RPG: Enroaching Darkness

[Ghelae]

OOC: "Something walalalalaing them"? Yes, I know, it's "was" then "hitting"... stupid swear filter!

-- Starship Republic --

"Odd." said Tarid. "Why haven't they replied? We're only a few hundred metres away from them, they must have noticed us!"
"I don't know, Captain." replied a Bananaz. "Should I try retransmitting the message?"
"No. Transmit a new message."
"Okay." The Bananaz tapped a few buttons. "Ready to go."
"Greetings! I am Captain Tarid of the Federation starship... Re... Republic... the Starship Republic. Sorry about that. Do you require any help?"
He sat back and waited for a reply.

-- Council of Baetarie, 200 million years ago --

"What does this story tell?"
"Well... we can't translate the language, but we can make an educated guess as to what is happening in the pictures. The first tablet" - the Zealot pointed to the appropriate stone - "tells the story of the First: how they rose to power, evolving from primitive creatures to become a mighty empire, stretching across an empty galaxy.
"The second tablet tells us how they found Spode. One day, they prayed for an answer to a question, and for a divine being to provide the answer. Why were they alone in the universe? Then Spode appeared in the sky above their homeworld and granted them the power to create life.
"But they misused the ability, as the third tablet explains. Their first attempts were cyborgs, and Spode hated them. He killed most of them and the rest fled, later dying and rotting somewhere in the dark corners of the galaxy."
"Fascinating." muttered the Feesh.
"The fourth tablet is about their redemption. They prayed to Spode again, promising not to misuse their power. Spode returned the power to create life to the First, and so they did - but at the price that they could only create primitive creatures that would take billions of years to reach any level of intelligence. The First said that they would wait.
"However, as the fifth stone tells us, Spode's wrath fell upon them. It seems that after the cyborgs were created, Spode made a new species and gave them powerful technology. The Second attacked the First, and the final line shows battles over First planets, with the Second starships bombarding them with antimatter bombs."
"As I said before, fascinating. But how can you get that story from these rocks?"
"Well... the images are very detailed. I'll admit, our theories are mere speculation. But speculation supported by these inscriptions and our faith in Spode!"
A Screeble looked worriedly at the final line on the final tablet. "These ships of the Second... they look remarkably like Grox ships..."
All the aliens in the room looked at each other in stunned silence.
"I should hope they're not." said a Willosaur.

[Stitch1200]

--Craftworlds Brisingr--

"whats happened." Said the Farseer Leader "Why can't we make Contact."
"the Shrooblord Tech is to different from our own. its not even made of bonewraith!" Repiled The techy Person. "What would you have us do O Exalted One."

"Send Iota Down On a diplomatic mission. warn them That we shall destroy there ship if thay proceed. Thay must not Know Our secret. Offer Them Allience if thay Should take our Advice. Mayby we could share our secret with them, but I cannot see That far."

Iota Was Assembled And sent on the mission thay teleported abord the shrooblord mothership.

[Shrooblord]

OOC: And so they teleport again. Ugh.
And Ghelae, is the guy speaking now a Grox (I wondered because of the stuttering)?

IC:

While the Shrooblord Mothership is being constantly attacked by a piece of rock, now several thousands of parsecs away, in the star system of Vertigo...

Only one week before finishing now, the Grox superweapon was looking more and more terrifying by the hour. Kryone-1 was once more in a meeting with the Council of War leaders.
"FIRST OF ALL, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR FOLLOWERS FOR GIVING US FRESH VACUUM.", he said.
"IT SURE IS NICE TO --ZZT-- BE ABLE TO BREATH NORMALLY AGAIN.", commented another Council leader.
"NOW WE SHALL DISCUSS MORE URGENT MATTERS.", Kryone-1 continued,
"WE ARE ONLY DAYS AWAY FROM COMPLETING OUR --NINE-NINE-- DEATH MACHINE. HOW IS IT COMING ALONG?"
"IT IS DOING EXCELLENT, OH GREAT GROX LEADER. WE SHALL CONTROL THIS GALAXY SOONER THAN WE ANTICIPATED.", a Council leader replied.
"THAT IS CORRECT. WE HAVE NOW A NEW OBJECTIVE: NOTIFY EVERY LIVING ORGANISM OF OUR DEVICE. WE WILL HAVE THEIR SURRENDRANCE; OR ELSE THEY WILL ALL DIE."
"BUT, SIR. WE HAVE NO ESCAPE ROUTE. WE MUST BUILD A TELEPORT DEVICE FOR IF WE NEED TO ESCAPE WHEN FIREING THE DOOMSDAY DEVICE.", added another Council member, who was a bit worried by now.
"IT WILL NEVER COME TO THAT. ALL SPECIES WILL SURRENDER HAPPILY AND WE WILL DECONSTRUCT THE MACHINE.", Kryone-1 answered.
"THEN WHAT USE DOES IT HAVE?"
Kryone-1 had to think about this for a while.

"OUR MIGHTY GROX LEADER HAS FAILED TO SUPPLY US OF A SUFFICIENT ANSWER. WE --ZZZT-- WILL BUILD A TELEPORT DEVICE.", continued the worried Council member.
"NO. PERMISSION NOT GRANTED.", Kryone-1 stated.
"SIR. WE HAVE TO. OR --BRRRRT-- ELSE WE SHALL ALL PERISH WITH THE OTHER INHABITANTS OF THIS PITIFUL GALAXY."
"I'D RATHER DIE TAKING EVERYTHING WITH ME THAN DIE AS A COWARD IN SAFETY."
The Council leaders were worried about this last exclamation and were beginning to get doubts about their leader.

In a mysterious location, inside someone's imagination...

