Rise of the Ark

Many of the ships in the area began to evacuate the region, but not before a bright flash of light emanated from the center of the galaxy Consuming the blackness of space. Scans indicated that the entire Imperial armada have vanished. Not a trace left of them. Captain Lenard rushed back to the hologram, "What was that?! Where are the Shade?"

Suddenly a booming voice somehow hacked into the communication systems of all ships in the area.

[WE HAVE RISEN ABOVE THE DARKNESS! ALL LIFE SHALL BURN IN THE EVERLASTING GLORY OF SHEOL!]
*High pitched voices echo in the background*
[SHEOL RISING! SHEOL RISING! SHEOL RISING!]
[BEHOLD! THE ARK HAS OPENED AND WE ARE FREE!]

Many people throughout all the ships began to panic. Even on the Triumphant and the Horus. Dozens of escape pods launch towards the edge of the galaxy...

Hugo frowned amongst all the commotion. This would certainly interfere with his dinner plans on Saturday. No matter, he made his way to a window to watch the goings on without the hologram's grainy-ness. Sheol? That was so strangely familiar... Where had he heard that before...?

The DEATHBLOW, having seen all the Shade armada disappear, turns around slowly and then, without further ado, starts to disappear into space, the tip just disappearing as if going through a gate to somewhere else.

***

"Activate the Gate. Let's go. There isn't much to see here any longer."

Suddenly, Moulton burst through the door and into the room Hugo and company are in. His Cybratic close behind.

"Have you any idea just WHAT I went through to get to this location? Ok, so, I hacked into your scanners. I know, complain complain moan moan. BUT I cross reference then with the top secret Unity databases, you know elder dragon level stuff here, and I came up with this..."

He turn around the screen of his wrist holo-computer. Beyond all the top secret, eyes-only stuff on the page, it read:


"Go ahead and click the link when ready."

Hugo looked at the newcomer with a serious expression. He glanced over at Captain Lenard. "Does this sort of thing happen often?" He asked, looking back at Moulton. He shifted his weight onto the wall and put his forefinger and thumb on his chin studiously.

Miiko opened her eyes again. she looked up at the man helping her. what was his name? she couldn't recall. She weakly unplugged her charging cables. "Pa..." she mumbled, trying to recall his name. her eyes took on an ordinary glow. she looked...human.

Parem studied her, she had been through a rough day that much was obvious. "You can call me Parem miss, it seems that your battery is low."
Placing his hand on her forehead, he focused all the energy in the room. As the room grew colder, warmth began to spread throughout the girls body. When the process was complete he stood to his feet. The girl was now 100% recharged with several days extra to spare. Parem raised out his hand toward the girl. "Come with me and I will take you to safety." Although he looked like he couldn't be any older then thirty, his bright gold eyes revealed the truth of his age.

Captain Lenard was quite shocked to see some random man barge into the navigation chamber and unlock top secret material. All within less then a minute.

Captain Lenard - "No... I can honestly say that this is not normal, but then again this entire situation is out of the ordinary..."
The captain nodded toward three of his security guards that were slowly approaching the stranger from behind.
"Take his material that he found and lock him in the containment room. I want to question him later."

Hugo silently reached into his jacket and flicked the safety off of both his gauss revolvers. The blue lights on the side of the barrel lighted up to signal it was ready to fire. His body grew cold as the guns absorbed thermal energy from his torso to power the electromagnets. But he did not take them out of their holsters. He was simply thinking a few steps ahead. And he wasn't sure how things would turn out, but better safe than sorry.

"Should we activate the drive and get the ship to a more secure location?" He asked.

Moulton: "I have the clearance for this I'm one of the top human scientific ambassadors and whatnot. Here's my... where'd my ID go!? Bloody hell! Well the Cybratic, Wern, has his certificate stating he's my field assistant. And I still have my transport piloting licence (imagine like a driver's licence), and the names do match."

Wern stepped forward seemingly focused solely on Hugo

Wern: "Indeed I do, but I'd recommend deactivating that firearm, sir. I can sense the power. You make a move, it'll explode before the 5 degree angle from down. Not a threat, a warning. I think at the speed of light."

"I believe you're threatening me." Hugo replied with an icy stare, "I don't take kindly to threats."
Hugo, however, knew better than to trifle with the Unity on board one of their own ships and slowly deactivated his revolvers.

Miiko stared at Parem curiously, trying to see past his golden gaze. She sighed, unable to pass his walls. She scanned the room. "Why did you come?" She questioned. She was intrigued by this young man, whose eyes belong to the old and wise.

A slight grin formed across Parems face. "You can't imagine how often I hear that. The truth is, I have the power to go anywhere in the universe in an instant. The very essence of cosmic energy is mine to command. I heard your cry for help. But right now, there is little time to explain. The universe is in danger and I am going to need help to stop it."

Suddenly, in the ship Parem is in, a great calamity occurs as a piece of metal that was in no danger of falling crashed to the ground, it was a small metal pipe. You hear a slight shuffling afterwards. Perhaps a voice muttering under its breath? But that could've been imagined.

Miiko looked up. She thought she heard a voice. she ignored such thoughts and returned to Panem. "May I be of assistance?" she asked. she hadn't been alive, truly, in so long. she wished to see more than a room and holographic images.

