Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Kul'Shar Legacy, Part 1: Arrival - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Flynn sat up, his head ached and his vision swam. Blinking back the dizzyness he struggled to see; he seemed to be in a dark chamber. Looking around, despite the stars swimming before his eyes, he saw almost everyone lying unconscious or worse on a cold hard metal floor. A quick tally count showed him that nobody had been left behind: Moonshadow, Kwon, Wolmark, Leandra, Ranari, Hergat, Katze, Xenar, Phinril, Lemenath, Sideline, and Flynn - himself.

Flynn rose to his feet and despite the dizzyness, he staggered over to where Moonshadow lay, and made sure she was alive. She was, but barely, and her skin was cold. Her leg was bleeding where she had been struck, and part of her flesh in the area was charred. Flynn moved her into a more comfortable position. He started to hunt for his pack, but a wave of pain washed over him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for it to pass. It didn't, and he soon collapsed into an uneasy sleep, his last thought wondering where on Cythera, if this was even Cythera, were they?

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"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."

[This message has been edited by Avatara (edited 01-03-2002).]

*note* This thread is closed to anyone who was not on the mountain in the tavern when the cruiser showed up.

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"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

A tenacious thought resounded in Leandra's subconscious, driving her to awaken: somebody needed her help. At last, she fought her way back to semi-alertness. Characteristically, her wild outburst of rage had been entirely spent, and her first and only concern was for Moonshadow's injured leg.

Her patient appeared to have been made somewhat comfortable, although no-one else was stirring. Seeing Flynn passed out nearby left little doubt to her mind who it had been; nor did she think it strange that Flynn's first thought, even before he was fully conscious, had been for Moonshadow's wellbeing. She thrust all such thoughts aside; they didn't help heal the nastily charred, bleeding wound.

Leandra looked closely at the injury, and winced. She'd never seen anything quite like it. When she touched it, Moonshadow squirmed and whimpered in pain, even in her unconscious state. Leandra closed her eyes in concentration, and cast a healing spell.

The spell seemed to work, and the wound rapidly vanished. Leandra sat back against the wall, and began a self-examination. She seemed to be in fairly good shape, but she was surprised at the extremely slow rate at which her mana was regenerating; something about this place seemed opposed to magic.

She stealthily felt the secret pocket of her skirt, and discovered the Jade Fang was still there. She half withdrew it - and was shocked at how flat and lifeless the green blade looked. With a sudden fearful thought, she tried to use some of the ancient Elemental power; nothing.

Wherever they were, they were totally separated from the power of the Cytheran Elements.

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He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

*Ok, Avatara, I'm assuming you just forgot to mention Katze, but I'll wait for your affirmation befor I post about her. Now that I read it again, you also forgot Sideline ::frowns:: Eliminating the competition? *

Shortly afterwards, Leandra noticed Ranari beginning to stir. The elven girl opened her eyes halfway, then closed them again, moving a hand to her temple. Her head ached terribly, and it hurt to move. What had happened? She opeed her eyes again, trying to adjust her sight to the dim illumination. It took way longer than it should. She tried to sit up, carefully, but fell back as a bolt of pain shot through her head. Leandra got up and walked over, intent on helping her, no matter what the girl might say.
Ranari looked at her numbly. "What happened? Where are we?"
Leandra sat down next to her. "I don't know. We followed Xenar and Phinril-" Leandra pointed at the unconscious men, and saw a disgusted frown pass Ranari's face, despite her condition "- up to the mountain, where we met you. Shortly after, we were attacked."
Ranari nodded carefully. "I remember now." Then her eyes widened in shock. "Is Ma-"
"Yes, she's fine." Leandra had half anticipated the question.
"And Lemenath?"
Leandra's eyebrows shot up questioningly. She looked around until she spotted the elf. "He seems fine."
"You didn't check." Ranari said, looking at her accusingly.
Leandra frowned. Why should she have checked?
Ranari, in the meantime, made another attempt at getting up. No matter how she had struggled back on the mountain, Lemenath had saved her from running blindly into the danger. She managed, eventually, to stand, but it made her feel dizzy. Maybe it had been the strange, blue light... or maybe it was the fact that she was in a cramped metal cell filled with humans... or maybe both.
Leandra watched her critically, but turned her attention to Moonshadow as she begin to move. She seemed to have problems similar to Ranari's, judging by her expression.
"My head is aching." She groaned. "Who trampled us?"
Leandra grinned, despite their situation. "I don't know." Her expression changed to grim. "But they'll be sorry when they show up."
Moonshadow nodded and began to check on her friends, and first of all on Flynn, of course, even though her headache didn't help any. Leandra looked at her worriedly, then did the same.
Ranari turned at hearing them talk, but decided to take care of Lemenath first. He seemed fairly uninjured, except for a few cuts and bruises. He'd probably be better off if he hadn't tried to help her, and that made her feel guilty. She only had a basic knowledge of healing, which she used now. She sat down next to him, tucking up her legs and wrapping her arms around them, waiting for Lemenath to wake up. She wouldn't help any of the humans.

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As l lay in my bed staring at the sky I asked myself:
Where the hell did the roof go?

[This message has been edited by Moonshadow (edited 01-03-2002).]