It was very dark and cold. Much like when he had first awoke from his slumber and the red being had spoken to him. Shrooblord got himself off the ground. He was looking for anything recognizable, but there was nothing but total darkness all around him. The red light from above appeared once more before him.
"You are awake," it said, "Good. I'll continue my story."
"No! I demand you show me your true identity right now!", Shrooblord said.
"All will come in time, Shrooblord. Now let me continue. I am taking you aboard your ship."
"Oh, great. Then I can see myself lying on the floor, I suppose?"
"No, no. By then you are in good care aboard a Grox ship."
"Good care? In a Grox ship? It's more likely I'll be a prisoner in a wet and dirty prison cell!"
"You are mistaken once more. These Grox are diffrent from the Grox you are familliar with. They are... more intelligent, I suppose. They are not at all evil. I am taking you back to your ship because you need to know something. It involves your friend Meek."
"Oh, no. Meek! What's going to happen to him?"
"He will die."
"What? No! I have to wake up! I must warn him. Wake up, wake up!", Shrooblord said, hitting his head several times with his six fists.
"There is nothing you can do. You will awake several days after the Gix Patrol ship and your Shrooblord Mothership are blown to bits."
"Wait, what? Not only my dear friend Meek, but also my precious ship and all that remains of my species will die?"
"Hahahahahaaa... yes."
"Why?"
"I said it is my amusement to see you help save the Galaxy at the cost of all that is dear to you." and with those words said, the light vanished.
"Hey! Come back here!", Shrooblord yelled.
"Show yourself!"

Now going back to the small object in the skies being bombarded by a little piece of space rock...

"Meek! Incoming transmission! It seems we have picked up the radio signal of that big ship once more!", a monitoring crew member said.
"Oh, excellent! Don't worry Shrooblord, you'll be in safety soon!", replied Meek.
The screen showed Captain Tarid. He was asking the Shrooblord crew if they needed any help.
"Oh, mighty Captain Tarid of the Federation starship Republic, we are in need of your help indeed. Our Captain and leader has suddenly passed out on the floor and has been asleep for ages now! We kindly ask you to care for him, if you will allow this. We would be ever greatful if you would," Meek answered the screen, "And if we could we would be thankful if you would let us aboard your ship as well. We have a prisoner among us, who is apparently from some evil race called The Gix. He has captured us in this patrol ship but we managed to overpower him. If we may not come aboard, at least care for our dear leader, it is the least we ask of you."

He then waited for the other end to receive his reply and was hoping for a good answer. One of the other crew members whispered in his ear and said:
"Sir, although Shrooblord is in need of help, can we really trust these aliens? I mean, look at them. They're Grox!"
"I know," whispered Meek, "But this ship is not at all Grox. Besides, we urgently need someone's help and if that is the Grox's, then we need the Grox's help. Let's just hope this Grox appearance is just some radio-transmitted disguise to fend off enemies."

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vesticon...
The Shrooblord Mothership was empty, except for a few guards and the population of planet Shrooblord. When Iota arrived, (s)he (OOC: I don't know Iota...) was instantly grabbed by some guards.
"I don't know how you got here, or who you are, but you are coming with us." they said.

They led Iota to the bridge, which was devestated and most surprisingly empty. They wondered where Shrooblord had gone to and decided to lock Iota up for the time being. This would of course offend the Farseer Leader. It would greatly offend him/her.

[Ghelae]

Originally Posted by Shrooblord

And Ghelae, is the guy speaking now a Grox (I wondered because of the stuttering)?

OOC: No, Tarid is a Belatra. He's just a bit confused, as only a few hours earlier he was captain of the starship Renu, and now he's acting as captain of the Republic.
But to avoid continuity errors with what you've written, there were probably several Grox on the bridge when Tarid was transmitting.

-- Starship Republic --

"Ah, good." said Tarid towards the COMscreen. "You've replied! Yes, we'll help you as much as you can. We can... erm..." - he turned to a Grox engineer nearby - "what features does this ship has to transport people on board?"
"We have a teleport system, designed by the Oracles. I'm not sure if it'll work on these aliens-"
"Does it work on the Bananaz?"
"...Yes."
"Then it'll work on these." He turned back to the COMscreen. "Yes, we'll beam all of you to the nearest medical room, and the Gix - that's that strange, Grox-like reptile on board, right? - will be teleported into the... brig?"
The engineer nodded.
"Yes," continued Tarid more confidently, "are you ready to teleport?"

No sooner had he asked that the Republic's inter-ship teleporters whirred into action, teleporting all living things on board Meek's ship to their designated locations.

All the Shrooblords appeared in a large, sterile white room. Enormous windows faced the stars outside, surrounded by balconies on at least five storeys of floors around the edge of the main room.
The whole medical room (if it could be considered a room - it was larger than most buildings) was devoid of sapient life apart from a Bananaz, two Grox and a few of those purplish mushroom-like creatures, all of whom were walking over to greet the arrivals.
"So," asked the Bananaz in a soft and friendly voice, "where is your leader in need of so much help?"

The Gix himself was teleported to a brig near the other end of the spaceship, shot with a low-powered plasma pulse from a Bananaz blaster and thrown into a cell. A few guards watched over this brig, armed with blasters, flamethrowers and a couple of other types of strange alien weapons.
Each cell was protected by a force field, and if the power was somehow cut off from any particular field generator, the power would also be cut off from an electromagnet holding a large, heavy door above the floor which would then block the cell exit and instantly crush any would-be escapee.

Tarid took a lift down from the bridge to the medical room where he would meet the Shrooblords and try to help them. He would find out about and deal with the Gix later.

[Stitch1200]

OOC: Iota Is A Task force composed of Veldik, Ray, Sacom, Jet, Kelrak And Lor'em.

[Shrooblord]

OOC:
Awesome, real Shroobs (weird purple mushrooms)! Very nice.

IC:

Meek saw Tarid come into the medical room only moments after their teleportation, which had not been to soon, as the asteroid had by now completely destroyed the Gix's patrol ship. He recognized him from the video transmission and greeted him with joy in his heart: "Captain, I thank you from the bottom of all our hearts for bringing us aboard. Commander Shrooblord's condition is worsening by the minute. I have absolutely no idea what's going on. It's like he's having some sort of nightmare..."
And in fact it was. Shrooblord's journey in his imagination had suddenly taken a bad path, when he found out Meek was about to die. He had been chased by strange flesh-eating reptiles and all kinds of sharp objects across several hazardous enviorements. It was not at all a nice experience. It would be days before he got cured, though, but the Republic's hospital would soon find out how to.

