The Disruption (IC)

Absolute observed the chaos that was going on. Figuring out that smaller organics could be dealed whit more easily, Absolute directed the fire tovards the Aldut. The two hellborns directed their flamers to the tentacles, while veasels and spider walker shot their red lasers at the body.

Xej's invisibility was starting to fade, ever so slightly, but restored itself when Lamor tapped him on the shoulder with the red orb. He turned his head, and realized it must have been Lamor.

"Good work. Now, let's deal with those mech soldiers and get out of here." Said the invisible Xej.
He looked over to see the varied walkers and robots suddenly start shooting, at the Aldut.

It had been somewhat a month since the Xikarians have last participated in a battle.

Kenvis J'lon has spent the weekend off of the Blossomed Nebula. It felt... odd to be off of his ship for so long. Today, he was going to return to duty. But he had a bit more than his everyday duties to worry about. Only weeks ago, a Xikelic technician suggested the development of the Mk3 Sunbeam. It shook so many minds that the news reached Emperor Tilus. Most Xikarians were scared because the Mk2 sunbeam was strong enough already. In fact, it might've been to strong. It might have even been a mistake to share their "achievement" with the Jorro'kil Empire. Kenvis thought of this throughout the morning. If the sunbeam idea got through, it will either be installed on the Blossomed Nebula or be installed on a brand new Superstarship all together.

Zigwin was having the same thoughts. This was an important matter. Should they introduce a weapon stronger then the gravitation wave, or even the planet buster, to the universe for their own good? Zigwin thought not. The entire reason he formed the LCE Foundation: to stop wars and spread peace. If they created this sunbeam, many things could happen. If the development of one began, allies, including the newly-added Jorro'kil, might view this as a threat and break the alliance, or even start a war. Being a captain and a veteran of many wars, Zigwin did not want a repeat of the apperently wide-spread Haze Age war. In that war, too many people, including his love interest, died for him to remember. Not that he wanted to. He knew he had a say in this. If the idea got through, Zigwin would do his best to stop it. The last thing he needed was a war. Upon reflection of his emergency plan, he realized that other empires culd have a say in this. And there were so many millitary empires out there, he realized it would be hard to stop the production of one of the greatest and most powerful weapons ever.

Exo, not looking to see if the blob hit Kradus or the floor, turned in a semi circle, to face the invisible Xej and Lamor. "Actually, I-I think you should wait till they've dealt with the Aldut, or vise v-versa, that way we only have to kill the injured victor." It said, stumbling on several words as its bodies recovery system slowly shut down 'extra' functions to conserve oxygen. "Other than that, there robots, so if you've got any EMP's, I'd use them first."

The Aldut screeched and suddenly burst open spilling forth a huge array of mouthed tendrils and shrieking blobs of armored flesh decorated with spouting mouths of Karthla. It sprouted three large heads on top of tendril-like stalks. Then two more arose behind them. It hissed and suddenly blasted green acidic fires everywhere dissolving any lifeforms it touched.

Exo jumped back when some of what appeared to a form of carbonic acid was squirted its way, fizzing violently in some kind of reaction to the air, probably rapid oxidization so that it gave the appearance of fire, which would mean that minus the oxygen, its good night acid, hello alkaline base. Problem was, it didn't exactly have a magic void-in-a-bottle laying around so that wasn't exactly a viable solution. Hah, puns. It thought, before remembering that it wasn't the only one being threatened by the acidic solution. "Actually, using the drones as cover fire while we run is probably a better option." It said, before turning and running for the exit, tailing Kradus by about 10 feet.

Kradus got up and screamed as the acids came flying. He almost slipped and ran behind a large rock pillar on the other side of the room by a huge pond of shining clear water.

He was breathing heavily and laid back trying to recover. Lamor had the orb but Kradus would soon take action.

Exo watched some of the Alduts acid spray in the direction Kradus had been and heard his scream, which seemed a bit ridiculous, seeing how he had been boasting about having 'tasted many creatures blood' and 'some worse than the Aldut.' Exo was pretty sure most of that was lies and could be chopped up to a desperate intimidation attempt. It almost laughed, but didn't.

