“Wow, it really is an Ayas.”
“That’s… what I said,” Kievkenalis responded uneasily, “Did… you not
understand me?”
“Nah, we understood you just fine,” Christeané replied, “Davídrius just
refuses to believe anything anyone says.”
“Shut it,” the Tresédian scowled, turning away from the Ayas to address
Christeané, Kievkenalis, and Kaoné. “I mean, c’mon. It’s an Ayas. Of course I’d
be a little skeptical when you call us from across the complex claiming that
you found one of nine objects that disappeared without a
trace twenty fucking years ago.”
“Didn’t the Earthians find the Master Ayas?” the Chaostechnic
questioned.
“That on its own was pretty unbelievable,” Davídrius remarked, “I mean,
of all the places for an Ayas to show up again, it’s an Earthian colony? Just
look at a map of the galaxy. Two thirds of the place is claimed by the Drakkars
or the CSA, but the Earthians have practically nothing. How they stumbled
across the Master Ayas is beyond me.”
“And it’s not really relevant to us finding this Ayas anyway,”
Christeané pointed out, “If you’re trying to say that most of the Ayas would be
in Drakkar or CSA space, well, guess where we are now?”
“…Tch.” The Superspeed Introtechnic glared at the Master Lieutenant
before turning back to the Ayas. “Alright, so we found this thing. I guess we
should take it back with us.”
“Wait–!” Kievkenalis quickly exclaimed, but not before Davídrius had
sped over to the Ayas and scooped it up off the floor.
The
Tresédian glanced at the Chaostechnic and blinked twice before responding
slowly, “…what?”
“That’s a Chaos Ayas!” Kievkenalis
exclaimed, “You should be more careful with it!”
“…Nothing happened when I picked up the Master Ayas, back on Sunova…”
“Well, when the Earthians first picked it up, something did happen,”
Kaoné pointed out.
“…Well, that was the Master
Ayas, this is just a regular one,” Davídrius shrugged, “What’s it gonna do,
send me berserk?”
“It could have, yes,” Kievkenalis replied tersely.
“Oh. Well why didn’t you warn me then?!”
“I did! I tried! But you were too fast!”
“Damn right I’m too fast.”
“Davídrius, really?” Christeané crossed his arms irately, “Cut the
shit.”
The Superspeed Introtechnic scowled, but didn’t respond further.
Christeané turned back to Kievkenalis. “What’s up with this Ayas? What
makes it so special?”
“It’s the Dark Blue Ayas, Hastryth,” the Chaostechnic replied, “It’s
not dark blue just to be dark. It actually means something.”
“Wait, hold on,” Kaoné interrupted, “’Hastryth’? What’s that?”
“…Oh, I guess that’s not something you guys would know,” Kievkenalis
scratched the back of his neck uneasily, “It’s… usually kept to Riveranians.
Particularly Archonés.”
“What, could you get in trouble for talking about this?” Christeané
replied incredulously.
“Well… not really.”
“Then just tell us. Explain everything.”
“…According to the Oraculm–“
“Aw, this again?” Davídrius scowled.
“Just let him talk, we can discuss whether or not we believe it all
when he’s done,” Christeané turned back to Kievkenalis, “Please, continue.”
“…Anyways,” Kievkenalis continued uneasily, “According to the Oraculm,
each of the Ayas have a respective name and weapon–“
“What? A weapon? How do I–?”
“Davídrius, shut up,” Christeané snapped.
The Superspeed Introtechnic pursed his lips and before crossing his
arms. “Uh… sorry.”
Kievkenalis gave Davídrius a wary glance before commenting, “See, this
is why I’m concerned about this Ayas. The nine Ayas are split into three groups
– the Master Ayas, the Light Ayas, and the Dark Ayas… and the one you’re holding,
Hastryth? It’s one of the Dark Ayas.”
“So… what, does it have some ‘corrupting influence’ or some shit?”
“Yes, it does.”
“Oh. …Well, I mean, c’mon, if any of us are resistant to a corrupting
influence it’d be me, right?”
Christeané snorted and immediately began laughing. “Ahahahaha! You?
Resistant to corruption?”
“Let’s put it this way: I’ve got less to lose, and not as far to fall,
than pretty much anyone else here.”
“How does that mean you’re resistant?!” Kievkenalis questioned
incredulously.
“Relax, I’m sure I can handle it,” Davídrius insisted, “Just, explain
the name and weapon part.”