Lemenath stirred, and instantly groaned loudly. As he blinked away the pain racing through his head, he managed to rise to a sitting position with Ranari's help. Lemenath tried to push himself to a standing position, and instantly regret it as a wave of nausea passed over him. For the first time since he awoke, he noticed Ranari next to him.

"Thank you for saving me back there..." she began.

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Hergat woke up quickly, his instincts kicking in before he was fully awake. Hergat jumped to his feet, ignoring the pain and remembering how to control it. A quick glance around provided him a good view of the situation. Most of the group was unconscious, that accursed elf was talking to Ranari off in a corner talking, Flynn and Moonshadow, and the firey female Leandra were also chatting, waiting for the others to wake up.

"If you want to finish your deed, now is the time. We cannot stop you, you know that." Hergat turned startled to see Kwon staring up at him. Hergat fingered his concealed knife in his boot, twirled it around, considering the consequences. With a sigh, Hergat pushed it back into his boot.

"No, not now. I need him." Hergat sighed again, and retreated into the shadows to watch the group. He thought he caught Flynn nod at him once out of the corner of his eye.

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"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."

Kwon watched Hergat retreat with satisfaction. He'd correctly estimated the man's reaction - if he'd been greeted with a show of force, he would probably have made the attempt on Flynn's life; but faced with a calm invitation to go through with it, he'd stopped to think. It was fortunate - faced with six opponents, some certainly armed, others magically adept, and at least one - Kwon himself - a master of unarmed combat, if he'd made a single step in Flynn's direction, he'd never have taken a second.

And Kwon had a feeling they'd need his skills, before this was over.

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Once they were certain that Hergat was serious about not killing Flynn, Sideline and Katze moved over to examine the door.

It was made of a single seamless sheet of metal, and had no visible hinges; on the wall beside it was a panel with some blinking lights.

"What is this, a magic lock?" Katze muttered.

"No," said Wolmark, stepping up behind them, "it's technological, not magical."

"Oh, can you figure it out, then?" Sideline queried.

Wolmark looked at the panel, pensively. "I doubt it; this is centuries ahead of anything I've ever seen!"

The three of them returned to the group, reporting failure.

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Flynn approached Lemenath, and sat down next to him - much to Ranari's annoyance.

"I think it's time for some explanations - don't you?"

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I came, I saw, I wrote the travelguide!

[This message has been edited by theScribe (edited 01-03-2002).]

Ranari sat up straight as Flynn approached. Humans always seemed to choose the wrong moments for their questions. "What are you asking him for, ungrateful human? Can't you see he's not that well? He actually took the trouble to help you, and you have no other way of thanking him than this? Go bother the other humans!" She waved roughly in Hergat's direction, hoping the human would just leave.

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As l lay in my bed staring at the sky I asked myself:
Where the hell did the roof go?

[This message has been edited by Moonshadow (edited 01-03-2002).]

Once again, Flynn's anger at Ranari's treatment of humans flared up; but before replying, he glanced over at Moonshadow. She was staring back at him, with a slightly worried expression, and biting her lower lip. She shook her head slightly. He swallowed his anger, and instead spoke softly, phrasing his comments as if he was a teacher trying to help a difficult student.

"We have a saying among my people - 'no good deed goes unpunished.' Lemenath turned on men he may well have considered friends, in order to warn me of danger; of course I'm grateful. But that very fact makes him the logical choice to ask for answers. As for his wellbeing, he's fared no worse than the rest of us, and far better than Moonshadow did; so I'm asking no greater effort of him than I am of myself. And you wouldn't have it said that an Elf was weaker than a human, would you?" He half smiled at that, he'd managed to catch Ranari out with her own flawed logic. A brief glance at Moonshadow revealed that she shared his amusement. "I have no idea if any of his former companions would even know the truth if they tripped over it. But Lemenath - Lemenath I trust." Let Ranari make of that what she willed. It was true enough, even if she thought it was only Lemenath's due, as an Elf.

Lemenath stared at Flynn in surprise. This was far more than he'd expected, after his treatment by Leandra. He might have to re-evaluate his situation.

Flynn glanced at Moonshadow once more; she smiled at him, warmly.


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The only substitute for good manners, is fast reflexes.

Inwardly he was impressed, but inwardly he was still confused and lost, uncertain as to his course of action. He needed time to sort things out, to clear and focus on a single objective, but he didn't have that now. He could hardly hear, Flynn and Ranari seemed so far away when they spoke, he wasn't sure if it was really them or his imagionation. Yet his subconscious found something to focus on, concentrate on, in the real world. Something that could pull him back to reality, if only for a short time. Lemenath found...Ranari.

The elf let out a breath of air he hadn't relized he was holding, and looked around seemingly like a blind man seeing for the first time. His gaze stopped on Ranari and he smiled and thanked her in the elven language. Switching to human he turned to Flynn.

"What would you like to know about? Where we are? Phinril is a better source of information with that. Suffice to say, we've been taken prisoner by the 'Galactic Defenders' as they call themselves and are either on one big starcruiser or a nearby base of operations. Or perhaps you'd like to know more about me? Well, that I refuse to answer for now. Or maybe you would like to know why I turned on my friends and saved your life...that question is one even I have no answers for." Lemenath laid down, and shut his eyes, knowing that his awareness had a time-limit before the illness began consuming him again. He needed to conserve his strength now, while he still could.

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"Well, what do you make of it?" Flynn asked Xenar as he returned from the door.

