Divided Paths - IC || Biome - Act II

Krevozs's combat blade jutted out, and he held the blood-covered blade up for Jaci to examine. "Dead." Krevozs said. The kil turned his attention to Ravage. "Have you even bothered to use the medpack I gave you? Supplies are few, and if you aren't going to use it, give it to this creature." He gestured to Jaci with his combat blade.

"As for your children," he said, his voice dripping with condescension, "their squabbles do not bother me. I will not be held up by bickering."

Krevozs then shifted his focus to Survivor, and inquired, "What did you plunder from my ship? What supplies do you have?"

Survivor looked to Krevozs and shook his head before moving his fingers. "All I took were parts to fix my own ship and the only food I have I don't know is safe for any of you to eat. Though I'm not against watching one of you try to." He said with a small chuckle. "But regardless of that. I also have enough ammo to last me six days of continuous gun fire."

Rune tilted his head, his eyes like dark holes, burning into everyone that he looked at, “Well, ammunition is good, but only if you know how to shoot a ranged weapon. My planet has only rediscovered pistols and rifles thus far, and I never had reason to shoot things and give away my location. For food, I would not know what is toxic and what is not, but Querois has proven himself to be excellent in identifying the properties of any poisonous or useful items.” His listless gaze then turned to Krevozs, “Also, mister…Krevozs, was it…?”

He turned to face the Jorro’kil fully, “Ravage….is our legal adopted mother…We wanted to be with her. We deliberately asked for her to take us.” He said, his words calm and carefully measured. Despite this, however, a gleam entered his otherwise dead-looking gaze. He was exerting incredible control over his emotions, but the passion in his eyes was enough to show that he meant everything he said. “No matter what your opinions are, we are a family. When she worries over us, that concern is real, and when she apologizes for us, that is because she does not want you to harm us for annoying you.”

Rune then bowed his head, “That is all I will say on the matter. I apologize for the rudeness of that statement.” He then straightened and turned to walk back to where Querois stood, balanced on his tail.

“Oh….how emotional,” Querois jeered as Rune moved to stand beside him, “Are you going to give us your life story now?” He asked mockingly.

“Nobody asked to hear about my life. Shut up, Querois, you are annoying.” Rune snapped without looking at him.

Querois turned to Survivor, “Whatever you have, I might be able to identify what’s safe for everyone to eat.”

"If you wish to do so then go ahead and knock yourself out." He says moving his mechanical fingers as he grabs his food bag with his good hand and throws it to Querois. Inside the bag are several sealed packages with various meats coming from various animals across Xion. Most are safe for others to eat but a few of them are laced with toxins that would paralyze or even kill those who did not know and were not ready for them. "Just don't eat it. If it is safe it is the only food we got."

"As we clearly need more supplies, I say we go through the city", Gardener cut in. "It is on our path anyway, and should contain safe food. Much of the flora and fauna here is dangerous to consume, partly because of differing amino-acid composition. The city biome should have a range of typical mass-produced foods", Gardener added. "If not our supply shortage, I would have took us around it. It is heavily overgrown, and thus rather rough terrain, and my knowledge of the area is limited."

Gardener glanced around from its lying place on the floor. While everything it had said had been true, there was another thing repulsive for Gardener in the city. Through the planetary network it had for some time been able to feel an overwhelming precense of chaos from the city. There was something, or in the worst case someone utterly mad and terribly powerful there. Gardener had a guess about what it was, but decided to leave the detail out for now.  "We are already near the biome border, so when you are ready I will point us through to the other side."

Once Survivor had allowed him to pick through the sack of provisions, Querois slowly lifted out each package, reading the labels that noted what they contained. He set several aside, and gradually, two piles formed, one significantly smaller than the other. The final package, however, he made a humming noise, and set it apart, marking a third grouping. "Alright, sorted," He said, moving his tentacles to point at each individual one, "This one is safe for anyone to eat," He said, noting the largest pile. "This one is only safe for people like Survivor or Ravage," He pointed to the smaller one. He then gestured to the one package he had set apart from all others, "This is toxic to my species, exclusively. Anyone but me can eat this."