Parem helped the girl to her feet just as the pipe fell to the ground. Something was wrong, with complete focus he concentrated on the space around him. A single heartbeat vibrated like the sound of a drum in his ear. Only audible to his ears. Parem looked back at the girl and spoke softly.
"Stay calm... we are not alone..."

Miiko's eyes widened. she gripped his hand tightly. she nustled in beside him, scared. she then remembered her electricity. she couldn't use it. it drained about half of her power with one shock.

As Parem slowly rounded to cover that the metal rod fell from. He found a small spot of light. But just as he was about to contain it, he heard a voice say "click" behind him. He turned to face to voice to see a blonde-haired blue-eye young man, not even an adult yet, holding a gun up to Miiko's head. This gun was a hand with a small point of light on the tip. Parem wondered how that even happened without him noticing? How did he not feel Miiko being torn from him? He didn't remember letting go, no we was absolutely positive he didn't so... how did he do that...?

Unknown person: "Don't move. I mean you no harm."

MEANWHILE IN THE OTHER ROOM.

Moulton: "Alright fine, no clicks. But let's think this through: you really think we're the first ones in? The dragons would be all over this planet long before they commissioned us to come so, if I do this..." All the while he had been scooting his way over to the hologram that displayed the planet, and inserted a small chip into a slot. Suddenly, the hologram flashed red errors for a second or two, then flashed a green access granted twice, when transformed into the standard planet overview for all of the Unity's more secret dragon military ships. It revealed several hidden entities in orbit of the planet as well a several red De'Mon-tagged ground items.

Moulton: "And for the record, yes, this is normal for me. Or at least the hacking bit and secrets bit. Now if we spin the planet at look here-" He pointed at a location on the planet with blue Unity Government-tagged items "-these craft are retreating from the surface feature called The Spire, which is what they believe to be keeping the planet together. As the file said. Read up on the planet beforehand. Now, obviously, it'd be a suicide mission, not even the DRAGONS can take it down. But, these ships have an ...interesting person on it. Who left the room, but he might put up enough fight to distract the De'Mon whilst our very decorated Hugo here sneaks into the the facility and figures out how to blow it up. Wern and I will assist, I need to take some readings anyways to help fund more research. This place could quite possibly have the breakthrough I've been looking for the finalize my Nothing Theory. And anybody who wants to help in certain areas could as well. So what'dya guys think?"

Miiko's expression had changed drastically. She could no longer hold her fear. Her eyes remained unlit. conservation of her energy was nessessary. she looked at Parem in desperation, her eyes filled with so many questions.

Hugo stepped forward to the hologram and put his palm down on the table.

"I'm just going to say for the record," Hugo began, "that you're going to have to slow down. You want to do what?"

He then narrowed his eyes. "How do you know who I am?"

Moulton sighed as if he'd been asked that question often and the answer was so obvious. He chuckled to himself too in the process.

"How you do think? Same way I know about the Dragons being here before us, and the Spire. I read up on you. I know your history, your likes and your dislikes, and about every 2nd women you've been with ever. I have Wern, sir, Cybratics kind of are computers. And what better to hack a computer than an AI?"

"Well quite frankly, I'm flattered." Hugo said sarcastically. "But these words are waisted. We're correctly in a position here where we could be killed instantly," he gestures out the window, "and I have dinner plans for Saturday, so you can see there is a conflict of interests here. My proposal, we relocate to a safer position before having a conversation as to what to do about all this madness. Thankfully, my compatriots are to safety, but I cannot say the same for us." It then sank in on Hugo that perhaps coming aboard was a bad idea. The Purgatus fleet had fled the galaxy and he was aboard an frenemy vessel above a world hosting the resurrection of the De'Mon, a race that almost destroyed the Universe once. He was entirely at the mercy of the Unity. But that fact hadn't occurred to THEM yet, and he thanked whatever God may be for that.

Moulton looked at Hugo with a death stare intimidating enough to make even a Dragon question its motives.

Moulton: "First, we take down the spire. THEN we go and enjoy our lives. If we don't attack as soon as possible, we will lose the window the dragons have made for us. If we don't take down these creatures now, there might not be a person to have dinner with Saturday. Don't you see what they're doing? They're trying to scare us out the system, then follow us to our homes and hit us hard. This is bigger than you or I. Do you want to be known as "the man who sat idly by whilst the Universe fell apart around him"? Sir, I have my own personal reasons to be here as well, but that doesn't change the inevitability these De'Mon bring! We will have to face them sooner or later. The time to strike is now."

Wern: "He is right, if we were to remove Sheol, their planet, out of the playing field; we have a much better chance of surviving their assault on us. It took gods to defeat them last time, and we are no gods."

"Then blow up the planet!" Hugo boomed, although he knew not of a weapon capable to do such. "You said it yourself. There's plasma ON THE SURFACE. How could we, what? A few hundred men? Survive on the surface, let alone carry out a mission against the De'Mon? This is bordering on insanity."

He folded his arms in contempt then shifted his weight forward on the hologram and sighed. "I have given my life to the service of my people. I just want to know what this plan of yours is and if it will work. Because if not, we have better options than throwing ourselves to the Reaper."