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Post by James on Sept 24, 2011 23:23:32 GMT -1
This story is set 500 years after the events of the thread with Joseph, Michael and Sarah (which is currently ongoing at the time of writing). Any events mentioned in the past are entirely my own ideas, and may not have even played out that way lore-wise. With that disclaimer out of the way, on to the story!Part 1 "Williamson! Get in here!"The shrill voice caused Joseph to groan and curl up into a little ball in his bed. This latest General was just like all the rest of them - impatient, loud and obnoxious. After a few minutes the voice blared over the intercom again, "WILLIAMSON! Don't make me come in there and drag you!" This made him grin. The General could certainly try to drag him from his bed, but he'd fail. He decided it would probably be best not to keep the man waiting. After all, he was his superior officer - perhaps not in ability, but certainly in rank. He stood up from his bed and stretched, yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He didn't need sleep anymore, but it made his comrades feel a little less uncomfortable around him if he acted more normal. He donned his formal dress - a meeting with the General wasn't something you wore your combat gear to, even if it was more comfortable. It was a short walk from his private room in the main barracks to the officer's quarters, where the war room was located. He entered without knocking and stood to attention, giving a perfect salute to the commanders assembled within. "About time, sergeant.""My appologies for being late, general. I overslept.""You insubordonate little...I ought to have you court marshalled!!" The general turned red with anger. Joe merely smiled at him. "Go ahead. Though I'd clear that with your superiors first. They may not be too happy about losing me..." he chuckled to himself. The general stammered then decided against persuing it any further. He sat down at the head of a large holographic starmap, displaying nearby planets. "What are we up against?" asked Joe as he too sat down. "Nothing you can't handle I'm sure, sergeant." a young captain named Michelle Strom replied. She blushed when Joseph flashed her a smile. "But of course, you're only to be deployed as a last resort should things go south.""Yes, yes, I know. I need more specifics, though. So I know where abouts I'm most likely to be needed, should things "go south", as you so elloquently put it, captain.""A haven for damned sorcerous bastards is what we're up against. We're going in with all guns blazing and wiping the scum off the face of Helios VI" Joseph raised an eyebrow at this. Did they really plan on sending in rank-and-file soldiers against sorcerers? Humanity had come a long way since he had first been told the truth, but a handful of sorcerers could easily fend off an entire army. "Sir, if I may interject. I recommend a different course of action. Either send me in alone to deal with them, or send in the Wytch Sqaudron. Hell, if you don't like those options then the only other intelligent action would be to call for Dragos Midnight.""If I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it, sergeant. We don't need your hippy bullshit magic crap. We're going to do this the old fashioned way!" the general bit down on a cigar and lit it. Clearly arguing with the fool was pointless. Joe was infuriated by this new general. Previous generals had all acted similar, but had usually heeded his advice. This one was different somehow - he just couldn't place it. "May I be excused, sir?" Joe practically spat out the question. The general waved his hand dismissively. Joe stood up quickly and left. He ignored several calls from his comrades as he stormed toward his room, having to resist the urge to go back and beat the general into a bloody pulp on the floor. His strategy was suicide. He cursed his decision to refuse his last hundred promotions. He didn't see himself as a leader at all, and felt more comfortable fighting on the front lines, but now many of his friends were going to be sent to their deaths because of one incompetent idiot. He slammed his door shut and locked it before cursing loudly. In the confines of his room, he assumed his true form. He wore dark brown, close-fitting leather armour and boots to match. Vines and leaves twisted around his body, arms and legs, some leaves even growing from his dark green hair. His two great feathered wings stretched out behind him with all the colours of autumn present in them, giving his wings the look of many fallen leaves bound together. He picked up his twin arm blades from their cabinet on the wall and strapped them to his arms, their retractable blades hidden. He went to the safe next to the cabinet and entered a long code on the keypad. The safe opened to reveal an archaic handgun - a Glock 26 - along with several clips of ammunition and a holster. He strapped the holster to his right leg and said a short prayer for the dead with his eyes closed and the gun held a few inches from his lips before putting it in place in the holster. He looked out of his window, making sure that no mortals were in sight before flying from his room at high speed. He flew past the assembled battle ships and troop carriers in high orbit above the military camp. He knew he would have been spotted, at least on the ships' sensors, but he didn't care. He was treated more like a weapon than a living being by the military he had sworn to serve. A team of handlers with weaponry capable of killing an Immortal such as himself followed him whenever he was in camp, and he knew for a fact that at least two ships kept their guns trained on him whenever he was on assignment. None of this mattered now. He was pushing himself to his limit, going fast enough that none of them could train their weapons on him for long enough to fire on him. Joseph considered himself humanity's guardian - humanity regarded him as their property. It was a bittersweet thing, carrying on the Major's legacy - but he had sworn on his mentor's grave that he would forever serve humanity.
