Major Collins pauses for a moment as a piercing female cry comes from within the ship, its not something even a hardened soldier can ignore. Something deep inside him instinctively stirs to protect women but he reminds himself that this particular one killed 32 of his clanmates and endangered the mission. Cameron had better get this show on the road or they're going to be more than endangered, they're going to be extinct. The Necanthrope woman brought company and someone mentioned that she was from Stigmatyr, long ago Collins gave up the fear of death but to live and fight another day would be far preferable than dying here. "Sounds like they're giving the little slut a bit of her own back sir", Captain Murray drawls confidently to his senior officer but Collins can tell that scream rattled the Captain as well. "Yeah, whatever Captain, maybe you would like to go up there and see if you can help?" The Captains bloodlust dims a little as Collins notices the mans pupils dilate, "we may have a hot takeoff here Captain, I don't want anyone left behind so get the clan in closer to the ship". Murray salutes and leaves to get the lines organized, "put some back into it ye dogs, you call that a trench soldier that hole isn't fit to take a dump in!" The last of the trucks moves off from the ship as the smugglers and dealers scurry off to whatever abodes they came from, out on the picket lines the dead will be their first wave of defense. He didn't like it when Cameron animated their corpses, figuring that even the dead have their right to rest especially when they gave their lives already. It has his forces worried too, it was bad enough carrying out their brothers, sisters and relatives but to see them walking again would have repercussions on the company morale. His lord is a fickle man, he is also a man he never wanted to anger, as much as he hated SLA he had to feel sorry for the necanthrope woman. When he had the time Hesilka was an interesting character to talk to despite his horrid appearance and one of the few Nec's he'd actually met that wasn't a psychopathic monster like the SLA ones. But she'd killed him and maybe she actually deserved whatever they where doing to her up there, he'd ordered people tortured before and would do so again but there where limits that even he wouldn't go to. The 17th Reavers where a violent pack of pirates but they where honorable and they lived by that, right now getting off this forsaken planet was all they wanted. SLA had the rest of the universe sucking hind tit for good reason, they crushed open resistance effectively, quickly and had the resources to do so for a very long time.
"Contact!" Collins stirred immediately from his nap in the APC, "14 airborne targets vectoring in on us at 2240 metres and closing at 132 metres a second. "Get that flakker up, we don't want them dumping troopers!" Off in the distance the 50mm twin cannon began spitting high explosive shells up at the incoming gunships and transports, he had the satisfaction of seeing three disappear from his screen moments later. The rest began evasive maneuvers to dodge the flak shells behind buildings, undoubtedly disgorging their troops, a few more seconds later the flakker explodes on the perimeter as the gunships strafe it with their 25mm cannons and begin the charge in on the Antioch. The flakker is a loss for Collins but he notices that there are two less gunships out there and SLA isn't going to risk loosing their transports to strafe infantry. "Bushrangers sir, we got most of them but they're wreaking havoc on the north flank", Collins grits his teeth and takes swig from a canteen. Always thirsty when stressed, it has something to do with adrenaline apparently, "get the sods to use the GAGM systems! That's why I gave em out!" The shattered flank responds with the usual ferocity that Collins expects them to do, shouldering the 2pack rockets off their dead companions they let fly with the contents. Another two gunships down and two others limp back to the cover of the shattered buildings, distinctive fire from Reaper cannon can be heard now that the choppers have left. "Contacts, ground based infantry forces on the far west perimeter! Heavy assault class powerarmor".
Through the cameras mounted on one of his subordinates, Collins can see the distinctive shapes of Dogybone armor advancing out of the gloom, its light gray in colour and that can only mean one thing, Stigmatyr. "Shore up the north flank, I want two platoons up there with heavy weapons support", he wasn't fighting militia morons now and they would find a way through anyway they could if he showed them any weakness. It was even ground down here now, any support for either side would be a long way off and the loser could expect to be completely annihilated to a man. It was always like this for Collins, not the hit and run of the Darknight urban terrorist but the way war was fought where it really mattered. Whatever Cameron is up to he better get it finished soon, "Major I am sending down Gamel and Tamale to help you deal with enemy ebbs and biogenetics. Use them how you see fit." Collins was about to retort with something smart and remembered at the last moment who he was addressing, "thank you sire, we can expect to hold them for about an hour." He didn't like the two remaining beasts that Cameron had summoned, still they where effective killers and that was all that mattered.
