[Exalted] Into the Sargasso

[Heaven's Reach ST]

The Sargasso systems, a group of several hundred star systems with a very complex shifting canal connections, somewhere in the heart of those systems was the infamous Bluehaven, the home star system of the Lintha pirates, and rumor had it, they had a direct connection from there to the Yozi's, especially their patron, Kimbery.

It was to here that the Voidswimmer and her crew were being sent, but now at last after two weeks, the full briefing was made available to the command crew. A holographic representation of the Marshal Dren began to explain the situation and an black orb with runes appeared next to him..

Thank you for your indulgence, this soulbreaker orb, it is a weapon of mass distruction that attacks body and soul over an entire planet, then cracks the planet down to the core, shattering it into thousands of pieces, and the souls are dragged into the Terminus.

He paused and then gestured to his left hand where another orb appeared, this one appeared to be a glowing black orb, the difference between them was subtle but runes were different.

This is a ravager orb, it allows one to unleash the wrath of the yozis on a planet from anywhere in the galaxy, turning it into a waypoint of sorts for the Yozi's power..

He paused yet again and a third orb appeared next to him, with twice the number of symbols and it appeared slightly larger.

This is a stellar seed, they were created as the spark to create a stellar intelligence, most of them were used, but there are a few still at large, you need a minimum of three for them to work. We recently gained one of them, and learned that there are several more orbs in the Sargasso systems.

The Lintha are presently after these, and we know they have one of them, as well as at least one of the two other orbs.. we are sending you into the Sargasso systems to collect these weapons first.

[Karren Gaunt]

"So find the evil orbs before the Lintha do, and take any of theirs if we have the chance, right? Doesn't sound too complicated assuming the rest of you can do your part to get us there," Karren offered warmly, voicing full confidense that they'd be up to the task, the big Lunar grinning wide enough to split her face, "Once we get there or if anyone tries to get in our way... Boom. Won't know what hit 'em."

"Even if they do, the security teams and I will be more than enough to keep 'em off your back while you snatch the trophy out of their back pockets, nice and shiny," she finished, brushing lock of hair out of her face.

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel's reaction to the briefing is a little surprising to anyone who's spent any time with the affable but reserved thief.

Her mouth falls open in astonishment, and her dusky skin pales. For a moment she can't even speak, and that IS a shock.

Then she's on her feet, eyes intense on the orb.

"So they only need two more of those?! That doesn't make any sense though! Why would they want to make a new stellar intelligence? They couldn't CONTROL it once it was self-aware!"

She paces away, hands on her temples as if trying to block something out.

"Okay...okay...so right. We have to stop them from getting more, but that's not enough."

Kestrel whirls to look at Dan.

"We have to take away the ones they have too. We have to leave them with nothing."

[Janos Tem]

"So they only need two more of those?! That doesn't make any sense though! Why would they want to make a new stellar intelligence? They couldn't CONTROL it once it was self-aware!"

Janos Tem watched as the thief tried her hardest to comprehend the alien insanities of the Lintha and her disbelief at their audacity and the foolishness of their plans as she saw them. There was more after that, but mostly overexcited declarations of the obvious.

"Okay...okay...so right. We have to stop them from getting more, but that's not enough. We have to take away the ones they have too. We have to leave them with nothing."

"They don't want to make a new Stellar Intelligence. The Lintha are many things but they are not stupid. They are fully aware that a new entity of that magnitude is all but completely unpredictable. What they want to do is take an old one, Kimbery is my thought, and move it."

An minimalist flick of concentration brought the image of the Soulbreaker Orb into focus.

"The Soulbreaker Orb is designed to break a planet down and push it into the Terminus by quite frankly ripping a hole in this reality and pushing a world piecemeal through it. Ultimately the fate of the world and the planet it is on is irrelevant. The important part is that there is a hole to Oblivion right there capable of quite literally breaking apart anything and everything, including the barriers between worlds and little things like concepts and ideas. Oblivion is harsh. And for those who don't believe you can break down or completely rewrite concepts and ideas, you can."

A second thought moved the focus to the Ravager Orb.

"Same idea here, different source. Unleashing the wrath of the yozi's on a planet and other such unfortunate problems. The important part here is that it becomes a focus for the power of the Yozis, planet wide."