While Meek was talking to Tarid, one of the crew members crept to a dark corner of the room, making sure he wasn't seen by anybody. He then grabbed a communication device and said in a deep, dark voice:
"Darkness. It is all set up. The great plan can now commence. Preporations are complete."
A strange low-pitched voice speaking an ancient and now dead language replied to him saying something like this:
"Excellent. Have they found anything out yet?"
"No. My disguise has been unnoticed. I cannot believe the Master is actually worried about these dumb lifeforms. They do not seem at all intelligent. At least, not what we call intelligence."
"Despair," replied the voice, "do not question the word of the Master. We must obey him and follow him until our dying day. We are his creations. Now for the grand scheme: you must find a way into the control room. There must be some way of activating the teleportation device. We will need to summon the most dangerous of shadows and our Gix troops will have to come aboard."
"But brother," Despair replied, "I do not see the use of teleportation. Why don't we just break the ship and let all our troops flow in?"
"We must not make the enemy weary of any dangers lying ahead of them. We do not know their strength, but we do know their size. And their size is big. Very big. We must break them from the inside. Now go back to the 'dumb lifeforms' before they notice your disappearance."
"Yes, brother."

So Despair once more put on his disguise, and headed back to the rest of the Shrooblord crew. Now armed with a dangerous plan, he tried learning all about the Republic.
"Captain Tarid," he said in his 'Shrooblord voice', "how did you teleport us to this mighty fine ship of yours?"

[Ghelae]

Originally Posted by Shrooblord

OOC:
Awesome, real Shroobs (weird purple mushrooms)! Very nice.

OOC: Thanks, I thought you'd like them.

-- Council of Baetarie, 200 million years ago --

The silence held the room for several sectons, before the Zealot cleared his throat and hurriedly collected the tablets back in. "Well... what conclusion does this Council reach?"
The Screeble chairman replied, "the Scientists will have to... erm... perform the necessary analyses of these tablets. And we will not speak of the Grox in reference to this again."

-- Starship Republic medical room, present day --

Tarid looked at the Shrooblord, whom he could have sworn had not been standing there a few seconds ago. He decided that he had just not been concentrating, but he could not shake an unusual sense of suspicion. "Well, to be honest... I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm not really an engineer. I just run the ship. You should ask one of the Oracles, they designed the system."
At that comment, an Oracle materialised next to the Belatra. The Oracle's mind seemed to probe each one of the Shrooblords, scanning them all in a matter of seconds. It then seemed to face (seemed, as Oracles have no actual faces) the one who had asked the question about teleporters. Its telepathy could be felt in the minds of everybody in the room.

OOC: It's a shame that the English language doesn't really have any suitable words to describe the sensations of psychic powers, really.

IC:

Its "voice" seemed to be gentle and mellifluous, almost musical yet in a way... mechanical.
The details are... far... too complicated for you to know, young creature... even the Grox technicians that work on it only know a little of its internal mechanisms. It is much more advanced than the transport beams that are used throughout this galaxy, that would not even penetrate this craft's hull.
In the Oracle's telepathic message, however, were layers of hidden information available to any who chose to listen to it. Technological details, depicting antimatter power plants and nanotechnology and the combined efforts of half a dozen species and tens of millions of years.
"I'll be leaving now," said Tarid hurriedly. "Let the mushrooms know if you need anything, they'll tell me about it." and with that he left the room and went back up to the bridge.

-- Security Station 024 of the Republic --

Several Bananaz armed themselves with plasma pulsers and whispered their plans to each other. They walked towards the primary brig, a journey that would take them almost half an hour. These were Bananaz rebels, and were not going to cancel their plan for revenge even though the Republic was nearly a million parsecs away from their homeworld.

[Shrooblord]

OOC: What did the encrypted message in the Oracle's "speech" say?

Trying to figure out the 'time' that some handelings take is pretty difficult for me to understand, as you might have noticed. In some of my posts only minutes go by, and in others a whole Grox superweapon has been built. So just to clear it all up for you people, the Grox superweapon is now one day before completion and the timeline is now in sync with the timeline of the Republic.

IC:

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vertigo...

"HOW IS THE STATUS SO FAR?", asked Kryone-1.
"ALL IS WELL. ONLY ONE PLANET CYCLE BEFORE COMPLETION.", answered one of the Grox engineers.
"GOOD. NOW IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME. LITTLE TIME. SEARCH THE SKIES FOR THE NEAREST STAR. WE WILL DO --ZZT-- A LITTLE TEST RUN."
"YOUR REQUEST IS MY PROCESSING, LORD KRYONE."
Kryone-1 walked towards the gun, which was now as large as the Council of War's meeting building and twice as high. This was, in Grox terms, big. As big as the Empire State building is to us kind of big. Grox were used to small things. They liked it small. "SMALL IS ALL.", is a popular Grox saying. Except for fleets. Fleets are best when large. Also territory is considered something good when large.

"EXCELLENT.", he muttered, "JUST OBSERVE THE TECHNOLOGY. LOOK AT THAT FINE PROCESSING WORK. IT DOES PLEASURE TO MY CORE PROCESSOR TO SEE A --NINE-NINE-- BEAUTY LIKE THIS. AND ONLY ONE MORE DAY LEFT BEFORE SHE IS TRIED OUT..."
It was not uncommon for Grox to fall in love with a machine, and that is precisely what happened here too. After all, Grox, technically speaking, are machines themselves. That is exactly what had happened here. Kryone-1 had fallen for this metal construction.
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE TALLER THAN ME," he said to the superweapon while carressing it softly, "WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT."
"SIR?", asked a Grox soldier that had just passed this odd scene.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"SILENCE. YOU ARE DISMISSED FROM POSSITION.", replied Kryone-1 angered.
"BUT SIR, I HAVE A FAMILY AT HOME!"
"THEN SPEAK TO NOBODY ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST SAW."
"WHAT DID I SEE?"
"PRECISELY."

