HoshizoraBoard

Honour guard wrote:

Richard pauses in thought of all of this. To him it was not cut and dry as that, to him this was a matter that he would much rather have nothing to do with. To live a simply life of study and caring for his pupil... But the emergence of these beings that are now after him made that simple life and the safety of his pupil impossible. Unforgivable... So just this once... "Very well Gravelord... I accept. And it goes without saying that I'm getting involved with the investigation. They threatened my peaceful life and just about everything else I've come to like... Getting to the bottom of this and beating whoever thought this was a good idea to a pulp is the only conclusion I wish to pursue in this situation."

"This new galaxy has strange gods." The Gravelord waved their hand, with the symbol of a withered tree grasping a moon now on Richard's left arm as he reappeared back to the material plane.

Honour guard wrote:

lHe was glad to see that Jazmin certainly wasn't lacking any spirit as she Filia all too happily nodded along with her friends sentiment "Don't need to tell me twice." Harlock says getting in the speeder with the girls. Fitting whatever they could take with them along before he looked to Wink "Okay, lets get back. Thanks for doing this for us Wink."

Filia just raised an eyebrow to being called a 'mage'. She more considered herself a brawler if anything else. Using magic to strengthen her body and movement along with some ranged attacks, but other than she never really thought of it like that. "Mage huh. Wouldn't figure myself for one but sure we'll go with that."

-----

Hearing all of this, about the spirits and the Gwysger, it started to put Seph in a fighting mood. Then he remembered he wasn't allowed to use his fire magic here. Not that he doubted he could take sure creatures on as he is, his physical strength and speed weren't too shabby. "Enough concentrated light huh... Shame magic is discouraged." He says softly to himself as he hears about the giant skeleton. He really wants to fight that... And then hearing about the Nuckelavee. Whatever that was.

The realisation that she was human was one that he already knew well enough. It was that humanity of hers that he came to admire her for, not the inhuman power she once wielded. She nearly killed herself twice using those enhancements before they were switched off. Still... He could sense her unease rather easily. Was her homeworld really so dangerous? Though that was answered pretty quickly, the groups of eyes watching them from the shadows and rooftops. While he certainly hid his mixed heritage with humanoid eyes around the people here on her home, he certainly didn't when he could feel such strong bloodlust from the creatures. Black slitted pupils with large shattered patterns of fractal crimson and yellow iris's, almost luminescent peered back up at the spirits following them. He might be civilised now, brought up from a feral beast to the level of sentience by their former King, but Sephus knows all too well how to exude his primal killing intent to discourage others... Liline may not notice it, since she pointed out the rozzers he eye would go back to their normal human-like appearance with green eyes.

With her he heads up to the checkpoint, masking his killing intent again as he stays by her side as they reach the constable, with Sephus showing him his Lord commander Identification before he walks off with it. "Guess I should work on getting some type of identification that works here..." He says to Liline before the constable comes back and hands him his ID back. He smiles and waves off the constable before he looks back to Liline as she says they aren't going to make it over the bridge in time...

Sephus looked to her for a moment, not sure what she was feeling just yet. Was it fear of the night or the issues of being out far past curfew. Or was it that they had left Mitsy all alone back in their room with just the TV as company. Either way, he didn't care for this down look of theirs. He just reaches a hand over to rest on top of her head for a moment as he smiled down at her "Not is you keep doubting yourself like that. Push comes to shove, you can get on my back and we'll leap across the the bridge!" He says with a huge grin on his face. If he could use his magic he could carry her and fly the way back, with alot of effort in concentrating the fire into controlled jet bursts under his feet. By no means would it be any easier than sprinting the whole way back, he'd be way more tired with the first option. "We've got Mitsy waiting on us. Let's get back, right?"

“Don’t like my assigned title, huh? Heh. Guess you mages like your own subclasses, huh?” He said as he punched it, the hovercraft roaring to life and speeding off. Jazmin letting out a quiet gasp as she squeezed Filia’s arm. “Well don’t you worry, we’re gonna get back to the settlement in time for dinner. Hope you two aren’t too hungry. We’ve got a lot of mouths to feed and not much to go around.”

-

She nodded, “you’re absolutely correct. We need to get back to see mitsy!” She said as she started walking more determined. Heading down the road for many minutes, they eventually reached the Seyrun crossing into Saranshire. They’d been walking for a couple of hours but they had finally made it. The bridge was huge and quite intricate and ornate in design. But the bridge had been raised, arresting all traffic, both foot and cars, from crossing. Looking down, it was a good fifteen or twenty foot drop into a river with strong currents. Looking across it was maybe a good 275 metres to cross the bridge from side to side. But Liline had a smirk on her face as they got to this point. She put her hands in her pockets and pulled out a piece of cloth, handing it to Sephus. “Ready to break some rules?” She winked before running at one of the support beams. She leapt from the edge of the road and grabbed the inversely arched metal support beam. She used the momentum of her legs to swing and caught the bar with her legs. It was rather a spectacle to watch her do this with one arm. Using her arm, she hugged the metal beam close, and crossed her legs around it as much as possible. Then, like a caterpillar, she shimmied up and along the length of the bridge. She was clearly exerting herself greatly and was quite sweaty. She let out the occasional grunt as she shimmied up the arch.

