Dark Rendezvous, Episode Three

Well, I hate to be the one to ruin the night
Right before your
Right before your eyes!

---AWOLNATION, "Kill Your Heroes"

--oOo--

The link broke with a jarring hiss, and abruptly all was darkness. She tried to blink, but couldn't as the mask paralyzed the eyes, and with rushed frustration she began to think the mask down through its shut off sequence. She could feel the coffin moving, heaving ponderously upward by means unknown to her. Her tomb's construction would delay opening from the outside for a short while, but she had used conventional metals in its construction: it would be dreadfully counterproductive to make the thing out of Ascendancy materials. It would raise far more questions than she'd appreciate.

--oOo--

Necrosis had called the coffin forth on a column of dirt and rested it at an angle so that all could see what was inside once it was opened. Kane readied his gun and Echo waited patiently for the chance to act. Necrosis ran his boney hand over the coffin, examining its markings and the metals used in crafting it with a slight smirk on his decayed face as he looked back at the others. Such metals could be torn through easily by an earth drake, but he still didn’t want to end the fun so soon, and he was still wary of any tricks the bald woman might have placed to protect her from this situation. He could sense there was no corpse in this grave.

Holf’s face was pulled taught as the undead earth drake exhumed the grave and the coffin within it with a speed he would have thought to be impossible had he not seen it occurred in front of him. He motioned to the cultist soldiers standing around the grave and near the retracted drill rig; an armored combat mask unfolding over his face as he did. A sense of anonymity would be required should their thief manage to escape and retaliate. Its eyeports glowing a Deep golden amber color as they engaged silently, and as the skeletal son of the fear lord brought the coffin to rest at an angle and run his talons across its surface, the cultists (all clad in flame and bulletproof undersuits worn with their custom decorated armor sporting the signature glaring yellow eye of their order) raised their weapons, training their sights on the area of the coffins head and chest area. Above them, one of the shuttle cruised by overhead. Absently Holf placed his hand on the butt of his versus handgonne.

Necrosis turned to Kane. "Dear brother, would you do the honors?" He said with a slight look of amusement on his skull.

Kane holstered his gun and gave Necrosis a wide, toothy smile and a tip of the hat. "With pleasure." Necrosis moved to the side to allow Kane to grab both sides of the coffin's sealed top.

Holf tuned his head at this, taking in the brief exchange between the two brothers ages apart as they spoke of opening the coffin. As the Skeletal drake stepped aside to let the younger earth drake move to step forward and take the sides of the coffin, he received a short alert from the Comm-link in his helmet. Responding to it by sending neural commands and Re-routes of  positions with an absent minded half nod before he Returned his attention towards the two Drakes.

Kane planted his gloved hands firmly on the sides of the coffin and dug his claws deep in the metal, breaking the seals. with a slight tug he had completely separated the top half of the door, quickly tossing the hunk of metal  aside and returning to the coffin to see what it contained.

--oOo--

The cultists raised their weapons as he did, leveling the laser guided sights of their weapons and ARC Bolters on the open coffins top. The small spotlights mounted on their stocks illuminated the space within the coffin and the figure that lay within for all to see.

The interior of the coffin was much like the exterior; a brassish polished metal inlaid with a fine weave of grooves and curves. The thing seemed to glow under the scrutiny of so many spotlights and electric torches, and its occupant in similar form seemed to glow within it, but it was a different sort of light. The entirety of her face below her forehead was obscured with a dark and burnished metal mask; featureless in the biological sense, yet plated in a way that only so remotely resembled a facial structure of some sort. The body reflected the light back in that it was pale, and like moonlight on water it seemed to glimmer in that dark and eerie scene.

She was motionless still, and with only her face visible through the whole it looked more akin to a sepulchured figurine than anything that had ever breathed.

Holf stepped forward, taken somewhat aback by the figure that lay within the coffin. in the initial short glare of reflected light from the interior of the coffin. "Strangely with the same pattern as the exterior." he noted to himself mentally. He had thought to himself that the figure within might have been a fake, its smooth featureless face strikingly odd. But then he had observed the figure more closely he saw the tell tale line between metal and living skin and knew that it was a mask of some sort, possibly a stasis unit of some sort.

