They were led by a rough Captain named Johnathan Judas, who had a reputation for cruelty and murder. It was said he feared neither man nor beast, if it could bleed he had killed it in his time. He motioned for his men to spread out and search the outpost. Everyone began to fan out and inspect all the strange looking tools laid about the place. After many rooms that seemed to be living quarters were searched they happened upon what looked like a lab. It was a wide open sterile room, untouched by the ravages of time or the brutal environment of this planet. In the center of the room was a single stasis tube. The pirates were overjoyed thinking they had happened upon an actual Forerunner stasis tube, the salvage alone would be worth a small planets fortune. They began to try and open the tube and that is when the whole clan met its end.
The tube cracked open and thousands of years’ worth of gas came out in one whoosh, instantly flooding the chamber. The pirates breathing in the gasses noticed the effects immediately. Their eyes burned, their lungs felt tight, heartbeats racing, and they stumbled about the room before finally dropping to the ground one by one. The last to go down was old Captain Judas, right before he passed out he saw a shape come out of the gas from the stasis tube. It spoke in his mind clear as day all it said was, “You will do nicely.”
The figure that emerged from the gas was an old wizened Forerunner who had up until now been kept alive by the stasis tube. He knew it was only a short while before the ravages of time caught up with even his ancient and powerful body. Moving as fast as possible he carried the now unconscious and almost dead body of the Captain to another room within the outpost, one that was set up much like a surgical theater. He laid the body on the table while adjusting some knobs and levers. Seeing that all was prepared he began transforming Captain Judas. Most of his body was replaced with niode run cybernetics that contained specific fluctuating Lisi energy. When the energies reach and run at the proper wavelengths through the internal niode matrices the body then became capable of magnifying, depleting or simply taking control of any Lisi energy utilizing device. The process was long and would have been excruciating had the Captain not been out cold but he suffered none the less.
His brain and consciousness were ripped out and stored while his body was being remade, then torn out of the storage field to be slammed once again back into this abomination. His niode enhanced system constantly generating a field to contain his life force and consciousness. Then the Forerunner sensing the end of his life as the Captains conversion was coming to an end summoned all his remain mental energies and projected his consciousness into the same form the Captain inhabited.
The result was a creature we now call the Niodemancer. The mind and soul of old Captain Judas trapped within the cyber niode form with the remains of a Forerunners essence trapped in his subconscious. He looks normal enough covered in synth skin, he will even bleed when cut but he is no longer human or mortal as is commonly understood. He is out there still the monster to the Forerunners Dr. Frankenstein, ancient, ruthless, powerful, and now word has it he is coming back to society. No one knows what brings him out of the shadows of history into this modern era, but it is known he is back. Why is up for speculation…..
Jabber was restless, he had departed from the AFF twice now and this time it looked like it was over for good. He didn’t want to walk away but politics and policies had soured the Affiliation and he wanted out. So he had packed up his mecha traded in his credits for a used but reliable transport cruiser and set off on his own. He was headed for a little known system called Teradorn, to the planet Immolia where he had hoped to find riches and retire like a king. In his travels he had heard whispers and rumors of that planet. Some said it was cursed, others said haunted; one thing they all agreed on it was dangerous.
There were three main dangers to Immolia they were Slag Snavrum, Magma Hounds and Smoke Hawks. Slag Snavrum were a relative of the much more common and well known jungle Snavrum. The main difference here was they lived deep beneath the ground in subterranean caverns which usually connected up to a lava flow from the planets core. These creatures would simply jump into the lava flow and swim in it. When they came out to eat or sleep the lava cooled on their hides turning to a form of slag. This gave them the capacity to take near limitless damage without actually being effected and caused them to grow to almost twice their normal size due to the layers of slag built up on their hides.
If you could get past those you then had to deal with Magma Hounds. In reality these are a close cousin to the Slag Snavrum using much the same principle as their cousins for armor. They are more canine in appearance and actions standing roughly as high as a man’s hip. In small numbers they are no worry, in large groups they are terrifying. There are records stating multiple packs have destroyed entire squads suffering no casualties to the packs, mostly due to the corrosive nature of their armor and bodily secretions being acidic.