It's a big place the universe, with intersecting planes of existence running narrowly alongside the current dimension that further complicate it all. But somehow I know this is how it is supposed to be and I know where every atom of my being is in that, no wonder that foldship piloting is prestige ability. The pain is gone but I can't tell if I am alive or dead, I know I'm supposed to be neither, but I can't break free of the feeling I am not here anymore. My mind is somewhere else while my body lies naked, strapped into a sciencefriction cocoon on the planet Mort, this dead planet, things live there but there is no soul left in it. The angry girl surfaces pushing away the scared girl, there is also the thoughtless presence of my deathsuit and Antioch. The control crystal that holds the ships sentience has melded into my breastbone, I know we are one now and can never be separated. It keeps away the bad man who wants my mind and soul, "he cant get us now" the angry girl replies venomously in the back of my consciousness. "It's not safe to go back yet bitch. You had better stay out here for now, otherwise he will devour your mind while his demons rape your body!" I don't like the angry girl sometimes, "don't be such a pussy little bitch Parody, you remind me of that worthless wreck they threw in the white 367 years ago." The angry side of my ego appears to be the one holding all the answers and until I work out just how to get back I will listen, "you better listen! Stupid slut, constantly whining for your lost memories and past life. There is no past, there is now and the future, you cannot go back so just fucking deal with it! That worthless little waster girl had nothing and now look at you, your thinking about him again. You cannot otherwise he'll get you and then we're all screwed." My upper ego is beginning to get annoyed with the angry girl, while lust just sits there simpering for a forgotten love and self-preservation kind of agrees with angry girl. "Ok, shut up you stupid tart, we'll stay here for now but I want answers later!" That seems to have quieted the angry girl for now but I worry about my material form down there, it's the only one I have and I kind of like how it looks, vanity is the most subtle of the sum of myself. She had a great deal to do with how I see myself and what I looked like when I came out of the white, "you look dead sexy when your naked Parody. We should get down there and see that he doesn't have his wicked way and makes you defiled." Angry girl comes back hard and fast with self-preservation leading the charge, "don't be so damn stupid!" None of us have had a good idea yet to get us out of this mess, "stuff you lot! I'm going to talk to Antioch, maybe she knows a way out of here!" "Fine!" Unanimously we all sulk while I go try to talk to the entity that is the foldship. Not very far away is the presence of Cameron, it is far more evil than I ever expected like his little pets, people are dying close by too and there are others out there that shouldn't be here, they will make me like them too if I am not careful.
"Intruder is here Major I must face him, if I don't come back scuttle the ship and make well your escape until an evacuation can be arranged." Collins has enough respect in Cameron's eyes to ask a question, "what of the ship sire? I thought that the Necanthrope would be piloting us out of here", it is a delicate subject and he worries that Cameron will get angry. "Don't worry, she would appear to be in some lasting shock from the modifications made to her. If she comes to I will know immediately and control her so that she gets us out of here." In the time he'd known Cameron he had never any reason to doubt him, they'd gotten out of worse scrapes than this. Along the west, north and east flanks they were engaging the enemy in savage skirmishes, so far his clansmen where giving a good account of themselves. Cameron was gone like a whisper, he hated it when he did that.
"Your not real good at this tracking stuff Septic", Sepulcher considers blowing Drax away, she hates pet names, especially the ones he thinks up. "That's usually Parody's job that's why I never bothered to learn much of it. She's on the foldship as far as I can tell. Now go in there and kill everyone, except her. Drax, you do understand that last part completely don't you? Dante was an accident and she did try to save you now let it rest."
He fits a huge silencer on the FEN Warmonger and proceeds to go bouncing off into the mist as silent as a mouse, a very heavily armed and dangerous mouse. Sepulcher follows the path a respectable distance, not having the levels of physical defense that Drax or Parody has she knows not to get into firefights unless there is no other way out. The cleaner does his job well she notices, passing lifeless bodies cooling on the ground all with the customary two shots in the head. Just for variety theres one with a head missing altogether, reminding herself that Drax only does one thing well and primes the flintlock with flux out of nervous habit.
