Dones Surface, Nick Reyd’s Hideout Bysdoch System, Outsider Territory
They never saw her coming, nor did they notice her as she passed them by, every defense that would stop her from reaching her goal had suffered a “malfunction” due to her abilities, convincing the other two to agree on joining had been a pain, that bloody weakling of an original where a fine example of resistance to anything she wanted to do.
Still it would all be worth it, that Terran knew how to have a good time after all, and being around someone who could understand the finer points in life would be a nice change of pace, sure the childish one could be fun from time to time, but her inconsistency on who she backed could be a royal pain, even more so when she was having fun and the child and weakling doubled up on her to stop her from being anything but an observer.
She stopped, in front of her was a massive blast door that she was not likely going to penetrate anytime soon, and there were no visible ways of getting past.
{Umm, Ms. Grumpy, I can get us through the air vent up there}
She felt her eyes twitch and focus on a vent halfway up the wall, no way she was reaching it that’s for sure, but the child...
{Fine, child, do it, but do it quickly}
There was a brief pain as she felt herself getting pushed back and the child took control.
She looked around expectantly; being the one in control was a relatively rare occurrence for her, since Ms. Grumpy and Ms. Happy were rarely if ever able to work together, even now the sole reason they were not fighting right now was because Ms. Grumpy had made a good point about Ms. Happy needing help to “cure” herself, and she would need someone capable of tolerating the antics of both Ms. Grumpy and herself, granted she had no idea what antics meant, but she was pretty sure it was something fun.
She carefully grabbed a nearby pipe and with practiced ease climbed upwards, carefully scaling the sheer wall towards the vent, reaching it without too much trouble; sure she had nearly lost her balance twice, and both Ms. Happy and Ms. Grumpy were yelling at her to be careful, but it was not like it had put them in any danger or anything, besides, even if she fell, she could just try again.
She was just about to grab the vent when her hand just froze.
{Khinu, enough, I will be taking care of the rest, besides I doubt that vent would be without some kind of trap, and I can take such a hit better then you can}
She mulled over it for a few seconds, and then she felt Ms. Grumpy about to try and drag her out of the driver’s seat by force.
{Fine, do as you like, party pooper, and here I wanted to play in the vents}
{We are not here for you to amuse yourself child, now do as the weakling told you or we will both join forces to make you}
She gave a small sigh then let herself go, floating back to an observing position, while Ms. Happy took control.
The brief pain passed and she finally had control of her body again, oh how she longed for the day when she could be alone in her own head again, Khinu was annoying enough to deal with, but the psychopath Marrhe was a danger to everyone around, preventing her from relaxing her mind for a second for fear of letting her out.
She carefully touched the vent and was awarded with a jolt of electricity for her trouble.
{Wow, Ms. Happy was correct, it was booby-trapped! What a mean thing to do}
{The weakling might be a nuisance, but she more often than not know what she talks about}
{Please shut up, I need to concentrate to remove this thing}
She reached out with her mind and grabbed the vent, carefully pulling it out from the wall, once removed she levitated it out of the way and slowly crawled inside, before reattaching it, so far so good.
{Well then, let’s see if we can find Mr. Nick Reyd}
SOA:
Intro post, not much happens, you get introduced to the 3 personas and what they call each other , I have them do this to simplify who are who during inter persona conversations, oh and she has infiltrated the location Nick Reyd are in, still need to work out things on that end so I’m stopping it here.
OK I’m a few days late, but I have promised to post this thing for a while now.
Rakah/Marrhe/Khinu (102 PTS)
Faction: TBA
Backstory:
Rakah was an up and coming trainee in the Imperium’s officially “Non-existent” Shadow Ops, and could have, showing signs of being one of the best members they ever trained.
Fate however, had another plan for Rakah, and during a mission to some newly discovered ruins to see if there were anything of worth there, Rakah was infected with a strange psionic virus that attacked her mentally rather than physically, driving her insane.
The virus spread across the Khala and every other Khalite on the mission quickly succumbed to madness, forcing the Dark Templar in the group to kill their now deranged Khalite brethren, who were on a killing rampage throughout the ruins, hunting down each other and the dark Templar.
Raka herself were defeated by her own mentor, who, instead of killing her, incapacitated her and cut of her Psionic Tendrils, turning her into a Dark Templar, with her connection to the Khala severed, her danger to the other Protoss were limited.
Rakah was brought back to the Shadow Ops base in order to see if they would find a cure for the virus and restore her to normal, and after months of research Rakah seemed to calm down and was moved to a recovery center to rest and recover.
A few months after being placed into recovery, there was a massacre there, leaving no survivors, Rakah herself disappeared as well as a number of Terran prisoners and an experimental Mothership ship called Hand of Darkness...
Rakah's 2nd personality Marrhe fights Rakah for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Khinu
Rakah's 3rd personality Khinu fights Rakah for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Rakah only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
The Original personality Rakah fights Marrhe for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Khinu
Rakah's 3rd personality Khinu fights Marrhe for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Marrhe only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
The Original personality Rakah fights Khinu for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Marrhe
Rakah's 2nd personality Marrhe fights Khinu for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently Cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Marrhe only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
Flagship: (130 PTS)
Name: Hand of Darkness
Apperance:
Hand of darkness lives up to its namesake as it is a midnight black crystalline Mothership roughly in the shape of a gigantic hand, the main cannon are situated in the “palm” of the ship and thrusters are on each finger and the place where the “arm” should have been.
The Hand’s favorite tactic is to “Grab” hostile ships then opening fire with the main cannon, then sending boarding parties through the “fingers” to get into the hostile ship should it still be intact enough to salvage.
As of right now, none, Rakah escaped with trained noncombat ship personel to take care of the systems that the Hand of Darkness' AI could not interface with.
Dimitri grinned, the poor suckers that had entered his poker table tonight had brought most of their savings and he had made sure they would not be leaving with them, then just as he was about to reveal his hand the door exploded in green flames and a sour acidic smell filled the room.
His guests vanished out the back door with their money so fast; he could have sworn they had just warped out of there.
Looking towards the destroyed doorway however Dimitri wished he could have gone the same way, but his obligations to Runa kept him in his chair as she stepped through the wrecked doorway.
“You have gone far above the 5 days I gave you Dude, now where are my information?”
“Runa what a pleasant surprise do you want some-“
Dimitri never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat.
“I have been more than a bit patient with you Dude, now where are my information”
Gasping for air, Dimitri pulled out a small folder and dropped it on the desk, at which point Runa dropped him to the floor, grabbed the folder and started to read the folder.
“Is this all you managed to dig up?”
“Not much information lying about on that thing, it is at least partially Protoss after all”
Runa shrugged and kept reading.
“So this is materials used in its construction I guess, seeing as most of this is shipping manifests for a ridiculous amount of metal and ammunition”
“That would be correct, notice how they don’t have a destination?”
“Classified, seems like I need to talk to someone in the know, which could be problematic”
“Afraid I can’t help you there, only reason I can still operate in this cesspool are because I am the only entertainment these fools have access to, the local big wigs would stamp me out instantly if they found out I were here”
“Obviously... hmm? What’s this, it looks like a...”
“It’s the Arken during early construction”
“I still think it looks like a-“
“I know”
“Dude, do you think they realized-“
“Pretty sure they did”
“That’s just-”
“I know”
Runa cleared her throat.
“Anyway, clearly I need to locate someone with stronger connections, consider the fact I don’t kill you right here and now for your delays, repayment for the information in full, and then some”
Dimitri clenched his fists in anger but nodded in agreement.
“Oh, one last thing Dude”
“Yes?”
“I need a space worthy craft, don’t need to be big nor fast, but it needs to have clearance to leave the planet”
Dmitri’s mood lightened immediately.
“Consider it done!”
“Good, I will be back for it tomorrow”
With those parting words Runa left and headed back to the abandoned shed she used as a hideout, as she contacted Ferrog about her imminent departure.
SOA:
Talking, talking and more talking, I need some action....
Apoca – Night side, roughly 20 minutes after Runa’s landing
The Medivac slowly touched down at the edge of the crater, green flames were still burning strongly from it and the entire area was lit by an eerie green light, as well as bathed in a green foul smelling fog of vaporized acid, creating a rather nerve wrecking scene.
As the loading doors of the Medivac opened a quartet of Marines slowly walked out, combat visors down and air tanks running.
“Wut da ‘ell could’ve made this?”
The leading Marine walked over to the blaze in the crater and set his scanners to work.