“Uh… well, as I said, according to the Oraculm each of the Ayas has a
name and associated weapon. The Ayas that you’re holding, the Dark Blue Ayas,
is Hastryth. The Master Ayas is Syn.”
“What about the weapons?” Christeané questioned.
“I… I don’t know much about the weapons,” Kievkenalis shrugged, “To the
best of my knowledge, Riveranians are probably the only ones in the entire
galaxy who even know that the weapons exist. They’re only mentioned in the
Oraculm, and I’ve never heard of the CSA ever using the weapons while they had
the Ayas. They’re not something you’d be able to use if you didn’t know that
you could.”
“Well, how can I?” Davídrius pressed.
“Uh… try… thinking about it?”
“You don’t even know?” Christeané frowned.
“Hey, I’m not the Archoné,” Kievkenalis replied defensively, “I only
know so much.”
“I guess I can try anyways…” the Superspeed Introtechnic paused, as if
concentrating – and a moment later a handle appeared in his unoccupied hand. A
metallic tether then appeared, connected to the end of the handle, and more
tether length continued materializing for almost two meters before a large,
curved blade with a small handle suddenly materialized at the other end of the
tether. “Whoa…” Davídrius grinned, depositing the Ayas in one of his jacket
pockets before leaning over and grabbing the blade by its handle. “This is
great!”
“Looks like a chain weapon,” Christeané observed, “…only, with a tether
instead of a chain.”
“So I can just summon this at will?” Davídrius looked over at
Kievkenalis.
“I… guess? Like I said, I don’t know that much about the weapons,” the
Chaostechnic replied.
Davídrius paused for a moment – and then the weapon seemed to
disintegrate and immediately disappear. A moment later the weapon
rematerialized in his hands. “Haha, alright!” he pumped his fist, “This
is great!”
“Don’t get too attached to it, I’m sure the Commander
will end up taking the Ayas off your hands,” Kaoné cautioned.
“Yeah, yeah…” Davídrius waved her off, allowing the weapon to
dematerialize, “Anyways, we have the Ayas now. We should probably get back to
looking for any signs of Black Suns activity.” He whirled around on his heel
and began marching down the hallway. “Hey, Christeané, c’mon!”
“Huh?... I mean, hey, wait! Slow down!”
Kaoné and Kievkenalis watched the two Introtechnics leave and then
glanced at each other uneasily. Eventually Kaoné shrugged. “If there’s a lesson
for Davídrius to learn, he’s going to have to learn it himself, I guess.”
“…I guess,” Kievkenalis responded slowly, and then shook his head to
clear his thoughts. “Anyways, he’s right. Let’s get back to searching the
complex.”
*
* *
“Whoa – wait a minute…”
“Huh?” Rebehka cocked her head confusedly as Siyuakén suddenly turned
her attention back to the generator. “…What’s wrong?”
“…There was a sudden spike in the power draw,” the Electrotechnic
replied, “Something big must’ve just come online.”
“The base’s defenses, maybe?”
“I don’t know,” Siyuakén frowned, “The power draw of the defenses
should be balanced by the activation of the other generators. And even
then, this much power…”
Rebehka gave her friend a curious look. “I know you’re an
Electrotechnic, but since when could you detect exact power draw?”
“Since… I don’t know,” Siyuakén shrugged, “But that doesn’t change the
fact that this is concerning.”
“What kind of power draw are we talking about? What can it do?”
“I don’t know. Power… a lot of guns? A lot of mechs? I guess I don’t actually
know.”
“So, it’s probably all going to base defenses, right? So you’re
probably right, guns, automated defense mechs, maybe emergency transmitters… we
should probably tell Kevérin about this.”
“I guess. Though, it’s still probably nothing we can’t handle, right? I
mean, worst case scenario, the base is also equipped with… CENT… …fields…”
The two Chaotics glanced at each other uneasily.
“…Yeah, we should contact Kevérin.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
Rebehka turned away momentarily and held a hand over her ear. “Command:
contact Kevérin Tyrion.” She paused for a moment before repeating, “Command:
contact Kevérin Tyrion.”
“…Something wrong?” Siyuakén questioned when the Cryotechnic removed
her glasses and began staring at them oddly.
“Command: contact Kevérin Tyrion,” Rebehka tried again after putting
her glasses back on, and then shook her head. “It’s weird. I can’t reach
Kevérin. My glasses claim that there’s no nearby local connections, which is
wrong, unless everyone else went back to the ‘Gate, or…”
“…Or this place also has communication jammers.”
