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Gorean Destroyer - Arcanis System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
The mighty Gorean Destroyer roared out of hyperspace as its crescent shell engine engaged, hurling it through the debris of what had once been the capital system of the mighty Polian Alliance.
It was silent now, as Captain Katz stood on the palatial deck of the Gorean warship with the clustered members of his crew being freed from their cell a few hours before and brought up for an audience with the Gorean Lord.
He couldn't help but let his eyes slide around to stare at the ruin and devastation that had been wrought there. The last time he had been in the system it had been to slay his mentor and try to save a doomed world. A world that had been fated to die at the hands of a psychopathic madman, driven insane by the last of the Peligians.
How much of human history had been shaped by that one malevolent force of revenge? How many of his own personal demons had been cast by the fires its damnation? He couldn't help the wariness that he felt returning to that fateful place.
Arcanis.
They'd had their weapons returned to them, and he'd tucked the Muwani disruptor into his belt, selection was limited, and they had what they had when they surrendered to the Gorean. Somehow being armed did little to soothe the uneasy feeling that they were walking into a trap.
"My fliers report that there is a lot of traffic in the Arcanis system," Xanatos observed coiled in the middle of his recess studying the floating screens around him. "It seems that there are battles flaring up between different factions. Predominantly between Amsus protectorate forces and a faction calling themselves the Dakin." A sweep of his clawed hand displayed the Amsus Battlecruisers duelling with the faster Polian styled ships. "They are on the edge of the system; it appears that the debris from the planet presents a navigational hazard for such limited ships."
"It wouldn't for the T'zaht," Katz observed.
"Nor for a Gorean vessel," Xanatos remarked proudly. "However I am detecting another vessel this deep into the system, Amsus Raptor by its configuration. But it is dead in space, there nothing active around at any rate. Perhaps your ship has been destroyed…"
"Unlikely," Katz replied. "She's out here somewhere. We just need to find her…"
Xanatos flexed his coils, "that is going to be difficult and time consuming. Even if I used every flier at my disposal it could take many weeks to search through a system this cluttered with asteroids and debris."
"Doesn't His Watchful Eye see all?" Katz countered a little too harshly.
Xanatos flustered a little, as he turned his great head to look at Kyr, "Is he always thus?"
"It's this system," Kyr explained. "There are many bad memories here."
Killborne moved closer to Katz while the Gorean talked to Kyr, dropping her voice low she looked at her Captain. "Skipper, is there anything we can do to speed up the search?"
"Short of a miracle?" Katz inquired, suddenly feeling a flood of dread wash over him as he realized what that would entail.
Killborne noted his look, the Marine flashing him a concerned glance, "what is it sir?"
Katz turned to face the Gorean, his face a pale grey, "we need Rikard," he said, as if forcing the words to come out.
Xanatos's face twisted into a bemused smirk, "you are joking of course Captain Katz," he said with a short laugh.
Katz shook his head slowly, "I'm afraid not Mister Xanatos, if we have any hope of finding Z'ræl in amongst all of this, then we need the closest thing we have to divine intervention."
HMS T'zaht - Arcanis System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
The arrival of the Gorean Destroyer had not gone unnoticed aboard the T'zaht.
Galadriel looked up from her work reconfiguring the T'zaht's simplistic sensor system into something more versatile as the DARRT system warbled the arrival of the massive vessel in her scanning range.
The T'zaht was operating under minimal power, adrift amongst the wreckage of one of the former sentinel stations that had protected Arcanis before Lex Talionis had stripped them bare for their Zero-point bores.
It was too bad that the computer core of the mighty vessel was too well protected for Z'ræl to have commandeered it then and there. He would have saved himself considerable effort by recovering what he needed before the utter destruction of the planet.
Or even later, before the asinine computer program had escaped with its jumpship, taking the precious Propylons with it. But rewriting the operating code of an android was one thing, successfully battling and advanced AI system inside of its own core was another. It had taken Rikard's lobotomizing of the AI intelligence to allow him to exert as much control as he had over the Mech.
Human beings, however, were much easier to meld and mould into what he needed. He didn't need an artificial construct with all its strange numbers and lines of code, not when he could feast upon emotions, and play havoc with memories.
As far as marionettes went, Galadriel was sufficient to his needs.
It would take the Gorean destroyer, with its limited scanning systems, days to find the T'zaht, if indeed they were searching for her. There was every chance that the Gorean had come to Arcanis looking to scavenge what they could from the now defunct civilization.
However, Z'ræl hadn't survived millennia by believing in coincidences.
As tenacious as Alvin Katz was, and as resourceful as Rikard could be, Galadriel didn't doubt who was behind the arrival of the destroyer. Which meant Z'ræl only had a finite amount of time to find what he was looking for.
Cells - Gorean Destroyer - Arcanis System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
Rikard's body tensed again in agony as the Demi-wyrm applied pressure to the electrodes. Its harsh face leaned down, the long tongue tracing a path over the sheen of sweat covering the once all-powerful demi-god, rendered mortal by the Ophanim device.
"Deliciousss," it hissed, purring into his ear.
