Eternal Galaxy: Phoenix - Intermission

[SUSTIC]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

The Doctor was about to get up and check the computer for status on the engine, however before he could he heard a door to the room open, and from it a defeated security robot which must have also just been turned on with the systems... However it's battle wounds showed otherwise. It showed that it must have recently gotten into a fight... but the question remains... What fought it, and what activated it? This prompted the Doctor to juggle between contemplating as to whether check out the seemingly ruined hallway the robot came from, and the terminal.

On one hand he had a seriously important task to take care of with the terminal and in turn the engine. However... he had a strong curiosity torwards this damage droid.

It took a few minutes of contemplating but the curiosity was getting to him, and as such he quickly ran over to the robot to begin investigating. What he saw was some strange burns and dents. As if done by a blunt weapon, but what kind of weapon also leaves burns? Either way... this was definitely peaking his interest currently.

[Kristia]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

A yellow blast passed near him as he got closer, the energy shot hit the wall and it made a similar mark as the guard, if the Doctor were to gaze at the source of the shot, he would see a white haired woman with what could be described as technological angelic armor, a staff almost as long as her height and a side arm aimed at the man.
http://t08.deviantart.net/FIgYBmLxYT...in-da3osvm.jpg


"Oh, apologies for that, you can't be to cautious around here." the woman said as she started fixing her hair on its ponitail, still some strands of the almost platinum hair falling on her face.

"You were the one who recently entered the palace, isn't it?"

[SUSTIC]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

The Doctor immediately stepped to the side to avoid the shot as he looked up at the strange woman in angelic armor with more intrigue. Even when she had her weapon aimed at him for a few seconds, he didn't seem to be all too afraid or cautious. More or less even more curious. Who was this woman and why was she here? Definitely quite odd... then again the Doctor himself does not know why he's here in this palace.

The only thing the Doctor could think of as a response was...

"Oh. It's fine. I get shot at and guns pointed at me often. Nothing new for me, and to answer your question I would say I didn't enter this palace more or less woke up here. But I do have a few acquaintances who supposedly entered this place. I'm currently deciding to aid them since I do not have any way to get out of this palace. Then again who would want to leave such a just... fantastic and impressive work of architecture and engineering? Am I right or am I right?" The Doctor spoke with quite a surprising smile and cheery tone.

"Anyways I must get back to work so if you'll excuuuse me..." He said as he then began to turn around on his heel, getting ready to go back to the terminal.

[Kristia]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

The whie haired woman sighed "Might as well follow you, this place might be ancient, but it is full of traps." she got up by using her staff to balance herself for some seconds and the pointed to the defeated guard "That thing activated as I was trying to find the engine room." she was limping at first, but the Doctor could see how her wounds healed quickly, even to the point of being able to walk properly.

"My name is Angela, field Medic and nanobiologist." she offered her gloved hand to greet the man with a smile.

[SUSTIC]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

"Well it's nice to meet you Angela, and I see your leg has seemingly healed rather quickly. Which goes to show you are quite an interesting and impressive field medic to have such technology that could heal wounds in a matter of seconds, but compared to some of the things I've seen... Well that's still quite impressive. Also I find traps make things all the more exciting if I do say so myself. It makes you feel like you are in some kind of adventure movie, and it's exciting a tad. Then again with the stuff this face has been through you can make over a dozen movies." The Doctor went on in quite a... wild tangent as we walked over to the terminal and began going through everything.

Everything he typed into the console seemed to be pertaining to any problems of the systems over the years, but nothing of importance as he went through it.


He then remembered... He didn't introduce himself. With that he turned around, straightened his bow-tie, and smiles. With his brown coat, white undershirt, black dress pants and shoes. The Doctor smiled. This man definitely had a strange air around him. The way he walked, the way he talked. It was all odd. Even with some of the things Angela has seen in her time, this man is... odd. With a smile the Doctor introduced himself.

"Also I forgot to introduce myself. I'm terribly sorry... So... Hello. I'm the Doctor." He spoke with a smile before clapping his hands. He then quickly went back to the terminal.

[Kristia]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

She raised an eyebrow at his simple title, but pushed the thought away "Well then, im not the best in engines." she looked at the destroyed room "But if your friends need someone to aid their wounds, I'm here to help." her tone was borderline cheerful, which contrasted wih how she cleaned her face with the remnants of blood.