“Looks like another dormant cocoon that fell from orbit, scans show traces of Baneling acid, buggers most likely ruptured on impact”
“You sound a little choked up, Corporal? Is something wrong?”
“Not much, just some bad memories from the war”
The Marine tunes his radio to private chat.
“Psst, Matthew, you know what the Corporal means?”
“Yeah I do, but I’m not telling”
“Common man!”
“No”
“I’ll call it even on those 200 Credits you owe me”
”Fine, just don’t tell him I told you”
“I won’t”
Matthew sighed deeply.
“Corporal Olsen are one of a very few survivors of Outpost 51”
“Shit, there were survivors in that damned hell hole?”
“Five in total, the lucky bastards had been inside one of two Medivacs sent out to flank them Zerg, the explosion sent ‘em flying out of the combat zone, took ‘em ‘bout a week to get back to civilization.”
“What happened to the other Medivac?”
“That’s the freaky part, no one knows, it just went off the grid, no maydays or anything”
“Freaky alright, you think that-“
“Hey! Can it you two, got a job to do now that the fires have started to die out”
The collective groaning from the three other Marines was quickly stamped out as they grabbed containment box and shovels.
“Man, this is worse than shit patrol!”
“I said: can it!”
“Sir, Yes, Sir!”
Meanwhile, Runa quietly closed in on the Medivac and waited; it took the Marines a good half an hour to finish cleaning up the waste from the pod and store it in containment boxes, and as soon as they were done and the Medivac was about to lift of, Runa set her claws into the hull, latching on the underbelly of the Medivac.
“Sheesh, Sally be a bit more careful”
“Not my doing Corporal, felt as something hit the hull, whatever it was is gone now though, as the sensors show nothing”
“Bah, we don’t have time for this, gotta get this stuff dealt with ASAP, let’s move!”
The Medivac quickly started off against New Tremlin, with more cargo then even the occupants was aware of.
New Tremlin
About twenty minutes later Runa dropped from the medevac and onto the roof of a rather tall building on the edge of town.
Quickly making her way down the fire escape she looked around at the dark streets
“Same ol’ Tremlin alright... done wonders recrating the stench of pollution, well since the towns unchanged, that should mean HE is still in business too...”
Runa wasted no time heading towards the older parts of town, where most of the stuff that was no longer being used was stored in large old and somewhat abandoned warehouses.
Walking down several alleys and past ramshackle buildings she noticed a few new additions here and there as well as several new build sites that was replacing some of the most ramshackle warehouses.
“Hey there girly, are ya lost?”
Runa looked towards the owner of the voice, a burly man who had three other fellows with him, then decided to simply ignore him, only to be stopped as he grabbed her arm.
“Oy girly, where do you think you’re going?”
He said, smiling lasciviously at her.
Runa broke his hold, kicked him in the groin, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him of the ground all in the span of about half a second, only then did she notice the four leaf clover pin in his neck collar.
“Dimitri, where is he?”
The lascivious grin that had been on his face was replaced with no small amount of fear.
“I-I don’t know what yer talking about girly!”
“Lie to me again and I will take the answer from you brain”
As if to demonstrate the point a piece of metal slowly rose from the ground and hovered ominously in front of the man’s eye.
“Rat’s Nest, he’s at the Rat’s Nest!”
Runa unceremoniously dropped him on the ground and started to leave without giving him another look.
As she left the man sat up, chough.
“What are you waiting for, call the Boss!”
“This is Demitri, you better have a good reason for disturbing me”
“Boss, its Gonzales, some fancy broads heading you way, looks like trouble”
“Describe her”
“Black hair, scarlet green eyes, y shaped scar on her right eye and cheek, insane strength, bad attitude, body to die for”
“I see... you’re dismissed”
“Boss?”
“She is a valued customer, and you’re lucky you got away with just a beating, the Siege Breaker are not known for being gentle after all”
Gonzales just nodded and broke the connection, his skin as pale as death itself.
Rat’s Nest five minutes later
The Rat’s Nest was the gambling hall of Dimitri Immanow, a shrewd man whose intellect was only outweighed by his greed and cruelty.
“Keep her away from Dimi- GAAAARH!”
The door into Dimitri’s private poker table, which was nothing more than the side room in an abandoned warehouse, exploded in green flames and putrid smoke.
“You need to tighten up security Dude, your men spilled the beans about your location with so little effort... no fun at all”
Runa stood in the door with a pout on her face, tossing another of her explosive ampules up and down in her hand, the hallway behind her looked like something out of a horror movie, with dead or dying gangsters lying everywhere.
“At least you changed the password, although that meant I had to go through your security staff”
“Ah Runa, my beloved Ice Queen, don’t worry about those things, it can easily be rectified, more importantly what brings you to my establishment?”
“Arken, or more importantly all the information you can give me on it”
Dimitri’s smile vanished instantly.
“Runa, do you realize just how hard, not to mention expensive it would be to just get even a sliver of information about that thing?”
“Dude, seeing as you owe your life to me three times over and owe me a substantial amount of money I don’t see the issue, on top of it all it seems you have forgotten whom you’re addressing”
As if on cue, one of her blades sipped out of her seemingly human arm.
Dimitri swallowed, and then gave a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, FINE you win, I have no wish to experience THAT myself, I saw what you can do way back when, and I have no wish to be on the receiving end, however seeing how little information that’s floating around it will take time”
“How long?”
“At least a week, if not more, now I know it will take time, but I will get you place to stay while you wait”
“You have 5 days, as for accommodations, I can get that myself”
With that Runa left the warehouse, leaving Dimitri to clean up her mess.
SOA: Continuation of the last post.
Runa arrives in the city of New Tremlin and makes contact with an old associate known as Dimitri and gives him a 5 day time limit to cough up some info for her.
A flicker in the emptiness of space was all that heralded Ferrogs exit from Warp Space, as the Swarm Lord continued on towards Apoca, Runa found her thoughts drifting back to her last visit.
Sargent Thomas Harrison slowly walked down the darkened maintenance corridor, he was certain that he had seen something on the security monitor, something that just didn’t fit, he looked around at the rusty pipes that were leaking in more than a few places, the dripping sound only added to the sense of dread that was slowly building in the back of his mind, in fact nearly all of the hairs on his neck was standing straight out from his neck.
As he neared the small shaft going down into the reactor of the Command Centre he noticed that the hatch was open, not a good sign, he drew out his side arm, nothing more than a peashooter when compared to the gauss rifle he could have wielded had it been enough space to wear a Marine Suit inside the maintenance corridor.
He got down on one knee and peered down into the gloom of the reactor room before he carefully started to climb down the ladder, halfway down he heard a clanking noise, followed by what sounded like someone suppressing a frustrated scream.
He removed the safety of his gun and crept closer to the area where the sound had come from, he rounded the corner and prepared to fire.
“ Sarge lower your weapon!”
Thomas lowered his gun and peered towards the person in front of him.
“Davis, is that you?”
“Yes, Sir, it is Davis, Sir!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Thought I saw something on the security monitor when I came to check on you, with you gone and all I decided to check it out”
Thomas lowered his gun, relieved at the news, sure Davis’ voice was a little off, and he somehow seemed a bit out of focus, but then again, it was hot in the room and his own voice had cracked some same as Davis’ and the damp made it hard to see clearly.
“So did you find anything?”
“Nothing to report, Sir”
“Very well, let’s go”
Thomas secured his gun and holstered it, then turned and started walking towards the main exit as his comm. Unit lit up signaling that someone wanted a talk with him.
“This is Sgt. Thomas”
“Hey Sarge, me, Bill and Davis were talking here and we’re wondering if your game for that round of poker tonight or if you’re not stuck on night duty”
“Sure thing Olsen I... wait Davis?”
“What about him, Sarge?”
“Where are the three of you now?”
“Mass Hall, it’s Pizza Day today, you know I never miss out on Pizza Day!”
“I see...”
Sgt. Thomas knew his death was upon him as he slowly turned around and looked at Davis or what had moments before seemed to be Davis, but now was a lithe figure dressed in what seemed like a skintight suit made of Zerg Carapace and seemingly wielded a pair of Tekagi-shuko, a cynical smile was on her lips, clearly amused by his shocked expression, a pair of olive green snake-like eyes looked back at him.
“Are you done talking, Dude? I don’t have all day and I really need to overload this reactor to cause some havoc.
“Olsen?”
“Yeah Sarge what is it?”
