Originally posted by SUSTIC
Also remember Zekai that the station for Alcyon is actually located on the planet. It doesn't really have a Space Station port or anything.
No one ever corrected my when I was saying Space Station.
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[OOC Board] Eternal Galaxy: Phoenix
02/03/2015, 08:16 PM #611
No one ever corrected my when I was saying Space Station.
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"No matter how strong or what power the enemy has, I will fight and protect my friends, even if it cost me my life to protect them. I will fight until I die to ensure their future."
02/05/2015, 03:37 PM #614
There's no blatant conflicts with the lore so it's good.
Just one thing that did catch my attention: "But the aforementioned galaxy is still bewildered and in ruins."
The choice of words is whats interesting to me: why bewildered?
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Just one thing that did catch my attention: "But the aforementioned galaxy is still bewildered and in ruins."
The choice of words is whats interesting to me: why bewildered?
Sent from my
02/05/2015, 06:19 PM #615
@Wriggle
This post was in General Discussion, but it seems more appropriate here.
Last edited by S121; 02/05/2015, 06:22 PM. This post was in General Discussion, but it seems more appropriate here.
Originally posted by S121
Man that was a looooooong read.
I KNEW it! I F$&KING KNEW IT! I read Skylark's bio and got some Nick Fury Avengers vibes from him. His physical description didn't help either, but when I turned on images, I flipped my shit. XD
Anyways, I find it all good, except for maybe some of the technological devices. Take it from me, science doesn't quite work that way. That is my only gripe.
For example, when you described the dark matter cannon, that sounds more like a blackhole cannon. Black holes are made by supercondensing matter, but that wouldn't be dark matter, it would just be a miniature black hole. That, and her grav-boot confuses me a little because of their description. Are you saying that it has the ability to influence the gravity of an entire planet, or that it can simply alter gravity, allowing her to slow down/speed up while in free fall?
As for the railgun, it might work, but only perhaps if the railgun fires plasma instead of conventional bullets. After all, nobody said that you couldn't project a ball of plasma with electromagnetism. Either that, or each bullet is specially made to be a ballistic fusion reactor. This might actually have the advantage of burning a target that survives with molten metal and plasma. Basically, if the bullet mushrooms and sticks onto a large, armored entity, it would then have to content with both heavy molten metal, as well as the 5,000+F temperatures from the plasma. Is this what you were thinking?
Originally posted by S121
Every time I see a new post on the Forum, I feel like a little kid during Christmas, all giddy.
sigpic
02/05/2015, 07:03 PM #617
@Zekai
I don't know man, I don't think I've ever seen that character before. It's certainly not a Hellraven we all know and love... No-sir-ee... :p
I don't know man, I don't think I've ever seen that character before. It's certainly not a Hellraven we all know and love... No-sir-ee... :p
Originally posted by S121
Every time I see a new post on the Forum, I feel like a little kid during Christmas, all giddy.
sigpic
02/06/2015, 05:29 AM #619
The Athenian Marauder
Backstory that the RPer should know before reading:
- Sector-wide common currency "Stella". 1,000 Stella = 1 dollar
- A famous industrial company known as Athena Corporations
- A frigid planet named Cryour where Athena's HQ is located at (Solar System: Helios Sector 9)
- Arid wasteland planet Rajos and its violent civil war(Outside Venturian Galaxy, on a stand-alone solar system named S12R105)
- Lush, mountainous planet Flux IIIa (Outside Venturian Galaxy, on a galaxy 6 million light years away called Asgard Galaxy)
- A slow-moving set of asteroids serving as intergalaxy rest stop by the name of Kyrial's Footsteps, particularly an asteroid bar named the Space Jam (Seems to be primarily orbiting the entire galaxy as a whole with very varied path that whips through the nooks and crannies of planets, slowing down near planets and speeding up away from them)
- An almost entirely aquatic planet named Blue Orb (Outside Venturian Galaxy, on an unnamed Nebula)
- A crystalline planet Enora and its massive industrial, robotic city of Aegis (Outside Venturian Galaxy, on a stand-alone solar system close to Venturian Galaxy called S11R194)
- Genius scientist by the name of Cameron "Prodigy" Kirkland.
History:
"Athena Corporation - Innovator of technology and the pioneer of science - home of the greatest engineers this side of the galaxy! We at Athena Corporation strive everyday to bring you the necessities in your homes. From home appliances to vehicles, our engineers endeavor to create the finest quality products, while our scientists pursue newer, more efficient ways to improve your lives. Head to your local appliance stores for your new Athena products today..."
A man of dark complexions wearing an eye-patch and leather jacket stared into the holographic screen displaying an advertisement of Athena Corporation. The advertisements were all the same, with some sort of glorification of human lives in the galaxy and clips of hired actors in a stereotypical engineer and scientist outfit smiling at the camera. The man found this amusing, in a rather mocking manner.
"Today, you fall, Athena." The man said with a sly grin as he entered the Athena HQ through the front door.
"Welcome back to the Athena Corporation, Mister Kirkland." A receptionist at the front welcomed the dark-skinned man. It was obvious, by the looks of the receptionist and the staff members near her, that this man was well-known. "How has your new job been?"
"Hello again. My new project is going swimmingly, but I seem to have forgotten some of my documents. May I have access to a computer by any chance?" Kirkland asked the receptionist.
"Sure thing. I'll have the lab staff know that you have access to the facility." The receptionist smiled as she opened the gate that only employees were allowed in. Kirkland thanked the staff member as he walked in, his resolve solid.
Kirkland was once a scientist for Athena Corporation. One of the first founding members of the company, Kirkland kept the early motive of Athena Corporation close to his heart: Open equality in goods and services for all mankind. However, the president began to corrupt under the weight of greed and selfishness. He began lowering wage for the workers, monopolized most of the home appliance market, and eventually shifted the production line of the company from high-quality goods made from efficient technology to mass-producing low-quality goods cheaply to earn more profit. Fed up with this change, Kirkland resigned, and worked on his own project...
He called it the Achilles Code.
"Sir, you are not authorized to be here-" A scientist tried to stop Kirkland from entering his lab chamber, but he was immobilized by a paralyzing field emitted by Kirkland, unable to alert the guards of Kirkland's hostility. He hid the immobilized scientist of Athena Corporation with relative ease, located a computer, and inserted a strange chip into one of its external drive receptor.
The next part was easy: Kirkland just watched the outside for any security guards while the Achilles Code did everything. Within a few minutes, Kirkland was able to download every secret projects the Athena Corporation was working on, including the location of the state-of-the-art spaceship with latest FTL engine: located in the facility's hangar.
Kirkland retrieved the chip and slipped out of the lab chamber, passing the oblivious security guards by flashing his special guest badge, towards the hangar.
As soon as he stepped into the hangar, he saw the spaceship in its fullest of glories. Composed of a half-circle control room with a disc-like part attached on top of it connected by a 60-meter radius third-generation FTL engine, the spaceship was sizable enough to host 200 people, their personal belongings, and enough firepower to level a continent.
"Impressive spaceship." Kirkland commented to a security guard near him as he leaned on a wall. Obscuring his hand, he planted a minuscule drone on the same wall he was leaning on. "May I have a closer look?"
The security guard looked at Kirkland and, noticing his special guest pass, saluted Kirkland accordingly. "S... sure thing, sir!"
Kirkland approached the ship closer, escorted by the security guard. Closer up, the ship was even more impressive, dwarfing the engineers and scientists fiddling with it for final touches. Kirkland recognized some of the staff members working on the ship and sighed, oh how forgetful they have become.
"May I enter the ship?" Kirkland asked, putting his hands on the railing of a platform that the staff members used to navigate from ground level to the hangar level. This was, of course, to place another small drone.
"Uh... sure thing, sir. Us security personnel aren't allowed inside the ship, so I can't escort you there." The security guard said.
"That will be fine. I'll be out in 5 minutes." Kirkland assured the guard and entered the ship interior, his plan uninterrupted so far.
The interior of the ship was just as impressive as ever. There were sparse number of engineers adding finishing touches on the aesthetic portions of the ship, but everything functional were already put in and ready to use. The functionality of the ship was quite simple, and with 10 seconds of observation, Kirkland was able to fully analyze how to lift off, navigate, and activate every weapons system.
In short, Kirkland was ready to steal this ship.
"Sir, we'll have to test the ship shortly. Can we ask you to vacate the ship momentarily?" One of the engineer asked Kirkland.
Any time now... Kirkland thought as he made a false promise to the engineer: "Alright."
Right then, the first drone that Kirkland planted exploded in a fiery mess, engulfing some of the security guards. Immediately, Kirkland grappled the engineer nearest to him by his wrist, twisted it to heave the engineer's balance, and threw him off the ship. Other engineers noticed this action and panicked, running away from Kirkland as the security guards did the opposite, firing their rifles at Kirkland. To prevent any injury, Kirkland ran towards the control room, which wasn't far from where he was, and initiated lift-off.
"Do not let him get away with the ship!" A security guard shouted, and the team began to mobilize, some attempting to aboard the ship while some fired at the engine, trying to make it malfunction. But the second drone's explosion caught the guards that tried to board the ship, knocking them away from the entrance while blowing up the platform that was the only source of entering the ship.
"Activate the flyers!" The same security guard, most likely the chief of security, shouted. Within seconds, several small manned planes emerged from the facility's ceilings. They took off, obtaining high ground as it buzzed around the large spaceship, firing laser cannons. However, the thick wall of the spaceship ignored most of the cannon shots, and the spaceship gained altitude slowly but surely. Once the entire ship was off the ground and above the facility's highest point, Kirkland activated the FTL drive, taking him through faster-than-life speed away from the facility, successfully hijacking the warship that Athena Corporation has been working on for many years as well as stealing all of their technological advancements they hid from society.
Now in space, with the spaceship named "The Nucleus", Kirkland devises a new plan to bring this husk of a galaxy back to its prime: through technology, science, and pure badassness. But he will need some faithfully allies before doing so...
Crew members:
Badass Captain
Name: Cameron "Prodigy" Kirkland
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Appearance:
Spoiler
Profession:
- Captain of the Nucleus
- Leader of the Athenian Marauders with bounty of 88,000,000 Stella
- Bona-fide badass.
