Cicion strained his eyes looking at the attacking ships. He hadn't counted on any of them dying. The Taeskor Rangers' emotional and mental training kept the Dark from doing actual harm to their minds, but the horrid creatures could still tap into them, somehow. And he watched as the attacking ships glimmered a little, showing dark spots. The Dark had gotten themselves some ships.
Just as the final attack was about to be launched, a violent flash appeared a few dozen miles out from the planet, and the Vermillion Battlegroup appeared, approaching the Dark ships at maximum speed. "Sorry if we're late," came Garrion Retoe's voice over the comm. The Kiojeas fired, and fortunately the Dark weren't too well trained in starship maneuvering. They took the attacks full-force, and in a few seconds were ripped to shreds. The remaining transport was taken aboard the Silent Blade.
(Aboard the bridge of the Silent Blade)
"Sir, more of those captured shipss are approaching from the planet's surface!"
"Take them out, now." The Kiojeas fired again, eliminating the second wave of Dark ships. "Target a three hundred mile radius of where the transports landed."
"Done."
"Slag it." The flare bolt batteries of the twenty battlecruisers opened fire, and in ten minutes the top two feet of crust in the targeted area was turned to molten rock and metal. "Now, radio the Phylydia II and see if she can get here and perform a Slammer." The communications officer contacted the Phylydia II. "She can get here with a full fleet in three hours, sir."
"Good. Set up a blockade all around the planet. If you read ANY activity that could be Dark movement, bombard that general area until you cannot detect any more."

Cicion was in the training room with six of his Taeskor Rangers, the only ones who had survived the attack of the Dark-ships. The six were calm and controlled, but a glimmer of fear still shone behind their eyes. "Begin!" As they went through their excercises, the fear disappeared, and they became fully confident again. Back on Dominus, three hundred Taeskor Rangers were undergoing training. The only Phylydion ground force that could ever hope to beat the Dark was being set into motion.

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

(This message has been edited by Taeskor Cicion (edited 12-17-2000).)

(This message has been edited by Taeskor Cicion (edited 12-18-2000).)

(uh, those were supposed to be the real things, not just illusions)

Unless they were from some rebel or rogue faction of the Sals, we can't have them attacking Phylydion ships. The peace effort is far too far progressed for them to openly attack us, especially when we must join forces against the Dark.

Mag Steelglass was in a quiet area of Cicion's bar, trying to get away from the crowds, when a Cantharan walked to his table and sat down, pockets bulging.

"Greetings, Mag Steelglass."

"Um, who are you?"

"I'm one of the Cantharan Order's mercenary employers."

Mag was already beginning to not like the conversation. He'd been offered jobs by the Cantharans before, most of which was stopping escaped slaves and the like.

"Tell me, have you been watching the news recently? More specifically, news about the Dark?"

"I've been hearing of them."

"Good, good. The Prophets of Salril approached my government. They want one of these Dark captured in confinement. All of our military ships sent on this mission have failed."

"So you want me to do it?"

"You could save many lives if they find a way to stop these monsters."

"What's in it for me?"

The Cantharan stood up, and opened it's pockets. Several coins fell on the table. Mag picked one up and examined it. It was a five zomdoz piece, equal to approximately 12 credits.

"The rest of them are the same. The Cantharan Order would be willing to give you 500 zomdoz now, and 4500 when you retrieve the Dark."

"Sounds good. Anything else I need to know?"

"Yes. We have a special device which can put a single Dark in stasis for up to a week. You'll need to retrieve this device from the Salrillian transport 'Watcher' in the Isota System, in the Free Trade Zone."

"Sounds fine to me."

"The captain of the transport will tell you where to bring the Dark, and where you can find them."

"Very well."

"Goodbye, Mag Steelglass. I will see you when you have acquired the Dark."

The Cantharan walked back into the crowd of partyers.

Mag continued sipping his drink, examining the smooth coins. They were definately real...

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

Quote

Originally posted by Counter-Comment:
Unless they were from some rebel or rogue faction of the Sals, we can't have them attacking Phylydion ships. The peace effort is far too far progressed for them to openly attack us, especially when we must join forces against the Dark.