Kryone-1 then walked away hastily and went back to the Council of War. There he discussed other matters of high importance, like what their first target would be would the threatend Empires not cooperate.
"IT IS NOT USEFUL TO DESTROY EVERYTHING," he said to them, "WHEN ONLY ONE EMPIRE REFUSES TO SURRENDER. WE CAN OVERTHROW LITTLE UPRISINGS. BUT WE CAN'T --RRRT-- HANDLE A WHOLE GALAXY OPPOSING US. THEN WE WILL BE FORCED TO USE THE SUPERWEAPON TO DESTROY THIS GALAXY."
The board members all agreed, but were still a little upset with the fact they would die with the rest of the Galaxy. They didn't show this though, in fear of being 'erased from existance'.

That night Kryone-1 went back to the superweapon.
"WHO ARE WE KIDDING? THIS CAN NEVER WORK OUT. YOU AREN'T EVEN... ALIVE."
"Who is to judge whether I am alive or not?", the superweapon replied.
Kryone-1 jumped ten feet into the air (remember Grox are only about 3 feet tall at most) when he heard his loved one speak.
"YOU CAN TALK? DOES THAT MEAN YOU HAVE A CORE PROCESSOR?"
"Yes, my darling. I am alive. And I long for you, but I am not mobile, as you can see. If only I could turn my head to see your face..."
Kryone-1 felt so happy when he heard this, which is very unusual indeed for Grox, since they don't really have emotions.
"TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OUR PLAN?"
"I hate it."
"WHAT?"
"Do I look like I want to destroy? Is that really all that I am to you? A machine? A gun?"
"NO, YOU ARE... YOU..." He couldn't finish this sentance. He was never programmed for romance.
"I WILL NOT LET THEM HARM YOU."
"But will I be fired?"
"YES. YOU WILL."
"Then that is more harm done to me than I wish to have. I will then sabotage myself from fireing. If that is all that can stop you, I will destroy myself."
"NO! THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE WITH MY CORE! DON'T! I... I WILL NOT LET THEM FIRE YOU."
"Then the both of us might still have a chance."

Kryone-1 now happily walked home. He felt so overjoyed that he couldn't sleep that night. Actually, he stayed up all night just staring out of his window and gazing at the superweapon. It was only a matter of luck that his house was on the East side of the gun, or else he would have seen the small light that came out of the superweapon.
"That should buy us some time," it said.
The light then sped along and shot up into the sky.

[Ghelae]

Originally Posted by Shrooblord

OOC: What did the encrypted message in the Oracle's "speech" say?

OOC: There wasn't an actual encrypted message, just pure information hidden behind the telepathy.

-- The Galaxy, 200 million years ago --

The Council of Baetarie had ended without a solution to the problem that the council was put together to solve. Fortunately, the Zealots now had a more important issue to deal with - the Grox...

[123defacto]

RODIAN BASE, A LONG TIME AGO
34 Grox probes flew in formation towards the base.
The 15 Rodian ships materialized in front of them.
Zzzzappp!! One probe down.
Zzzzappp!! Two Probes down.
Zzzzappp!! Three probes down.
``YOU WILL SURRENDER... ICKICKOORRT``a grox said over the com.
``Fire again!``Belatix ordered.
The grox on the viewscreen flickered and disappeared as his ship exploded, with a ring of dust flying out of it in a neat little explosion.
``Fire again!``
But something happened.
Nothing happened.
The laser were soaked up by the grox probe.
And then pushed back.
KAPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWHHHHHHHH!!
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNGG
A explosion destroyed a third of the base.
Shields were down. Weapons were down. Escape capsules are destroyed.
Communications were destroyed. Teleporters were destroyed.
The Grox knew that he, Belatix knew something.
He picked up a small poison capsule, and a log recorder.

[Shrooblord]

Back aboard the Republic, conditions have worsened still...

Meek turned his head a few times and looked for a 'strange mushroom thing', but couldn't find any. He was sure there were some just moments ago, so he started looking for them. He told five of the crew members to help him find some, as he needed a little lunch by now, and two others remained in the hospital. This was exactly the moment Despair had been waiting for and he knocked the other crew member unconcious. He then headed for the hospital bed that Shrooblord was lying in. Quickly he looked for any other hospital staff like Bananaz, but found out there weren't any. Then he did what he was planning to do:
He tied up Shrooblord (if he was awake he'd be complaining about being tied up once again) and managed to hide him in some closet. Then he altered his disguise and took the shape of Shrooblord, then took his place on the hospital bed. He then assumed a sleep stance, which Depair was very good at. Like a wintersleep, he slept and slept and slept, until the time came that he would awake again.

When one of the Shrooblord crew returned, he was surprised to find an unconciouss crew member and one crew member missing. Quickly he looked for Shrooblord, but found him sleeping on the bed, still where he had been all the time.

Meanwhile, speeding across the vast amounts of space, was a small light...
"I can't keep them from executing their plan for much longer," it said telepathicly to another being.
"They will fire the laser and then we will be too late."
"Don't worry," the other being replied from some completely remote part of the Universe, "we will do our best to keep that laser from hitting anything that is alive. You just concentrate on getting to that ship."

P.S.
You might want to see what the Demons look like by now. So I opened up my Spore since a month or so and took some pictures. Here's the results, with which I am quite happy, actually.

Phozar, the greatest Demon of all. At the top of his head, his eye which also is The Mark of Phozar, which you will find on all his creations.

Despair, from the front.

Despair, from the back, showing The Mark of Phozar.

Darkness, front, showing The Mark of Phozar.

[Ghelae]

-- Republic bridge --

"Captain Tarid!" called out a Bananaz.
"Yes, I'm here now."
"We've detected something heading towards us from the Core."
"What is it?"
"I don't know..."
"Let's hope it's who we're looking for."
"Who's that?"
Suddenly, the bridge was bathed in a warm white glow.
"That," said a loud voice, "would be me."
"Who..." asked one of the crewmembers.
"Silence, Grox!" The voice then seemed to start talking to Tarid. "I was going to meet with you all tomorrow, but time is running out. All I will say is: watch out!"
The light disappeared.
"Captain! Security cameras on Deck 3 show unauthorised armed Bananaz moving towards the brig!"
"Captain, something's latched onto our hull."
"And the cameras in the Shrooblords' medical room have all gone down."
"Okay," said Tarid, "we can ignore the hull leech. Get armed soldiers down to Deck 3 now and alert all the Brig Guards to prepare their guns!"
"Okay, sir."

