\| Divided Paths |/ - Chapt. 3 - Resolute - Biome (IC)

They reached his office on the fourth floor of a reasonably tall building in the center of the colony.

"OK let's get to work then. What topics would you like to discuss?"

"Well," Ilinya started, glancing out of a window overlooking the colony. "In order for diplomacy to be truly successful with the Federation and the other civilizations of this galaxy, you must know of the current state of it." She placed a hologram device in her palm and activated it. The image showed a flag, divided into five, differently colored sections. Each of these had a different symbol in them. From left to right, they represented the Jorro'kil Free Absolute, Ryun-Wreae Federation, Dranzoot Sovereignty, Forlarm, and Krathunian Covenant. "The Federation is a member nation of the Confederacy, a general purpose alliance of five empires. Originally created between the Jorro'kil, Forlarm, and my government, the Confederacy has become very influential. Its purpose is to prevent chaos and ensure protection for citizens of our section of the universe." The hologram changed to a familiar and dreaded face of many,a Jadel. "This is Kradus," Ilinya explained, examining the hologram herself. "He was the leader of the Dominion, a collective of warmongering races. Our Confederacy was originally formed to prevent the Dominion from controlling the entire galaxy after the Third Arm Confederacy collapsed."

"Kradus, using the Dominion, sought out two objects of great power, believing they would grant him ascendance. These were the orbs." The hologram changed to show two spheres, one red and the other blue. "The blue orb is infinite, stabilized energy, while the red orb grants its user complete invisibility. Their origins are not known to this day. Eventually, Kradus was able to get his hands on the red orb and the Dominion and Confederacy battled one last time. During this, the Jorro'kil Emperor was able to kill Kradus, though he was assassinated shortly afterwards. The Confederacy was able to return both the orbs to their care and the Dominion fell. However, there was a new threat."

The hologram shifted to that of a Dyson Sphere. "The United Fleets of Independent Artificial Intelligences sought the orbs as well, for their own purposes, this being the end of entropy within their systems. The Confederacy gaining the orbs sparked a brutal war between the UFIAI and us, a war that continues to this day."

Ilinya shook her head, sighing. "Since then much has happened, and there are other events worthy of note as well." She briefly explained the Loccalian's rule over the stars, the rise of Kradus, the TAC, the Vrentus, the Imperial Despot of Jiiran, and the Krathunian's sudden appearance.

"Ambassador, you are correct. This galaxy has been torn and ravaged by endless war and conflict. Some civilizations want nothing more than to dominate it. If you choose to pursue diplomacy with the Ryun-Wreae Federation of the United Ieegan Systems as possibly the Confederacy, I can make no guarantee that our enemies, whether it be the UFIAI, Jiiran, or the Vrentus, will not target you. But we want nothing more than a peaceful galaxy, and I believe that the Felinites could certainly aid us, and the rest of the societies, in achieving this."

((Still not sure what to do with Nvarn...))

"I have heard many nasty tales about powerful artifacts. Those orbs, two have been found but such artifacts are usually in sets much large than two. Has anyone ever considered the possibility of other orbs?
Also a race of advanced AI's exist here. Machine races are hard to negotiate with, and they have no emotions to read or any body language that will give away their lies should they choose to tell them. This is problematic information."

Nazzi hurried around a corner, and suddenly felt herself grabbed from behind. Something was shoved against her mouth, and before long, all went black.

Tissin examined the two Jorro'kil. They were both dead. Tissin was just starting to get up to tell Nazzi, when it occurred to him that she had been gone for a while. Hurrying out, he noticed a trail of blood going the way Nazzi had. Hurriedly following it, he found more, only it was scattered in a way that suggested that their had been a struggle, and then something heavy had been dragged through the blood trail. Rushing down the trail, he came to an open door. A dead Jorro'kil was lying there, obviously poisoned. There were also tire tracks in the mud, filling in with water from the new waves of rain that were falling.

Tissin gave screech of anguish. He rushed back in the building.

(@Whoster This might be a good time for Straus to arrive back at the compound.)

Straus had wanted to speed up during the drive but didn't because of the rain. This truck was an older model, with wheels instead of an Anti-Grav system.

Upon arrival at the Complex, he quickly parked the truck back inside the motorpool. Not noticing one of the nearby vehicles previousy parked there was gone, he jumped out of the vehicle and started to sprint forward towards the door to the inside of the buildings, and used his momentum in coordination with a quick grab at a nearby pipe to swerve around from the angle he had come at the entrance, only to find the very disheartening scene of the dead Jorro'kil.  Straus got down on his knees to see if the kil actually was dead, and, to his utter dismay, it was. He quickly got up again, and, heading back just in time, saw Tissin go around the corner down at the end of the short subpassage.

