Clear Skies - Now Open!

[warlockseer]

John slipped the military EPA into his coat pocket when he was given it. He had barely listened to the agent that was briefing them.John followed the sergeant closely out of the room.

[Iron_Fang]

Blackmane smiles as Vestis walks out "you will have to try really hard to manipulate me, sarge i would like my weapons please, two daggers, a pistol and a sniper rifle" he salutes and sits down.

[Skunk_Giant]

The suits were angry. The soldiers were prepared to shoot. The squad was simply accepting the recent events.
Nathan stood up and made his way to the suits. Blackmane followed him with some of the other squad members and spoke.
"Sarge, I would like my weapons please, two daggers, a pistol and a sniper rifle." The soldier saluted.
"Soldier, there are no weapons. You'll have to wait until we start the mission, and then, you'll use the weapons you're issued. Trust me, Spectre has good weapons... Now, Blackmane, tell the rest of the squad to wait outside the room. I need to talk with the suits for a moment."

When the doors were locked, Nathan approached the men. "Well, that didn't go as well as you expected, did it? I do believe I said something about the mercenaries, didn't I? I told you it was a bad idea."
The man who'd briefed them spoke up. "Yes, Brown, you were right. I never liked the idea either, but we had no damn choice. God knows we lost all our good soldiers in the war. They all wanted to be the war hero that sacrificed themselves for humanity."
"Sir, I think it's about time you told me what's going on. These mercenaries are running loose, and Vestis just stole your weapons, his payment, without doing his job. This mission is so similar to my first, it's not funny. Spectre, the 'new squad' taking on an important mission. Hell, you're even making us look like we're after the organ thieves. What's going on?"
The man sighed. "Nathan, Spectre is refusing to help us. She knows something we don't about the Reds, and because of our treatment of Mel and your previous squad, she's cut all connections with us. She's no longer an agent. We want you to find her and bring her to us. The fact that you've just got a new squad isn't too good, as it means we need to spend guys with no experience down, but it's our only choice. You're the only person she might trust. The mission about the Reds, it's true, but Spectre knows more. We need you to capture her."
Nathan was shocked. "I'm not capturing Spectre, I wouldn't betray her trust like that!"
Hans stepped in. "Sergeant, you have no choice. This is a mission. Without the information she has, the Reds could start another war, do you really want that?"
Nathan thought for a moment. "OK, I'll capture her and get all the info from her. Mission accepted."

Nathan stepped through the doors and found the squad waiting for him. "We're heading to Atlantis. The mission is the same, gather intel on the Reds. If you see either of the mercenaries, let me know. If you can, capture them, but don't go out of your way."

And with that, the squad stepped into the military transport, and fell towards the ground.

[Blank_Kold]

Vestis jumped at the ring of his private EPA. No one alive had that number. He was intrigued.

"Didn't think you'd flip sides like that, Abyss," The voice of a woman resonated through the communicator.

"I follow the money. This job is looking like a sting either way. I'm about ready to kill everyone involved. So why are you calling me, Ghost? And how do you even have this number?" Vestis replied, oddly calm.

"Some bureaucrat that tried to sting you had a memory implant. I dug the information out of there."

"So why are you calling me, Ghost?"

"Some information about that job of yours, affects me more than you though. They plan to kill some like me. And they want to use you to do it."

"Well that settles it, how do you want to split the difference, there are at least five suits and really only one person we have to worry about."

"We'll meet in person in a bit."

"Alright, Ghost, let me know."

[KaosuHamoni]

As Erika sliced the air with surgical precision, an arc of plasma erupted from her blade. The metal blast-doors sliding apart painfully slowly, she stepped forward into the darkness, pistol first. A ghoul jumped at her, and she planted an explosive round right between it's eyes. Gore spattered the wall, and The Rose walked calmly forward toward the box. As she removed a singular, abnormally spherical gem from the container, her right hand glowed red, and she span round, a wall of energy bursting forth from her glove. The pack of ghouls stalking her were pushed back at such a speed, that, when they hit the wall, they all crumpled and died.

A slight tinge of fatigue buzzed at her. There was always a price for using the arm, but it was worth it.

She climbed back into the cockpit of her ship, and removed the glove from her hand. It was blackened. Decimated. The toll of genetic modification taking a grip on her, changing her into somethig else. A phantom. A siren.