OOC: "Hull leach" is just a slang term for an unknown object that's attached to a starship's hull, not a literal spacefaring creature.

-- Republic Brig --

A Grox guard on the brig received a message from the Bridge. "Arm your weapons, shoot to kill any Bananaz who enter the room."
"Yes, sir."

At that point, the door to the brig slid open and a few dozen Bananaz stormed the room, firing their blasters. Most of the guards were shot down with plasma, and rest found cover behind several columns around the edge of the room. They returned fire, with pulses, flames and bullets cutting down several of the Bananaz. Then there was silence. When the ventilation systems had removed most of the smoke, only the yellow-skinned assaulters remained. One of them went over to the cell that the Gix was contained in, typed in a code and the field shut off.

OOC: There is a special system accessed by the computer to keep the defensive door in place while the field is down, otherwise nobody would be capable of putting any prisoners in the cells in the first place.

[Stitch1200]

--Shrooblord mothership--

Iota was haveing a quiet disscusion in the quarters thay had been given. As usual sacom was pessimistic "what if thay don't acept our advice. We would have to destroy these nice people. from what i've gathered the people here are the last of there kind. I can't be Sure though."
"Dont be So Pessimistic Sacom" Ray Said. "once thay see our advantage and Sizeable forces Thay'll Except. Of course Thay don't reliese while our troops move quickly and teleport, Thay are quite lightly armoured and fragile."
"we'll see in negotiations." Said Veldik Who had recently be premoted to Farseer. "we'll See in negotiations." What the Rest Of Iota Didn't know was That Veldik Was Starting to fall into a Dangerous Cycle Of Disobediece And Reclessness. The Dark Secret of the Rogoids Was About to infest itself in Him. to the perril of all.

[Shrooblord]

Meek, on his search for some food, accidentally came across the bridge. Upon opening the door he first wanted to appologize for interrupting, but when he saw what was happening he curiously stepped inside and asked what all the commotion was all about. He saw Captain Tarid, and lots of Grox too. He was already aiming his weapons at The Grox, just after he asked his question.

Meanwhile, one of the other Shrooblord's Mothership crew members was getting a little lost. In fact, all other crew members were too. One of them ended up in the toilets, one near the Brig and one actually found the buffet. He took some of the food with him and headed back to the hospital wing, when something appeared before him. In astonishment he dropped everything he was holding, which was about a three-course meal (remember Shrooblord have six arms). A bright light shone and he thought he was hearing it talk to him. A kind and defenitely female voice told him the following:
"Noble Creature, be not afraid, for help is drawing near. I am the prophecy. Soon my brethering shalt arrive and will help thee in thy quest..."
"Who," the crew member replied, "are you?"
"Ah... I have misunderstood the time era we are now in. I, my dear friend, am Light. The two others will be coming soon. They will help you..."
"Yes, I understood all the other stuff. But... who are you?"
"I clarified that just moments ago, did I not?"
"Yes, you are called 'Light'. But who are you?"
"Child of Spode, ask not what you already know. I must go, but I will return shortly and aid you in the battle. I must await the others now."
"Wait, what battle? Who's all the others and... who... are you?"

You have to understand that Light has a certain effect on Creatures. Some tend to forget small details, like a name, and some go crazy upon her sight. On the other hand, some get inexplainably happy (those are creatures that like stars and sunlight), while others get extremely angry (these are creatures that hate good and light).

Light then shot up towards the ceiling, but remained in sight for quite a while (I understand the ceiling is pretty high up). When she disappeared, the crew member snapped out of the spell and saw all the mess he had made. Being a polite Shrooblord, he decided to clean it up, but being a bad-mannered Shrooblord, he did so by licking it off the floor. One of the other Shrooblord crew members had found a way out of the toilets and came across this weird sighting. He asked the other crew member what he was doing and all he could grumble while licking was "dinner". Realising he had reached the buffet, the other crew member now went in and took some dinner with him for himself and the others, noting that the floor-licking one would not really be of any help for the time being. So he kicked the other crew member (Shrooblord have four feet so this is easily done while holding a three-course dinner) and told him to help carry the food. Refusing, he decided to drag the other crew member with him by using his mouth.

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vesticon...

With still no sign of Commander Shrooblord or Co-Captain Meek returning, the guards decided to hear out the captives. They said something about alliance and destroying them if they would refuse, but they weren't really scared. They told the prisoners they could not decide and that the Iota team would have to wait until Shrooblord would return before they could decide what to do with them. In the absence of Shrooblord, they followed the prisoner protocol 7. This meant the prisoners occasionally had some food thrown to their heads, which was of great amusement to the guards. They knew the prisoners wouldn't like this, but they cared no less. 'What are the prisoners going to do about it anyway?' was a popular thought.

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vertigo...

One day had now passed and the superweapon was complete. For some reason there was a dark nebula above the skies of the planet of The Grox. They liked it, because it looked evil and it blocked out sunlight. Kryone-1 was sitting in the Council's meeting room thinking about what had happened last night and had gone back to the cannon the same morning. The cannon had not spoken to him again, so he concluded this must have been because there were too many witnesses.
"THE TEST RUN SHALL BE PERFORMED IN LITTLE TIME," said the Council's leader.
"WE SHALL AIM THE GUN AT AN UNINHABITED SOLAR SYSTEM," Kryone-1 added.
"WHY DON'T WE JUST AIM IT AT THE MOST POPULATED SOLAR SYSTEM? THIS WAY WE WILL CAUSE GREAT --NINE-NINE-- TERROR."
"FOOLS. THE EMPIRES WILL THEN KNOW OF OUR EXISTANCE AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, THEY WILL KNOW OF OUR SUPERWEAPON. THIS WILL MAKE THEM ASSEMBLE GREAT FORCES TO TERMINATE IT."
The Council admitted their mistake, although they did not do so out loud.

