Futuristic The Precursors

[CaptainRustbolt21]

"We are malevolence incarnate; ruthless, without mercy, arrogant.
We believe our power and intelligence have no equal; that there is none to stop them.
They were proven wrong long ago, but my handiwork has been reversed now.
It is now their time of penance. Even without myself, the ones who released them...
Will seal them back away and end their reign once again."
- Nar'teso

T H E P R E C U R S O R S

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Within Solus Federation space territory, at an uncharted region of the Sagittarius Arm, a huge military fleet of Scouters, fighters, dreadnaughts, and battleships, all led by a humongous titanium-plated flagship, pass through the vast emptiness of space uninterrupted.​

​

Within the flagship, walking through the halls of this powerful cruiser is the fleet's captain: Susan Spearson, adored in a black-and-blue formal military uniform, with a cap to complete it. Accompanying the captain are her two most trusted crewmates: Thia Lightwood, the Angli healer, and Lux Ormidial, the Human supersoldier. They begin to approach a specific doorway that leads to its prisoner holding cells. Before they enter, they are met with one of their soldiers; a white-armored security soldier, armed with a plasma rifle, with a slit on the front of their encompassing helm. The soldier salutes to Susan. "Captain," the soldier greeted Susan. "The prisoners are secured in their cells and their weapons are confiscated. We are awaiting further instructions, captain." "Leave it to us, soldier. We are going to get what we need from them." Susan responds calmly to the soldier. "You are relieved for the evening." As the soldier passes through the trio, Susan uses her access card to open the doorway. The trio enter...​

​

What lies ahead of the trio are the prisoners; mercenary criminals suspected to have ties to the Swarm, a galactic mafia-like organization infamous for their enormous drug trade and black market. It was the Human, Howard Lancaster, and the Dehter, Belmyn Taerys, the two who waiting to meet the captain in their holding cells. "Howard. Belmyn." She calmly greets the duo, with coldness in their tone and voice.​

 

[The One-Sided Coin]

Lux walks exactly one pace behind, and once pace to the right of Susan, his earned spot as her right hand man. His cloak reaches to his shins, his black pants and shoes the same color as his cloak. He scans the halls habitually on there way to the prison hold, where he has read up on the prisoners they were going to visit, those prisoners being Howard Lancaster and Belmyn Taerys. Susan had informed him that he was going to be leading the interrogation, so he came prepared with several tools within his cloak, which not even Susan has looked inside. After all, Lux is very protective of his identity and his things. While they walked, Lux glanced over at Thia for a second before returning his gaze to directly in front of him.

He remained perfectly quiet out of habit, his footsteps nigh inaudible. Sometimes, it would be hard to remember he was even walking beside others because of his affinity to stealth. But that doesn't mean he can't hold his own in 1 on 1 fight. He watches the soldier that Susan dismisses for the afternoon walk away between he and Thia. And then, in a few more seconds, they come across the two interrogation targets he had been informed about. He looked at them in separate cells between the horizontal electric bars. Since he was on the right, he was closer to Howard's cell. He still remained quiet while Susan spoke the names of the prisoners. Lux's heterochromatic eyes stared at Howard, almost gazing into his soul. Lux was aware that he was known to make other crewmates and staff uncomfortable with his lack of speech, habit to seemingly appear out of nowhere, and his gaze. Lux was hoping to make Howard uncomfortable with his stare while waiting for Susan to give the word for him to extract the info he had from him first.

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard was quietly tapping his foot in his cell, and Belmyn was quietly waiting for release as the Federation. The two had been here for...who knows how long? An hour? A day? Everything seems like a blur when you're being held in a cell with nothing but the sound of a rusted vent circling recycled air into your cell. At least that's what Howard thought. He looked at Belmyn who was across from him, and she seemed to be more or less unphased by this turn of events. Though as it was with most Elthari citizenry, it was difficult to gauge what someone was thinking due to the fact that the entire population seem to prefer life inside of an E-suit then outside.