Triporea wrote:

“Well, our building is relatively undamaged. I think my staff are a bit shell shocked but... I think we’re doing fine overall. Now...” He read over the faxes, before picking back up the handset again, “I cannot confirm the identity of these craft. I can tell you I don’t think they look Bezi at all. But I’ve also had no communication with my government. I’ll be ordering my marine detail to set up an emergency long range communication device on consulate grounds to see if we can Reestablish communications with Bezembay. If that’s successful I can probably get you the answers you need.”

"Copy that. Medics onboard an unarmed airship will be coming to your area, whatever you do, DO NOT let anyone enter in your consulate without my confirmation. If they are posing as something, fire at will. On a sidenote, remain the connection on this line active, do not disconnect at any given reason unless it is vital to your survival." The commander would say. The 'Medics' outside of the Bezi consulate seem to be fidgety, their hands bawled up or in a grabbing position, their eyes sweeping everything around them. Unusually, there are only 4 medics outside of the vehicles, there may be more inside or something else.

The Ebony Republic wrote:

"Vok." Asura said, snapping her fingers. "Vok death squads go into a target location, plant explosives, and are out in seconds. If we can get a second team, we can cover both objectives. They'll likely send drones in this case that will -be- the bombs. Thus, we don't have to worry about losing a team to Cyboar's goons."

Fornt thought about it, and nodded, "If they are willing to try, then that can work. Although be wary with drones and even elite soldiers, fighting Cyboar directly is not something many can handle. Bad to describe them as goons, they're not going to go down easily. But suicide bomb drones... Well, that'll work one way or the other. Frankly as long as they cause chaos, it'll help. So yes, that shall be included. They either take out an objective or sow mayhem, a win either way with no life lost."

Iammelon wrote:

The large explosion certainly did its job of grabbing the attention of their robotic foes, as all the troops on patrol and even in the bunkers turned to face it. The cloud got their attention for a while, which of course made it easy to see where the patrols were, but they got active rather quickly. The droid troops started yelling out to each other to set off the alarm, as the enemy was finally here and it time to get fighting. It would take them a bit to coordinate however, and so the main forces would be delayed for now. The immediate threat for the Broodmothers was the mines and sentry turrets. The turrets quickly turned to open fire on the makeshift defenses, although the stun-blasts were inaccurate against Zemia's swift advance, although the turrets would still try and prevent the rest of the Broodmothers from regrouping with Zemia inside the bunker.

Meanwhile, the bunker was not too difficult to clear out. It was only inhabited by a squad of the remotely-controlled droid soldiers, and the interior of the bunker was tight, making the shrapnel extremely effective in that close-quarters situation. The droids were dispatched fairly easily, and the machine gun was now at Zemia's disposal. Which would be useful, as the droids at this point began their counter-attack. The other emplacements, still having their machine guns, opened fire on Sieg, Yajana, and Xernus, attempting to suppress them. As that happened, squads of the droids moved forward. They used the emplacements and other sections of cover to avoid the blasts coming down from up above, and tried to surround the emplacement that had been taken. A batch of them with scatterguns and grenades even attempted one mad charge to break in and take out Zemia while she was alone. Still, right now, it was just the infantry. The Fortress was coming to life in the background however, and its garage hummed to life, likely preparing some more armored reinforcements.

With the emplacement in her possession, Zemia ripped the gun off its mount without destroying its ammo and aimed it out towards the droids starting to mad dash her to overwhelm her, firing out to destroy them. <Not good, the garage is starting to power up their armoured units. We need to make some headway and thin them out quick!> Zemia lets them all know via telepathy. Helding the gun with one arm and a second appendage made of her psionic energy she moves her free arm up, creating a barrier that encompassed the entrance with only a hole for the weapon to fire through.

For the other girls, progression was slow with them being fired upon, deciding to take the initiative, Yajana pointed her arms out to the other bunker emplacements and starting to focus her energy on the two closest ones before firing a rather large explosive attack at both, aiming to destroy the guns and enough of the cover so Sieg could gun down the surviving drones.

Sieg, with the droids starting to shoot her way, started to get annoyed while Xernus make a large barrier between the three of them and the droid advancement “Just keep firing Sieg!” Xernus said as she started to pick up the mines with telekinesis and started to throw them at the sentry guns and towards the garage with it powering up.

Sieg now having a breather, aimed her rifles up again and fired more bolts into the air, the bolts swerving down and aiming for the droids exposed by Yajana’s detonation magic and the ones that were still between them and Zemia’s bunker.