"Standard Imperial class door, controlled by the panel over there. It should be easy to tamper with." Xenar remarked. It had taken almost no convincing to get the two factions to declare a temporary truce, at least so they could escape.

"What are we waiting for then? Lets get out of here!" Leandra said, standing up.

"Its not that simple..." Phinril sighed, "All we have to do is open the door, just that." Seeing as how they didn't understand he continued, "After going through all the trouble to get us here, wouldn't they have tighter security to keep us here? There's no forcefield, secerity cameras, infrared devices, heck not even a guard! Its too easy!"

"What do you suggust we do?" Wolmark asked, having had his interest sparked with the technology of this place.

"I don't know, its obvious they want us to try to escape." Phinril sighed. "Perhaps we should do just that then and hope we can survive the trap we're walking into."

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"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."

"With the abilities they've shown, I find it difficult to believe that they just overlooked these," Sideline remarked, pulling a dagger from his boot, and flipping it over repeatedly, end for end.

Flynn pondered Sideline's observation. He himself had been completely disarmed; he surmised it was because he wasn't in the habit of concealing weapons. Leandra seemed to confirm this, when she pulled out the Jade Fang for him to see - but when Wolmark pulled up his sleeves, Flynn saw his arms had been stripped bare of any concealed devices.

"So," he murmured, "they've left concealed daggers, only."

He looked around at the group, and noticed with surprise that they all seemed to be looking to him for a decision - with the obvious exceptions of Ranari, who was only paying attention to Lemenath and Moonshadow, and Hergat, who was sitting against a wall, scowling darkly.

He took a deep breath. "So our choices are to stay here, and let our captors do what they want with us, or to escape, into who knows what - and perhaps do exactly what our captors want us to, for some reason." He thought for a moment. "I say escape. We, at least, may be here by accident - but they've made no effort to find out about us, and so I think we have to consider them hostile."

Most of the group nodded in agreement, and Xenar went to work on the door. Far sooner than Flynn would have thought possible, the door hissed open. Xenar looked carefully out into the corridor. "Coast's clear, no sign of monitoring devices. Of course, they could be concealed."

Flynn shrugged. "Not much we can do about that."

The group edged through the open door. "We'll need some better weapons than our swords," Flynn commented to Xenar and Phinral. "Do you think you can manage to find something?"

Phinral nodded. "Shouldn't be too difficult -"

"Flynn? Is that you?" The new voice seemed to come from behind another door, very similar to the one they'd just escaped through.

"Talm?" Flynn queried in surprise. "Hold on, we'll get you out!" He turned to Xenar, and saw that he was already at work on the lock.

The door hissed open and Talm stepped out, followed by Salmaris. "Oh, are we glad to see you," Talm exclaimed on seeing the Ronin, Moonshadow, Katze and Sideline.

"What are you doing -" Flynn began, then pulled himself up short. "Never mind, we'll have time for explanations later. The faces you don't know are Ranari, Lemenath, Xenar, Phinral, and Hergat," he said, indicating each person as he mentioned their name. "Come to think of it Salmaris, you won't know Kwon, Katze or Sideline, either."

Talm and Salmaris nodded to each of them, and shook hands with those nearest. "Such a strange custom," Salmaris thought to herself.

"Right, to the armoury, then?" Phinral queried. Flynn nodded, and Phinral began to lead them stealthily along the corridor.

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I came, I saw, I wrote the travelguide!

Salmaris, following behind Talm, was interested to a degree by this place. It was most certainly technologically advanced, after all, electronic locks and such were years beyond Cythera.

Salmaris, of course, was from a high tech civilization herself. But the small contingent of her people that had been stranded on Cythera had lacked the infrastructure to truly achieve a feat like this ship. Of course, they knew how to build one, but Cythera was almost totally pre-industrial. It would be centuries, perhaps even tens of centuries before they had a factory that could turn out a simple Trans-spartial articulator grid!


She’d seen simulations of the homeworld, Fera-Sanga V, but had never been there. Nor had her parents, nor their parents before them. In fact, none of the accidental colonists from the vessel Tahnmoris had set foot in the glorious and enlightened cities of that distant planet. No, the vessel had been launched over 893 Cytherian years ago.
Four generations of her people had lived their lives in the massive ship.

But not her.
She’d been born years after Planetfall, on the Air-Castle. Among the humans, poor technologically deprived people.
This was the only world she’d seen. They’d tried to share as much technology with the humans as they could, giving the dwellers of the air-castle a jump-start of a few hundred years.

“We Found them a bunch of pre-imperial rustics, and now have them on the brink of industrial revolution!” Galharal, Salmaris’ father, would say with pride. What a loss, now. The Air-Castle’s population gone, and what was possibly the greatest remaining repository of Fera-Sangian knowledge had been sunk into the sea along with so much marble.

Salmaris sighed, and returned to the given events.

They’d arrived at a bulkhead, closed with another electronic lock. She wondered why the builders couldn’t do better than that - it was almost too easy.

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Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.