When the Solus officer arrived, Howard immediately walked up to the bars of his cells and proceeds to give the woman an earful. "About bloody time you Solus vent rats came by. I demand to know the reasons for this unlawful arrest! You have no cause to keep us contained under your jurisdiction for any length of time without contacting our parent fleets!" He argues, even before Susan can get a word out. He feels Lux's eyes staring at him and his head turns to look at the heterochromatic vent rat, who seemed to look a bit more then a little interested in the man for one reason or another. "And what does this bloke want? First time seeing an Elthari in full E-Suit isn't it? Well don't get too comfortable with the sight you cheeky bugger. I'm fixing to leave this deathtrap you call a ship right quick, so I suggest you find something else to keep your peepers occupied." He tells Lux.

 

[CaptainRustbolt21]

Susan's eyes narrow towards the loudest prisoner of the duo, Howard. She scoffed at his complaints and demands. Contact Howard's parent Elthari fleet? That's comparing to a prisoner demanding to be sent to another prison. She crosses her arms and adjusts her glasses. "We will be contacting the Elthari momentarily after we get this done," She tells Howard with the same cold voice. "For you two were within Federation space at your arrest. You have no diplomatic immunity here." She was intent on making sure justice was given to Howard and Belmyn, and given justly and righteously at the hands of the Elthari United Fleets. However, she needs information from them.

She slowly approached Howard's cell. "Now... from what evidence we gathered, we suspect that you and your accomplice have some... connections with the Swarm." She informs him. "Though I won't promise your release, if you can give us any information you know about the Swarm, I will see if I can get you two a deduced sentence." She finished. The Swarm had been a pain in the neck for the many factions' law enforcement, especially for the Solus Federation. With the Swarm's involvement in the Humans' black market, it had seen a spike in drug use and illegal prostitution. Susan was willing to do everything she can to get the intelligence necessary to dismantle the Swarm's operations and shut it all down.

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard throws up his hands and starts pacing his cell. Well...he had no way of telling if she was bluffing, nor did he know if what she said was right or not. He didn't know of any dealings with the Swarm, and even if he did know he'd keep his mouth tighter then the dreadnought's airlock. Loyalty wasn't something he was lacking. He leans against the wall and looked at Belmyn. "You've bene quiet. Got anything to say to the vent rat?" He asks, and Belmyn looked at him before turning to look at Susan and her retinue.

"I do not know of any dealings with the Swarm, nor any interactions with the Swarm. I suggest you look elsewhere." She said simply, her tone was simple and plain, but her speech was deliberate and careful. Unlike Howard, she was more cautious, and it showed. She eyed each one of the soldiers through her emotionless helmet, looking them up and down, making sure to estimate each of their capabilities and gauge the weaponry they had brought in. Worst case scenario, she might need to fight her way out, but best case scenario, the officer might simply let them off if the two proves to be less then useful to their goals.

 

[The One-Sided Coin]

Lux pulled his gaze away from Howard and instead turned it to Belmyn. His silence gave no indication of who he might be or what his capabilities are. The only thing that could be deduced was that he didn't look fun at parties. Lux listened to every word that came from Belmyn's hidden mouth and was determining whether they really had any info on what Susan wanted. Not to mention that Lux's cloak didn't let Belmyn determine what he had under it. Everything about him was mysterious, and that was Lux's goal.

After waiting a moment, Lux brought out a pad and pen from his cloak, and wrote something on it that neither Howard nor Belmyn could see. He gave the note to Susan after a light tap on the shoulder. The note read:

I believe the caution shown by Belmyn is suspicous. I think they have info we could use. It's possible it's not the kind we were looking for, but they must have some info of use.

 

[Cello.]

