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

Oria tightened the cables again. "We really need this information and if you don't comply we will have no choice but to take it from you."
As she said this she got out what looked like a small mechanical insect.
"This probe is designed to extract data from the brain of its host. The process takes about an hour and it can be very uncomfortable. So one last time. Are you going to tell us what you know or am I to use this?"
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"My employer was of a reptilian race. She had long fingers. I think her race is called something like Lirlim. Or maybe it was Lirllia. Something like that.

Despite his condition, the Markovan captain still managed to successfully spit in Oria's face.

"Do your worst, scum!"

"Very well fleshling." She pulled the Markovan mouth open and placed the probe. It then moved down to his throat as Oria let go.
"The probe will scan for the location of your brain. It will then try to find a way to get to it and if there are no accessable paths to the brain it will simply make its own.

The Markovan captain retched and choked as the probe made its way inside. He vainly tried to bring it up, but it was far too tenacious. He began to cough up blood as the probe began to dig to his brain case.

[@Sean1M I'm waiting for a repsonse from Fluffly.]

After three quarters of an hour the probe jumped out of the Markovan's mouth. Oria then picked it up and activated her communicator. "I have the information. Send in a team to clean up this mess."
She then pushed a button on her arm and the cables retracted back into the chair. The dying Markovan captain then fell to the ground.

(I already posted Fluffy's reply. Its just that the post it was ment to be in was accidentally posted before it was finished and then you posted a reply before I finished editing it. Just look back up there to find it.)

Wijiit had waited for the others to find the damage, it becoming obvious that they gave up looking for the damage. He quickly answered a sudden call from one of the ships he was leading. "Move out of the way! One of the rocks blew up." What. Wijiit quickly moved out of the way of a bit of rock that was moving fast enough to tear a hole in the haul.
"Thankyou, you've saved lives." Wijiit replied after he noticed that everyone else had reacted accordingly.
"... Why is this job dangerous?"
"... I've never thought about that. But it's ok, just keep drilling."
"You've said that every time! You're not calm anymore, you know the danger. I-I'm going home." Wijiit watched as the screen flipped off and then her looked at his radar. One of the mining ships had done a u-turn and went back towards the planet they live at. They'll be punished later, but he realized that he had lost control of the situation when someone would rather fly back home and be kicked out of the kingdom then stay.
"... Oh, what am I supposed to do?" he sighed, resting his beak on the closest thing in front of him.

Haslin frowned. "Do you mean Liirlith?"

Azra gave an angry hiss at the name.
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The Markovan captain gave a slight croak. He could no longer see. His breath came in one final gasp before his hearts stopped beating.

"Yes that's it. I wanted to look up more information about the race but all I could get my hands on was some biology information. I take it the ambassador knows more about them than I do.
She didn't seem trustworthy from the start but then I never trust my employers. Always ready to stab you in the back."
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Oria took the probe down to the ships research laboratory to try and decipher the data.
"Lets see if this guy had any useful information. I hope the probe didn't degrade the data to much."

Velsen cursed as he was let go, and skidded to a halt, landing on his back. He saw the Krathunian cyborg leaping towards him, and readied his plasma pistol. Purple blood trickled from the wound on his shoulder, having suffered further abrasion. He cringed slightly at the pain. He had that Strike Trooper to thank for the original wound.

Velsen braced himself for the impact.

Meanwhile..  


Straus ran after Gettrav, bearing down on him quickly, his digitigrade legs enabling him to run relatively fast. He dodged several pieces of hanging plastic sheet, a bare counter, and several pipes laying on the floor, before stopping, bringing his rifle up to aim, and firing a precise shot which brought the Markovan down almost immediately. Straus approached to see the leg wound bleeding, the 7.92 mm bullet having torn the flesh apart.

He knelt down, shot a stare at the treacherous agent, and brought the butt of his rifle down on the Markovan, knocking him unconscious.

"Especially if those employers are Liirlith," growled Azra. "Back-stabbing is what they do best. You say she's still on this station?"
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The data from the probe mostly gave information on the Markovan Empire adn the rest of the Confederacy in the way of territory, and some data on governmental structures. There were some memories of family back home, and a few medals for bravery. There was some knowledge that there were two powerful orbs in the keeping of the Confederacy, but the Captain had not had any information as to where.
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Nazzi came of the room, bearing the body of Tissin. She looked at the unconscious Gettrav, and then after carefully lowering Tissin to the ground, drew his sword and advanced on the traitor.

