StoryArch One: New Beginnings

They called us their super soldiers. They who created us for their war with an enemy as vicious and warlike as their own. They called us their last hope of survival and salvation, and so we fought and we died with absolute belief in our conviction that we could turn the tide in their favor. But we came too late, the war had gone beyond the line of no return and everything we had bled for was lost. The colonies were overrun, the capitol was destroyed, and the Republic... It became a burning corpse.

But there is yet still hope, a few of our number have survived to continue the fight. There is yet one place where we are free. Talos... our birthplace... our home. We will fight till none are left to protect it, but if it should come to that, we will make them pay so dearly they will never think to wage war so lighty ever again.

They called us their children, and in their memory do we fight, for our survival we must now band together and turn back the tide so that we may have a future of our very own. Even now, the battered remains of a republic fleet orbits Talos. Their goal, to get all available men and women aboard to ground before the enemy arrives. Once down, we will be ready. Once down, we will have the upper hand.

For we are Valoran, and there will be hell to pay!

The heavy chatter of gunfire could dimly be heard through my helmet as I inched forward along a length of low lying wall in an attempt to flank the enemy. After what seemed like an eternity, I reached its end and took a chance peek around its corner to see our mission objective not fifty yards away... just begging to be taken. But the enemy infantry was too deeply entrenched into their current position and had pinned down the greater bulk of my forces. I knew they would have to be eliminated before we could move onto our primary objective.
My analysis of the enemy position complete, I returned to cover and motioned to those who had made their way along the wall with me... Dalkerro, Kent, Len and Rayne. They readied some grenades and upon my order chucked them over the wall at the enemy position. Taking as much cover behind the wall as was possible, we waited for them to go off. We were rewarded with a sudden cry of panic as the enemy infantry spotted our little 'gift' for them, and they could be heard as they broke from their emplacement, desperately trying to get clear in time before the grenades went off... they were only about three seconds too slow. With a loud and rapid staccato the grenades exploded, destroying everything in a twenty yard radius and spraying a small shower of blood and body parts for several more. Some of which seemed to take great delight in peppering itself onto my troops and I.
With the enemy force having been dealt with, we cleared our objectives vicinity and I ordered the remainder of my forces to take our primary objective. I suited action to my own words as I scrambled over the wall and darted for the enemy ship, afraid it would lift off before my troops could properly pin it down long enough for us to take it. Fifty yards... Forty... Twenty five... I was nearly there when a small defensive turret suddenly lowered and fired in my direction, its near miss sent me flying into oblivion, but not before my life flashed before my eyes... well... the last several months here on Talos anyway.


An all-encompassing darkness permeated the world. It was everything either known or could be comprehended. Then, ever so slowly, time began to inextricably begin to crawl forward once more until my senses clawed their way out of the abyss. Dimly, the first sense to return was sound. This grew rapidly until the cacophony of sound threatened to explode and leave myself deaf. The second to come back was sight. It began as a single unidentifiable smudge in my vision, none the less this smudge grew brighter until various shapes could be identified. This continued for sometime until my vision had fully cleared, and a dark sparsely lit room could be seen through a transparent pane of glass. Furthermore, the room had a rather annoying habit to flash a dark crimson intermittently and dark figures could be seen running past. The last sense to return was my sense of feeling, this was accompanied by a bitter taste in my mouth, as the feeling in my outer extremities returned. After a moment, another dark figure crossed into my vision and stopped just in front of me. This figure then reached up and out of my field of vision and entered a code into the keypad embedded there, after which a subtle hiss could be heard from my cryopod as it synced its internalized pressure with the outside air. Stepping back, the figure waited silently as my pod opened and I took my first steps into a wondrous new world. It could have gone better, as I made a rather foolish prat of myself when I instantly began to fall as soon as my feet touched the cold and hard grated floor. Next thing I knew, I was being manhandled and half-carried to a door some distance away from the cryopod. Another annoying flash strobe of deep red and I caught my first true glimpse of my manhandler. She was small, but surprisingly strong, with a lithe and graceful frame. Her almond shaped eyes turned and immediately she caught my attention. "How are you holding up, Gunny?" She asked as we continued our progressive march to the door, "I'm fine, though I can't seem to walk right just yet..." I responded "thankfully, I've got this rather pretty brunette to hold me up. So I just can't seem to find it within myself to complain." The wisecrack found its mark and I was rewarded with a slight blush and a beautiful smile from the cryotech. My thoughts turned serious and I asked her "Where are we?", her reply was at once both soft spoken and urgent and at the same time determined. "We're currently orbiting Talos. The fleet has standing orders to get all personnel to ground." After saying this she hesitated briefly then continued, "I'm sorry, Gunny. But we don't have much time. The enemy could be upon us at any moment, and we need to get you to a drop pod."
I took her reply in stride and nodded my understanding, then replied in turn. "Right then, what's the sitrep like?" Once more she hesitated, as if debating whether how best to answer my question. "Well... I'm only a cryotech, Gunny. I don't have the clearance, nor can I tell you what's going on other than what I've heard through the local scuttlebutt chain." At this, it was my turn to flash a smile and I chuckled before replying "Lady... I always put more faith and stock in what's being said via a scuttlebutt chain than through anything the higher up's ever decide to give us. It's... more reliable... usually. So, why don't you tell me what you've heard and I'll decide whether it's any good or not."