Her purple soft eyes scanned over two prisoners they have just captured who names were apparently, Howard and Belmyn. She smiled slightly as she looked to Susan. She crossed her arms slightly at the mention of the Swarm. They almost did not look like they were involved but she knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Her white wings fluttered slightly as stepped closer to the electric cell, the electricity jumping slightly. Her light blue dress brushed her knees as she tilted her head to watch them, she looked rather childish for her job. She never really paid attention to prisoners but she thought they would be scarier. She looked at Belmyn as she studied her. She knew she was scanning her to see if she had weapons and she didn't as she chose not to carry any but her power served well enough to be one. She signed the conversation as it went on to help herself remember it so she could pick apart it later incase she could figure out information for Susan.

She frowned when they called them a Vent Rat. She walked back to Susan's left side and turned her gaze to her. She needed to remember everything about this scene. She knew Lux was also on that as he would also interrogate them. She made a mental note to check with him later on what he got. She rolled her shoulders slightly and her wings flared out to her sides.

{Sorry this is so bad. Im tired lol}

 

[CaptainRustbolt21]

Susan read the note Lux had given to her. She eyes at the masked soldier, where he recognized her signal; she would soon give him the authorization to interrogate the prisoners, as she too believes that they are withholding information from them. Perhaps not the info she was looking for, sure, but it was better than nothing. Susan just needs to do one more thing first.

She turns her eyes at the prisoners. ”Okay then, Belmyn. Howard.” She said finally, to the duo. “What are the names of your parent Elthari fleets?”

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard sighs and he seemed to not really care why she wanted to asked, so he gave her the answer without any fuss. Easy enough. "The Vecker Fleet, should be making its rounds through the Helth systems by now if memory serves." He answers. Belmyn on the other hand...she simply kept quiet for around half a minute, suspicious as to why Susan wanted to ask.

"Is it necessary for you to know?" She asks calmly. "Take us to the nearest fleet, and we shall settle this though their own process of justice and bureaucracy. I don't believe Solus Federation staff would understand the intricacies and meritocratic nature of the Elthari governance and systems of law." Belmyn replies. Fancy words, clearly meant to confuse and distract. A gamble that perhaps Susan might stumble, and allow Belmyn to perhaps talk their way out of this. Clearly her companion didn't mind divulging any and all information about himself, a trait Belmyn had done better without.

 

[CaptainRustbolt21]

• Prison Cells
• Power Grid

• 
  "The workings of your faction's justice system is not of my concern," She responds to Belmyn's comment, seeing through her persuasion. "It is taking you two to the Vecker Fleet's authorities, hand them whatever evidence we gathered, and give you two a righteous punishment." She then digs through her jacket and pulls out a white keycard. "Speaking of evidence..."
  
  She hands it to Lux Ormidial, knowing that the keycard would give him the authorization needed to open the prison gates. "Lux will be interrogating you two for the information you are clearly withholding. I know the capabilities of Lux's methods... and you two will not like it." She gestures Thia to come with her, to leave Lux with the prisoners, as Susan prepares the leave the holding cells. "Consider this your last opportunity to give up info willingly. I would see it as mercy." She proceeds to exit the room with Thia in tow.
  
• 
  The central power generator of the flagship; the heart of all its operations. Closely monitored by various engineers and guarded by various soldiers, they all keep a keen eye at the power core; the tall beam of plasmic energy being released and filtered throughout the ship via a self-sustaining X'i Core at the bottom of the generator. One must be very careful with the generator, as the slightest disruption would put much of the ship into a temporary power outage.
  
  Nearby a ventilation shaft, two white-armored guards were monitoring the surrounding area of the energy core, whipping up a conversation to pass the time. "So, y'heard that the BrumelCorp is buyin' out that Mannchester Mining company?" One guard asked his companion. "Ooof, yeah. Mannchester has really gotten some slack after word got out that their ship was what caused the Elthari to rise into power. And my mama worked there."