[SUSTIC]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

"If you want just go down further you should see Mr. Tall Green and Grumpy. I'll be up here looking for all the problems in the engine." The Doctor said as he pointed at the direction John had gone in. As he did he began typing and finally found something interesting. Their seemed to be some sort of... blockage of some kind. He couldn't tell what it was, but whatever it is it seems large. Seeing this the Doctor then began to contact John and Cortana.


"Okay I found a problem in the engine. It seems like something large is lodged inside the center most turbine. I'd recommend you try and check it out as soon as possible." Said the Doctor as he began looking for anymore potential problems.

[S121]

Near the Weapons Lab | Nevaaras | CY-001

Ethan saw as Astrea had kidnapped Mokou, and did not hesitate to pull out his assault rifle and open fire on Astrea. Just then though, he could no longer ignore the group of soldiers gathering up around him, and looked away from the sky to see Miranda, to who he lowered his weapon and spoke.

"Well it's good you finally decided to show up. Some angel chick just kidnapped Mokou.", Ethan said as he pointed in the direction of where the angel flew.





Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

John was glad to hear that The Doctor could take care of himself, but soon after, John heard a gunshot that rang throughout the large metal city, being just barely audible to John and causing him to look back down the hall he came from, only to see that Achlys was no longer present with him.

"Cortana, did you see where she went?", John asked as he looked about the hall, carefully listening for Achlys but could hear nothing.

"No... There's no residual thermal signature or any motion within a 150 meter radius. She just.. up and vanished.", Cortana said, becoming more and more confused as she analyzed the data collected from the suit's external sensors. John was confused by what Cortana had said as well. He knew that the armor was not suffering any sort of malfunction since Cortana would not allow its infrastructure to fall into such disrepair. Achlys's dissapearance, coupled with the gunshot he heard prompted John to contact The Doctor again.

"Doctor, what was that gunshot?", John asked over his communicator.





The Expense | VR Training Room

As Emil landed, he was soon met with a blast of electricity. The armor crackled as arcs of electrical energy coursed along the outer shell and down into the ground, emitting a rather loud crackling sound as the shock was redirected and dispersed. As that happened, Emil aimed at Lycoris yet again and fired, taking care to aim for center mass to increase his chances to hit the catlike superhuman.

[SUSTIC]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

As the Doctor was going through the computer terminal, despite having found all the information than others would care for, he got another call from John. Hearing it he responded with the small communicator.

""Hmm? Gunshot? Oh that. Yes there was a bit of a SLIGHT close call. That rumbling sound you probably heard was someone apparently in conflict with a security droid in the palace. Her name's Angela, and I'll say this real quick. She is quite an interesting gal. Good looks, good equipment. Everything about her screams 'guardian angel' vibe. I might just send her down your way in case anything potentially goes wrong down in the engines. I mean who knows what you could find down there. After all I encounter one strange black creature that took off when I got close. Though I assume it was probably nothing. Either way if you need assistance down in the engine just let me know. I'll send our new friend down there." The Doctor replied as he went back to looking through the computer.


Near the Weapons Lab | Nevaaras | CY-001

While Ethan's shots had missed due to the speed and distance Astraea was reaching, the guard's all got out of their vehicles as they surrounded Ethan. With all their weapons pointed at him, a fully armed Miranda. Unsurprisingly though Miranda seemingly ignored what Ethan said as she approached him. Looking angrier than before, Miranda grabbed him by the collar of his armor before shoving him down to the ground.

"Shut up! Right now we have even MORE problems than one kidnapped man!" She says as she turns to look at all the collateral damage surrounding them. The damage was quite intense. Some buildings were on fire, and several buildings and a radio tower was completely ruined.

"Now explain yourself right now, and maybe we'll take the less bloody route with your arrest!"

[Tewi_Inaba]

The Expense | VR Training Room

The little cat girl watched Emil's movements. She had been taught to watch how a person moves their body in order to predict their next attack. By doing this, Lycoris was able to predict that Emil was going to shoot her by the way he took aim at her. This along with her cat like reflexes allowed her to quickly dive and roll ou of the way. She wouldn't have any time to counter attack, but with any luck, the stray bullet might have hit something inside the office.