The screen flicked to the stellar seed.

"This is where it all comes together. The Lintha put the seeds on-world and set them in motion. New Stellar Intelligence begins forming quickly. The conceptual and metaphysical core not having been formed yet. Lintha detonate Ravager and Soulbreaker orbs in rapid succession if not simultaneously. Hole in reality opens up, world starts breaking down and drifting into the terminus, new Stellar Intelligence is completely and thoroughly lobotomized and now is in dire need of life support. Ravager orb sets off right in the middle of all of this, focal point of Yozi power. World is already done, little things like physics and natural law no longer matter. Yozis have a rip in space that goes a place where it shouldn't a beacon of their power, and a nascent Stellar Intelligence to cannibalize and reinvent in their own image, and possess."

Janos's Caste Mark glowed a dim green as he spent a tiny portion of his peripheral essence.

"And for those who believe that they can't do that, my exaltation begs to differ. They just need a big enough power supply."

The screen was allowed to go back to where it was before Janos started talking.

"What happens after that is up in the air but unless you happen to be a Yozi, none of it is good for you. Whether the 'bug' breaks the ban on the Yozi's getting out of their little cordon of space depends on how tightly coded that ban is and how many redundancies are built into the system. Either way you have a freed Yozi running through space and if you're lucky it will be Kimbery and not Malfeas himself."

[Sun Kai]

Sun Kai turned and wryly regarded the Infernal carefully. "This you know because you were privy to the plan, or just what you would do?" There was no judgement apparent, just discerning questions.

[Dan Hawkins]

"We will stop this from happening." He looked at each of them. "He didn't know, If it was his plan, I doubt he'd have made it so easy to see through."

"Now that we know what their general plan is, we need to deny these resources to the Lintha. They have a headstart on us, and we need to get at least one of these items rapidly." He looked to Dren. "The Sargasso is a huge area. Any chance we have a way to narrow the search parameters to something a single ship can manage, a few planets, at least to get us one of these items first?"

He looked to Kestrel. "If you had something like this, or knew someone who did, what would you do, as a thief? Where would you go to get rid of it, or would you find somewhere to secure it?"

To Janos he directed "Where would the best place be to enact the endgame of such a plan, and where would the worst place be? The lintha aren't known for logic, so we must think beyond the box here."

[Janos Tem]

"This you know because you were privy to the plan, or just what you would do?"

"Other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one. With the tools available and an understanding of the psychology of the Yozi cultist, it is the simplest, most efficient, and most productive of the possible solutions all rolled into one"

"Where would the best place be to enact the endgame of such a plan, and where would the worst place be? The lintha aren't known for logic, so we must think beyond the box here."

"The 'endgame' will most likely take place at a population center. The forces of the Terminus are vain and selfish sorts that would only sully themselves in negotiation with the living if there was a great deal for them to gain. A barren wasteland or a gas giant is just so much rock and dust spinning, where a city world is a significant windfall.

"Similarly, when interacting with any sort of Material Intelligence, much less the Terminus, Malfeas, or the gods that hold the laws of reality in place, blood sacrifice greases the wheels like few other lubricants do. A prayer to one of the Incarnae even from one of us would likely go unanswered. However, if a simple mortal were to sacrifice a half-dozen humans in their name, they would more often than not receive a personalized response and great consideration.

"Now, imagine the response that a sacrifice of fifteen billion would receive and you have a force of dedication and femtotechnological power that actually has a decent chance of success. I estimate, all other factors being equal, a 13% chance. That is if, and this is quite an if, the systems keeping the Yozi's contained are still cutting edge and not woefully outdated"

Janos paused for a moment, thumbing the fist-sized, jeweled heart amulet he wore around his neck.

"As for which world, I would look for, find one that was a battlefield in the Malfean War. Preferably where there was a some sort of great treason against the Yozi's. Lintha aren't logical, but they're predictable. They take after their Patron, and she is endlessly spiteful to those that she once loved and now hates. She'll love the idea of sacrificing a traitor world in the name of Malfeas, with the spiritual resonance of that increasing the odds of success immensely."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel rubs the back of her head, for once all quips gone.