Iammelon wrote:

Rovin considered that, a tree prolonging life. It certainly sounded like something that would interest the Ialao, as they loved their trees, especially trees they could hug. They would be very interested in this Xelium Tree, and probably support such a close relationship with it, given that they were the sort who believed in close cooperation with nature as a way of getting through life. Such was the way of those hippies. All the same, he did understand what Piper meant, "So he was a food source for a magic tree that kept him alive in exchange for water and protection from people who wanted some lumber. I suppose that makes sense, a tree like that would benefit from having a long living guardian committed to its survival. But I can't say I'm surprised he didn't agree with being a robot, or having a robot copy. Such things never end up too good, so good on him for avoiding it." He then nodded to her note on getting back to the homeworld. That was indeed a matter for somebody with a navy, and it was somber, so best to move on from there for now. Closure could come later, if somebody brought up the possibility with a force that had the resources and willingness to pursue it. He then smirked at the end with the transport, "Rare huh? Thought it was just easy, but perhaps I am just that exceptional!"

Regardless of that tease, the Human Mercenary chuckled at the sight of the tree. That was Xel-Promethia, he had to guess, "Ah, there's the magic tree! An Ialao would kill to hug that big thing. Does indeed seem to be built the structure of the palace too, so you weren't lying about it being an important pillar. Impressive that it can handle so much weight. You guys gotta cut branches quite often, I'd bet! Still, it's pretty, so I can see why it's an icon for a society."

The Lalao would be able to if they went to the current Athailian Capital, a new one would have been planted as soon as they moved in since it is a symbol of their peoples survival and desire for cooperation. “I guess you could put it that way, but without other people wanting to log it. It would be the other monsters and plant life wanting to devour it for its energy. The entire planet was a hotbed for natural magical energy… Back when the planet was feral there was enough power rampant in the air for evolution to descend into complete disarray… Millions of years of progress could be made in a single year. After the Xelium trees started to be deeply rooted in the planet, things slowed down to a much more normal rate… To be rare, the trees are a mystery in themselves since we have no idea how they came to be in the first place.”

As Piper explained it she had some thoughts herself. The progress on the planet could have been seen by the gods to be really all too troublesome to be left alone, if evolution spiralled out of control like that and continued the planet itself could have become a god of creation or any of creatures on its surface become a calamity if they got offworld. So a god must have stepped in to cultivate the rogue planet for a specialised kind of life… One that could withstand and control the rampant power on its surface… What an outrageous planet Piper comes from.

When he mentions having to cut the tree branches, Piper gives him an all too fearful look, like he just said something super taboo “Please tell me you’re joking. Merely joking about such a thing can get you alot of animosity from people. Plus no one besides Emnak can be trusted with that… Imagine it for a moment, how much magic do you think a tree of this size holds? Especially one that feeds on the entire populouses excess magical energies for untold generations? Can you imagine if someone got their hands on a branch…? Any wizard that got their hands on it would be strong enough to take over a continent by themselves.” Wait was that right? They had something like this sitting in the middle of their palace the entire time?? How the hell did they lose their homeworld???

Iammelon wrote:

Malgkirgor certainly appreciated Zether being willing to share some of his experience, as he was quite dedicated to being the best parent he could. And while of course he trusted his mother, it was useful to have some additional sources for advice, just to be sure. Never could have too much knowledge on any subject after all, "Thank you for the willingness to assist me, Uncle! I will likely be asking that advice of you soon, but I am certain we will get along very well! And heh, I do hope to be a good enough parent for my own children to care for my well being in such a fashion! Although I understand pushing them into self sufficiency! Kids need to grow up and live their own lives, and it is the role of the parent to push them along in that matter." He was certainly confused however as Zether explained about his own children and his odd genetic disposition. That was most unusual, and of course did change the situation, but Malgkirgor did process the information well enough, giving a nod, "I see then, Zether. Well, it's odd, for sure, but I get what you mean more now. I suppose other species could have their own ways of developing powers early in life. Dragons are different to that, although not impossible for such a thing to occur. Seems then we are different parents in that way, as you have not had Draconic Children! It's certainly an experience, let me tell you. I'd recommend trying it for yourself, but you sound like you are quite settled on the child front! Still, not surprising you have a rather extensive and odd history. I would expect no less of a mysterious uncle returning from space! Would be anticlimactic if you had just lived a normal life as a cattle herder until now after all! I would like to know more however. And, if you do have them, I am sure Bekqura would love to hear stories from her Great-Uncle! Preferably exciting ones, for bedtime stories. She likes those, even if she doesn't quite get the words yet."