Then he slipped in a puddle, and Exo threw any diplomacy out the window and laughed, still following him via wet foot prints. When the tracks stopped behind a pillar It eyed his hiding spot, it looked to be half way decent, the pillar would serve as a shield to any incoming liquids or solids for that matter, but it wouldn't do much about the Karthala. They would have to be dealt with by hand, or by the cave collapsing, which was looking increasingly probable, the longer the drones were firing their ballistics at the aldut, seeing as they had a 47% miss fire ratio, approximately. Then Exo noticed the pool of water, it was the same one it had used to sneak in here, there was a small tunnel about 4"x3" that you could squeeze through and use as a escape route.

It jumped over a pool of acid and cringed as it landed, sending a jolt of pain from its injuries. It did its best to ignore this as it walked around to pillar and over to the pool of water, placing its self in-between Kradus and the opening. Kradus was obviously not in the best shape, because he hadn't moved the whole time, even though it had splashed through the water rather loudly. It then waded out into the deeper end of the pool near the opening, making sure that if Kradus decided to open fire he would miss because of the effect water had on bullets and energy. "Nice hiding spot, but, why Oh mighty lord Kradus, are you hiding from your own creation?"

"The Aldut is not my creation, rather Mother Edus's... but yes, I can see it is far worse than things I have ever fought before" he said. "Never underestimate the Karthla"

Kradus sneered. As much as he wanted to fight, he held back to regain his strength. And it seemed he was always the one attacking Exo, he wanted to see if this creature actually had the guts to fire back at him.

The flying acid caught three veasels, which soon collapsed to the floor sparkling and smoking as their circuits and wirings melted. Other ones got some minor burns that caused slight fall to their efficiency. Second hellborn got major hit to its head, losing all of its sensors. Spider walker was saved by its light energy shield, but the shield got almost overloaded.

Reamining veasels scattered to take cover, while Absolute directed the blinded hellborn to charge towards the aldut. Using the sensory of other units hellborn advanced whit steady steps, firing its both napalm throvers towards the Aldut's body. hellborn's head was sparcling and smoking, as the acid made its way through the light armour.

Absolute was simultaneously scanning for the orb and invisible organics. Orb was easy to find, as although it was hidden from visible light, it still emitted its own distinctive radiation. Orb's signal was moving around, slowly approaching the exit. Absolute directed one of the remaining veasels whit intact sencory to aim towards the ord's singnal. Veasel turned, blinked it's eye sensor to find the best frequency, and directed a hail of laser pulses to the close proximity of the signal.

"Well, since your obviously in a more 'talkative' mood, versus a 'hulk smash' mood, I was wondering, in the event that you are killed, then what kind of fail save do you have? I'm sure you with all your magical karthala fairy friends, you have some kind of top secrete fairy potion that brings you back from the dead, if this is how well you normally fight." Exo asked, with a mock innocent look that was entirely wasted with it being invisible and all.

While it was talking, it was using the sound of its voice to cover the sound of it moving through the water, further towards the exit, incase Kradus went back into 'hulk smash' mode and it needed to avoid being shot, because, in all honesty, it didn't think it could take another serious hit without its body shutting down for repairs. And Exo could breath water and he couldn't. Some might call that cowardice, but to Exo that meant squat, as long as it was in water, it could heal faster and it knew that Kradus would have to go through it in order to escape, and it wasn't in a hurry, nor did it really wan't to kill him, it was much more fun to annoy him to his wits end.

Kradus's eyes widened in shock. Does he know of the prophecy! No surely not! Kradus thought.

"They don't use 'magic.' That's preposterous. When interacting in alien areas their minds tend to do strange things to the environment that may seem like magic... And... what exactly do you mean by fail save?" asked Kradus hoping nothing would be said about this future son of his.