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Post by James on Sept 25, 2011 17:23:21 GMT -1
Part 2 Helios VI was but a few hours' flight through the void of space for him. The planet's surface had been long devoid of life, having been used as a massive industrial hub for the manufacture of ammunition for humanity's ongoing expansion into the galaxy. The atmosphere was heavy with the stench of industry, and even from so many miles above the planet, Joe could smell it. The sorcerers had overthrown the local government and enslaved the populace several months ago, and only after so long without contact with the planet had the military stepped in. Of the initial sixteen scouting parties that were sent, only three had returned. They all reported the same thing: ungodly rituals, blood magick and ritual sacrifice. Now it was up to Joseph to put an end to the madness before this so-called general sent in thousands of men and women to their deaths. He hurtled through the planet's atmosphere like a meteor heading to the surface. Unlike a meteor, he landed gently without making a sound. He touched the ground with his bare hands. It was cold and dead on the surface, but deep below he could sense a spark of life still left. He smiled at this. "Don't worry my friends," he said out loud, "your time for revenge is at hand."He lifted his hands from the ground to reveal several new shoots had grown in the short time he had touched the surface. He could hear the slumbering plants deep below the earth awaken and begin to sing at his presence. Approaching the edge of a cliff nearby, Joe surveyed the surrounding area. He spotted several small encampments surrounding a large building, once the central administration building where all of the bureaucrats had overseen the production lines, far away from any of the factories to ensure that in the event of an accident occuring, they were well away from the blast radius of the weaponry that could potentially explode at a moment's notice. This was where the reports indicated the sorcerers had made their base of operations. Below, in one of the camps, two sorcerers sat muttering prayers to their dark masters. One of them looked up and spotted an eagle flying high above them. He frowned and thought for a moment. "Isn't all the wildlife on this planet supposed to be dead?" he asked his comrade and pointed to the eagle. The other man looked up and frowned as well. "You're right. Damn it, must be a surveilance bot!"The second man spoke an incantation in a dark, gutteral language and raised his hand in the direction of the eagle. A small bolt of energy escaped his finger tips and connected with the eagle, which plummeted to the ground and landed with a heavy thud at their feet. The first man picked it up by one of its wings. A look of confusion spread across his face as he realised it wasn't a machine. The eagle turned its head and looked the man in the eyes, then winked at him. Before the pair had time to react, Joseph transformed back in to his usual form and slit both their throats with his arm blades. He wiped their blood on their robes before walking on towards the next closest camp. He proceeded in this manner throughout all of the outlying camps, using his shapeshifting abilities to sneak up on his unsuspecting victims and taking them out silently. He knew the assault on the main building would be hard enough without them having reinforcements to flank him. Once he had dealt with the camps, he readied himself for the main event. Calling upon the plants which lay in waiting below the earth, he began to run towards the building. A sentry on one of the battlements spotted him and raised the alarm, but he no longer cared. The plants began errupting from the ground. Huge vines encircled the building, crushing concrete and picking up sorcerers, throwing them to their deaths on the thorny bushes which had spread at the base of the building. Joseph transformed into a huge, emerald dragon and flew up to the highest point of the tower, breathing flames which brought accelerated growth to the plantlife which was now taking over the building's interior. He landed on the roof, where a group of sorcerers stood, chanting and spilling their own blood to try and attain greater power. He didn't allow them the opportunity as he transformed back and sped from one man to the other, cutting them to ribbons with his arm blades. One sorcerer remained, one of his legs and a hand had been lost and he bled profusely on the ground. Joe walked up to him and spat on the ground beside him. "You're finished."The man began to laugh. "No, Immortal, you are finished. Our master will destroy you!" his laughter was silenced by a bullet through the head from the Glock 26. Behind him, Joseph heard the sound of a rift in space opening. From it stepped a figure in a long, black, hooded robe. The figure drew a two-handed sword from a sheath on his back and steadied himself. Along the blade, runes were inscribed in the daemonic tongue and the blade pulsed with dark energies. The man spoke in a voice now all too