Really Zether was all too happy to assist, he loved being a parent more than he loved fighting, so this was something he would be more than happy to help with. Besides, fighting as a dragon didn’t appeal to him as much as fighting as a humanoid did, though that was purely because he was accustomed to it. Still Zether couldn’t help but smile merrily to how ecstatic Malgkirgor was to be a parent. He loved the attitude he had, so joyous. It reminded him when he first started taking care of Alicia after they fled her dying world and the swarm. “Oh willingness nothing, I’m always more than happy to help out family no matter the circumstance. And you don’t have to hope, I can already tell you’re going to be a fantastic father.” Zether was extremely encouraging, in most situations he might be seen as strange and rather eccentric but he did pride himself on being a parent. He took rather quickly to the role of being the wise older uncle. “I’m happy you agree with my decision with my kids, though don’t agree so eagerly. When she grows up you’ll be just as hesitant as I was to leave at all, or let her go in your case. The decision itself is hard enough, going through with it is even more so.”

Zether could visibly see the cogs going in in his nephews head after he explained his strange family makeup. Nevermind the whole nutshell of the fact that he did all this himself without a mother to any of his kids. But thankfully no one has asked that yet. Though Zether wasn’t really thinking about it to begin with. When he brought up the possibility of dragon kids, Zether’s own cogs started to turn as his eyes would seemingly light up with delight at the thought of a tiny dragon of his own. Though the immediate hurdle of having someone to have those kids with would spring to mind since he couldn’t just make one with himself like he did with the Firstborn, filling in all the blanks with jumbled DNA that he use for the eggs and such. Plus it would be super suspect if he suddenly had one of his own. “While I would love such an experience I think I should settle in and find someone first. Though to be honest I wouldn’t even know how to begin in such an endeavour, I’ve never really had any form of relationship like that in my life.” He says smiling, not realising the immediate implications of that. “But I will say that I do have plenty of stories to tell, most would need to be toned down. But I do have many stories of battles, journeys and tales to tell. I did more than afew adventures with Alicia while she was growing up and we were exploring the far wester galactic fringe before I even had the idea of starting my own Kingdom.”

Honour guard wrote:

After the speeder starts up and they get underway, Filia just grumbles about the talk of subclasses. Truth of it was that while she was powerful she was really a novice in every respect despite all the raw power she has. Because that's all it is, raw power. Since she was a pawn that was just used in order to get Zether's lifeforce... Which worked before Cyboar mucked up that plan and she got captured. Though she blinks as she looks over to Jazmin after noticing she was squeezing her arm an awful lot, the gasp catching her and Harlock's attention. Filia notices Harlock glance over before looking away as soon as he notices that Filia noticed him looking at it with a slight tint in his cheeks and a look on his face.

Filia just smirked at that before she just rested a hand on Jazmins head "First time riding in a craft this fast?" She says before looking over to Wink "Foods not really an issue. I we still have some of our ships emergency rations left."

-----

Seeing the determination return to her, Sephus was relieved. He loved seeing that spark in her, that was why he followed with equal zeal all the way to the bridge. Getting there, and seeing the ornate and huge bridge before him was quite the sight. Though it was unmistakably raised. He started to feel a mischievous tingle up his spine as he looked to Liline to see that smirk on her face. <There it is.> He thinks to himself as she hands him the piece of cloth. "Heh, you're really making me into quite the delinquent." He says taking it.

As she started to show off her acrobatic prowess as she deftly made her way to one of the bars and started to make her way up the arch. It was rather mesmerising to watch before he snaps himself out of it and follows suit, taking a step back he braces himself before he takes a running jump, grabbing one of the support beams, using the momentum to leap to the next beam before he started to follow liline, wrapping his legs around the beam and following her up to the Arch. Using physical strength alone sure was something, without using magic this was really hard "J-Jeez, I glad I trained my body like I did. If I just focused on magic I would never have been able to follow you like this."

Jazmin nodded and she whispered so as the old man wouldn't hear her, "In truth this vehicle is... rickety... and I'm almost certain this guy is..." Wink started talking in response to Filia.
"Well, I do hope you'll either share that food amongst our camp. We've got a lot of hungry people. I'm not forcing you to, but you might want to so as to not illicit any kind of altercation. Just a suggestion though. How long were you two hold up in that shop?" Jazmin held up her hand and started counting on her fingers.

-

Despite Liline's intense training, this was difficult for her. She struggled and sweat profusely as she climbed. but once she reached the apex of the arch. She paused for a moment. "Now here's the trickiest part, but also the most fun." She said, using a piece of cloth to tie a knot around a much smaller pipe along the side. "The way down," she said as she put her wrist through the knot she had tied to the bridge. Whizzing down this arch like a zip-line. Once she reached about half way down the arch, she swung herself to put her boots on the rail and held herself there. Using the soles of her shoes to act like a brake. Once she slowed down enough, she looked down at the rapidly approaching cobblestone wall ahead of her. She then confidently leapt from the arch and reached to grab the edge of the wall, but she crashed into it. And with only one arm, she lost her grip and slipped from the cobblestone wall. She let out a scream as she fell down towards the river below.