The gem melted into her palm, and her hand returned back to normal. That is, if normal people have what looks like lines of electricity running through their veins and arteries, and she keyed in the Sgt's co-ordinates, while bringing up his EPA on the fighter's computer.

"I know you don't trust me, but I haven't exactly given you cause to. I want my money, and, you probably don't remember, but we've met before. I'm on my way, so be ready for me, and, you never know. If I come across Vestie boy, I may deal with him for you. He has a lack of experience, and is far too full of himself, even if he is a little funny..."

[Blank_Kold]

The crowd was always a good cover. The two killers could talk in peace among the bedlam. "Who do we start with?" Ghost asked, her soldier syndrome taking a hold.

"Simple, kill the Sargent. Cut off the head of the beast and it's body will die. You go in close, I'll cover you from your ship with the gift our new friends gave me. Kill anyone who interferes."

[Skunk_Giant]

"I know you don't trust me, but I haven't exactly given you cause to. I want my money, and, you probably don't remember, but we've met before. I'm on my way, so be ready for me, and, you never know. If I come across Vestie boy, I may deal with him for you. He has a lack of experience, and is far too full of himself, even if he is a little funny..."

Nathan rushed through his memory, but he couldn't quite place where he'd met her before. He knew women with a similar attitude, but he couldn't remember her...
"Look, I don't have your money, we-" Nathan was cut off for a second as the transport went through turbulence. "The Coo are just digging their graves deeper. Hell, they're hiring mercenaries to hunt down and kill other mercenaries that betrayed them. The Coo are becoming an entirely different organisation. They are no longer an army, they are a mercenary agency with an army on the side. I'm gonna give you a suggestion now. Don't make contact with them. It'll end badly." He lowered his voice." Meet me at Atlantis tonight. We'll discuss this all in person."

[ojamamask]

Michael was silent during the task brief, whilst other people shouting profanities, he said nothing. They were told to wait outside the room whilst Nathan, their squad leader now, stayed in there and discuss more with the man. A few minutes later the squad saw Nathan walk out of the room with a sorry look on his face. "We're heading to Atlantis."
After that the squad stepped into the military transport and went off towards Atlantis.

As they were riding in the transport Michael wondered to himself if this was a proper brief. They were right that this isn't a job for some rookies, it's just far too risky. What about if it was a trap or test. Around him were various people in the squad talking to their EPA's, Michael searched around in his right pocket and found a very old scruffy version EPA that he took with him. There wasn't any point of it, he had hardly any contacts and it would surely be out of signal this far into space.

[Sir_Luke]

Luke grabs his stomach with his hand and announces, "I'm hungry.." To himself.

[Skunk_Giant]

As the transport landed in a small military section of the Atlantis Transport Station (ATS), the squad stepped out. After a few security checks and discussions, they were led into a large lift that took them vertically and horizontally to the public area. They stepped onto the filthy, once white tiles and looked around at the tourists of the planet.
"Alright, let's just go quickly and leave this hole of a station. No shopping, no distra-"
Nathan fell to the floor, the back of his head stinging. His ears rang, and his vision blurred. In a surreal position of first and third person of himself, he looked towards his hands, one of which was dirty, the other bloody.
He looked around at the fire, and found the large chunk of the roof that had fallen on him. Smoke was pouring out of a shop to the right, and gunfire was rattling everywhere else. People screamed as another bomb went off.
Another, larger chunk of the roof fell, missing him by a metre. It landed on its side, providing a good barrier for the squad to take cover behind. He could only hope they were ready for this type of combat.
A few teams of soldiers and police came running from behind Nathan, guns ready. They took cover behind other chunks of debris, covering three soldiers who unpacked bags of weapons. They threw pistols to each member of Nathan's squad, but couldn't see him taking cover behind the wreckage.
He reached his hand to his head, and took it back, wet and bloodied.
Only then, did Nathan feel the pain.

With that feeling, the Sergeant screamed.

[Iron_Fang]

Blackmane saw Nathan scream with blood pumping from his head, he dives over and protects him

[KaosuHamoni]

As her ship closes on the Atlantis shuttle bay, Erika gets a danger warning from the computer.
"Hostiles in your proximity. Extreme discretion is advised."
She thinks "To hell with discretion...", and flicks on the shields and cloaks, before flying in.