Lastly we come to the Smoke Hawks. Avian predators of Immolia They have evolved to actually produce their own jet engines. At the center of each of the wings is a large oval gland that inflates and deflates as the creature fly’s through the air. The oval glad is actually a methane emitter that ignites when the creatures “sweat” combines with the air there is a spark which ignites the methane and allows the creature to fly at near Mach speeds. They are about as large as a Warhorse Mecha and they kill everything they see.
Those three species were really the only real concern on the planet’s surface; otherwise it was just another standard rock hanging in the curtain of night. Jabber figured he had what he needed and set up his small drop pod from his vessel to house his dilo Mecha Jabberwocky. He set the cargo transport for a stationary orbit until he called for it and dropped his ship down to the surface.
His arrival was not unnoticed however and as soon as he landed he was set upon by Smoke Hawks. Five in all blasting through the air, swerving, diving down at him with murder in their eyes and death cries on the wind. Jabber simply set his mecha up in a backward lean and let loose with its Kaos Beams. In a matter of seconds he had reduced five down to two. The remaining two decided they wanted no part of the slaughter and left the scene screaming to the wind and blasting loudly.
He powered down his weapons but left them on standby in case another natural predator should decide he was a good target today. Setting his mechas sensors to search for niode energy spikes he set off across the harsh world of Immolia. Jabber did encounter Slag Snavrum and Magma Hounds in his journey but they were short lived encounters that were easily resolved with a proper show of force. He had been on the planet for about a week now and he had nothing to show for it. He was ready to give up and call for his ship to pick him up when he saw the readings.
Due north about one thousand miles there was a very strong niode signal. Only a handful of things gave off a signal that strong at this distance and all of those things were Forerunner in nature. He marked the coordinates on his H.U.D. and made his way north counting imaginary credits in his head. It was the last anyone ever heard of him. …
Jabber followed the niode signal until he came to a large valley hidden deep in Immolias dense forest and swamp lands. He headed for the center of the clearing where the reading was the strongest, did a few sensor sweeps and geared up to go for a walk. Being sure all was in perfect working order before putting on the environmental suit, and equipping his Thumper MK-2 hand cannon. It was a scaled down personal fire arm version of a full grown mechs Wrecker shot. Jabberwocky’s access hatch slid open and Jabber stepped onto the planet’s surface.
Orienting himself with his hand held niode emanation tracker he followed the signal to an gigantic old weathered tree.
Whatever was making this signal was either in the tree itself or buried beneath it. Either way to Jabber the tree had to go. Aiming the Thumper at what he hoped was just a glancing shot, he squeezed the trigger. The report sounded like thunder in the clearing and when the smoke cleared there was a very large hole in what used to be the front of the tree. A large staircase blanketed in gloom, going down from the base into the ground beneath and beyond became visible. “Success!!” he thought to himself as he made his way slowly down the stairs.
The tracker was going nuts in his hands to the point where it actually burned itself out trying to take in all the readings in the place. Jabber made his way through what appeared to be crew quarters, and perhaps a main meeting or dining area. Forerunner tech lay all around him some of it smashed to pieces, most of it looked like it had been scavenged already all in all this looked like more of a scrap yard than a Forerunner outpost proper. Rummaging through rooms and getting more and more disappointed with each one he was about ready to call it a day when he heard a noise from behind him.
Turning and raising his Thumper in case of Magma Hounds or some other predators Jabber was ready for anything, except what he saw. What stood there was at least seven feet tall, humanoid in general shape, long bronze, gold, and copper coloring in its hair, it had one dull metallic bronze colored eye and the other was bright neon green, Jabber also noted it looked about as solid as a ferricrete wall. Thinking it was some kind of automated defense system left over to guard the base Jabber let loose with his Thumper at point blank range.
About half the ammo cylinder through he stopped shooting figuring it, whatever the hell it was had to be dead. Waving away some of the smoke and expecting to see a large body on the floor, his surprise caught in his throat as more of a muffled..”Wha..” as a massive arm reached out cutting through the smoke to grab his throat. The creature pulled Jabber fully off of the floor to look him in the eye. The neon green eye blazed as it scanned the man, a smile played across the lips of the creature and for the first time since it appeared it spoke.
“Forerunner D.N.A. in you boy that is a bad thing for you, see I have a bit of an issue with them for what they did to good ole Captain Judas,” the creature rasped close in Jabbers ear. Trying to raise his arm to aim, to gather his strength to fight to do anything was impossible Jabber was fading fast being suffocated by this self-proclaimed Captain. The creature noticed the man struggling in his grip, shook its head slowly saying, “No, boy no good now face your end like a man”, and promptly broke his neck with one swift jerk of his wrist.