Theres an almighty roar outside Collins' command APC that makes everyone inside it jump, "get your helmets on asap!" Something hits the side of the vehicle like a gauss train denting the armor panels and shorting out some of the electronics. Sounds of savagery outside make everyone reach for their rifles, "I think our position is compromised," the 27 ton vehicle gets launched on its side before he can get off another order. Sepulcher sees Drax and some enormous brute punching the unliving hell out of each other near an APC under the foldship, a sense of being watched makes her spin on her heels and take cover just as another creature like Drax's playmate sails overhead. "Faster than you!" The creature is fast but it has to pick itself up off the ground and the flintlock rifle blows a 40cm hole in its chest knocking it clear of her. The corpse of whatever it was begins to sink into the ground giving off a filthy stench that makes her want to retch, ignoring the ensuing fistfight she takes cover in a foxhole nearby. Flux flows through her as she tries to get off telepathy to connect with Parody, strangely she can't seem to contact her but knows she isn't dead.
Collins and the four senior captains emerge from the rear of the APC just as Drax finishes off Tamale with a glyph blade, not bothering to ask anymore questions they all open up on the prone necanthrope. Drax's body falls back to the ground lifeless, just as Sepulcher looks over the edge of the foxhole, "bugger!" Her only protector has gone it is time to rely on herself and she primes the flintlock with a blast bomb, "so long Drax, I can't say it was pleasant". The entire rear of the APC is reduced to a charred wreck of molten metal, Collins sees the ebb discharge a microsecond before and hits the dirt while everyone around him is blown to pieces. Machine gun fire rakes Sepulchers foxhole forcing her down, "I'm a company rep! Why do I get stuck in this crap damnit?"
Feeling about the ship as surely as it was my own arm I detect the breaching charges on the hull and in the ship's fusion reactor. Antioch knows that I can clean the ship of any foreign bodies as I see fit, Cameron is away and can't notice me so I summon up all my courage to make the final connection to my physical form. It's just like cleaning a very big deathsuit, theres a few people down in the lower levels that are going to be in for one hell of a shock, Antioch gives me silent encouragement to continue. Theres a flux discharge close by that smells familiar, the ship heightens my already potent abilities to see, smell and know. She's come down here for me and she's in grave danger, Cameron has picked up on my presence and then just as suddenly he's gone. As I purge the ship a huge wave of flux picks everything up that I can feel is wrong and passes it through the sciencefriction material and harmlessly outside. The same cant be said for anything living onboard her, its delightfully messy! The troops from the south that are charging on Sepulchers position are in for a nasty surprise as I turn the ship 90 degrees and turn her coaxial gore cannon on them, ripping them apart in their armor and dropping them like flies. It's a serious case of overkill but well worth the effect so I begin tuning it on the other Darknight forces in the area, down below Collins hits the trigger for the breaching charges. He doesn't realise that they are scattered around him quite liberally and the whole area underneath the ship explodes violently. I have her TK shields up so we don't get destroyed outright by it. Its nice inside the chamber, warm and comfortable plus I don't have any clothes so I might wait here until Sepulcher crawls out of her hole and comes to tell me what's happening. While I'm here I may as well use all this flux to remake my gorecannon, I am deeply ashamed of losing it but the next one will be better.
"How do we get her out of there?" The Stigmatyr soldier asks Sepulcher respectfully, "I guess she will come out if I try to communicate with her, that's her equipment over there. Gather it up and under no circumstances give it back until we can ascertain if she's quite right in the head or possessed." The soldiers back away cautiously at the mention of possession, having an old necanthrope gone rouge is bad. One that's completely flipped out and in control of a foldship is worse, "Operative Parody had no skill at foldship operation last we knew Sepulcher, I think we should perhaps just blow the whole thing, grab whatever's useful and get out." The squad sergeant is hoping for a simple solution but Sepulcher shakes her head, "someone go find Intruder then! I think she's ok though but we will have to test her anyway." Sepulcher reaches out to find her friends mind intact but it has certainly gotten a lot more complicated than last she met, it is hard to see where the ship and the necanthrope part. "She's gone and interdermalised the control gem! Stupid sow! No wonder, look sergeant she's gone and done something kind of rash but her mind is intact." Unlike Parody, Sepulcher has a better education in flux-related matters and how powerful artifacts can work on a necanthrope form. "Come out of there now Parody! We don't have all day."