Necunda wrote:

The "Medics" would shout something and suddenly armed men would come out of the of the ambulances would begin opening fire blindly, although they tried to surprise them, the Bezi would gain the upper hand being in fortified positions and also outnumbering the men inside the ambulances by a handful. The armed men seem to be quite.. rough on their shooting, they may have hit a few of the Bezi's foot soldiers but fortunately no one died. All of the armed men would succumb to their death except one, hiding behind the ambulance trying to stop the bleeding on his chest. If the bezi inspect the "Ambulances" it would seem to be just retrofitted SUVs to make it look like a military ambulance.

Shortly after the actual medics arrive, on the designated airship, it has the proper medic insignia, four swords and a lance on top of all four. This airship would be similar to the Sjourbouh Area Denial Gunship although no gun pods are visible. attempting to stabilize on top of the Bezi consulate with its VTOL engines several medics in full armor and medic insignias and packs would come rappeling down the building and starts helping anyone inside the building that has been either shell-shocked, injured or anything. Several of them would rush downwards to the recently finished fire fight and assist the Bezi marines. As one of the medics inspect the "ambulances" they would see the rough stitching of their uniform... "Oh second sun, Its the Jarlvein Revolutionary Army."

The marine’s non-fatal wounds would be tended to by an onsite medic, who treated the marines temporarily. As the proper medics arrived the marines allowed them to enter the premises with much trepidation, but monitored the medics closely. The marines stood vigilantly at their posts and were in a general battle mode.

The consul was in his office continuing to try and use the long range communication device to contact the Bez core but had the representative he had been speaking to on the line. “Seems your medics are here now. I’m hearing something about a revolutionary army? Now why the hell are they targeting my consulate?!”

Honour guard wrote:

With the emplacement in her possession, Zemia ripped the gun off its mount without destroying its ammo and aimed it out towards the droids starting to mad dash her to overwhelm her, firing out to destroy them. <Not good, the garage is starting to power up their armoured units. We need to make some headway and thin them out quick!> Zemia lets them all know via telepathy. Helding the gun with one arm and a second appendage made of her psionic energy she moves her free arm up, creating a barrier that encompassed the entrance with only a hole for the weapon to fire through.

For the other girls, progression was slow with them being fired upon, deciding to take the initiative, Yajana pointed her arms out to the other bunker emplacements and starting to focus her energy on the two closest ones before firing a rather large explosive attack at both, aiming to destroy the guns and enough of the cover so Sieg could gun down the surviving drones.

Sieg, with the droids starting to shoot her way, started to get annoyed while Xernus make a large barrier between the three of them and the droid advancement “Just keep firing Sieg!” Xernus said as she started to pick up the mines with telekinesis and started to throw them at the sentry guns and towards the garage with it powering up.

Sieg now having a breather, aimed her rifles up again and fired more bolts into the air, the bolts swerving down and aiming for the droids exposed by Yajana’s detonation magic and the ones that were still between them and Zemia’s bunker.

The droids attacking Zemia were not expecting the machine gun to be turned around in such a fashion, so that rather quickly cut down the assault team. The machine gun was a bit unwieldy without its mount to stabilize it, with recoil being an issue, but the sheer amount of firepower it threw out counteracted the dip in accuracy, and it only took a few shots to down these simple droids. Even those who did get their shots off only hit the barrier, so Zemia would hold out for the time being. The droids changed strategy after realizing that getting inside was an affair that only led to death, and they kept their distance, now chucking grenades at Zemia's barrier.

Yajana's explosive attacks were effective at disabling the machine guns of the two bunkers, but the structures themselves were quite sturdy and held together. They were designed to protect their inhabitants from artillery after all, and so this fit the bill. Still, while killing the drones inside would not be easy, they were forced to take cover, and that kept them inside for now. Meanwhile, Xernus found success in repurposing the mines, as they rather handily took out the sentry guns. The garage's doors however were shielded, and blocked the blasts. What was within finished powering up. Sieg however was successful in dealing with the drones blocking their path, and forced the rest into taking cover. There was nothing stopping them now from attacking the drones putting Zemia under siege in the flanks, which would handily remove that problem. The new problem was the garage however, and what was inside now came out. Four Light Tanks came out, revealing that they were actually hover tanks. They were fortunately not heavy tanks, but they still were well armed, carrying a powerful main cannon and two supporting machine guns each.

Honour guard wrote:

The Ialao would be able to if they went to the current Athailian Capital, a new one would have been planted as soon as they moved in since it is a symbol of their peoples survival and desire for cooperation. “I guess you could put it that way, but without other people wanting to log it. It would be the other monsters and plant life wanting to devour it for its energy. The entire planet was a hotbed for natural magical energy… Back when the planet was feral there was enough power rampant in the air for evolution to descend into complete disarray… Millions of years of progress could be made in a single year. After the Xelium trees started to be deeply rooted in the planet, things slowed down to a much more normal rate… To be rare, the trees are a mystery in themselves since we have no idea how they came to be in the first place.”