Rikard's eyes blazed as he stared at his captor, "you may… think me weak…" he struggled again, locking his eyes with the device. "But I will break free of these bonds…"
The Demi-wyrm chuckled again, selecting a particularly vicious implement from the table. "We have known of your kind for a long time, Chansssellor, and prepared a method for containing you. I doubt you will be able to overcome it. And sssso it will be when it comes time to contain your protégé…"
Rikard chuckled, panting quickly as the Demi-wyrm applied the implement to somewhere soft and tender, fighting the overwhelming urge to scream. "Y-you think this will hold P-pr-prince Edward?" He laughed loudly. "Y-you Gorean and y-your pathetic arrogance. You still have no idea what you are dealing with…"
"Then you will tell usss," the Demi-wyrm stated, beginning to cut with the implement, twisting it about.
"Stop!" Katz commanded as the hatch swung open. The candle light of the torture chamber glittering off of the golden insignia on his leather jacket.
"Ch-china?" Rikard murmured, turning his head to look at the starship Captain. "Oh please, no, I'd rather the sharp implement torture…"
The Demi-Wyrm withdrew the implement, setting it aside. "You have no right to interfere here Human."
"Turn it off," Katz said, pointing up at the ring device.
"If I do that, then there is nothing stopping him," the Demi-wyrm reminded.
"Oh, I'll be good," Rikard purred, coughing through his pain. "I promise…"
"I bring orders from the Great Lord himself," Katz said, "release him at once."
The Demi-wyrm obliged, scooping up a remote and pointing it at the ring device, deactivating it.
Rikard reacted with blinding speed, the metal implements hurtling off of the table to impale themselves into the Demi-wyrm, as the ring-device crumpled under the weight of Rikard's telekinetic attack.
A few moments later the Demi-wyrm was dead, and Rikard was casually dressing himself as his wounds regenerated.
"Tastelessly crude," he commented as he pulled on his sweater. "The Gorean lack even the basic understanding of what an art torture can be."
Katz pulled the TAC from his pocket, "Okay doc, he's up and looking like his usual cheery self."
Rikard turned his head as he knelt to put his boots on, "I take it from this timely reprieve that you want something, China? I don't for one second believe you had me spared out of the goodness of your own heart."
"We need you to find Galadriel," Katz stated lowering the TAC. "We're at Arcanis."
"I know," Rikard replied straightening up and dusting himself off as he followed Katz. "I can feel the echo of the system. She's here, but I can't specifically tell you where. Z'ræl is blocking my ability to locate her."
"Then you're going to have to come up with something, and fast," Katz warned. "Xanatos isn't particularly fond of you, and I think that is understandable."
"How like a Gorean to hold a grudge," Rikard sneered as the two wound their way through the dens and warrens of the bowels of the Gorean destroyer. Home to the Lesser Gorean and prison to their cattle.
Katz tried his best not to think about the stench, grateful when the ships elevator finally deposited them back into the great chamber.
Rikard walked with his usual swagger, smiling broadly at the Gorean that glared back at him. "Nice to see you're still holding things together," he commented.
"Provoking the big giant man-eating lizard, probably not the smartest thing right now," Katz reminded, gesturing to the floating image screens. "Where do we start to look?"
Rikard contemplated the images as he scratched his beard, "there is a blank spot," he reached out with his mind to manipulate the controls, zeroing in on a section of the system in and around an abandoned sentry station. "That is where they are."
"I can have my fliers…" Xanatos began.
"That will provoke a fight," Rikard responded. "The usual Gorean heavy-handed approach won't accomplish much against Z'ræl. The station will be unmanned, and knowing the Polians, it will probably still have an atmosphere."
"How?" Katz inquired. "It's a derelict."
"Stop thinking the Imperials are the only ones in possession of advanced technology," Rikard admonished. "I know it is difficult for you, but just once exercise that last brain cell of yours. The Polian life support systems on their stations generate atmosphere. It's in the crystalline composition of the structure itself. There's air a plenty over there."
"What about gravity, and heat?" Katz countered.
"Gravity is merely a force, I can manipulate at will," Rikard stated turning and extending a hand as a piece of fruit floated off of a platter and into his hand, demonstrating his point. "As for heat…" he agitated the air, dragging the ambient temperature up a good fifteen degrees in mere seconds.
"Oh god," Katz murmured, realizing what Rikard was suggesting they attempt.
"Just for the record," Rikard smiled chillingly, "the weather today is slightly sub-arctic with a good chance of death by vacuum exposure. Fun isn't it?"
HMS T'zaht - Arcanis System - Former Polian Alliance
~~*~~
The sensor suite went live, feeding complicated data directly into the holographic situation table at the rear of the bridge. A near perfect visual representation of the Arcanis system, complete down to the finite detail as it registered power sources, ambient radiations and other details far beyond the DARRT or LADAR and RADAR capabilities.
Human technology was primitive and very alien to Z'ræl, but his host understood its function well. She leaned over the display chewing on a stylus as she endeavoured to identify what she needed from the shattered remains of the planet.
There wasn't much that had survived, but her scans revealed what she was looking for, as well as a couple of other points of interest, and she moved away from the sensor system, picking up her Pulse Rifle as she descended through the frigate, working her way through the ship to the cargo-bay, and the rudimentary Propylon system that had been set up there.
Unaware of the new signal that appeared on the new sensors, as a Gorean dropship roared away from the destroyer and descended towards the derelict station the T'zaht was resting upon.