Again Straus sprinted, through the corridors, up a flight of stairs, and out to arrive at the "lobby" on the second floor. He caught Tissin looking very distraught, grabbed him by the shoulders, and asked, "Vhat happened?"

Tissin's was sobbing, incoherent. "The Ambassador. . . gone. . . kidnapped. . . the Liirlith!"

Ilinya nodded. "Yes, we have, but none have been found. The existence of those two is enough to drive Absolute and the UFIAI to provoke such a war." She rubbed her forehead with her hand, sighing. "They are certainly a troublesome foe. Recently they have taken to targeting civilian populations by means usually considering completely immoral." The Ryun leaned forward and placed both palms on the table, tapping her thumbs to the surface, deep in thought.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nvarn stared at the deteriorated, broken truck with mixed emotions. While he was satisfied that the EMP had done its work in delaying the Purists, they had gotten away, a reason for disappointment. The Krathunian effortlessly lifted aside a metal hunk and grabbed his knife from what remained of the back of the vehicle. He scanned the environment for any signs of his enemies as he twirled the knife back and forth.

Nvarn decided that his current location was not strategically sound to find the Purists, and instead jumped up on the top of a nearby building. He went into cloak as to not be noticed, and observed his surroundings for any activity. The knife danced between his fingers, seeming to take on a life of his own as the Sentinel hunted his prey.

Krim thought over this over more and then he gave a horrified look.
"The orbs, their power. To much power. Such artifacts might attract the Zartoids to this galaxy. I'm sorry if this is any sort of inconvenience but if we ever get ahold of any of these orbs we will have to remove or destroy them."

Ilinya stopped tapping and drew her hands back, looking to the side. "There are several reasons why we can't destroy the Orbs. Their current location is extremely secure and held a secret by the Confederacy. At this point in the war, we cannot destroy them. Not yet."

"This is all very troubling. There are races outside of this galaxy that might want those orbs for themselves.

I now have a question for you. Do any races in this galaxy have advanced portable cloaking technology? Of a sort that makes no visible distortions even from a close perspective?"

Ilinya nodded. "Nearly every race has these capabilities to some degree, whether it be for personnel or vessels."

"Stop your blubbering, zen, ve'll get her back." Straus let go of Tissin, and noticed a large group of soldiers standing in the room used for interrogation. Some of them were crouched over two bodies, and a few Jorro'kil in black suits appeared to be scanning the room for evidence.

The Strike Trooper quickly made his way over to the group, and asked what had happened. One of the soldiers, to the degree that he had deduced, explained the two Jorro'kil lying on the floor were murdered by some unknown force.

"Ever heard of a Liirlith, soldier?" Straus asked.

"No.. Sir." The soldier replied.

"Neither have I up until recently, but zat is what has done zis..." He said.

Straus peered up across the group to see if any were present that he could confide the recently acquired information about Najii and the Purists. None that he could see, but then another Jorro'kil who was walking stopped to observe the scene, and his armor indicated that he was a military commander. Straus wasted no time in calling out to him.

"Sir!" He said. "Sir, I have some information that you need to hear." He quited down somewhat as he neared the commander.

"Is it the Purists?" The Commander asked, a weary expression starting to form on his face.

"Vell, yes, it is, Sir. But not just ze Purists, zere is an alien running around ze colony, called a 'Liirlith'."

"Oh?" The commander said.

"Yes, and I believe zat zese two...deaths... belong to zis being." Straus replied, glancing the direction of the interrogation room.

The commander looked skeptical, but decided not to disregard it entirely. He didn't like to think that the base could be infiltrated so easily, but proof was surfacing more and more.

"I zhink zis vould be better spoken somevhere else." Straus cautioned. "But first, anozzer representative has unfortunately gone missing. Ze Markovan here should be able to give a good description of vhat happened." Jorro'kil were already examining the blood trail and a team had been dispatched to search the Complex all the way through.

The Commander looked at Tissin.

"Tell me exactly what happened, then." He said.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Managing to get control of himself, Tissin related the attack of the Liirlith, how Nazzi he had gone to find help and not come back, and then his discovering the blood trail and the signs of a vehicle being stolen.

The two additional Markovan soldiers, having waited for some time for someone to come back and give them orders, came in, just in time to hear about what happened to the ambassador. One of them looked at Tissin in astonishment. 'The ambassador has been kidnapped? How could you let this happen? You were supposed to be her protector."