They were captured by the Dark. Remember the two carriers set loose in Slug's memory after his death? Remember the three Vindictives that disappeared on patrol in the Hatares? Remember how The Dark merged with "the great one" and reactivated the ships for use?

The Fury looked around the bar. It appeared that he had somehow missed Sundered Angel, but that was okay, as he had another idea now. He watched as Mag Steelglass chatted with the Cantharan. He was obviously now unavailable. He had heard of a man named Vierto who could be some help. He found him, and sat down at his table...

------------------
The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter has a rocket launcher."

Piemur1 was mildly surprised when a small fleet of ships attacked him. “Sensors? Who are they?”
“Sal cruisers, a couple of Sarillian fighters, it seems...no response...must be pirates since they are attacking us...should we do it?”
“Helm...contact the frigates and tell them to deploy...”

The swarmer-spiders were deployed, and soon his fleet was increased by a few more ships...since that the cruisers had a crew, he had to drop them off at the proper authorities...landing at a sarillian prison outpost, the authorities were amazed to see the prisoners landing in their own ships...sal policing ships had been looking for this group for a long time and they had a long record of piracy and terrorism. The judge had no trouble convicting the felons and allowed Piemur1 to keep the cruisers as part of the bounty. With his account a little fuller, Piemur1 reset his course off to the Hetares Nebula. Along the way, he requested some of his free officers to do some training on some strategic remote ship commanding. He picked a crew to control the 3 cruisers and 4 fighters. One had to be destroyed when his ship was attacked and there was no choice but to defend... it was fatal for the cruiser. The computers of the ships were all under his control, so there was no need for a crew on board. However, he did set up some repair droids on each of them to keep it functionable while in combat.

Upon reaching the nebula, Piemur1 started feeling a little queasy, as if he had a sort of premonition. Going further, the sensors was starting to go haywire. Drat the nebula. All of a sudden, a wormhole appeared about 100 klicks ahead of them. This was Piemur1’s greatest fear. “Sensors! Report!” “I-It appears to be a wormhole...an-and sensors dont report anything on the other side...and...GET AWAY FROM ME!!!” Piemur1 saw a family floating outside, and a dark figure stalked them. They dont have any pressure suits, how could they not be decompressing? The figure stepped up behind them and slit their throats. Geraldine, at the sensor console started sobbing uncontrollably. He understood. This was what had happened to her family. Robert, who was at the helm, screamed, a very high pitched one for a man whose singing voice was a bass. Looking up, he saw a swarm of bats flying toward the ship. These were all of his crew’s fears. Even his...