Moonshadow stared at the door in front of her in disgust, feeling that it was only there to offend her. It, and the whole accursed starcruiser, operation base or whatever Lemenath or his companions liked to call it. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic in those constricted metal coridors. Glancing over at Ranari, she saw that her sister felt just as uncomfortable.
Moonshadow sighed. She felt incredibly useless, since she had no idea of all this technological stuff. But then again, she didn't want to know, either. It was plainly unnatural. Yet she would have to put up with it for the sake of escaping.
Even though most of her other equipment was gone, she still had the tiara. Feeling around her pockets, she noticed that the plain amulet she had picked for Ranari was also still there. She walked over and handed it to her with a smile. Ranari looked at her in surprise, but then smiled back, taking the amulet for her. Her eyebrows shot up the moment she knew what exactly it was capable of, and she put it around her neck with another, grateful smile. It might indeed come in handy.
As none of the four made a movement to open the door, Moonshadow crossed her arms and stared at them impatiently. "At that rate, we're never going to get out of here." She muttered under her breath.
"Well, elf, do better." Phinril replied in annoyance.
Ranari felt like she could strangle the human right there and then, but restrained herself. He was the most unbearable out of them, with an inborn hatred of elves for which she couldn't detect the reason, and quite frankly, she didn't care. The air he gave off was enough to make her head ache, without investigating any further. She briefly considering trying the amulet on him, but decided against it. It would be a waste of valuable resources.
Feeling the increased tension within the group, Salmaris spoke up. "We have gotten thus far without anyone or anythin trying to hinder us." She began to explain. "So, of course, we need to be increasingly careful. The trap we're obviously supposed to run into could as well be behind that door." She pointed at the door, just to emphasize her statement.
Ranari nodded her head slightly, admitting to herself that Salmaris had a point there. She made stepped toward the door, mentally searching for living beings on its other side. "Nobody there." She reported after a short while.
"No humans there." Xenar corrected. "There are other kinds of traps."
Ranari seriously began to wonder why she had even made the effort to help. She had considered her sister's words time and again and finally decided to try a more friendly approach, but appearantly, the humans weren't really interested. She leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. "Well, what do you suggest, then?"

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As l lay in my bed staring at the sky I asked myself:
Where the hell did the roof go?

There was nowhere else to go, so Xenar got to work on the lock.

Kwon, who'd been silent through much of this adventure, stood unobtrusively in the background, staring speculatively at Ranari. He sensed Ranari had been trying to make an effort to be helpful; but Xenar's reply, normal enough as it was for him, was precisely the wrong thing to say.

"Ranari Aytann'Lyriamalwaar is correct," he said abruptly. "There are no living beings beyond that door." He paused, noting that Ranari was looking at him with mild surprise. "However, Xenar is also correct. It would be prudent to step away from the door, would it not?"

Seeing the sense of it, the group edged back against the walls. Xenar, and old hand at this sort of thing, was already well covered by the door frame. He crosswired one last connection, and the door hissed open.

Through the open hatchway, a brilliant red beam pulsed along the dark corridor.

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Confucious say, who say I say all they say I say?

...and just as quickly the beams ceased. Everything seemed quiet.

"Don't move, anybody." Xenar warned.

"I've had enough of you human..." Ranari began, but Lemenath pulled her roughly back as the laser beams started up again with a ferocious intensity. Xenar gave her his best I-told-you-so look to which she scowled and turned her head.

"Its an automatic defense system, if you hold on I can deactivate it!" Phinril shouted over the commotion as he worked away at one of the electrical panels. Suddenly, the beams stopped. "That's odd," he muttered to himself. "I really have a bad feeling now. When I was enlisted with these people 15 years ago we had an "override" password for all this stuff in case something went wrong. That password was changed twice a month and never repeated itself. The one I just used to deactivate the systems was the same one that was used just before I left. I have a feeling someone wanted us to get past that system."

"As I said before, what other choice do we have?" Wolmark asked, still in awe at the science used here in the technology.

"We could try going a different direction." Hergat pointed out. "The corridor has branched multiple times. Either way, we want to get out of this fortress and into the wilds surrounding it."

"We could..." Lemenath whispered, then he dashed back, taking a left at the first junction.

"Where is he-" Leandra began, but was cut off by Flynn. A moment later Lemenath re-appeared and ran further back the way he came. Moments later, he returned.

"Just as I thought. All the other paths either have deadly mechanisms or are impassible." Lemenath reported.

Flynn sighed, "I guess we just have to keep going."

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"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."

The group continued down the corridor, stopping every now and then to disarm various devices. As they got progressively futher, a gnawing feeling of dread began to grow on the group, as if mocking them. Xenar suddenly shouted out a warning, and the group finally left the main corridor, heading into a large room. A quick glance around the cavernous place revealed it to be an industrial area. Walkways and catwalks surrounded the walls of the room, various pipes and other devices hung from the ceiling and crisscrossed their way across the room. Panels on the roof gave out some type of white-yellow light that illuminated as much as it left in shadows.

The room itself seemed big enough for several thousand people to fit inside, but instead only three machines occupied the vastly empty floor space. One was just wires and devices, as if its skin had been ripped away, leaving the insides to rot. The other two looked like rectangular boxes with windows in the front. A door to one of the landcruisers was down, but the machines were dark.

Xenar led the way across the lit half of the floor, the other half being shrouded in darkness with a door on the opposite wall that had various horizontal lines across it and rested on a pair of tracks with wheels.

Behind them, the group could hear shouting in some odd human-derivative.

"Into the landcruisers! Hurry!" Xenar called, pointing at the open of the two machines.