Inventory:
Kirkland doesn't have an inventory, as he doesn't have a signature weapon of choice. He uses what he gets, and he uses them well. There are, however, other aspects of things that he uses frequently (or all the time) are:
Type CARAPACE bulletproof armor
Composed of weaved Coralite net with the hole size of less than 60 nanometers, this enhanced bulletproof vest that Kirkland wears underneath his leather jacket protects him from most bullet, laser, and pulse wounds. It does not protect him from plasma, however.
Holographic Paralysis Device
A unique device that remains within Kirkland's wristwatch, HPD, or Holographic Paralysis Device takes constant camera shots from the wristwatch's built-in camera system as input and outputs a steady jolt of electricity towards a target that strikes the target's nerves, preventing it from taking any action except breathing.
Powell-brand All-purpose Plasma Knife
Powell is a company that specializes in tools lined with plasma for cutting-edge precision. Kirkland has a friend who works as a business representative for Powell, and when Kirkland left, the friend gave him this knife as a consolation gift. Kirkland kept it in his jacket pocket ever since in case of emergencies.
Personality:
You mess around with this guy? You better watch your neck. Kirkland is meticulous, on-point, and merciless. He does whatever is necessary to get to his goal, whether it be betrayal, theft, or mass murder. His overall charisma tends to exude leadership that trumps others, though sometimes his stubbornness becomes his downfall.
He tends to let a little loose towards his shipmates, although he's still the stern captain of the Nucleus.
Kirkland himself doesn't like to say puns, although if you tell a good one he might loosen up. He also likes to eat, and delicious food keeps him lighthearted.
Bio:
Spoiler
After retrieving the spacecraft from Athena Corporation, Kirkland laid out his agenda so that he can determine what the next move is going to be. The first one was to obviously recruit members for his new crew. Kirkland was never one for armies: they tend to put the leader in a position almost guaranteed of corruption, and in all honesty, 1 good men was worth 1000 of average grunts. Besides it was cheaper in maintenance to keep a few badasses around than to host a large army. Kirkland was not a money-hungry man, of course, but rhetorically speaking, saving money on frivolous things and spending it on more important aspects of the voyage was efficient.
"I'll have to return this galaxy to the prime." Kirkland said, his mind already visioning a technologically-advanced world that can stand against all threats, inside and outside. He's studied the history of this galaxy before, and he noticed massive differences in the technological tier of one civilization to another. By equalizing the field, everyone can output their ideas into the grand pool of progress. "But in order to do that, I need to first liberate the planet of illiteracy. To do that I need a crew."
Kirkland got to making a list of people he needed. While he himself was a great fighter, Kirkland was going to be more of a strategic brain of the team, figuratively speaking. He needed a fighter, maybe two. It would also be helpful to keep someone with vast field of knowledge around, and Kirkland had someone in mind for this position, of course. Finally, the crew would need a cook.
Why? Because everyone's happy when there's good food on the table.
"Time to head to Flux IIIa." Kirkland sighed and looked out into the window with worried expression. "It's going to be a long journey."
Notes:
http://youtu.be/D3ZNtOcY_1A
Mad Scientist (and a hovering hentai nightmare)
Name: Velcro
Gender: Male
Race: Feraleye
Appearance:
Spoiler
Profession:
- Knowledge Seeker
- Scientist and Engineer of the Athenian Marauder with bounty of 48,000,000 Stella.
Inventory:
While technically not a part of inventory, Velcro uses his three tentacles for almost everything physical. He even uses them to balance him while he levitates everywhere. However, unlike what years of tentacle porn has taught you, Velcro's tentacles do not secrete any sort of liquid. When approached asking this, he simply crosses the two tentacles together and sighs, his eyes glancing at the person who asked the question condescendingly.
Personality:
Simple. If you know a lot of things, anything, that he doesn't know, he'll like you. This is because Velcro is so curious about anything and everything in the world.
Bio:
Spoiler
Velcro's real name is not known. His race, the Feraleyes, are also stereotypically depicted as primal creatures who doesn't think of anything but destroying, consuming, and reproducing, hence their name Feraleye.
Not Velcro, however.
Growing up in a small tribe of Feraleyes in an unnamed planet somewhere far away, Velcro was different. He did not hunt like all his peers, he rather liked to investigate the wildlife around him, see if there were ways to utilize them to improve the lifestyle of his tribe. He didn't mind his peers bullying him for this: because he had a lot of studying to do most of the time, and some discoveries of plant saps did contribute to improvement of Feraleyes' living standards.
However, Feraleye adults did not understand Velcro's thirst for knowledge. In fact, the only way the Feraleye could communicate was by their signature low growl, while Velcro somehow was able to speak a human language. It was only a matter of time the Feraleyes' puny brains could not recognize their own kind and mistake Velcro for a hunting game, attacking him. Barely escaping death, Velcro's vision faded to black as he tried to crawl to the only human settlement in the planet...
The captive Feraleye opened his eyes to a sight of iron bars and curious human children. He felt drowsy, but he stayed awake, and this sight amused the children watching. To humans, Feraleyes were territorial beasts that should be avoided and feared, but this subject didn't possess any of the feared aspects of a normal Feraleye.
"Shoo, children! Shoo!" A man in white coat came into view, scattering the children into a happy squeal. Something like that made the Feraleye feel warm inside. Feraleye babies were abandoned by their parents, left to survive on their own in a tribe. "Are you awake, beast? Growl if you understand me."
Beast?
"I do not understand what you mean by that." The captive answered, surprising the scientist speaking to him.
"I didn't know you Feraleyes spoke English." The scientist commented. "What's your name?"
Name?
"I don't have something like that." The captive Feraleye replied. "What is 'name'?"
"You- you know, the thing that other people call you by-" The scientist stuttered. He's able to solve complex chemical equations, but were not trained to explain what "name" was.
"They all make growls of different pitch and volume. I cannot decipher what they mean, or if they have any meaning at all." The captive responded passively until he noticed something odd. "What is that?"
The scientist looked at where the captive Feraleye was pointing at to find a roll of Velcro fastener. "That? That's just a Velcro fastener we use to attach things to.
"Interesting." The captive showed interest for the first time. In fact, he seemed more captivated than ever. "May I have a look?"
The scientist hesitantly handed the captive Feraleye the roll, who expertly used his tentacles to examine the roll with utter entranced look on his one eye. After a few minutes, he asked: "What were these called again?"
"Velcro." The scientist answered.
"Fascinating. Then I shall give myself a name of.. Velcro... as well. Will you show me other things?" The captive Feraleye asked.
The scientist exchanged a look of approval and concern with a security personnel guarding the cage the captive Feraleye was at. "Open the cage for him."
The Nucleus landed on the deserted hangar of settlement on planet Flux IIIa after a straight two weeks of travel. The settlement used to be the center of alien life experimentation, until the said alien wildlife and the hostile atmosphere overran the humans living here. It was evident: with poisonous vines climbing over the walls and dog-like creatures skulking around the facility with no control.
Kirkland exited the Nucleus, knowing where to go. The dog-like creatures ran away from Kirkland, belching and making yelping noises. Ignoring them, Kirkland breezed past empty, rusting cages and machines covered in vines and manures to his destination.
The door slowly opened, revealing an empty laboratory that looked too tidy to be abandoned. Books and magazines were neatly stacked on bookshelves, not a single spec of dust on sight. The equipment inside were well-worn but polished. The computer was on, and the monitor pierced through the darkness of the laboratory. The chair was swung facing towards Kirkland; whoever was using the laboratory just left... or did he?
"I know you're in there." Kirkland announced, taking a step inside the laboratory. His hand reached into his pocket, rummaging through it to find a bulging item: an '228 model plasma pistol, and grabbed it in case of self-defense. He took another step, and another. Something felt chilly at his back, and he turned, drawing his pistol and pointing it at the terrified-looking Feraleye.
"It's you." Velcro sighed, if Feraleyes without their mouths could sigh, and let go of his terrified, defensive position. Kirkland too withdrew his pistol. "I thought I'd never see you, friend."
"I have a job for you." Kirkland announced.
"Oh? What is it this time? And don't give me the glorified lab animal position again, I was tricked before." Velcro glared at Kirkland doubtfully as he floated back to his computer.
"I'm making an organization." Kirkland explained. "For the vast history of this galaxy, this world is pitifully underprepared for a war."
"What, is this like the A team?" Velcro chuckled at his joke. "Are you that big black guy who screams 'I pity the fool'? Kn kn kn..."
Kirkland was not impressed, and his face showed it.
"I meant a war of scientific progress. There are ruins of ancient technology that are rotting out there and I intend to utilize them to their fullest."
Velcro's eye glanced to meet Kirkland's. "So you need an underling?"
Kirkland offered Velcro his hand. "A comrade."
Velcro closed his eye, deep in thought. After a few seconds of contemplation, Velcro shook Kirkland's hand with his tentacle.
"Very well."
Notes:
Combat-Oriented Robot Entity
Name: Ruth
Gender: Gynoid
Race: Combat-Oriented Robot Entity, CORE
Appearance:
Spoiler
Profession:
- Former waitress of now non-existing strip club "Space Jam"
- Bodyguard of Cameron Kirkland with bounty of 50,000,000 Stella
Inventory:
All CORE units are built with a very standard set of equipment. However, this particular CORE unit has been modified by Velcro.
30mm Plasma Railgun
While regular CORE units run with 24mm electromagnetic railgun, Velcro simply replaced the energy source of the railgun into plasma, amplifying Ruth's offensive capabilities. There was one problem: the barrel was melting from the residue of plasma. It took several days for Velcro to craft a completely new railgun with wider barrel to catch any residue.
Enhanced Anti-personnel Grenade Launcher
The new design of grenade launcher Velcro strapped to Ruth allows the anti-personnel grenades to fire further and explode in a wider radius.
Velcro Interface, Beta version
Redoing the entire interface sequence, Velcro modified Ruth's visionary system to display live notifications of the entire battlefield instead of having a small minimap at a corner.
Enhanced ARCHANGEL Flight Boots
The new ARCHANGEL flight boots allow Ruth longer and faster flight time, allowing her to navigate through open space faster, while increased aerodynamics enable Ruth to fly through smaller and more complex areas, albeit with slower speed.