She's greeted by fire and blood. The squad, pinned down behind a potion of the roof, the Sgt incapacitated by an injury. Enemy soldiers closing in. She brings the ship to a rest, hovering over the Sgt by 200 feet, before spinning up the guns and strafing, keeping them at bay. Next, she fires missiles at the two main groups of soldiers, thinning their numbers, before re-cloaking, and setting her fighter outside. Clicking the fingers of her right hand, time around her slows. She can already feel the drain, but it's necessary. A few shots here and there, before coming to stop at the Sgt. She clicks her fingers again, bringing time back to normal, and places her hand on the Sgt's head, energy pulsating through her fingers. The flow of blood slows, then stops, the bone knitting back together and the skin forming around it, and he falls unconscious. There'd be a scar, but it'll have to do. As she finishes, a wave of fatigue comes over her. She hates healing people, it's so much effort. Sluggishly bringing herself to her feet, she injects herself with a syringe of adrenaline, before catching a rocket in her supernatural grip, and lobbing it back, followed by a bolt of plasma for goodwill. She's still tired despite the syringe...

As she steps into the fray, she places her arms wide, and a blue aura envelopes her. She can keep this up for 30 seconds before falling to the floor, passed out. She picks up two soldiers and hurls them into the wall, taking a bullet to the shoulder. Fuck. Enough. She explodes, energy pouring forth into the squad.

"Make what you will of this little temporary present", she says to the nearest rookie, who she thinks is called Blacklion, or something." You don't have long until it runs out...

And with that, she pushes herself behind the cover with the last of her strength, landing beside the Sgt. Unconcious, and bleeding, she's dine what she can.

It's now up to the rookies.

(For the record, you now all temporarily have minor telekinetic powers. They will last for about a post or two, so make the most if it, but no flinging cars or shizz. You can't nearly do the kind of stuff I can, seeing as I had to spread it so thin)

[Sir_Luke]

Luke rushes up and out of cover, firing his pistol at the terrorist as he makes his way to a barrier that three hostiles are hiding behind. Bullets whiz by him and ricochet off the tile floors, and then Luke feels a strong thump on his leg as he falls to his knees in front of the barrier. Blood oozing from his wound, Luke stretches up the barrier and tips his pistol over the top of it and unloads seven bullets behind it. He shouts to the squad, "A little help here!?"

[Blank_Kold]

This was a fantastic opportunity. someone had packed enough ENT into the roof to make it collapse and then ambushed the squad. It was far too similar to what he himself had planned. It was time to kill, The abyss within the phantom's eyes turned red, the syndrome emerged from its cave. He was a soldier; he was a monster.

He let loose a toroid round, the gauss rifle jumping back with explosive force. The plasma bullet hit the ground with the force of a pound of ENT, showering the area with energy. The mystery soldiers began to collapse as their gun's burst violently and their implants were overloaded and reversed the flow of blood.

He flicked out the spent shell; it charred the floor. The normal slugs hurt far less to shoot. He saw the squad members fall, injured, one by one. even the merc had been winged. Why wasn't he shooting them? That was why he was here.

Vestis laughed to himself, hoisting his rifle up over his shoulder as he did. He had accidentally helped his targets, it was odd. "Ghost," Vestis said disinterestedly into his EPA, "we're going to Theron Prime"
"Why?" A voice answered back. "There's nothing on that planet but a Shiva's Arm."
"Wrong. That's the shit hole in which Nex resides."

[warlockseer]

John heard luke yell for help. He ran towards luke, firing his pistol at the terrorists.He managed to hit one of them and slid towards luke.

[ojamamask]

The ride slowly came into a stop, and then the squad exited the vehicle. Michael had a slight chill go down his spine, something wasn't right. Maybe it was just his adrenaline rush or just nerves,
"Alright, let's just go quickly and leave this hole of a station. No shopping, no distra-"
Before he got to finish his sentence, parts of the roof suddenly came falling down injuring some of the squad including Nathan. Michael dropped down onto the floor as he saw numerous bullets fly past him. He saw around him that some of the squad fully engaged with the gunfight, especially one girl. She went all out sweeping through a lot of the men but eventually collapsing on the floor.