 

[The One-Sided Coin]

Lux rolled his shoulders, as if stretching and getting warm for what he was going to do. Before either of the two in the cells could say another word of either sarcasm or anything, Lux drew one of his many knives. He turned to Howard first since he would be an easier target, he figured, since he clearly doesn’t have the kind of verbal caution of Belmyn. The easy information that will take less time comes first. He had the keycard in his hand, and kept an iron grip on it, but made sure not to break it. He was confident the 6’5” suit-wearing human would not beat him in a fight. He had fought bigger, smaller, faster, and stronger opponents than himself before and have still won, so he isn’t intimidated either.

Not only did he have some info, most likely, he didn’t like the way he was called a ‘cheeky bugger’. It may be petty, but a reason all the same. He took his notepad out and wrote a note. After he was done, he took it and stuck it on the inside wall of the cell so it would remain there in his sight no matter where he was in the cell. It read

You will tell me what I want to know. And I will dismantle your armor and shove every nut and bolt into your skin to extract it. What info are you withholding?

That was all the note read, and that was all that really needed saying. After Howard got the chance to read the note, Lux opened the gate, but immediately kicked Howard backward away from the cell door that he opened. He stepped in the cell and relocked the cell door with the card. He then put it his cloak. He kept his blade out, and then activated its built-in plasma battery. His posture gave a ‘last chance’ vibe as he gestured to the note. This was truly Howard’s last chance before he was subject to very unpleasant things.

 

[Cello.]

She followed Susan down the halls of the ship. They were pretty empty except for the occasional soldier or worker. She eyed a couple of the soldiers as they left.. they looked so lifeless in the white uniforms. {I might not be correct on the uniforms, correct me if im wrong lol} She was replaying the conversation in her head, picking up little details within the short conversation. She tilted her head to face Susan as they walked down halls and turned a couple times. She had a frown on her face when a detail came up. She quickly signed, Belmyn was studying us for.. weapons I think.

She waited for Susan to respond to what she said or to reassure her it might have been something useful. Her wings glided briefly and almost tangled in her dress as she pranced beside Susan to help her carry longer strides. Susan was taller than her by quite a bit so it was difficult to keep up with her.

 

[AsaruKnight]

Absorbing the metal cover of the ventilation shaft, Ben quickly leaps at the two guards, whipping out a taser and a dart, barely giving either guards any time to think before the closer one is zapped, and the other stabbed with the anesthesia dart. "My apologies, kawan, at least you will be able to meet your mama again." Ben says to the man, whose consciousness is rapidly fading. "Let's see if I can't cause chaos and escape for free~" Ben says, hiding both men in the ventilation shaft and borrowing one of their outfit, donning it quickly and skipping into the power grid room. Ben pulls out his EMP, kissing it once, then throwing it close to one of the many boxes, before jumping down, next to the singular box, picking up his hat, and triggers the bomb. Ben checks the layout of the map he stole, and carefully makes his way to rescue his friends.

 

[CaptainRustbolt21]

• Power Grid
• Prison Cells

• 
  The ensuring electromagnetic explosion caused the plasmic rods to go haywire, fizzing on and off as the room shakes. The engineers panic as the room dims into a red glow, as electricity around the walls overloaded and sparked everywhere. “WARNING: CORE STABILITY COMPROMISED. AUXILIARY ENERGY NOW IN USE.” The intercom blares out as Ben rushes out of the room to find his friends.
  
• 
  “WARNING: CORE STABILITY COMPROMISED. AUXILIARY ENERGY NOW IN USE.”
  
  The intercom blared in the prison cells, alerting Lux, Howard, and Belmyn. As the area around them shakes, the room dims after losing its power, causing the cells to suddenly deactivate.
  
  Then, one of the vent shakes on the ceiling, behind Lux, breaks open and a figure drops down. A figure that Howard and Belmyn recognize; a figure wearing a green Praetor suit with a black jacket worn over it. It was Samuel, the blue-skinner horned Devil, and their leader. He grabs Lux from behind and shoves him away from Howard. He sticks a device onto the masked soldier and kicks him onto the wall. The device explodes into white foam, covering Lux’s entire chest with the soapy substance. It quickly hardens and sticks onto the wall, leaving Lux stuck, covered in harden foam.
  