familiar. "Williamson...I should have killed you the moment I laid eyes on you.""You! I should have known something was off about you. No general in their right mind would have sent footsoldiers to uproot a group of sorcerers like this. They were to be sacrifices, weren't they?!""They said you were an intelligent man, Williamson. Such a shame I have to kill you now. You would have been such a great asset to our cause."The general charged at Joseph and swung his sword with all of his might. Faster than a normal human, he had clearly been granted dark gifts by his daemonic masters. Joseph had little time to react, but managed to dodge under the blow just in time, the blade cutting a few strands of hair from his head. Joseph stabbed upwards with his arm blades, aiming for a death blow to the chest, but the general reacted too quickly, jumping back and swinging wildly with his sword, Joseph being forced to block the blow which caused him to stumble back a few steps. It was then that he realised the general wasn't looking at him directly, for to do so would cause him to fall into a blissful coma - something which he could use to his advantage, even if the bastard didn't deserve the peaceful death which would follow. Joseph flew into the air and taunted his opponent, "Can't get me up here, dickhead!"The general growled like a beast straight out of Hell and stabbed his greatsword into the ground. He knelt by it and uttered a prayer to his daemonic master. Seeing an opening, Joseph mustered all of his speed and flew as fast as he could straight at the general. He tackled the man, causing the roof below them to colapse. The pair went hurtling through several floors of solid concrete before their momentum gave way and they crashed onto solid ground once more. Getting up qucikly, Joseph stood over his oponent with a blade at the general's throat. He drew his blade with speed and precision and watched as the general bled to death. He brushed off the dirt, dust and debris from himself and decided to take the stairs to the main entrance hall and leave the building via the front door. "Bloody Catholics..."
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Post by joseph on Sept 27, 2011 22:56:30 GMT -1
Part 3 Deep in the bowels of Hell, a once broken soul stood looking up into the darkness. His eyes shone blood red through the haze of smoke and shadows. He shifted his weight from one taloned foot to the other, his shredded wings blowing in the wind, limp and lifeless. High above him, a gateway opened. He grinned and faded into the shadows.Joseph flew through the void once more, heading back to base with bad news weighing heavily on his shoulders. How would he break the news to his commanders that the highest echelons of their batallion had been infiltrated by a daemonic cult? How many more sorcerers were there in the military? When would they strike? Where? So many questions, so few answers. He shook his head. His answers could wait. The familiar outline of the human armada was before him - titans sleeping above the planet which housed his comrades and brothers in arms. He had saved them all from a miserable fate, of that much he was certain. "They're safe for now." he though, allowing himself a small smile. As much as he dreaded having to break the news to his commanders, his peers would welcome him back home, and when he told them of what had happened, they would praise him for it. Of that much he though he was certain. Then the Hellgate opened up before him, spewing forth countless daemons toward the planet below. Joseph let out a silent cry of anguish, the void consuming his voice. He mustered all of his speed to outrun the daemons, crashing through into the atmosphere as the smaller, faster daemons nipped at his heels. A storm raged as the planet itself wept for the fate of those on its surface. Joseph fired blindly with his handgun behind him, the runed bullets connecting with the closest of the hellspawn, causing them to burn from the inside, falling as ash to the surface. He flattened his wings to his body so as to streamline himself during his head first freefall to the ground below. He turned in the air at the last second, landing soundlessly on the ground and breaking into a sprint towards the main hub of the sprawling military base. "Sound the alarms! Daemon incursion - all guns, open fire on the sky - north by northeast. NOW!" he barked as he ran past an idle anti-air gun crew playing a dice game. They snapped to work and powered up the automated laser turrent defence grid and passed along the message on their radios. The news spread like wildfire as the base came to life. Alarms sounded for miles around, orders were given over loudspeakers and everywhere was buzzing with electricity as generators fired up, tanks were manned and power packs were handed out for the standard issue ML-2 Laser Combat Rifles. The vanguard of the daemon host burst through the clouds, hellfire raining down with them. He had no time for them, he knew there was worse to come and he needed time to prepare for whatever Hell had to offer.
