Mars Mission

In the midst of his evasions, Cassus looked back at the dragon's head, tilting towards Zyria. Not her, she wouldn't survive this... He whispered a silent prayer and sprinted so quickly that he practically flew towards the dragon, ignoring the warning from Zyria. If he couldn't save everyone, he'd at least take the blow.

Cassus analyzed the situation, his mind flying faster than his feet. Zyria's shield unfurled at a painful pace. It was too little, and would be too late for her by the time it could unfold. Cassus' suit of armor was certainly strong, and despite looking scratched up and burned, it could still take a blow from the dragon. Cassus was certain of his armor surviving, and less certain of his own survival. He mumbled some incomprehensible phrase and vaulted into the air, crossed swords held forward, more of a symbolic gesture than an actual means of protection.

Time seemed to come to a stop for a moment. Cassus inhaled slowly and deeply, focusing on only the dragon and himself. He felt as if he was hanging in the air for eternity while staring down the dragon. His vision narrowed, his heartbeat drew slowly, and his body steeled itself against the impending danger.

Fluffy breathed down on the pair of them. A raging hellfire of black and purple flame. When it all cleared, both Cassus and Zyria were gone. But.... where? For the scent of their lives still hung thickly in the air. Fluffy roared, and began tromping and whirling around, attempting to find them.

Breath in, breath out.

Archelaus did not move.

It would seem, to most, that he had not moved in a long time. Hours... without the slightest shimmer of movement. Not a single muscle twitch, not the bat of an eyelash, nor the slightest decompression of the chest, except for breath, and the beating of his three hearts.

He was frozen in time, though time kept moving on along without him.

Events barely registered in his brain, and did not register at all in his mind. Noises, sounds that were voices, but in his mind, were simply sound.
Shaking, rumbling, talking, screeching...
Just sound. Data un-interpreted by his brain.

Breath in, breath out.

The kantra taught to Alteriians would have been applicable here.

Racha tyi Acarh
Ksand tyi Dansk'
Gollroh tyi Leishara
Nsuta (Pronoucned, Nh-Sah) Rolxanka iet brieansk'
Nsuta Narusa iet Rachanka, tyi Velroth.

(Translated roughly)

Water is Ice,
Rock is Flame,
Wind is Ash,
The mind a vessel
The life a sea, and a liquid.

Each line contained a fundamental truth of life. A part of an Alteriian that could not be changed or altered, each representing both a form, and a transition of Alteriian thought process, belief, and physiology.
They were not merely some semi-religious dogma, they were ultimate truths, proven again and again thought out the ages, as unchanging as time itself.

Time unchanging... linear and clear... Crystal... like ice...

Water is Ice,

Racha tyi Acarh...

Breath in, breath out.

-It burns. The inferno is almost unbearable. Fire licks at Zyria's arms, singing her hair, whipping her cheeks with the heat. Her shield isn't completely useless, though. It extends enough to block most of the fire, and allows Zyria enough room to pull the helmet on her suit on, and spot Cassus. She quickly runs over to where he lands.-

-His armor took care of him, at least, enough to have him survive. Taking a direct hit of this fire, though....it isn't good. They don't have time to run out, though, and they can't stay here, or else they'll have to face another, and yet another attack.-

-Suddenly, Zyria remembers! Her suit! How could she forget! As her shield finally expands fully, she touches a gloved finger to the polished side, changes the color of her suit, and watches as her shield copies the color. Yes! This could be their way out. They'd have to be careful, oh so careful, but it may work. Boggs had never failed her before....-

-Zyria extends the shield, so it's a semicircle, and large enough to cover Cassus. Then, Zyria looks to the ground, and touches the sandy floor. Her suit copies the look, completely camouflaging Zyria. She then touches the shield again, and Cassus is invisible as well. Just as the fire begins clearing, Zyria manages to send a message to Dreston.-

>We're trapped. The dragon probably won't be able to see us, but that doesn't mean she won't eventually find us. You need to get out of here.<

Cassus' armor hardened and cracked at the temperature of the flames. The suit became white-hot for a moment before dying down, leaving Cassus with several burns both on his suit and through the suit. His armor became rigid and parts fell off as he attempted to move underneath Zyria's cover. Both of his swords were intact.