"That's troubling. Since we came here we have been having odd reports. Many have been reporting out of place objects and strange emotional activity coming from nowhere. I don't think we are alone here."

The Commander, one Nai Xeranil, put his hand up to the highest back part of his beak, what would be his forehead. He paused for a moment, and quickly removed the hand.

He muttered, and cussed in his own language once. "We'll go back to my office, I need to inform the rest of the council of this. I'll check to make sure that the junior officers took the initiative to sweep the Complex for any other possible intruders."

He went over to two of the Jorro'kil with a green tint to their Power Armor, and asked about the situation. Satisfied with the answer he received, Nai returned to Straus, Tissin and now the two Markovan guards.

"Sir, ze Krathunian vich came here as security for the Krathunian ambassadors has gone to search for ze escaped purists, hopefully he vill be reporting soon."

Nai nodded, but refrained from a verbal reply, thinking over the situation and the various possible outcomes and reasons behind it.

Ilinya leaned forward, once again placing her hands on the table. "Then, Ambassador, I think we need all the help we can get from the Felinites. Let's discuss the term of a diplomatic agreement."

The one Markovan guard who had spoken up turned to Tissin with an angry expression. "Was it not your responsibility to protect the ambassador?" he demanded.

"I was, but she. . . well, she went off to. . . She told me to. . ."

The guard began to speak. "It seems to me that you have failed in your duty and are not fit to hold your rank. Under Section 122 of the Emergency Protocol for Diplomatic Affairs, I hereby strip you of your rank and commission. Hand over your weapons!"
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The stolen vehicle careened down the road. Najii had finally managed to staunch his bleeding arm. He drove the vehicle swiftly, unconsciously following the trail of the Purists. He was in such a hurry that he took no notice of Nvarn as he drove by him.

Krim smiled. "OK so what what did you wish to discuss. I was think a simple trade agreement might be good to start of with as that way we can still remain neutral and not appear to be siding with any one race."

Nvarn watched as Najii's truck approached. He knew that the vehicle had come from the Complex based off of its make and noted its erratic, panicked behavior. The Krathunian started to dash, leaping from building to building as he followed Najii.

____________________________________________

Ilinya nodded. "That would likely be for the best, Ambassador. To tell you the truth I'm not much of a diplomat - In fact, my crew and I are investigating unknown signals in search of old Dominion races that may seek to regain power. It was by chance that we encountered beings such as you. I have been granted the power to approve of a trade agreement, and I will do so now - But note that I will be sending for Federation diplomats to create an embassy of sorts to allow for further diplomacy. It might be better to discuss peace with one who has trained in it rather than the Commanding officer of a naval warship. Thank you, though, Ambassador."

"Your very welcome. We will start making preparations as soon as possible.
I have one more question I'd like to ask. As you may have guessed owr race is empathic, we can telepathically read emotions. Only emotions though, its not like I stole your deepest darkest secrets or anything. But it does mean it is very hard to lie to us. However one of the members if your group was hard to read. Has he had any advanced mental training at some point in his life?"

Straus narrowed his eyes slightly after hearing the news certainly saddening to Tissin.

"If she vould not listen to Tissin, zen vhat vas he supposed to do? Hold her down?" He asked the two Markovan guards. "Zis is our responsibility, and in ze confusion we failed to detain all threats., and ve vill find your ambassador. Do not punish zis soldier when it is not due."

Nai, still standing with the group but looking preoccupied, added to Straus's statement with, "This is true. Whatever did this is our... my responsibility... and I'll make sure everything is set right." He said. Nai could care less about that it was right, he cared that it was part of his duty to make sure the ambassadors came and went in safety, and having failed in the former, he would make sure the latter would happen.

"Straus, to my office, now." Nai said. Straus nodded, then turned to the Markovans and quietly said, "He is set on it now, ze being zat did zis is going to have a better time in hades."

Straus went and followed the Commander, and he shut the door behind him once inside Nai's office.

"Sir." He said.

"Straus, tell me everything that's happened so far." Nai ordered. The Strike Trooper told him of the purist attack, the kidnapping, Najii's infiltration of the base, the finding of the purists and the remaining Krathunians, and how he and Nvarn had split up, one to pursue the purists and the other to report back.

"Good. I already know most of this from reports from the visiting Krathunian forces and other soldiers, but I wanted to hear it from you. Now, I think the most pressing matter is-" He was cut off as two Jorro'kil burst into the room, holding a struggling Xeva.

"Sir." The one said. "We found her sneaking through the corridor."

