Fields of Honor (Revisited)

Verakka: I believe Windine can handle it now.

*the being reaches out towards Eternus, but Windine and Lapates appear on either side of the creature. They both raise their right arms, and chant data coding too fast for even Verakka to follow. The sound of massive bells ringing echoes through the emptiness as a purple sphere appears around the entity, then its form begins to swirl and shimmer as both it and the orb fade away*

Windine: Partial quantum sink complete. Ready for transport.

Lapates: Transporting in five, four, three, two...

*there's another sound of bells as a flash emanates from where the being used to be, then nothing*

Eternus: *Sighs* That seemed easy enough for you two... *Vanishes and appears back on the Phoenix* Now then. What are the damages?

Officer: Sir, several of our ships were destroyed in that last attack. Not to mention that several others took some damage as a result of that creatures berserk attack against us.

Eternus: I see... Have the damaged ships return to base for repairs.

Officer: Yes sir.


MEANWHILE...


Flow: *Chuckles* That was an amusing little battle. Too bad it was over so soon. *Shrugs and returns to her normal form* I guess I'll be going then, I've gotten enough information. *Vanishes*

Verakka: *he closes his eyes, then slowly reverts back to his normal form* Windine, you took it to your Base?

Windine: Affirmative, it will be kept within a temporal barrier. I will not let it free.

Verakka: See that it is so, I don't want to fight that monstrosity again. *rolls his shoulders*

MEANWHILE, ON BOARD THE FLEET...

Zuwanore: (telepathy) Ma'am, you felt it...?

Ephemural: (telepathy) I did. That thing's unnatural data is shaking off layers of ancient coding in this Server; old beings from the past will begin popping up soon. I hope our little guardians can handle the shock.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) I can't recall data from that far back, are these old presences friendly or hostile?

Ephemural: (telepathy) Some are one, others are another. Make no mistake, Zuwanore, that this is one of the most important instances for us to observe. Since we can't leave, we need to understand how these people think until we can.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) Yes, ma'am. We are en route to a new destination now.

Ephemural: (telepathy) The one called Verakka will take us to Omicron now. Stay in touch, Zuwanore.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) I'd have it no other way.

Eternus: Alright then, let's wait here a little longer. Once Verakka is away we'll head back to base.

Helmsmen: Sir!

*Verakka and Lapates teleport aboard the Maelstrom as Windine returns to his Base*

Verakka: ROB82, chart for Omicron. Eleven random warp junctions.

ROB82: Understood, sir. *the Maelstrom shines, then vanishes into hyperspace. The Phantoms aboard the Maelstrom enter the bridge, Ephemural among them*

Phantom Riva: Sir...what the hell was that?

Verakka: Something from Beyond. I can't tell you anything else.

Ephemural: And why not, commander? Is it that you don't know anything else?

Verakka: *raises an eyebrow at her, then sighs* If I knew anything, Versuba would be the first to hear of it, mark my words. Not a single one of you deserves doubt in my eyes, and I think you know it.

*Ephemural almost laughs*

Phantom Ezikiel: Thank you for the kind words, commander. Please let us know if we can be of service.

Verakka: For now, just tend to your duties until we reach Omicron.

Phantoms: Sir!

MEANWHILE...

*there's a ripple in space, then a planet appears where none existed before. It is a dense jungle planet, strangely free of humidity. Without a sun or moon, the gentle light on the planet comes from its trees which give the atmosphere a calming blue luminescence*

Helmsmen: The Maelstrom is away we're beginning the preparations for our own jump sir.

Eternus: Good... *A few moments later the Phoenix and it's fleet warp away* I'll be in my quarters if I'm needed.

Deck Officer: Yes sir. I'll send word when we're preparing to exit warp.

Eternus: Alright. *Walks off the bridge and begins walking towards his quarters reverting to Wolf in the process*

ONBOARD THE PHOENIX...

