New Beginning 22: Once Upon a New Beginning...

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Yeah, don't worry, Zale. I'll make sure Myself gets the point, once this storm beast dies off.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

(Mmkay. Final attack; after this post, it's dead.)

From all sides, the storm creature tries with greatly diminished power, to fight off the group's assault. Its mind is frazzled; its minions are gone, it cannot coordinate more than the occasional artless lightning blast, the occasional clumsy tornado breath, the occasional hasty volley of hail. Its attacking does little more than tire it out.

Finally, it can muster no more power of its own accord. A baleful guttural groan escapes its throat, and it rears up, like a horse ready to run. It makes feather-light footfall, as it can barely sustain the illusion of brontosaurus weight any longer. Its hateful booming wail dies down from thunder to a miserable hiss. Its brooding, cloudy form grows brighter, less like something alive, and more like a fading wisp from a snoring dragon's breath.

Though, by what little force of will the storm creature can muster up to cling on to its life, just a small instant longer, the creature's core is maintained. With a last pitiful breath before it fades away into oblivion, its core sheds what raw psychic power it has left, in a final thundering, electrical shrapnel-blast of water, ice and wind.

[The Narrator]

Areson:  Ha, let me get my pokin' stick
*Areson pulls out a stick, that's quickly knocked out of his hand by Narrator*

So where do we go now?

[Zaleramancer]

My safe wee cocoon of fire flickered...

..And shattered.

A wave of icy water flew towards me.

Oh come on.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Heh..." The Penultimate chuckles weakly, "Sorry, Zale. Forgot to extend my barrier to you...anyhow, I think we should be okay for now. Surely, Computress' race can't be onto us already--"

"Do not be so sure, Master Penultimate." Computress corrected quickly, her tinny voice ringing through mid-air, "I traced a ping in proximal airspace. It seems that nearly all technology in this star system have been technopathically commandeered, and all techno-organisms--as well as a few other mobile machines--have been mobilized."

Mechanical whirring stirred in the background of Computress' transmission

The Penultimate replied, with an eyebrow raised, "Techno-organisms? But...just how many mobile machines and techno-organisms exist in this star system?"

"Figuring now, sire....ah, yes. It seems that, if stacked side by side, with no space in between...the lot of them would cover the entire surface of the planet Jupiter. Fortunately, the first wave is nowhere near that large. Only one-hundred techno-organisms are currently approaching. Leaders--I deduce from the magnitude of their brainpower--are a pair of robotic mechanisms named X-J9 and Vexus."

The static in the air died, as Computress' voice faded again.

[The Narrator]

Areson: well that's dandy techno organic peeps are coming for us....
I wonder if they can fix your iPhone Narrator.....

Narrator:  shut....hey. That's a good idea, could they?

[Celadon's Penultimate]

A sigh escaped the Penultimate's mouth, "I'm pretty sure they didn't come to be tech support. If you need something fixed, I can have a look at it. I've picked up a thing or two from Techne. And speaking of which, "The Penultimate zaps it back to optimum operating efficiency, "why don't you have a look at the Martian Twitter page. See if they have anything useful we can use. Maybe ask them for a timetable of this quadrant?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The sky above ripples, subtly. Then hairline fractures begin to spread across the surface before chunks of it simply explode outwards, opening up into a swirling, hellish, technicolor void of orangeish-purplish-green. Out of this horrible wormhole flies a very battered looking sail-ship, roughly the size of a city, that lists drunkenly from side to side over your heads before proceeding to suddenly drop like a stone behind the lot of you onto whatever approximates the ground.

For a minute, only the crash echos. Then something detaches from the ship. A small wooden lifeboat bearing a pair of figures floats down to you. One is hooded and seemingly kneeling in prayer, words in weird and alien tongues flowing from it's lips.