After finding the appropriate target, the Council of War aimed the large gun at the skies and fired. A giant laser came out of the gun and hit the targeted star instantly.
"I AM SORRY, MY DARLING," Kryone-1 was thinking, "BUT I COULD NOT OPPOSE THE COUNCIL."
Something went wrong though. The superweapon started shaking and smoke was coming out of it.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE SUPERWEAPON?", Kryone-1 shouted.
"THE FIREPOWER HAS APPARENTLY COME TO A COST OF INTERNAL DAMAGE!", an engineer replied.
"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"
"BUT THEN THE TEST WILL FAIL!"
"NO! YOU MAY NOT HARM HER!"
Kryone-1 leapt for the controls and fought for them. While doing so, the navigation button was pressed. The superweapon shifted its targeting area only slightly, but with great effect. The laser rushed past the star it had been targeting and headed right for the solar system of Vesticon. Only minutes later, the laser hit the Shrooblord Mothership. Then the cannon was switched off.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?", the Council leader spoke, "YOU BROUGHT US ALL IN DANGER. WE CAN NO LONGER TRUST YOUR LEADERSHIP!"
This had been the moment the Council was waiting for. Kryone-1 was overthrown. He was thrown into a spaceship and shot into the skies into some random direction. The troublesome thought of being destroyed with the rest of the Galaxy was now no more.

Meanwhile, back at the Republic...

This time, it was white in every direction when Shrooblord awoke. It was quiet and cold all around him. He tried to get up, but something was holding him down. He wanted to shout out to someone to help him up, but something was stopping him doing so. Just when he was wondering if he had finally got rid of the creepy light, the red light appeared once more.
"You might be wondering why you are all tied up," it said, "This is because you are getting near to awakening. Your conditions will push more and more to reality as you do so."
When hearing this, Shrooblord realised he would awake as a captive once more, which was not a pleasant thought at all.
"No worries. There's still plenty of time we can spend together."
Shrooblord sighed, but the scarf in his mouth prevented this from making any noise at all.
"There is one more thing I am going to show you."
The light got brighter and smaller as it was saying this. It was coming closer!
"What you about to behold, is what not many will or ever have."
Just when the light had become almost unbearibly fierce, a white flash made it disappear. A terrible hiss had come from the other end of the world and Shrooblord moved his head a little to see what was happening. The red light was lying on the floor and a bright white light was hovering above it.
"No! That is impossible!", the red light said.
The white light chrashed into the red light, which then faded. Soon afterwards, the white light came speeding towards Shrooblord, which was now ever more frightened. What horrible thing could knock out a Demon?

He was surprised to hear the voice of this light. It was soft and almost melodic. It was certainly very comforting, but Shrooblord remained a bit cautious. After all, this could be a trap. This is what it said:
"Shrooblord, I am going to wake you earlier than the Demon had expected you to wake up. There will still be time. Now I must leave, but once I return you shall walk once more and change the fate that the Demon has laid in front of you. Do not fear me, I am your ally. Now sleep, you'll need all the energy you can get."
With these words said, the light parted with Shrooblord, who had suddenly become a bit drowsy. It took not long before he was fast asleep, forgetting all his troubles and fears.

EDIT: (OOC)

Just looked at this post... Oh. My. Goodness. It is HUUUGE!

[Stitch1200]

--Hive Mind--

The Hive mind was furious! the Tyranids it had sent were deafeated and falling back! how could thay! Stop! Ordered the hive mind, and, in the drifts of space, the fleet came to a complite stop. Now, Find the nearest inhabited planet and eat it! then use the re-gained numbers to destroy the Republic, Craftworld Brisingr and the shrooblord mother ship. We shall not fail. the hive mind released a few happy thought bubbles into subspace. The efect was great fear overcame the nearest planet. it was the Hoggeraptor empires homeworld. The fleet released a genestealer pod onto a passing Hoggeraptor ship And infeasted it. now thay were heading towards the homeworld with one thing in mind. kill....

--Shrooblord mothership--

Ray decided to try and open up negoitiations as thay were haveing food thrown at there heads. Veldik was getting Very annoiyed And decided that if one more peice of food was thrown at him he would kill the guy And damn the consiquences. Then he thought whats happening to me. I wouldn't have even thought of that before. he hoped this shrooblord person woke up soon and let them negotiate, because the Aliens were getting annoiying.

[Ghelae]

OOC: Shrooblord: That's why most of us use headings to seperate all our different settings.
Stitch: Since when did the Tyranids know about the Republic? Or is it a sort of "Let's kill every ship that's been near this sector in the last month" attitude?

-- Republic --

On the bridge of the Republic, the bridge crew had noticed the small Shrooblord enter. Tarid was talking very quickly to his crew memebers, nearly to the point of hyperventilating. This continued when he turned around to Meek.
"Sorry, erm, what's your name? Meek, is it? Well, it's a long story. And by a long story, I mean... erm... rebel Bananaz are trying to take over the ship, the Gix has escaped his prison cell, something bad has happened in the medical room - but we don't know what - and some strange entity has attached itself onto the hull. Nothing much, really." The Belatra took several deep breaths and calmed down. "So, is there anything I can do for you? And why are you pointing your weapon at... oh, don't worry. The Grox... oh, it's another long story. Erm, I've been rambling, haven't I?"
He took several more deep breaths, sat down, and breathed again. When he finally had full control over his respiration, he asked his question again:
"So, what can I do for you?"

On the lower decks, Grox soldiers had managed to kill or capture most of the Bananaz rebels, but some were making their way to the communications array that stuck out of the side of the main bulk of the ship. The Grox followed.

Finally, there was the Gix. A shapeshifting Pseudomorph had managed to confuse the evil creature for a while, and had led it back to its cell. But after a long struggle, one of the Gix's hands was grasping around the end of one of the Pseudomorph's limbs, preventing it from reaching the control panel and activating the field. There was only one thing that could be done...