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Post by joseph on Sept 28, 2011 21:01:04 GMT -1
Part 4 The battle raged on. Half a day had passed since the daemons first flooded the planet, and the defenders were beginning to buckle under the endless tide of monsterous creatures. Joseph and the military leaders were assembled in a heavily fortified bunker, holographic displays of the area showing their ever decreasing numbers. Joseph slammed his fist against the wall, causing a large dent in the metal to form. "Escape is impossible! Even if we could gather everyone together and get to the ships, the daemons would tear us out of the sky before we even left the atmosphere. We have to stand and fight. We can defeat them!""And just how do you propose we do that? Their numbers are endless, and our men can't hold out much longer.""Just...trust me. I know we can defeat them. I believe in my comrades and have full confidence in their abilities."The assembled commanders continued to argue which course of action to take. Only a few of them were with the captain who had first proposed evacuation, but it was enough to give pause to their battle plans. Evacuation was clearly the easiest course of action, but it carried the greatest risk. Even if they escaped, Joseph knew that the Hellgate would remain open, allowing the Daemons to flood the sector and eventually gather enough strength to threaten the entire Terra galaxy. An explosion sounded outside, signalling that the fighting had at last encroached upon their position. Joseph took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going out their to fight. Who's with me?"The commanders fell silent. Several of them averted their eyes, while others simply stood with defiant looks on their faces. "I'll join you, sergeant." the young female captain from earlier spoke up for the first time. She shouldered an assault carbine and slammed in an energy cell. She moved to stand beside Joseph and nodded as their eyes met. Her actions were enough, as more of the commanders decided to side with Joseph. Only three remained unconvinced out of the twelve that had assembled. "Well, we need somebody to relay orders to the men on the front lines. You three stay here, then. I want updates every ten minutes."Joseph opened the bunker's heavy door just as a hellhound bounded into view, chasing down a young soldier who had lost his gun in the chaos. Joe fired a single round from his Glock 26 which connected with the beast's skull, shattering it and then turning the hound to ash. The group then parted ways, each going to their respective devisions, while Joseph took to the air to deal with the daemons there. He dived and rolled in the air, slaughtering any of the flying beasts who dared to challenge him. They were mindless, drooling things - low caste beasts. Nothing but cannon fodder to thin the defenders' ranks before the main assault began. The way the deamons came in waves made him suspicious of a higher power commanding the horde from afar. No doubt a highly powerful adversary, but until he showed his face Joseph couldn't worry about who or what he had to face. His mind was solely in the present, in each of his attacks, his arial maneuvers and above all else, his survival. If he fell, so too would the planet. Suddenly, a huge daemon in the form of a minotaur from ancient Greek legends came crashing down from the gate above. It barelled into Joseph, knocking the wind out of his lungs and sending them both plumetting to the hard ground below. A massive impact crater was left where they landed due to the speed of their rapid descent. Joseph struggled under its weight, barely able to hold back its head as it tried to gnaw at his neck, huge fangs dripping hot saliva onto him. The beast persisted even as Joe managed to impale it with one of his arm blades, even when he twisted the blade it continued to lunge at him. Joseph's vision blurred as the struggle drained him of his strength. Rapidly losing strength, he began to give up hope. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a daemon smaller than the minotaur, wearing a faded black cloak, the hood masking its facial features. It walked on taloned feet which dug into the ground with each step. Its two large, black wings were torn and broken. It reached out with a clawed hand towards him. The world turned to darkness as the last of Joseph's strength gave way. No pain came, only oblivion.