The other is soaked and absolutely livid. A woman, skin light blue and hair of a dark brown muddly color, who's grey suit and hat are completely soaked through and ruined. She leaps of the lifeboat before it even lands and points a accusatory finger at Zale. "You!" she screams, striding up to him with a squelch in every step. "You, you, you, you, you-"

She stops halfway to him, and seems to think to herself for a few moments while looking between the lit of you. Suddenly revelation lights up her face, quickly being replaced with the throes of righteous anger. "My mistake." She spins on heel, he points at the Penultimate. "YOU! You, you, you, you, you...."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Ver, ja familina. Me, indeed." The Penultimate was a mix of puzzled and entertained, reminded by the blue woman of a pretty Drusinor he met in Gandrei, "And just who in heck and tarnation are you?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

She didn't seem to get it the first time. "You! You!" She stopped right in front of him, and shoved the finger in his face. "Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! You cause me all these problems and don't even have the common courtesy to remember me? The Vault. I'm the Vault. Do you, do you, have ANY IDEA what I've had to do today? 6 supercomputers, 78 smaller computers, one very, very, VERY, efficient navigation system, and over 100 robots!"

From the great ship came the sound of an explosion, and a gout of ivory flame shot up over the deck.

"AND COUNTING!" She shouted. "All of them, you understand, completely irreplaceable. Most of these models don't even get made anymore, or are one of a kind, and damn it if more than a few weren't banding a name about. A few names, actually, but only one that I recognized. Yours!"

"So, what up? Depending on how you answer, I may have to kick your ass."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Well, I have a supercomputer, Computress, see?" The Penultimate's expression fell, "And her folks want to bring her back into their ranks, permanently. Computress is my own irreplaceable supercomputer, though, and she's been with me through so much stuff, you don't even know. And she doesn't want to go back. If I can help it, I won't let them take her by force. All your supercomputers, all your smaller computers, all your navigation systems and all your robots. Those, they can take. But not Computress."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Vault absorbs this, taking it all in, mulling it about in it's mind.

"So, these supercomputers. What do they value? What's do they love? It's there an object or monument or person that gives them the greatest happiness?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"They're supercomputers. Likely, anything they value exists only in the abstract. Power. Control. Respect. Fear. I don't think that a race like this has any use for diamonds other than to focus light for their lasers; and I doubt they want gold for anything other than to power machines for time travel."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Good. Those four thinga? They belong to me now. I'll be taking them in compensation. Maybe some more stuff to. Who knows what'll catch my eye."

"So, we got a battle plan or do we just take them as they come?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Static hummed in the air again, and the Penultimate looked up to receive it, but it died without message, and so he turned back to Vault, "We don't have a plan. Not yet, anyway. For now, we just take them as they come, especially with our powers so badly neutralized. Though, it won't be forever. Computress' race has commandeered electronic devices, but it'd be impossible for them to commandeer anything manual or engine-run. If we could put something together like that, and rally up enough of the right kinds of reinforcements...we just might be able to take them all down. Even maybe minimal casualty."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"No wonder I can't open up. Those bastards much have locked me out of me."

It points back toward the ship. "I'm afraid I can't bring out as many reinforcements as your looking for, but the Road To Dawn was originally a sail ship before I commandeered it and made it livable. Where you need to go?

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Numerous places spring to mind.

The Penultimate replies, "I'm pretty sure Phi has some people on Aeon. And Marv knows folks on Cykosha. Not to mention, there are plenty who are ready, willing and able on Celadon. We'll visit them, and neighboring planets, in order of their proximity from here on Haven. That means Aeon first."

(BTW: When we board, I don't care how much advanced tech we have, or how powerful we are, we can't arrive on Aeon too fast. I have a couple things planned.)

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

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[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The Vault almost flows as it wraps an arm around the despondent mans shoulders. "Don't be so glum, chum. I don't have races either. Tell you what, after I've taken everything that those computers love and cherish, you can have everything that's left of them."

(Don't worry Wulf. It is, after all, a sailboat.)

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

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