"I'm OK. I know Dreston's got some tricks up his sleeves to get us out. I doubt anybody else knows we're here, so he's our only hope." At this point, he could only hope on getting out alive.

(Fixed up the forum banner and my signature. Hope you guys like it! )

Fluffy got bored of fighting these two, and broke through the wall of sand. Fluffy was on a new hunt, and the prey's scent lifted into her nose. She clawed her way through the underground, the smell of the Alteriian and an ex-Tyrant fresh and tempting.

-Zyria remains absolutely still as the dragon forces her way through the cave. Zyria stands, her suit changing back to its dark color, and the shield fading in color as well. She lifts the shield up from Cassus, and pulls him up.-

"Dreston! Let's go! She's not stopping, she just found more prey."

-Zyria runs with the other two, desperately trying to keep up with the enormous dragon.-

(Sorry, I haven't been on... my mom is moving and I'm helping her so I've been really busy lately...)

Dreston was at the pair's side in an instant, but he wasn't really listening. He was just mindlessly going along with them, too busy trying to save his home. The Sielmir... it was going to be destroyed if Dreston didn't do something. The dragon had already destroyed most of the cave and its contents, but the Sielmir was safe... for now. Dreston mentally pleaded, pleaded with the creatures that lived below Mars' surface.

The wyrms.

He could feel them moving in the earth, and using some prototyped chips that he had planted in them he desperately begged them to come...

A moment later, the cave exploded. Wyrms, giant, tentacle-like creatures burst through the ground as they finally answered Dreston's calls. They immediately swarmed to the dragon and began tearing at it, seven of them, biting at her wings, her legs, her sides, attacking her without mercy.

Dreston sighed in relief.

>They will hold her off, for now. We need to get out of here, quickly.

As he spoke, the walls reformed themselves. Gears twisted and hinges complained in shrieks and creaks but a huge gear lowers down in front of them, rotating very slowly, and Dreston jumps onto it. Meanwhile, protecting walls form around the Sielmir, and he hopes that it will be enough. He reaches down to help Zyria and Cassus up on the platform, then it again moves up, rotating towards the place in the cave's roof that the dragon had broken through. Soon they reach the surface, and a large vessel is waiting for them, hovering a few feet above the ground. Dreston smiles, glad to see that it was still functioning.

>Here's our way out. Let's go.

"Exiting hyperspace in 3...2...1..."

Far above the Mars atmosphere, a nimble battlecruiser materialized and slid quietly through the emptiness of space. Its unique hyperspace drives worked perfectly, and eight side engines kicked in, nearly tripling the ship's speed.

"Alright, we are on approach...wait, what the hell is that?"

"Mother of God, that's a dreadnaught-class super-capital ship! Divert all power to engines. Our shields won't take a single hit and our weapons can't dent something that massive."

"Roger, they're counting on us down on the ground."

"Do they know we're here?"

"Not yet. We barely managed to locate Agent Drugari's signal before we lost it again."

"Bring us in fast and quiet..."

The Leviathan command ship flew through space quite fluidly at even these high speeds. No other ship could even compare to its speed, with nearly triple the amount of engines necessary to any ship of its size. It was a ship class below standard battleships, but with the extra bulk of the external thrusters, you couldn't tell the difference.

Five hundred meters long, the Leviathan utilized a hyperspace drive, a much cleaner, stealthier, and more efficient version of the jump drive. The engines were the biggest part of the ship, enabling it to reach the speeds it flew at. Weapon and armor systems were lower than that of a standard battleship, but those were not needed in the role of a command battlecruiser. Exceptional shielding protected the ship, and its high-tech sensors could pinpoint targets that not even a Marauder could.

Still, The Voyager did not notice them as they slipped past quietly, prepping for atmospheric re-entry. A rescue mission was in play, and they were not rescuing any normal VIP's at this point. They weren't simply VIP's; they were the most important people in the entire universe.

"I'm getting massive readings from below, looks like a huge creature, maybe one mile in length. I'll see if I can look at it closer...Wait, there it is. Looks like something straight out of a fairy tale."