*Zuwanore watches as Wolf exits, then he quickly warps further down the hall and rounds the corner to be confronted by the general*

Zuwanore: General, what was that? A virus of some kind?

Wolf: *Stops and looks at the soldier* I'm not sure at this moment in time, one thing is certain though we shouldn't be seeing any more of them.

Zuwanore: That's reassuring. We'll continue to count on you, General. (thinking) After all, data collection of Guardians is practically part of our job description.

Wolf: That's an interesting comment... Do you have doubts about my skills as the commander here?

Zuwanore: No such thoughts have ever crossed my mind, General. I have the utmost confidence that you are the one we need when things get hectic, like just then.

Wolf: *Chuckles* Fine then... Just get back to your station for now, we'll be back at base in a little while.

Zuwanore: Understood. *walks away. As soon as he is out of sight, he vanishes and reappears, crouched in an air duct three levels below where he was* (telepathy) Ma'am.

Ephemural: (telepathy) I'm here, Zuwanore.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) Even with the data we'd received, the General proves more intelligent than I had thought when face-to-face; a slip of the tongue will jolt his hidden memories back to life.

Ephemural: (telepathy) That fledgeling will have no idea who you are when you get serious, Zuwanore. We are Vanguards, we cannot be found out by someone with as low detection skills as a Guardian. *rubs her chin* That Overseer is a problem, however; erasing her memories isn't possible without damage to the Server. She knows we are here; if she alerts the Guardians, there is no point to this.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) I'll fade into the shadows, completely fall of the radar; this Overseer will come to us soon enough, right ma'am?

Ephemural: (telepathy) Undoubtedly. Be ready, Zuwanore.

Zuwanore: (telepathy) As if anything in this Server could catch me off-guard, ma'am.

OMICRON...

*the Phantoms disembark from the Maelstrom, Ephemural glancing around at her surroundings*

Ephemural: (thinking) The data here is more complex than around normal galactic bodies; but then, such things should be expected from a planet with a data trigger attached to its source code.

Phantom Riva: Keep moving, we're almost at the barracks.

LATER...


*The Phoenix and it's fleet exit warp in the Seraxi system and head to the starbase to dock for repairs*

Wolf: Alright, divide the ships into task groups. I want the patrols upped by five percent.

Comm Officer: Yes sir, I'll send out the orders.

Wolf: Good, I'll be in the base if something comes up.

Comm Officer: Right, I'll send you the hourly reports as they come in.

Wolf: Good... *Walks off the bridge and leaves the ship*

Atkhinrev: Where is Flow? That low-level missed a show.

Akkarev: She isn't on-planet as far as I'm aware, Lord. Perhaps she had business to take care of.

Zolsohca: More important than that? That was a goldmine for a person like Flow.

MEANWHILE...

*Zuwanore codes himself to be invisible to regular characters, walking after high-level officers and members of the black ops. He makes his way towards the center of the base*

MEANWHILE...

*Ephemural dresses herself in the Phantoms' casual wear; a white outfit, short-sleeved shirt and shorts with a sleeveless jacket over it*

Phantom Riva: Did you see that fucker? It was ridiculous.

Phantom Ezikiel: I don't think I've ever seen a larger living creature, yet they took it out like that.

Ephemural: Yes, the commander seemed to be on his feet with this, didn't he?

Phantom Flara: You've got that right. He's usually erratic and trigger-happy when confronted with that kind of situation, but he was logical this time. It was actually really impressive.

Phantom Ezikiel: The commander's usually impressive, just in ways that one wouldn't usually think.

Ephemural: Indeed.

Phantom Flara: Still, he seems off lately. There's something big on the commander's mind, I can feel it.

Ephemural: Care to share?

Wolf: *Walks over to a terminal and begins checking on the situation of his forces and the people living in Seraxi* Hmm, so things went as I expected them to... Although, I have a nagging feeling that there's something going on and I'm just not aware of what it is yet. I feel like there's some great power that I'll be encountering at some point in my life.....