As he neared the coffin he motioned to get the long eared drakes attention with his free hand. "This is her?" he asked curiously, his voice somewhat altered by the mask he wore. "This is the thief?"

Echo looked at Holf and back to the form in the coffin. "Yeah, that's her...."

Kane tapped the mask and sneered. "Is it alive?"

Holf regarded the drake for a moment more, before turning his focus back towards the figure in the coffin, once again regarding the mask on her face and the strange way it seemed to adhere to her without any straps or additional support. "What’s that on her face? Some sort of ice-sleep chamber aid?"  he regarded it a moment more before taking a few steps forward, standing next to Kane as he looked into the box.

Kane unholstered his gun and pushed at the mask ever so slightly with it's barrel.

It was at this prodding that the head began to roll not away from the gun's barrel, but towards it; it was a limp movement, and only unnatural in its directions. The masked face simply tilted gradually towards Kane's curious prodding, and came to a halt as if, had the thing had eyes, it were viewing they who had disturbed the body's slumber with an equally matched degree of curiosity. It was perhaps only through irony, though hardly a matter of any certainty, that it came to stop in a position where Kane's gun barrel rested directly centered on the forehead.

"Hmm." Holf frowned inside of his mask as the head came to roll forward towards them, disturbed by the drake prodding. "If she's alive, Then she's totally out of it."

Necrosis looked at Holf. "She's alive."   Kane's ears flicked about and his scarred mouth grew to a grin.

"Not for much longer." Kane said as he cocked his gun's hammer and pressed the barrel into the forehead of the mask.

Half’s eyes snapped from the limp figure towards the drake as what he said and the sound of the trigger of his slug gun cocking told him what the drake planned to do with the figure lying in the coffin. For what the rumors had told him, she needed to be taken with her brain intact. He brought his arm up, knocking the Drakes gun upward and away from the Lim woman’s masked head. "Don't shoot her, you fool!"  He said in a half growl to the drake, his voice amplified by the systems in his helmet. "We need her with her brain intact. We'll get nothing from her if you scramble it by putting a slug through it!"

Kane growled with irritation. "Fine, then I’ll shoot her where there isn’t a brain to scramble! Let the Doc handle the rest!" Kane returned his gun to the woman with a wide grinned smile, this time aiming for her heart.

Holf narrowed his eyes, but did not move to Stop the drake. "Very well, we'll keep her fresh in an ice-sleep chamber for the trip back."

Kane acknowledged Holf's submission with a grunt and pulled back the hammer to his gun once more, this time completely prepared to end the life of the thief.

He was moments away from the deed, and as he extended his arm down into the coffin he had a grim feeling of satisfaction at the thought of slaying Naga's assailant. He had to step towards the coffin's head in order to do so, for he had only peeled only the first third of the lid off; her lower body remained underneath the impressive metal panel, but it was hardly inaccessible.

Alternately at that moment, Holf was watching with keen interest. The would be assassin did not seem to appreciate the way in which their quarry had sidestepped and eluded her pursuers across tens of thousands of light-years. That took some skill, for the followers of Apophis were well spread across the stars. He had suspected that this was not as straightforward as it seemed, and now, his anticipations began to come true.

Kane paused for a moment, shifting his fingers around the revolver's handle, relishing the anticipation...and then the pause continued. The grin seemed to shift, recede only slightly, and he looked back at Holf with a sudden hint of confusion.

"Did you just say something?" asked Kane of Holf.

--oOo--

Holf looked at the drake with a sense of a confusion, his eyebrows raised with a momentary sense of alarm. Although it was not observable through his helmets visor. He had held it that the younger drake was accustomed, nay, enjoyed the thought of killing, and that enough had already labeled him as someone to keep an eye on, this news of him hearing something he had not said only bolstered that suspicion.
"No." He said. "I've not said anything aside from telling you not to shoot her in the head."

Kane looked at Holf, his eyes narrowing. "I know you said somethin, now what was it?!"

Necrosis and Echo watched from the side as the two had struck a completely random new conversation. Echo had heard nothing from Holf and Necrosis had never known his brother to turn his gun away for conversation.

Holf narrowed his own eyes at this, although more out of suspicion then of aggression toward the drake for direction the attention of his odd, if not concerning accusation toward him. So far things had turned out smoothly, the drakes arrival had been somewhat troublesome, but in the grand scheme of the will of Apophis it was all necessary, but no it seemed. His predictions of things going wrong were already unfolding before him.