The ship started rocking hard. The engines were still trying to get away from the wormhole. “Helm! We have to ‘port outta here! While we still have time! Forget the bats! They’re not your problem right now! 700 klicks down 70 degrees port side, downangle 20 degrees.” The alarms on the ship started blaring and in a few seconds, the ship disappeared. 700 klicks away, it reappeared at its destination. “Helm, good job, keeping a tight head” He looked back up at the screen. “Holy crack! The wormhole is still there! Whats going on?!?” A white shape started to appear, as if it was in a bad picture. The frigates were approaching since they were programmed to follow his ship. The door to the bridge opened and the young man started to gibber. “Th-th-the St-st-starlance!” Oh great, thats what we need now...a 1000 ton behemoth coming down at us. Wasting no time, he walked up to the officer and gave a sharp elbow to his temples. The man was knocked out and the phantom shape of the Starlance dissapated. He noticed a sort of dark shape out there. Several dark shapes. He looked up at the wormhole. “Its not real...its not real... ITS NOT REAL!!! Helm, shut off the engines!” Robert was still shaking hard and didnt do anything. The shapes of the bats were still approaching the ship. “Its our shields, they are interfering with the fear projections...its some sort of electrical impulses or something...EMP! Thats it! Launch the EMP swarmers and have them shoot at everything around!” When Robert didn’t do anything, Piemur1 decided to take things into his own hands, now that he understood what was happening to him. The fear was still gripping him, but wasn’t as hard as before. He walked up to the helm console and shut off the engines. The image of the wormhole approached faster. He hoped he knew what he was doing. As it came to engulf the ship, it disappeared. He breathed a slight sigh of relief. The dark shapes were approaching. At this time, the EMP swarmers were let loose. They started shooting at the shapes of the family and the bats and the other scary images, they seemed to be as if they were bad picture transmissions and wavered. The crew around him started to get their bearings. The dark shapes were shooting at him, and hit the shields. The officer at the shield status console looked up. “It’s real! Shields are dropping to 95%...92%...89%...” Piemur1 had no choice but to recall the swarmers and try to outrun the dark ships approaching. He programmed the frigates to scatter and exit the nebula as quickly as possible. There was no one on them left alive. They didn’t have the same kind of shielding as he did. The Sal cruisers would follow him and try to provide as much protection as possible. Going as fast as possible in the nebula, the dark ships were taking apart the cruisers. He had to ‘port out...again, the klaxons sounded and the ship once again disappeared from the nebula. Several light-years away from the nebula, a spark appeared and enlarged to a shape. It faded to reveal Piemur1’s ship. It had taken most of the fuel, so the ramscoop engines opened up and Piemur1, with a pretty heavy loss, set course back to a repair bay. He contacted the 8 surviving frigates and saw that some of them had only slight damage. There was no response from the other 2. Amazingly, he found contact with one of the Sal cruisers and 2 fighters. After leaving no living being in the vacinity, the dark ships seemed to lose interest with the ships. He recalled them and set their course to the same drydock...why wasn't he warned about this? He would have to have a long talk with a certain someone...once the ships were repaired

------------------
Your Horoscope for Today (Wierd Al):
Gemini
Your birthday will be ruined once again by your explosive flatulence
Your love life will run into trouble when your fiance hurls a javelin through your chest

(This message has been edited by Piemur1 (edited 12-19-2000).)

Kharadd stepped lightly through the door.

All that was inside was a computer with no apparent inputs and outputs. All of a sudden, several drones appeared from under a sliding plate. They scanned everyone in turn, but stopped once they reached Alice and her group.

Immediatly, the drones began to project green-light cones onto the archeologists. "What is this?" a nervous student queried.
"Radguns. The drones are trying to insure you don't leave the system alive. Good thing you have the suits, but I'll turn them off." Kharadd responded.

He stepped into the center of the room and closed his eyes. All of a sudden, the drones deactivated and fell to the ground. Kharadd now moved to the more important tasks. The system was slowly recognising him, slowly bending to his will. A little more, a little more, there. The system immediatly began a data dump. Not to Kharadd, he couldn't take it, but to the network. Knowledge that had been lost for millenia, nothing too important except a few trivial tricks...

This would secure their future. Kharadd knew it was time for his true role.

------------------
Error: target is violating the laws of physics
Error: target is locally exceeding c
Error: unable to determine if target exists or not
Error: target cannot be hit

The Rouge dropped out of hyperspace at the specified coordinates, but Mag's sensors didn't detect the Watcher anywhere. No Salrillian transports, either.

Suddenly, a Cantharan gunship with a pirate IFF code warped to him, and began firing with it's antimatter pulse reactor type II. Mag quickly dodged the antimatter pulses and flew out of range, and the gunship opened fire with a concussion missile launcher.

Mag continued to dodge, long enough for the gunship to turn its back on the cloaked Repellant. The Repellant opened fire, and used its superior speed to stay behind the cantharan gunship.

The battle was short, and then Mag began more sensor sweeps, looking for the Watcher. As he was scanning, the Watcher uncloaked right in front of the Rouge's bridge. It flew around to the side, and docked with the Rogue.

Mag walked to the airlock, and opened it. Several Salrillians were slithering his way.

"Greetings, human. We have brought the equiment."

"Actually, I was hoping to load it on the other vessel."

"Oh?"

"It has more crew members, so they'd be able to handle the situation better if the Dark escaped."