Without warning, a stolen Jorro'kil blaster fired from out of the darkness, striking Straus in the thigh and distracting Nazzi from what she had intended to do.

"I see. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I'm looking for work. And yes she should still be on this planet. She came aboard my ship and I ordered it to move away from the planet so she can't hijack it. She's probably looking for a ship to steal so we will need to find the most likely locations."
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"Most of this data is useless but it seems this Confederacy organization at least knows something. Time to find out what races are members of this organization."

Haslin looked at Kim. "Are the ships guarded?"

Nira raised a hand. "Even if they are, will the guards be able to see this Liirlith?"
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The data from the probe gave a full list of the members of the Confederacy: The Jorro'kil Free Absolute, the Intragalactic Krathunian Covenant of Sethega, the Ryun-Wreae Federation, the Markovan Empire, and the Forlarm.

"All ships in this colony are heavily guarded but if she's cloaked that may not be any good.
Do you know the frequency for Liirlith cloaking devices?"
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Oria made her way back to the bridge. "We need to scan for ships that may belong to any of the following Confederat races: Jorro'kil, Krathunians , Ryun-Wreae, Markovan, and the Forlarm. These fleshlings seem to know about these artifacts. Finding them is now our top priority."

Haslin shook his head. "I don't think anyone knows that but the Liirlith themselves."

"Well," said Azra, "if we wait by the ships, she's probably bound to turn up sooner or later."

Fluffy the intervened. "Before I left for my mission I planted a tracking microdroid on her. The droid's signals can't reach me through her cloak so chances are Krim's guards won't be able to sense her emotions through it either. And scans of any known frequency will probably fail as well."

Ilinya pondered the Nevarzian's message for several minutes, replaying it a couple times to ensure she hadn't missed an inflection that would give away the true intentions of this race. The end word of the transmission, and how the Nevarzian had said it, made it fairly clear that they were planning something, if not implying that they very well could be a threat. Ilinya had her orders to investigate, but she didn't intend to provoke the Nevarzians by keeping the Engima at that system, figuring that there was a better way to deal with them. In addition, she had noticed that someone, or something, had been listening in on the conversation, their cover blown.

The commander turned to the bridge specialists. "Mark this system for further investigation, and send data from the scans of that cruiser to Federation command." She turned to the COMM systems. "The Confederacy will take care of the Nevarzians."

With that, the Engima left the system, though they had the intention of investigating whatever had been listening in. It headed towards the source of the radio signatures that had been given off by the listeners.

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Nvarn's momentum carried the Krathunian forward with great force as he knocked Velsen down, grabbing the Jorro'kil's arms with his massive armored hands and slamming them into the ground. With this, he was able to further aggravate the wound caused by Straus and knock the pistol out of Velsen's grip. Nvarn didn't fully tackle Velsen, instead pinning him down by his arms while on both knees above the kil's body. He lifted the alien up with noticeable power given to him by his implants, and pushed him against a wall. With this, he grasped both of Velsen's hands with one of his own and took out a small handcuff device from his armor, placing this upon the Jorro'kil's wrist. With his right arm he took his rifle back out of its place in the gauntlet and rested it upon the back of Velsen, waiting for Straus to aid him in containing Velsen, should he try something.

"You're hereby under arrest," Nvarn growled, a low, rumbling sound. "If you attempt to break free, I have no qualms with killing you."

Haslin thought a moment. "Do you know why she wanted the Markovan ambassador dead?"
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Nazzi jumped to support Straus as he staggered from the wound to his leg.

"It must be that Liirlith," she growled, dragging Straus to one side where there was some cover.

Another shot came and hit the wall, showering them with sparks.

"He still has the one Jorro'kil gun he stole," she said.

The Nevarzian ship watched as Enigma left the system, keeping a careful eye on the ship and anything it might leave behind. They truly wanted nothing to do with empires of former association.. at all.

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Kesh Pol, followed by his guards, walked some ways away from Suflet Calit and the others. From the distance, one could see him pacing unconsciously about, as he was communicating with the Nevarzian ship in orbit.

Several minutes later, a large shuttle appeared in the sky above the area where the Nisip had prepared the food for the Nevarzians, and hydraulic lifts set down all around the large piles. Large retractor slats scooped the food onto the trays, and the lifts gradually carried the food up into the pale blue and silver-colored shuttle.

Kesh, satisfied with the work, once more approached Calit, and this time handed him something.