Ravage gave a small nod, "Well, if it's a city, it's a city. Too bad we can't fly, otherwise we could easily tell you how to cut through it." She scowled, "Either way, I can use the claws on my good arm to cut down anything that's grown up and gotten in our way. I'm not at my best right now, but I'm not completely helpless in this situation."

Survivor looked to Ravage when she said she could cut vines. "Are you sure you can handle it alone? I have a sword if you need help." He said as he pull his sword out slightly with his good hand. His swords blade was black in color along with the hilt. "Also to save on the food I suggest you and I, Ravage, Should only eat from the pile that we can eat in the beginning."

"I can go without food for days. I can survive on little water and nutrients, in this case, likely for as long as required." Krevozs stated.

"I am ready to depart for the city. Monitor, lead the way." Krevozs said, with his attention directed towards Gardener. The kil intended to waste no time in leaving, and expected the rest of the group to follow suit.

Ravage looked at Survivor sidelong, “My claws can cut through hardened steel, so if there’s anything we run into that the machete won’t work on, I can handle it.” Her tail twitched, “Regardless, though, if you’ve got something like that, both of us might as well work together on this.” Her eyes narrowed at the grim perspective ahead of her. She muttered under her breath, “If we don’t get off of this planet quickly, all of us are in serious danger.”

She sighed and walked over to Xenos, “Alright, we’re going to go on foot. I’m not going to risk having Jaci fall out of the saddle.”

The spiromander replied with an affirming rumble.

At Krevozs as he began to move, and then down at Ravage when she mentioned his name. With a grunt, he slid to the ground, and took a few unsteady steps, then straightened. He was still somewhat groggy, but was doing surprisingly well.

"Walk," he said, doing his best to look unconcerned, but only succeeding in looking like he had cramps, which wasn't to terribly far off from the truth. Still, he was feeling slightly better at least, and was getting a little stiff riding Xenos.

However, there was one other reason for preferring to be on the ground. The fact of the matter was, he didn't trust Krevozs. That creature had struck him as particularly unfriendly from the very first. And then there was the fact that he had killed 673, something Jaci had never been able to accomplish despite ages of antagonism with the creature. Anyone who could kill that beast in one battle was definitely dangerous, and needed to be regarded with caution. To that end, Jaci preferred having firm ground under his feet, should the need for action arise.

Seeing everyone eager and ready to go, Gardener stretched its legs and stood up from the floor. "Very well, lets go" It said, skittering onward on its stubby legs. "Those with combat experience and weapons should be ready, as the city will have a large consentration of UFIAI robotic units, some of them actual combat models", Gardener warned. "However, I have no knowledge of their current status. Without central mind to guide them though they should be easy enough to out-maneuvre. But stay alter, as there could be unseen obstacles". Is something unseen If you sen it coming but don't know what it is, Gardener wondered to itself, inspecting the madly twisting network wating ahead in the city.

For about an hour the group navigated the underground tunnels. Couple times Gardener suddenly stopped the group and turned them around, to avoid some unseen danger it had spotted through the network. But finally after going down and then up the group arrived at similar ramp they had taken down at the last biome. Now Gardener could feel the distrorting madness living in the city in its mind even when disconnected from the network. When it connected to open the ramp, the mad presence sprung to action. Genuely shoked Gardener quickly slammed the nodes on the ramp open before dropping off the network. With a loud hissing the hydraulics lowered the ramp.