"Very well, then. I suppose you want to know where to get the Dark, and where to take it to."

"That would help."

"You can find them near the Hatares Nebula, and you need to take it to Testing Lab 958345, in the Salril system. Our patrol ships will be notified of your service, and will not attack you."

"Fine, then. I'll have the other ship dock on the other side, okay?"

"Very well, then."

Mag took out his iPad, and flipped the monitor up. He sent an email to the audemedon droid to dock with the transport.

"They're on their way."

"Very well, then."

After a few minutes of moving equipment, the transport cloaked and left. Mag set in a course for the Hatares Nebula, and went to hyperspace.

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

Drion Nerec stood in the bridge of the Phylydia II, looking out the main viewport. The rest of the small fleet that had quickly been scraped together out of any ships not in use flowed around the massive Emperor II-class carrier. As he approached the planet, the Vermillion Battlegroup came into view, its twenty Kiojeas spread out around the planet. Every so often, one would fire a few salvos onto the planet's surface. The Phylydions had never ravaged a planet in their own space this much. The fleet slowly took up positions around the planet to keep any Dark from escaping and to wipe out any Dark remaining. Inside the carrier were transports carrying a total of ten legions of Taeskors for ground deployment. "Hail the Silent Blade."
"Yes, sir." The comm beeped and garrion Retoe's face appeared on the small communication screen on Nerec's console.
"Welcome to the border worlds, Octicate Nerec."
"The fleet will assume the position you are currently occupying until we are sure that the Dark on the planet are wiped out. The Vermillion Battlegroup is far to elite and important a force to waste on blockade duty. Proceed to Dominus to await any further Dark crises."
"Yes, sir." Aboard the Silent Blade, Garrion Retoe nodded to his comm officer, who cut the connection. He then nodded to his navigation officer. "Tell the battlegroup to assume formation and stand by to Omni to Dominus."
"Aye, sir."

---------------------------------------------
Cicion was aboard the Phylydia II, preparing to go back down to the planet's surface.

It was time for a brief test.

Darkk had been participating in some sparring at the palace's dojo. As the strength of will of the Nijayias can be used to bolster their phsyical strength, Darkk was doing rather well.

"Vaerion, I'd like to try a little match with you."
"Darkk, I'm a pure Taeskor. You'd lose so fast, you wouldn't know it."
"I'd rather see for myself."
"Just don't hold me accountable if I hurt you."
"Likewise."

It wasn't a long trip to the dojo. The floors were padded to prevent serious injuries, but a fight with a pure Taeskor usually is more like SEEKING serious injuries. Darkk had agreed not to use telekenisis, and Vaerion had agreed not to use throwing weapons.

It began rather as Vaerion expected. Before Darkk had a chance to make a move, Vaerion slammed him with an impact kinetic punch that knocked backwards, then followed with a furious barrage of punches Darkk was too stunned to react to. But suddenly, something happened.

Darkk's fist suddenly appeared in Vaerion's nose. How could Darkk have punched him so fast? Vaerion threw a punch, but Darkk blocked it with (b)one finger(/i). Vaerion was stunned. He leaped back and threw an impact kinetic punch. Except it wasn't impact kinetics, it was just punching air.

Kadt! he thought to himself, what's wrong with me? Suddenly Darkk launched into a flying kick that came down so hard on Vaerion's shoulder and dislocated it. Vaerion wasn't going to give up from a little thing like that, and lept up just in time to recieve several blows to the solar plexis. He stumbled for a second, and then tried to hit Darkk.

His punch almost had connected, when suddenly he realized that he was leaning in for an attack on a guy half a meter to the side of him. Vaerion fell to the floor emberassed and confused, and lept up just in time to catch a spinning roundhouse to the head that rendered him unconcious.

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

Later that night, sitting in his bed with bandages all over him, Vaerion wondered what was going on. Darkk hadn't seemed very good at first, but then suddenly was beating the daylights out of him. Obviously, Darkk had played some kind of trick. It only remained to see what it was. He'd report this dishonorable behavior, but it would be far too emberassing. He'd simply forget it happened. It was probably some chemical in the air, that's all.