Personality:
Ruth used to not have a personality as she is only a drone of war. She is still a merciless drone, made to kill and destroy, but with the accident (explained later in bio) she grew to find meaningful relationship with the new comrades she found. Often times, however, you will see Ruth absolutely unable to get the running joke of the ship and therefore commenting on some obvious facts that none of the crew heeds seriously. They merely pat Ruth's head and say, "Way to go, Ruth."
Bio:
Spoiler
Powering up...
Interface Sequence Online
Combat System Online
Navigation System Online
System check... All Green
Initiating Combat Phase
Thirty CORE units blasted off into the space, into the battlefield. A notorious band of space pirates was attacking Aegis, a booming city on a planet named Enora with a population of 2 million. As a progressive city, Aegis surprisingly has no standing army for the city, but a battalion of CORE units that act as unmanned battle androids.
Ruth stared into the sky and saw the target: a spaceship with a large skull painted at the ship's nose. It was firing a hail of ion cannons down at the city, which barely held with its outdated shield. The CORE units began firing at the ship once they got close enough: a barrage of laser blasts that attempted to tear through the ship's outer hull. But Ruth had a different directive.
The pirate ship began sending out manned fliers that looked like mosquitoes. These fliers were not very durable, as 4 or 5 blasts from a CORE unit quickly dispatched them, but they were really fast. Their firepower, considering their size, was also impressive, as every shot from it was strong enough to completely decimate a CORE unit. The only downside to it was that the projectile was very narrow and the barrel's design made the shots inaccurate.
Amidst all the chaos, Ruth slipped by the battlefield and entered the pirate ship with her directive engraved into her memory chip.
Terminate the captain of the ship.
Ruth passed the corner to find 5 pirate fighters. The pirates fired, but Ruth was able to take cover from a wall. Using the interface, she executed three pirates with extreme accuracy. As the other two pirates were reloading, Ruth jolted from the cover towards the reloading pirates and knocked them down via close-quarter combat.
Hearing the conflict, reinforcements gathered from every side of the ship. Scanning the area for a way out, Ruth noticed that the ceiling was not very durable. She fired, and the ceiling broke through, revealing a large hole. Before the pirates could surround her, Ruth ascended to the next level and, while the reinforcing pirates struggled to reposition themselves, dashed to the command center where the captain was most likely located at.
A few minutes of running later, Ruth arrived at the command center to find its door locked. Without hesitation, Ruth blasted the door into pieces with her laser railgun and looked around to find no captain. The chair was empty, and so was the room, except for furniture and fancy luxuries that Ruth did not care for at all. Looking around for possible traps, Ruth found a suspicious note on the desk, and approached to pick it up and read it.
You fell for it!
Before Ruth could realize that the entire room was a trap, a set of bombs blew up the room, sending Ruth flying into space. She wasn't completely obliterated, but most of her systems were either hopelessly destroyed or in serious disrepair. "Defense system... failing..." She uttered weakly, and her eyes fluttered shut, the sight of the other CORE units furiously fighting off the pirates being the last.
Ruth opened her eyes, surprised to find that her Interface sequence was back online. She was... on an asteroid... far from her place of origin. She was able to stand up and walk, but her CHERUBIM flight boots were in completely disastrous state, and most of her weapons system were also in horrible state. Broken, lost, with nowhere to go, Ruth wandered the large asteroid, purposeless and seeking only to run out of fuel and shut down... until she found a building with a large neon sign of a pair of lips, labeled Space Jam.
Ruth entered Space Jam to find it quite empty. As the happy hour for the bar was quite far away, there were barely any customers. Installed all along the walls were comfortable chairs with sturdy tables, while on the opposite side of the entrance stood a stripper pole. There was a bar counter with several red bar stools at the center of everything, along with a girl wiping dust off cups to prepare for the day.
The girl, most likely the bartender, looked well-dressed for her occupation... or should I say, well-undressed. The only thing covering her bare, greenish skin was a beige-toned bikini top and a thin fabric tied around her waist. Her legs were that of a snake from thigh down, while her hands had 7 fingers each. Her hair was colored a very deep blue, and was very oily. She was adorned with tattoos and jewelry, while her face was exceptionally bare except for a small birthmark under her left eye.
"Welcome to the Space Jam. What can I get for ya-" The lamia bartender looked up to find Ruth, badly damaged. Her eyes grew in size in surprise as she slithered towards Ruth to help her. "Goddamn, what happened to you? Did you get hit by a stray comet?"
Ruth tried to speak, but her vocal chord was ripped out. Nothing but distorted buzzes came out as she collapsed, her legs near malfunction.
"Holy shit, we gotta get you fixed or something. I know a good engineer about one eighth a light year away. With my ride we should get there in about an hour. Come on, I'll help you get there." The bartender hoisted Ruth back up to her feet and helped her walk to her own vehicle. "Elaina, watch the shop while I'm gone!"
A grunt from one of the seats assured the lamia as she turned around the corner to her vintage Moontrodder vehicle.
Ruth was, thankfully, repaired to an acceptable level by the engineer living alone on one of the neighboring asteroid. While her combat capability was not up to prime, it was enough for her railgun to output enough force to blow a hole into the bar wall. Her CHERUBIM flight boot was also repaired to some level, enabling Ruth to sustain low-elevation hover for a long time. Everything else, such as her interface, and other navigational system, was fully restored, while her damaged hard drive was completely rebooted, giving Ruth sentience.
"I cannot thank you enough." Ruth bowed to the lamia girl back in the Space Jam. "Is there any way I can repay you?"
"Hmm... I can't think of one at the moment." The lamia girl said, deep in thought. "Oh I have an idea."
"You see, while this club is a very popular leisure spot, we're severly understaffed. It's me, Elaina over there, and one other girl who couldn't make it because she's sick."
"She calls it 'Mediumpox', I call it total bullshit." Elaina, a girl who looked almost human except for two tusks protruding from her jawbone. "She's probably just slacking off because she's mad about breaking up."
"Yeah, yeah, Yolanda tend to get very emotional." The lamia girl rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we need a sort of cutesy waitress to help us. Until Yolanda comes back, can you work as a waitress for us?"
"Anything to pay for helping me." Ruth answered promptly, and both the lamia girl and Elaina smiled in relief. "Pardon me, but I don't think I've gotten your name."
The lamia girl smiled again. "You may call me Laylene."
From then, Ruth worked for Space Jam as a sort of "cutesy" waitress. She used her CHERUBIM flight boots to the fullest, zipping through the aisles to deliver food and drinks for the guests who preferred the wall-side tables. To maximize her "cuteness", Laylene suggested Ruth wear a maid outfit for the duration of working at the club. The contrast of Ruth's innocent cuteness and the atmosphere of the strip club was jarring, but not unwelcomed, as more customers visited the bar than ever. The business was booming, until...
"Listen, Ruth, see right over there?" Laylene pulled Ruth over and pointed at a bulky man with a giant energy sword strapped to his back drinking a very heavy gin. "Razath, a famous bounty hunter. Rumor has it he once defeated a pirate with a bounty that reached 9 digits on the Sector-wide bounty board."
"Hmm... his sword certainly should be impressive, if you know what I mean." Elaina chuckled naughtily while leaning over the counter, intentionally flashing her cleavage at the bounty hunter, who did not notice at all.
"It looks so hard to wield. I wonder how strong he is in combat." Ruth wondered, definitely not understanding the joke at hand.
"Ruth, never lose your innocence. Ever." Elaina said, squeezing Ruth's cheeks in an affectionate manner as she scanned the club. "But you know who's the real badass? That guy, over there."
Ruth looked at where Elaina was pointing at to find a bald man with a dark complexion, drinking coffee. One of his eyes were covered in an eyepatch, and he had a bulletproof vest that looked like a regular cashmere sweater underneath his leather jacket.
"Cameron Kirkland. Genius scientist who worked for Athena Corporation before he went rogue. He has high 8-digit bounty on him, but the man's so smart, he once juked away from an entire fleet of bounty hunters like it was a child's play." Elaina explained, to which Laylene rose her eyebrows. Ruth had no idea what she was talking about, so she just nodded, pretending to understand.
Razath must have taken ahold of what Elaina said, as he rose from his seat and slowly sauntered over to the man named Kirkland. All eyes were on him as he stopped in front of Kirkland menacingly.
"I suggest you do not interrupt me while I'm leisurely drinking coffee, sir." Kirkland casually said, not lifting his eyes from the Holomedia tablet. Irked by the behavior, Razath unsheathed his sword and swung it down, causing the customers to flee. Kirkland, however, was faster than that, as he jolted out of his seat and rolled over closer to the counter, and fired a paralyzing ray from his wristwatch. The ray struck Razath square on his right bicep, but this did not hinder the bounty hunter to deliver another swing towards Kirkland's position, forcing Kirkland to jump away. A few more exchanged blows later, Razath's sword swing almost nicked Laylene who tried to stop the two men from fighting.
"They're tearing up the bar!" Laylene hissed while Elaina withdrew and took cover around the corner of the counter. "Ruth, do something!"
"Understood." Ruth nodded, and aimed her railgun towards Razath. Why? He was the one who started this mess, after all.
Unfortunately for Razath, the long amount of time that Ruth did not spend firing her weapon automatically repaired her railgun into full capacity.
ZWOOOO
A few seconds of blinding blast later, whoever was still alive opened their eyes to find the bar almost completely destroyed. Razath, or his corpse, rather, had a large hole on his chest, his energy sword unpowered. Laylene and Elaina was relatively safe, while Kirkland was able to absorb most of the aftereffect of the blast with his armor.
"Goddamn..." Elaina uttered.
"Ruth... what did you do?" Laylene asked Ruth, who looked bewildered and shocked. "What happened? I thought your weapons system wasn't fully operational?"
"It repaired itself."
The three girls looked at where the voice came from to find Kirkland walking towards them, his jacket dusty but otherwise unharmed.
"CORE units' systems auto-repair itself when not in use. She had no reason to use her railgun, and thus the power capacity reached its maximum, while her flight boots was constantly under use, so it saw no room for repair." Kirkland explained. "Listen, Miss... Ruth, I have a job for you."
