Ancient Research Facility
Offshore, West of Ossyria
23rd April 2042
2110 Local Time

The mana backwash swirled the water away as the Silver Talon approached the silhouetted station, sending foam ripples out in waves. The matt-black dropship swung in low to avoid a supernatural blanket of fog, sheets of rain deflecting off the prow. Inside was a crack team of the Detachment 303rd, the pride of the Special Maple Navy. In command of the unit was one Lieutenant Gemina.

Then – Four years ago
Orbis

It had been a rather heavy winter in Ossyria, publically blamed on El Nath wind currents; but more the consequence of the Cult of Akuma. Intelligence operations had commenced several months ago and an encrypted message had been intercepted and decoded. The contents of that message led the Logistics Authority to a planned meeting of guild masters and their vices in Orbis.

Warrant Officer Gemina paced on the docks of Orbis, rubbing her hands together to bring warmth to them. Even the air was frigid, frost encrusted the piers and a thin cake of ice covered the tiled land. Above, the cloud patterns obscured the much needed sun, casting a sombre shadow over the island. The weather itself was a testament to the dark powers that the Cult of Akuma had acquired.

She was dressed in a simple disguise of a sky shark and sky shark skirt to emulate nothing more but a lowly swordswoman. But in fact Warrant Officer Gemina was actually a professional spearwoman. All around her in strategic positions were other members of the Navy Detachment 302nd and the retinue of Grand Master Lugenbrau, the one who was leading the operation.

After several agonising minutes, Gemina was wondering if they decoded the message correctly when suddenly her microbead piped up, informing her that three guild masters and six junior masters had been sighted, all of them identified as part of the Akuma cult. The leader was one Murdin Carpel and he had been flagged a few times before for trade scams and fraud but nothing this big. The use of dark magic had been restricted since the beginning of the Second Age due to its exploitability and unstable nature. Now only a handful of people – Grand Masters – could use a fraction of this power legally to dispose of unlawful citizens.

Mingling with the sparse crowd, Gemina pretended to strike up a conversation with a trader, whom was actually Lores Betancore, a Petty Officer of the 302nd and one of her best friends. Through the corner of their eyes, the pair could see six individuals draw closer to each other in the middle of the crowd. A casual observer would not have noticed but for Gemina, it was as obvious as a sheet of glass. They were all dressed in different garb but one thing was common on all of them: a twisted scar on the back of their right hand, the shape of an unknown daemon. The sign of Akuma.

Grand Master Lugenbrau was urgently calling all members to wait until they were sure that Murdin Carpel had actually brought the source of the dark magic with him, an archaic book called Mallus Codium. Gemina gripped the hilt of her Lion’s Fang and watched discreetly as the six figures exchanged words. From the folds of his robes Murdin revealed a worn leather bound book, inscribed with gold inlay and covered with ancient sigils. The Mallus Codium. Before she could act, all hell broke loose.

In a series of movements faster than Gemina could see, the world around her seemed to crack, shatter and reflect like a never ending mirror. It sapped her will and strength from her mind and body, a coloured aura which the heretical book absorbed gleefully. Dropping to the ground, she clutched her head, which throbbed with pain. The nightmare stopped abruptly and the Warrant Officer opened her eyes. Everyone except the six targets had collapsed to the icy floor, floundering in receding pain. Then a loud crisp voice cut the air.
“Murdin! Murdin! I put it all to the sword and the cleansing flame! Now you monster! Now you wretch!” Lugenbrau roared from the far end of station, his enchanted Falchion crackling with power as it left its sheath.
“I am here Grand Master; you are no match for my power. Only your doom awaits.” Murdin snarled, book in one hand and a ball of sinister power in the other.

Everything was obscured as Murdin and his retinue lashed out with their chaotic powers. Masonry shuddered and were forced from walls, gravity fluctuated and several members of the 302nd were wrong footed before being obliterated by the encompassing ripple of power. Grand Master Lugenbrau scythed his sword down as he advanced and a hundred metres away, one of the junior masters was rendered from her right shoulder to left hip. Lores had disappeared from Gemina’s side and steam was issuing from the ground as the heat of the magic melted the layers of ice. Soon everything became indistinct in the haze and only the sounds of blade against blade and cries of pain and success were heard. Gemina glimpsed Aemos Lowink fire a bolt from his crossbow. Before it had even travelled five metres, the projectile disintegrated right before her eyes and a moment later Aemos was batted away by an invisible hand into a frosty wall. Things broke and it was not the wall.