------------------
Error: target is violating the laws of physics
Error: target is locally exceeding c
Error: unable to determine if target exists or not
Error: target cannot be hit

(Mind doing a little editing, Darkk? Impact Kinetics is a skill not many people can really use, and Vaerion doesn't sound like one of the few that can.)

The shuttle landed on the cratered, blasted planet's surface, and Cicion dove out, rolling and spinning and coming up straigh with his Keutae drawn. Within moments, swarms of Dark covered and entered the shuttle. That was not surprising. What was surprising was the shuttle's sudden ascent. Its engines flared and it took off, somewhat unevenly, heading for the fleet. Although he had not expected this, he had planned for it. As the shuttle reached about thirty feet of altitude, he pressed a button on his wrist pad, and the shuttle detonated in a fury of smoke and flame.
Cicion heard a noise and whipped around. The Dark had come. He concentrated and filled his mind with blinding rage. He dashed into the formation as a whirlwind of steel, fists, and feet. The Dark had no fear to feed off of. Anger made them powerful but it disoriented them. Cicion whipped through their formation, occasionally recieving a dazing blow from an icy tendril.
Finally, there was only one left in the immediate area. Cicion flung his mind open at the creature so that it could select any deep-down fear it wanted to. "Go on. Give me your best shot." Cicion's eyes grew narrow as the creature morphed into a form Cicion had not seen in a long time. Cicion slowly moved into his battle stance, arms down, blade up, feet spread apart. "Hello, Verad."

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

::Encoded Transmission, tight stream::
PATCH-cipherpad OH44289-26
to: UNS Delegation to the UGPA
re: "the dark"

Although the UNS has yet to encounter these creatures, our sources indicate that many members of the UGPA have. I would like you to make it a point to bring this topic of discussion up, and I would like you to press it, regardless of any reluctance that the other members may have. Eventually, I would like to see it discussed at the summit meeting with the DGA next month. Our sources show that these beings could be a danger to our security, should we come in contact with them.

-President Jack Wade, UNS

Vierto was part-Phylydion, and wouldn't say what other blood he had in him. At any rate, while he was a pretty good fighter, he wouldn't be able to make up all of The Fury's needed team.

Next, he needed a couple more people. Firstly, someone who could both fly a ship and fire a gun.

But first...

------------------
The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter has a rocket launcher."

(This message has been edited by The Fury (edited 12-22-2000).)

The Palyos Belt.

Hundreds of asteroids strung across the system, some of them made up of explosive compounds, others dangerous merely from kinetic energy: Ek=1/2mv2... Lots of m, even without too much v...

Most would not have found it as the safest place to hide a private equipment stash. But then, that was the idea.

The Fury dropped from it's limited hyperspace into the area, spinning to the left to avoid a small asteroid. It disappeared into the belt, dodging the asteroids it's pilot could, blasting those he couldn't.

The target asteroid was small, and on a course predetermined three years ago, as guaranteed not to collide with another asteroid within the next 40 years.

It looked as if it would not need to stay there as long as the man, who at the time had been known as 8 Lightnings, had planned.

A message beam opened a small door on the side of the asteroid. Tractor beams pulled the contents over to the The Fury.

Finally, after everything was inside, The Fury thought over his reasoning.

He needed some of the items, transponders, computers and so on, for his primary plan.

Others, he had for a more personal reason.

In his universe, he had never had to fire a weapon such a a P-K pistol or a Lepton rifle. In this one, until now, his cyborg implants had sufficed.

He decided that now was no time to learn.

In here was a weapon that could at least be used until he recovered some weapons from his base.

The huge sword gleamed in his hands...

------------------
The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter has a rocket launcher."

(I don't think it needs any editing. If the Phylydions wanted someone to be safe who was crossing rather powerful Nijayias, they'd need someone with every advantage possible. Some of the more powerful Nijayias had mastered telekinesis, and Impact Kinetics might be useful against them.)