"What good will that do? You're just trying to get us killed human!" Ranari sneered. Phinril shoved past her and ran ahead into the machine.

"It'll give us some protection, elf!" Xenar replied.

"Ranari has a point. If we go in there we're surrounded and won't be able to escape." Flynn pointed out.

"But it will..." Xenar stuttered, trying to find a good reason that would persuade them to follow. Most of the group had stopped and were waiting, some impatiently. One didn't have to know magic to know that they were being followed. Phinril emerged, cradling three electromagnetic shock rifles and a phaser in his arms.

"One for each of you." He said as he distrubiuted one to Xenar and Hergat. "And one for Lemen-" Phinril stopped as Lemenath crumpled under his legs and writhed in pain, bringing his hands to his head. "What's wrong..." he dropped the weapons and began to tend to the elf, but Ranari stopped her.

"Hands away human." Phinril shrugged and tossed the phaser to Salmaris, who simply nodded once.

"Lets return to the corrider, continue there. It seems to be changing in design and turning a lot, it might be easier." Wolmark suggusted, Xenar scowled.

The group turned back, Ranari stooped to try and pick up Lemenath, as he was in no condition to do anything. Moonshadow, seeing her plight hurried over as if to help, but Flynn stopped her and picked up Lemenath gently, for Ranari's sake.

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Major Trius smiled, staring at the probe visual tracking the outworlders. They were sticking to the main corridor, making this too easy. He would have almost laughed if they had stayed in the factory, that would've been the end there.

He finally had called his men to pursuit, it was time to thin out the weak among the group. Several hundred should be more than a match for this primitive group, and would provide him a break from boredom. This would be interesting...especially that elven female...

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The group hurried around another corner. Kwon signaled for Wolmark to slip back and join him at the rear.

"Notice how the walls are changing?" he asked Wolmark, who just looked confused. "At first they were bright white metal, with lights in a neat row lining the way, now they aren't curving so much, and that would be a darker grey metal. That and I sense the group behind us is keeping a steady distance, as if they were herding us into something."

"Its Phinril, I knew he wouldn't give up!" Wolmark whispered back.

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"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."

The group hurried as fast as they could, from one corner to the next, their speed being hampered by Flynn's inert burden. All the while, Kwon sensed the pursuit growing closer.

Eventually, they reached a four way intersection. Xenar, Phinril and a reluctant Hergat each went to inspect the different corridors. Hergat returned from the central passage first.

"Blocked," he said simply.

Phinril and Xenar soon returned, reporting both paths clear. "So which way do we go?" Wolmark queried.

Flynn gently put Lemenath down, and took an object from his pocket - the small device he'd picked up on his last visit to the cave. He passed it to Moonshadow, seeing the telltale widening of her eyes as she learned its purpose, then picked Lemenath up once more.

The item was a flat golden disk, about two inches in diameter, with one face containing a recessed, silvered mirror. Moonshadow touched a tiny ruby that was set into the edge, and a trio of lights appeared, floating above the mirror.

"This device is a locator for any of Temrel's creations that may be nearby," she commented. One light was in the centre, whil the other pair seemed to be off to the right. Moonshadow waved towards the right hand corridor. "We go that way."

Xenar and Phinril glanced at each other and shrugged; there was no particular reason to choose one corridor over another, so why not?

The group set off again, down the indicated corridor. Whenever there was a choice, they took whichever path seemed to take them in the desired direction. More than once, they had to backtrack and try again. At last, Moonshadow stopped them at a particular door.

"Open it," she instructed Xenar.

"Look, there's no time for this," Xenar protested. "Whoever's following us is right on our heels!"

"Just do it!" Leandra snarled, temper once again getting the better of her. Wolmark was about to say something to calm her down, but noticed Xenar flinch, and get to work.

The door was quickly opened, and they made their way inside. It appeared to be some kind of storeroom, and their gear was piled rougly in the middle of the floor. Flynn laid Lemenath down once more, and hunted through the pile for his swords.

At last, with the three swords once again sheathed fan-wise on his back, he sighed contentedly. "I don't know how much good they'll be in this place, but I sure feel better!"

His friends grinned at his sally; they felt the same. Ranari possessively gathered Lemenath's things, as Flynn picked him up again. "Right, which way now?" he queried.

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I came, I saw, I wrote the travelguide!