Calmly he collected himself. "I have said nothing, Mr. Kane." he said, his voice holding firm. "And if I had I would have addressed you directly." He nodded back towards the woman, aiming to direct the attention of his accusation back towards her. "Now, You were about to shoot her in the heart I believe?"

Kane paused a moment longer, then began to shrug-and then in an instant, all things changed.

For starters, it was at roughly that moment that he realized something (someone, if he'd had longer to think about it) was grabbing hold of his wrist. The revolver remained aimed at the bald woman's chest, but underneath the metal shroud none could have seen the bald woman's hands slowly moving into position. Thus, at that particular moment, Kane began to feel alarm.

Holf's narrowed eyes began to widen as Kane's eyes abruptly darted towards the coffin. He had begun opening his eyes, when it all seemed to unfold in slow motion.

In the bald woman's cleanest hopes, none would interrupt her conference with the Sanctioned; that being said, when she completed it, she would still remain six feet underground. But she, being the strange soul that she was, had incorporated this possibility into the coffin itself. Compressed energy coils were installed for that situation, so that the half ton metallic slab sealing her within would be capable of shooting skyward and taking with it over six feet of soil, leaving her free to go on her way.

Only now, as the coffin's lid began rapidly rising skyward into the starry abyss above, it took Kane's arm with it.

Kane let out a scream that filled the night with absurdities. his arm began to struggle in the bald woman's hand, trying to free itself like a whole other animal caught in a trap, forgetting completely about the gun it held.

Necrosis and Echo leapt back in alarm as the coffin shot up with Kane's arm. their surprise quickly dying as they watched the coffin in the air, ignoring Kane's cursing.
Holf stepped back as he watched, his gaze not set on the screaming drake as he shouted out his anguish for all present to hear. Rather it went up, following the lid of the coffin as it sailed up towards the night sky, eventually losing momentum and arcing down into another part of the cemetery. "By what will?" he asked, half to himself. Before tuning back to the Scene in front of him.

He turned his attention back towards the coffin, seeing (to his immense surprise.) Kane’s arm struggling in the Grip of the bald figure lying within the coffin. He saw the same bizarre pattern etched into the metal that lined its interior. And he saw that figure within was still very much alive.

--oOo--

The surprise was mildly amplified, though truth be told Holf would in hindsight say it was rather anticipatable, by the fact that the masked figure now sat upright in her coffin with Kane's own revolver aimed at the writhing gunslinger. It was hardly a steady aim, and he realized as the revolver's long barrel swung around towards Holf that her arm trembled rather noticeably.

This was not just fear, but the effects of the mask wearing off on her body. With her free hand, she was clutching at the device wrapped around her face. On her lap, Kane's arm continued to twitch.

Kane stopped cussing to rub the stump that was once his arm.
"That's gonna smart in the mornin!"

Holf moved, taking advantage of her distraction with the injured drake, closing the distance between him and the coffin with several steps muffled by the fresh earth caking the ground.

"Filthy Heratic!!" he said as he brought his arm downward in a Disarming chop at the wrist of the hand that held the gun. Cocking it free from her grip.

Kane's arm began to scream on its own as it began to stand on its claws, it's form shifting into a familiar shape: a large scorpion.

He moved again, bringing his other arm forward in a pistoning move, slamming a flat hand into the figures chest, the movement strong enough to fracture several ribs and knocking the air out of her lungs.

Holf's lunge accomplished its intent, and with a formidable shove he pushed Kane's would be victim into back into her coffin, throwing his weight on top of her in order to pin the woman onto the coffin's floor. Her gauntleted arm was pinned with her hand over her mask, while her other hand was pinned against the floor proper.

Holf looked down at the figure as he pinned beneath him, his eyes drifting towards he gauntlet, and towards the hand still held over her mask covered face.
Kane’s arm, now a large, brown scorpion, took its pistol in its claw and crawled out of the coffin, ignoring the fighting. It began to make it's way back to it's body.
Kane leaned down to allow the scorpion to sting him in his shoulder, sticking in place. as Kane stood his arm began to shift back to normal, gun in hand and ready to fight.