------------------
Error: target is violating the laws of physics
Error: target is locally exceeding c
Error: unable to determine if target exists or not
Error: target cannot be hit

(Darkk, if they wanted a person that fit those requirements, he wouldn't be such an idiot.)

Mag decellerated when he was still several lightyears from the Hatares Nebula. He docked with the Repellant, and he and the droids got the equipment functioning. He then went back to the Rogue, and had an obish medical droid and a human repair droid come with him, just in case he lost control. He activated his superlight boosters. He dropped out three hundred miles away, and prepared for the Dark to come out.

He kept waiting...

And waiting...

And waiting...

He started to wonder if they'd come at all. Maybe the Salrillians had some obscure reason for sending him to the middle of nowhere to do nothing. He kept pondering these thoughts, but was suddenly brought to attention.

Shadows began moving in the nebula. Not the kind from stars being formed inside or from the gasses moving, but singular, separate shadows.

Suddenly, a star went supernova right ahead of him.

"It's just a trick," he thought. He kept telling himself that over and over again, until the shockwave passed. Then twelve salrillian carriers came towards him. He checked his scanners to make sure they were a vision. His scanners registered them as real.

"Hey, droids, are there twelve salrillian carriers coming at us?" Mag asked in a shaky voice. He looked behind himself at the droids desperately.

The carriers began launching their fighters.

"I do not see any, sir," both droids answered at the same time.

So these, too, were a trick by the Dark to attempt to get him. The carriers got close, and began firing, along with all 120 fighters. When the first lrpk beam was about to hit the Rogue, they all vanished. Mag breathed a sigh of relief. He suddenly remembered something.

"Repellant, begin the retrieval," he said into the comm.

No response.

"Repellant?"

Nothing.

"Respond, Repellant!"

Complete silence.

"Droids? What's wrong with the Repellant?"

He turned to the droids behind him.

"I do not know, sir."

Mag suddenly saw a stealthed ship moving off the side of his screen. He turned the Rogue, to track it's progress. He didn't find it.

He saw bits of a stealthed ship again, moving under the Rogue. He tried to track it, but it dissapeared. He heard the two droids behind him moving, and spun around.

The repair droid had moved to a console, and was giving commands to the ship. The medical droid was advancing on him, tranquiliser needle ready. Mag tried to back away from it, but it was too fast. It jabbed the needle into his arm, and he fell to the floor, unconcsious.

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

He woke up, and recognized the ceiling of the bridge of the Repellant. Droids were all around him. He sat up. He was on a table.

"Captain, you began losing control, so we had to tranquilize you," said the little audemedon droid that was acting as the Repellant's captain.

Everything that had happened before he'd been tranquilized seemed like a distantly vague dream.

"Did you manage to get one of the Dark?"

"Two, sir."

"I want to see them."

"I'll have the same two droids accompany you, sir."

"Right this way, sir," said the little repair droid, walking down a corridor. Mag was lead back to the cargo bay, where two Dark were floating in the air. One was struggling, trying to get free, and the other was watching him.

"Can they affect my, when they're harnessed like that?"

"The data files on the equipment say they can't, but we'd rather be safe than sorry, sir," said the medical droid.

The Dark that wasn't struggling began making noises that sounded almost like speech, although more scrambled and grunt-like, at Mag. The other stopped struggling and grunted at the other one in a tone that almost seemed amused. The other made a short roar in response. They both seemed to notice that Mag was staring, and began studying him.

Mag headed back to the Rogue, and went to his quarters. The Salrillians were going to have an interesting time studying these things.

------------------
"Oi, oi, oi, me got a hurt n here
Oi, oi, oi, me smell a ting is near
Me gonna bosh and me gonna nosh
An da hurt'll dissapear"

(This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 12-22-2000).)

(Exactly right, Mag.)