Three men came around giving out weaponry, giving Michael a pistol. He looked at the contraption as if it was the first time he's seen one. He looked at what everyone else was doing and pointed the gun at one of the enemy troops and pulled the trigger. After he did the man's arm made a tiny explosion and shouted out and dropped his gun. Out of all the gunfire and shouting Michael amazingly heard a voice.
"A little help here!?"
Michael looked to his right and saw a man laying down on the floor he rapidly crawled towards him. When he arrived by his side he also saw another man by him, shooting relentlessly at the enemy squad.

[Skunk_Giant]

The surreal moment came back.
Nathan could feel his vocal chords begging for him to stop screaming, but he couldn't hear his own voice. Blackmane was the first of the squad to respond to the attack. He threw himself over to Nathan to keep him protected.
As the squad took a safe position behind the barrier with Nathan and Blackmane, Luke leaped out of cover. He dashed to a military looking barrier that several hostiles were behind, firing as he did so. He then took cover on the other side of the barrier.
Nathan managed to regain control of himself, and he called for the squad to help Luke. John, who had already heard Luke's cry for help, was one step ahead. He hit one terrorist, and hid behind Luke.
Nathan took another look at their enemies, and found the all too familiar uniform of the Reds, with a slight variant. They wore long white robes, with two redstripes beginning on their back, then turning around the shoulders, and finishing on the front of the robes. Some of them had red warpaint, extending the lines to their necks and faces. The difference now, was that the long white robes also had a hood, with red symbols all over it.
Suddenly, another piece of the roof collapsed, and a policeman ran over to Nathan.
"You the sergeant?"
"Yeah, do we have reinforcements on the way or something?" Nathan asked.
"We're struggling with communications. We can only hope that people see what's going on from outside of the station."
"Go back to your men, officer. Tell the soldiers over there to try and go around the left side, through one of the perfume shops. My squad will keep the terrorists from moving forward."
Nathan took cover again, wishing he could do something to help his squad, but he had no weapon.
There was a deafening explosion, and something came through the roof... but, how?
Nathan watched in awe as a small fighter ship came into the station from somewhere outside. In the cockpit, he could see... Erika.
She fired some heavy shots before getting out of the ship and doing some more fighting. She was using technology Nathan had heard of, but never seen. Officially, he was told it didn't exist, but Nathan knew what that really meant.
The tech gave her amazing, supernatural abilities.
Next, the mysterious women came over to Nathan and put a hand on his head, healing him, before sending him into unconsciousness, but just for a moment. It was surreal, just like everything else, but Nathan woke up about 10 seconds later. He was too tired to do anything but open his eyes for now.
A terrorist far at the back lifted up a rifle over the barrier, and fired, hitting her in the shoulder. She looked around, and a burst of light appeared around her. She said something to Blackmane, and fell by the barrier next to Nathan. His energy came back, and he scrambled to her and checked her pulse. She wasn't dead.
At the very back, behind the terrorist who shot Erika, was another one. The terrorist held an rpg. Nathan could see a small grin in the robe, and the man fired.
Suddenly, everything slowed.
Nathan had a small vision, a vision of the explosion that killed Mel all those years ago. The red fire bursting from the building slowly turned itself blue, and Nathan felt the vision fading. With that, something flew from Nathan, from his hands. It was blue - plasma.
The small ball of plasma hit the missile flying at him head on, wrapping itself around it and bouncing it back. The missile stopped short, and flew into the ground near where Luke, John and Michael were taking cover.
"SHIT!"
Nathan leaped over the barrier and rushed to the soldiers, praying for their survival.

[Sir_Luke]

"SH**!"
The Missile lands with a deafening crash and explodes sending shrapnel and a deadly shock wave through the air. The only protection Luke had was his hands because his leg was too numb to move.

[warlockseer]

The explosion sent john back and hit his head against something hard.John lay unconscious on the floor.

[KaosuHamoni]

Floating. That was all she knew. She was floating in a void, in a euphoric trance, ripples of calm running through her like a tide... And then she awoke.

Drawing her sword, propping herself up, she injected herself with another dose of adrenaline, followed by some morphine, before drawing the slug out of her shoulder, and knitting the flesh back together.

Erika was angry. Furious. Some bastard had shot her, the squad, apart from the Sgt, had not fully utilised the brief powers she had imparted on them, and now, thanks to that stuck up arsehole Vestis, the squad were lying around, some injured, mostly just scared out of their poor little minds. She was going to end this.