Letting the body fall to the floor in a slump the creature started to make its way up the stairs and out into the clearing on the surface. Once out it was met with the sight of a Dilophos mecha in standby mode which issued a challenge as he neared.
“This is Wocky the A.I. personality interface of the Dilophos mecha Jabberwocky, halt your progress towards this mecha or be destroyed.”
The creature looked up at the mecha and his hair started to wave as if in a sudden wind or underwater. The hairs were actually microfiber niobium weave relays. They scanned the area for niode readings and wavelengths, Lisi energy, communications, and also enables him to send signals as well as receive. Sending is exactly what he did, in a matter of moments he had rewritten the Wocky battle A.I. personality and took over the mech. Clambering into the cockpit he had a bit of a tight fit and noted modifications had to be made to make this mecha serviceable to him. Some of which he could do right now. He plugged into the neural interface without any pilot gear, just sat down and integrated right into the mecha. He switched over a few battle programs, programmed in some new coordinates and changed out the Mecha registry.
Jabber and the Jabberwocky were dead, now the Galaxy had to deal with Captain Johnathan Judas pilot of the Dilophos Heretic. Smiling to himself as he called for pick up off the planet’s surface, thousands of years spent in slumber in that god forsaken Forerunner compound, and some bumbling pilot comes along and finally sets him free. Maybe he should have been nicer to the pilot instead of snapping his neck like that, Nah dead is better they can’t warn any one.
Captain Johnathan Judas known as the Niodemancer was four days out from Teradorn Prime from Immolia by way of transport carrier bringing him back to the known worlds. Just because there were gates all over the Galaxy didn’t mean all travel was instantaneous. Some systems such as this one were so far out in the frontier spaces that you simply needed transport to and from your gate planet to get where you are going. This particular trip was going to take four days.
Getting as comfortable as possible in the cockpit of his newly acquired Dilophos, Heretic wasn’t easy. It was roomy to be sure but overall too confining for the Captains seven foot frame. He knew he would face close scrutiny were he to get out of his mecha and join the other passengers, so he just stayed put. He left an automated message saying he had quarantined himself within his mecha due to Immolian flu. No one would want to risk exposure to such a quick spreading sickness so hopefully they would leave him be for their own sakes.
He leaned back as far as he could and closed his mismatched eyes while casting his mind back through the fog of memory to how it all started. He remembered bringing his crew down to the surface of Immolia looking for Forerunner salvage. He remembered the poisons pouring out of the stasis tube they found killing off all his pirate clan in an instant and leading to him becoming this creature. His living consciousness and what people would call his soul was ripped from his body and stored in a stasis field while in his mind he howled in rage and pain over what was being done to him.
The Forerunner responsible for his Clans death and his being remade into this creature was at the end of its life when it started to remake him, when it finished remaking him it was ready to die. So in one last desperate hope at continuing its own existence the Forerunner cast its mind and memories into the Captain while ripping him from his stasis field to slam him back into this vastly remade and modified form.
Only the Forerunner did not count on the madness that would return with the Captain to be housed in this new form. Upon releasing Judas from the field and returning him to his altered body the ancient Forerunner found itself at war with the Captains mind and soul. A human consciousness and soul are not made to be torn out and thrown back in. Upon returning to his own mental landscape Captain Judas found himself face to face with his captor, killer, and now maker a mental construct of what was once the Forerunner Roah.
The Forerunner tried to explain everything to the Captain. Why he needed him, why this was done, what the end game was to be. Captain Judas was having none of it and in a blind rage he decimated the Forerunner, wiping its coherent consciousness from his mind. The personality of the Forerunner Roah had been destroyed but not the knowledge it contained. Captain Judas had a full working encyclopedia of all things Forerunner in his head now thanks to that fool Roah.
He remembered his awakening not that many hours ago by the misguided pilot Jabber who sought the same thing as Judas once did. All he wanted was credits and tech what he got was death. All in all the Captain didn’t feel that badly about it. Besides the pilot shot first, so Judas had just defended himself. As his prize for that killing he took the pilots mecha and signaled this transport. Now he was bound for the Cogwerk Port, a place he knew even in his time. Now it seemed the port served as a loading station, transport hub, and R&D for the rest of the Galaxy. It also served as the hanger area for three other mechas listed as owned by this dead pilot Jabber. The Captain had a mind to acquire them.