"Uh...this isn't...look, you can't fence something like this. Normally for a big unique thing, you look for collectors. People who have lots of money and lots of vanity and are willing to trade one for the other. But it takes awhile to find the right one. So if you had to move before you have a buyer ready...then you stash it. Find some inhospitable butthole of a planet and bury it. As for what planet..."

"Most important thing is that it's boring. No weird anomalies or interesting history or even so much as a ghost story or set of rumors. It's gotta be a planet, or moon, that everyone's just forgotten about. Hell, asteroid even, but they're hard to track. That's the other thing, you have to be able to find it again...but you can't leave a mark, or use a tracker, or anything else that someone else could use."

"If I just wanted to get rid of it though, I'd chuck it into the nearest star. Not much is gonna find it there."

She hesitates then adds, "But I'll tell you this much, something like one of these, even someone who doesn't know exactly what they have will know it's powerful, and dangerous...and that means valuable. So they're not likely to chuck it. Not unless there's no choice, and maybe not even then."

[Copper Palm Zed]

Knowing that he's barely tolerated, Zed keeps his trap shut.

This is waaaaay above my pay grade. That woman... who was it? Someone thought that I needed to be here... why exactly?

Frowning, he racks his brain for useful information.

Okay, okay. Femotech weapon of mass destruction. They're not going to be advertising it and they'll be hiding it pretty well. Finding a hidden book in a library is a losing proposition. So we find the person that hid it to begin with. This is big. So that means someone near the top. So we need to find the Lintha and start climbing the ladder. So. Slavers.

Zed's features contort into something even uglier than usual as he finds himself in the overly-distasteful position of thinking about who he knows that can hook him up with a slave market.

Slavers to Lintha to a culprit.

[Hyoseph]

"Regarding the Soulbreaker and Ravager Orbs, I am inclined to agree with Kestrel. You are either looking for some sort of relic collector, an arms dealer, or a government. Which one of those has the best chance of being convinced to part with their prize is open to discussion

"The Stellar Seed, less so. I would advise actively seeking stories of strangeness. Ghost stories, unnatural occurrences, et cetera. A force of creation that powerful leaves ripples wherever it is. Similarly, it would also need a power source. A sufficiently well designed and maintained network of Manses redirecting their focus towards the elevation of another could theoretically provide enough power to that nexus to create a seed. That kind of place though, with so much energy being shunted around, would have noticeable and likely adverse effects on the populace there, so I imagine we are looking for a terraformed, likely very limited population world. They tend to be arranged in specific patterns, and geomancers love their patterns.

"Priority wise, I would advise seeking the Seeds first. Given the amount of effort and dedication needed to build one and the rarity of ones already built, they will be the hardest to replace. Soulbreaker Orbs, Ravager Orbs, considerably easier. For example, I know of two individuals right offhand that I am willing to wager have at least one Soulbreaker Orb each, and a third that has the ability to make them in his spare time given the right motivation. Fortunately, none of the parties in mind tend to regard the Lintha terribly well."

[Janos Tem]

((That was supposed to be Janos, oh wells))

[SalmonMax]

"Look, we're already going after the Lintha," Kestrel says, "Lets just stick with that. We knock over a pirate ship, capture the captain alive and make him talk. Then we'll know what they're up to, and if we're lucky, where they're keeping whatever orbs they already have. Then we go hit that. If we run around the galaxy trying to get these things before they do, we'll get nowhere. They have way better info networks and a lot more ships. We'll be better off going on the offense. If they can't hold on to what they've got, it won't matter if they get more."

[Karren Gaunt]

"You got an idea, Zed? Speak up if you do," offered Karren with an amused smirk and a sidelong glance, "The more ideas we get flowing, the sooner we can pick a heading and the sooner we can get problem solving when we get there."

Privately, the idea of a blank-slate Stellar Intelligence free to become whatever it wanted or needed to become tickled her curiousity. A challenge straight from the glory days of the Empire before the rest of her kind helped drive off the Solars. The ultimate gamble, win or lose. Not that she'd say it here and now or ever, but the good such a being could do for Creation if started on the right path...