Nai stood up, expressionless.

"Well, how are we, then? Obviously the interrogator didn't break through.. I'll have you transferred to a more forceful -and secure- facility." He said to her.

"Take her back to the holding cells, and make sure she is well guarded. Shoot anything that you see that moves, if you feel a gust of wind, notice a blur of motion, shoot it. Kill if you must, but wounded is also acceptable." Nai ordered. The two soldiers saluted, then went out, dragging Xeva with them. She said nothing at all. Straus watched as they left.

"It worries me, Sir, zat zey could infiltrate our ranks." Straus said. Nai looked at Straus, but made no reply, thinking.

"Soldier, you are dismissed. Carry out your orders, find the threats, and eliminate them." Nai said, breaking the short silence. Straus saluted, then walked out of the office.

Ilinya thought for a moment, hesitating. "Our galaxy, up until this point, has not had any known empathetic races. However, it may be possible that it is difficult to read the emotions of said member of my squad because it is a Wreae, a machine. The Ryun-Wreae Federation is composed equally of both the Ryun and the Wreae. I'm not sure if this is possible, but AI may be more difficult or impossible to telepathically read."

The soldier seemed a little annoyed that Straus had butted in on what he considered a matter of Markovan standards. He seemed about to say something, but then Straus was called away by Nei. The soldier turned to Tissin.

"You still hold some responsibility for this, and you will remain stripped of rank until further notice. You can help find the ambassador at any rate, and if you are successful, she may see fit to have your rank restored."

Humiliated and crushed, Tissin went to see if he could find any help finding the stolen ambassador.

Straus, after leaving the office, went and stopped Tissin who seemed to be wandering aimlessly.

"If you vant to help, zen I zink zat I have a job for you." He said. "Come vith me." He then led Tissin to the outside of an armory, a vault in an underground level. Tissin's access was limited, however, and he had to wait outside. After a few minutes of waiting, Straus emerged from the armory holding a model 21 Infantry Automatic Rifle, or IAR. The rifle was long and angular. In the middle of it a silver energy transfer chamber sat encased in metal, and a gas cartridge clip hung underneath, attached to the chamber. The buttstock became thinner as it went from the end of the chamber to a narrow, light-grey colored slant. Two barrels extended forward from the transfer chamber, one to fire the compressed, superheated plasma, and the other for loading attachment weapons such as grenade launchers, or aiming assistance parts such as a laser sight or flashlight.

"I am to carry out my orders... and I vant your help." He said to Tissin. He threw the Markovan a plasmatic submachine gun. "I hereby allow your usage of zis weapon, under my jurisdiction. It is on safe, do not change the setting until it is needed." He said. With that, he left to go back to the motorpool, this time through a different entrance. Straus chose a fast Anti-Grav vehicle, with seating only for two. As he climbed on the metallic blue, streamlined "bike" he gestured for Tissin to sit down on the back seat, and hang on. Two handbars extended upwards for the passenger to hold onto during driving. As Straus started the vehicle up, a visible, gaseous-looking electromagnetic field formed under the vehicle, and the four support struts retracted back into the sides of the vehicle. He started off towards the exit, an energy gate barring the way. Above, the recently reset scanners identified him as he drove closer to the gate, and allowed his passage, temporarily deactivating the energy barrier so he wouldn't crash and be killed.

Dolos reached the light fence surrounding the construction site. It grabbed the heavy padlock that was keeping the gate closed, and looked at it with measuring gaze. Rising its head Dolos insoected the top of the fence: it had a set of five cords of barbed wire, and was angled outwards. Dolos turned its head back to the padlock, and for a moment it considered just crushing that lock, but soon realized that such feat was not within average Jorro’kil’s capabilities. Instead Dolos took two steps back, and drew its pistol, shooting one well-aimed shot that blasted the lock’s link open. The padlock fell from the gate, and Dolos proceeded in to the site, beckoning the Purists to follow.

Dolos remembered seeing one of its shots hitting the Krathunian who had assaulted the warehouse. Dolos also remembered seeing the shot being blocked by an energy shield. Also, recapping the sensory data from the situation, Dolos noticed numerous cybernetic implants on that Krathunian. Being still immersed in its role as an Jorro’kil named Astan, this finding caused it to make a hissing sound, like breathing sharply trough one’s teeth. A Cyborg was a really bad thing for both this operation and the whole infiltration mission as general. If the Krathunian had a cybernetic vision, the earlier plasma shot would be like a beacon. Not to mention that while Dolos’ disguise could imitate even the heat signature from a living being, it would not hold against closer inspection.