The reasons for doing so were simple. The more mechas he had the more area he could cover when he restarted his Clan the Crimson Eclipse. He dreamed of one day raising his Pirate Clan from the pages of history and once again pillaging amongst the stars. Unfortunately these thoughts were interrupted by the pressure seal on his Dilo hissing; meaning someone from outside was trying to get in.
The Captain sighed and waited as the would be thief’s slowly sliced through his encryption and started opening his cockpit. Some people simply can’t leave well enough alone he thought to himself as the canopy fully opened and he saw two youths in security uniforms standing before him.
“The niode readings are off the charts, has to be some smuggled tech in the cockpit oldest trick in the book”, the tallest and oldest looking of the two was telling his partner as it opened up. His eyes widened in shock when suddenly a large form stood up from the mechas driver’s seat.
“Come to steal from the Captain are you boys? Can’t ya read? The sign said Immolian flu, but no that wouldn’t be enough to dissuade a couple of lads with credits in their eyes I suppose.” Judas said as he rose to his full height.
“Ah well boys can’t be undone now, you saw me you have to die, can’t have no one learning the Captains business afore I’m ready to start can we?” With that he reached out grabbed them both about the neck and shoved as hard as he could away from both the mecha and himself.
Two people went flying and tumbling through the air before they reached the ground with a sickening thud and crack respectively. The sudden deaths caused the security cameras to kick in immediately upon any termination of life from the crew as monitored by the ships A.I. The Captain failed to notice the camera swinging into position and filming the whole episode, from point of impact onwards. He also failed to pick up on the sent encryption packet that was beamed ahead of the ship to the Cogwerk port security station.
Landing and disembarking were going to be a whole new set of complications for Captain Judas, but he was unaware of this and went back to his own thoughts and memories of times gone by. Meanwhile three days out there was a heavy security force assembling ready for him to come back to the known universe.
Cogwerk port security gate check point was rather slow and sleepy in the early hours of the morning when an alarm went off. “All hands to stations priority 1 alert. All hands to stations..”, The automated alarm system informed everyone. “Alright gents what do we have this morning?” the security chief asked as he walked into the room wiping sleep from his eyes and drinking his morning caffo drink.
“Well come on, someone has got to have some information, and turn off that damned alarm, I can’t hear myself think!” he bellowed as he sat in his chair and flicked on the main monitor.
“Sir receiving now, you are going to want to look at this.” Said a private from behind his screen.
“Put it up on the main let’s have a look.” the Chief answered.
Everyone turned their attention to the huge wall mounted screen which contained audio, video and text files. It out lined that a personal cruiser had been rented by one Jabber formerly of the AFF and his mecha. Only to be reported as missing, yet at the same time a private transport was contracted to do a pick up off of Immolia. When the transport landed they picked up one Dilophos mecha but no record of the pilot. The first transport was still missing and presumed crashed or destroyed. The video was of a hanger area presumably from the bay of the second transport.
It showed two people in security uniforms hack into the canopy to open up the same Dilophos mecha. It also showed what happened to them once they did and how they died quite suddenly. “Back that up, zoom and freeze!” the Chief said.
The video zoomed in on the large tall figure that flowed out of the Dilo cockpit and grabbed the two security officers. “Freeze it there”. The Chief instructed as he got up to walk around and get a better look at the screen. There wasn’t much that could be made out due to poor lighting conditions in the hanger and the transport didn’t have top of the line equipment so the image was a little grainy. The chief looked up at the wall screen and saw a little detail here and there but nothing he could honestly identify or place. Whatever had grabbed those two security guards was big, that was a given just looking at it rose up from the cockpit. Of detail there was none to be identified for sure. A glint of light here a shadow there, but no real detail aside from a glowing eye could be discerned.