“Send a response team into the R- GLARGH!”
“Sarge? Sargent? Common answer me, dammit! SARGE!”
Runa calmly crushed the device and placed the last charge on the reactor.
“Ok boys, only a little more and I’m done”
On Runas’ order the main host of Shuuls forces was thrown into the combat that was raging above to cover Runas’ retreat out of the base.
She calmly activated her chameleonic abilities and disappeared from view and as the proximity alarm went off she sneaked out behind a group of Marines heading for the bunkers outside, only to break up from them in order to follow a poor sap that had forgotten his gun in one of the Medivacs a quick detour to get round a few turrets and she was inside a Medivac and heading out with a squad of Marines to flank the Zerg, by the time the Medivac reached the Zerg lines, however, Runa was the only living individual on board.
Runa calmly disembarked the Medivac about ten miles away from the outpost.
“I trrrusssst that the missssion wahss successful?”
Asked one of the two Overlords that waited for her in the small crater where she had landed, all around them the rest of the Magma Brood was moving out in order to join the Gracken brood on the front lines, this world would be theirs soon enough.
Runa pulled out a box of cigars she had pilfered, then lit one on the remains of the another Medevac that had carried evacuees from the base, but had been shot down by pretty much everything that the Zerg had to offer in the form of anti-air, Runa took a deep breath of the cigar and gave a wide and somewhat devilish grin as the sky behind her turned white.
“Destroyed the coolant lines, that flash was the reactor going critical, I will give you a full report upon my return to home, but seriously Boss, it’s me were talking about, have a little faith, would ya?”
She said as she entered the Overlord that was waiting to take her back into Orbit.
“OK time to head back to home, Dude, no doubt the Boss will want a full report of it all” she said as soon as she entered Ferrog, her personal Swarm Lord.
As Ferrog slowly turned about and prepared to leave the system Runa looked down at the planet, all across it Zerg spores were raining down as the other Zerg forces started their main assault of the planet itself, all around them the fighting grew ever more feverish as well, as the defenders fought back with all their might, but Runa knew that it was inevitable and the might of the Zerg would overcome them soon enough.
A sudden jarring motion awoke Runa from her sleep inside Ferrog, she sat up and looked around slightly disoriented, with a sigh she stretched her arms and scratched her cheek, more out of old habit then anything as her carapace dulled the sensation somewhat.
“Status report”
“We are in Orbit over Apoca, I had to take a detour to avoid a patrol, but I don’t think they realized I was there, they seemed.... preoccupied with something”
“If they are on a heightened alert it would be bad if you were found, prep an infiltration pod then get out of the system, I’ll call you when I am ready to be extracted”
“As you wish, Mistress”
As Runa entered the Pod and it sealed around her then filled itself with a shock dampening liquid.
“Prepare for launch, Mistress”
The pod shook violently and then Runa was suddenly pressed towards the back of it, if it wasn’t for the liquid she would have most likely been crushed, but it absorbed so much of the force that only a few moments later she could press herself away from the wall.
The pod started to shake again and took on an orange hue as it entered the atmosphere; luckily the shock absorbing liquid also prevented Runa from being burned to a crisp as the pod tumbled towards the surface.
The pod hit the ground with a tremendous impact, creating a deep crater and rupturing the top of the pod, allowing Runa to crawl out, and after a few coughs she had cleared her lungs of the liquid.
“Good thing I no longer need to breathe”
Working quickly she started grabbed one of several dimly green orbs that grew on her arm and pulled, it came loose with a small pop and started to glow dimly in a bright green coloration, she threw the orb inside the pod and three more followed in quick succession.
Climbing out of the crater she activated her camouflage, and removed herself from the vicinity of the pod, just a few moments later the entire crater nearly doubled in size as Runa detonated the orbs with just a thought, incinerating the pod and evaporating the liquid in just a few seconds, no evidence of her arrival would be left come sunrise.
SOA: planned to go a bit further but this seemed like the perfect place to cut it.
Runa arrives in Dras Lana and lands on Apoca, a bit of back story, and that’s it.
Small asteroid field, deep space 1 hex south of an unnamed system southwest of Hades
*
“Have I made myself clear Mr.X?”
“You know, Runa, I used to think you were quite interesting, a woman working with the Zerg, of all things, however, turns out your just infested, how... boring, I decided I didn’t want any more to do with you, so I tried to have you killed, do you hate me now?”
There was movement on the other side of the vid-screen and Mr.X could make out the outline of a woman, but her features were fuzzy, like she was somehow out of focus.
“You of all people should now that crossing me never ends well, even more so since you somehow got a hold of the sealed documents of my past”
MR.X eyes widened in surprise.
“How did-“
“I am a Linguapath, or to use layman’s terms, I can understand and speak any language almost immediately, so speaking a foreign language to your buddies were useless”
“So that’s how you knew”
“Indeed, as it turns out you have made several enemies, Dude, some of them paid me back what you cost me in full, just so I would come over to say hello”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The lips of the woman turned into a smile that seemed surprisingly innocent, yet at the same time Mr. X could feel the bloodlust from her even through the vid-screen.
The chamber suddenly shook and Mr.X looked up as the lamp started to flicker and the connection with Runa disappeared.
"Report, what in the world is going on out there?"
No response, apart from a powerful static on the line.
"Dammit! REPORT, NOW!"
The door burst in and one of his subordinate’s stumbled in, the left side of her face was covered in blood, and she was clutching her arm, clearly hurt.
“Sir! Zerg are attacking, they are coming out from everywhere!"
"Damn... OK, were leaving NOW!"
"Sir?"
"NOW DAMN IT!"
"A-Alright!"
They left the chamber and ran down the corridor to the right of the office, away from the sound of fighting
“Damn, how could Runa find us so quickly?”
As they rushed down the corridor they ran smack into a battle between several roaches and his hired goons, whom, without any strong firepower on their side were quickly being overwhelmed.
Mr.X motioned for the woman to follow him as he took a side passage to get around the fight, they didn't get far however, as part of the tunnel had caved in.
The woman looked around and spotted a door.
"Sir, this way, hurry!"
The woman grabbed Mr.X and dragged him into the side chamber; it was a storage room with boxes littering the walls and only one way out.
"What are you doing? This room is a dead end!"
Mr.X turned for the door, only to see it blocked by a roach, and he was struck by a sudden insight as he slowly turned around and looked at the woman behind him.
"Precisely, which is why I lured you in here Mr. Nikohita, or should I call you Mr. X?"
Mr.X swallowed, even a fool would realize just how much trouble he was in at the moment.
"Runa, I, please I'll make it up to you I-"
He never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the short wall in the back of the room, which for some reason was cleared of boxes.
The reason became apparent quickly however as Mr. X was stuck to the wall by some kind of adhesive.
Runa gave another one of those cute smiles while she reached for Mr. X’ forehead.
"Yes you will, Dude, yes you will, don't worry, this memory probing won't hurt.... much"
"No please I-!"
The screams could be heard even over the noise of the fighting.
About an hour later Runa sat inside her specially evolved Swarm Lord, Ferrog, having loaded up as much resources as they could inside the giant Swarm Lord.
“Mistress, are leaving the base intact all that wise? Other Terrans might find evidence of our presence there”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that Dude; after all, you can’t investigate a place that no longer exists”
As if on cue, the small base that the information dealer known as MR. X had operated out from exploded as the Plasma reactor inside the base went critical, the resulting explosion set off the mines Mr. X had placed around his base to protect it, and the resulting cataclysm turned the asteroid field into space dust.
******************
Drawing a deep breath Runa woke from her meditational trance.
“Three mistakes, I could have done better”
{“Perhaps Mistress, but given the available resources at the time you did as well as you could, you even improvised a way to restrain him”}
“I did not ask your opinion, Dude”
{“Forgive me, Mistress, anyway since I have your attention I would like to inform you we have arrived, I have prepped an Overlord for you”}
**
Hel
**
Runa carefully exited the Overlord as it touched down at Draal’s primary Hive Cluster, as she looked around she noticed the usual level of activity. The Roaches was patrolling the edges of the cluster as usual and the Hydralisks was ever watchful as well.
Runa walked up towards the gigantic Hive which served as Draals stronghold as she drew near several higher evolutions of the different strains moved as to intercept her, but let her pass as they recognized who it was.
As soon as Runa entered the Hive she could feel Draals mind focusing on her and she did not resist when he made contact with her mind.