Pulling another oddly perfect, spherical gem from her greatcoat, a slight feeling of apprehension came over her, before she absorbed it, "I really shouldn't waste these...", she said to herself.

Standing up, bursting to the seams with a ridiculous amount of energy and power, her eyes glowed like blue flames, and she removed her glove. Her hand was shrouded in an ethereal mist, and there were blue sparks flying from her fingers. She stepped forward, hand first, shouting, "OH VEEEESTIS! I'M COMING FOR YOU!

At a response, the Reds fired at her, to no avail. The rounds slowed, before stopping a foot from her body. She responded with a wave of power. The majority who were attempting to rush the haphazard squad were killed, and the rest began to feel fear at this new, seemingly unstoppable force.

She spied Vestis at the back, making his way through the soldiers, attempting to get away.

The Rose grinned to herself manically. This was going to be fun!

[Blank_Kold]

Vestis moved away, dropping the paralytic seep agents he had prepared earlier. "Get ready to blow the ENT charges in the southern sectors of the facility. We bring down the sun tonight." The crash of light, Sol's death, had occurred on some backwater moon in the Theron sector. The patient zero for syndrome had died. He had been a god.

"OH VEEEESTIS! I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

The darkness was not amused. It turned, the eyes once alive now held crimson irises, reflecting the blood they had spilled. The syndrome was alive. The shell turned, holding a small coil gun, and fired a toroid round, an eight arm model. The incredibly unstable plasma burst some 30 feet from the girl, who was probably in early onset stages of syndrome herself.

Raw energy rained down upon her. Her weapons hissed and sparked, her arm erupted in a pain the likes of which she had never felt before. The stands and stores exploded around her, this was the downfall of technology, energy. The crimson eyes gazed down upon the emotional with the visage of a true phantom: emotionless, apathetic, hateful. In these brief moments, they became death itself.

"Blow charges 1 through 67." Abyss called into his EPA. The explosion was deafening.

[Sir_Luke]

"OH VEEEESTIS! I'M COMING FOR YOU!"
Looking down to his legs Luke saw that he was missing part of his foot, he started counting how many holes he had but the blood soon covered them all up and he could not see them anymore. Luke dropped his arms and fell backwards into the damaged barrier, unconscious.

[KaosuHamoni]

Pain burst through her arm, but the morphine nulled it to the point where it was naught but an itch. Her hand still sparking, she flew at the pitiful child, with such rage that she could hardly believe herself.

Explosions.

Erika found herself distraught. She could, and desperately wanted to tear this boy apart, head from shoulders, until he resembled nothing more than hunks of meat, but the squad. At least one of them was completely incapacitated, and they would all perish in the flames. Sighing, she clicked her fingers again, time coming to a standstill.

Picking up the boy by his neck, sparks eating away at his clothes and flesh, she said "You think you know what I am, but you couldn't be further from the truth. There hasn't been one of me for thousands of years, and once it takes over, god help you all..."

Stabbing him through the chest, the plasma warming his insides, she hurled him at the wall with boneshattering force, hard enough for the foot-thick concrete to cave and him to find himself under a pile of rubble. That'd have to do. He'd probably survive, but now he has something to remember her by.

In the stillness, she walked back to the squad, all of them frozen in their fearful stances. Collecting them, she noticed that one boy was missing a leg. She'd tend to that soon. Once they were all in the safety of her shuttle, she programmed it to disallow anyone to leave, or commandeer it, and sent it one mile out of the city. That way, they were far enough from the firefight, to be in relative safety, but close enough to get back once it had calmed
down.

Exhausted, Erika collapsed in the cockpit. Damn. The boy needed medical treatment. Placing her hand on his leg, the foot regenerated in the same manner as the Sgt's head, just as time sped back up. Explosions shook the ground, even though they were so far away, and The Rose closed her eyes, and beckoned the Sgt into the cockpit. Words were going to be had.

[Blank_Kold]

"There hasn't been one of me for thousands of years, and once it takes over, god help you all..."

The Darkness was intrigued, single line of blood running from each crimson eye. Some of the soldiers fell in horror as the rocks fell apart and sinewy bits of flesh tied the broken body together. This woman was amazing. To capture the interest of the abyss was short of impossible. Could she be another patient zero? The first in an evolved form of soldiers or one of the dead past, one of Sol's caliber?