“Alright boys no idea what this is or why it is coming here but I want everyone ready! Scramble the S.W.A.T. mecha unit and have them be on the gate perimeter in sector 5 in fewer than ten minutes. By the calculations of this in flight distress signal we have about an hour to prepare At best.” The chief finished up giving his orders and went back to his desk, where he proceeded to contact the Illyrian Embassy here in the Ports. He sent them the data file with all the information he had received and asked for back up on this one. Knowing that whatever this was it had to be related to the Forerunners and their toys. He wanted to be absolutely certain that when this thing walked through the gate from Teradorn Prime the reception would be more than enough to handle whatever trouble may come with it...(to be continued)
The Cogwerk gate area was filled with security mecha of all types and tonnages waiting for the gate to power up and send through the “suspicious and dangerous mecha” they had all been summoned to deal with. The Illyrian Embassy had sent over its own crack security staff consisting of two Skriag, five Gigus and a Nakshi command mech. The port security consisted mainly of Severs, Ogguns, and Infernos, no matter what the make or model of the mech or who happened to be driving, they all knew the deal.
One mech was about to come through that gate piloted by, well no one really knew. They all saw the security footage from the transport they all had read the report which listed Lisi energy ratings off the charts, and they all knew at least one former major clan family member was dead. None of this was reassuring.
The warning lights on the gate started to strobe on and off signaling the imminent arrival of their visitor. Electric discharge started splashing across the gate surface and eventually formed a curtain which parted to reveal a Dilophos mecha stepping through. It walked forward to get clear of the gate and walked into the half circle lined about the port of defenders. External speakers were switched on and a voice addressed the assembled security team, “I have no quarrel with you lads, I won this mech by right of combat. I am simply here to claim the other mechas from the hanger once owned by the previous owner of this mech. Step aside let ole Captain Judas get on with his business and no one will be harmed.”
There was no vocal reply to this challenge instead the assembled mecha all powered up and took aim. Then for the first time they all got a real clear indication of what they were dealing with. The Dilophos mech canopy opened and a figure stood up. This “pilot” was huge at about seven feet tall, with a leaden color to his skin, scars everywhere, bronze, tan, and copper hair, with a bright neon green eye and a dull metallic bronze eye with a slight yellow glow to the pupil.
The person if that is what you could call it scrambled out of the cockpit and climbed down his mecha in a flowing sinuous fashion until he reached the ground. He took about ten steps from his mecha to the assembled force and simply stood there. His hair flowed as if a sudden breeze had kicked up and he closed his eyes while smiling to himself.
In the next instant pure chaos as the Illyrian squads mecha went wild and started tearing into the other mechs around them. The Skriags dispatched the Ogguns with ease, the Infernos fell in a flaming heap to the Gigus and the Nakshi roared and raged against the Severs. It was total chaos, pilots screaming, metal tearing, parts flying in an instant the area was turned into a charnel house.
The lone figure did not see and did not notice coming up from behind the gate platform two Frigis mecha. They walked out, locked on and both hit him at the same time with their pulse weaponry. The flash was blinding as the trademark lightning pulse hit and lit up the figure where he stood. The monstrosity swayed a bit but did not go down. The other mecha pilots however were able to quickly bring their machines under control and soon had those all pointing back at the now charred figure.
He swayed and smoked where he stood then in a voice that was strained from pain he said loudly, “You are fools! Trying to stop me and you know not what I’m even about. The gates, the Forerunners, dear stars above they are not all benign. You have been led astray, they will return to finish what they started the Nakshi are the key!”
He then fell over, chest rising and falling heavily but somehow he was still alive. The Nakshi driver got out of his mecha and carefully inspected the prone form now lying at his feet. He pulled a pocket data corder out did a few scans, read the results, turned white as a sheet and made a priority one communication with his embassy. Within the hour a full containment crew had arrived and secured the creature to get it ready for transport back to the Illyrian science center.
The Nakshi pilot walked over to the Cogwerk port security chief and filled him in.
“Look Chief this is way above your pay grade, just know we will pay for any and all damages to the area and mechas involved. This is our prisoner now and we’re the best able to contain him. So clean up as best you can send us a bill and then do yourself a favor and forget this ever happened.”
The Chief didn’t like it, but he was outranked and at this point severely outgunned. He just nodded, signed the paper work presented to him, and decided after his shift he was going to get good and drunk. The Illyrian squad and containment unit bundled up the unconscious form of Captain Judas and took him away for questioning; they also confiscated his mecha just in case it too had secrets to reveal. Then they were gone as if they were never there headed back through the gate system to the Hegemony Science center. That was the first contact with the Niodemancer the Galaxy had in thousands of years. It would not be the last.
Submitted By Pat Willis #224534