{”Ah, Runa, I have been expecting you”}
{”I am sorry if I kept you waiting, Sensei, this latest development with the Themos have the entire brood on edge and makes it harder to move about undetected”}
{”I see, anyway let’s talk more when you reach my chamber”}
{“Of course, Sensei”}
As she made her way through the confusing labyrinth that was Draals home she again pondered, as she had pondered so many times before, how she never lost her way, she suspected that Draal might have implanted the knowledge into her mind at some point, but if he had she had never noticed it or he mentioned it.
After walking for several minutes she finally entered a gigantic space at the center of the hive, in the middle of which was Draal and a small fleshy pad which served as Runas seat when she visited, all around the chamber was Draals bodyguard, highly evolved strains of all the units at his disposal, from the Hunter Killer to the gigantic Torrasque, but Runa ignored them, if Draal wanted her dead she would never have gotten this far in the first place.
Runa walked over to the fleshy pad and knelt down on it, keeping her head down as a sign of respect.
“You sent for me, Sensei?”
{Yes, my child. I have need of your skills. But first, what do you think of the Themos Brood?}
"With all respect Sensei, the Themos Brood are a lesser brood that copied Shuuls battle tactics simply because their leader didn't have the skill to create her own."
{Ah, but Baal never did have an original idea. Even his progeny are mere echoes of something far older, and far greater.}
Runa only nodded in assent to this, hoping to learn more, but the great mind instead asked, {And the Fenrir?}
Runa clenched her fists tightly and clenched her teeth, but remained silent, the mental waves of hatred that emanated from her was answer enough.
{I would give you a chance to strike at either of them. Would you take it?}
Runa closed her eyes in deep thought for a moment before answering. "I am sorry, but I have to decline Sensei, my brood are still to scattered and too weak to be able to stand up to either of them, only if you committed your entire brood to the offensive would I stand a chance, and that would be too great a risk, even for one as powerful as you"
{You show wisdom by tempering your passion. May it be used as a deadly weapon, at the appropriate time.}
Runa bowed her head at the compliment "I have had two great teachers in the art of war, one of those lessons was to always be calm and collected even in the most dire of circumstances, I believe both My old Master, Shuul and you, said so, Sensei"
{I beleive he learned that lesson from me, but that is not the point. If you do not wish to aid one of the current conflicts, I would demand of you another task. What do you know of the Terran world of Apoca?}
“Hmm... Apoca, haven’t been there in years, not since the early parts of out invasion, back when the Master was still alive”
{It has changed much since you were there then. I wish you to go there with two missions: Find information on the weapon that the Terrans call the Arken, and find out if an attack on Dras Lana would be feasible. We have left the Terrans sitting comfortably for far too long, to my mind, but the Overmind had not yet given the order to resume the attack. I hope to be ready when he does, or to push the issue if he does not.}
Runa bowed her head "As you wish Sensei, and what if an attack is not possible at this time, what then?"
{Do as much damage as you can, without provoking or allowing a counter attack. We are already fighting on two fronts, we need not open a third until the Themos and Fenrir have been subdued.}
Runa momentarily flinched at the mention of Fenrir but bowed her head, "I think I know how to pull it off and make it look like someone else did it... I will have to think about it some more first though. If there is nothing else Sensei, I will take my leave. I must make preparations for the mission"
{Very well. Go well, my child.}
************
SOA:
All in all it's an intro post, the important bits are the upcomming job on Apoca and the conversation with Draal
Name: Runa "Siege Breaker"
Faction: The Magma Brood
Race: Zerg (Infested Terran)
Affiliation: The Gracken Brood
Points: 0
Runa, despite being an infested Terran are quite different then her appearance, and actions on the battlefield might assume from the brutal and efficient way she goes about with her missions, the truth is that even after her infestation some unknown time ago by the Magma Broods former leader a Cerebrate known as Shuul, the exact details of how Shuul met it’s end are unknown, but rumors among the older members of Runas’ Brood all agree that their new leader played more than a small part in the cerebrates demise, she has retained her somewhat jolly and easy going nature while also enhancing the specialty from before she was infested, namely sabotage.
Only a select few of Runas’ most trusted generals know that Runa and Shuul actually had a deal going on long before Runa was actually Infested and that Shuuls death and Runas’ ascension to lead the brood had been agreed long before the Cerebrates demise.
Runa and Shuuls’ brood had by chance met while attempting to sabotage the same Protoss facility, and Runas low level psionic ability ended up saving her life that day, being a Linguapath, able to understand just about any language after just a few seconds, she managed to broker a deal with Shuul, simply because they both was after the same thing, destroying the base, the fact that that Shuul hated Protoss more than Terrans helped out as well, this deal slowly developed into respect then something akin to an extremely unlikely friendship between the two over several years of encounters.
It was this friendship that caused Runas eventual infestation as during a classified mission Runa was exposed to an experimental virus that was slowly killing her, and with no cure apparent from her employers, who viewed her as disposable, she turned to the only one she knew could help her, Shuul hardly needed any convincing and within a day she had been added to the brood, over the next few decades the relationship between Shuul and Runa remained good and Shuuls trust in his new lieutenant, who he had left almost completely untouched mentally as a sign of his appreciation of her company, grew steadily.
That trust also ended up saving Runas life, as she was away on an important mission when the Fenris Brood for one reason or another attacked the Magma Broods home world and destroyed Shuul, in the ensuing psionic backlash of the brood Runa did the one thing she had been trained to do take control of the situation, and in the span of just a few days Runa was in complete control of the survivors from the assault.
Without anywhere else to go Runa went to the Cerebrate Draal to seek aid, Shuul had introduced Runa to its close ally Draal long before as Shuul and Draal where allies and had a rather good relationship with one another simply because their fighting styles complemented one another and they generally had the same outlook on things, although Shuul viewed Draal more as a mentor and teacher than a superior, an outlook Runa came to share over the years, in battle Shuul would sabotage key structures within a stronghold or kill of key personnel, weakening the defenses while Draals powerful siege units would hammer their walls and destroy their armies with the overwhelming strength of his siege units, a beneficial relationship they both had profited from.
Runa
Modifiers: Biological, Heroic, Armored
HP: 400
Movement Speed: 3
Armor: 3
Sight: 8
Abilities:
~ Hyper Regeneration: Runa constantly regenerates 10 hp/sec
Chamelionic Skin: Runa can cloak at will for no cost
~ Sabotage:Places a charge of Baneling puss on target mechanical unit or structure that detonates on command, dealing 50 damage to mechanical units or 100 damage to structures. Any number of charges can be placed on a single target. 5 second channel. 20 charges max, 60 second recharge per charge(They recharge one at a time. To a maximum of 20 charges.) Only 20 charges may be active at one time.
~ Infra-Vision: Runa is a Detector since she can see into the infra-red spectrum.
Flagship: Ferrog
Ferrog, a Swarm Lord bred to serve as Runa’s flagship, a gift from Shuul
0
Dones Surface, Nick Reyd’s Hideout Bysdoch System, Outsider Territory
They never saw her coming, nor did they notice her as she passed them by, every defense that would stop her from reaching her goal had suffered a “malfunction” due to her abilities, convincing the other two to agree on joining had been a pain, that bloody weakling of an original where a fine example of resistance to anything she wanted to do.
Still it would all be worth it, that Terran knew how to have a good time after all, and being around someone who could understand the finer points in life would be a nice change of pace, sure the childish one could be fun from time to time, but her inconsistency on who she backed could be a royal pain, even more so when she was having fun and the child and weakling doubled up on her to stop her from being anything but an observer.
She stopped, in front of her was a massive blast door that she was not likely going to penetrate anytime soon, and there were no visible ways of getting past.
{Umm, Ms. Grumpy, I can get us through the air vent up there}
She felt her eyes twitch and focus on a vent halfway up the wall, no way she was reaching it that’s for sure, but the child...
{Fine, child, do it, but do it quickly}
There was a brief pain as she felt herself getting pushed back and the child took control.
She looked around expectantly; being the one in control was a relatively rare occurrence for her, since Ms. Grumpy and Ms. Happy were rarely if ever able to work together, even now the sole reason they were not fighting right now was because Ms. Grumpy had made a good point about Ms. Happy needing help to “cure” herself, and she would need someone capable of tolerating the antics of both Ms. Grumpy and herself, granted she had no idea what antics meant, but she was pretty sure it was something fun.