Seething with anger, Gemina drew her Lion’s Fang and blundered resolutely through the thick, smothering steam. With a feral scream, one of the junior masters leapt at her from high above, eyes bloodshot and wielding twin Angelic Betrayals. Training took over and the Warrant Officer sidestepped the downward slash and sent out a devastating two-handed slice of her own. In the space of ten seconds, the pair exchanged over twenty-six blows before Gemina decided to end it once and for all. Another risky sidestep found no traction on the iced floor and her legs flew out from underneath her, causing her to crash down onto her back. Grinning, the junior master coolly raised his blades for the finishing blow, and found himself staring down the barrel of her FN Five–Seven pistol.

Warrant Officer Gemina fired just once. The shot slammed into his sternum and slammed him backwards. With a cheated look on his face, the cultist lay sprawled on the melting ground, a pool of red staining the blue-white of the floor. Pistol in one hand and Lion’s Fang in the other, Gemina stalked forwards, edgy and alert. There was a figure approaching her, weapon noticeable in the silhouette. Sensing another attack, she flicked out her sword hand, sending the keen blade straight into the chest of her adversary. With a rather dumbfounded look, Lores Betancore keeled over, blood weeping from the sword onto the ground.

“Lieutenant!” A voice broke Gemina from her thoughts.
“Lieutenant, we’ve sighted the facility. Heavy rain and visibility is less than a kilometre. We had expected some turbulence in this kind of weather but smooth flying so far.” The pilot Petty Officer Naz remarked, his sight not wavering from the display screen. The sound of pressurized air and the low hum of conversation was the only sound in the passenger bay. Lieutenant Gemina struggled to her feet and crossed over into the cockpit. Mana activated panels pulsed gently under Naz’s fingertips as he concentrated on steering the Silver Talon. Gemina gripped the doorway for support as the ship shuddered slightly.
“Key me in to Ludibrium. I’ll tell them we’ve arrived.”
Naz nodded and an astropath emerged from a side alcove. Swathed in the cream robes of the Guild of Astropathy, he raised his calloused hands and a link was established with a surge of mana. The lieutenant cleared her throat before beginning.
“Zero Alpha this is November One over.”
“November One this is Zero Alpha over.”
“This is November One, we have sighted Grid 033/092, I say again, we have sighted Grid 033/092 over.”
“Roger November One, proceed to land and disembark as per orders over.”
“Roger Zero Alpha this is November One out.”
The mana aura ebbed as the astropath loosened his powers and broke the link. Behind her Gemina could hear Private Joseph laughing with Private Imppala. She smiled; it looked like the new medic had integrated well with her unit.

Imppala grinned and glanced up at Gemina as she entered the passenger bay. The medic Joseph ‘Kitten’ Brent had definitely warmed up to the detachment and it was nice to see that he indulged in games as well. Private Imppala scanned the interior of the bay and saw the other members of the 303rd getting along well. Although all of them were from the Navy, not all of them came from the same section. The detachment was just an amalgamation of the 301st and 302nd. He knew Lieutenant Gemina and Private First Class Nezzy from the 302nd and now Private Joseph from the 301st. Apart from there were seven others from the 301st that stuck with themselves. There was a hydraulic hiss and Imppala felt the ship slow, the sound synonymous with the backflow of mana from the engines.

The headlights illuminated the landing pad annex of the research station, panning across the metallic surface before shining on the entrance of the facility. The Silver Talon smoothly descended, as if the torrents of rain and howling wind were not even there. Such was the piloting skills of Naz. Mana discharges crackled against the hull and the landing gear extended towards the platform. Slowly the loading ramp disengaged and the interior of the dropship was assaulted with the storm.