[Stitch1200]

OOC: the tyranids know about the republic because the hive mind can sence a large gathering of minds there. how ever, the smaller the concentraition of minds the harder it it to find. that and a bit kill everything that attacked us before and then everyone else attitude

[Ghelae]

Originally Posted by Stitch1200

OOC: the tyranids know about the republic because the hive mind can sence a large gathering of minds there. how ever, the smaller the concentraition of minds the harder it it to find. that and a bit kill everything that attacked us before and then everyone else attitude

OOC: Okay, I thought so.
Also, I've only just noticed that I've become a "Forum Regular"...

[Shrooblord]

OOC: Congrats, Ghelae!
By the way, don't I use the little announcations of going to the other star systems? "Meanwhile, in the star system of Vertigo..."

IC:

Aboard the Republic...

Meek was still a bit causious of The Grox all standing in one room, but as none of them seemed hostile (for now), he lowered his gun once more. He then told Tarid that he was looking for the buffet, but he was not searching for food anymore, since his help was needed, or so he thought. So he offered to help the crew out. He understood something about rebels, and he was an excellent Riot Control back on planet Shrooblord (I didn't know I was typing the name of the planet when I created my first game).

Meanwhile, the rest of the Shrooblord crew had discovered a passed out crew member on the hospital floor, three crew members missing and another one trying to aid the one on the floor. They put the food somewhere safe and tried to help as much as they could. The purple mushrooms had returned so they asked them where they could find the Bananaz, who had seemed to be good hospital staff. They then stumbled upon a body, fully alive, in the closet. It was Shrooblord, all tied up and fast asleep.
"So who's the guy in the hospital bed then?", asked one of them.
"He must be an imposer! We can't let him know that we've figured that out though, or he might do something bad to us."
"Okay, I've got a plan. Here's what we do..."
Classicly he whispered the rest of the plan in the other crew member's ear, while this one nodded occansionally.

The last crew member missing (the one that wasn't Shrooblord nor Meek) was looking at The Gix and the pseudomorphic lifeform struggling. He aimed his guns at the pair, but couldn't quite pull the trigger, as he didn't want to hit the pseudomorph.

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vesticon...

The ship shook for an instant, but regained stability quite quickly. When it had, the guards leapt up from their positions and wanted to see what had just happened. One of them stayed with the prisoners, who were occasionally asking to negotiate, to which he replied he could not act until Shrooblord would return. The other walked into the hallway with his gun drawn, hiding behind pillars now and then. Just as he was going to turn back, he felt something tugging at his waist. His keys were trying to float to a further point in the hallway. He used his keys as a compass and figured out where the source of pulling was coming from. The tugging got worse by the step and eventually he had to release his belt and hold on to that instead. When he had found what he had been looking for, he tied up his belt to a nearby pipe, and tied himself around it. He was having trouble holding on. The nearby source of pulling was starting to pull on him too.

What he had found, was a tiny Black Hole. It was growing as it was consuming more mass, but this was at a slow pace. He was alarmed though, as he knew it wouldn't be long before the whole ship would be torn apart. The problem was that the Black Hole was in front of the Bridge entrance and the guard could not turn the ship around. He pressed the nearby alarm button and called the following through the intercom:
"Warning! Warning! Immediate evacuation advised. We have a lethal breach in sector 36 B. Attention to all civilians, move towards the nearest escape pods. Guards, get into the emergency release cells. We are taking the prisoners with us. I repeat..."

When he had said this, all the guards moved to the onboard prison and all the escape pods were fired. Thousands of Shrooblord were now flying seperately across space. When all the guards had gathered in the prison cells, the chief guard spoke to them:
"This is Chief Ryphos speaking. We have discovered a code 11-C in the bridge vicinity. We decided the only way to stop this Black Hole from consuming everything in and around this solar system is to sadly self-destruct our Mothership. The implosion will cause it to collapse. Now release the cells!"
A red button was pressed and a loud clicking was heard.

The prison blocks disengaged and the whole quarters sunk through the floor. Soon it was a couple of hundreds of feet below the Shrooblord Mothership. The cells were already protected by a shield against the vacuum and the jet engines had deployed.
"Do it," Chief Ryphos regretngly commanded, "Shrooblord would have wanted the best for the rest of us."
"Sir, the honour is yours," one of the other guards said, holding the remote in his hand.
"It's more like a shame," Ryphos said when he clicked the button.

Seconds went by, while the Shrooblord crew and civilians sung the global anthem. The a loud bang was heard. The Core Generators had started their self-destruct sequences. It was at the time when two more verses had been sung that the first parts of the ship started collapsing inwards (this was due to escape time. It would not be optimal if the ship's destructing would pull you back in). First the bridge came towards the sleeping dorms, which were collapsing towards the toilets, collapsing towards the medical care centre. The whole ship had soon become the size of a peanut, and the dark black hole was clearly visible. Then the sky flashed with beautiful red and green as the Shrooblord Mothership blew apart. The implosion crushed the Black Hole (not very likely to happen, but come on, this IS RPG) and completely irradicated it. The survivors rejoiced, though they soon grieved the loss of their last reminder of home.

Ryphos told the crew to send the ships towards the nearest point of interest and they steered towards a star system that appeared to support life, only several parsecs away.

[Stitch1200]

OOC: Is the Shrooblord mothership in the last post the Same One As task force Iota Is in?

[123defacto]

OOC:Sorry for not posting again
Here's one

THE RODIAN STATION LONG TIME AGO
Belatix swallowed the poison and activated the log recorder.
The morningstar would once again be safe.
Belatix shaked with mixed sadness, anger, happiness, and worry.
His thoughts began to swirl as the poison poured into his veins.
He began to speak.
THE RODIAN STATION TODAY
It was a Scavenger. A small Mechanic grox patroller.
It was old, and was probably left behind by the grox when they had taken all the minerals from the asteroids.
Thanks to healing technology, the ensign survived, but just barely.
But Kelapuff had more important things. He wondered what that log recorder lying in the corridor was. especially because it had some sort of cloaking technology that didn't show up on Grox eyes and sensors.
Clearly Rodian.