Jiff-E-Mart - Electra | Geminiea Alpha

The video would show the knife falling off the table as Rebecca got off of it. She seemed to have knocked it off after she had gotten up. Not long after that a small rat had come along and grabbed it by the handle, taking it away to some unknown rat's nest nearby. probably inside or somewhere outside the oh the store. They could probably find it, but finding out where the rat came from might be of higher importance.

Rebecca seemed upset over the loss of her weapon, but she remained calm about it. She pouted about it and sat on the ground with her arms resting on her knees as she looked at the rodent thief run off with one of the very few things she cared about. "Mr Sharpy ran off with another woman. I'll never love again." she said, only half joking about what she said. It may not have been much, but the box cutter was HERS and there wasn't a weren't many things like that. Other than the clothes on her back, she hardly had anything to call her own.

[Kristia]

Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines


Angela frowned at the Doctor's compliments, but mentally shrugged as she still had a task to deal with. "So your friends are also here? I don't remember sighting other ships on the area." she commented. The white haired woman started working with her staff, glad that the hit to beat the guard didnīt damage the equipment within her weapon. "By the attire of yours, you are either someone from here, isnīt it?" she asked to the man.

[S121]

Near the Weapons Lab | Nevaaras | CY-001

Ethan could feel from Miranda pulling towards him that she was going to shove him and braced with one foot by placing it behind him, preventing Miranda from knocking him to the ground. If there was ever a time for Ethan to stop joking around and be serious, now was it. If he did not do something about Astrea, then Mokou would be at the hands of GRACE, and there was no telling what they would do to her. Suddenly, Ethan's expression seemed to change entirely before her removed Miranda's hand from his collar and spoke.

"No, I won't shut up about it. That woman with the angel wings, she's from GRACE.", Ethan said to Miranda. Ethan did not know if she would have any idea what he would be talking about, but he had to do something. If not for him, then maybe Mokou would have been safe. Taking a moment to take a step back from Miranda, Ethan began to speak. Unlike before when he always seemed to make a snide remark or had an air of no worries, he looked Miranda straight in the eyes and spoke as if every word he said had great importance.

"Listen, I am not afraid of many things. I am not afraid of fighting, I am not afraid of death, and I am not afraid of you. One thing that I am afraid of is GRACE, what they can and will do if nobody is there to keep them in line. I am not afraid of them killing me, and in fact, I hope they do eventually find a way, but with that girl that was kidnapped, they're going to do some really horrible things to her. They're going to torture her for information regarding me, and then dissect her to figure out how she ticks. We need to stop them before they get off the planet. I doubt your men could stop that one angel even if they tried, but I do know that I can, so let me go for ten minutes, and I will come back with both people.", Ethan finished, hoping that Miranda could understand what exactly they were dealing with.





Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

John was somewhat surprised and curious that there was yet another person down here in the palace, but there were more important things at hand, such as the disappearance of Achlys.

"Achlys has gone missing. Do her squadmates have any communications equipment to track her by?", John asked The Doctor.





The Expense | VR Training Room

The bullet made a small hole in the ground, but that wouldn't matter. According to Emil's constant track of the damages, Lycoris had caused more damage than he did from her shots. So far, there was at least one against the wall, and possibly another from the second shot. For now, he would keep fighting and keep his collateral to a minimum. That was the objective. With that in mind, Emil began to alter his own biology, improving his reaction time so that he would better be able to match Lycoris's movements, and once that was done, Emil lunged after her, ready to put his plan into action.





Jiff-E-Mart - Electra | Geminiea Alpha

Thomas carefully watched the video as the rat ran off, and seeing that there was a small hole in the wall, that meant that there was a breach they had not accounted for. He knew that the hole was a recent one, for he was always testing and checking the store's perimeter, making sure its defenses were adequate. Luckily, it would not be difficult to track a rodent, and although the only thing it stole was a mere boxcutter, an insignificant object in the collection of the resources they had, it was Rebecca's. With that in mind, Thomas stood up from the computer and looked over at Rebecca with a somewhat nonchalant look.

"We'll get your boxcutter back. I doubt a rat has the skill to avoid the detection of thermal imaging.", Thomas said as he began to walk over to an old equipment chest.

[SUSTIC]

Near the Weapons Lab | Nevaaras | CY-001

As Miranda was about to push Ethan down, she found herself unable too as Ethan braced himself. When this happened Miranda gritted her teeth and was about to lash out at the man, but then he spoke up in a tone unlike his usual carefree and almost cocky attitude. The look on his face also seemed to indicate that he wasn't in the mood to be joking.