"W- what do you mean?" Ruth asked Kirkland.
"A job? But she's working with us!" Elaina voiced her disapproval.
"Miss, calm down. I don't think Miss Ruth can possibly work at a destroyed bar like this." Kirkland silenced Elaina, then turned to Ruth. "I am Cameron Kirkland, and I am creating an organization of scientists to create a beneficial environment for Venturian galaxy to grow technologically and scientifically. But the aforementioned galaxy is still bewildered and in ruins. I need a bodyguard."
"A bodyguard...? I..." Ruth thought for a second, using whatever sentience she had. "I... I don't know... I would love to, but what about Laylene and Elaina...?"
"That's crazy talk. Ruth, you don't have to listen to this man-"
"That's enough out of you, Elaina."
Elaina looked at Laylene in silence as Laylene slithered towards Ruth and hugged the gynoid from the back.
"Ruth, you've been a real sweetheart to us. I think it's time that I... we let you go." Laylene announced.
"But... where will you two go?" Ruth asked concernedly.
"I'm going to first visit my grandmother, then maybe go back to school. I want to learn servomechanism." Laylene said, dreaming of her goal already.
"I don't like studying, but I love dancing. Maybe I should take up becoming a real choreographer instead of just being a stripper at a cheap club." Elaina blushed.
"You don't have to worry about us, Ruth. We'll be fine." Laylene smiled, which assured Ruth that the two girls she met and worked with at the once-prosperous club will not be left alone. "You go on, there's a brighter future ahead of you."
"...understood." Ruth nodded, with a new determination, and followed Kirkland to the Nucleus. She was now part of a new team, and she will do everything to not let her new friends down.
Notes:
http://youtu.be/ffEDqvAN8wA
02/06/2015, 05:30 AM #620
[spoiler="Renegade Commander"]
Name: Skylark
Gender: Female
Race: Genetically-enhanced human
Appearance:
Profession:
- Former commander of the Broken Wing Revolutionary
- War Criminal with bounty of 240,000,000 Stella
- Fighter of the Athenian Marauder with additional bounty of 80,000,000 Stella
Inventory:
A bound cannon on Skylark's arm. With sleek black design with red hyperreactor core inside, this weapon of mass-destruction can condense matter into miniature black hole and fire an all-consuming blast of utter darkness, or raise an atom's speed into FTL level to fire an antimatter blast.
Genetically engraved wing of a massive flyer creature Slayhawk, this pair of black feathery wings allow aerodynamic combat for Skylark while giving her advantage in mobility and positioning.
A single gray boot that controls the gravitation pull of herself to a planet, allowing her to slow down or speed up during a fall.
Personality:
Skylark is a quiet girl who does not speak very often, and when she does speak, she address the point directly, without any beating-around-the-bush kind of chat. This is most likely due to years of solitary confinement explained later in the bio. This does not, however, defame Skylark as a heartless lady, as she is very willing to listen to personal problems a crew member might face.
Contradiction to how she acts, Skylark wears a lot of lacy clothing. When approached with this topic, she simply explains that it "helps her stay sane".
Bio:
Skylark was born in an arid planet of Rajos, more specifically at the countryside of a large nation called Haven. Like all budding young boys and girls, Skylark wanted to become part of the intergalactic army of Haven called the Falcon Knights. Joining the Falcon Knights was a very serious business for poor peasants who lived outside the walled-cities of Haven, as it guaranteed special provisions to each of the Falcon Knight members and their family. So Skylark practiced swordsmanship, riflery, and general discipline just like any other boys and girls of Rajos would do.
When Skylark became 16, the eligible age for a person to join the Falcon Knights, Skylark applied with her best friends: Amile, a blond boy who was gifted at hunting, and Ulysses, a fatter, taller boy than Amile who was very amiable and wholehearted about everything. Rigorous tests after tests followed, but none of them gave up. They returned to the village after the test, head held high, for many weak-minded applicants give up during these rigorous preliminary physical test.
A few weeks later, a letter of notice came to Amile, Ulysses, and Skylark that said:
Dear Ms. Skylark Spatia
After reviewing your much appreciated application and observing your physicality assessment test (PAT), we at Haven Department of Military Defense has determined that you are to be appropriated to one of the newest divisions of Falcon Knight. An informational meeting regarding perks and benefits for this privilege will be held in the capital of Haven, Crevice City, at [Insert date here], [Insert year here], from hour 1700 to 2100. We sincerely hope you attend this meeting.
Once again, congratulations. This is a very valuable privilege that should not be unanswered.
Skylark has had total of 4 fathers: first father left Skylark's mother as soon as she gave birth to Skylark. Second one stayed for 3 years and Skylark's mother gave birth to Skylark's two brothers until he was killed by Rajos' wildlife. Third one stayed for 1 year until he died via a bandit raid. Fourth one stayed for 6 months, impregnated Skylark's mother with a sister, and was killed by Skylark herself due to his abusive tendencies. For the next 12 years, Skylark's mother did not have another husband.
"Are you sure about this, honey?" Skylark's mother worriedly asked her daughter. "Falcon Knights have a lot of responsibility. It's a very dangerous job."
"Yes, of course I am sure." Skylark beamed. "Ma, think! We can get out of this godforsaken village and go live in a city! With lights! And- and excitement! Maybe you can find a real husband who'll really love you!"
"Isn't it pretty to think so?" Skylark's mother chuckled weakly. "I'll stay here until you bring news. You have a safe travel, honey!"
For the next three years or so, Amile, Ulysses, and Skylark worked as a member of Falcon Knight's 16th division. As it was the newest division, every good move you made gave you rapid promotion. Amile and Skylark performed exceptionally well over their peers in missions, and thus they were rising through the ranks fast, while Ulysses showed promise in operating war machines and vehicles, and thus was transferred to Falcon Knight's 5th division which consisted of war vehicle pilots.
However, as the two eventually reached the ranks of an officer, they realized that, with a poor family background, they had no hopes of competing the position of General against those with richer background, those who've had access to professional education or even lobby money. While contemplating whether to stay in Falcon Knight or resigning to help the family work the fields, the two overheard that the current Prime Minister of Haven, who was recently announced dead due to leukemia, was actually murdered in a coup, and the new Prime Minister plans on turning Haven from prosperous institutional monarchy into a totalitarian regime.
"We can't let this happen, we have to do something!" Skylark, now age 19, said to Amile in his bedroom that night.
"Yes, it is morally wrong. But, look, I also can not give up on my captaincy." Amile, who grew into quite a good-looking man, fiddled with his Captain's badge of honor. Skylark looked at hers too: that of a Commodore, and thought of how helpful this position is to her family. But even after hundred times of thinking through, relieving the country of Haven from a state of oppression was more important than the material wealth provided by her position.
"Yeah... Commodore position really helps with our family. But I think being poor and free is better than being rich and oppressed. It's time to start our own revolution." Skylark decided. Amile, hesitant at first, also agreed to help Skylark with her rebellion.
The very next day, both Skylark and Amile resigned from the Falcon Knights. Ulysses decided to stay, working as a spy and a recruiter to work inside the enemy. No one possibly could accuse Ulysses and his amiable face to be a spy without a really deep interrogation and search. The two returned to their home town and, gathering every villager in town, revealed the new Prime Minister's sinister plan to oppress every men and women in Haven. She called for revolution, which the townsfolk all agreed on; it seemed they too believed in freedom in poverty than oppression.
News traveled quickly, which was a good thing, as Skylark's new revolutionary army, Broken Wing, grew in size exponentially, gathering village men and women who trained to be Falcon Knight but failed and worked in the fields or chopped trees in forests. They were supplied with weapons from Ulysses and his small group of rebels, while Amile trained the new recruits how to properly fight with a weapon at hand. However, it had its downsides as well, as the news of a revolutionary army reached the ears of the new Prime Minister. He was a stubborn man who believed in his vision, and thus he set forth his plan of becoming a complete dictator by first destroying Broken Wing and stamping out any sparks of resistance by instating a martial law upon the land.
The civil war raged on for 5 years, a tug of war that gave neither side an advantage... until Ulysses' group was caught in the act of smuggling assault rifles out the city gates. Ulysses has been a friend for all their lives, so Skylark and Amile both agreed on launching an all-out attack on the capital city of Haven before Ulysses gets executed for treason. The battle lasted for three days and three nights, and the Broken Wing troops managed to break through and secure the captured Ulysses and his group of followers. However, not one of the Broken Wing, not even Ulysses, saw it coming...
A giant of a machine, rising above the buildings at the height of 30 feet, brandishing an equally massive saber.
It slashed and hacked through the Broken Wing troops like it was going out of style. One swing, and five fell. Although the rebels had a larger number, they began to grow scared, doubting whether they could really defeat such a monster or not. Some began to drop their weapons and flee, while some surrendered and began fighting for the Falcon Knights.
"Dammit all!" Skylark growled, witnessing the terror of a machine storming the battlefield while under cover. "Amile, rally every soldier and retreat!"
"What about you?!" Amile asked, hiding behind a tree close to Skylark's cover: a bunch of sandbags. "We can't just leave you here, you're our commander!"
"I'll distract that mecha unit. I can buy... 3, 4 minutes. That should be enough." Skylark said, committed to saving her men.
"But-"
"GO! IT'S AN ORDER!" Skylark yelled, and Amile took action. While Skylark alone stormed into the heat of the battle, Amile rallied whoever he could get within the time limit and stormed out of the city.
Skylark, now alone, shot down additional 120 men with her rifles and pistols, and slew 80 more with her sword, but after witnessing her sword blade breaking apart before her eyes did she realize that it was a futile effort.
"I'm not going down without a fight!" Skylark shouted, surrounded by battalions of Falcon Knight troops, some of whom Skylark knew by name. "If you want to kill me, you better step up-"
Something stung.
Skylark tapped the source of the stinging to find that she was hit by a dart of sort. Within seconds, her eyelids slid shut and she fell, put to sleep by a sedating bullet shot by a sniper on the roof.