When Kradus's response wasn't anger, and was more 'serious' Exo knew it had inadvertently struck on something, he did have a fail save, and judging from his reaction it was a very touchy one that couldn't be tampered with. Meaning it wasn't a paradox, which only works if it is tampered with. Meaning it was something along the lines of a clone or some other organic creature, probably the same as Kradus, possibly with enhancements. But, such a devise would be easy to kill, having no defensive abilities.

"By fail save, I mean an organic vessel that can be controlled by your mind, soul, whatever." Exo said, going off of it's hunch, but being careful not to say anything that it wasn't sure about.

"Impossible" said Kradus. "Once you're dead, you're dead. How the Var'gek would I possibly accomplish such an impossible task?" he asked. "When I die I will pass the title of leader of the Dominion to General Shancar, you idiot!"

Xej had managed to avoid the acid sprayed by the Aldut and the blades of fire and napalm launched by the UFIAI's soldiers by staying back in a corner. He was still invisible, so decided to use and abuse that.

Just as he was about to go on another attack run, a wounded tentacle belonging to the Aldut spat acid in his direction, which landed on the left-hand side of his helmet and on some of his arm and chest armor. Therus's armor held up to most of it but sme of the acid melted through his helmet and burned his beak. The Jorro'kil gave a loud screech.


"CAAAAAAAAEUUUUUUWWWWWWW!"

The blinded hellborn stopped in point-blank range from the Aldut, and lowered its missile pods to firing position, while same time frying the beast whit the flamers. It was constantly hit by the acid pouring from the Aldut, and as it was just about to fire the missiles, one of its legs snapped in half. Half of the missiles hit the Aldut, but the rest went flying aroung the cave as the poor half-molten robot came falling down on the cave floor. Air was filled with sharpenel and falling rocks as the cave's roof started to slowly collapse.

Kradus quickly sprang up as he saw noticed the collapsing. He quickly ran over and spotted Lamor's sword laying on the ground. He ran over and felt around behind the pillar and found Lamor. Swiping at him he grabbed the orb and headed for the exit. Just at the right time he leaped down the tunnel and was sucked out.

With only a few minutes he submerged to the beaches outside the lake and began to run even more, but was out of breathe, but he kept going.

The Aldut on the other hand was suddenly crushed by many huge boulders falling from the top of the cavern. They nearly killed it, but only nearly. A few heads still lived however they stopped pouring out acids.

When the cave began to collapse, Exo ducked under water and began swimming franticly for the exit, it reached it and swam down the small rock shaft and into the open water of the lake. It then headed for the surface, and, using its webbed feet to the best of its ability, it reached the surface within 10 seconds. It then ran for its ship, which took about 2 minutes to reach, It skidded to a halt in front of it and quickly typed in the start code. The doors opened and it jumped inside, crawling hastily into the cockpit and strapping itself in. It then activated the radiation sensors and had soon found the orb moving in the opposite direction on the other side of the lake, at the speed of someone running. It continued to track the signal, charting the path it took. Kradus has a fail save. It thought, almost laughing, this, it had to see.
(you do realize Exo now has enough info to piece together most of the prophecy?)

Absolute had caculated the high propability of the collapse, but situation had got bit out of control. As the organics started to leave the cave, Absolute's units got scattered by falling rocks. The other hellborn was crushed, and only three veasels were left operational. Spider walker got some hits, but recieved nothing worse than few dents.

As the Orb's signal exited the cave, surviving units went after it. Meanwhile at the surface, tanks and other units from the landing ship were readying themselves to track the Orb as it surfaced.

Kradus spotted the tanks and began to run, he was invisible but the orb's radiant power was beyond that of the eyes. He tried to activate his cloaking device, scrambling all signals. He was lucky enough to get a weak surge through to hide him slightly. Then he clicked a putton on his wrist band to call for a large fleet of dropships to pick him up.