Gardener stood still and silent as the ramp lovered, pondering what the thing it saw had been. The clang of the stopping ramp cut its thought short, and it proceeded up. The ramp rose to a large carage. It had patches of humidity leaking from the corners and cracks in the roof, and a large door on one wall. Gardener headed to the door, rising on two legs against the wall to reach the control panel. It pressed couple buttons and the door woke up. With lots of squeking it slid up, revealing an apockalyptic sight. The building the group was in was a small industrial storage hall in the industry district in the outskirts of the city. Half a mile behind was the black wall separating the biomes, partly visible through the glitching holograms. Onward lied the blocky skyline of a major colonial city, its hard edges rounded buy the blue-green vegetation that covered almost every surface in form of vines, moss, bushes and crooked trees. The vegetation had a strange feel of uniformity to it, all of it sharing the same shade of colour and twisted appearance. But none of this compared to what was going on with the sky. Strange oily colours ran between the clouds that were moving and changing like on a timelapse. Lightning stroke from dark clouds that formed and disappeared in mere seconds, and rays of light blinked from the occasional tears in the cloud cover.

Krevozs ascended the ramp, closely following the Gardener, and stood behind the machine as it opened the door to the next Biome. The mercenary was the first to walk into the desolate environment, and was also the first to feel a strange chill run through his spine, and he looked around in bewilderment. Something in the air, he thought.

"Something's worse here.." He said, and activated his combat blade. "Caretaker, what exactly inhabits this Biome?" He asked the Gardener. The kil stared at the machine, partly hoping to intimidate it into an answer.

Survivor was next to come up having been silent the entire trip there. He held up his rifle and looked around the area. As much as he hated to admit it. Something was wrong. He relaxed his robotic hand a bit so he could move his robotic fingers.

"Maybe this is not the best place to be asking questions. There are to many places where we could be ambushed."

Gardener looked back at Krevozs in puzzlement, trying to understand hes sudden reaction. It was just as if Krevozs had noticed the same presence that was pressing Gardener. Gardener wondered about it for a moment, standing still and staring back at Krevozs. ”Some UFIAI maintain-units, probably a few military models. Possibly some animals, most of them small. Any large beasts that might be present are probably strawing and aggressive, that should be noted.That ís the extent of my knowledge about this area's current state, unfortunately”, Gardener listed in its unchanged, friendly voice. ”This area was a society testing laboratory when operational. Most of the operation was linked to a kill-switch, due to security concerns.” Gardener was about to end there, but thought of one more thing to say: ”Since the operation was forcefully ended and there has been no control after that, it is likely that the semi-organic reamains of the test-subjects are where the subjects were during the shut-down. I thought they might have caused concern for you if you saw them unprepared”.

”But Survivor is right, we should keep moving. This is exceptionally dangerous area, mostly due the large presence of working robotic units. I can answer to your questions on the move”,Gardener said, walking to the middle of the road, looking both ways across the overgrown street. The pavement was ruptured everywhere by the roots and emerging plants. There were thick trees with wide branches growing in the middle of the street and vines hanging from building to another. And almost everywhere was the thick brush of saplings and large bushes. There was a certain twisted look to the vegetation too, like if every plant was unique, bit different from the next one. As a whole they looked somewhat uniform, but up close each one was bit different, bit weird, bit twisted. Among all the overgrowth was still faintly visible the cars and lamp posts, store signs and mailboxes, small details of civilization.

Jaci noted the unease of Krevozs and Survivor, and peered hard at the scene spread before them, sniffing and listening. He himself couldn't detect anything; still, this place made him uneasy. More than a few of the items that protruded from the landscape were things he was unfamiliar with, even having spent some time around Liirlith technology as he had.

As the party emerged from the tunnel, they were observed by something that stood several hundred yards away within the ruined lobby of one of the buildings. The creature watched them for a moment, evaluating them, and then quietly left the lobby, going through a hole in the back of the building. Moving rapidly but stealthily, it hurried forward down the abandoned alleys, seeking paths that would take it to a point where it could intercept its potential prey. As it moved, it sent out a series of low frequency booming noises, to low for most creatures to hear. After a few seconds, it received an answer. Calling back and forth to each other in this manner, the creatures, three in total number, began to establish the plan for their ambush.