[Sunstar]

Sophia grins at Kestrel

"I'm liking the way you think Kestrel. While the other plan is sound, you're is a lot less time consuming and leaves us more wiggle room to stop them before it's too late"

Unlike Karren, Sophia has no desire to watch a giant Stellar intelligence spawn and potentially cause hell in space. The risks far out weigh the benefits in her mind.

The younger Lunar takes a look at Dan.

"What do you think Dan?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan himself looked lost in thought. "We need more information. Going after the Lintha is our mission, cracking down on them is something they won't suspect, the Marshals do it peroidically but they have always pulled back when it becomes too costly to continue, or would compromise certain accepted morals to accomplish their neutralization."

"They cannot be allowed to do whatever they're going to do. If we can secure at least one of the elements, we can at least slow them down."

"So We go after the Lintha, any ship captains we can take down and interrogate, we do."

He looked at the others. "Still, if we get a lead on the seeds, or one of the artifact weapons, we follow them up, find them and secure them."

[Heaven's Reach ST]

The holographic image allowed them to discuss the matter between themselves, though it was the Captain ultimately who would make the final decisions right or wrong.. that was part of the reason there was a captain, to keep the matter from becoming one of endless debate. There was, however, some final bits of information needed for the exalted crew to make their ultimate decision.

FATE indicates that there is a good chance that Janos is right, though to many of the particulars fall into realms outside of FATE's purview, we do however, had a few leads for you and your crew, captain.

This is the star system know known as Sunder Seven, in the height of the Malfean war, vast fleets fought here, moons and even entire worlds were shattered, today there is a single habitable moon which circles the larger gas giant and has geomantic arrays to protect it from larger asteroid implacts, but the system is filled with objects of all kinds, it's a ship graveyard, the majority of the system one vast asteroid field, though the single remaining gas giant and it's moons are more or less the only clear areas.. the Canal exit comes out just a few AU's short of the Gas Giant and is clear. Found on the edge of Lintha space, we believe you will find something of importance here, the solar general Nova Corana himself lead many of the battles in this system.

Next,

The world of Kry'sta'tor, having a single major continent the rest of it being a vast ocean, it is populated by several aquatic races, including humanities Aquatics themselves, and the continent itself is mostly human. The thing of note here, however, is the moon, it is a vast industrial complex, that predates the ancient wars, somewhere there may be one of our orbs, in storage.. if not, at least there is a high probability that you can track wherever such a item went from there.

Lastly, but far from least, the industrial water world of Panthesia, the surface is deceptive, devoted to relaxation, it possesses with vast undersea archologies, two lunar industrial complexes, thousands of space stations devoted to farming, and a population of almost 100 billion for the system, 70 billion on the planet alone, it becomes the closest and easiest world to hit with the attack Janos spoke of, which the greatest impact if it's carried out. If they are planing to use it, it could be were they have already hidden what they have.

Our best wishes go with you, the blessings of the Incarna upon you, Marshal Dren, signing off.

[Karren Gaunt]

"Oooooo, Sunder Seven. Sunder Seven...," mused the big Lunar with a grin on her lips, arms crossed and fingers drumming on her elbows, "I'm not sure if my Shard was with you for that, Dan. Sounds like a good time though."

"Buuut..," she interupted herself with a chuckle, "Kry'sta'tor sounds like a better bet than a 'fate says so' in a dead system and more important than heading towards where the endgame is supposed to take place. That's my suggestion. Rumage through the junkpile and interogate the junkmen to see if someone beat us to it."

[Copper Palm Zed]

"I'm inclined to agree with Karren. Though replace 'interrogate', which I can only imagine is a euphemism for 'brutalize the answers out of while resembling a Shrieking Horror', with 'bargain'. You catch more flies when you use honey. Also, if there is something being hidden in the ship graveyard, any junkmen or scrap-pickers are likely to know about it, even if it's just a matter of 'three crews disappeared in this area in the past week, stay away from it'."

Pondering, he continues the train of thought.

"They might even know more. Any Lintha operatives probably think very little of the locals. Being the object of contempt gets you ignored an awful lot. You'd be surprised at what people will let you get away with when they think you're really stupid."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel purses her lips, considering.

"We've got a good chance of running into a ship in Sunder Seven," she muses, "because if they're going to find anything there, they'll have to bring a lot...and we can get more info outta that. But I think we've got a better chance of beating them to an orb at the factory moon."

"Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if they bring a whole task force to Sunder Seven and just take the whole system over while they search. Might be a bit much for us."

[Janos Tem]

"My suggestion is Kry'sta'tor. The tracking mechanisms alone would make locating these devices significantly more feasible."

[SalmonMax]

"Kry'sta'tor is a needle in a haystack," Kestrel complains. "Huge planet. No END to the places to hide things. And the Lintha would be keeping a low profile there...they couldn't just barge in with a cruiser and take the place over. I'm sure we could do it, but we'd be starting from scratch and already way behind. We'll get better results, faster, anywhere but there."

[Dan Hawkins]

"There's a reason to go to all of them."

He stared at the images from Sunder Seven, and alone among the group, Karren recognized Nova's memories playing in his mind. Finally it seemed to pass, and he nodded. "Sunder Seven is also where I'd start, Though it too will be like looking for a needle in a solar system sized haystack, we do have some advantages there that we don't in other places."

He looked to Karen. "She was."

[Karren Gaunt]

"Sunder Seven first it is, then," Karren agreed near instantly now that her Captain had made a choice, "Set the course, and I'll go prepare the crew to board and repel boarders. There's no such thing as too much combat practise in void suits. Speaking of which, any of our new Exalts who can't survive without an atmosphere is encouraged to attend."

There was the affable grin of an instructor prepared to give you hell for your own good on her lips.

[Copper Palm Zed]

"Let me guess. There's a nonzero fatality rate to the training, but the law of averages is on my side?"

With a bemused grin, Zed vaguely wonders where things went so sideways that got him from a life of wandering grift to being with Marshals working to prevent the emergence of a new hell-borne Stellar Intelligence.

"Should I pack a lunch?"

[SalmonMax]

"Zero G," Kestrel notes. "I wouldn't bother. You'll just have to clean it up again."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "Very well, as it's settled, Everyone to your stations, Let's be on our way." He rose, heading to the bridge, to take his command chair, and take the ship out of port.

[Heaven's Reach ST]

Dyna had not the slightest preference for where they would be going, she would maintain the engines regardless, though she had been present for the meeting, she immediately departed heading to the ships engine room to take command of the engineering crew. Aletha on the other hand, simply trusted that her father would make the best choice based on the information he had been given, and that they would likely be visiting all of these locations eventually, so unless she was specifically asked, she had nothing to offer, moving to her position at the communications terminal on the bridge.

Once she arrived and had everything running to her preference, Dyna connected to the bridge "Engine's online and at peak efficiency Captain, we are ready for departure."

At the same time Althea responded. "The station has cleared us for departure, Da... Captain." She caught herself and blushed slightly as she shifted to calling him Captain instead of Daddy.

As soon as Dan gave the order, the ship undocked and headed for the canel entrance point, to take them to the system that had been be locked in by the captain, and as the anima fields extended around the ship they entered canel-space and there was a flash.. a multitude of shifting colors and strange shapes could be made out for an instant as the screen blanked to protect non-exalted minds from the Wyld energies that the ship was now swimming through.

Beyond the ship is now space akin to the wyld of the standard game, shear unalloyed chaos.. though which the shrieking hordes move, a navigation role (lore + intelligence) is normally necessary to insure you arrive at the right location, but I already know that Jem will succeed such a role, which he as science officer is most likely to make, so the only question is if you get attacked by the Shrieking Hordes (aka Fair Folk) on the way. I'm also giving folks a moment to react and reflect or prepare before the next step event.

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel watches the flat, matte black of the blanked out viewscreen for a moment, then shakes her head and glances at Dan.

"How long do we have before we need to be ready?" she asks.

[Karren Gaunt]

Karren was off at a near-run as soon as they cleared the docks, features serious and focused as she barked a continous string of instructions and waited for answers back from her security teams over her com, moving more like a alpha predator than a human being, the monster below the woman showing more clearly.

Her ship was going into harm's way and while she had every confidence about the fight on the other side, the Shrieking Hoards were nothing to laugh about, a childhood bogeyman with claws and teeth and mind-rending magiks very, very real.

If they wanted a fight, she and her men would give it to them. No one was going to get dragged away on her watch.