“Well, this is great,” Rebehka frowned, “I think we’ve underestimated
the Citans…”
“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Siyuakén countered, “Teghica is a
desert planet, and it’s in frontier territory, at that. The Citans themselves
abandoned the place. So why put in so many defenses?”
“…We did just walk in the front door and start messing
around,” Rebehka pointed out.
“…True.”
“We should probably head back to the rendezvous point then. Hopefully
we can meet up with everyone else there.”
“I agree. This place is more dangerous than we thought… let’s get
going.”
*
* *
Ah, finally. Damn, even old Citan systems are hard to crack…
Kevérin took a moment to stretch before returning his attention to the
computer in front of him. Ever since the rest of Hero Machina had split up to
investigate the abandoned complex two hours ago, the Transfer Captain had been
busy attempting to break into the Citan computer systems. He was lucky that the
complex was two centuries old – if he had been up against modern Citan
technology, he wouldn’t have had a chance.
Alright, let’s see what we have here, he thought to himself as he began rifling through the files and
data stored on the machine in front of him. Base routines… maps of
Citan space… of CSA space… personnel files… all two hundred years old. Bah,
none of this is actually useful. He paused and scratched his head,
rolling the presented data over within his mind. I wonder if there’s
anything here indicating Black Suns involvement… whoa, what’s this? Research
data? Why would there be research data on an outpost like Teghica?...
The Transfer Captain began looking through all of the presented data,
ranging from results of armor prototype tests to scrapped Battleship designs.
He even recognized some ship blueprints as corresponding to older Citan ships
that were still in service – upon seeing these he made a mental note to copy
the data, just in case anyone back on Nimalia could find it useful. Then, after
nearly twenty minutes of investigating the data, he happened across a section
set aside for Chaos Energy.
Citan Chaos Energy experiments… now these could actually be useful, Kevérin smirked to himself, maybe
there’ll even be some information on the Chaos Ayas. Now that’d be useful.
Let’s see, hmm… wait… Chaos Energy Quake?
He paused for several moments. If the Citans abandoned Teghica two
hundred years ago, then how was there any mention of the Quake, which happened
only twenty years ago? …It must be the Black Suns, the
Transfer Captain concluded, I’ve found a link. But what kind of data on
the Quake is worth storing?...
Kevérin entered the data directory and began perusing the presented
data. …It’s just a list of planets and timestamps, he
frowned, what’s the timestamp for? They’re all on the forty-third day
of SGT 10205. On the Nimalian calendar, that’s… Aldredath thirty-second, 8012.
…The day the Chaos Energy Quake began. Is that what these timestamps are, then?
When Chaos Energy ceased to function on each planet? He continued
looking through the massive list of planets and timestamps. Hmm, it
looks like the Quake wasn’t instantaneous. Some planets lost the ability to use
Chaos Energy later than others… though the margin is only minutes. I wonder if
anyone has this data for the Nimalian Territories – it looks like the Citans
sure don’t. The only planets here are CSA worlds. …Hmm… I wonder what would it
look like if this data was overlaid on the galactic map?...
He immediately brought up a holographic representation of the galaxy on
his glasses, allowing them to automatically input the data read from the
computer monitor. Within a minute the glasses had read enough data to present
Kevérin an image of the galaxy, each planet marked with its respective
timestamp. “Command: color the galaxy with a blue to red gradient. Planets that
were affected the earliest are red, planets that were affected last are blue.”
A moment passed as his glasses processed the command and then marked the galaxy
accordingly, leading the Transfer Captain to gasp in surprise. “Wow… the Chaos
Energy Quake… was radial.”
He crossed his arms and mused over the data further. “…Well, the center
seems to lay outside CSA space. It seems like they don’t have quite enough data
points to extrapolate the exact center on their own – their territory is offset
by just too much. But… if we were to get Nimalian data, and maybe even Syraus,
or Earthian data… we could find the center ourselves! Wow, this is probably the
best lead on the Quake that anyone’s ever had!” But right as he began to get
excited, a thought returned to his mind:
What is this data doing on a two hundred year old computer – a computer
that’s been long separated from the Citan Intelligence Network?