She carefully grabbed a nearby pipe and with practiced ease climbed upwards, carefully scaling the sheer wall towards the vent, reaching it without too much trouble; sure she had nearly lost her balance twice, and both Ms. Happy and Ms. Grumpy were yelling at her to be careful, but it was not like it had put them in any danger or anything, besides, even if she fell, she could just try again.
She was just about to grab the vent when her hand just froze.
{Khinu, enough, I will be taking care of the rest, besides I doubt that vent would be without some kind of trap, and I can take such a hit better then you can}
She mulled over it for a few seconds, and then she felt Ms. Grumpy about to try and drag her out of the driver’s seat by force.
{Fine, do as you like, party pooper, and here I wanted to play in the vents}
{We are not here for you to amuse yourself child, now do as the weakling told you or we will both join forces to make you}
She gave a small sigh then let herself go, floating back to an observing position, while Ms. Happy took control.
The brief pain passed and she finally had control of her body again, oh how she longed for the day when she could be alone in her own head again, Khinu was annoying enough to deal with, but the psychopath Marrhe was a danger to everyone around, preventing her from relaxing her mind for a second for fear of letting her out.
She carefully touched the vent and was awarded with a jolt of electricity for her trouble.
{Wow, Ms. Happy was correct, it was booby-trapped! What a mean thing to do}
{The weakling might be a nuisance, but she more often than not know what she talks about}
{Please shut up, I need to concentrate to remove this thing}
She reached out with her mind and grabbed the vent, carefully pulling it out from the wall, once removed she levitated it out of the way and slowly crawled inside, before reattaching it, so far so good.
{Well then, let’s see if we can find Mr. Nick Reyd}
SOA:
Intro post, not much happens, you get introduced to the 3 personas and what they call each other , I have them do this to simplify who are who during inter persona conversations, oh and she has infiltrated the location Nick Reyd are in, still need to work out things on that end so I’m stopping it here.
0
@TheAlmaity: Go
KK, will write up a post sometime tomorrow, bit er..... busy atm -^_^-
0
OK I’m a few days late, but I have promised to post this thing for a while now.
Rakah/Marrhe/Khinu (102 PTS)
Faction: TBA
Backstory:
Rakah was an up and coming trainee in the Imperium’s officially “Non-existent” Shadow Ops, and could have, showing signs of being one of the best members they ever trained.
Fate however, had another plan for Rakah, and during a mission to some newly discovered ruins to see if there were anything of worth there, Rakah was infected with a strange psionic virus that attacked her mentally rather than physically, driving her insane.
The virus spread across the Khala and every other Khalite on the mission quickly succumbed to madness, forcing the Dark Templar in the group to kill their now deranged Khalite brethren, who were on a killing rampage throughout the ruins, hunting down each other and the dark Templar.
Raka herself were defeated by her own mentor, who, instead of killing her, incapacitated her and cut of her Psionic Tendrils, turning her into a Dark Templar, with her connection to the Khala severed, her danger to the other Protoss were limited.
Rakah was brought back to the Shadow Ops base in order to see if they would find a cure for the virus and restore her to normal, and after months of research Rakah seemed to calm down and was moved to a recovery center to rest and recover.
A few months after being placed into recovery, there was a massacre there, leaving no survivors, Rakah herself disappeared as well as a number of Terran prisoners and an experimental Mothership ship called Hand of Darkness...
Stats:
Name: Rakah
Modifiers: Biological, Light, Psionic, Heroic
Health: 1000 (500 life 500 shield)
Energy: 200
Mov Speed: 2
Armor: 4
Sight: 8
Weapon: Psi Bullet
Range: 3 GtA & GtG
Damage: 15
Cooldown: 1
Abilities:
Persona Shift: Marrhe
Rakah's 2nd personality Marrhe fights Rakah for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Khinu
Rakah's 3rd personality Khinu fights Rakah for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Rakah only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
Marrhe:
Name: Marrhe
Modifiers: Biological, Light, Psionic, Heroic
Health: 150 (50 life 100 shield)
Energy: 200
Mov Speed: 2
Armor: 0
Sight: 12
Weapon: Psi Cannon
Range: 12 GtG & GtA
Damage: 30
Cooldown: 1
Abilities:
Persona Shift: Rakah
The Original personality Rakah fights Marrhe for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Khinu
Rakah's 3rd personality Khinu fights Marrhe for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Marrhe only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
Khinu:
Name: Khinu
Modifiers: Biological, Light, Psionic, Heroic
Health: 200 (100 Life 100 Shields)
Energy: 200
Mov Speed: 7
Armor: 1
Sight: 8
Weapon: Psi Gun
Range: 3 GtA & GtG
Damage: 30
Cooldown: 1
Abilities:
Persona Shift: Rakah
The Original personality Rakah fights Khinu for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
Persona Shift: Marrhe
Rakah's 2nd personality Marrhe fights Khinu for 2 seconds then usurps control of her body, altering her physical specialties. (This is a transformation ability) retains the same % oh HP from personality to personality.
DT Cloak: Permanently Cloaked.
Veil of Madness:
Marrhe only takes 50% damage from abilities of heroes and are immune to the damage of non-hero abilities, all other effects still happen as normal.
Flagship: (130 PTS)
Name: Hand of Darkness
Apperance:
Hand of darkness lives up to its namesake as it is a midnight black crystalline Mothership roughly in the shape of a gigantic hand, the main cannon are situated in the “palm” of the ship and thrusters are on each finger and the place where the “arm” should have been.
The Hand’s favorite tactic is to “Grab” hostile ships then opening fire with the main cannon, then sending boarding parties through the “fingers” to get into the hostile ship should it still be intact enough to salvage.
Hand of Darkness
Weapons 4
Armor 4
Man 8
Security 3
Cargo 3
Speed 4
Army: (68 TPS)
Marines
Stimpack
Medivac
Siege Tech
Siege Tanks
Missile Turrets
Bunkers
Standing Army:
As of right now, none, Rakah escaped with trained noncombat ship personel to take care of the systems that the Hand of Darkness' AI could not interface with.
0
Apoca, Dimitri’s Hideout
Dimitri grinned, the poor suckers that had entered his poker table tonight had brought most of their savings and he had made sure they would not be leaving with them, then just as he was about to reveal his hand the door exploded in green flames and a sour acidic smell filled the room.
His guests vanished out the back door with their money so fast; he could have sworn they had just warped out of there.
Looking towards the destroyed doorway however Dimitri wished he could have gone the same way, but his obligations to Runa kept him in his chair as she stepped through the wrecked doorway.
“You have gone far above the 5 days I gave you Dude, now where are my information?”
“Runa what a pleasant surprise do you want some-“
Dimitri never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat.
“I have been more than a bit patient with you Dude, now where are my information”
Gasping for air, Dimitri pulled out a small folder and dropped it on the desk, at which point Runa dropped him to the floor, grabbed the folder and started to read the folder.
“Is this all you managed to dig up?”
“Not much information lying about on that thing, it is at least partially Protoss after all”
Runa shrugged and kept reading.
“So this is materials used in its construction I guess, seeing as most of this is shipping manifests for a ridiculous amount of metal and ammunition” “That would be correct, notice how they don’t have a destination?”
“Classified, seems like I need to talk to someone in the know, which could be problematic”
“Afraid I can’t help you there, only reason I can still operate in this cesspool are because I am the only entertainment these fools have access to, the local big wigs would stamp me out instantly if they found out I were here”
“Obviously... hmm? What’s this, it looks like a...”
“It’s the Arken during early construction”
“I still think it looks like a-“
“I know”
“Dude, do you think they realized-“
“Pretty sure they did”
“That’s just-”
“I know”
Runa cleared her throat.
“Anyway, clearly I need to locate someone with stronger connections, consider the fact I don’t kill you right here and now for your delays, repayment for the information in full, and then some”
Dimitri clenched his fists in anger but nodded in agreement. “Oh, one last thing Dude”
“Yes?”
“I need a space worthy craft, don’t need to be big nor fast, but it needs to have clearance to leave the planet”
Dmitri’s mood lightened immediately.
“Consider it done!”
“Good, I will be back for it tomorrow”
With those parting words Runa left and headed back to the abandoned shed she used as a hideout, as she contacted Ferrog about her imminent departure.
SOA:
Talking, talking and more talking, I need some action....
0
Apoca – Night side, roughly 20 minutes after Runa’s landing
The Medivac slowly touched down at the edge of the crater, green flames were still burning strongly from it and the entire area was lit by an eerie green light, as well as bathed in a green foul smelling fog of vaporized acid, creating a rather nerve wrecking scene.