  “Hey, hey, y’all!” Samuel greeted Howard and Belmyn, with the former’s machine pistols hanging from his belt and the latter’s sniper rifle on his back. “I hope ya missed me, because it took me a damn good while to learn how to infiltrate this place.”

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard looks at the note, and he read it...just barely. He was more annoyed and angry to listen to some punk tell him what to do. "You want to fight me then? Duel it out with fists and wrenches? Can't even speak on your own, bah! What makes the mute think he'll be able to make the tinman talk when he's too much of a corner sitter* to hear his own voice?" He ranted, not afraid of the mute, not afraid of what he thought were empty threats. Luckily for Howard, he didn't need to find out if those threats were indeed empty threats, when the captain descended down from the ceiling and entrapped the interrogator in some kind of fast hardening foam. "Well it's about bloody time you got here captain. I was just about ready to knock some heads myself if this delirect proved itself too complicated for you." Howard said, and holds out his hand for an appreciative shake.

Belmyn was...less then thankful. She stood up from her seat and walked over to Samuel and held out her hand, not to thank him for saving them, but mostly to grab her weapons. "If you don't mind handing us our weapons, I assume it might be imperative that we manage to escape the ship with both speed and efficiency." She suggests.

 

[CaptainRustbolt21]

Samuel laughed appreciatively at Howard's comment, glad to be reunited with his two favorite crewmates. "Oh, but of course, Howard, my boy!" He responded enthusiastically, accepting his handshake. "Can't just abandoned a loyal member to the Fists of Fury, after all!"

Once Belmyn, the lovely and sexy-lookin' Dehter assassin, states the prerogative to give them their guns, Samuel nods with a grin, showing his serrated teeth. "Of course, my dear..." He said. He pulls Howard's machine pistols out of his belt and hands them to him. He grabs ahold of Belmyn's sniper rifle and was about to give it to her. However, when her arm stretches out to grab it, Samuel jerks it away. "Although..." He began with a soft voice. "Considering all the effort I took to rescue you... perhaps a little 'thank you' is in order?" He leans towards Belmyn with a seductive grin, his cheek turned to her, expecting Belmyn to give him a nice little kiss.

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard takes his machine pistols and checks the clip. Fully loaded, as he would expect. He gives a nod and looks over at Lux, clinging to the wall. "And what about that bloke?" He asks the captain, only to find that Samuel was busy flirty with the resident mercenary of the crew. "Alright...I guess...we'll just leave the scrapper there then." He concludes and began walking around to scout the area, keeping his weapon handy in case of...unneeded attentions.

Belmyn reaches out to grab her weapon, but when the captain pulls it away and began to ask for a kiss, the Dehter simply used her telekinetic abilities to rip the weapons from his hand and walked away from him, leaving Samuel unlucky in his attempts to attract the Dehter once again. Her focus at the moment was to simply get out, escape and return to the Fists of Fury as quickly as possible. All other concerns was secondary, and Captain Samual's misguided attempts at flirting with the Dehter even less so.

 

[Cello.]

She heard a soft boom and the lights flickered slightly. She knew something was up and her purple eyes went wide. She drew a circle in the air with what looked like small stars in it. It blazed white for a split second revealing the symbol she did and then the light transferred to her arm. The symbol transformed to a small sturdy strap of pure light with a coffin shaped shield on the other end. It was bright and blindly as it radiated energy along her arm, not letting her get tired from the more heavy spell.

She looked at Susan quickly before starting to the prison area they were coming from, as she assumed that's were the problem was. She was turning sharply on corners and almost skidded into a wall but stabilized herself with her wings. She was panting by the time she nearly ran into Howard who happened to be scouting out.. This was not good. She tightened her hold on the shields strap that wound through her fingers. Her eyes darted to Howards gun and her wings flarred out to the side, casted yellow by her shield. She was not sure if she wanted to back away to find Susan or to stay there and fight and hope Susan or someone comes soon.