As she told me what she had learned, we reached the door and it opened with a pressurized hiss to reveal an equally dimly lit and crimson strobe filled corridor. The news as it turned out, wasn't good. As scuttlebutt would have it, the enemy had showed up early, and being the crooked party crashers they were. They had boarded ship and were systematically destroying any and all vital areas they could within its narrow and confined corridors. Needless to say, any attempt to reach the drop pods at this point would likely be met with heavy resistance from enemy boarders, and worst of all, all attempts to communicate with the bridge had failed. Likely either taken or destroyed, it wouldn't be long before the ship would lose control and plummet through Talos' outer atmosphere. So much for getting to the planets surface without having a really bad day. "Well lets not keep them waiting then." I told her after I had listened to what she had to say, then continued "Now if only I had some damn clothes, I hate having to fight the enemy in just my skivvies!" This elicited another smile from the cryotech and her reply was rather too quick... if you ask me, if not with more than just a minor trace amount of amusement, "Sorry about that, Gunny. There wasn't time to get your stuff up here before we were attacked, and if it makes you feel any better your clothes and gear will be there at the drop pod once you get there. Your also not the only one who's had to run around in their underwear while they try to get off the ship. Practically everyone we've released from cryosleep has had to do the same... so your not alone in that."
I began to respond but what happened next I can't say for sure, but the next thing I knew I was picking myself up and off the grated floor and the cryotech was dead. My battlefield instincts now took over, sending surges of adrenaline through my body and bringing back the massive reserves of strength I had at my disposal, I was ready for war, and I was also looking every which way trying to figure out what the hell had just happened, when my eyes settled on the face of death itself. Or in this case, the glowing red eyes and feline features of a Nivali naval commando.

((Note: While this first post is in 1st person format, all successive posts will be in our traditional 3rd person format. By extension feel free to post your starter post in whatever format you'd like; whether it's in 1st,2nd or 3rd person format is fine. Just remember all second and follow on posts will be in 3rd person.))

((Note2: Yes, that's right... I did indeed do it, I'm making you have to start your char's by coming out of cryosleep in their underwear. Yes, I know... I'm evil. ))

((Note3: It's a new personal best for me! 1406 words and 7,771 characters. It's officially the longest post I've ever done. Still, it's a rather long block of text... if any of you are having trouble reading it, let me know and I'll try to break it down somewhat. *shrugs*))

A groan came from the floor of the cryotank room. "Gimme those fucking bagels." The male Cana known as Twitchy muttered groggily as his vision started to come back to him. The sounding alarms gave him the jolt he needed to wake up. "What the fuck? Whose birthday is it? What the fuuuuck?" He said as he got to his feet. Looking around and seeing that he was completely alone. "What the hell??? Doesn't anyone check for a fucking pulse anymore!? Shit... where's my gear?" He said aloud as he looked around the room for his gear. "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE LOCKERS!!?!?!? How the fuck do they expect us to react to this kind shit of our gear isn't anywhere near us!!?!? The heeeellll man?" He growled softly as he reached behind his cryotank and wrenched out his standard issue knife from a loose panel in the back. "Gives us aaall your shit and you'll have it back when you get to the drop pods, yeah sure, how bout i just slit my wrist here and now for ya." He grumbled as he pulled the blade from it's sheath and dropped to a crouching position and made his way out of the room in the direction of where he thought the armory was pulling a fire extinguisher off a nearby wall as he did.