Kevérin quickly backed out of the data directory and began searching
for timestamps of the files themselves or usage logs – anything to help
determine when the machine was last used, or how the files even ended up on the
machine. Eventually, he found an answer by means of the base’s computer usage
logs. This base was reconnected to the Citan Intelligence Network ten
years ago… and disconnected within a week. And almost immediately afterward it
went dark for a full two years… this had to have been the Black Suns. But what
were they doing here? When were they last here? His
question was soon answered as he scrolled farther down the log. The
most recent access date was the thirtieth day of SGT 10231. On the Nimalian
calendar, that’s Winth twenty-third, 8034. …Ten… days ago…
Immediately the Transfer Captain cupped a hand to his ear. “Command:
contact Kievkenalis Yumach.” He paused for a few seconds and frowned. “Command:
contact Kievkenalis Yumach. …Command: contact Christeané Kolstén. …Command:
contact Rebehka Tchiréon. …Fuck!” He scowled. Comms are jammed… the
base’s defenses must be kicking in. Consequence of sending Siyuakén to light
the place up, I guess… He paused for a few seconds, musing over his
options before he removed his glasses and set them on top of the computer.
“Command: Transfer Captain unlock. Authority: Kevérin Tyrion. Setup download
interface with local computer. Download everything; prioritize Chaos Energy
research.” He then sat back and sighed as his glasses began downloading data
from the computer, data that he could no longer read since it wasn’t being
filtered by the aforementioned glasses. “I may not have found a concrete
connection to the Black Suns, but this data can still be of use. Time to just
grab it all and get out…”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
Kevérin whipped around and immediately entered a defensive stance as
his eyes laid on a squad of eight soldiers entering the room. All of them wore
different variants of powered armor, colored black, dark blue, and silver – the
colors of the Black Suns.
The front-most soldier stepped forward, her double-kneed legs and four
fingered-hands giving her away as a Dra’kis. She crossed her arms and glared
down at Kevérin as the soldiers behind her trained their weapons on the
Pyrotechnic. “Looks like we’ve found the rat after our scraps,” she smirked, “…Just
a Nimalian. I’d almost pity you, but, well, that’s not what I’m here to do.”
Kevérin maintained his stance as he eyed the Dra’kis warily. “Yeah?
What are you here for, then?”
“I’d thought that obvious,” she replied nonchalantly, “We’re here for
pest control. We’re here to get rid of you.”
Data Entry: Black Suns
The Black Suns are a galactic-scale private military and R&D corporation, recognized by the CSA, Nimalian Territories, and Syraus Protectorate. The Black Suns are most well-known for their military prowess, and are often hired by various galactic organizations to assist in military conflict, namely the ongoing war between the Siions and the Drakkars, or the Millennia War between the Syraus and the Riaxen. Black Suns soldiers are widely appreciated for their professionalism, ability, and synergy; despite being effectively a mercenary group, squads of Black Suns soldiers routinely outperform most other soldiers in nearly any situation. Even squads of Black Suns soldiers with only one or two Chaotics can perform better than full Chaotic squads from any of the three CSA civilizations.
The Black Suns recruit soldiers from any civilization and do not discriminate at all. The result is a very mixed and diverse group that can appear rag-tag, but many believe that their diversity is what leads to their great ability. Notably, one does not need to be a Chaotic to rise rapidly through the ranks – several of the top-ranking personnel have either no Chaotic ability, or minor abilities. The key here is the Black Suns powered armor – it is remarkably advanced, having far more battery power, shielding, and reserve weapon energy than any other powered armor (except for select Citan models), all while remaining lighter and more agile than any other powered armor. This allows even individuals with no Chaotic ability to hold their own against many different Chaotic types.
While the Black Suns are most well-known for their military prowess, and are indeed recognized as a private military corporation, they also spend much of their time and money on research, development, and production. The Black Suns design and produce the majority of their own weaponry, and even sell their weapons to other militaries. They have the technological lead on nearly every front related to infantry and Chaotic battles – however, they spend very little time dabbling in space travel technology. The Black Suns space navy is pitiful, but they don’t care – their value lies in their planet-side ability, and they know it.
The Black Suns are split into four sectors, each sector largely self-sufficient and holding its own space (though the Black Suns hold very little space – the only galactic entity with less territory is the Earthians). Each sector is roughly in charge of corresponding with one or two galactic entities – Sector 1 responds to Siion requests, Sector 2 responds to Dra’kis, Sector 3 to Citans, and Sector 4 to Nimalians and Syraus. However, this is only a rough guideline, and sectors will often “overlap” in terms of jurisdiction. Each sector is commanded by one Master General; under the Master General are one to three Lieutenant Generals. The Supreme Commander of the Black Suns is the individual in charge of the whole PMC, and the one person who the Master Generals report to. As of Nimalian year 8034, the Supreme Commander is a Siion Woman by the name of Sallas Jeran.
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