 

[The One-Sided Coin]

Lux, right after he was about to make good on those threats he wrote on the paper, when something shook the ceiling above and behind Lux. He spun around only for him to be caught from behind, and shoved away into the wall. Lux barely has any time to react before a fast-acting hardening agent locks his chest and his arms inside of the substance. He kicked around, trying to catch one of them to trip or something, but it is futile. Lux remains silent even when pinned to the wall. He stared at the new face, apparently Howard and Belmyn's captain, that had come to rescue them. He made a point to memorize the appearance and everything about the new face. Something clicked in his head, he remembered the file on the Fists of Fury he was given, and who the leader was. Samuel. He couldn't reach his notepad, and he doesn't have any alternate forms of communication like an earpiece that he can speak into since he simply doesn't speak unless it is to another person, and there is absolutely no way other than to speak.

While he observed, he noticed the weaponry they used, the comradery, and their relationships. He cursed himself mentally for not having seen the usefulness in updating his mask to have some sort of text-to-speech or thought-to-speech. He would have to develop that tech with Susan's permission later. But for now, he was perfectly silent and watching as Howard, his interrogation target, left the opened cell and begun scouting around, presumably. That left him in the room with an obviously experienced and calm sniper with seemingly no interest but missions, like Lux in a way, and Samuel, clearly a character with quite the personality and something resembling charisma. Though his cloak and arms may be locked in the foam, his fingers and wrists could still move. And at the moment, those dexterous hands were working with the things in his cloak that he was going to use for his torture/info-extraction to work on a way out to saw through the foam with a one of his knives. The only sound that was made was a very quiet hum of a plasma battery activating, and Lux testing if the foam was able to conduct electricity and heat from plasma well, or if he would just have to wait until one of the crewmembers came and discovered the breakout

 

[DapperKnight]

Howard was busy tinkering with his firearm, readjusting the gas chambers, redoing the sights and so forth, when he hears the sound of something coming towards him, and fast. He holds his machine pistol out in front of him, expecting it to be some Federation guards looking to recapture him and his crew, and to his expectations that seemed to be correct. A winged woman steps into his view and just as swiftly Howard aimed and fired a burst of plasma projectiles at Susan. It was a panicked shot, without aim or technique. Mere instinct, and only a single shot managed to strike her, though it glanced off her shield. The engineer immediately stepped into cover and bit his lip. "Captain! We have trouble!" he calls back into the cell.

Belmyn immediately hears Howard and turns to Samuel. "I suggest we begin fighting out way out of this ship. Unless you have another way out that is. I'm rather open to options." She tells the captain, not noticing that Lux seemed to be testing the foam for weaknesses. She checks her rifle and begins to set off towards Howard, to give the human some backup with the reinforcements.

Cello. CaptainRustbolt21

 

[Cello.]

As she was looking at Howard when he shot at her, the shot surprised her, it bounced off her shield but it sent her skittering back on impact. She fell to the ground but was up again when she heard him call for back up. She closed her eyes for a split second and prayed to Lys that she could survive whatever was to come. She could hardly take on one person let alone three.. when a idea hit her.

She scanned the cold white ceiling above them, which was pretty high up so she couldnt reach it standing but could if she flew.. She found a vent and her eyes locked on it. She darted past Howard, her wings sweeping the floor until she was in the air. Her wings brushed the sides on the halls but she had enough room to move up to the vent. Her wings flapped quietly as she got closer and closer to the vent.

She saw the Dehter coming and quickly hit the vent with the shield, it popped up and inside the dark vent. The light from her shield bounced around the vent as she climbed in, her wings resting at her sides. She got a bold idea after she closed the vent door. She started to crawl to where the cell was from earlier. Vent shafts aloud her to see where she was going but she was going at a slow pace. One of the shafts were kind of open so she peeked her head down, her hair falling after her in a white waterfall. She looked at Lux who seemed to be attached to the wall and a devil right outside the cell.

DapperKnight The One-Sided Coin