As Piper explained it she had some thoughts herself. The progress on the planet could have been seen by the gods to be really all too troublesome to be left alone, if evolution spiralled out of control like that and continued the planet itself could have become a god of creation or any of creatures on its surface become a calamity if they got offworld. So a god must have stepped in to cultivate the rogue planet for a specialised kind of life… One that could withstand and control the rampant power on its surface… What an outrageous planet Piper comes from.

When he mentions having to cut the tree branches, Piper gives him an all too fearful look, like he just said something super taboo “Please tell me you’re joking. Merely joking about such a thing can get you alot of animosity from people. Plus no one besides Emnak can be trusted with that… Imagine it for a moment, how much magic do you think a tree of this size holds? Especially one that feeds on the entire populouses excess magical energies for untold generations? Can you imagine if someone got their hands on a branch…? Any wizard that got their hands on it would be strong enough to take over a continent by themselves.” Wait was that right? They had something like this sitting in the middle of their palace the entire time?? How the hell did they lose their homeworld???

The Ialao would certainly love to do just that, as this was right up their alley. The deer would give quite the seal of approval to this aspect of Athailian society for sure, and probably ask for one such Xelium tree for themselves if it were possible. But that would be for another day, as Rovin was not an Ialao, just a mere Human. He nodded in understanding, "Guess such a big tree would be a big target for other plants and even creatures, especially if eating it means getting a big magical boost. Quite the gain for a little nibble, but the tree certainly wouldn't like that. Still, certainly best to avoid that. Nature is sorta built to function at a slow, simple pace. When it gets too fast, it usually ends up destroying itself. Balance and all that."

In truth, Rovin was thinking a very different line. He was wondering how they didn't manage to lose their homeworld even sooner, because as she gave more context he saw more and more issues. Sighing, Rovin shook his head, "Not really, I ain't joking there. I'm starting to see why you had the problems you ended up with. Now, I do consider what would happen if a wizard got a branch, and the context of what would happen if they got even more. That to me is the exact reason why you have to trim. If it grows too much the chance of somebody making a theft of a branch gets even more likely, but that's not the big problem I see. For, consider this instead. All of this magic in one place, all handily stored together. What if somebody with an army learned about that? All of that power, just sitting there, asking to be taken. Your people are damn powerful, I can see that for myself, but with such a prize on the line, I bet many would be quite happy to take the risk. And I'll be honest... I'm gonna guess this super massive tree of yours may have been one of the reasons that Erox fellow ended up on your homeworld."

Honour guard wrote:

Really Zether was all too happy to assist, he loved being a parent more than he loved fighting, so this was something he would be more than happy to help with. Besides, fighting as a dragon didn’t appeal to him as much as fighting as a humanoid did, though that was purely because he was accustomed to it. Still Zether couldn’t help but smile merrily to how ecstatic Malgkirgor was to be a parent. He loved the attitude he had, so joyous. It reminded him when he first started taking care of Alicia after they fled her dying world and the swarm. “Oh willingness nothing, I’m always more than happy to help out family no matter the circumstance. And you don’t have to hope, I can already tell you’re going to be a fantastic father.” Zether was extremely encouraging, in most situations he might be seen as strange and rather eccentric but he did pride himself on being a parent. He took rather quickly to the role of being the wise older uncle. “I’m happy you agree with my decision with my kids, though don’t agree so eagerly. When she grows up you’ll be just as hesitant as I was to leave at all, or let her go in your case. The decision itself is hard enough, going through with it is even more so.”

Zether could visibly see the cogs going in in his nephews head after he explained his strange family makeup. Nevermind the whole nutshell of the fact that he did all this himself without a mother to any of his kids. But thankfully no one has asked that yet. Though Zether wasn’t really thinking about it to begin with. When he brought up the possibility of dragon kids, Zether’s own cogs started to turn as his eyes would seemingly light up with delight at the thought of a tiny dragon of his own. Though the immediate hurdle of having someone to have those kids with would spring to mind since he couldn’t just make one with himself like he did with the Firstborn, filling in all the blanks with jumbled DNA that he use for the eggs and such. Plus it would be super suspect if he suddenly had one of his own. “While I would love such an experience I think I should settle in and find someone first. Though to be honest I wouldn’t even know how to begin in such an endeavour, I’ve never really had any form of relationship like that in my life.” He says smiling, not realising the immediate implications of that. “But I will say that I do have plenty of stories to tell, most would need to be toned down. But I do have many stories of battles, journeys and tales to tell. I did more than afew adventures with Alicia while she was growing up and we were exploring the far wester galactic fringe before I even had the idea of starting my own Kingdom.”