Footfalls of the detachment were muffled by the ferocious gales and insistent rain. Recon Nezzy took point, his AK-103 shouldered as he scurried alertly ahead of the main group. Private Imppala checked his FAMAS and awaited orders from the Lieutenant. The Silver Talon proceeded to taxi in a half revolution, in case they required a quick departure. Sluices on the platform released rivers of rainwater in vain of relieving the flooding pad.

In the shadowed corner of the docking area lay concealed a sprint trader. It was a compact merchant ship, commonly produced in the shipyards of Kerning City, infamous from their use as blockade runners and rogue traders. This sprint trader was well worn from use, its vermilion hull paint revealing grey in some areas. Nezzy stared at it for a moment before hurrying back to the squad to report in the unusual find.

Huddled under the wing of the dropship as it was idling, Lieutenant Gemina was reviewing her schematics of the research facility and planning their next action when her recon came rushing back.
“There’s a vessel here, a JR07 sprint trader. The hull ident shows that it is registered as the Impervious. Is that trader meant to be here?” Nezzy reported, glancing warily back at the ominous ship. Gemina frowned as she went through the data slate.
“No, the only ships on this facility are four decommissioned GSN Cargo ships submerged down on the first level of this complex.”
“Then we’ve got company.”
Gemina took the initiative and ordered Engineer Alyiah to disable the sprint trader with Rifleman Imppala to escort her in case the intruders decided to leave a rearguard behind. It was tactically diligent, in case the intruders were hostile, her actions would deprive them of escape. If they were friendly, then she had not destroyed their ship.

Rummaging inside his webbing, Alyiah produced a wad of plastic explosive C3 as he and Imppala strode through the weather towards the unauthorized ship. Boarding through the retractable side plank, the two navy corpsmen entered the interior and made their way towards the mana generators at the rear of the ship. While the engineer fixed the C3 on the generators, the rifleman took the liberty of making a quick search of the rest of the ship. Interestingly enough, the sprint trader did not have any cargo, a fact which further proved Imppala’s suspicions that the unknown occupants were hostile and found the research station on purpose.

By the time that the two saboteurs had returned, the detachment was at the front door, a hexagonal recess in the wall that slid open from the two sides. Recon Nezzy had a M14 grenade in her hand, intent on breaching the door but stopped when Medic Joseph gestured that the door was already disabled, by sliding the halves away. The inside of the door was charred and dented. Raising an eyebrow, Lieutenant Gemina shuffled in, XM29 OICW probing in front of her.

Lying before them was the oppressive darkness, with the occasionally illumination by distant lightning. Nezzy turned on his helmet torch, which revealed slicks of blood on the metal floor. Gemina keyed in Naz on her microbead as she saw the blood.
“Naz, we have blood. Keep an eye out on our rear will you? There is a high chance of hostile intruders inside the building and maybe more coming our way.”
“Yes, madam. I’ll set up a parameter with the Mk 19 on the landing platform.”
“Good, keep your eyes peeled and give a holler if you see anything.”
The Lieutenant had just finished speaking when something dashed across her field of vision. Joseph let out an involuntary cry and he took a few paces back. Imppala whipped up his FAMAS in alarm but by the time he did so, the thing had disappeared.
“What in the Dark Lord’s name was that?” Queried Nezzy, panning the room with his torch. The light showed four tables, two chairs and a corridor to the next room but nothing out of the ordinary. The atmosphere was so tense that when the microbead squawked, Gemina almost jumped.
“This is Naz, you better come outside, I’ve found someone.”
“Alright, I’m there.” She replied, signalling for Imppala to follow and the rest to stay behind.

Information Systems Technician Quan’s hand quivered as he lay weakly against a landing pad support column, pallid and cold from the loss of blood. The rain assaulted him steadily, pounding into his blood stained face and into his fully soaked uniform. His eyes went out of focus and his pupils dilated. His breathing was shallow and pulse weak. By his side lay his Heckler, loaded and ready to shoot. A shadow was cast over Quan and he slowly raised his head.
“Dark Lord! He’s almost dead.” Someone exclaimed.
“Information Systems Technician.. something. The blood stain is covering the last part.” Another voice remarked. Quan mentally managed a smile.
Human.
A friendly one.