As the loading doors of the Medivac opened a quartet of Marines slowly walked out, combat visors down and air tanks running.
“Wut da ‘ell could’ve made this?”
The leading Marine walked over to the blaze in the crater and set his scanners to work.
“Looks like another dormant cocoon that fell from orbit, scans show traces of Baneling acid, buggers most likely ruptured on impact”
“You sound a little choked up, Corporal? Is something wrong?”
“Not much, just some bad memories from the war”
The Marine tunes his radio to private chat.
“Psst, Matthew, you know what the Corporal means?”
“Yeah I do, but I’m not telling”
“Common man!”
“No”
“I’ll call it even on those 200 Credits you owe me”
”Fine, just don’t tell him I told you”
“I won’t”
Matthew sighed deeply.
“Corporal Olsen are one of a very few survivors of Outpost 51”
“Shit, there were survivors in that damned hell hole?”
“Five in total, the lucky bastards had been inside one of two Medivacs sent out to flank them Zerg, the explosion sent ‘em flying out of the combat zone, took ‘em ‘bout a week to get back to civilization.”
“What happened to the other Medivac?”
“That’s the freaky part, no one knows, it just went off the grid, no maydays or anything”
“Freaky alright, you think that-“
“Hey! Can it you two, got a job to do now that the fires have started to die out”
The collective groaning from the three other Marines was quickly stamped out as they grabbed containment box and shovels.
“Man, this is worse than shit patrol!”
“I said: can it!”
“Sir, Yes, Sir!”
Meanwhile, Runa quietly closed in on the Medivac and waited; it took the Marines a good half an hour to finish cleaning up the waste from the pod and store it in containment boxes, and as soon as they were done and the Medivac was about to lift of, Runa set her claws into the hull, latching on the underbelly of the Medivac.
“Sheesh, Sally be a bit more careful”
“Not my doing Corporal, felt as something hit the hull, whatever it was is gone now though, as the sensors show nothing”
“Bah, we don’t have time for this, gotta get this stuff dealt with ASAP, let’s move!”
The Medivac quickly started off against New Tremlin, with more cargo then even the occupants was aware of.
New Tremlin
About twenty minutes later Runa dropped from the medevac and onto the roof of a rather tall building on the edge of town.
Quickly making her way down the fire escape she looked around at the dark streets
“Same ol’ Tremlin alright... done wonders recrating the stench of pollution, well since the towns unchanged, that should mean HE is still in business too...”
Runa wasted no time heading towards the older parts of town, where most of the stuff that was no longer being used was stored in large old and somewhat abandoned warehouses.
Walking down several alleys and past ramshackle buildings she noticed a few new additions here and there as well as several new build sites that was replacing some of the most ramshackle warehouses.
“Hey there girly, are ya lost?”
Runa looked towards the owner of the voice, a burly man who had three other fellows with him, then decided to simply ignore him, only to be stopped as he grabbed her arm.
“Oy girly, where do you think you’re going?”
He said, smiling lasciviously at her.
Runa broke his hold, kicked him in the groin, grabbed him by the throat and lifted him of the ground all in the span of about half a second, only then did she notice the four leaf clover pin in his neck collar.
“Dimitri, where is he?”
The lascivious grin that had been on his face was replaced with no small amount of fear.
“I-I don’t know what yer talking about girly!”
“Lie to me again and I will take the answer from you brain”
As if to demonstrate the point a piece of metal slowly rose from the ground and hovered ominously in front of the man’s eye.
“Rat’s Nest, he’s at the Rat’s Nest!”
Runa unceremoniously dropped him on the ground and started to leave without giving him another look. As she left the man sat up, chough.
“What are you waiting for, call the Boss!”
“This is Demitri, you better have a good reason for disturbing me”
“Boss, its Gonzales, some fancy broads heading you way, looks like trouble”
“Describe her”
“Black hair, scarlet green eyes, y shaped scar on her right eye and cheek, insane strength, bad attitude, body to die for”
“I see... you’re dismissed”
“Boss?”
“She is a valued customer, and you’re lucky you got away with just a beating, the Siege Breaker are not known for being gentle after all”
Gonzales just nodded and broke the connection, his skin as pale as death itself.
Rat’s Nest five minutes later
The Rat’s Nest was the gambling hall of Dimitri Immanow, a shrewd man whose intellect was only outweighed by his greed and cruelty.
“Keep her away from Dimi- GAAAARH!”
The door into Dimitri’s private poker table, which was nothing more than the side room in an abandoned warehouse, exploded in green flames and putrid smoke.
“You need to tighten up security Dude, your men spilled the beans about your location with so little effort... no fun at all”
Runa stood in the door with a pout on her face, tossing another of her explosive ampules up and down in her hand, the hallway behind her looked like something out of a horror movie, with dead or dying gangsters lying everywhere.
“At least you changed the password, although that meant I had to go through your security staff”
“Ah Runa, my beloved Ice Queen, don’t worry about those things, it can easily be rectified, more importantly what brings you to my establishment?”
“Arken, or more importantly all the information you can give me on it”
Dimitri’s smile vanished instantly.
“Runa, do you realize just how hard, not to mention expensive it would be to just get even a sliver of information about that thing?”
“Dude, seeing as you owe your life to me three times over and owe me a substantial amount of money I don’t see the issue, on top of it all it seems you have forgotten whom you’re addressing”
As if on cue, one of her blades sipped out of her seemingly human arm.
Dimitri swallowed, and then gave a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, FINE you win, I have no wish to experience THAT myself, I saw what you can do way back when, and I have no wish to be on the receiving end, however seeing how little information that’s floating around it will take time”
“How long?”
“At least a week, if not more, now I know it will take time, but I will get you place to stay while you wait”
“You have 5 days, as for accommodations, I can get that myself”
With that Runa left the warehouse, leaving Dimitri to clean up her mess.
SOA: Continuation of the last post.
Runa arrives in the city of New Tremlin and makes contact with an old associate known as Dimitri and gives him a 5 day time limit to cough up some info for her.
0
Dras Lana
A flicker in the emptiness of space was all that heralded Ferrogs exit from Warp Space, as the Swarm Lord continued on towards Apoca, Runa found her thoughts drifting back to her last visit.
********************************************************************************************************
Apoca, Outpost 51 1657 hours , main Zerg invasion, several year ago
********************************************************************************************************
Sargent Thomas Harrison slowly walked down the darkened maintenance corridor, he was certain that he had seen something on the security monitor, something that just didn’t fit, he looked around at the rusty pipes that were leaking in more than a few places, the dripping sound only added to the sense of dread that was slowly building in the back of his mind, in fact nearly all of the hairs on his neck was standing straight out from his neck.
As he neared the small shaft going down into the reactor of the Command Centre he noticed that the hatch was open, not a good sign, he drew out his side arm, nothing more than a peashooter when compared to the gauss rifle he could have wielded had it been enough space to wear a Marine Suit inside the maintenance corridor.
He got down on one knee and peered down into the gloom of the reactor room before he carefully started to climb down the ladder, halfway down he heard a clanking noise, followed by what sounded like someone suppressing a frustrated scream.
He removed the safety of his gun and crept closer to the area where the sound had come from, he rounded the corner and prepared to fire.
“ Sarge lower your weapon!”
Thomas lowered his gun and peered towards the person in front of him.
“Davis, is that you?”
“Yes, Sir, it is Davis, Sir!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Thought I saw something on the security monitor when I came to check on you, with you gone and all I decided to check it out”
Thomas lowered his gun, relieved at the news, sure Davis’ voice was a little off, and he somehow seemed a bit out of focus, but then again, it was hot in the room and his own voice had cracked some same as Davis’ and the damp made it hard to see clearly.
“So did you find anything?”
“Nothing to report, Sir”
“Very well, let’s go”
Thomas secured his gun and holstered it, then turned and started walking towards the main exit as his comm. Unit lit up signaling that someone wanted a talk with him.
“This is Sgt. Thomas”
“Hey Sarge, me, Bill and Davis were talking here and we’re wondering if your game for that round of poker tonight or if you’re not stuck on night duty”
“Sure thing Olsen I... wait Davis?”
“What about him, Sarge?”
“Where are the three of you now?”
“Mass Hall, it’s Pizza Day today, you know I never miss out on Pizza Day!”
“I see...”