Exo watched as the signal faded slightly, it was still traceable, but it meant that Kradus was activating a tracking devise, and was probably calling in reinforcements at the same time. It started its ships engines and took off, rising about 100 feet into the air, leveling out, and crossing the lake in hot pursuit of the signal. Its ship was now right on top of the dot, it was tempted to use a magnetic pulse to 'abduct' Kradus, which would be easy, given his armor, but it held back, best to let him run a bit on his line and tire himself out before you reel him in. It thought, while working on the figuring out what his fail save was exactly in the back of its mind.

"That's Mother Edus's" and "Never underestimate the Karthala" kept bouncing around inside its head, if this 'Edus' figure, who is some kind of Karthala queen or the 'mother' of all Karthala was able to create the Aldut, and give Kradus control over it, as well as bring Lord Knoll back from the dead, surely it would be a small feat to bring Kradus back... maybe not as Kradus specifically, seeing that his body would have been destroyed, but maybe as one of her creations... or a child perhaps.

As exo raised it's ship, it became quite impossible for Absolute to ignore it. Ship was obiviously tracing the Orb, so it was either someone from the cave, or one of their allies, maby even an ally of the one carrying the orb. Quicly Absolute selected few units with missiles or fast-traking lasers, and directed them to fire Exo's ship.

Exo's ships radar detected incoming projectiles, which was expected, seeing as there were tanks and the like hidden crudely amongst the trees. It hit a small green button and the outside of the ship seemed to flex, as the carbon nano tube fiber that made up the exterior tightened, closing any gaps that may be present in the harder than diamond fabric. The only thing it was worried about form the fire was that they might inadvertently hit Kradus with one of the missiles or lasers. So, tired out or not, Exo was forced to activate the superconductive magnet tractor beam, causing two gyroscope like wheels on the bottom of the ship to spin and anything metal directly under them, including Kradus was pulled up into the air and into the ships now open bay doors which slammed shut behind the pile of small metal object and a no doubt angry Kradus, trapping them in the ships cargo hold.

Exo was about to exit the cockpit and move to the cargo bay when the ship was hit by the first missile and, having just unbuckled, it was thrown against the none to soft dash bored and knocked unconscious. The ship detected the lack of correction and switched to auto pilot and leveled out again at 100 feet. After about 1 minute the Acirian regained consciousness but something wasn't quite right. It stood shakily up and looked at its reflection in the glass cockpit; there was a bloody gash on the side of its head where it had smacked into the dash, but more than that it was as if its mind had done a reboot and sure, it had all of Exo's memories, but the way it perceived things was fundamentally different, where Exo had been mildly annoyed by 'normal' people, this rebooted version had a overly strong will to grind all those... inferior... morons into the ground for their on going stupidity. And... it thought, while I am ill-equipped for such an undertaking, the person who could do the job best is trapped in my very own cargo bay... thank you, Exo.
(Iz goin' to za dark side...)

Xej eventually regained enough awareness after some of his beak had been burned to realize the cave had started to collapse. He saw Kradus walking over to where Lamor's sword was, and saw him ruffle through what looked like thin air, until he himself turned invisible. Lamor must have been there, and unconscious to.

Therus ran as best as he could over to Lamor, picked his invisible body up, and started to carry him towards the cave's exit. Exo had already left by then, probably following Kradus. They reached the exit swirling with water, and Xej walked right up to it. Both Lamor and Therus were sucked right into the spinning whirlpool, and were thrown out of the mouth of the lake after about a minute of disorientating spinning the whirlpool exit. By this time the both of them were visible, but Lamor was still unconscious. Xej coughed up water while recovering from the impact after they were thrown out of the lake.

'What the?" Kradus yelled as he was abducted. His invisability slowly began to wear off. He growled at Exo. Just then nearly a dozen Dominion dropships appeared throwing missiles everywhere.

"Let me out now!" he growled seeing the ships.
_______________________________________________

Lamor awoke coughing up water and laid back down unable to move. Just then a Confederacy dropship came into view, the battle was ending and ships were flying everywhere. It had spotted Lamor and Xej and lowered with a female Dranzoot commander popping out.

"Get them out of here!" she yelled as three Dranzoots got out and helped them up.