When they had decided on a direction and walked on again, Ranari stayed next to Flynn, using her mental abilities to watch out for any living beings other then them, even though she never managed to turn all her attention to that. She found herself glancing worriedly at Lemenath every now and then, wondering what was wrong. He had been fine before - when? Before they had gone to the mountain. Before they had been captured. Ranati bit her lip. Now what if it was her fault? What if, somehow, that strange technology that had brought them here had caused his illness? He'd really be better off if he hadn't protected her. The worst part about it was that she couldn't even help him in return. She'd never cared much for the healing arts, much unlike her sister. She stopped dead as the thought hit her. Why had she not thought of that sooner?
Flynn stopped a little later. Seeing the shocked look on her face, he put Lemenath down again and reached for his swords. "Somebody approaching?" He asked. It was the logical thing to assume. The others also stopped at his voice. Kwon's expression remained as neutral as always, as he tried to find whatever Ranari had detected.
Ranari blinked a few times, then shook her head. "No, no, that's not it."
"Then, what is it?" Phinril asked, impatiently.
"Madaya! Can't you find out what is wrong with Lemenath?" Ranari asked pleadingly. "You could surely help him, right?"
Moonshadow hesitated slightly. Strange, the thought had never occured to her. She had been much too distracted by her environment... too distracted by those accursed metal corridors to care for an ill person. Leandra's expression darkened as she noticed the same.
Xenar shook his head decidedly. "We don't have the time... you can do it as soon as we're out of here."
"No." To everyone's surprise, Katze had at least decided to speak up again. They were all caught up in this together, yet she couldn't bring herself to trust those people. But at least Lemenath had agreed to help them before they had been captured, and even though that was no proof for his trustworthiness, it was enough reason to help him in return. "When we get into that trap, it would not help any if he was unconcious. Flynn will be burdened unnecessarily, and besides, we might yet need Lemenath's skills *before* we get out of here, wherever that may be. Can one of you help him?" She turned her gaze onto the two healers.
Moonshadow tilted her head, looking Lemenath up and down. "It shouldn't be so hard to get him back to consciousness, at least, so that he can walk. I'll do my best." Her tone made clear that she wouldn't tolerate contradiction, and Leandra scowled at everyone, just in case they decided to try anyway.
Since the matter was obviously decided, Hergat contented himself with a frown and a gruff "Hurry up, then."
Moonshadow knelt down next to Lemenath and began her examination. Hurry up indeed. Not before she'd gotten to the bottom of his illness, not now when she had forgotten to check in the first place.

------------------
As l lay in my bed staring at the sky I asked myself:
Where the hell did the roof go?

** Um, It would be nice if you'd e-mail me with the General plan for this part of the story.
I mean, this story was hyped to me as a 'boldly go where no Cytherians have gone before and explore strange new worlds and civilizations' thing, but here we are, running around on a spaceship being chased...

I would like to be 'in' on what needs to happen, so I can make a meaningful post... **

------------------
I'll just put a random number at 0008EC and see what happens.
(Famous Last Words #-32767)
   
Where do you want to [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/tricks/rJade.htm"]teleport[/url] today?

I owe you three an e-mail, perhaps this weekend when I have the leisure of time at my disposal.

------------------
"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

Finally, Moonshadow got up from her kneeling position. "I really don't know what to make of this..." She announced quietly. "I know no illness like that." She avoided looking directly at Ranari, knowing that she had hoped for another answer. Sighing, she added; "I can get him to his feet again, of course. But I can't promise it'll last."
"Well, then you better do that, and quickly. We're being followed, and I don't like being stuck here." Xenar said.
Moonshadow nodded. She bent down again, and put her hands on Lemenath's shoulders, closing her eyes, like she always did when in deep concentration. Shortly afterwards, she removed her hands. Ranari looked down at Lemenath worriedly, hoping he would be well in the end, but something else tugged at her attention.
"What... where are we?" Lemenath raised his hand to block off the light, too dazed yet to try and sit, instantly drawing all attention to himself.
"Still in as much trouble as ever." Salmaris replied. "We should get moving again."
Flynn reached out a hand to help Lemenath up.
"No." Everyone looked up at hearing Ranari's voice.
"Listen, girl, we don't have the time for your elven -"Phinril began, but Ranari cut him short. "That's not what I mean." She was looking down the corridor, back in the direction they had come from. "Apperantly, our pursuers are growing sick of their game." She said coldly. "They're catching up."
"I can't see anything." Leandra remarked.
"But she is right." Kwon replied. "They *are* catching up. Rapidly."
Lemenath took Flynn's hand and got up with his help. "What do we do now?" He asked.
Ranari turned her head slightly upon hearing him. Then she searched her bag for his possesions and handed them over, only hesistating when she held the metal device that Lemenath had used on the mountains. "These things... how do you use them?" She asked.
"What does it matter now?" Leandra queried. "It's no good just standing around." Not that they were just standing around. Almost everyone had taken a defensive posture, not knowing how close the enemy was.
Ranari ignored her, waiting for a reply.
"Well, generally you take aim, and press that button."
"Ah." Ranari raised the device, pointed it down the corridor, and pressed the indicated button. "Like that?" She asked, sceptically regarding the damage she'd caused to the floor some ten feet away.
"Uhm, yeah."
Ranari nodded contently and handed the device to Lemenath without another word.
"We should look for a more suiting place to confront our hunters." Katze suggested. "One of those partly blocked intersections, maybe."

------------------
As l lay in my bed staring at the sky I asked myself:
Where the hell did the roof go?

*** OoC ***

OK, Avatara's online-time is a bit limited at the moment, so I'll try to get something moving here. The problem is there are a few questions that only his characters can answer, so I'll probably have to manipulate them quite a bit to get this to work - and I still feel a bit like I'm 'shooting in the dark' with them. Avatara, if I get anything seriously wrong, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

*** BiC ***


"It's going to be a bit hard to mount an ambush, isn't it?" Wolmark queried. "I mean, we've changed directions quite a bit, and they're still on our trail; they must have some means of tracking us."

Phinral sighed. "You're almost certainly right. Either they have portable equipment that can track our bio-signatures, or - more likely - the sensors are built into this structure, all over the place. Either way, they'll know exactly where we are."

Wolmark had no idea what Phinral meant by 'bio-signatures' or 'sensors', but he understood the gist of what he was saying. He filed the terms away for future reference.