Sgt. Thomas knew his death was upon him as he slowly turned around and looked at Davis or what had moments before seemed to be Davis, but now was a lithe figure dressed in what seemed like a skintight suit made of Zerg Carapace and seemingly wielded a pair of Tekagi-shuko, a cynical smile was on her lips, clearly amused by his shocked expression, a pair of olive green snake-like eyes looked back at him.
“Are you done talking, Dude? I don’t have all day and I really need to overload this reactor to cause some havoc.
“Olsen?”
“Yeah Sarge what is it?”
“Send a response team into the R- GLARGH!”
“Sarge? Sargent? Common answer me, dammit! SARGE!”
Runa calmly crushed the device and placed the last charge on the reactor.
“Ok boys, only a little more and I’m done”
On Runas’ order the main host of Shuuls forces was thrown into the combat that was raging above to cover Runas’ retreat out of the base.
She calmly activated her chameleonic abilities and disappeared from view and as the proximity alarm went off she sneaked out behind a group of Marines heading for the bunkers outside, only to break up from them in order to follow a poor sap that had forgotten his gun in one of the Medivacs a quick detour to get round a few turrets and she was inside a Medivac and heading out with a squad of Marines to flank the Zerg, by the time the Medivac reached the Zerg lines, however, Runa was the only living individual on board.
Runa calmly disembarked the Medivac about ten miles away from the outpost.
“I trrrusssst that the missssion wahss successful?”
Asked one of the two Overlords that waited for her in the small crater where she had landed, all around them the rest of the Magma Brood was moving out in order to join the Gracken brood on the front lines, this world would be theirs soon enough.
Runa pulled out a box of cigars she had pilfered, then lit one on the remains of the another Medevac that had carried evacuees from the base, but had been shot down by pretty much everything that the Zerg had to offer in the form of anti-air, Runa took a deep breath of the cigar and gave a wide and somewhat devilish grin as the sky behind her turned white.
“Destroyed the coolant lines, that flash was the reactor going critical, I will give you a full report upon my return to home, but seriously Boss, it’s me were talking about, have a little faith, would ya?”
She said as she entered the Overlord that was waiting to take her back into Orbit.
“OK time to head back to home, Dude, no doubt the Boss will want a full report of it all” she said as soon as she entered Ferrog, her personal Swarm Lord.
As Ferrog slowly turned about and prepared to leave the system Runa looked down at the planet, all across it Zerg spores were raining down as the other Zerg forces started their main assault of the planet itself, all around them the fighting grew ever more feverish as well, as the defenders fought back with all their might, but Runa knew that it was inevitable and the might of the Zerg would overcome them soon enough.
***********************************************************************************************************
A sudden jarring motion awoke Runa from her sleep inside Ferrog, she sat up and looked around slightly disoriented, with a sigh she stretched her arms and scratched her cheek, more out of old habit then anything as her carapace dulled the sensation somewhat.
“Status report”
“We are in Orbit over Apoca, I had to take a detour to avoid a patrol, but I don’t think they realized I was there, they seemed.... preoccupied with something”
“If they are on a heightened alert it would be bad if you were found, prep an infiltration pod then get out of the system, I’ll call you when I am ready to be extracted”
“As you wish, Mistress”
As Runa entered the Pod and it sealed around her then filled itself with a shock dampening liquid.
“Prepare for launch, Mistress”
The pod shook violently and then Runa was suddenly pressed towards the back of it, if it wasn’t for the liquid she would have most likely been crushed, but it absorbed so much of the force that only a few moments later she could press herself away from the wall.
The pod started to shake again and took on an orange hue as it entered the atmosphere; luckily the shock absorbing liquid also prevented Runa from being burned to a crisp as the pod tumbled towards the surface.
The pod hit the ground with a tremendous impact, creating a deep crater and rupturing the top of the pod, allowing Runa to crawl out, and after a few coughs she had cleared her lungs of the liquid.
“Good thing I no longer need to breathe”
Working quickly she started grabbed one of several dimly green orbs that grew on her arm and pulled, it came loose with a small pop and started to glow dimly in a bright green coloration, she threw the orb inside the pod and three more followed in quick succession.
Climbing out of the crater she activated her camouflage, and removed herself from the vicinity of the pod, just a few moments later the entire crater nearly doubled in size as Runa detonated the orbs with just a thought, incinerating the pod and evaporating the liquid in just a few seconds, no evidence of her arrival would be left come sunrise.
SOA: planned to go a bit further but this seemed like the perfect place to cut it.
Runa arrives in Dras Lana and lands on Apoca, a bit of back story, and that’s it.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
This should have been posted a week ago, unfortunetly that's not the case when RL desides to be an- well yeah, you get the point.
Think I might have forgotten to add my disembarking in my last post, if that’s the case I‘m sorry.
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*
Small asteroid field, deep space 1 hex south of an unnamed system southwest of Hades
*
“Have I made myself clear Mr.X?”
“You know, Runa, I used to think you were quite interesting, a woman working with the Zerg, of all things, however, turns out your just infested, how... boring, I decided I didn’t want any more to do with you, so I tried to have you killed, do you hate me now?”
There was movement on the other side of the vid-screen and Mr.X could make out the outline of a woman, but her features were fuzzy, like she was somehow out of focus.
“You of all people should now that crossing me never ends well, even more so since you somehow got a hold of the sealed documents of my past”
MR.X eyes widened in surprise.
“How did-“
“I am a Linguapath, or to use layman’s terms, I can understand and speak any language almost immediately, so speaking a foreign language to your buddies were useless”
“So that’s how you knew”
“Indeed, as it turns out you have made several enemies, Dude, some of them paid me back what you cost me in full, just so I would come over to say hello”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The lips of the woman turned into a smile that seemed surprisingly innocent, yet at the same time Mr. X could feel the bloodlust from her even through the vid-screen.
The chamber suddenly shook and Mr.X looked up as the lamp started to flicker and the connection with Runa disappeared.
"Report, what in the world is going on out there?"
No response, apart from a powerful static on the line.
"Dammit! REPORT, NOW!"
The door burst in and one of his subordinate’s stumbled in, the left side of her face was covered in blood, and she was clutching her arm, clearly hurt.
“Sir! Zerg are attacking, they are coming out from everywhere!"
"Damn... OK, were leaving NOW!"
"Sir?"
"NOW DAMN IT!"
"A-Alright!"
They left the chamber and ran down the corridor to the right of the office, away from the sound of fighting
“Damn, how could Runa find us so quickly?”
As they rushed down the corridor they ran smack into a battle between several roaches and his hired goons, whom, without any strong firepower on their side were quickly being overwhelmed.
Mr.X motioned for the woman to follow him as he took a side passage to get around the fight, they didn't get far however, as part of the tunnel had caved in.
The woman looked around and spotted a door.
"Sir, this way, hurry!"
The woman grabbed Mr.X and dragged him into the side chamber; it was a storage room with boxes littering the walls and only one way out.
"What are you doing? This room is a dead end!"
Mr.X turned for the door, only to see it blocked by a roach, and he was struck by a sudden insight as he slowly turned around and looked at the woman behind him.
"Precisely, which is why I lured you in here Mr. Nikohita, or should I call you Mr. X?"
Mr.X swallowed, even a fool would realize just how much trouble he was in at the moment.
"Runa, I, please I'll make it up to you I-"
He never got to finish the sentence as Runa grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the short wall in the back of the room, which for some reason was cleared of boxes.
The reason became apparent quickly however as Mr. X was stuck to the wall by some kind of adhesive.
Runa gave another one of those cute smiles while she reached for Mr. X’ forehead.
"Yes you will, Dude, yes you will, don't worry, this memory probing won't hurt.... much"
"No please I-!"
The screams could be heard even over the noise of the fighting.
About an hour later Runa sat inside her specially evolved Swarm Lord, Ferrog, having loaded up as much resources as they could inside the giant Swarm Lord.
“Mistress, are leaving the base intact all that wise? Other Terrans might find evidence of our presence there”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that Dude; after all, you can’t investigate a place that no longer exists”
As if on cue, the small base that the information dealer known as MR. X had operated out from exploded as the Plasma reactor inside the base went critical, the resulting explosion set off the mines Mr. X had placed around his base to protect it, and the resulting cataclysm turned the asteroid field into space dust.
******************
Drawing a deep breath Runa woke from her meditational trance.