Cicion ducked under Dark-Verad's swinging arm and aimed a knifeblade thrust at his stomach, but his target eluded him as Verad twisted sideways and jumped up into the air, landing a dozen feet away from Cicion. Cicion concentrated and thrust his fist forward. Verad's stomach seemed to cave in and he was knocked back. Cicion pumped his fists forward rapidly, one after another, marching forward as he did. Verad's body was knocked in all sorts of ways. Cicion finished the multiple Impact Kinetics combo with a backhand that sent Verad sprawling. He got up immediately, though, and did not seem to be badly hurt. Cicion was tired from his attack, and walked backward a few paces, preparing to defend himself. Verad projeted an energy bolt from his palm, which either was something Cicion had never seen before or was just something that the Dark creature had added to spice up the fight. Cicion's Keutae was up in a flash, intercepting the bolt and deflecting it away from the battle. Cicion attacked, slashing with his blade and scoring a few hits. He dodged out of Verad's fist's path, ran, and stopped twenty feet away. Verad started to charge. Cicion's sense tendrils suddenly detected something in the air. He realized that the battle was taking place above the plasma ammo stores for the anti-air burst turrets the base had once possessed. Just as Verad reached him, he jumped as high as he could, throwing his Keutae into the ground. It buried itself up to the handle. He then concentrated all his energy and thrust his arm down. The blade plunged into the ground and made the fatal touch.
The ground ignited in an incandescent blaze. Dark-Verad was nearly incinerated instantly. Cicion was flung even higher than he had jumped, and came to rest twenty feet away. He stood up, walked over to the shallow crater and retrieved his Keutae, now blackened with soot. Verad lay in the center, trying to get up. Cicion walked over. He took Verad by the neck and lifted him into the air, noting his ability to do this. The Dark creatures seemed to be made up of very little matter and almost entirely energy. Still, if the matter shell was broken, the energy was released. Cicion tightened his grip on Verad's throat and dragged him over to where a new shuttle had landed. He put the creature, now transformed back into a standard Dark, into a special holding cell filled with conduits to contain the creature's energy.
Back aboard the Phylydia II, Cicion cleaned off his blade until it shone bright again and sheathed it. A new batch of Taeskor Rangers had been trained and was ready to combat the Dark.

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

On the surface, the battle roared horribly as the nightmare creatures swarmed and transformed into all sorts of monstrosities. Dragons and elementials, mechs and natural disasters ran rampant, storming the battlefield.

A group of Tćskor Commandos had managed to hold off a veritable army of undead, only to find the ground rose up and swallowed them all. Another group of Tćskors were incinerated as pillars of flame from the very depths of Phylydion-created Hell blew up.

Millions of the nightmares were killed, and the Tćskors were taking few losses. None the less, something was horribly wrong. Myrmidus had learned much over the past weeks about The Dark. He also knew that this army of Tćskors was the most stalawart and disciplined possible. There was no fear for The Dark to feed off of and mold themselves to.

But The Dark no longer needed to read from the minds of their victims to know how to scare them. They had resurrected and merged with the great one. They no longer needed Terror. Myrmidus looked up at the blood-red sky as he watched the clouds take form into massive hanging Salrilian Carriers. He watched the swirling effigies pelt and scorch the surface with their Bolts.

No longer would this work, Myrmidus concluded. Every time we knocked The Darkness back, it would bounce back stronger ond more lethal than before. He closed his eyes, hoping the nearby nightmare creatures would fix onto and mold themselves into the horrible nightmare he was envisioning. He saw the planet not as a planet, but as a metaphorical image.

The ground began to rumble.

" _ Ok let's move it! (/i(" He screamed above the splintering rock.

The skies began to boil.

Myrmidus pulled out his transponder unit. " _ Myrmidus to command ship...... please respond._ "

"This is the Phylydia II. State your business, Myrmidus."

Myrmidus screamed over the howling of the wind and the sound of shattering rock. "(i) We need to get OFF this planet!_ "

"Tćskor Myrmidus?"

"If the Darkness has read my mind correctly, this planet will blow itself apart soon."

(Vaerion's not STUPID. It's more like he has an ego rougly the size of Jupiter and slightly more contempt for all non-Phylydions. I'm basing his attitude off 1800s European colonial officials in Africa, which is the way he sees himself.)