Dark Void: Dawn of Eternity

[An Enemy Spy]

Blaine
The man snaps his fingers at the thugs. "Do it. But first, allow the lady of the house to get dressed. Poor girl, surrounded by such upstanding citizens as ourselves with only a sheet to keep her modesty. Make sure she wears something nice, after all, she is entertaining guests."
The thug leads Noelani into the bedroom.
"I personally do not approve of such brutish techniques to hire a new employee. The whole thing is rather distasteful. But my employer is a different sort of animal altogether, and as long as the jhinarri comes from him, we do things his way. Strictly business, nothing personal.
And now for your second request, Mr. Pitchfork. My colleagues do not have names that are any of your concern and neither do I. I would advise that you do not attempt to identify us again"


Evicia
"I don't know. We're just here 'cus the one who wants you out of here pays well."
By this time you can clearly see the jets. Soldiers are jumping out of them in dropsuits and gliding toward the ground.
A squadron of fast-strike bombers zoom past.

[mrpitchfork]

Blaine

"Thank you. Now." Blaine stands lax, hands in pockets, and starts walking slowly to the old man, making no eye contact.

"She's going to be treated nicely. She's going to get a job as a newscaster. I am going to see her, safe, happy, on the television every day. She's going to take an assumed name. When I come back, she's going to be here and she's going to truthfully report her safe treatment." He stopped two arms' length from the man. "If you don't comply, I will make things difficult for you, personally."

He turns and slumps over on a chair.

"Now, I assume I'm going to be accompanied by a competent team. I can't exactly capture three people on my own without a serious time commitment. I'll need people in each division of the ship, and it would be great if you could land me at least one higherup, and it would be great if I could get some way to communicate with them. Probably an old archaic wireless communications system. I also need to know how much I'm being monitored; I'll need some way to contact you once the job is completed. How do you plan on me entering?"

[whoiam]

Evicia
"Well, I could just go talk to them? I'm an Allutian, after all. I doubt they'd mind me gettng out of a Freyan prison."

For that matter, they might have been sent to retrieve me. Who knows? I really should have checked how expensive I was before I ran.

"Besides, I know Allutian codes very well. Much better than I do Freyan ones. If I had to choose one side to blend in with, it would be the Allutians."

[d3vil]

Bob

Whilst holding of the hostile fighters, Robert contacts the bridge through the Caleuche's internal com-system.

"Captain, this is Kane. There's just too many fighters out there, Sir. Oh, and did your sensors pick up that Destroyer heading straight to us? Uhm, Sir!"

Bob had seen many battles, but this one was surely the most futile one. Actually, it was the first time, he even considered the possibility of dying in battle.

Desperately, he continued to defend his ship.

[An Enemy Spy]

Blaine
"I assure you that as long as you cooperate with us, the girl will come to no harm. She will be treated like a queen, with everything provided for her. As for a career in newscasting, I'm afraid something that high profile simply will not do. However, if you wish to remain in contact with her you may write letters to this location." He hands you a paper with the adress of a mail station that picks up messages from space."She will be able to write back, though of course we will make sure that nothing that compromises our location will get out. If however, we suspect that she has given you our whereabouts, rest assured that we will simply relocate, and the letters will cease. I do not think I need to mention that life will become very ugly for her. Ah, here comes our beautiful hostess now."
Noelani enters the room, bein pulled roughly by the arm by the thug. Her heavily made up face is a mix of terror and humiliation. She is wearing a gown she once wore to a party you both attended years ago. It is a bright red floorlength affair with a long train dragging behind her. Her dark hair is done up on top of her head with a net of pearls around it. A pair of sparkling chandelier earings dangle almost to her shoulders, and a silver necklace hangs around her neck. On her arms are bright red gloves, matching the dress, that go past her elbows. What looked elegant and perfect on her before now looked horrendous, like she was being put on as a show.
"As for the crew you requested, they are already in place onboard the ship. Do not look for them, they will come to you."
He hands you two packets. "One of these packets is the personal information of your new identity. Your childhood, your career in the Freyan Starfleet, and many other things. You are to memorize these and then destroy them. The other packet is your official papers. Do not lose these. We have already made sure you have been officially transferred to the Pale Horse. You are to board it when the ship makes port above the planet Sif. If you would like a moment with your woman, this is your last chance. You leave immediately.