Skylark could not remember clearly what happened for a month after she was captured by the Falcon Knight; only bits and pieces. All she could remember happening for the next month was agony and pain beyond what was conceivable of human cognition. She remembered writhing within that confined stasis tank, naked, screaming but unable to because of a fluid that filled the statis tank to the brim. She could not breathe, but she wasn't asphyxiated either. The pain continued as if there was something within her, eating her inside out, organs, bones, muscle, and everything in between. She remembered tubes and wires, inserted through her wrist and ankles. She remembered begging to be let out, but the scientists did not listen, injecting strange mixtures that only made her twitch in torment every hour. She remembered passing out, countless times a day, only to be forced awake by a stimulant drug that caused her body to jerk and be in heat for a short time.
Then, she was let out.
The pain ended, and so did the strange mixtures and the stimulants. The fluid was drained out, and the tubes, the wires were withdrawn. The statis tank opened, and Skylark was let out. The scientists clapped in a congratulatory manner, hugging and shaking hands with each other while pointing at something behind Skylark with magnificence and awe. Skylark looked behind her, wondering what the commotion was about...
She found a pair of wings, attached to her shoulder blade seamlessly.
Shocked, she rushed to find a mirror to find a completely different person. Before the transformation, Skylark had short, red hair, tanned skin with no noteworthy bodyline. She was quite short, and had freckles. Most importantly, she had flesh and bones for her right arm. But staring back at her was a strange girl covered in green, gooey liquid, with long, black hair, flawless, slightly peachy skin with body curves you would only see in a men's dirty magazine, height that rivaled a fully-grown male, and a long, narrow cannon of black and red replacing her right arm.
"Wha..." Skylark could not believe her eyes as they traveled from her reflection to her wings to her cannon, back and forth. "What have you done..."
"We modified you."
Skylark turned to find the newly instated dictator of Haven. He was yet young, relatively speaking, in his early 50s. His face was slightly wrinkled, but by that age everyone starts to form wrinkles on their faces. His hair was neatly combed, while his silver suit was clean and sharp like a polished blade.
"Modify me?" Skylark repeated, dumbfounded by the answer. "...why?"
"You show promise. You fight for the people, for justice, for morality. You have leadership, and your battle senses are out of this world. I want to give you a second chance. You pledge to work for me and destroy the rebel army that you created, and I let you live." The dictator explained.
"You already know the answer." Skylark twitched, expression full of wrath.
"I don't think you have a choice here." The dictator snapped his fingers, and suddenly a loud ringing in the ear paralyzed Skylark, causing her to double over, clutching her ears and crying in pain. Everybody else didn't seem to react at all.
"We have genetically modified everything your body has to offer. Strength, intelligence, speed, and in this case, sense of hearing... of course, there were some unforeseen side effects such as your facial and bodily features... these traits will turn you into a super-soldier, and you will work for me and only me using the mind control device-"
As the dictator continued, two scientists brought a heavy-looking helmet and placed it on Skylark's head. The helmet was big enough to entirely cover Skylark's eyes, and had bunch of wires and pistons with gauge reading above.
"-that our scientist team proudly developed. It will turn you into a loyal puppet of mine, and then I will use you to retrieve your friends to that they too can serve you. Any other lesser, inferior human beings will be terminated. By you, of course."
The helmet began broadcasting horrible electric currents that began scanning Skylark's neuron system and hypothesizing how to rewire them to brainwash her completely. It was excruciatingly painful, as she screamed until her lung collapsed and her vocal chord was scratched. When screams didn't come out, saliva and foam came out from her mouth. In fact, some sort of bodily fluid trickled out from every part of her body: blood, sweat, and urine being the primary three. She thrashed about, collapsed on the ground clutching her head while the scientists made observational notes and the dictator watched with a triumphant smile on his face.
Skylark was almost ready to give up, give in to the pain, and become a plaything of this despicable man forever... however, as she was suffering through something worse than hell itself, she saw a flashback...
"Skylark!"
The younger Skylark looked back to find the younger Amile and younger Ulysses, age 8. They were at the back of the village, a flat ground that the three used to train swordsmanship. Skylark was already there, her forehead shining with sweat, while Amile and Ulysses carried with them practice wooden swords. It was dark out, as the sun has not risen yet.
"You're up early." Skylark sassily greeted the two boys as she continued her sword routine.
"You're up earlier! It's only 3:30 AM! Do you even get sleep?" Amile asked while Ulysses still struggled to catch his breath.
"Sleep is for the lazy. I'd rather spend the time training." Skylark passively stated.
"Does your ma know about this?" Amile questioned. Skylark looked at Amile with a furious gaze which solidified the fact that Skylark was not allowed to stay up this late. "HA! I knew it! I'm telling your ma that you're not sleeping!"
"What do you want, Amile!" Skylark growled at Amile's teasing as Amile rolled on the ground laughing.
"Skylark, it's ok to train, but too much training can actually bring you harm. Sometimes you have to learn to take rests." Ulysses, who finally caught his breath, said to Skylark who was about to jab Amile with the blunt practice sword. Skylark turned to look at Ulysses and, finding his caring gaze irresistable, sighed and laid on the ground. Ulysses chuckled and sat down as well.
"I'm... afraid. I'm scared that I won't get accepted into the Falcon Knight. Ma always complained about not having enough money and all, and I want to help her as much as possible..." Skylark sighed. Tears started condensing around the young Skylark's eyes.
"It's ok. We'll pass. We'll all pass." Amile reassured Skylark, wiping her tears off. "Then we'll stay together. Forever."
"Forever."
"Forever..." Skylark mouthed. She opened her clenched-shut eyes, braving through the strobing electric currents, and grabbed the helmet. By the time the scientists tried to stop her, they were too late. Skylark ripped the helmet off of her head and crushed it with her bare hands, thanks to her enhanced strength. Her hair was a mess, and she was filthy with smears of blood and urine, but she didn't care. She had to get out of this place, reconcile with her friends, and launch a final assault.
Skylark activated her wings: she somehow knew how to without anyone teaching her, and took off, breaking the lines of the poor scientists and slapping the confused dictator with her feathers as she slammed through the first and second ceiling above where she was located at. The soldiers guarding the area tried to stop her, but most of their shots missed.
'I wonder what this cannon does.' Skylark thought as she aimed it at the soldiers who still tried to attack her. Some bullets actually nicked her wings and her bare legs, but the pain caused by the wound was nothing like the pain she received constantly during the month of solitude.
Skylark fired, creating a miniature black hole explosion that destroyed everything within its blast.
"COOL!" Skylark chuckled as she swept through one floor to the next, testing her newly gifted wings and cannons, no longer considering them abnormality but as blessings. Perhaps she was too reckless, though, as by the time she was able to escape the capital city, she was covered in all kinds of injuries: some miniature and insignificant, others fatal to non-enhanced humans. Even with these wounds, Skylark returned to the rebel headquarters.
Everyone was ecstatic of Skylark's return, but no one was more proud of her than Amile, Ulysses, and her mother. She shared the story of how she was genetically modified to become a super soldier in a feast that night, boosting the morale of whoever was still left in the revolutionary army. Skylark estimated that, with her escaping, the dictator will send his entire troop into battle, marching to their small town, and that the 30 foot mecha will be there as well.
"You sure you can fight at this condition? Even looking at you makes me squirm." Amile peered out of the commander's tent to find rows and rows of Falcon Knight ready and waiting to storm through the ranks of Broken Wing. Their numbers made Broken Wing army look like kid's play.
"If I don't go out there, we lose. Simple as that." Skylark said as she finished replacing her bandages everywhere. She proceeded to put on her battle attire, starting from her lingerie, then to her undershirt, then to her uniform. The clothes, which was really loose before, was so tight it was almost uncomfortable. "You know what, screw the bra. I'd rather excel well in the battle than worry about my fashion."
Amile kept his silence and looked away from Skylark, blushing, while she changed.
"...you ready?" Amile sighed when she put on her hat, obviously nervous.
"Yeah, let's do this." Skylark nodded, and the two exited the commander's tent to do a routine check of the army.
Broken Wing was 500,000 men strong, while the entire Falcon Knight army was about 20 times more than that. Not only that, the Falcon Knights had artillery and war machines, including the 30-foot mecha that towered over everything else, with the dictator himself operating it. The only machine the Broken Wing had was a bunch of antique jetpacks strapped to some of the best fighters. However, Broken Wing had one thing that Falcon Knight did not.
A supersoldier.
"CHAAAAARGE!" Skylark shouted, and the entire legion of Broken Wing rushed towards the Falcon Knight forces, firing their rifle and brandishing their swords. The Falcon Knight tried to keep their position to fire at their enemy from the distance, but one blow from Skylark's cannon annihilated at least 500 of their soldiers in a blast of pure, dark matter energy. The battlefield soon turned into a slaughterfest, with the Broken Wing clashing against Falcon Knight. The Broken Wing had guts and spunk, but against the well-trained Falcon Knight forces, they fell like fruit flies. Their numbers were diminishing, and Skylark's performance wasn't enough... until-
"Hello there!"
A loud voice boomed from the sky as a large, oddly-shaped ship emerged from the vast space, firing laser beams and plasma cannons that shredded through the ranks of the Falcon Knight. The sight of reinforcements renewed the strength and spirits of Broken Wing troops. The tide of battle had turned.
"What in the-" Skylark tilted her head in confusion. As far as what she saw, the ship was a friend, but she wanted to know why this ship came from space to aid their cause. Firing a particularly large blast of energy that destroyed a group of artillery cannon, Skylark flew towards the ship to find answers.
"I thought I saw you coming here." A dark brown-skinned man with an eyepatch addressed to Skylark. Next to him stood a gynoid with a dangerous looking railgun attached to her arm. Unlike Skylark's cannon, the railgun was separate from her hand, enabling the gynoid to use both hands. 'Sitting' on a chair was a strange eye creature with three tentacles, busy playing with a certain toy from another planet.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Skylark asked formally. "There's a civil war going down there, you see."
"I know, I saw. I thought you could use a hand." The dark-skinned man raised an eyebrow. "The name is Cameron Kirkland, by the way."
"Skylark." Skylark introduced herself. "Your help is appreciated but... for what reason? In fact, how did you know we were the rebels? How did you know this planet was in the midst of a civil war in the first place? This solar system is quite secluded, you see."