"This is a communicator.. " He said. "You may use it to contact us. It has been simplified for your usage, all you need is to press the button there in the middle." He pointed with a claw to the button.

"It will contact a Nevarzian ship, and your message will be put through. Understand, you are to destroy this device if any try to take it from you."

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Straus's weight would be too great for Nazzi and he knew it. With a painful limp and several sharp exhalations, he set himself down beside a pillar, allowing Nazzi to help slightly.

"Zhank you... Ze Liirlith, his name is.. Najii." Straus said, holding a hand up to keep the Markovan's attention.

He checked his IAR. Fully operational. He re-inserted the magazine into the reciever, and a click followed by a whine was heard.

"He cannot be allowed to escape.. ve must kill him." He shifted his weapon's position, as if readying himself for a run from cover. He was in no fit shape for that, however.

"I don't vant to tell you to attempt distracting him, I don't even know if I could hit him." He glanced over at Tissin's body. "Too many dead..."

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Velsen spun around and spit into the Krathunian's face, still defiant. "Get off me you du'rakked freak, you're my dust." His eyes lit up with anger, and his voice was filled with rage.

"Based on what she said to me I don't think she even cared if he died. Her goal from what I've seen was to use me to try and pit the Markovans and Felinites against each other."

Azra growled. "That seems to be their favorite tactic. Either way, we need a plan."

Haslin rubbed his chin. "Unless she already considers her plan a failure, she probably will try something else to achieve her goals." He looked around. "We should see if we can set some sort of trap for her. Any suggestions?"
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"No need to ask," said Nazzi grimly. Before Straus could stop her, she sprang to another area of cover, covering the distance in a single leap. A shot went out at her as she passed, but she was expecting this, and deflected it with Tissin's sword. The angle of the shot was enough to give Straus a rough idea of where the enemy was.
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Hissin dusted his hands off, and then looked at Kesh. "I hope you'll excuse Captain Terrin's behavior," he said quietly. "I certainly wouldn't want us getting off to a bad start when we just met each other."

Suddenly Krim had a great idea. "I think I know what we can do. Thanks to a few engineering courses I took some years back I have a rough knowledge of the technology we used in this place and I think it might be possible to rig the planets dampening field to limit ship flight capabilities so they can't leave the atmosphere. That way we'll be able to catch her after she steals a ship.
The down side to this is that the ambassadors will temporarily be planet bound."

Nvarn's helmet came down, and his unnatural red eyes, burning with rage and defiance, stared intently into Velsen's. The Krathunian shoved his nemesis against the wall with pure brute force, keeping his hand gripped upon those of Veslen. He then whipped Veslen back, pulling the Jorro'kil back towards him with unnaturally high strength, as if to punish him. Clearly becoming more and more angry, he dug his armored claws deep into Velsen's injury, tearing apart flesh and aggravating the wound. In a low tone he growled, "I wouldn't push your luck."

Haslin nodded. "It's certainly worth a try. I say we put it into effect."

Azra stopped Fluffy for a moment. "You and I still have business to settle," he said to her in a low menacing tone. "It's just put off for the time being."

"Alright." Krim said. "I'm off to get the technicians to rig this dampening field."

Fluffy glared at Azra. "I said I was going to give you the money for a replacement eye. What more could you need?"

Velsen winced, and then gave a low growl. "You are unworthy to touch my blood." He said, staring at the purple blood on Nvarn's hands. His blood.

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Straus reached out slightly, trying to advise Nazzi against being a distraction, but as he saw her preliminary success, and the cyan plasma bolt that sizzled into Tissin's sword, he readied himself, took in a deep breath, and edged around the pillar. It was three feet in diameter, enough for him to hide behind, but by no means overly protective.

Using the holographic sight on the top rail of his rifle, Straus wanted to do as much damage possible to the Liirlith, and so set the firing mode on plasmatic, instead of the bullets that were also used in the dual-ammunition magazine that fed into the weapon.

Adjusting his helmet's HUD function, Straus was able to scan for thermal signatures. Another bolt flew toward Nazzi, and Straus saw, faintly, the origination of the plasma. He couldn't miss, or the Liirlith would get scared off, and they couldn't afford to lose him. The Strike Trooper would wait, slowly scanning the room from right to left with his rifle. Another shot passed, Straus saw the thermal trace, quickly pinpointed the blast's origination, took aim, and squeezed the trigger, all with growing anticipation.

A single cry brought sudden relief to him.