“Three mistakes, I could have done better”
{“Perhaps Mistress, but given the available resources at the time you did as well as you could, you even improvised a way to restrain him”}
“I did not ask your opinion, Dude”
{“Forgive me, Mistress, anyway since I have your attention I would like to inform you we have arrived, I have prepped an Overlord for you”}
**
Hel
**
Runa carefully exited the Overlord as it touched down at Draal’s primary Hive Cluster, as she looked around she noticed the usual level of activity. The Roaches was patrolling the edges of the cluster as usual and the Hydralisks was ever watchful as well.
Runa walked up towards the gigantic Hive which served as Draals stronghold as she drew near several higher evolutions of the different strains moved as to intercept her, but let her pass as they recognized who it was.
As soon as Runa entered the Hive she could feel Draals mind focusing on her and she did not resist when he made contact with her mind.
{”Ah, Runa, I have been expecting you”}
{”I am sorry if I kept you waiting, Sensei, this latest development with the Themos have the entire brood on edge and makes it harder to move about undetected”}
{”I see, anyway let’s talk more when you reach my chamber”}
{“Of course, Sensei”}
As she made her way through the confusing labyrinth that was Draals home she again pondered, as she had pondered so many times before, how she never lost her way, she suspected that Draal might have implanted the knowledge into her mind at some point, but if he had she had never noticed it or he mentioned it.
After walking for several minutes she finally entered a gigantic space at the center of the hive, in the middle of which was Draal and a small fleshy pad which served as Runas seat when she visited, all around the chamber was Draals bodyguard, highly evolved strains of all the units at his disposal, from the Hunter Killer to the gigantic Torrasque, but Runa ignored them, if Draal wanted her dead she would never have gotten this far in the first place.
Runa walked over to the fleshy pad and knelt down on it, keeping her head down as a sign of respect.
“You sent for me, Sensei?”
{Yes, my child. I have need of your skills. But first, what do you think of the Themos Brood?}
"With all respect Sensei, the Themos Brood are a lesser brood that copied Shuuls battle tactics simply because their leader didn't have the skill to create her own."
{Ah, but Baal never did have an original idea. Even his progeny are mere echoes of something far older, and far greater.}
Runa only nodded in assent to this, hoping to learn more, but the great mind instead asked, {And the Fenrir?}
Runa clenched her fists tightly and clenched her teeth, but remained silent, the mental waves of hatred that emanated from her was answer enough.
{I would give you a chance to strike at either of them. Would you take it?}
Runa closed her eyes in deep thought for a moment before answering. "I am sorry, but I have to decline Sensei, my brood are still to scattered and too weak to be able to stand up to either of them, only if you committed your entire brood to the offensive would I stand a chance, and that would be too great a risk, even for one as powerful as you"
{You show wisdom by tempering your passion. May it be used as a deadly weapon, at the appropriate time.}
Runa bowed her head at the compliment "I have had two great teachers in the art of war, one of those lessons was to always be calm and collected even in the most dire of circumstances, I believe both My old Master, Shuul and you, said so, Sensei"
{I beleive he learned that lesson from me, but that is not the point. If you do not wish to aid one of the current conflicts, I would demand of you another task. What do you know of the Terran world of Apoca?}
“Hmm... Apoca, haven’t been there in years, not since the early parts of out invasion, back when the Master was still alive”
{It has changed much since you were there then. I wish you to go there with two missions: Find information on the weapon that the Terrans call the Arken, and find out if an attack on Dras Lana would be feasible. We have left the Terrans sitting comfortably for far too long, to my mind, but the Overmind had not yet given the order to resume the attack. I hope to be ready when he does, or to push the issue if he does not.}
Runa bowed her head "As you wish Sensei, and what if an attack is not possible at this time, what then?"
{Do as much damage as you can, without provoking or allowing a counter attack. We are already fighting on two fronts, we need not open a third until the Themos and Fenrir have been subdued.}
Runa momentarily flinched at the mention of Fenrir but bowed her head, "I think I know how to pull it off and make it look like someone else did it... I will have to think about it some more first though. If there is nothing else Sensei, I will take my leave. I must make preparations for the mission"
{Very well. Go well, my child.}
************
SOA:
All in all it's an intro post, the important bits are the upcomming job on Apoca and the conversation with Draal
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@Orloth7: Go
thanks for approval of character.
also it's not a horse it's a Nightmare
Working on post as we speak will post once im happy with it
or tomorrow if i get to sleepy
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cue Orloths heart attack:
Name: Runa "Siege Breaker"
Faction: The Magma Brood
Race: Zerg (Infested Terran)
Affiliation: The Gracken Brood
Points: 0
Runa, despite being an infested Terran are quite different then her appearance, and actions on the battlefield might assume from the brutal and efficient way she goes about with her missions, the truth is that even after her infestation some unknown time ago by the Magma Broods former leader a Cerebrate known as Shuul, the exact details of how Shuul met it’s end are unknown, but rumors among the older members of Runas’ Brood all agree that their new leader played more than a small part in the cerebrates demise, she has retained her somewhat jolly and easy going nature while also enhancing the specialty from before she was infested, namely sabotage.
Only a select few of Runas’ most trusted generals know that Runa and Shuul actually had a deal going on long before Runa was actually Infested and that Shuuls death and Runas’ ascension to lead the brood had been agreed long before the Cerebrates demise.
Runa and Shuuls’ brood had by chance met while attempting to sabotage the same Protoss facility, and Runas low level psionic ability ended up saving her life that day, being a Linguapath, able to understand just about any language after just a few seconds, she managed to broker a deal with Shuul, simply because they both was after the same thing, destroying the base, the fact that that Shuul hated Protoss more than Terrans helped out as well, this deal slowly developed into respect then something akin to an extremely unlikely friendship between the two over several years of encounters.
It was this friendship that caused Runas eventual infestation as during a classified mission Runa was exposed to an experimental virus that was slowly killing her, and with no cure apparent from her employers, who viewed her as disposable, she turned to the only one she knew could help her, Shuul hardly needed any convincing and within a day she had been added to the brood, over the next few decades the relationship between Shuul and Runa remained good and Shuuls trust in his new lieutenant, who he had left almost completely untouched mentally as a sign of his appreciation of her company, grew steadily.
That trust also ended up saving Runas life, as she was away on an important mission when the Fenris Brood for one reason or another attacked the Magma Broods home world and destroyed Shuul, in the ensuing psionic backlash of the brood Runa did the one thing she had been trained to do take control of the situation, and in the span of just a few days Runa was in complete control of the survivors from the assault.
Without anywhere else to go Runa went to the Cerebrate Draal to seek aid, Shuul had introduced Runa to its close ally Draal long before as Shuul and Draal where allies and had a rather good relationship with one another simply because their fighting styles complemented one another and they generally had the same outlook on things, although Shuul viewed Draal more as a mentor and teacher than a superior, an outlook Runa came to share over the years, in battle Shuul would sabotage key structures within a stronghold or kill of key personnel, weakening the defenses while Draals powerful siege units would hammer their walls and destroy their armies with the overwhelming strength of his siege units, a beneficial relationship they both had profited from.
Runa
Modifiers: Biological, Heroic, Armored
HP: 400
Movement Speed: 3
Armor: 3
Sight: 8
Weapon: Gatling Spines:
~ Targets: Ground, Air
~ Damage 10 x 5
~ Cooldown: 1
~ Range: 6
Weapon: Ripper Claws:
~ Targets: Ground
~ Damage: 25 x 2
~ Cooldown: 1
~ Range: Melee
Abilities:
~ Hyper Regeneration: Runa constantly regenerates 10 hp/sec
Chamelionic Skin: Runa can cloak at will for no cost
~ Sabotage:Places a charge of Baneling puss on target mechanical unit or structure that detonates on command, dealing 50 damage to mechanical units or 100 damage to structures. Any number of charges can be placed on a single target. 5 second channel. 20 charges max, 60 second recharge per charge(They recharge one at a time. To a maximum of 20 charges.) Only 20 charges may be active at one time.
~ Infra-Vision: Runa is a Detector since she can see into the infra-red spectrum.
Flagship: Ferrog
Ferrog, a Swarm Lord bred to serve as Runa’s flagship, a gift from Shuul
Weapons: 2
Armor: 2
Maneuverability: 7
Security: 4
Cargo: 2
Speed: 5
Tech:
Zergling
Queen
Roach
Overseer
Metabolic boost
Burrow
Tunneling Claws
Galial reconstitution
Mutalisk
Standing Army:
100 Zerglings
10 Queens
40 Roaches
25 Mutalisks
10 Overseers