Abyss withdrew a small black orb from his pocket, it had remained undamaged, though that was to be expected. But with a quick bite, his canines shattered the beautiful sphere. The remains dropped to the floor as the blood in Vestis's eyes receded.

"Ghost, get ready to leave, this station won't exist in a bit. We've got to get to Theron Prime, there are things there we must retrieve."

[michaeld20]

Name:Alec Knight
Gender:Male
Age:19

Appearance:Muscular build. Approx 6 Foot 5 inches Weighing 227 Pounds
Personality:Somewhat quiet, Will step up whenever anyone close to him is in danger
Background:Alec Was always the "hero" once when he was 16 he saved his father when he took the wheel after his father had passed out safely pulling the car onto the side of the road
Ocupation:He Played baseball in a semi pro league, got drafted for the military.

[Skunk_Giant]

Before he could reach the wounded soldiers, another blast pushed Nathan back.
In the craziness that followed, Nathan could do nothing but watch.
Thankfully, soldiers had seen the chaos from outside the station, and military ground vehicles and aircraft were surrounding the area.
Three squads came down via ropes through the hole that used to be a roof.
Nathan felt a hand grab his shoulder, and he turned to see the horrified face of a man in his fifties. Nathan recognised him as one of the store owners. His hands were dirty, his face cut.
Nathan escorted him to a a military evacuation car before heading back to his squad, only to find more explosions threatening them.
In the madness, Erika forced the squad into her ship, grabbing the weakened sergeant too.

As the ship took off, Nathan leaped up. Before he could say his thoughts, she brought him into the cockpit. "Take us back now! The squad can stay if they want, but I'm going back. I'm not leaving everyone else behind!"
He grabbed his EPA and checked it. He had a signal now.
"If you don't take us back, I'll call the CoO. I'll tell them we've been captured and held against our own will."

[KaosuHamoni]

"If you don't take us back, I'll call the CoO. I'll tell them we've been captured and held against our own will."

Erika was taken aback. Here she was, exhausted and hurt, sitting across this man, who was speaking at her as if she was some lowly pickpocket, with an accusatory tone, like she was the enemy! She had wasted a bloody Odyseus Sphere on this man and his group, and she was practically the only reason they were alive, and yet, she was being berated by the very man she had saved.

"Tell me, you ungrateful moron. What good is a foolhardy Sergeant and his group of barely-trained children, to the CoO, if they are dead? Now, I will take you back if you wish, but, should it come to that, I will refuse to help you ever again. You do not understand the lengths I went to save you and your crew, and the resources I used. Do you expect to fight off the Reds with injured, battered soldiers? The reinforcements are handling the situation as we speak, now, if you have come to your senses, please explain to me what exactly is going on here.

I'm sure that there's plenty you want to know about me, too..."

[Blank_Kold]

"YOU USED A NOVA BOMB?!?" Ghost was furious. Something like this was unnecessary. They themselves had barely been able to get out of the blast radius; there was no way that more than a handful of others had as well.

"I didn't," Vestis responded, trying to wipe the river of blood coming from his eyes, the irises of which were now close to white. "Abyss did. There were people there who saw him. People who saw the Syndrome."

"None of them would be appalled at someone who had red eyes, you fucking lunatic. What possible reason could you have?"

"Abyss was stabbed. Some monster of a woman. She slowed time or condensed space. It was quite interesting. We might have found another demigod. So i used a nova bomb. That's how we killed Sol if I'm not mistaken." At that moment, both of them turned, for the sound faster than sound had come and light had disappeared. The nova bomb had gone off.

The complete absence of light was something that squad's rookies had never seen before. Though while squirming on the ground in pain, they could hardly be expected to see it now. It was a perfect darkness. The nova erupted from the cloud of darkness, pushing both ships, even in the vacuum of space. Those of the squad that could stand after the eruption of sound looked on in horror.

The phantoms looked on in awe, amazed by the sight of pure power transforming into pure death.

[Iron_Fang]

Blackmane stands up with adrenaline pumping around his body, clutching his piston, at the close to death experience and sees only a few shuttles with survivors. He then turns and helps the others up, "thanks for savin' us miss."

[Sir_Luke]

/me is bleeding and unconscious.