Malgkirgor didn't fail to notice that Zether seemed rather open to the idea of a Draconic child, which made his nephew pleased to see. He spoke up in response, "Indeed, finding a good partner is a better first step. After all, there is the father but also the mother! My mate stayed at home however, so sorry you could not meet her today! Although, when you bring up the idea of not having a relationship before hand, that does bear a question. How did you have your previous children then without them having a mother? Are they adopted? Or... Cloned? That would be quite the method of getting a kid." He then continued, pleased by the prospect of stories to tell, "That would be great! Battles and adventures are just the sort of tales a young mountain Dragon needs to hear when growing up! Give them a sense of ambition and adventure! Starting your own kingdom is also quite a story! I doubt my daughter will go to the extent of creating her own Empire, but it should have plenty of stories that will fascinate her!"

Honour guard wrote:

Richard pauses in thought of all of this. To him it was not cut and dry as that, to him this was a matter that he would much rather have nothing to do with. To live a simply life of study and caring for his pupil... But the emergence of these beings that are now after him made that simple life and the safety of his pupil impossible. Unforgivable... So just this once... "Very well Gravelord... I accept. And it goes without saying that I'm getting involved with the investigation. They threatened my peaceful life and just about everything else I've come to like... Getting to the bottom of this and beating whoever thought this was a good idea to a pulp is the only conclusion I wish to pursue in this situation."

"So be it." The Gravelord waved their hand, Richard appearing back by the tree as a chill wind howled through the area. The tree remained as was, but Richard could see the symbol of a crescent moon had been placed onto his body, on his left arm.

Triporea wrote:

Wink nodded, “givin it to the kids is a good idea. But if you lot really are as powerful as you say you are, maybe preserving your strength is important. Eh?” Harlock would notice that Wink wasn’t driving the same direction he had come from.
Jazmin whispered back to Filia, “no, no... not a mage... but... he just seems... off, I dunno. My gut’s just giving off this... weird feeling about the guy... like something’s wrong. But it’s not just a gut feeling... I almost hesitate to say I’m detecting something being wrong with my powers...” Filia could feel it too. And then Harlock. Something wasn’t right. The old man was... cold now. Not just figuratively either. His body was not giving off heat. As if all bodily functions were arrested momentarily, and indeed he was losing his ability to drive the speeder, before suddenly shaking his head and continuing to pilot onwards. To Harlock, the landscape was looking more like the route to the capital city and the AI rather than... the frozen camp.

-

As Liline fell, the initial scream escaping her mouth in more of a reactionary way, she closed her eyes and smiled a bit as she fell. But the moment Sephus grabbed her and made it to the sidewalk above, she was a bit panicked. Looking to him, she sighed and looked down. As they sit there, two constables ran over, they had just rounded a corner and were seemingly unaware of any events that had transpired aside from the screaming. One blew a whistle. “Is everyone alright?” A creach yelled as he ran over.
Liline slowly sighed, “officer... i was walking along the sidewalk here and I tripped. I nearly went over into the ole Seyrun before this kind man caught me.” The officer eyed the two and tipped his helmet to Sephus. While the second officer knelt down to check on Liline, the Creach lightly pulled Sephus away.
“Mate, she wasn’t trying to jump in, right? This was an accident and not an attempted suicide, right?”

Filia's eyes started to widen with surprise the more she listened to Jazmin, and she could admit... She and Harlock both were starting to feel like something was up with their powers. Harlock, noticing the route they were taking was starting to lead them back into the capital, had a cold sense of dread rush down his spine. Since his powers are no longer working as intended, he would drop out off his human form into his Changeling one involuntarily "What the-?! Wink! Why are you driving us towards the capital you old bastard?!" He says trying to grab hold of the steering wheel and stamp on the breaks.

"He's driving us where?!" Having read that journal that Harlock found for herself after he left, she was 100% not keen on heading into that irradiated mess, especially if their powers are acting up. The people back at the camp may not like it, and the other two may not either. But her mind easily drifted back to her old mentality. Reaching over the seat, she quickly moved to snap the old guys neck before he could drive them any further. No way in hell was she going to be mutant food ever again. Once with the Zerg was enough for several lifetimes.

-----

In that moment of dropping before he caught her, he did see that look of acceptance on her face. Getting the few moments to think to himself before the constables rounded the corner. A wave of ambivalent feelings washed over him even as he heard her sigh and explain things to the officer that walked up to them... He... He didn't know how to feel. Pissed off? Worried? Scared.. Familiar. H already knew that she was far from fine, and he could only do so much to help. But he didn't think she'd just... Up and accept it before sighing like she missed her chance at a big break.

He willingly walked with the Creach officer as he pulled him aside. His mind muddled with what to do but not letting it show on his face, no matter how much he wanted to just say that she needs some psychological help. This wasn't something he could ask of another countries police... He didn't know the first thing about their laws in this situation. For all he knows this could end much worse if he tries to act on his good intentions.

Sephus... Just felt so tired... He looked tired. He thought that she was getting on track to getting over things but clearly he was wrong and... He just felt tired. "Yeah... It's just an accident officer. She's lucky I was on my way back to my hotel when I spotted her trip, poor sod almost fell in." He says trying his best to smile.