"Let us gain the chance to glance upon the face of a thief." Holf said forcefully, grabbing the top of the mask over the figures hand, ignoring the apparent protesting movement of the figure and the sight of Kane’s arm skittering out of the coffin and back towards its master. He turned toward the figure again, its mask now gripped in his gloved hand.

He pulled strongly and suddenly, the mask coming off with a bit of resistance, and, to his slight shock, a wet tearing sound from behind it.

Holf eyes widened as he saw the source of the tearing noise, glimpsing the figures face behind it as he did. "What the Frack?" he cursed.

Holf pulled back the mask as the woman beneath him screamed, and as she screamed and the mask came farther from her face, he realized why. Thousands of tiny wires, thinner than hair or spider silk and only perceptible he reckoned through the benefits of his mask's sensor suite had embedded themselves in her eyes, and as he pulled it away wire by wire the eyes followed suit, becoming uprooted from her flesh and blood and provoking the bloodcurdling scream that came with it. As he did so, she violently pulled her knees into Holf's thigh. That notwithstanding, she also propelled her bleeding face forward viciously into Holf's own, head butting his faceplate in seeming defiance of the apparent futility of pitting flesh and blood against metal.

--oOo--

Holf grunted and fell back, the sudden movement of the figures suddenly bleeding and screaming face shocking him a bit more then the registered pain that shot through his spine and the impact to his faceplate. Tripping over the edge of the coffin and stumbling slightly, dropping the mask in the dirt covered ground, where. as he would notice later when he picked it up again, it skidded under a toppled gravestone. "Neural interface..." he muttered, as he grasped what had just occurred. Motioning to several of the cultists standing nearby, some of them having lowered their weapons as the figure had started screaming, Holf cried out.

"Get her up, and get restraints on her!" he said, his voice slightly distorted by the masks impact damaged systems.

Kane calmly walked over to where the coffin had landed and placed his hand on the bald woman's head, his arm giving her a little growl as it's consciousness began to fade back into Kane’s own mind. "It's hard to believe you’ve caused the boss any trouble." Kane said over her screaming. "Athough the flyin coffin trick was pretty nifty! I wish I had that back when I died!" he said with a loud laugh.

Yet the moment the hand touched the eyeless woman, Kane's misfortunes continued. She was screaming still, but amidst the unintelligible utterances of pain, there were words; utterly foreign and alien ones, uncomprehended by the assorted souls here to capture her mind. The hand that had once struggled to hold her mask to her face how reached back towards over her shoulder (for she remained sitting in her coffin, blood seeping out from where the tears belonged) and sent plates back out of her gauntlet towards the offender; she could not at that instant know precisely where he was, but he was touching her, and this hardly suited the pained mind's intents. As Kane recoiled, she threw herself forward in the coffin, her face now near where her feet had belonged. Blindly, she was backing away from her assailant in confusion; if her mind had been more present, she could have sensed him out through the timelines, but it was not a calm mind at that moment.

Kane leapt back in surprise, one of the projectiles had taken his hat clear off his head, another had taken half of his jaw and an ear. despite his injuries he still began shouting obscenitities and started shooting rounds into the ground in anger and surprise. Necrosis and Echo had stopped to watch until Echo gave Necrosis a Gentlemanly motion to continue. "After you". he joked dryly.

--oOo--

Holf watched the drakes recoil, as well as his reaction to the plates plowing through the flesh and bone of his head and body, one of them rather humorously he had to admit, sending his hat flying. He scowled as the situation was going as badly as he had expected it might have gone. He turned back towards the cultists around them, looking back towards them past the forms of the skeletal drake and the other drake, Echo.

"Move! I said to restrain her!" He commanded to them again. As he did, several of them moved forward side stepping around the two drakes towards the direction of the pained form of the figure in the coffin. As they reached her, they knelt and grabbed her by her arms and lifting her from the coffin into a standing position.

When Kane had finally calmed down he walked off to find his missing hat, jaw, and ear, mumbling to himself about how he's always the one to lose himself  in a graveyard. Necrosis and Echo ignored him as they approached the bald woman being held up by the cultists.