Evicia
Dess shakes her head. "That might work, but the Allutians are here to liberate prisoners. If they took you back with them, then our employer wouldn't be able to get you."
A pair of Allutian hoverbikes appear seemingly out of nowhere, raking your position with machine gun fire. Myles and Finlay are hit, spraying the ground with their insides.

Robert
"Our sensors already picked that one up. Hold the fighters off for another minute Kane, we're about to make an emergency jump."
A trio of fighters rocket over you position heading straight for the bridge.

[whoiam]

Evicia

"I did not intend to... too late."

What to do... what to do. Well, only one thing, really. Stand up, hop up and down on the spot, and wave at the bikes. After all, I'm still in a prison uniform.

So Evicia stood her ground, bounced up and down on the spot, and waved at her second pack of 'rescuers'.

Out of the corner of her mouth, she gave her first pack of rescuers some instructions. "Do be a good pack of guards and play dead until they're close, wouldn't you?"

[An Enemy Spy]

Dess and the others fall down as if they had been hit. Quite convincingly in fact. The two Allutians come close and step off their bikes. They come up to you with their pistols drawn. "Hold still, we're just going to check you for your identity." He holds a scanner up to your eye.

[mrpitchfork]

Blaine

Bastard. He's lying and he's making it perfectly clear.

"I'm convinced that, if I ruin your mission for you, it can only end badly for us. With this in mind, I'm going to speak with Noelani in private, and you can trust me that I won't escape. Guard the exits if you want. We'll be in the kitchen in the center of the house."

Blaine requests that the guard holding Noelani give him her arm.

[whoiam]

"That will not work" Evicia points out, correctly.

Artificial eyes. I don't scan as a lifeform. I am, you just wouldn't know by scanning my irises.

Instead, she holds out her hand to them. "Give me the scanner and I will authenticate myself."

Give me the scanner and one of you will be unconscious the moment I hand it back. Then I'm only liable to be shot by one person.

[An Enemy Spy]

Blaine
"Believe me Mr. Pitchfork, the exits are already guarded. But I believe you are a man of your word. You won't try to run."
You lead Noelani into the kitchen. "Blaine, who are these people? Why is he calling you Mr. Pitchfork?"

Evicia
"That won't be necessary, ma'am." He holds the scanner up to your eye. After a moment a look of surprise and confusion come over his face. "What the hell?"

[whoiam]

Evicia

"Implants. Occular scanning never works. I do have an ID chip to authenticate with."

Her hand remains out, waiting for the scanner.

[An Enemy Spy]

Before the soldier can answer, a bullet goes through his head. Dess, Katungi, Troy and Adriana are are pointing their guns at the other soldier. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Dess says.

[whoiam]

Evicia

"I *was* lying, you know. None of my implants can authenticate me via an optical scanner."

A little shrug preceeded Evicia's leisurely amble in the direction of one of the hoverbikes.

Thankfully, my implants can authenticate me to military IFF systems. Handy when you want to convince a hoverbike you happen to be its owner. But, most important of all, it gives me an excuse not to watch that soldier bleeding. Eugh, blood.

[mrpitchfork]

Blaine

Blaine closes all the doors to the kitchen and muffles the cracks under them. He guides Noelani to the center of the room and examines her for bugs. "Did they plant any microphones on your earrings or in your hair?" He looks at her and makes sure she isn't lying for her own safety.

[An Enemy Spy]

Evicia
Dess points her gun at the other Allutian. He throws down his weapon.
"Don't shoot! Oh gods please don't shoot! I'll do anything, anything you want."
Dess jerks her head toward Myles and Finlay, laying dead in the sand. "Find a way to bring them back and we'll talk." She fires a round into his head.
"Alright, there's five of us and two bikes. Somebody's going to have to hold on very tight."