"I hope you noticed, but the dictator of Haven has requested a bounty to be placed on your head. My colleague here," Kirkland pointed at the three-tentacled monster, who dismissed Kirkland's mention with a simple wave of a tentacle. "has a live feed of bounty board in his laboratory."
"Skylark... war criminal, leader of the Broken Wing rebels... 240,000,000 Stella." The tentacle monster spoke. "Are you really that strong?"
"I don't know what you mean." Skylark asked. "And strangely, I couldn't care less. There's a war going out there and I need to make sure my troops win. Can I trust you guys to help us? This can wait afterwards."
"That sounds about right. Ruth, help this nice young lady in winning this war." Kirkland nodded and addressed to the gynoid.
"Understood." The gynoid named Ruth nodded and, with some sort of floating boots, flew out of the ship into the battlefield, her railgun firing plasma bolts that packed quite a punch.
"I will go back to my lab and monitor the situation as needed." The tentacle monster said, and levitated towards a long corridor.
"That would be best." Kirkland said as the tentacle monster went out of sight. "Miss Skylark, I have something to give you."
Skylark approached Kirkland who handed her a small, wireless earbud attached to a mic.
"When you speak through that mic, you can broadcast it to every men in your army by this ship's speaker. You can use it to order an attack or retreat pattern to your men without having to relay it to your generals... although I think you can use it in a better way as well."
"Come on, miss Skylark, don't you have an army to command?"
Skylark awoke from the her confused daze and nodded. She still didn't know who these people were, and why they gave her all these helpful items to win the fight, but she wasn't going to wait around to find out. If they are the enemy of her enemy, then they are her friend.
"Right." Skylark made a quick nod and flew out of the ship.
"Miss Skylark, there's the enemy commander at 12 o' clock." Ruth the gynoid said to Skylark as they descended back to the ground level to engage in combat. "It is advisable to defeat him first, to destroy the enemy's morale."
"Let's do that then." Skylark nodded, kicking her speed into higher gear. "I have a beef with the guy, after all."
Both Skylark and Ruth was flying downwards beyond speed of sound. As Skylark drew closer and closer to the ground, she tucked her wings in and charged at the distracted dictator's war mecha at low altitude, while Ruth hovered mid air and fired her railgun to dispatch any enemies that might be hindrance to Skylark's attack. Right before the collision, Skylark placed the nozzle of her cannon forward, and fired.
A smoldering crater was what was left as Skylark, her clothes disintegrated in the explosion, stood on one end of the crater. The smoke obscured her from confirming the kill on the evil dictator, but he shouldn't have survived from such a strong blast from such a close distance, right?
"Ha... hahahaha..."
Skylark turned around and looked down to find the smoke whittling away to reveal the dictator... or what was left of him, on the other side of the crater. Most of him was mechanized now, with steel pipes replacing his bones and titanium plating replacing his skin. The dictator's pupils were now LED yellow, and his hair was singed off, with only a bit of them remaining here and there.
"Impressive, Skylark! Very impressive! But you've lost! Your ragtag army is being shred apart by my superior force! As long as I dispatch you, here and now, my army will remain victorious! No one can stop an army unified in one mind!" The dictator screamed, laughing like a maniac, his voice autotuned.
"Damn, even if I defeat the dictator, his army will tear us apar-" Skylark panted, exhausted from her feat before until realizing what the dictator just said. "An army unified in one mind... that's it!"
In the amidst of the dictator's confusion, Skylark shouted into the earbud's mic: "CEASE FIRE NOW!"
Immediately after giving such a command, Skylark pointed her cannon at the dictator and fired, which was countered by a blast from a laser cannon that replaced the dictator's mouth. The two blast, one of pure dark matter and the other a pure laser, collided at the center of the crater, creating a blinding supernova that engulfed the entire battlefield.
An even larger crater replaced the previous crater, and even more smoke bellowed from the pit. Both sides of the army, curious as to who won the exchange, crowded around the crater to see what happened. When the smoke cleared out, it was pretty obvious by the silhouette that-
"WE WON!"
The remaining forces of Broken Wing cheered triumphantly, while the remaining forces of Falcon Knights, awake from the mind control caused by the dictator, stood there, dazed at what happened. Skylark's bandages were incinerated and torn apart, and she looked like a mess, but at the moment, she looked like the most beautiful, most glorious commander in this Sector.
"What will you do now, Miss Skylark?" Kirkland asked Skylark while she was being treated in the infirmary. A huge party was going on in the town, and Kirkland's 3-man force, while flimsy, did contribute to the victory, and therefore was welcomed into the party. "Surely you cannot lead Haven, what with your bounty and all."
"I actually don't know." Skylark chuckled. "Do you have any idea?"
"I... never told you what I was doing in the planet of Rajos, did I?" Kirkland scratched the back of his head. "Me, Ruth, and Velcro; the tentacle guy, we are an organization that seeks to bring peace to the galaxies through the means of science and technology. We call ourselves the Athenian Marauder. Your civil war was all over the intergalactic news lately, and I couldn't help it but lend a hand... or in this case, a ship, to your use."
"Well, if it's payment you want, I have no money." Skylark said, wincing at the nurse applying ointment to her wound.
"I don't want money, I want you." Kirkland announced and, after realizing that she wasn't wearing anything, Skylark blushed. "No, not like that. I want your talent. Your motivation. Your drive. You will be an excellent fit to our team."
"What- and leave my home behind?" Skylark shook her head. "What other options do I have?"
"You can stay, and put your family and friends in danger of being hunted by the most skilled bounty hunters this side of the Sector." Kirkland hypothesized. Based on Skylark's reaction to it, that option was a no-go to her.
"I suppose I have no choice, huh?" Skylark sighed. "Do me a favor though."
"What is it?" Kirkland inquired.
"Let us stay... for just today." Skylark laughed, looking out the window to find the party going wild. Kirkland too looked outside and guffawed genuinely, something that he doesn't do often.
"Yes... let's do that." He said, his hands grasping Skylark's. For the first time in her life, Skylark felt in peace.
Notes:
Last edited by WriggleRid3r; 02/06/2015, 07:27 AM. Name: Skylark
Gender: Female
Race: Genetically-enhanced human
Appearance:
Spoiler
Profession:
- Former commander of the Broken Wing Revolutionary
- War Criminal with bounty of 240,000,000 Stella
- Fighter of the Athenian Marauder with additional bounty of 80,000,000 Stella
Inventory:
Hyperreactor Core Arm-cannon
A bound cannon on Skylark's arm. With sleek black design with red hyperreactor core inside, this weapon of mass-destruction can condense matter into miniature black hole and fire an all-consuming blast of utter darkness, or raise an atom's speed into FTL level to fire an antimatter blast.
Slayhawk Wing Modification
Genetically engraved wing of a massive flyer creature Slayhawk, this pair of black feathery wings allow aerodynamic combat for Skylark while giving her advantage in mobility and positioning.
Negatron Grav Boots
A single gray boot that controls the gravitation pull of herself to a planet, allowing her to slow down or speed up during a fall.
Personality:
Skylark is a quiet girl who does not speak very often, and when she does speak, she address the point directly, without any beating-around-the-bush kind of chat. This is most likely due to years of solitary confinement explained later in the bio. This does not, however, defame Skylark as a heartless lady, as she is very willing to listen to personal problems a crew member might face.
Contradiction to how she acts, Skylark wears a lot of lacy clothing. When approached with this topic, she simply explains that it "helps her stay sane".
Bio:
Spoiler
Skylark was born in an arid planet of Rajos, more specifically at the countryside of a large nation called Haven. Like all budding young boys and girls, Skylark wanted to become part of the intergalactic army of Haven called the Falcon Knights. Joining the Falcon Knights was a very serious business for poor peasants who lived outside the walled-cities of Haven, as it guaranteed special provisions to each of the Falcon Knight members and their family. So Skylark practiced swordsmanship, riflery, and general discipline just like any other boys and girls of Rajos would do.
When Skylark became 16, the eligible age for a person to join the Falcon Knights, Skylark applied with her best friends: Amile, a blond boy who was gifted at hunting, and Ulysses, a fatter, taller boy than Amile who was very amiable and wholehearted about everything. Rigorous tests after tests followed, but none of them gave up. They returned to the village after the test, head held high, for many weak-minded applicants give up during these rigorous preliminary physical test.
A few weeks later, a letter of notice came to Amile, Ulysses, and Skylark that said:
Dear Ms. Skylark Spatia
After reviewing your much appreciated application and observing your physicality assessment test (PAT), we at Haven Department of Military Defense has determined that you are to be appropriated to one of the newest divisions of Falcon Knight. An informational meeting regarding perks and benefits for this privilege will be held in the capital of Haven, Crevice City, at [Insert date here], [Insert year here], from hour 1700 to 2100. We sincerely hope you attend this meeting.
Once again, congratulations. This is a very valuable privilege that should not be unanswered.
Skylark has had total of 4 fathers: first father left Skylark's mother as soon as she gave birth to Skylark. Second one stayed for 3 years and Skylark's mother gave birth to Skylark's two brothers until he was killed by Rajos' wildlife. Third one stayed for 1 year until he died via a bandit raid. Fourth one stayed for 6 months, impregnated Skylark's mother with a sister, and was killed by Skylark herself due to his abusive tendencies. For the next 12 years, Skylark's mother did not have another husband.
"Are you sure about this, honey?" Skylark's mother worriedly asked her daughter. "Falcon Knights have a lot of responsibility. It's a very dangerous job."
"Yes, of course I am sure." Skylark beamed. "Ma, think! We can get out of this godforsaken village and go live in a city! With lights! And- and excitement! Maybe you can find a real husband who'll really love you!"
"Isn't it pretty to think so?" Skylark's mother chuckled weakly. "I'll stay here until you bring news. You have a safe travel, honey!"
For the next three years or so, Amile, Ulysses, and Skylark worked as a member of Falcon Knight's 16th division. As it was the newest division, every good move you made gave you rapid promotion. Amile and Skylark performed exceptionally well over their peers in missions, and thus they were rising through the ranks fast, while Ulysses showed promise in operating war machines and vehicles, and thus was transferred to Falcon Knight's 5th division which consisted of war vehicle pilots.