Relieving a dead engineer of his uniform Twitch donned the jumpsuit and boots of the engineer as fast as he could, not minding the rather large hole in the side from a Nivali blaster. As soon as he laced up the boots he heard the sound of Nivali feet marching down the halls near him. peaking around the corner he saw a Nivali fire-team on the far side of the hall, seeing his only escape route was to run directly in front of them. He ducked back into the room and pulled the fire extinguisher over to him and positioned himself near the door way. He set the extinguisher in front of him and crouched over it with his knife held over it. Gritting his teeth he waited for the squad to get a few feet from the doorway before in one fluid movement, quickly jamming the knife down into the canister causing a stream of gas to jet out from it from it, He then took a deep breath as he tossed it up out the doorway. Startled by the sight and sound of the ruptured canister the Nivali opened fire and utterly destroyed it causing the foam to quickly fill the hall producing a large amount of blinding fog. Using the confusion Twitch bolted out of the room.


His momentum and speed made it easy for his knife to drive straight into the closest Nivali's skull. Quickly dropping prone he grabbed it's dropped weapon and emptied the entire clip into the remaining team members. As the Nivali fell Twitch let out a loud sigh of relief. "Hoooooly shit that was dumb." He said to himself as he threw the gun in his hands to the ground and grabbed a fresh one, not knowing how many shots are in a clip or even how to eject them he was unable to take extra with him. Not wanting to get into a firefight by himself he bolted away from the scene, hoping that the next group he came across was friendly.

While the others who had been stuck in cryosleep woke and started to raise hell about the ship one particular mechanical member of the squad was beginning to wake from where he had been kept down in the labs instead of the usual chamber. Len slowly opened his eyes a bit as his automatic activation kicked in the camera's to his mechanical retina adjusting themselves to the light as the glow on scouter and ear-fins started up. He'd stand there almost in a paused daze for some time as his ear fins adjusted themselves as well, positioning themselves up, then down, moving about till they reached the neutral point and Len's neural connections kicked in as he blinked, looking about the room. The room itself was bathed in a dim red light, the alarm sounding through the room itself as it seemed to e deserted, the techs having pretty much abandoned it to help the other more organic members of the station. Len moved himself forward, only to feel his body jerk heavily against the restraints connected to his body to keep him in place, also serving as the data up-link to the mainframe computers to assist in his training, or so the members of the ship had convinced him.

Len let out a sigh as he pushed himself forward again, the lack of power to the room making his escape from the restraints somewhat difficult. "Come on.." He'd say in a troubled tone as he pulled forward again, frowning slightly as he closed his eyes a moment. After a few seconds Len jerks his arms forward, pulling the restraints out forcibly from his body with the sickening sound of buckling and warping metal. Len glanced over to his arms and back some before pulling out the last bits of the restraints, having been built with different technology he would have suffered no damage to his chassis.
Len raised his hand once he was done, moving it to his shoulder only to pause when he grabbed at nothing. His whole body seemed to lock up a moment as he slowly looked down to his hand, a clear expression of concern on the android's face as he looked to his empty hand.
Anyone who knew Len knew his habit and fixation about his scarf, always having it with him, the scarf itself being built of a very durable material that wouldn't pull itself apart due to his mechanical strength, and likewise, could be oddly used in a combat situation.

As Len stood there fixated on his empty hand a team of Nivali moved in and started tearing at the unpowered door to the labs, blasting the door off eventually with explosives. Len's ear-fins raised a moment at the sound as he slowly looked over, taking note of the five in the room with him. He slowly lifted his one hand with a sheepish smile and nervous chuckle "Oh, hello." Just after he had spoken the Nivali commando yelled to open fire, the others doing just that, opening fire on Len who quickly dashed to the side, taking cover behind one of the larger lab desks. Len paused there a moment to think out the situation, jumping out at the pause of fire, grabbing the first Nivali by the wrist, twisting it about before flinging him into the next one. As the commando was about to fire at him again Len quickly took hold of the gun, using his superior strength to push it down to point to the floor, using his other hand to press it against the Nivali commando's head as the hand itself started to glow, precision lasers usually utilized for medical procedures tearing into the commando's face. With a quick flick Len threw him into the next closest soldier. With one left Len stood in place and let the Nivali fire against his shields, having it ricochet off to hit the feline with pure luck. Len blinked and looked at the people on the floor, tilting his head. "Whoops." He chuckled nervously a bit before scampering out from the room, waiting for his comm and other secondary systems to kick in.