The cultists themselves had approached warily before making a synchronized grab for her limbs; even then one had fallen back minus a hand and was being attended to, and it was only through prompt action that another had resecured the hand. She had ceased screaming as shock set it, but her breathing was unsteady. In her black dress, the pale, eyeless woman seemed unduly macabre, but it fit the place; worse still, Necrosis had the distinct impression that her head remained tracking their movements as they approached.

Necrosis approached the woman without fear, eyeing her with his glowing red sockets. he place a boney hand under her chin and forced her head up to look in the eye, examining her wounds.

"Mortals are so delicate...a drake would’ve healed from such injuries by now. It's a shame to have damaged such a pretty face." He said almost seriously. "but what are you? I know no humans that are like you. I am immune to your tricks, child. and I want to know. What were you doing to get yourself in such a situation? Hmm? we'll find out soon enough back with Lord Nagaetros."

Holf stepped up, standing not too far from where the skeletal drake leaned towards the woman, putting a bony hand around her chin to get a better look at her face.
"I'm not sure that it would be wise to get that close, she may be injured. but she’s hardly at the level of what I would call a normal mortal..."

-and at that moment, she sunk her teeth into Necrosis' fingers; it was not a pleasant thing for obvious reasons, and she gagged in repulsion to the flavour of rotting flesh that came with it.

--oOo--

Necrosis chuckled at holf. "Everything is mortal once you’re dead. I fear no living thing." He ignored the bite as though it never happened and laughed once more. ”And I feel no pain. I only inhabit this body, it is not my own. I lost the gift of pain long, long ago.
"
Holf scoffed somewhat at the remark as he began collapsing his helmet back into its storage units; the faceplate having to refold itself, its components having been damage from the face butt the woman had given him.

"I'm not aware of how that’s a good thing, From what I know pain is the body’s way of telling itself how much damage it's taken and where its taken it... But I'll level with you."

"It lets you know you’re alive and well. It teaches you right from wrong. Pain is no curse, but a gift only the dead could want it seems." Necrosis replied, returning his hand to the woman's chin.

"If you had learned from your pain, you might not be in the situation you’ve gotten yourself into, poor girl." Necrosis said in honesty.

And then, for the first time, the woman without eyes and without hair spoke. Holf did not make them out, for they were issued in an antiquated form of the Drake's own language.

"Tell me what you see, Echo."

--oOo--

It was a surprise to him, for he and Necrosis had been in the shadows compared to the multitude of lights which had been directed on her sepulchered. Her mask had covered her eyes even when she had been in a position to see him, yet she knew him by name.
The words came out with inflections and intonations that had not been spoken in thousands of years. She had learned the Drake's language to converse with Helios early on in his reign, and its formalized eloquence had been maintained to this day.

Necrosis turned to Echo in confusion after the bald woman's question in their ancient tongue. Only he could know what she'd said, but she addressed Echo specifically; an individual who most likely had never heard a syllable of the old language.

Echo looked at Necrosis with honest confusion at the sudden attention to him and shrugged. "What?" Echo asked. "She wants you to tell her what you see, Echo. Do you mind explaining?" Necrosis said flatly.

"I see a bunch of Naga worshippers, a dead guy, a blind bald woman, and an undead cowboy drake looking for his ear in the cemetery. Does that answer your question?" Echo said.

Several of the cultists look at each other in confusion as the two drakes speak to each other. Holf Raising his eyebrow suspiciously as the sound drake goes about describing the scene around them. "Hmm..." He mutters, half under his breath, the woman, for the most part. was acting in every way he was expecting someone who had just lost their eyes, to not act. For even through the pain underlying her voice, there was a sense of control. it was well hidden yes, But it was still there.

--oOo--

"It answers her question, Echo. But it doesn’t answer mine." Necrosis said to the confused sound drake, he then turned back to the bald woman. "Whatever you might attempt, I highly advise against it."

The bald woman tried to blink, and the contortions on her face were unsettling ones. She looked towards Echo, for she could smell his scent on the air, and nodded silently. It was a communicative thing, the way one might nod to say "go this way," or "leave," but she spoke no more words to him.

Echo acknowledged her movements and watched closely, keeping an eye on the bald woman.

"Restrain her. We will be taking her back with us." Necrosis told Holf.
Necrosis looked to the bald woman once more.

"What plan do you have developing in that skull of yours? He asked her in the drake language that she had used moments before.