*Zuwanore makes his way to a central information terminal. After coding the area to 'suggest' the minds of soldiers and technicians that they would be better put to use elsewhere, he uncloaks himself and begins hacking the terminal while throwing up dummy coding to make it appear that everything is fine from the outside*

MEANWHILE...

Phantom Flara: It's clear that Wolf and the commander still have tension between them. Do you think he's trying to pull it together in an attempt at outclassing him?

Phantom Ezikiel: Knowing our commander, it might be more than an attempt.

Ephemural: I have just as much faith in our commander as you, but their records speak for themselves.

Phantom Flara: When the chips are on the table, the commander will outshine any competition.

Phantom Riva: If he doesn't burn the table first.

*the Phantoms laugh again*

Ivy: *A terminal beeps near her* Whats this? *Walks over to it and examines it* That's an interesting search..... It seems normal but let's have some fun with whoever is doing the searching... *Begins typing in commands and a lockout appears on the terminal Zuwanore is using*

Zuwanore: Oh? I've been spotted... *he taps another line of code into the terminal and bypasses the lockout within moments, then uses the terminal's own code to throw up firewalls and security blocks against Ivy's system*

MEANWHILE...

*Verakka makes his way to the cloud which holds Versuba's meeting table. Trigger, LinkLord and Zova are the only ones seated there presently*

Verakka: That could have been disastrous. We need countermeasures in case another one of those appears.

LinkLord: What do you want? None of us have your power, you and Wolf are the only two who can take something like that down.

Trigger: Unless we set all of Versuba on it.

Zova: What, and lose ninety percent of our men?

Verakka: Zova's right, a flat-out assault might end in victory, but at great cost. *he seats himself* This thing's code was unlike anything I've ever seen before; foreign, somehow. It must have come from beyond what we know to be real.

Ivy: This ones good... I'm going to have fun with it. *Sets up system bugs and firewalls as well as more lockouts* Now then. That should hold whoever is busy digging through our files, I think I'll head over there and find them. *Activates a cloaking device and fades away then begins running towards the central information terminal that Zuwanore is using*

Zuwanore: Damn. *chuckles* I underestimated this place's security since it's so backwater, but there's someone here who's no incompetent. *he promptly disables the firewalls before working on bypassing the bugs*

MEANWHILE, GAME'S CORE...

Motherboard: Avoz, Ailaeda.

*the two viruses emerge into view, forming as if emerging from an invisible mist*

Avoz: It's about the two intruders, right?

Motherboard: They're meddling with Verakka and Wolf. I don't know if their intentions are hostile or not, but it's taking almost all of my concentration just to track them. I need you two to work out their motives, under the radar of our military-leading associates.

Ailaeda: It'll get done.

Avoz: We'll report back within a day. *the two viruses vanish again*

Ivy: *Keeps running towards Zuwanore, moving like a shadow unnoticed my any except the Black-ops troops she passes* (Thinking: Almost there. I wonder who this meddler is...)

Zuwanore: (thinking) In the name of First Light, who taught this person to code? *cracks his neck* The fact that I've never been in this Server isn't doing any favors, either.

MEANWHILE...

Trigger: There is an option, Verakka. We could rebuild Xi.

*dead silence suddenly hangs over the entire planet of Omicron, as if the planet itself waits for a response. Verakka looks at Trigger for several minutes*

Verakka: ...impossible. I don't have the mental fortitude to go back to that fractal graveyard a third time. Not now.

Ivy: *Slows down as she approaches the room where Zuwanore is located and walks in still cloaked* (Thinking: There should be more people here, but there's only one... This is getting even more interesting.) So just who are you?

*Zuwanore stops, then tilts his head slightly. He turns; as he turns, his soldier armor fades to be replaced by his thick robes and mask. He examines the room for a moment*

Zuwanore: You have five seconds to reveal yourself before I wash your mind clean. (thinking) As if I didn't already know your exact location. No mere character can hide from me.