However, as the two eventually reached the ranks of an officer, they realized that, with a poor family background, they had no hopes of competing the position of General against those with richer background, those who've had access to professional education or even lobby money. While contemplating whether to stay in Falcon Knight or resigning to help the family work the fields, the two overheard that the current Prime Minister of Haven, who was recently announced dead due to leukemia, was actually murdered in a coup, and the new Prime Minister plans on turning Haven from prosperous institutional monarchy into a totalitarian regime.
"We can't let this happen, we have to do something!" Skylark, now age 19, said to Amile in his bedroom that night.
"Yes, it is morally wrong. But, look, I also can not give up on my captaincy." Amile, who grew into quite a good-looking man, fiddled with his Captain's badge of honor. Skylark looked at hers too: that of a Commodore, and thought of how helpful this position is to her family. But even after hundred times of thinking through, relieving the country of Haven from a state of oppression was more important than the material wealth provided by her position.
"Yeah... Commodore position really helps with our family. But I think being poor and free is better than being rich and oppressed. It's time to start our own revolution." Skylark decided. Amile, hesitant at first, also agreed to help Skylark with her rebellion.
The very next day, both Skylark and Amile resigned from the Falcon Knights. Ulysses decided to stay, working as a spy and a recruiter to work inside the enemy. No one possibly could accuse Ulysses and his amiable face to be a spy without a really deep interrogation and search. The two returned to their home town and, gathering every villager in town, revealed the new Prime Minister's sinister plan to oppress every men and women in Haven. She called for revolution, which the townsfolk all agreed on; it seemed they too believed in freedom in poverty than oppression.
News traveled quickly, which was a good thing, as Skylark's new revolutionary army, Broken Wing, grew in size exponentially, gathering village men and women who trained to be Falcon Knight but failed and worked in the fields or chopped trees in forests. They were supplied with weapons from Ulysses and his small group of rebels, while Amile trained the new recruits how to properly fight with a weapon at hand. However, it had its downsides as well, as the news of a revolutionary army reached the ears of the new Prime Minister. He was a stubborn man who believed in his vision, and thus he set forth his plan of becoming a complete dictator by first destroying Broken Wing and stamping out any sparks of resistance by instating a martial law upon the land.
The civil war raged on for 5 years, a tug of war that gave neither side an advantage... until Ulysses' group was caught in the act of smuggling assault rifles out the city gates. Ulysses has been a friend for all their lives, so Skylark and Amile both agreed on launching an all-out attack on the capital city of Haven before Ulysses gets executed for treason. The battle lasted for three days and three nights, and the Broken Wing troops managed to break through and secure the captured Ulysses and his group of followers. However, not one of the Broken Wing, not even Ulysses, saw it coming...
A giant of a machine, rising above the buildings at the height of 30 feet, brandishing an equally massive saber.
It slashed and hacked through the Broken Wing troops like it was going out of style. One swing, and five fell. Although the rebels had a larger number, they began to grow scared, doubting whether they could really defeat such a monster or not. Some began to drop their weapons and flee, while some surrendered and began fighting for the Falcon Knights.
"Dammit all!" Skylark growled, witnessing the terror of a machine storming the battlefield while under cover. "Amile, rally every soldier and retreat!"
"What about you?!" Amile asked, hiding behind a tree close to Skylark's cover: a bunch of sandbags. "We can't just leave you here, you're our commander!"
"I'll distract that mecha unit. I can buy... 3, 4 minutes. That should be enough." Skylark said, committed to saving her men.
"But-"
"GO! IT'S AN ORDER!" Skylark yelled, and Amile took action. While Skylark alone stormed into the heat of the battle, Amile rallied whoever he could get within the time limit and stormed out of the city.
Skylark, now alone, shot down additional 120 men with her rifles and pistols, and slew 80 more with her sword, but after witnessing her sword blade breaking apart before her eyes did she realize that it was a futile effort.
"I'm not going down without a fight!" Skylark shouted, surrounded by battalions of Falcon Knight troops, some of whom Skylark knew by name. "If you want to kill me, you better step up-"
Something stung.
Skylark tapped the source of the stinging to find that she was hit by a dart of sort. Within seconds, her eyelids slid shut and she fell, put to sleep by a sedating bullet shot by a sniper on the roof.
Skylark could not remember clearly what happened for a month after she was captured by the Falcon Knight; only bits and pieces. All she could remember happening for the next month was agony and pain beyond what was conceivable of human cognition. She remembered writhing within that confined stasis tank, naked, screaming but unable to because of a fluid that filled the statis tank to the brim. She could not breathe, but she wasn't asphyxiated either. The pain continued as if there was something within her, eating her inside out, organs, bones, muscle, and everything in between. She remembered tubes and wires, inserted through her wrist and ankles. She remembered begging to be let out, but the scientists did not listen, injecting strange mixtures that only made her twitch in torment every hour. She remembered passing out, countless times a day, only to be forced awake by a stimulant drug that caused her body to jerk and be in heat for a short time.
Then, she was let out.
The pain ended, and so did the strange mixtures and the stimulants. The fluid was drained out, and the tubes, the wires were withdrawn. The statis tank opened, and Skylark was let out. The scientists clapped in a congratulatory manner, hugging and shaking hands with each other while pointing at something behind Skylark with magnificence and awe. Skylark looked behind her, wondering what the commotion was about...
She found a pair of wings, attached to her shoulder blade seamlessly.
Shocked, she rushed to find a mirror to find a completely different person. Before the transformation, Skylark had short, red hair, tanned skin with no noteworthy bodyline. She was quite short, and had freckles. Most importantly, she had flesh and bones for her right arm. But staring back at her was a strange girl covered in green, gooey liquid, with long, black hair, flawless, slightly peachy skin with body curves you would only see in a men's dirty magazine, height that rivaled a fully-grown male, and a long, narrow cannon of black and red replacing her right arm.
"Wha..." Skylark could not believe her eyes as they traveled from her reflection to her wings to her cannon, back and forth. "What have you done..."
"We modified you."
Skylark turned to find the newly instated dictator of Haven. He was yet young, relatively speaking, in his early 50s. His face was slightly wrinkled, but by that age everyone starts to form wrinkles on their faces. His hair was neatly combed, while his silver suit was clean and sharp like a polished blade.
"Modify me?" Skylark repeated, dumbfounded by the answer. "...why?"
"You show promise. You fight for the people, for justice, for morality. You have leadership, and your battle senses are out of this world. I want to give you a second chance. You pledge to work for me and destroy the rebel army that you created, and I let you live." The dictator explained.
"You already know the answer." Skylark twitched, expression full of wrath.
"I don't think you have a choice here." The dictator snapped his fingers, and suddenly a loud ringing in the ear paralyzed Skylark, causing her to double over, clutching her ears and crying in pain. Everybody else didn't seem to react at all.
"We have genetically modified everything your body has to offer. Strength, intelligence, speed, and in this case, sense of hearing... of course, there were some unforeseen side effects such as your facial and bodily features... these traits will turn you into a super-soldier, and you will work for me and only me using the mind control device-"
As the dictator continued, two scientists brought a heavy-looking helmet and placed it on Skylark's head. The helmet was big enough to entirely cover Skylark's eyes, and had bunch of wires and pistons with gauge reading above.
"-that our scientist team proudly developed. It will turn you into a loyal puppet of mine, and then I will use you to retrieve your friends to that they too can serve you. Any other lesser, inferior human beings will be terminated. By you, of course."
The helmet began broadcasting horrible electric currents that began scanning Skylark's neuron system and hypothesizing how to rewire them to brainwash her completely. It was excruciatingly painful, as she screamed until her lung collapsed and her vocal chord was scratched. When screams didn't come out, saliva and foam came out from her mouth. In fact, some sort of bodily fluid trickled out from every part of her body: blood, sweat, and urine being the primary three. She thrashed about, collapsed on the ground clutching her head while the scientists made observational notes and the dictator watched with a triumphant smile on his face.
Skylark was almost ready to give up, give in to the pain, and become a plaything of this despicable man forever... however, as she was suffering through something worse than hell itself, she saw a flashback...
"Skylark!"
The younger Skylark looked back to find the younger Amile and younger Ulysses, age 8. They were at the back of the village, a flat ground that the three used to train swordsmanship. Skylark was already there, her forehead shining with sweat, while Amile and Ulysses carried with them practice wooden swords. It was dark out, as the sun has not risen yet.
"You're up early." Skylark sassily greeted the two boys as she continued her sword routine.
"You're up earlier! It's only 3:30 AM! Do you even get sleep?" Amile asked while Ulysses still struggled to catch his breath.
"Sleep is for the lazy. I'd rather spend the time training." Skylark passively stated.
"Does your ma know about this?" Amile questioned. Skylark looked at Amile with a furious gaze which solidified the fact that Skylark was not allowed to stay up this late. "HA! I knew it! I'm telling your ma that you're not sleeping!"
"What do you want, Amile!" Skylark growled at Amile's teasing as Amile rolled on the ground laughing.
"Skylark, it's ok to train, but too much training can actually bring you harm. Sometimes you have to learn to take rests." Ulysses, who finally caught his breath, said to Skylark who was about to jab Amile with the blunt practice sword. Skylark turned to look at Ulysses and, finding his caring gaze irresistable, sighed and laid on the ground. Ulysses chuckled and sat down as well.
"I'm... afraid. I'm scared that I won't get accepted into the Falcon Knight. Ma always complained about not having enough money and all, and I want to help her as much as possible..." Skylark sighed. Tears started condensing around the young Skylark's eyes.
"It's ok. We'll pass. We'll all pass." Amile reassured Skylark, wiping her tears off. "Then we'll stay together. Forever."
"Forever."
"Forever..." Skylark mouthed. She opened her clenched-shut eyes, braving through the strobing electric currents, and grabbed the helmet. By the time the scientists tried to stop her, they were too late. Skylark ripped the helmet off of her head and crushed it with her bare hands, thanks to her enhanced strength. Her hair was a mess, and she was filthy with smears of blood and urine, but she didn't care. She had to get out of this place, reconcile with her friends, and launch a final assault.
Skylark activated her wings: she somehow knew how to without anyone teaching her, and took off, breaking the lines of the poor scientists and slapping the confused dictator with her feathers as she slammed through the first and second ceiling above where she was located at. The soldiers guarding the area tried to stop her, but most of their shots missed.