"Let me take a look..." Captain Aren looked through the scanner's orbital view. "A dragon? Where the hell did that come from? Things just got a lot more complicated...Get a Black Legion platoon ready ASAP, this is going to be close..."

The Leviathan began its descent quietly, heading towards the huge gash in the desert sand that Agent Drugari's beacon sent its last message. Something big was definitely thrashing around in there, and the battlecruiser fell to cruising altitude and held for a moment, analyzing the situation further.

A smaller vessel with two organic life forms and one synthetic one awaited departure. "Only three? See if you can hail them and find the others." Aren began to worry they were too late.

A look of relief hit his face as a subterranean vehicle breached the surface, with the rest of the dimensional rulers on board. "Let's go!" Within twenty seconds, the five hundred meter long vessel touched the ground, front cargo doors opening as 36 Black Legion troops and support units disembarked.

One of the Black Legion troops, a centurion, Robless presumed, approached them quickly and delivered a brief message. "Get on board, we'll hold off the dragon for now..." Just then, Fluffy broke through the surface of the sand, simply scorching the man that had just served his purpose.

"Go, go, go!" Everybody sprinted aboard the ship's cargo ramp while the Black Legion platoon opened fire on the dragon, more of an annoyance than a threat.

Robless felt the floor shift below him as the Leviathan engaged retro thrusters and proceeded to lift off vertically. The troops on the ground were probably all gone by now.

On the other end of the facility, a smaller ship emerged and set course for an unknown destination. "Follow them." Robless said to Captain Aren. "Let them know we're on board here."

Fluffy heard. She heard the call of Verax. It was time to return, and have revenge. The false one had tricked her, and she would pay. Fluffy, a new sense of urgency powering her, tore the wyrms to shreds. Biting, slashing, burning, nothing could withstand her power. It was time to rescue. It was time to save. Fluffy leapt up from the ground, and began to fly of, each flutter of her wings sending off gale-force winds. She soared towards the Voyager, determined to save her master and her egg.

With his second to last thought, "Curse you for making me do this Verax."

And his last thought in this state of being, Archelaus wrote with his heart a message of love to Aurora. Each curl of emotion, each dot of thought, each cross of friendship expressed in a word only four letters long in the Terran Language.

Then...

There was concentration.

His mind and his body honed in to one state of being. One of balance... Like dissonance tuned to a perfect Chord in music.
The emotional battles were over, and the battlefield was gone. No more struggle and turmoil, no more endless terror fought between the light and the darkness, no more having to survive, to endure.
There was balance. Peace. Harmony. Tranquility. No more deception, and no more illusion.

Water is Ice,
Rock is Flame,
Wind is Ash,
The mind a vessel
The life a sea, and a liquid.

The form that had been an Alteriian known by many as "Archelaus" lifted its hands toward the sky in a symbolic act, despite the hundreds of feet of sand, clay, and rock in-between him and the violet sky. (Alteriians cannot see the color "black".)

Then there was an explosion of light, as the High Druid transformed into something that science says should not exist, that the rational mind says is conflicting with itself, that logic deems inconceivable.

His form was covered in smoke and ash, billowing like the great clouds of thunderstorms, wreathing like the Shadow in a spray of fiery vapor. His body condensed while expanding, covered by water that seemed to not be held by gravity or any other force, but shot around him nearly faster than the human eye could see in great torrents. It covered him in a reflective blue-ish sheen, even as ice crystals formed in him, around him, and near him. His muscles seemed to change inexplicably into the strength of the Earth... rock and stone, metal and diamond. The muscle shifted and rumbled, ever moving yet solid in state, with all tapped power of the raw Earth. dust showered off of him into the cloud of vapor. Gold and silver veins rippled through the construct of Earth, as liquid metal wrapped itself around and through the Earth. Lighting showered throughout and around his form, writhing and showering with the strength of thunderbolts. Lightning and electricity imbued the very form. Fire flowed from the form's limbs, the pure entity of flame itself. Stray tendrils of it lingered in the air around him, but did not turn the water into vapor, nor cause the Earth to glow with heat. The being's form however, glowed in spite of this. Deep purple plasma flowed throughout the being like blood through veins... Wrapping and changing amidst the fury of the elements raging inside. Light, warm and heavy, shone through his already illuminated profile as if the sun had risen suddenly.

An aura showered off of him, deep and heavy, yet light and good. Objects around him spun in an interlocking web, as is he controlled gravity. Magnetism and electricity showered around him, forming and reforming different substances like a toddler with clay. Time seemed to freeze in its linear track around him.

There was the rage of everything inside of him, and yet his being existed in complete swirling calm. Peace. Tranquility. He was "element" in its entirety.
To view him would be to see the universe into one form, an Archon of the fabric of Existence.
He was Fire, he was Ice, he was Water, he was Stone, He was Water, he was the Sky as he was the Earth, as he was the Space beyond, all at the same time. Endlessly in conflict, yet at peace.

In short, he was no longer recognizable as an Alteriian.
He had become a being unhampered by the confines that existence forces upon beings.

His "eyes" flashed the Dark Colors of the Rolxan, glowing brightly, but darkly at the same time.

Words formed, without being thought, or spoken.
"This path you have chosen to walk Verax... This path will end. I will end it."

His new form, radiant and gleaming, while severe and smoldering, touched the threads that the fabric of the universe is made up of,

And The Archon seemed to simply disappear, with a dull "fwoosh" as the air filled in the vacuum that appeared when he left.

Only the settling dust stood testament to his disappearance.

<OFC>

Just go with me here, I won't do anything too crazy... haha...

I hope this doesn't interrupt anyone's plans.

(Lol you did that aboard a spaceship. Works for me! xD )

Aboard the Leviathan, a mysterious signal attempted to hail the ship. Though it was surprising at first, the ship sending the message was none other than The Voyager, the massive Dreadnought that had just recently taken both Caz prisoner and destroyed one of the moons of Mars.

[Well, I don't really know what to post for my character. She's on the small ship, right? I can't even remember. o.O Soooooo, I'm going to post something from in her mind.]

-Zyria sits in a small, dark room. No, it's a huge room, completely open, no walls, a limitless room. Or, is it small? And is it actually dark? Or is it light, a light so bright it blinds Zyria?-

-She didn't know, didn't care.-

-Here, in this small, limitless room, she is raw. At one point, she feels all business. Cut the losses you can't afford to keep. At another point, she's all emotions. Work to help the ones you love, no matter the price, whether it's your own, or others'. The two sides battle it out inside her, light and dark, small and boundless. The battle rages, both loudly and quietly.-

-Zyria doesn't care anymore. The fighting, the loss. When she had first appeared in the strange room, Zyria had stood, ran through the room, trying to find the battling. But there was nothing. Eventually, it became more work for Zyria to continue. She would tire easily, wouldn't be able to run. It was harder and harder on her to keep fighting. As though there were weights on her feet, Zyria was forced to stop at one point, unable to move.-

-That was when she gave up.-

-I can't help anyone. I'm not able to, I don't have the ability. I want to be worth something, I need to help when I'm needed. Why can't anyone see that I'm tougher than I seem? Just because I don't have giant guns, or can change shape, or can control entire robot armies.....-

-Zyria thinks about how she's left everyone behind. Tam is still in prison with an evil parasite in her head. Caz is in Verax's hand, being forced to do who knows what. Cassus and Dreston are probably being killed by the dragon. And who knows what's happened to the others. Are they even alive?-

-All these people, they protected her. Why wasn't she allowed to protect them? Zyria buries her face in her arms, torn between letting people do what may be best, and the selfishness of her wanting to be strong for others.-

-There has to be a balance.-

-Zyria looks back up, into the dark-yet-light room. She needs to find balance. There's always compromise. Find it in herself, and she could be free of all this. The new resolve causes the battle to manifest into a physical form. The room explodes into both mental and physical [at least, physical to Zyria's conscious] chaos. Emotions clash, her knowledge yells informed help from the sidelines, the images of her friends mixing through it all.-

-Zyria thinks of Tam. Sometimes, you need to help right away. You need to jump to the rescue as soon as possible. Then she thinks of Caz. But....sometimes, you need to sit back, and bide your time. You need to wait for the right time to help. Others can take care of themselves, but it doesn't mean they don't need you. Strength can be distinguished by listening, not by jumping into decisions. You need to know when you're not needed, when you can help by knowing they're there, not by intervening.-
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-I need to get out of here.-

"The hell?" Captain Therus was monitoring communications as the signal came in. "How did they...never mind. Respond to that signal."

The communications officer nodded silently and began to contact the dreadnaught blotting out the sky. "Attention, Voyager, you may proceed to open communications." The crew, their captain, and Commander Robless waited in silence. Tension was high, and one wrong word could get them, along with the rest of Mars, completely destroyed.

A projection of Lurinia lit up in the ship. "Greetings. I am Lurinia, currecnt and now permanent master of the Voyager." She had a snobbish tint to her voice the let the Leaders know, she held no sympathy for their plight, and wanted to ruin their day.

<OFC>

(Lol... deathstar, much?)

Robless spoke first. "Where's Verax? Isn't he in charge of the ship? And where the hell did you bastards take Archelaus?" His anger seeped through his voice and attitude to Lurinia, and something told him the situation was far worse than he had expected.

Lurinia laughed. "Verax is..... unavailable. And Archelaus came here of his onw accord. We did noy 'take' him anywhere. He's tearing apart the ship trying to find and kill Verax. Also, it may interest you that at the moment... Caz has found he Neiede." She smiled. "Any other questions, Commander Valderis Robless?"

"Damn it. What do you want?" At this point, he was thoroughly frustrated. This complicated things for the rest of the mission. Eris-Tam was still counting on them, and there was no telling how far the Thel-ghan'che had taken over. At least Zyria was not on this ship, it would've broken her to hear the news, although Robless doubted that Caz would go to his Neiede rather than Zyria. "What do you want?" He repeated the question.

Lurinia smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know? Well.... seeing as you can do nothing about it, I might as well tell you." She smiled innocently. "What I want is a rebirth. A new.... something. And well.... all your constant meddling has begun to annoy me. The parasite you lost I seek to gain. The domination you lost I seek to reclaim. The subjugation you lost I will retain. So... now that Verax has lost his usefulness to me, I seek to initiate a more.... direct approach. After I am done here, I think I will make a bid in Dimensional control. But that aside, has this answered all your stupid questions?"

Robless slammed on a console and disconnected communications. He hoped Lurinia would not attempt to regain the signal. Opening a line with Dreston's vessel, he tried to find out where they were going. "Dreston, we need to proceed with our mission. I assume you're taking us to Olympus Mons, Robless out."

Dreston nodded to himself. That's good, the rest of them are safe. It shouldn't take long to reach Olympus Mons from here... The ship sped off quietly, sticking pretty close to the surface.


Back at Dreston's now-destroyed home, machines of all varieties and sizes came slowly from the shadows. They creeped out of hiding and suddenly there was movement everywhere as they eagerly repaired their master's home. The walls began to turn and reform, reshaping to cover the holes in the ceiling where the massive dragon had broken through. The machines attached the bodies of the giant wyrms to the beetles and pulled them down into the sand, burying them underneath the dwelling, cleaning the strange blood they had left behind.

Sand had begun to blow into the cavern, so the littlest creatures swept it away. The sand quickly blew over the now sealed holes, leaving no evidence that the cavern had ever been unearthed. The walls that had formed around the exquisite machine that Dreston had tried to protect disappeared, and revealed that it had not been damaged.

Then, all motion ceased. The machines retreated back into their holes and crevices, returning to the normal duties that Dreston had assigned him. The cavern looked no different than when the organics had arrived, with no trace remaining of the damage that most probably would have considered irreparable. And all was still.


On the moth, as Dreston called this type of ship, he turned to Zyria and Cassus.

>We are going to Olympus Mons. From what I know, your friends are all aboard another ship that is currently following us.

He looked at Cassus.

>A ship which I believe belongs to your commander, is that correct?