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Post by joseph on Sept 30, 2011 20:08:20 GMT -1
Part 5 "Awaken."Joseph's body was too stiff to move. His head felt like it had been split in two. Had it? He couldn't open his eyes to check. "Awaken."The voice spoke with more strength now and Joseph heard it more clearly. Surely he wasn't dead if he was being ordered around. He had always followed orders, why should he follow this one now, on the brink of death? A groan escaped his throat. He felt some strength return to him. His body was dragged from the cold, hard ground and forced to stand. He could feel strong hands on his shoulders holding him steady. "Fey, open your eyes."The voice was deep and the words were almost growled rather than spoken. He didn't recognise at as anyone he knew in the military. Likely he had been captured by some daemon and was going to be tortured, then killed. Slowly, Joseph opened his eyes. He looked into two firey red eyes with no pupils. The eyes were below a large black hood which cast a dark shadow over the figure's face, obscuring his features entirely. The figure stepped back, seemingly satisfied that Joseph could now stand on his own. It wore a long black cloak which dragged along the ground. It kept the cloak close to its body, the only thing Joseph could make out was a golden medallion in the shape of a talon draped around its neck. He recognised it as the symbol of Dragos Midnight. "You're from Dragos Midnight?""I was..once...a long time ago. In the past now. Not important.""Who are you then?""Fallen one...murderer...shadow...assassin...Doesn't matter."The man turned his back on Joseph, and even through the darkness Joseph could see that the figure limped when he walked. His back was hunched over, two tattered black wings hanging limp and lifeless from his back. "Wait. Show me your face."Joseph readied himself for what he had begun to suspect - that this creature was the daemon he had seen before losing conciousness.The man slowly lowered his hood and removed his cloak. Joseph immediately spotted the numerous scars running down his back, as though he had been whiped repeatedly. His pale skin had a deathly grey hue to it, though his forearms, hands and legs were hard, almost rock-like, and the colour of dried blood. His hands ended in long, claw-like fingers, and his legs, though canine in their joint formation, ended in huge, deadly talons. His hair was slicked back, and grew into a mane running down his spine and to the dagger-like tip of his reptillian tail. He then stretched to his full height and stood easily two feet taller than Joseph. He turned and looked down at Joseph, revealing his fanged jaws, red eyes and slits for a nose. "Get away from me, daemon! You will not use me for your disgusting rituals."The daemon grunted and turned from him. "Relax, kid. I saved you from certain death, and now you insult me.""You only saved me so you could kill me yourself.""I only saved you because you need to lead your people against my kin up there and end this conflict! Push them back into Hell and close the gate behind them. I'm going to help you do that.""And why should I trust you, daemon?"The daemon sighed. He turned back to face Joseph, and almost looked sad. "Because..." he thought for a moment, "Because I was like you once. I lost my way, and what you see is my punishment for something I did half a millenium ago. I'm trying to attone for my sins, so that one day an old friend might forgive me. All I want is the opportunity to help where I can. Will you give me that opportunity, Fey?"Joseph was stunned. A daemon with regrets. Never before had he even considered something like that could exist. He was taught never to trust anything a daemon said, yet this one seemed different somehow. "I need more than some sob story, beast.""If you say so."The daemon raised his arms, the shadows which had surrounded the daemon and Joseph since he had awoken receeded to reveal a huge underground cave. Joseph was surrounded for miles around by small groups of soldiers huddled around improvised fires. Some were talking nervously, some looked too terrified to even think, and others wore grim looks of determination as they readied their weaponry. All of them eyed the daemon with extreme caution. All of them had been rescued by him in the heat of battle. "They wait to see what you have to say on the matter. They look to your wisdom in this matter, young Fey. They seek a means to end this conflict, and I can provide it. If you wish to do this alone, without my help, I will not hold it against you. Though you look as though you could use all the help you can get."Joseph stood and looked around at the faces of the soldiers he knew so well. He had served with some of them in the most desperate of battles - the others he had taken for parts of their military training. The noise in the cave died down, only the sound of water dripping on rock remained. "You fight with us, Daemon."
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