Blaine
Noelani's hands instinctively go up to her hair. No. I... I don't think so. Blaine, what's going on?"

[whoiam]

Evicia

It only takes a handful of seconds at each bike before Evicia's proudly proclaiming "They're ready!". Mainly because... well, the soldiers riding them hadn't taken the time to lock them. Just a quick check that the saddles and controls weren't set to scan the rider to take an ID check (and they weren't - if the bikes held such systems the soldiers hadn't had a chance to turn them on before they died) was enough. And now she could bask in the glow of her own reflected glory, despite having essentially done nothing more than check the keys were, indeed, in the ignition.

[alexeduardo]

Hector
They don't even seem to register your existance. As you go down the long corridor, the roar of the crowd gets louder and louder. It opens up into a giant circular arena, with high sandstone walls and banners depicting the Serpent and Hammer of Freya proudly flying all around. The ground is covered in sand and stained with the blood of the men who were in it before you. The crowd numbers in the thousands, all screaming for your deaths.
In a large balcony up at the top of the colloseum, a man steps up he slowly raises his arm and clenches his fist. The cheering stops.
"Loyal citizens of the Freyan Empire!" He says, his voice filling the building "We are gathered here today to witness the deaths of our enemies, the evil Allutians." An enormous screen behind him activates, showing footage of Freyan ships destroying Allutian ones, Freyan soldiers charging heroically at the enemy, a shot of a soldier planting a flag on a hill as jets soar past. "Every day, our ships and soldiers take more and more land from the enemy. We are winning this war. A massive cheer goes up from the crowd. "We have for your enjoyment, four Allutian spies captured from all over the Empire. Their goal, was to destroy us from the inside, to burn our cities to ground and to kill our men and to take our women. But thanks to our brave men and women in uniform, we have beat them at their own game.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to announce that today, you shall all be introduced to a creature unlike that which you have never seen. Beyond the far reaches of our great Empire, we have discovered a loathesome beast, a monster so terrifying that a full squad of soldiers was required to subdue it. These Allutians will battle the deadly beast for your enjoyment.
And now, without further ado, LET THE GAME BEGIN!!!"
The crowd goes absolutely wild, the moment they have waited for is finally here.
Slowly, an iron door on the far wall of the arena opens. Many in the crowd gasp. For out of the doorway steps an alien creature, 7 feet tall and covered with chitinous armor. It has four arms, two with enormous clawed hands and the other two sporting deadly scythes of bone. It's muscular leags are clearly designed for long jumps. On top of it's head is a large bony plate (like a triceratops). It lets out a loud high pitched scream and charges at the four of you.

Well, these mother****ers are going to get themselves killed...poor idiots. They don't make them spies like they used to...wait! Old! the old farmers at that desert moon I once heard of! yes, I do remember them...they used to force-mount huge steeds and die after failing...well, some of them did...still...this creature is either a slow and tame and huge hervibore, or a small and fast carnivore from a really huge world...let's hope the former...


Hector, ever the planner, runs to the banners and strarts climbing, trying not to look back as his partners are being trampled...

OOC:

Spoiler

Show

I promise I'll eventually read all of it. But has anything happenned that I should know about?

[An Enemy Spy]

Evicia
Ater a short period of deliberation. It's agreed that You, Dess and Adriana will ride one bike, as you each take up less space than the men, while Troy and Katungi will ride the other one. Even so, it is a very tight fit. With Dess driving, Adriana in the back, barely staying on the seat and you squeezed right between them. The two bikes take off. They move at extremely high speeds, but since they avoid bumping on the ground, it's a very smooth ride.

Hector
As you climb the banner, you hear the announcer yell, "Looks like we've got a climber, folks!"
You run into an invisible field of electricity and fall back to the ground, landing with a thud. The crowd laughs hysterically.

Spoiler

Show

There is an allutian lightning raid goin on in the general vicinity, give or take a hundred miles. Could be important.