'I wonder what this cannon does.' Skylark thought as she aimed it at the soldiers who still tried to attack her. Some bullets actually nicked her wings and her bare legs, but the pain caused by the wound was nothing like the pain she received constantly during the month of solitude.
Skylark fired, creating a miniature black hole explosion that destroyed everything within its blast.
"COOL!" Skylark chuckled as she swept through one floor to the next, testing her newly gifted wings and cannons, no longer considering them abnormality but as blessings. Perhaps she was too reckless, though, as by the time she was able to escape the capital city, she was covered in all kinds of injuries: some miniature and insignificant, others fatal to non-enhanced humans. Even with these wounds, Skylark returned to the rebel headquarters.
Everyone was ecstatic of Skylark's return, but no one was more proud of her than Amile, Ulysses, and her mother. She shared the story of how she was genetically modified to become a super soldier in a feast that night, boosting the morale of whoever was still left in the revolutionary army. Skylark estimated that, with her escaping, the dictator will send his entire troop into battle, marching to their small town, and that the 30 foot mecha will be there as well.
"You sure you can fight at this condition? Even looking at you makes me squirm." Amile peered out of the commander's tent to find rows and rows of Falcon Knight ready and waiting to storm through the ranks of Broken Wing. Their numbers made Broken Wing army look like kid's play.
"If I don't go out there, we lose. Simple as that." Skylark said as she finished replacing her bandages everywhere. She proceeded to put on her battle attire, starting from her lingerie, then to her undershirt, then to her uniform. The clothes, which was really loose before, was so tight it was almost uncomfortable. "You know what, screw the bra. I'd rather excel well in the battle than worry about my fashion."
Amile kept his silence and looked away from Skylark, blushing, while she changed.
"...you ready?" Amile sighed when she put on her hat, obviously nervous.
"Yeah, let's do this." Skylark nodded, and the two exited the commander's tent to do a routine check of the army.
Broken Wing was 500,000 men strong, while the entire Falcon Knight army was about 20 times more than that. Not only that, the Falcon Knights had artillery and war machines, including the 30-foot mecha that towered over everything else, with the dictator himself operating it. The only machine the Broken Wing had was a bunch of antique jetpacks strapped to some of the best fighters. However, Broken Wing had one thing that Falcon Knight did not.
A supersoldier.
"CHAAAAARGE!" Skylark shouted, and the entire legion of Broken Wing rushed towards the Falcon Knight forces, firing their rifle and brandishing their swords. The Falcon Knight tried to keep their position to fire at their enemy from the distance, but one blow from Skylark's cannon annihilated at least 500 of their soldiers in a blast of pure, dark matter energy. The battlefield soon turned into a slaughterfest, with the Broken Wing clashing against Falcon Knight. The Broken Wing had guts and spunk, but against the well-trained Falcon Knight forces, they fell like fruit flies. Their numbers were diminishing, and Skylark's performance wasn't enough... until-
"Hello there!"
A loud voice boomed from the sky as a large, oddly-shaped ship emerged from the vast space, firing laser beams and plasma cannons that shredded through the ranks of the Falcon Knight. The sight of reinforcements renewed the strength and spirits of Broken Wing troops. The tide of battle had turned.
"What in the-" Skylark tilted her head in confusion. As far as what she saw, the ship was a friend, but she wanted to know why this ship came from space to aid their cause. Firing a particularly large blast of energy that destroyed a group of artillery cannon, Skylark flew towards the ship to find answers.
"I thought I saw you coming here." A dark brown-skinned man with an eyepatch addressed to Skylark. Next to him stood a gynoid with a dangerous looking railgun attached to her arm. Unlike Skylark's cannon, the railgun was separate from her hand, enabling the gynoid to use both hands. 'Sitting' on a chair was a strange eye creature with three tentacles, busy playing with a certain toy from another planet.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Skylark asked formally. "There's a civil war going down there, you see."
"I know, I saw. I thought you could use a hand." The dark-skinned man raised an eyebrow. "The name is Cameron Kirkland, by the way."
"Skylark." Skylark introduced herself. "Your help is appreciated but... for what reason? In fact, how did you know we were the rebels? How did you know this planet was in the midst of a civil war in the first place? This solar system is quite secluded, you see."
"I hope you noticed, but the dictator of Haven has requested a bounty to be placed on your head. My colleague here," Kirkland pointed at the three-tentacled monster, who dismissed Kirkland's mention with a simple wave of a tentacle. "has a live feed of bounty board in his laboratory."
"Skylark... war criminal, leader of the Broken Wing rebels... 240,000,000 Stella." The tentacle monster spoke. "Are you really that strong?"
"I don't know what you mean." Skylark asked. "And strangely, I couldn't care less. There's a war going out there and I need to make sure my troops win. Can I trust you guys to help us? This can wait afterwards."
"That sounds about right. Ruth, help this nice young lady in winning this war." Kirkland nodded and addressed to the gynoid.
"Understood." The gynoid named Ruth nodded and, with some sort of floating boots, flew out of the ship into the battlefield, her railgun firing plasma bolts that packed quite a punch.
"I will go back to my lab and monitor the situation as needed." The tentacle monster said, and levitated towards a long corridor.
"That would be best." Kirkland said as the tentacle monster went out of sight. "Miss Skylark, I have something to give you."
Skylark approached Kirkland who handed her a small, wireless earbud attached to a mic.
"When you speak through that mic, you can broadcast it to every men in your army by this ship's speaker. You can use it to order an attack or retreat pattern to your men without having to relay it to your generals... although I think you can use it in a better way as well."
"Come on, miss Skylark, don't you have an army to command?"
Skylark awoke from the her confused daze and nodded. She still didn't know who these people were, and why they gave her all these helpful items to win the fight, but she wasn't going to wait around to find out. If they are the enemy of her enemy, then they are her friend.
"Right." Skylark made a quick nod and flew out of the ship.
"Miss Skylark, there's the enemy commander at 12 o' clock." Ruth the gynoid said to Skylark as they descended back to the ground level to engage in combat. "It is advisable to defeat him first, to destroy the enemy's morale."
"Let's do that then." Skylark nodded, kicking her speed into higher gear. "I have a beef with the guy, after all."
Both Skylark and Ruth was flying downwards beyond speed of sound. As Skylark drew closer and closer to the ground, she tucked her wings in and charged at the distracted dictator's war mecha at low altitude, while Ruth hovered mid air and fired her railgun to dispatch any enemies that might be hindrance to Skylark's attack. Right before the collision, Skylark placed the nozzle of her cannon forward, and fired.
A smoldering crater was what was left as Skylark, her clothes disintegrated in the explosion, stood on one end of the crater. The smoke obscured her from confirming the kill on the evil dictator, but he shouldn't have survived from such a strong blast from such a close distance, right?
"Ha... hahahaha..."
Skylark turned around and looked down to find the smoke whittling away to reveal the dictator... or what was left of him, on the other side of the crater. Most of him was mechanized now, with steel pipes replacing his bones and titanium plating replacing his skin. The dictator's pupils were now LED yellow, and his hair was singed off, with only a bit of them remaining here and there.
"Impressive, Skylark! Very impressive! But you've lost! Your ragtag army is being shred apart by my superior force! As long as I dispatch you, here and now, my army will remain victorious! No one can stop an army unified in one mind!" The dictator screamed, laughing like a maniac, his voice autotuned.
"Damn, even if I defeat the dictator, his army will tear us apar-" Skylark panted, exhausted from her feat before until realizing what the dictator just said. "An army unified in one mind... that's it!"
In the amidst of the dictator's confusion, Skylark shouted into the earbud's mic: "CEASE FIRE NOW!"
Immediately after giving such a command, Skylark pointed her cannon at the dictator and fired, which was countered by a blast from a laser cannon that replaced the dictator's mouth. The two blast, one of pure dark matter and the other a pure laser, collided at the center of the crater, creating a blinding supernova that engulfed the entire battlefield.
An even larger crater replaced the previous crater, and even more smoke bellowed from the pit. Both sides of the army, curious as to who won the exchange, crowded around the crater to see what happened. When the smoke cleared out, it was pretty obvious by the silhouette that-
"WE WON!"
The remaining forces of Broken Wing cheered triumphantly, while the remaining forces of Falcon Knights, awake from the mind control caused by the dictator, stood there, dazed at what happened. Skylark's bandages were incinerated and torn apart, and she looked like a mess, but at the moment, she looked like the most beautiful, most glorious commander in this Sector.
"What will you do now, Miss Skylark?" Kirkland asked Skylark while she was being treated in the infirmary. A huge party was going on in the town, and Kirkland's 3-man force, while flimsy, did contribute to the victory, and therefore was welcomed into the party. "Surely you cannot lead Haven, what with your bounty and all."
"I actually don't know." Skylark chuckled. "Do you have any idea?"
"I... never told you what I was doing in the planet of Rajos, did I?" Kirkland scratched the back of his head. "Me, Ruth, and Velcro; the tentacle guy, we are an organization that seeks to bring peace to the galaxies through the means of science and technology. We call ourselves the Athenian Marauder. Your civil war was all over the intergalactic news lately, and I couldn't help it but lend a hand... or in this case, a ship, to your use."
"Well, if it's payment you want, I have no money." Skylark said, wincing at the nurse applying ointment to her wound.
"I don't want money, I want you." Kirkland announced and, after realizing that she wasn't wearing anything, Skylark blushed. "No, not like that. I want your talent. Your motivation. Your drive. You will be an excellent fit to our team."
"What- and leave my home behind?" Skylark shook her head. "What other options do I have?"
"You can stay, and put your family and friends in danger of being hunted by the most skilled bounty hunters this side of the Sector." Kirkland hypothesized. Based on Skylark's reaction to it, that option was a no-go to her.
"I suppose I have no choice, huh?" Skylark sighed. "Do me a favor though."
"What is it?" Kirkland inquired.
"Let us stay... for just today." Skylark laughed, looking out the window to find the party going wild. Kirkland too looked outside and guffawed genuinely, something that he doesn't do often.
"Yes... let's do that." He said, his hands grasping Skylark's. For the first time in her life, Skylark felt in peace.
Notes: