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

Fluffy isn't a fool as many may think and she never trusts anyone including her employers. What many people don't realize is she tags every one of her employers with a tracking microbot designed to nestle its way into clothing where it can remain pretty well undetected especially by tall species which easily over look the tiniest details. She knew something was up straight away when she realized the microbot wasn't transmitting any signal. This meant the bot was either found and destroyed or the signal was blocked by something which she suspected might be an advanced cloak. If that were the case then she would have to what for Zara to turn it off before she could find her location.

One of the droids said "We will be at the Felinite colony in three minutes." Fluffy smiled. "Good. Then I can get this job over and done with."
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Krim replyed: "Another warning I should give you is that they often capture ships by tricking the crew. They usually achieve this by pretending to be a new empire sending out a peaceful greeting."

Suflet Călit quickly blurted out a response to these Markovians without even thinking first, "A trick? Of course not! I am the representative you were told to meet, Mr..."

He nervously held out his three-fingered hand, awaiting the alien's name.

Zara watched the colony coming up in Fluffy's viewscreen. She laced her long fingers together, her eyes narrowed. This would have to be done with care.
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Azra made a note on his own data pad. "Thank you, that is definitely worth communicating to the Empire."

Haslin rubbed his chin. "Will they name themselves when they do this, or do they pretend to be someone else, the Zartoids, I mean?"
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Terrin considered Suflet coldly for a moment before replying. "Terrin. Captain Terrin vas Kettli."

With a motion from her hand Fluffy brought the ship to a stop. She walked over to an elevater. "Second floor" she said with a smile. She got out and started walking down the corridors. She moved into one room collecting the rifle and two odd metal plates. She then locked the door behind her and made her way to the ships teleporter room. She programed the teleporter to only transport her down to the surface and stepped into it.

Once on the ground she took out two mettal plates and tossed them onto the ground. She stepped into them, activating them. The plates quickly slid up her legs, morphing into her tactical boots. She then activated her cloak and moved in. "This should be no problem at all."
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Krim sighed once again. "If only they made it that obvious. They not only reply with a false race name but they alter the voice to sound nothing like their own and even make hints as to what that fake race's culture might be like."

A minute after Fluffy teleported over, Zara followed, using her own personal teleportation device. Liirlith always kept a lot of things on their person, strongly believing in the motto "Be prepared." She quickly set off to where she knew the ambassador would be.
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"That makes things. . . difficult, to be sure," said Azra. "It may be necessary for our ships to answer all distress calls in force from now on."

The Xikarian voice transmitted back, "Oh, it's quite alright. It's not really my decision to make, anyway-- it's the choice of the Advisor of foreign affairs. How about we contact you late, to set something up?"

The Xikarian captain was blatantly oblivious to Avlex's concerns.

Avlex felt a bit of relief from that response. Mostly because he didn't want to figure out how to introduce them to the Tribunal. "That is fine, I will make sure to have one of our Tribunal members with me so that it will be set up properly."

One of the pilots turned to Avlex then. "Uh sir, If you don't know what to really do how will any Tribunal member?"

"I don't know but they are in charge of foreign affairs so we have to trust them." Avlexs' worries had then returned right then. He sat there wondering why he was picked for this mission.

Fluffy was making her way in. With her knowledge of Felinite colonies she knew that the diplomat in charge stays at the city's hub at the centre of the complex. Ambassador Krim was likely to be having dinner with the other ambassadors so she used the spring mechanism in her boots to jump up to a high ledge on the building. She extended the climbing spikes at the front of her boots and then unsheathed her claws and began climbing.
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"Well Azra. If they are indeed here we are doing our best to find them. Even without cloaks on their ships they are sly and often hide in nebulae and anomalies before they strike. Very often they can't be found until they want to be found."
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Oria was getting impatient. "We've been doing this for to long. Move us over to that nebula about 30 light years away and boost the signal. I'm changing the message."