Xenar looked around the group. "Only three shock rifles and two phasors between us," he commented - he didn't consider the various swords, staves, daggers and shuriken worth mentioning. "You people are going to need some better weapons, if we're going to get out of this alive."

"Perhaps not," Flynn replied, deep in thought. "At least, not yet. Since they can track us, we can't ambush them; but perhaps we can surprise them another way."

"What do you mean?" Xenar demanded, sharply.

"I mean, your weapons are exactly what they expect to face - so we won't use them, not at first." He smiled, and his eyes took on a devious gleam. "We'll fight the Cytheran way!"

The rest of the group looked at each other in confusion.

"Look, you wouldn't last 5 seconds against them with just your swords!" Phinral protested. Everyone else, even the Ronin, nodded in agreement.

Flynn ignored him, and turned to Moonshadow. "Can you teach Leandra and Wolmark that fireball spell, and any other offensive magic you think they could handle? They should be able to get more power out of the fireball than you can."

Moonshadow frowned as she began to realise what he was planning. Nevertheless, she moved aside and beckoned the two Ronin-mages follow. Wolmark complied, but Leandra held back.

"Flynn, there's something you should know," she said. "My mana isn't recharging very quickly here, and I can't use elemental magic at all. Wolmark and I will probably only manage a couple of shots each at best, then we'll be drained for some time afterward."

"Can't be helped," Flynn sighed. "We need your top effort now; we'll just have to deal with the consequences later."

Leandra nodded, and joined Moonshadow and Wolmark. Moonshadow began to give them the requested instruction.

"There's one or two more things that might surprise them," Flynn murmured, drawing the diamond sword. He have the ruby on the pommel a half twist, and nodded in satisfaction as he felt the tingle of electrical energy. He switched it back off, sheathed it, then tested the diamond quarterstaff, finding it had also retained its charge.

"Kwon, Ranari, can you estimate how much time we have left?"

"If they maintain their present speed of approach, we will have almost twenty minutes," Kwon replied. Ranari nodded in agreement.

Flynn nodded. "I'd estimate Moonshadow will have those two up to speed in about fifteen, giving them five to get into position. That should work fine. In the meantime, the rest of us should probably go and select our positions."

The group nodded, and they moved off back up the corridor they'd followed to reach the storeroom; even Hergat followed grudgingly along behind.

-------------------

Major Trius frowned over the display. He didn't like the way that group had located their equipment so quickly; they'd been checked for any advanced technology such as tracking devices, but most of them were too primitive to even know what a tracking device was. Still, their equipment was equally primitive, and the few advanced weapons they'd managed to acquire would just make it more challenging.

"Captain Orden," he spoke into the enunciator. "The criminals are returning in your direction. They appear to be attempting an ambush."

His statement was greeted by a burst of laughter from the speaker. "And I thought this was going to be a boring exercise! At least they're showing more guts than that last group, even though it's going to be over so quickly."

"Take care to leave a few of them alive, Captain," Trius responded. "Especially the females."

He broke off communication, and leaned back in his chair. In a rare moment of indulgence, he began to visualise what he intended to do to that pretty elf...

-------------------

Orden edged slowly up to a corner. Around this bend, he knew, was a twenty metre corridor, ending in a four-way intersection, two paths of which had been blocked by a jumble of wreckage and machinery. That was where his quarry awaited.

He held a fibre-optic scope up to the corner, and examined the view on a small screen. He almost laughed at what he saw. He nudged his first lieutenant, and showed it to him. The display showed two people - a man and a woman - standing at the end of the corridor. The man was armed only with a crystal sword, and the woman held a crystal staff.

"They must be the bait," he murmered. "They're sacrificing them in the hopes of getting a shot at us. Stupid primitives!" He checked his power scanner; there were no active weapons anywhere near, except those carried by his team; before any could be activated and reach firing potential, his men would be on them.

He activated his com unit. "Rear forty, hold up here. We'll call if we need backup, but maintain scan for weapons. First sixty, advance at the ready."

He stepped around the corner, followed by fifty-nine other men. They advanced slowly along the corridor, alert for any sign of a threat. The two people ahead of them gave no sign of concern; they just calmly watched their advance.

Orden began to get nervous. There was something about their confident gaze that disconcerted him. As he reached halfway down the corridor, the swordsman raised his weapon, pointing it in their direction. "I call upon you to surrender!"

Orden laughed out loud. "I won't give you that luxury," he called back. "I'll kill who I want, and take who I want - and before we're done, those we take will wish we'd killed them!"

A smile passed fleetingly over the swordsman's face.

A brief flash of bright light was all Orden had time to see, before the lightning bolt rived away his life.

------------------
I came, I saw, I wrote the travelguide!

Major Trius frowned at the visual screen that had been giving him live feed of the battle, hooked to the display screen in Orden's helmet. A moment ago it had been functional, but there had just been a bright flash and now static filled the screen. "Johnson! I thought you fixed the short-circut problem with the visual feed!" He barked to an intelligence operator working away to his right.

"I did sir, it must be some other problem. I'll look at it though." Johnson turned back to his display and began working rapidly. Trius muttered in disgust and rose from his chair. He stormed out of the door, heading for the scene of the battle.

------------------

Flynn pulled Moonshadow around the corner, out of the oncoming hail of fire. They had caused mass confusion with their surprise attack, but their opponents were well-trained and were already beginning to regroup and mount an offensive.