Xenos’ eyes were capable of seeing into many different spectrums, from UV to infrared, so it was no surprise that, while the presence of an unidentified creature escaped everyone else, he thought he spotted the tail-end of something vanishing. He looked in its direction, and a soft growl began to rumble in the back of the spiromander’s throat. His snout remained pointed towards where he’d seen the thing vanish, but by this point, people wouldn’t know exactly what was up ahead. He bared his teeth and emitted a low-pitched, shuddering hiss, and even after he had done this, his snout remained wrinkled with displeasure. Ravage looked his way, her head tilting to one side.
 
“What is it?” She asked.
 
The only response was a harsher growling noise.
 
Ravage, not knowing what this meant, shook her head and looked at Gardener, “Well, now I’m concerned.” She said, “I think he saw something just now.”
 
Rune strained to look in the direction of what Xenos had observed, but there was nothing there. “I do not see anything, however,” He added, “This creature, as far as I can tell, does not growl without being given a good reason to do so.”
 
Ravage sighed, “Well, I guess we’re just going to have to be looking over our shoulders, then. Honestly, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. This place is setting off every alarm bell in my head right now.”

Ifka remembered a time when she was little girl, where her father - or one of his underlings, she could never remember - had taken her down to a massive hangar bay to watch the lesser people work. At that particular time a large shipment of Warmongers had been forwarded for loading and the young Ifka had been in awe at the sight of one hundred machines of war being sent out to the battlefields of the sector.

The patchwork Warmonger that rose from its nest of cables was instead a sad imitation of those metal deities, struggling to get upright without its supporting claw-arm. It was almost pitiful in how it flailed, though once the machine rose to its full height it set in how powerful it still was.

Up above, the Warmonger's pilots dropped a crude ladder made from a cable threaded with metal bars. Grabbing hold and nodding to those far above, Ifka started to climb. From her vantage point as she ascended, the Xenoqqi captain could see the second team milling around the hangar bay door, hard at work on dismantling it.

"Charges set! Move back!"

As their leader's voice rang out, the team scuttled out of the danger zone, arms wrapped around heads to protect themselves.

THOOM

Several shaped explosions blossomed along the crumpled metal, sending armor plates and machinery crashing down. The demolitions over, the second team moved to carry out the second part of their plan as they set up several conical weapons hooked up to large battery packs.

"Heat rays, fire!"

Orange beams of light lanced at what remained, carving out more sections until a hole large enough to fit the Warmonger was made. Just as the last chunk fell, Ifka reached the top and was helped into the pilot hatch nestled deep between the Warmonger's shoulder plates.

The Warmonger cockpit was...snug to say the least. Two pilots sat at the front, one considerably more relaxed than the other as they prepped some of the lesser subsystems. The overseer's chair - Ifka's seat in this case - sat behind them cramped among the many screens, cables and switchboards. A brief once-over of the tiny room's interior conditions left much to be desired even when ignoring the complete lack of space. Occasionally a wire sparked or a screen went dark, only to be hit by one of the pilots and stutter back to life.

"Should that light be blinking?" Ifka asked suspiciously, pointing towards a console which was clearly marked with hazard stripes.

"Er, n-no captain" the right pilot stuttered, smacking the offending panel hard until the red warning light stopped flashing.

"Well then, let's get everyone up and ready. Send a message for Braaj to round up the workers."

______________________________________________________________________________

The Warmonger marched forward with massive strides, crouching slightly in order to fit through the newly made hole. Braaj's collected APCs trundled behind it, their many-jointed legs making easy work of the uneven terrain.

The left pilot gave his screen a scrutinising look before sighing with relief. "All systems are running smoothly...thank the forge," he sighed.

"Hmph, Braaj how's things down there? Is everyone strapped in?"

Ifka's brothers voice crackled due to the interference caused by the Warmonger's power core, but was legible enough. "Everyone's seated," the chief negotiator squeaked. "Th-though it's kind of...cramped right now."

Understandable considering all personnel, equipment and valuables were being carried in those legged vehicles. It didn't take long for the Warmonger to reach the outside of Great Glutton, its arm-stub bashing away the last few scraps of hull that lay in its way. From her vantage point Ifka could see over the forest that had previously hemmed them in, the Warmonger's cluster of cameras and sensory systems giving a full spectrum of info.

In fact out on the horizon there appeared to be some kind of-

A disturbingly high-pitched wail rang out over the forest canopy, its volume shaking the trees and sending birds into panicked flight. The ground trembled as a massive, armoured beast strode out from the forest line, its tiny eyes trained on the Warmonger as it uprooted the vegetation in its way with ease.

"Braaj, pull back! We have a hostile," Ifka shouted into her comms gauntlet before looking back to the pilots. "Fire up the obliterator cannon, set out with defense plan 16."

The left pilot cracked his neck before slotting his arm into a large bracket covered in switches and knobs. "Strafe and bake it is then," he remarked drily as he flexed the bracket, the Warmonger's cannon arm mimicking his movement.

The beast stood and surveyed the noisy and chaotic scene before it, blinking its relatively small eyes. Out of a small chink in its facial plates issued a pair of mucus-covered, feather-like feelers that waved back and forth as the creature tasted the air. The creature, a goliath predator called a Taberra, was twenty-six feet at shoulder height, and covered with a thick exoskeleton of spiked plates. It had six limbs total, the middle pair, situated at the end of the torso, formed massive pillar-like legs ending in three short toes. The first pair was similar, but instead of short toes ended in a stubby thumb and two large, clawed fingers that knuckle-walked on like a great ape. The last two limbs, protruding from the very end of the torso, were many-segmented, ending in bulbous, fleshy sacks and having the last segment before these possessing hooked flanges; overall, these two limbs gave the impression that the creature had two tails. The head was largish, and ended with two immense, insect-like mandibles, and had some soft, exposed skin around the eyes, the base of the mandibles, and an especially large region around the throat.

The beast snapped its mandibles together as its rather low-intelligence brain assessed the scene that lay before it. It barely paid any attention to the Great Glutton; for all it knew, the downed ship was nothing more than a giant rock. However, the Taberra’s small eyes soon picked up movement in the form of the Warmonger. The Taberra waved its feelers at it, but could get no scent. Still, the thing was moving, and that suggested a living thing, which meant it was edible, and potentially a suitable gift for the female the Taberra had been tracking.

Getting its feet into position, the Taberra leaned back a moment, and then launched itself forward, charging full speed at its intended prey, meaning to knock it over by its own momentum.

Survivor surveyed the area when he heard the creature growl. All of his training and time on Xion is coming back to him in a flood as he carefully moves through the environment, rifle ready. Every once in awhile he would think he saw something move and turn to look in that direction to see nothing. He though back to how predators act and began looking around more carefully. Trying to see if he could find a pattern in the movements. He slowly moved his fingers so he could speak in a whisper.

"Whatever you beast is sensing. I don't think over the shoulder should be the only place to check."

Krevozs felt like he had been washed in the eerie depth of this particular Biome. Something was much more awry here than in the other Biomes, and he wanted to get away. Feeling irritated at his emotional response, Krevozs tried to think about something else, and also ignore the odd taste of metal in his mouth.

His nine-foot-tall frame found it difficult to traverse the more enclosed sections of the structure that the group had ascended to, and so he sought to get outside quickly.  The mercenary activated his combat blade, and cut through a few insignificant, rusted pieces of metal, along with the overgrowth, in order to get out onto whatever was left of a road.  Krevozs realized that, strangely, there was no sound of chirping insects, or any other animal noises, just a vague static. He was starting to feel sick; he never got sick. He forced himself to go on, out into the thick shrubbery of the deserted city.

Krevozs looked back at the Gardener. "There is something wrong here, something you are not telling us." He said to the machine. "What is it?"

There was a dire look in his eyes.

As Krevozs addressed this question to Gardener, the group was moving out into what had once been a plaza, complete with a large statue. This had once been hub of activity, with several roads leading into it. Most of these, however, where now so blocked with rubble or overgrown vegetation as to render them all but impassable, save for those with wings or exceptional climbing or jumping abilities.

As the group moved forward, Jaci lifted his head and sniffed, not really paying heed to Krevozs for the moment. Something about this area didn’t seem right. First of all, it was very open, something which always made Jaci feel uncomfortable, accustomed to the forest as e was. But what really made him feel nervous was how utterly quiet everything had gone.

At least for a moment.

An instant later, the group found themselves in a three-pronged attack, blasted from three places by high-intensity sound waves. Three creatures that had crouched hidden amidst vegetation and rubble came forward, keeping up their sonic attack. The sound waves were generated by two large, disk-shaped structures on the front of their wedge-shaped heads that vibrated with great intensity. Their eyes were small, and their mouth underslung, and bore thick, conical teeth. There limbs were semi-sprawled and thick, ending in two short toes. They had short tails, and an exoskeletal looking covering of armor. Their humped backs were about six feet from the ground, and they moved with an almost beetle-like fashion as they closed in.

"Brace for impact!"

The creature barreled towards the Warmonger, the speed of its gait contradicting its massive, ungainly frame. Ifka had only a moment to get her warning out before the beast slammed into their battlesuit, sending both of them crashing down.

It took a moment for the Xenoqqi captain to compose herself, the shock of the war engine hitting the dirt scrambling her senses for a second. Fully aware now, Ifka smacked the left pilot around the back of the head, jolting him out of his stunned stupor.

"Fire the Glafid thing!"

"But we need to start up the safe-"

Ifka's voice rose in pitch as her panicked fury boiled over. "I don't give a Valt'ath about safety whatevers, fire the Valt'athing thing now!"

Terrified, the pilot punched the arm bracket forward and squeezed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Now pinned under the beast's heavy body, the Warmonger shoved its cannon arm under the armpit of its attacker. Primed and ready, the Obliterator Cannon fired.

There was no sound, at least at a pitch a normal person could hear. Blazing red-white light exploded from the cannon's barrel before piercing through the sky, the smell of burning ozone and flesh in the air.

The taberra gave a horrific bellow of anguish, and in one colossal heave, pulled itself off of the Warmonger, falling on its side for a moment. Gasping and grunting with pain, it drew itself to its feet and staggered away, its right forelimb attached only by a few strings of flesh.

Ifka waited until the pained howls of the beast petered off into the distance before breathing again. For some reason, she was finding it difficult to focus and was feeling dizzy, like the whole world was swimming around her.

Confused, but not concerned, Ifka patted the right-hand pilot on the top of his head.

“Good job,” she murmured. The pilot simply wheezed in response, currently going through a panic attack.

Ignoring how the other pilot was still out cold, Ifka leaned back into her seat, suddenly feeling very tired. She just wanted sleep with all the running and fighting that had happened in the last few days.

Yeah, rest seemed like a good idea.

The Xenoqqi captain closed her eyes just before her comms gauntlet went off, its incessant beeping pushing her back to wakefulness. Irritated, Ifka pressed the receiver button.

“What is is it?” she slurred, her eyesight going fuzzy again.

“Ifka! Sister! A-are you all right?! That beast just-”

Ifka’s face shifted into a scowl. “Shut up Braaj I’m…”

The captain looked down to find her jumpsuit had been punctured, a shard of metal sticking out from her side. Confused, Ifka touched the shard only to be met by intense pain as her brain finally processed her injury.

“Get…get the medics…” she muttered, staring at the cobalt blood on her fingertips before slipping into unconsciousness.