She looked at him abruptly, a strangely sudden movement that provoked a startled feeling from the cultists holding her. It was clear she heard and understood, but she seemed intent only to look at him with hollow eyes; yet at last, she spoke another few word.

"If you love your brother, have him leave now."

"Such alien words to the likes of me, child." Necrosis replied flatly.

Holf eyed the drake as she told him the last statement. Stepping toward the tow of them, the cultists regarding him as he does. "Might I request a little more explanation of what you mean by that?" he asked, directing his voice towards the blind woman.

As Holf regarded the woman with his inquiry of what she had meant telling the skeletal Necrosis to tell his younger brother to leave, one of the hovering shuttles descended toward the gathered group in the cemetery. It crushed several of the standing graves with its weight as it touched down, it's modified cargo bay doors opening as its flight crew went about prepping the Ice-sleep chamber mounted within it.

Aptly, the minister opened his comm-link with the other shuttles above the cemetery. The event that had transpired was already causing more of a disturbance then he had wanted to create, and it was without any doubt that nearby residents had heard the commotion it had created. they would have to cover their tracks with a fierce determination, and that was hardly considering the Emporia ship they had tangled with earlier. "Scrub the cemetery. Destroy any evidence we were here. Load the equipment and the coffin, I want to take a better look at those marking on it... ARC Crews. You know what to do..."

She tilted her head towards the voice, sniffing tentatively in an effort to get a taste for his flavor. It was an unsettling sort of gesture.

"Tell me your name first." She insisted softly, an uncanny yet undeniably malicious undertone present in her voice.

He noticed her gesture towards him, seeing the disdain she aimed in his direction. He nodded. "Gladly, if you'd be willing to exchange yours."

Kane leapt from the tree and started making his way towards the group, straightening his jaw and adjusting his ear.

He then unholstered his gun as he walked.

She, in turn, almost seemed to smile; it was an incredibly broken, terrifying sort of smile at that, if it was a smile at all. Her lips were bleeding from the impact of slamming her face into his mask, and what was left of her eyes bled slowly a combination of tears and blood, and she shook her head.

"So many men, and yet you're afraid to tell me your name?" She asked with tones of ill will.

Holf only smiled politely at this. shaking his head. "Are you telling me that simply because you do not wish to tell me yours?"

Necrosis smiled. "Go ahead and say what you can, child. It's not like he'll remember it."
Holf couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment, as strange as it sounded. It had a tone of humor to it that he had to admit, these sons of the fallen king seemed to have to themselves.

--oO--

As these actions unfolded something stirred distant, the galaxy bent and distorted imperceptibly as a small taskforce of SSC vessels slipped between the very essence of the place many had come to calling home. the early vessels arrived first with slight delay the others followed, each a member of the SSC's vaunted Hunting navy. The ships leapt from their means of FTL taking a rapid stock of any opposition and began  to take attack positions against the nearest vessels in the way. Meanwhile deep within he bowls of three ships to the rear of the detachment Marines began final preparations aboard their assault transports...every single one knew they were expendable and had to earn he right to continue by winning a victory. rows upon rows of power armored soldiers sat waiting for deployment as the dim glow of their suits golden colored eyes lit the dark compartments of the vessels tasked with landing them be it on enemy vessel or planet fall.

Deep within the CIC  of the SSCS Livid Commander Kgosi looked over the status through a low-light holographic display,. the cramped bridge was rife with additional specialists and intel officers as this mission was one of utmost importance. While the cramped bridge was not  overly packed the additional few personnel was definitely noticed.  "What are the chances we can pull the object and the target with the tech the adepts hot wired in?"  The lead intel officer, a third-circuit major shook his head in dismissal,  it is one or the other the device is one time use...we have it set to pull a living person...not an object." The commander frowned not liking that bit too many risks they'd have to win in space first anyway but the costs of a full engagement high. 'One or the other....no...both...here is what we will do..."     The vessels repositioned carefully, one moving distant with the troop movers the other four moving to strategic positions against the Tenebrae vessels. The vessels on attack worked out their firing solutions as the landing detachments began to launch towards the surface using the planets bulk and the atmosphere to delay their detection.

--oOo--

TO BE CONTINUED:

--oOo--

Credits thus far in this episode: TenebraesRising, Grateful Reflux, LordNagaetros, CommodoreHorton