When he spoke up about that woman with wings being from GRACE, Miranda immediately took a step back as she listened. She has heard about GRACE being a bio-engineering organization that specializes in genetic modification. Mainly from the advertisements she has seen and heard of. On top of that what Ethan said afterwards about the fact that Mokou would simply become a guinea pig for GRACE once they find out about whatever abilities she has made the Chief sigh.

Pinching the bridge of her nose she thought for a moment. Ethan sounded to be telling the truth about how dangerous GRACE can be, and from the stuff she has heard it might just be true. Miranda might not know of the things GRACE does behind-the-scenes, but right now Ethan seems to be telling the truth and is not joking at all.

"Dammit, You're actually being serious for once are you...?" She said as she turned around and was ready to tell her men to stand down.

"Now listen here Ethan. I'm going to let you go and deal with this problem. If it's as dangerous as you say it is, then you really are our only fucking choice. Just remember the second you get done and save her, you're being given a private express ticket off the damn planet. So just go!" She said as she began walking away. With one gesture from her hand, her entire squadron of men stood back. All of them looking confused as they turned to Ethan.


All of them unaware of what will be striking the colony next.



Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

When asked about any communications equipment, the Doctor paused as it began to fully sink in now. The people they were with are just... gone. As if they weren't there to begin with. However he does remember them clearly. Upon a quick look around he spoke up.

"Uuuh... I apologize but no. They do not appear to have left one, nor do I remember one we can contact with. In fact this whole situation is bizarre if I may be honest with you. For crying out loud we were with a whole group of people, and now they just vanish into thin air as if they were ghosts. That or temporal replays going through a scenario that has gone on in the past multiple times, but that involves some serious Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey stuff which I don't think they had access to... Then again I have been proven wrong with more trivial things..." He said as he leaned on the computer console with one hand. Everything he said aloud for Angela to hear.

[Tewi_Inaba]

The Expense | VR Training Room

Lycoris wasn't sure what her opponent was up too, so rather than try and avoid the attack, she tried to counter it by lining up her limbs with Emil's to catch them, if he went for any sort of jab or punch she could try to catch his arms, if he tried to ram her she could side step and try to use his own momentum against him. Whatever the case, she liked her odds of coming out on top.

Jiff-E-Mart - Electra | Geminiea Alpha

Rebecca was still feeling a tad bit unmotivated and discouraged, although she tried to hide it, she was feeling pretty down about losing her favorite "toy". The young woman followed her brother over to the equipment chest, but her heart just wasn't in it. "What do we need to do?" she asked in a calm but melancholy tone. Even if she wasn't' feeling very motivated, her brother always seemed to know what to do to fix any problem they encountered.

[S121]

Near the Weapons Lab | Nevaaras | CY-001

Ethan could tell that it was a difficult decision for Miranda to let him go, but he was grateful that she decided to. In response to Miranda, Ethan simply nodded his head before turning to the direction Astrea flew off at and sprinted after the angel.





Palace - Palace Depths - Near Engines

John was not happy to hear that the group accompanying The Doctor was absent as well. He wasn't happy about this whole thing. Meanwhile, Cortana continued to perform scans for Achlys with the armor's on board systems, but still came up empty-handed.

"I don't understand it. I've checked and double-checked, but it's as if Achlys never existed. There's not a single trace of her...", Cortana said, trailing off as she tried to make sense of it. John was silent for a long while before speaking again. Although he did not like the situation, they still had a mission.

"We'll look for her later. We still need to activate the engines.", John said to Cortana.





The Expense | VR Training Room

Just then, Emil rapidly closed the distance between the two, aiming a fist straight for Lycoris's chest. In reality, Emil had something else in mind, namely keeping the cat-girl on her toes.





Jiff-E-Mart - Electra | Geminiea Alpha

"Simple.", Thomas said as he opened the chest and pulled out some goggles, "We just use these goggles to find the rat."

After putting the thermal goggles on, Thomas turned them on and began to look about. The room was colored in shades of blue, save for the red, orange, and white light emanating from the ceiling bulbs. To ensure the goggles were working, Thomas then looked at one of the walls before altering the sensitivity of the goggles. As he fiddled with them, he could eventually see the faint heat coming from the wiring within the walls.

"Excellent.", Thomas said aloud.