The Extra-Solar Union of Systems Archive

Allanea wrote:
Dratheria builds full-sized ringworlds?

Xenonier wrote:We're a colourful lot, aren't we?

Zestorendar. "RIP AND TEAR RIP AND TEAR RIP AND FUCKING TEAR /tears off shirt "MANLY YEAAAH" + Numbers."
Sskiss. Dinosaurs. In Power Armour. Lots of them.
Xenonians. "Give me ten Xenonians ..."
CF. " .... ...... /static ..... /sounds of bolos thundering over the landscape, pock-marked with the signature noises of nuclear explosions"

:p

Zerstorendar wrote: And something I would love to hear about: CF Knights. I have heard delicious things about them from Xenonier, but when I ask him to go into detail he usually just says "THEY WILL ROCK YOU".

Knight-Lieutenant Gyra Shanan of the Blades order of Imperial Knights stood at ease behind the arena gate. Her Battlemaster power armor shined dimly in the overhead light. Her hands were balled up into fists, with the chain-blades and force fields coating them humming eagerly. Both woman and machine craved blood, and one way or another, they would have it.

“It promises to be one hell of a show!!� She heard yelled as the gate slammed down. The arena’s floor had been replaced with quickly fabricated trees, to better simulate the Arcadian jungles wherein the elf enclave had been purged. The scent of the jungle reminded her of the original mission and brought a feral, knowing grin to her face.

Gyra leapt into action with a thruster and contragrav assisted jump. The battle-lust was now fully upon her, tinting her vision, clouding her mind as it energized her body.

Her hands swept out, slamming into two Elvish prisoners as she fell. One’s head was pulverized instantly, splattering with a great gush of blood and gibs. The other was less fortunate, it had managed to dodge most of the first slamming into it. However, its skin had gotten caught in one of the numerous wafer-sharp chain blades on Gyra’s gauntlets. As a consequence, practically its entire face was literally torn off as if by a child eagerly unwrapping a present.

“GRAAH!� Gyra screamed, already maddened. “KILL! KILL! KILL!�

Another Elf, a female this time, was her next victim. It had foolishly tried to run, not realizing that would only catch Gyra’s attention.

“No! Please!� It yelled, but Gyra was too far gone to hear. Though even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have listened.

With one rapid and calculated strike, Gyra’s fist slammed into the Elf’s ribcage and tore out its heart. It still beat furiously, not yet realizing that it was now quite dead. The Elf’s eyes stared blankly ahead as they too caught up to the fact that their owner was now deceased.

“BLOOD!� Gyra screamed as she tossed the pound of flesh with all her might, flinging it right into the head of another Elf. The blood-filled tissue bundle flew true and slammed into the Xeno’s head, covering its face with the blood of its kin, and soliciting a loud *SNAP!* noise as its neck was broken apart like that of a chicken from the force of the impact.

“PURGE!� She yelled as she grabbed another one, younger than the others, and tore it apart like a phonebook with naught but her massive strength. Two more died instantly as she wielded the corpse like a club, bashing them into slightly chunky meat paste against an enormous jungle-tree.

Another Elf, the last, jumped at her with a freakish glow in its eyes, eldritch blasts of lightning slamming into her armor and shields. An annoyance, nothing more.

Its next attack, however, was decidedly greater than any mere annoyance. The Elf extended its palm towards Gyra and clenched its hand into a fist. Foul alien runes glowed alabaster in the air around Gyra and her prey. Then it hit her, a pain more intense than any that she had ever felt since her initiation into the order. It should have been physically impossible, as part of her innumerable enhancements had included blocking off the neural pathways related to pain. -She literally couldn’t feel it. Or at least, that’s what she thought.

Yet why, then, did it feel as if her brain was about to burst?

Whatever the reason, a part of her recognized her predicament and coaxed the rest into action. -She leapt forward and grabbed the elf by its shoulder, and pulled. The arm came loose with a disgustingly sweet *POP!* along with a great spurt of red coppery-blood and sinovial fluids.

Gyra wielded the arm as a club, slamming it into the alien’s head. Yet every time, her blows faltered, bouncing off of some unseen force.

“DIE! DIE! DIE!� Gyra screamed as another blow was deflected and static cackled over her armor’s helm. Her shields started beeping in warning-protest. Curious, that amount of energy should have flash-fried the alien to a crisp simply from its release.

The lightning was just a distraction, however. The alien’s open palm slammed out, faster than even Gyra’s reaction time, already orders above human norms even before the half-merging with her suit’s AI, could track. Gyra slammed backwards through several tank-size jungle trees and collapsed in a crumpled heap, a slight taste of copper in her mouth. No matter, the suit’s medical systems would fix her right up.

Assuming the alien did not press its attack. Unfortunately for Gyra, it did, almost teleporting to her and sticking one sandal-clad foot upon her chest. Her armor could have taken a tank slamming into it with no problem, yet the alien’s foot visibly compacted Gyra’s chest. Impossible.

“You fought well, for Mon-Keigh.� The alien spat in broken English. “But you cannot stand against one such as I. I am as far above you as you are an ant or-�

“TALK IS CHEAP, XENO!� Gyra screamed as her arm struck out as a cobra, pulling the alien down and causing it to yelp in surprise.

Gyra rolled into it, pinning its legs with her own tree trunk-thick limbs. And then she went to work. -Before the alien could react, she dug her fingers into its back and pulled with all her might, tearing its spine from its body in a bloody spectacle unseen in the arena for centuries.

Yet miraculously, through some foul heresy no doubt, the alien was still alive. It tried to choke out a few words, flowing from its mouth like water. Or maybe that was the blood. It was so hard to tell.

Something caught Gyra’s eye, however. It was a shiny blue and aqua pendant that she hadn’t noticed earlier. A fitting trophy; it would go along well with this alien’s skull. In one swift motion, she tore the pendant off of the creature’s tattered neck, smiling as a painful scream blasted out of its blood-stained lips.

She looked up to the Emperor in the royal box, waiting for his signal. A thumb up meant mercy; even with its injuries, the alien’s life could still be preserved. A thumb down was mercy of a different sort, the mercy of death.

An agonizing second past. Then two, then three, before the Emperor’s fist extended and his thumb wiggled downward. Beneath her helm and armor, Gyra grinned.

With lightning quickness, she took the alien’s own spine and strangled it to death with the long bony cord, the alien’s pendant handing from Gyra’s hand as she did the deed. All that the alien could do was gaze longingly at it as the final moments of life fled, and contemplate what horrible fate awaited in death.