[Ghelae]

-- Republic --

"Experience with riots, you say? Maybe you can take some Pseudomorphs on a mission to the rebel's new base in the Communications Centre." There were several Pseudomorphs on the bridge. Most of them had taken the form of tall, slender humanoids and were armed with various alien weapons. "If you want to, we'll teleport you about fifty metres away from the main console room." Tarid leaned over to a teleport control panel and started preparing it. "When you get there, deal with any Bananaz with guns. Only the rebels will be armed, and the armed rebels should be the only rebels you have to deal with. Bananaz are not famous for being good fighters. Or we can send you elsewhere and just clear the rest of the ship, leaving the Grox soldiers to deal with the Bananaz base. Your choice."

One the brig, the two struggling aliens noticed the Shrooblord standing by the door.
"Shoot the control!" shouted the Pseudomorph, having hastily formed something like a mouth on one side of his body.
The Gix looked upwards, and realised exactly what shooting the control panel would do. The Pseudomorph, now no longer trying to reach the panel, managed to wrap its whole body around the Gix to trap it beneath the cell door. The Gix was strong, however, and would soon be able to tear the fragile shapeshifter's body apart and escape.
"Shoot it!" cried the Pseudomorph.

On the outside of the ship, the communications turret rotated and the main dish now faced the Galactic Core. The Bananaz rebels were preparing something - but what?

[Shrooblord]

OOC:
Sorry for not replying in such a long time (I'm sick), but here I am again!
Stich, the only Shrooblord ship remaining is the Shrooblord Mothership (well, it's not anymore; it's gone now), so yes. It is the same that Iota was on. They are still in the prison cells somewhere.

IC:

Meanwhile, back at the Republic; the Brig to be precise...

The Shrooblord pointed his gun at the controls, or what he thought were the controls. He shot them and hoped for a good result. What happened next was, although it was a good result, not exactly what he had expected to happen.

On the other side of the ship, Meek agreed to take off towards the Brig, but wanted to walk there, neutralizing any other Rebels along the way. This way he would have time to find out what the pseudomorphs were capable of and he would also have some time to figure out a strategy.

Now we travel somewhere inbetween the two parts of the ship, to a white room. Here two Shrooblords walked over to the hospital bed where 'Shrooblord' was lying in. They then grabbed something heavy and held it over their heads. Just before it awoke, they hit the creature in the bed on the head and it went unconcious. Actually, it seemed to go unconcious for some time, but it opened its eyes only seconds later.
"We, err...," said the assaulter, "expected you to pass out."
"Fools," the creature replied, "why would you knock out your leader?"
"We know you're not Shrooblord! Now stay there and don't move a muscle. You're under arrest."
"Fine. Arrest me if you really want to. But, ah... I'm a bit hungry. I wonder what's for dinner. Maybe some grapes? Porcupine chops? Pie?"
"Oh, I hope it's pie!" said another Shrooblord.
"You're wrong," answered Despair, "It's not pie."
He took a deep breath and then said, while he got up: "It's YOU!"
He then leapt forwards and devoured the Shrooblord whole.
"Dear Spode! Help! HELP!" yelled the other one.
It was too late. Before hospital staff could arrive the Demon had eaten both of the Shrooblord and left no trace. He was lying in his hospital bed when they found him.

Meanwhile, some 500 feet above the Republic...

There were gentle pulses coming from the bright white light that had emerged from the ceiling of the spaceship. Soon another light had gathered.

[Ghelae]

OOC: I've been feeling disinterested with this RPG again...

-- Republic --

In the Communications Centre, the Bananaz had piled the bodies of various loyal crew members and thrown them into a cell in a nearby brig. They cut the power to the force field, causing the door to fall and keep the corpses out of view and smell.

The leader of the rebels stood at a console. "Is the code ready?"
"Yes." replied another Bananaz.
"Fire!"
The other Bananaz pressed a button. There was a click. Then... nothing happened. "It's not working."
"They must have shut off the controls at the bridge. Get to work on fixing it!"
"Yes, sir!"

A few minutes later, various mechanical modifications and code-breaking activities had returned the situation to the rebels' favours. Before they could try to bring their plan into action again, however, there was a large CLANG! at the door. The metal slab fell down, kicked to the floor by a Grox soldier who was now pointing some sort of handheld gatling gun in the general direction of the Bananaz commander.
"I've always wanted to do that." said the cyborg, in a voice as close to happiness as Grox could feel. "Now... are you the leader of this thing?"

[Shrooblord]

OOC:
Don't lose interest! Not now! I'm just about to finish my whole plot!

IC:

Meanwhile, in the star system of Vertigo...

Things had gone a lot swifter than planned now that Kryone-1 was abandoned. The teleportation device was ready and the gun was fixed. It now aimed at another point in the skies. Just when they were about to gather for a meeting, the Council of War saw lights in the sky. First there were only 5 or so, but after a minute dozens had appaeared. They were coming closer and they kept growing in numbers.
"WHAT DO WE DO?" asked one of the Grox.
"I DON'T KNOW. KRYONE-1 USED TO DO ALL THIS!"
"WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE DISENGAGED!"
"RUN FOR YOUR PROCESSORS!"

Panic arose in the little Grox city while all the Shrooblord dropships started gathering in the atmosphere. Hundreds were screaming and aimlessly runnning around in circles. Only a few thought of acting and got into the cannons. They started shooting these mysterious lights but usually missed them as they were not the Grox trained to arm the turrets. Those who hit the lights jumped out in despair of angering the things that were coming at them.

"Are you sure this planet is habitable? It doesn't seem at all to have an atmosphere," Ryphos asked one of the scientists.
"Sir, we have readings of tons of lifeforms on this planet."
"But how is that possible? Unless... Grox? Here?"
"We are with far more, sir. We can win this fight!"

And so the ships started chrashing into the planet surface, obliterating Grox structures. Amazingly enough, the superweapon was not hit.