They did as she said and then began sending out a transmission. "This is colonal Orignim of the Istrim Empire to any vessels entering our space. You must identify yourselves and make your race known or you will not be allowed passage through our territory."
(If anyone wants to jump in and have a character of yours get tricked and very likely get their ship captured or destroyed by the Zartoids then I would greatly appreciate it.)

Azra scratched his chin. "Could you give me any idea what sort of weapons capabilities these Zartoids have?"

(@Sean1M I might make something for you; I'll have to ask if I can add generic characters without names.)

"Their warships usually pack quite a punch with missiles and hacking probes, The larger ones also have some sort of nitrogen plasma beam cannon at the front. All of their ships usually have a homing energy pulse weapon, mines and a very powerful tractor beam. Their ships are not very fast in normal flight and can't turn very well. They can be far more dangerous on the ground than in space."
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Using a plan of the usual Felinite hub layout Fluffy found the spot where the ventilation ducts on the floor shee needed should be lockated and got out a small laser cutting device. She cut through the wall and into the ventilation system. She climed in and made her way to where the dining room should be. She pinched a small whole in the side with the devise she used earlier and slipped a microbot through it. She put a pair of goggles that let her see through the microbots camera and got the rifle off her back. She got the microbot to focus on the Markovan ambassador and aimed the rifle. "I wish that snake had also given me some data on Markovan physiology. Oh well. I'll just get him in the head. That usually works."

Azra gave a shriek. Toppling from his chair, he lay with his hands clapped to the sides of his face, on being over his right eye. Everyone jumped up and ran to him. Haslin knelt down quickly. "Ambassador! Are you all right? Let me see."

Gasping in pain, Azra removed his hands. Haslin winced. The Markovan's right eye was gone. On the other side of his face was a hole about an inch beneath his other eye. "I. . . I think I've been shot," he gasped.

Nira panicked. "Heavens heavens heavens!! Someone get the medics! This man's dying! Help!"

Azra growled. "I'm not dying, you silly creature! It just went in and out through my mouth."

Haslin looked around. Where could the Markovan ambassador have been shot from. His eyes fell on a vent. Was that a small hole in the side?

"Well," he said aloud, "we'd best get this man medical attention." He glanced at the Felinite diplomat with a look that said We need to talk about this someplace else.

Fortunately for Azra, Fluffy had mistakenly believed that his brain should be right near his eye. In most creatures this is true, but not for Markovans. In Markovans, the face is mostly made up of the mouth; the eyes sit on the side of it, with the cranium being farther back. Therefore, Azra had essentially just been shot through the cheeks.

As quick as he had realized what had happend Krim pressed two buttons on a panel just on the underside of his end of the table that called both the medics and the guards to his dining room. The medics came first quickly followed by two guards.

Krim yelled out "The ambassador needs urgent medical attention. Get him to the hospital." He then turned to the guards. "How did that assassin get inTo that ventilation duct without us knowing?"

"I don't know sir. We resently found a hole cut out of the side of the building but we were looking at that spot about ten minutes ago. Whoever got in knew their way around."

"Go find the assassin. Their probably still in the vents."

"Get onto that now sir."

Krim rubbed his eyes and picked up the bullet and examined it. "Carbonaldo!" A look of dread shot across Krim's face. He quickly activated his communicater and contacted the guards. "The shot is from a carbonaldo rifle. It seems this assassin might be Novarna. Use extreme caution."

"I'm sorry for the interruption ambassador but this is a very big problem. Do you know who might have hired an assassin to kill Azra?"
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Fluffy mumbled a few somewhat inappropriate words and tried to think of a way out of the vents. "Drat you, you stupid snake. Now I have to improvise."

Haslin shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't. Whoever it is, though, I'm guessing they don't want any kind of relationship between you and the Markovans. They may even want to make enemies of you. And from what I here, being enemies with the Markovan Empire is never a good thing."
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Zara watched, cloaked and invisible, as the medics carried out Azra. So Fluffy had attempted the assassination. Excellent! It didn't matter that she had been unsuccessful; all that mattered was that a Felinite had tried to assassinate a Markovan ambassador. Now it was time for the next part of the plan.

Zara made her way through the station until she found a small, apparently infrequently used, room. Now to bring the assassin over. Taking a scanner out, she ran it over herself real quick. Good, the tracking microbot she had found on herself was still there. Zara made some adjustments to her cloak, and soon Fluffy was getting a clear signal on its location.

Krim brought out a holographic imaging system. "I'm afraid it seems that way. The person who I suspect is behind this is a bounty hunter by the name of Flufferellia Teanara Ormilaria Novarna." Krim brings up a a holographic image of her. "And as you can see here. She is a member of our race."
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Fluffy made her way out of the duct but she heard voices coming from every direction. She instead engaged her cloak and cut a hole up to the upper floor. From there she would freely be able to move about the structure as long as no one came to close.

"Drat this this. Why didn't she give me their anatomy so I could just shoot his heart." Then a thought came into her head. "Why that little snake."

Velsen shouted in pain, and punched the Liirlith's face with his free hand, knocking him off. Quickly, he withdrew to Astan's position, and, examining his bleeding hand, cursed under his breath.

He still held his weapon firmly, however, and fired at the aliens, Nazzi included. He ahd to get out of here and back to his followers. "We need a point of exodus." He said to Dolos.

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"Yes.." Straus replied. His pace increased from a brisk walk to a sprint, towards the sound of the commotion. He quickly checked the dual-ammunition magazine in his IAR, unloading and reloading it. He cocked the bolt on the side of the gun, and a metallic clicking in combination with a plasmatic whine resulted.

Haslin examined the holographic image. "Are you sure this is the person?" he asked.

"And why would she be tryin' to knock people off?" asked Nira. "I though you guys were peace-lovers."
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Nazzi rolled over, but not quickly enough to avoid a shot in the arm.

Gettrav managed to temporarily knock Dolos off balance a little with the kick he dealt the droid to its face. He then swung his blade, neatly cutting Velsen's gun in half. He then leaped over the Jorro'kil's head, and dealt him a kick as he passed over.

"Her past is a sad tail. Her farther was one of our best diplomats we had at the time. Sadly Flufferellia and her mother were their in his office at the worst time possible. Diplomacy can be a dangerous profession and this is one of those times that things don't go so well. Somehow an assassin eluded security and got into his office. Flufferellia's parents were shot in front of her. On impulse she retaliated and managed to cut into the assassins throat. When the authorities arrived they found a very horrific scene.
Flufferellia rushed past them still completely traumatized and escaped in a shuttle. From there on out we presume she tried to escape it by training herself out of her empathy. Now she is one of the most wanted individuals in our sector of our home galaxy."

Dolos got staggered by the kick, but Dolos shrugged it off and dashed to Nazzi. Dolos had detected sounds of their pursuers from the hallway. As Gettrav was focused at Velsen, Dolos slipped behind him to the Nazzi, and grabbed the pistol the Liirlith had dropped. With ease Dolos lifted Nazzi from the ground in between it and the other Markovian.

“Lower your sword Markovian, or the ambassador gets it!” Dolos shouted, holding Nazzi as a shield and holding the pistol against her neck. Dolos’ voice was harsh and its loaned face had feral look on them. Dolos was slowly moving towards the passage which Gettrav had used, keeping the Nazzi positioned in between it and the Gettrav and the nearing sounds of its pursuers.

Suflet Călit brought his hand back, somewhat uneasy about the Markovian not accepting the handshake.

He needed to keep some sort of movement going. Best things not get awkward and these new aliens try anything in the silence. "So.. Is there anything I could get you Captain Terrin vas Kitty," he nervously asked.

Haslin nodded. "Hmmm," he said sympathetically. He then lowered his voice. "Is there anyway we could locate her?"
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Gettrav shrugged, looking strangely unconcerned. "Go right ahead, Jorro'kil. Najii and I were arranging to have her slain anyways."

"What?" shrieked Nazzi.

"Not all of us want to be allied with the Confederacy," said Gettrav.
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Captain Terrin looked angrily at Suflet. "That's Terrin vas Kettli, you fool," he began, when suddenly Hissin stepped forward.

"What we want," he said, "is to learn about your race and possibly forge an alliance."

Terrin glared at him. "You are forgetting your place soldier!" he snarled. "Get back in line, or you shall be charged with insubordination!"

Hissin took a deep breath, and then faced Terrin. "With all due respect, Sir, may I ask to speak with you privately for a moment?"

Terrin looked at him with murder in his eyes, but then motioned him over to ship. "You lot keep up straight," he added to the other Markovans, who were beginning to shift around a little. He and Hissin then went over to the shadow of the Markovan vessel. The other soldiers cast some apologetic looks at the Nisips and Nevarzians, obviously embarrassed by their captain's behavior.
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As luck (or bad luck) would have it, a single Markovan scouting vessel picked up the Zartoids' fake distress signal, and decided to investigate.

Krim lowered his voice in response. "She uses some of the best stealth equipment money can buy. And because she's a sociopath her emotions are hard to read and even harder to recognize as her's unless we were to get up close to her and while she has her cloak on I don't see that happening. She is unlikely to leave without finishing the job though so that should shorten the search but it also means the ambassador is still in danger."
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Oria sent out a transmission to the Markovan scout ship. "This is Colonal Orignim. You are entering our territory. Announce yourselves or we will regard your presence as an act of war."
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Fluffy was thinking everything over and the more she thought it through the more apparent it seemed that the Liirlith wasn't being very honest about this.

She changed direction and moved towards the elevater. She got off on the floor where the dining room was and made her way there.

Haslin frowned. "Is there anyway we might protect him from a future attack?"
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The markovan vessel sent back the following reply: "This is Captain Hissic vin Kislin of the Markovan Empire. We picked up a distress signal from this location. Are you in need of assistance?"
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It just so happened that the dining room Fluffy was headed to was one currently closed for work; the very room Zara was hiding in. She was also making sure that Fluffy could detect the nanobot, and find her with ease.

"The only thing we can do at this point is stay close by and guard him as best we can. Hopefully we can catch her before she can do any more damage."
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"This is Captain Hissic vin Kislin of the Markovan Empire. We picked up a distress signal from this location. Are you in need of assistance?"

Oria listened to their transmission and gave a raspy chuckle. "They weren't listening to our message at all. Oh well this is better anyway. Lets send out a new message and see if we can bring them."

"Our vessel has sustained heavy damage. We have wounded here that require medical attention. If you can here me please follow the coordinates of this transmission. We need help soon."
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"Well snake. Looks like I was right. Sneaking onto my ship and tricking me are not good ways to get on my good side. You didn't even care if the ambassador died. You just wanted to create mistrust between these two races. Am I right?

Haslin nodded. He glanced at Nira. "I believe the Markovans have a few soldiers with them. They usually do."

"I'll stand guard, too!" volunteered Nira eagerly, "and if that assassin shows up, I'll give her a little lesson in kick-boxing." She took up stance, and swung out a kick that almost got the Felinite diplomat in the head.

"Careful, Nira!" cried Haslin in alarm.
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"Not quite," said the sibilant voice of the Liirlith from somewhere in the room. Zara was still cloaked. "We wanted a little more than disssstrussst. What we want issss more like, I don't know, war? You sssssee, my people have a missssion, a sssssacred missssion, which we sssstrive to carry out. The problem isssss, all of thesssse othersssss, the Markovansssss, the Jorro'kil, the Krathuniansssss, to name a few. . . they are in our way. Therefore, we ssssseek to remove them. Adn what better way to do ssssso than to pit them againssssst each other? However, that leavessss no room for peacccemakersss like your racccce. Sssssomething had to be done about you, ssssso we deccccided, sssincccce the Markovanssss were going to sssse you, and they being a rather hot-headed ssssspeccciessss assss a whole, why not usssse them for our purposssesss? All we need isssss for a Felinite to make an attempt upon a Markovan ambasssador'sss life, and insssstant uproar."

"Your a spry one aren't you." Krim said with a smile.
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"I understand where your coming from. But I don't like to be made a fool. I'm charging extra for this."