The Ebony Republic wrote:

"So be it." The Gravelord waved their hand, Richard appearing back by the tree as a chill wind howled through the area. The tree remained as was, but Richard could see the symbol of a crescent moon had been placed onto his body, on his left arm.

Richard, realising he was back before the creepy tree corpse thing, looked down to see the crescent moon symbol placed upon his arm. He would have much preferred if such a thing was on Samantha, she was the only one he was really worried for. Still... Now came the fun part. He walked back up the hill towards the Paramadyr again. He said he was going to help these religious nuts in tracking down the people targeting him, and that is what he was going to do. "Paramadyr... I've spoken to the Gravelord. I'm going to be helping you track down the origin of the invaders. I hope you don't mind hat?"

Triporea wrote:

Jazmin’s hands started to erupt with her black flame as they drove and she jumped from the speeder as Filia snapped Wink’s neck. Harlock’s wrestling of the controls quickly jerked the vehicle to one side and threw the unseated Filia through the same hole that Jazmin had burned in the side of the speeder. The speeder flipped and crashed soon after this sudden jerk.

Outside the speeder, Jazmin was focusing hard to control her powers, but seemed unable to get the flames to stop. Her chitin protecting her, but nothing around her was being protected. Filia would have landed a few metres away from Jazmin. Jazmin was trying not to panic, but was... well, clearly on the verge of panicking as her powers refused to heed her commands.

Harlock inside the speeder would see the body of Wink now slowly starting to deform. On the base of his neck he saw the cause of the problem. A cybernetic implant, by the look of the positioning and model it might have been used by the soldiers of this planet for improved combat efficacy. But as it was glowing a sickly green, at some point Wink had been infected. Large portions of the right side of his face were starting to swell in patches as his body overall started gaining mass. The infection was taking his dead body.

-

The officer nodded and patted Sephus on the shoulder, “Good lad.” The two shortly left, and Liline was sitting there looking down at the sidewalk.
“i... i’ve never missed that jump before. even when i was a kid i made that jump, caught myself on the sidewalk, why didn’t i make it this time, why-“ She looked at her empty sleeve, grabbing the end of it with her arm and squeezed the sleeve. She then let go and looked straight at the ground. Falling forwards, she prostrated on the ground.

Filia quickly got to her feet after she was flung out the whole in the speeder, massaging her side before she feels the intense heat of the black flames. "Woah woah! Jazmin! It's okay! We're okay! Calm the flames down!" Filia was worried that they were just lighting a beacon for the monsters to find them. This situation was looking less and less appealing by the second.

Now, with Harlock, he quickly regains his senses as he gets himself up in the crashed landspeeder. Only for horror to be realised... Watching the green growths grow from his neck, a wash of pure dread runs down his spine as he eagerly climbs out of the speeder and leaps over to Filia and Jazmin before he fires a beam of magic to try and melt the speeder and Mutant Wink with it"When the hell did he get infected?! He was up at that damn ice settlement where they killed the bastards daily!" Harlock was freaking out, he almost got everyone infected just by trying to keep them safe! How did this- Then it hit him... Did... Did having a close proximity to that damn AI allow it to take over Wink thanks to the chip he had?! "[b]This is all kinds of messed up! Did the AI really infect him from this distance? What the hell... Oh sh!t...[/i]" If Wink was already infected... With a look of despair on his face he looked over to Filia. "Wink was already..."

Filia, who was trying to calm Jazmin down, looked over to Harlock slowly as it dawned on her what he was trying to say. A look of real fear on her face "No... No no you're lying no!! I am not infected! I just broke his neck, it only took a second! I-... I...." She says falling to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself as she keeps quietly denying it. She didn't want to become like that. She'd rather become the Queen of Blades again. She'd rather lead the zerg again!!

-----

Sephus waved the both of them off with a smile on his face before that smile soon faced, a vacant expression spread across his face as he kept his eyes forward. Not even glancing back to her as she runs through why she failed that jump... And then prostrating herself on the ground after she came to the crushing realisation...

As much as he felt like just telling her to get up and keep walking... He couldn't... He had to be here for her now more than ever... As much as it hurt him to see her like this. He couldn't let this feeling wash over him. He needed to be her pillar for as long as she would have him... He wasn't going to leave her to suffer again.

Kneeling down, he places his hand on her head, and speaks up in a soft and reassuring tone. "Tonight has turned rather sour hasn't it? We should really see about getting you a new arm... But we can't stay here. Let's get back to the hotel and rest. We're still out past curfew." He says before offering her his hand. "Can you run? If not then I'm going to have to princess carry you back to embarrass you."

Triporea wrote:

She smiled and lightly patted his hand. “Excellent! I’m sure my dear auntie can find a place for us in the meantime and it will allow us to get off this rock.”

"Auntie?" Ishben would ponder for a moment on the rather foreign concept. "A sort of significant family member? Either way, if they are dear to you, I'll try to grow a connection with them."