Deep inside my cocoon I don't want to leave, so I tentatively unwrap the sciencefriction bindings that cross my body and shoulder the new gorecannon cloak around me. Trust Sepulcher to ruin a perfectly good nap, ease back the walls gently and stick my head out. "What do you want?" Theres a lot of soldiers pointing some very large guns at me and even Sepulcher has her own gorecannon and flintlock shoved in my face, "oh? Ok, guess this isn't a friendly visit." They're all twitching for a fight and I have had enough of being shot, beaten and tortured for one day, I bring my deathsuit out from underneath my skin and emerge quietly. "What have you gone and done? Your under protective custody too until we can work out what's happened," Sepulcher drags me out completely and gives me a looking over, "your cooperation would be appreciated." The sergeant slaps some shackles on me that will disrupt any use of flux on my behalf but they still are wondering about the gorecannon they know is sentient, "I haven't done anything wrong! Its not like I asked for them to jam some dead navigators skills into me and torture me."
I get dragged off to a waiting chopper and Sepulcher remains strangely quiet along the way, somehow I don't think that this is going to turn out for the best, Intruder is in there with some more Stigmatyr goons who eye me warily. I always did have a bit of a crush on him but convincing him not to gut me with his flickscythe is a higher priority. "Little Miss Parody, you've somehow survived all this relatively intact. Mainly through blind ignorance and luck but you've come through it nonetheless." He sure is cute just like on the TV and he seems to think I'm ok after having a quick look through my mind to see that there's no one else lurking in there his face frowns, "sick and disgusting as most necanthropes. She is still Parody, take the ship up to HQ and have it examined thoroughly and then we will decide your futures."
I feel a bit disheartened at being called 'sick and disgusting' but I guess its better than being killed, "wow, you get Intruders sick and disgusting vote, you go girl!" Sepulcher is being a bitch about it but at least she takes me back to the foldship without the chains on. "Shut up Sepi, at least he didn't read your mind and pass judgement on what you get up to in your spare time." She knows that I know what she does and that will keep her quiet for awhile, "at least I didn't do something as dumb as sticking a control crystal in myself, I swear that is taught to newbie idiots in the first day they join SLA. But no, Parody knows best doesn't she?" Sarcasm has found new levels in Sepulcher, she's still the senior Op though so I guess I can't really argue and nobody's giving me any other answers right now. They are currently disposing of any remaining Darknight forces in a big pit close by with Reaper cannon and recovering Drax from out under an APC, unfortunately he looks to be alive. "We had best get out of here before he notices us."
Damn him, he has an insufferable habit of living through these types of things, "can't we just shoot him?"
Antioch folds out from the lower levels of Downtown and into the hanger at HQ, it's exhilarating to actually do it. Unfortunately I am going to be detained for about a month for observation and debriefing, I go willingly otherwise they will shoot me without question. I don't have any other choice but to hand Villein over to Sepulcher for the next month to be 'taken care of', hopefully he will be ok, she does some unnatural things to young boys and I don't trust her entirely not to resist those urges. I don't get to see Intruder again but Preceptor Teeth handles most of my questioning being the most senior and powerful necanthrope, at least he doesn't eat me like I thought he would. Even when I try to ask questions that would get anyone else killed for even thinking it, I want to know who Cameron was and what was in the ship's inventory but he gives up nothing much to my frustration. Only to say it was "handled accordingly", "job well done" and "make me proud of our race."
Rather than have SLA dump on me from a great height I go with the flow of things, no ones above that and I know all to well what happens to people who ask too many questions. I should be glad in respect that they allow me to continue my job and travel the universe in my little ship to do their work and be left alone. Sepulcher drops off Villein, his sanity more or less intact and he likes our new home if only because it's clean out of Downtown and to be back with me. Every now and then I make a point of visiting my Downtown, just for the blood and memories.