[Copper Palm Zed]

"We're heading off into a horrid space sector with shifting canals and we might face the Hordes en route. Assuming we arrive safely, we can look forward to dealings with Lintha pirates who want to make their own hellworld."

Zed claps his hands together, the most overjoyed smile twisting his features.

"So! Who's hungry?"

Why didn't I just stay on that station?

[Heaven's Reach ST]

During the age of the Solar Dynasties, there was a plan to replace the Canal system with one of the stellar intelligences, but that plan failed when she joined the Malfean War, like most of the other Stellar Intelligences, and her functional purpose was altered and broken during the war. Cecelyne, the Infinite Desert was intended to be a sentient sub-space real that touched all star systems and make it safe five day transition from anywhere in the universe.. today, she was the part of the binding that trapped most of the Yozi's in one space.

The result of that, was that the Canels were, for the most part, the only way to traverse the stars at FTL speeds, but reality and time broke down a bit within them, and no one knew when or where the Shieking Hordes came from, if they were created by the Canel's, or existed before the canals and the canel's simply allowed them entrance into reality.

Of course, not everyone knew all of this, in fact, most people did not, all they knew and cared was that the Anima circuits protected the ship itself, where as the canal's allowed one to travel the galaxy at incredible speeds. And sometimes, even then, the parts of the ship that were not touched by the anima circuits were attacked by the Hordes, about 10% of the time.. the crew could ignore this and do repairs when they arrived, this is what usually happened, when exalted were not aboard a ship. With even one of the exalted, matters became much more complicated, and the hordes could be fought off... today, in this hour and moment, it was about to happen.

Alarms activated around the ship, and the ship's computer began to broadcast alarms, for the general crew and on the bridge a single voice range out, the Material Intelligence of the ship itself spoke up.. "Captain, the Shieking Hordes are manifesting in the isolated area's of the ship. How do you wish to respond?"

[Janos Tem]

"Captain, the Shieking Hordes are manifesting in the isolated area's of the ship. How do you wish to respond?"

Finally, the time had come when Janos would be able to prove his own worth to the crew of the Voidswimmer. With the Shrieking Hordes onboard, chaos-born abominations that they were, his patron's particular hatred of their kind would be particularly valuable

Those able to register such things would notice a momentary draw on the relatively tiny essence battery provided to him by the Radiant Avatar of Succor and an expenditure of invisible effort. Shortly thereafter they would notice a brief alteration of time similar to the winding of a clock, or perhaps more appropriately, coiling of a spring.

What would likely be harder to recognize would be the fact that this alteration and manipulation of the flow of time had already been done by the hellstrider itself. Like the mongoose and the viper, aware of the horrific dangers presented by the Shrieking Hordes, and yet specifically designed to purge their kind from existence, Janos Tem, chosen of the Principle of Hierarchy, was prepared to engage the most ancient of her enemies.

Janos spends 5m from Essence Plethora and 1 wp to activate Principle of Motion.

Possible descripto-stunt?

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan shook his head. "How the hell..." not finishing, he looked to Janos and Karren. "Isolate them where you can using internal bulkheads" was his order to the MI. "Karren, find the largest concentration and take them down." He ordered the MI "Have Dyna make sure they don't breach the engine room."

He looked at Kestrel. "I would imagine in two weeks time you've had the chance to learn the layout of the ship well. Take lead of one of the security patrols, and help them root out any of this shrieking horde infestation you can."

He turned to Janos. "Your thoughts on how they managed to penetrate the ship's defenses? I know everything is perfectly maintained. I want these things off my ship, and I want my people protected as much as can be provided. Is there something you can do to help this as well?"

He needed to remain on the bridge, as much to defend the ships' C3 systems as to keep it running. Sophia and Althea would be there as well for sure he knew, and Zed was anyone's guess. "Zed, I'm going to have you and Althea act as a mobile reserve, ready to render aid anywhere that requires it."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel, gives Karren a look, then says to Dan, "Look, I know the ship fine, but Karren's the head of security and the crew knows her and trusts her. You sure you want them taking orders from me, while she goes off on her own? I mean, I'm no giant Lunar warrior, but I'm used to fighting solo. I can work the flank, keep them busy while she hammers through on the front or something..."

"Just saying."

[Karren Gaunt]

The two solars got a sidelong glance over Karren's shoulder, the Lunar already halfway to the the lift, her answer over the com, "Let our thief play ninja, Dan. You just keep them divided as much as possible and my teams and I will do our jobs."

She cut the connection at that, switching to the security channels, "Alright, people. We have Shriekers aboard. I want numbers and locations. Worst off sections get help first, everyone else get the civvies clear and hold the line."

And while she waited for her answers and her targets, the lift flared with silvery light and echoed to the crackle of new flesh swelling and hardening into place. The Heartstone implanted in Karren's chest gleamed darkly before being swallowed up by layers of swelling chitton.

Whew, Deadly Beastman Transformation with all the trimmings (Gift Charms: Claws of the Silvermoon, Armor-forming Technique, Bruise Relief Method, Halting the Scarlet Flow) and a side of Armored Hide. Drawing from Perfieral means that Anima is hella flaring. HL: Full, Personal Essense: 19/19 Perfieral Essense: 30/46, WP: 8/8

[Copper Palm Zed]

The Behemothskin long coat he wore was always a bit warm. It had saved him from blades and bullets, sure, but it was always a bit hot.

And I can't stop shaking. Shrieking fucking Hordes?

"Sir, yessir. I'm on the comm."

Distantly, he remembered half-a-dozen katas that had been drilled into him by a drunken monk who had been disgraced decades ago. They were made for fighting off mortals and beasts, not raw chaotic malevolence. His hand gripped about the butt of his trusty sidearm, but even that seemed weak and pathetic in the face of what he'd heard about the Hordes.

"Standing by for deployment!"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded to Kestrel. "That's fine, expect you'll be of more use hunting down the ones that try to get in the harder to reach places. Go ahead and do as you would, just help safeguard my crew and ship."

[SalmonMax]

Kestrel gave him a lazy salute.

seeing as how it's the ship I'm ON, and 'your crew' includes me...

"Aye aye, sir," she said...and whipped out the door fast enough to cross the eye. As she made her way down the corridor, her voice came over the internal comm channel to Dan, "Okay, I haven't got sensor access here...any idea where they are, or do I just start at the top and work my way down? Karren, keep me in the loop. If you get their attention, I'll hit them from behind while they're busy with you."

[Janos Tem]

It was fairly apparent to Janos that in this particular instance, Captain Hawkins had not expected to have to deal with the Shrieking Hordes. Pulling up an overlay of the ship's decks on his handheld, he accessed the ship's computer and downloaded a display of where the Horde-creatures were appearing and of the Anima field projectors.

"I have several thoughts on how they penetrated the ship's defenses but they all come down to mortal imperfection. Even with what is considered perfect maintenance, realistically there is roughly a 1 in 10 chance of encountering a warband. Frankly it is likely the level of discipline, willpower, and conviction that your crew displays that attracts them.

I advise using the internal bulkheads, harrying tactics, and if members of your crew are feeling terribly courageous, bait in order to herd them into an open room so Karren can adopt her full destructive form and I can deploy the Radiant Avatar. They are most likely not interested in facing the Chosen of Anyone if they don't have to and are most likely to attempt to pick up stragglers among the crew. If it is possible, I would advise moving all but the absolutely necessary parts of your crew to one defensible location, my associate will see to their needs and keep them as calm as she can. At that point it is a matter of keeping the outliers protected and either picking the individual Wyldspawn in small groups or facing them down as a collected whole.

Whichever you decide, we have to commit fully to otherwise this battle is lost before it begins"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "The engine room and crew are safe with Dyna there. Everyone else that isn't part of the security patrols will already be moving to the more secure areas of the ship. The Dojo is the primary rally point in case of emergency, as it is central in location to the ship. It has bulkheads that can isolate it, as it's meant to allow for exalted combat. The nonessential personnel will be enroute to it."

Over the comm he replied to Kestrel. "We know there are voidspawn detected in the bow of the ship, head there and be on your guard. Karren will head to the cargo holds." He looked at Janos. "I'll leave your actions to your discretion Janos, my only orders are simple, protect the crew, the ship, and yourself. If you want to send your associate down to the dojo, that will be where the crew is headed."