser. They would wage an invisible war upon them and do as much damage as possible to build their strength and unleash a war from within. The United Insurgency, was born.

[bat2018autoreview-blog]

2018 VW Jetta Redesign and Price

2018 VW Jetta Redesign – The actual VW Jetta is one in all the majorities of versatile sedans as a result of includes excellent performance, comfort and defrayal budget luxury. rather like nearly eachthing in every space of your life, the Jetta has received higher over the years and has managed its originality. The manufacturer offers designed a brand new version of the VW Jetta that’s the bulk of waited within the vehicle marketplace. The 2018 VW Jetta can keep company with a mirrored image related to high-end quality German expert due to the good attention provided to detail and also the turbo beaked choice for the engine of the sedan.

2018 vw jetta

The 2018 VW Jetta is predicted to become the top-selling German foreign automobile within the u.  s. market. this can be reckoning on statistics of quality that is already receiving abundant interest by the engineers. The automobile is truly expected to come back in trims that embrace the GLI, Sport, SEL, SE and S versions. of those models, the shoppers can have a variety of choices to have faith in basing their judgments upon luxury options, performance moreover as worth.

2018 VW Jetta Exterior

Pertaining to the 2018 VW Jetta Exterior it’s thought of to take care of its nice look and ne’er abundant of enhancements area unit expected. the complete look are going to be gaudy moreover as sleek which is able to attract way more purchasers for the vehicle.

2018 VW Jetta Interior

The majority of today’s compact sedans embrace VW Jetta interiors with overstrung shapes and accents, an affordable level of quality merchandise, and lots of school functions, all that interest the young purchasers United Nations agency area unit drawn to those cars. By comparison, the cabin of the Jetta appearance very commonplace and feels alittle inexpensive. The lower trim levels area unit curst powerful, shiny plastic, that has truly complete up being a issue of the past from different complete names apart from for the foremost price-conscious styles. Competitors like the Honda Civic, Mazda 3 also because the Volkswagen Golf hatchback deal a lot of appealing, higher-quality, soft-touch interiors.

2018 vw jetta interior

The 2018 Jetta will qualify well in innovation. There area unit a pair of offered touchscreen sizes, Apple CarPlay and humanoid Automobile sensible device combination, and VW’s own suite of connected edges and services. The interface is sharp, straightforward to utilize, and currently uses a basic USB port for a wired transportable affiliation. Audiophiles can price the aptitude of the stereo to play FLAC-type music files.

When it considerations interior space, the Jetta shines. The rear seat’s intensive measurements overshadow those of just about every compact sedan and hatchback, consisting of the VW Golf, whereas the trunk volume of fifteen.5 cubiform feet competitors that of even midsize sedans. the inside makes the 2018 Volkswagen Jetta an excellent choice if you’ll ignore some chintzy product work and price the hundreds of elbow area

2018 VW Jetta Engine Performance

No main info have truly been equipped as way as powertrains. in contrast to the previous generation, it seems presumably that successive Jetta won’t use a diesel alternative following a major emissions scandal unconcealed in 2015. VW states it’ll not market diesels to the exact same degree as within the past and can invest greatly within the advancement of plug-in electrical styles. Specifications for the Jetta have not been released, it’s an great bet that the auto can build use of turbocharging to fulfill competitive federal fuel economic system objectives.

2018 vw jetta engine

The present Jetta utilizes a one.4-liter turbo as its base engine, manufacturing one hundred fifty power unit with 184 lb-ft of force. The mid-level engine may be a one.8-liter turbo creating a hundred and seventy power unit with 184 lb-ft of twist. The range-topping GLI style utilizes an even bigger a pair of.0-liter turbo manufacturing 210 power unit with 207 lb-ft. several variations of the Jetta featured a basic 5-speed manual transmission, but a 6-speed machine-controlled is quickly accessible. The GLI options a 6-speed enchiridion with the selection of a 6-speed DSG dual-clutch.

Reports recommend VW has truly been establishing a 10-speed dual-clutch transmission that may move even faster than the current DSG. There has truly been no main verification on whether or not or not the new Jetta can get this innovation, a minimum of in North America.

In regards to security, successive Jetta can seemingly embrace the entire sort of chauffeur facilitate innovation to equal rivals. The maker has truly been creating some daring bets during this arena, as well as sovereign emergency braking as a basic perform on the larger Passat for the 2018 style year. can successive Jetta see a comparable modification? That stays to be seen.

2018 VW Jetta Price and Release Date

We’re still a protracted means aloof from obtaining main rates for successive Jetta. despite obtaining a brand new platform, we tend to believe the chances prepared that VW Price can will keep entry costs listed below $20,000 to remain competitive.

The maker has truly been re-pricing cars throughout its lineup for the past variety of years, in several cases taking rates down by thousands. primarily based upon this overarching pattern, it’s an excellent bet that successive Jetta can bring AN appealing worth. We’ll hold off on an excessive amount of speculation.

VW hasn’t unconcealed a unleash date nevertheless for successive Jetta. At this point, we tend to anticipate a unleash at some purpose in late 2018. we are going to upgrade this page with the foremost recent info because it seems.

The 2018 VW Jetta boasts an oversized cabin and many of engine choices. different Jetta characteristics carries with it a vigorous engine lineup (for reward points, the bottom engine provides wonderful gas mileage) and an oversized interior that’s much as convenient as a midsize automobile. For the Jetta’s nearly $18,000 starting worth, you’re far better off selecting for one in all its higher-ranked competitors, just like the Golf or Civic, that strike the chords of exterior development that the vw Jetta misses out on.

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