Flynn motioned to her, indicating they should join the others. Their part here was done.

Flynn swung around one of the last corners before they had reached the others, but skidded to a stop. Moonshadow was right behind him, and Flynn grabbed her hand to stop her as well. Directly in front of them were five of the metal-plated men, weapons raised.

Flynn looked at Moonshadow, she shook her head sadly, neither had nothing significant to help. Flynn raised his sword, having no other option. A slow whine came as the phasers in several of the guards began to light-up.

Suddenly, there was a flash of blue and the men were knocked sprawling, several unconscious or worse. Xenar stood holding a shock rifle in his arms and smiled, "It looks like you two could use some help."

----------------

Major Trius gave out orders to his luitenant, having brought his personal guard to help surround the group. He had lost contact with the first squad he had sent, and this time he wanted no mistakes. A chirping at his shoulder caused him to pick up his comlink.

"Trius here."

"Major, I've discovered something that might explain the visual error. Looking at the videotapes it looks like the man with the sword unleashed some type of energy. I believe Orden is dead, sir. Use extreme caution."

"Thank you Johnson, will comply. Trius out." The major shifted his headset out of the way. "You heard him gentlemen, we've got a band of those magic-users. Don't underestimate them, enough fire and they will fall."

------------------
"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

"Thanks Xenar," Flynn sighed in relief. He retrieved the phasors from the bodies, tucked three away, kept one and handed the last to Moonshadow. She grimaced, but accepted it. "How'd these guys get behind us, anyway?" He asked, turning back to Xenar.

"They must have sent reinforcements after your little 'stunt' up there. That other elf-girl suddenly got all excited, and demanded I come help you." As he spoke, Xenar bent down and took a device from one of the bodies. "Scanner; this'll be useful."

They hurried back and rejoined the rest of the group. "We managed to take out five of the main group, including the leader," Flynn reported, as he handed phasors to Sideline, Katze and Wolmark. "That should demoralise them a bit. Xenar got five more on the way back."

"A lot of good that does us now," Hergat growled. Flynn quirked an eybrow, questioningly.

"The situation has altered somewhat," Kwon informed him. "After your surprise attack, many more groups began to converge on this, our current location; we are now surrounded."

"Any bright ideas on how to get us even deeper in trouble?" Leandra scowled darkly at Hergat's scornful tone, and took a step in his direction before Wolmark pulled her back.

"you're the one that got us into this mess," she shouted. "I don't see you coming up with any plans to get us out!"

"Several groups, you say?" Flynn queried, ignoring the byplay. "Can you tell which one is the weakest?"

"Of course!" Ranari replied, annoyed.

Flynn sighed. "If only we knew if they had one of those 'scanners' with them."

In response, Xenar flipped a switch on his scanner to 'Passive', and activated it. "Look at this screen," he said to Kwon and Ranari. "Each of these dots is another group. Which dot is the one you mean?"

They studied the screen intently for a moment. "None of them," Kwon said.

"It would be about here," Ranari added, pointing to a blank spot midway between two dots.

Xenar nodded in satisfaction. "No scanner, or they're not using it; otherwise this unit would have picked up theirs."

"OK then," Flynn responded. "I'm tired of being pushed around this maze like a rat; if we can find where that group enters, we might be able to get into some unrestricted passages."

Phinral nodded enthusiastically. "If we can get out of the maze, we might even have a fighting chance!"

"Fine, I'm glad that's settled," Sideline interrupted. "Now, can we get moving, before it's too late?"

------------------
I came, I saw, I wrote the travelguide!

[This message has been edited by theScribe (edited 01-16-2002).]

Even after getting Tyreal's email, I still feel I'm not able to do this part of the story justice. Hopefully, when we get into space, things will be a little more 'free' and I will be able to contribute.

Sorry,
Bryce

------------------
I'll just put a random number at 0008EC and see what happens.
(Famous Last Words #-32767)
   
Where do you want to [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/tricks/rJade.htm"]teleport[/url] today?

Lemenath swayed, now he knew he was infected. It would slowly eat at him, and then painfully begin to destroy him. He could not fight it, no technology could cure it.

Lemenath was swimming in a sea of memories, remembering both the good and the bad. He was presently remembering his mother telling him a fairy tale of the mages of old when Phinril's voice interrupted his thoughts. He tried to grasp the image of his youth, but it slipped beyond his grasp, and he surfaced to reality.

"...and we might even stand a fighting chance." Phinril was saying, he seemed enthusiastic.

"Fine, I'm glad that's settled. Now, can we get moving, before it's too late?" Sideline interrupted, he never seemed to quite understand. Lemenath couldn't run away from it. They could not run from it, there would eventually be no place to hide. There was no reason to go on. Lemenath looked at Ranari, he remembered her concern for him. Yes Ranari, I'll do it for you. I'll try to live, for you, he inwardly said.

Phinril was doing something to a side panel, and a holographic map appeared. Lemenath couldn't read it, he didn't have the focus. Xenar and Kwon began a hasty discussion, briefly outlining to the group the possible routes they could travel; Kwon lending advice as to where the enemies were. After a few brief questions were asked, the group started moving. It was all Lemenath could do to follow the group and remain conscious.

------------------
"Travel with an alert eye and a drawn sword."