[alexeduardo]

Hector is in apin for a second, then gets back up to his feet and starts climbing again, then stops just before reaching the spot where he fell.
He looks at he biggest-looking balcony he can spot and bellows: You Barbarian! This is not what the empress wants! What kind of Freyan are you, enjoying the butchering of defenseless foes? Where's the damned honor in that?

[An Enemy Spy]

Hector
Your impassioned speech is cut short when the alien rips down the banner and you fall to it's feet.

[alexeduardo]

Well, shoot.

Hector gets up and tries to run to the beast's back, looking for something to latch on to.

[An Enemy Spy]

As you try to get around the beast, it's long arm manages to snag you. The beast lift you up toward its mouth.

[alexeduardo]

As you try to get around the beast, it's long arm manages to snag you. The beast lift you up toward its mouth.

No! Don't!

what are you doing? the beast don't speak, now does it?

Suddenly less scared (but not by much), Hector decides to try and slip from its grasp. If that fails he plans on going for its eyes or nostrils.

[An Enemy Spy]

Spoiler

Show

Btw. Since this is freeform, there aren't actually any rules for fighting. You could narrate entire fights if you wanted to. Freindly reminder: You still have the shortsword.

[whoiam]

Evicia

"Your helicopter exit - if the Allutians could be persuaded to ignore you, would you still be able to use it?"

Originally, I planned to reprogram the helicopter's IFF transponder to give a valid Allutian code. But now I need not bother - just switch it off, if it is not so already, and bring one of the hoverbikes on board to make us show up as Allutian. Then, as soon as they withdraw, dump the bike and leave.

[alexeduardo]

Haha! The Sword! Of course!
all part of the plan...

Hector takes out his sowrd and stabs the animal in its eye. It screams and shakes as blood gushes out of its now messy socket. Hector is thrown off and takes a lot of damage. As he struggles to get up, he decides that the only winning move is not to play. He runs (well, limps), to a banner and hides behind it.

[mrpitchfork]

Blaine

Blaine undoes Noelani's hair to check for bugs and explains the situation. "I'm a double-agent between the Freyan and Anasazi Empires. Mr Pitchfork is my alias. They've found me somehow and complying with them is the only way to keep you safe." If he finds any bugs, he removes them. Just to be safe, he keeps stroking her hair in case he missed anything so any bugs would pick that up instead of his voice.

Then he starts whispering close to her, "We can communicate with letters. Try not to send me any secret messages in the text. I want you to pull out a strand of hair and stick it to the letter where it won't be seen easily, or scratch the paper with a fingernail along one side so I have to tilt the paper to see it, or something like that. I want one mark or strand of hair if you're safe, two if you are not safe or if you're being treated badly. Keep everything inconspicuous." And for this, he spoke even more quietly, "Don't ever use your own handwriting. And... if you feel you really need to, you can take your life and I won't be hurt, I promise."

From here on, he speaks normally. "Be strong. Never act emotionally. You'll compromise both our safety if you are not always very careful. Can you do this for me?"

[An Enemy Spy]

Evicia
"We're using an Allutian chopper." Adriana answers. "The Freyans will be busy fighting to care about it and the Allutians won't shoot at it."
In the distance, columns of fast moving tanks and APCs are heading toward the enemy camp. From the sky, massive red bolts blast through the clouds and hit the ground, incinerating everything they hit.
"That would be the boss-man right now." Dess yells over the wind.

Hector
The monster howls in agony and rips the sword out of its socket. One of the others in the arena charges at the beast's back, hoping to kill it while it's distracted. The alien swings one of its scythe arms around and seperates the man's head from his shoulders. The crowd loves it.

Blaine
"Yes...I...I think I..." A sudden moment of realization crosses her face.
"All this time, you've been a spy and you never told me?"

[mrpitchfork]

"Yes, to keep you safe. This isn't important. What's important is that you're safe and happy. I need you to relax and I need you to always keep in mind what I told you. This is also for your safety. Do you understand?" says Blaine, offering to hug her for comfort.

[whoiam]

Evicia

Ooh, they were ahead of me. I'm impressed. The Allutian Police weren't.

"Well, you seem to have thought your escape attempt through more than I had mine. I shall place my trust in you!"